BY: KEVIN DERBY | Posted: March 13, 2014 10:52 AM
The James Madison Institute (JMI) released a report on Thursday regarding Medicaid expansion in Florida.
“Doubling down on the flaws of the current Medicaid program and its expansion are risky propositions for Florida,” said Dr. Bob McClure, the president and CEO of JMI. “We, too, want to see improved access to health care for the underinsured and the uninsured. However, simply expanding a program that is unreliable and filled with broken promises on the premise that the federal government is dangling money to the states is fool’s gold. Market reforms that put patients first instead of bureaucrats will provide better outcomes for Floridians such as quality care, lower costs and expansion of coverage.”“The economics of the Medicaid expansion are bad, but the health care involved for the underserved is even worse,” said Dr. Jason Fodeman, M.D., an adjunct scholar at JMI and the author of the report. “Medicaid is beleaguered by bureaucracy, fraud, rising expenditures, restricted access, and compromised patient care. By applying further strain to an already strained system, expansion could very well worsen the quality of the care that current Medicaid patients receive.“Medicaid’s business model is not a free lunch or an example of free-market economics. Rather, it is centralized price controls – nothing more than the government bludgeoning prices down by fiat,” continued Fodeman. “Ultimately, these price controls are passed along to Medicaid patients in the form of diminished access, long waits for appointments, and compromised care.“Reasons abound as to why Florida and nearly half of the states in the nation have concluded that a Medicaid expansion under PPACA provisions is unwise,” Fodeman concluded. “Florida has an obligation to use the debate as an opportunity to reform its health-care delivery system to ensure that the most financially fragile and medically vulnerable receive the care they need and deserve.”The report can be read here.http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/blog/jmi-releases-report-medicaid-expansion
