The Obama administration seems to believe it can create access to medical care out of thin air.
It has proposed a rule to make it hard for states to limit Medicaid payments to hospitals and doctors – no matter how serious the states’ financial condition may be.
Medicaid is funded jointly by the federal and state governments. But the problem is, its reimbursement rates are so low that many physicians will not accept new Medicaid patients.
At the same time, state budgets are in desperate condition, so states are attempting to save money wherever they can. To make ends meet, many states are freezing Medicaid payments or are proposing Medicaid cuts – along with cuts to numerous other important programs.
In other words, the states are making the tough choices they have to make to keep their heads above water. (That is a lot more than can be said, by the way, for our federal government, which is $14.3 trillion in the red.)