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Medicaid recipients find $1 premiums too confusing to pay
American Thinker ^ | February 11, 2018 | Ed Straker

Posted on 02/11/2018 6:14:54 AM PST by Zakeet

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It racist to confuse people by making them pay a $1 per month for Medicaid ...

1 posted on 02/11/2018 6:14:54 AM PST by Zakeet
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To: Zakeet

...It racist to confuse people by making them pay a $1 per month for Medicaid...

And it’s also confusing for Medicaid recipients to pay a $3 co-pay at the receptionist window before being able to see the Doctor.


2 posted on 02/11/2018 6:24:23 AM PST by Sasparilla ( I'm Not Tired of Winning)
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To: Zakeet

I would have to see how the billing is done.

Medical billing is horrible. I am collage educated have very good insurance have a firm grasp on my finances.

But the billing done by my local clinic and this is not bill statements from my insurance company.

Leave a lot to be desired.


3 posted on 02/11/2018 6:26:45 AM PST by riverrunner
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To: Zakeet

Perhaps these recipients need a legal guardian


4 posted on 02/11/2018 6:28:07 AM PST by Karoo
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To: Karoo
Or deported.

People don't pay bills because they are rebels or they can't (won't learn to) read.

5 posted on 02/11/2018 6:30:21 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true, I have no proof, but they're true)
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To: riverrunner

I don’t think there is billing in the normal sense. It is just deducted from their welfare payments...which is still overly complicated for the average democrat.


6 posted on 02/11/2018 6:31:55 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Zakeet

It’s not that they don’t know how to pay. They don’t think they should have to pay and know they’ll get free care regardless. Don’t neighborhood health centers give free care even without Medicaid? The sad part is that paying even $1 helps people to be more responsible and accountable. Over time, as they do more for themselves, it can lead to a better life.

The welfare-state enablers who paint people as victims aren’t doing them any favors. Years ago, I saw a report about a program at a large hospital that took people from welfare and started them out working in the kitchen. After they’d demonstrated their good performance on the job, they were asked to choose where in the hospital they’d like to pursue a career. They interviewed this woman who looked in her 30s and had decided to pursue nursing. She was on the floor with the doctors and other staff. You could tell she was respected, needed, and very well suited to her job.

She spoke of how much better she felt about life and how happy she was that she could be an inspiration to her kids. This woman likely went on to earn additional credentials within nursing, all paid for by the hospital. Forgive my long-windedness, but I’ve never understood why people see these very light requirements as a bad thing.


7 posted on 02/11/2018 6:34:17 AM PST by NotAlwaysTruculent
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To: riverrunner

Seriously, tell me about it. Depending on the procedure and follow-up treatments...an Excel spreadsheet is your friend.


8 posted on 02/11/2018 6:38:10 AM PST by moovova
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To: riverrunner
I would have to see how the billing is done.

I agree. We've dealt with medical providers who made it extremely difficult to pay them.

Reminds me of trying to pay a speeding ticket in Indiana for my daughter, who had been trying to get through Indiana as quickly as possible. I spent hours on the State Police website looking for a possibility of online payment, somewhere to mail a check, anything. Eventually I found something, because we didn't have to go Indiana.

9 posted on 02/11/2018 6:42:04 AM PST by Tax-chick (Harvey Weinstein was married to a beautiful model.)
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To: Zakeet
With all due respect, I find the copay for my HMO too confusing as well. If they charge it at the time it is ok, but if they forget, some auditor finds it, and I get a telephone book thick sheath of papers telling me I owe $7.36 or may its $12.36 or maybe its the sum or maybe its the difference. Because nowhere in all of this is the letter that says Hey Andy, please pay us the $5.37 outstanding on your account online at this link or check to or call.....

After the dust has settled on the deep state stuff, we need to take out their civilian branch, the medical administration business. The reason it is not simple is that a lot of money is made keeping it as complex as possible.

10 posted on 02/11/2018 6:42:54 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson
The reason it is not simple is that a lot of money is made keeping it as complex as possible.

