That's MEDICARE, not Medicaid. My freaking luck to end up in a State that is insane.
Bill Proposes State Takes Over Federal Healthcare Programs
SALT LAKE CITY -- If you're elderly you may become dependent on the Utah legislature for healthcare. A bill at the legislature would transfer federal healthcare programs to the state, and that means if you're on Medicare, the legislature would control your benefits.
Senator Stuart Adams says Utah should take over federal healthcare programs for old people, poor people and children.
Now, $4.1 billion goes from Utah to Washington for healthcare. Under his bill, that money would stay in Utah. And old people on Medicaid would get their healthcare from the Utah state legislature.
Healthcare advocates say old people on Medicare would see their benefits cut.
It’s going to be less because the growth in those funds is not as great as the growth in medical cost,” said Jason Cook, Health Policy Project.
But Senator Adams says Utah may be better than the deficit-ridden federal government.
“If you look at the rising cost of healthcare and the federal deficit, I mean somehow those two have to collide and we think we want to be part of the solution,” said Adams.
How can Utah or any state usurp my right to Medicare that I have paid into all my life?
Or is this just another Republican ALEC Scheme to rile the right wing and make the left insane?
From the Salt Lake Tribune, below
Utah plays politics with Medicaid, Medicare
Disguised by the ornate language of a bill that would wrest Medicare from the federal government and put it under Utah’s control is the law of untended consequences.
The bill, SB208, would adopt the interstate Health Care Compact, which backers say would use the money far more efficiently than the feds’ Affordable Care Act. Now, the federal government runs Medicare and the state runs Medicaid.
However, the math doesn’t work out that way, according to the Utah Health Policy Project, which estimates Medicare would lose $217 million by 2014. Add in the loss that yearof about $132 million for Medicaid, and joining the compact makes no sense at all.
Here’s the deal. While Utah still has the nation’s youngest population, there are plenty of us who aren’t getting any younger and probably will need help with medical bills. At present, 280,000 Utahns are enrolled in the program.
Meantime, as Utah cuts spending, the feds will too, says Jason Cooke, the UHPP’s Medicaid researcher and policy director.
The Health Care Compact, which now includes just four states (MO, GA, TX, OK), is a huge gamble that, like all bets, can go either way.
WELL, YES, THE RAT I SMELLED WHEN WATCHING TONIGHTS NEWS WAS ALEC!
I just found this:
ALEC Adopts Health Care Compact as Model Legislation Move makes model legislation available to 2,000 state legislators to use in respective states
DON'T PISS OFF THE SENIOR CITIZENS you heartless, greedy, technocrats hell bent on destroying our planet and killing off all those who aren't deemed "ready to be janitors" material.