Many things make sense if you assume their purpose is to maintain the numbers of government employees. Those people who never answer their phones, or if they do, can't tell you what you owe and where to mail it, get nice salaries and super-whopper employee benefits.

11 posted on 02/11/2018 6:45:14 AM PST by Tax-chick (Harvey Weinstein was married to a beautiful model.)
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To: Sasparilla

A $1 payment is symbolically significant, but has little relation to the cost of the service being granted. I could see how a bill for one dollar (or ten) might just get buried on the dining room table.

It grates me that this essentially free service isn’t paid for, but the reality is that it is essentially free, and therefore prone to abuse. The real paperwork burden should be on the agencies that liberally grant free care to verify and monitor that it is needed. The burden on the Medicaid insured should be to comply diligently with said proof and monitoring of eligibility.


12 posted on 02/11/2018 6:47:58 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Zakeet

In more than a few cases, the reason for nonpayment is that the recipient does not qualify and may not even exist. Cagey fraudsters recognize that even a nominal monthly premium payment is an affirmative act that can be used to build a prosecution.


13 posted on 02/11/2018 7:04:31 AM PST by Rockingham
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To: AndyJackson
some auditor finds it, and I get a telephone book thick sheath of papers telling me I owe $7.36
Conversely, if they owe you money, you never hear a word from anyone.
14 posted on 02/11/2018 7:13:49 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Zakeet

this is what happened as the expanded medicaid coverage to people who were never intended to qualify for medicaid.

States like Kentucky had had ridiculously high levels of disability claims, as the states began tightening rules, medicare expanded. A friend of mine who works as a psychologist processes disability in Kentucky, the number of people who attempt to deceive the system is quite high... if stupidity in how they went about it was a qualifier, the state could easily triple its disability claims.


15 posted on 02/11/2018 7:24:02 AM PST by Katya
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To: NotAlwaysTruculent

Well said.


16 posted on 02/11/2018 7:32:15 AM PST by Bigg Red (Francis is a Nincompope.)
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To: Katya

That’s so true about the disability scams. In the ‘90s after welfare reform went into effect, a friend’s sister who had never worked had a problem: Her kids were entering their teens. The social worker coached her about how to get onto disability by claiming she was too depressed to work. My friend was annoyed about this because her sister lived in a beautiful apartment (Section 8) while she was working one full time and one part time job to scrape by.

My neighbor’s daughter who got pregnant and dropped out of high school was also “too depressed to work” when her kids were taken away from her for neglect/drug use. I would see her on her parents’ deck sucking down beers and smoking cigarettes while she laughed her head off. She was not too depressed to party and otherwise enjoy her life among the Taxpayer Funded Leisure Class.

I still wonder to what extent welfare reform was a success and how much of it was really a transfer of the burden to disability.


17 posted on 02/11/2018 7:36:41 AM PST by NotAlwaysTruculent
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To: Bigg Red

Thank you, Bigg Red. I feel kind of silly posting, as if I’m not smart enough. I’ve lurked for nearly twenty years.


18 posted on 02/11/2018 7:37:54 AM PST by NotAlwaysTruculent
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To: Tax-chick

I know what you mean. Just happened to be having my hair done a few months ago when another customer, a woman in her late 80s and very well known to my hairdresser, came in for her appointment.

She told of a traffic ticket she had gotten in a town that is about an hour away. As she was lamenting about having to drive there to pay her bill, the hairdresser and I told her that there must be a way to pay by mail. I wound up looking over the citation for her to learn the address for her to send a check. My search was not as fast as I had anticipated, and, as the address was in a tiny, tiny font, I wrote it out for her on a piece of paper. Should not have been so difficult.


19 posted on 02/11/2018 7:41:01 AM PST by Bigg Red (Francis is a Nincompope.)
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To: Zakeet

I once was at a convenience store and the guy in front of me bought $200 worth of lottery scratch tickets and a case of beer.

I wouldn’t believe it had I not seen it.

I was thinking, well, guy, you’ve your whole afternoon all set up!

Wish I could chime in better on topic. It’s been a long time since I lived in the States.


20 posted on 02/11/2018 7:41:32 AM PST by proud American in Canada
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