Medicaid was originally kind of a throw-in when Medicare was started. It is joint federal-state program under which the states historically paid most of the cost and had some flexibility in designing their programs. The reform law attempted to tackle the problem of people without health insurance in part by expanding Medicaid and to induce states to agree to the expansion, the federal government is taking on the additional cost for some period of time. The Medicaid expansion added a substantial number of people to the program, at a cost significantly higher than originally projected. The Morning Consult group recently commissioned a survey of almost 2000 recipients to gauge their satisfaction with the program. (Medicaid Survey) 87% of beneficiaries said they are overall satisfied with their Medicaid coverage. The same number said they are happy with the cost (who wouldn’t be, since it is basically free) and 83% said they are satisfied with the benefits, and 88% expressed satisfaction with the drug benefits specifically. 83% also said they have acceptable access to providers and 82% liked their choice of doctors and specialists. While 60% have seen news stories regarding possible changes to Medicaid, 23% said the program is fine as is and 40% said it would need only minor changes. People covered by Medicaid managed care plans were slightly more positive than those in fee-for-service Medicaid. The only think somewhat surprising about the survey is the high level of satisfaction with access, given that many providers do not accept Medicaid patients. Given the richness of the benefits and the lack of any significant cost-sharing, it isn’t surprising that people covered by Medicaid are really happy. Taxpayers may have a different perspective.
✅ Subscribe via Email
About this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at [email protected].
Healthy Skeptic Podcast
Research
MedPAC 2019 Report to Congress
June 18, 2019
Headlines
Tags
Access
ACO
Care Management
Chronic Disease
Comparative Effectiveness
Consumer Directed Health
Consumers
Devices
Disease Management
Drugs
EHRs
Elder Care
End-of-Life Care
FDA
Financings
Genomics
Government
Health Care Costs
Health Care Quality
Health Care Reform
Health Insurance
Health Insurance Exchange
HIT
HomeCare
Hospital
Hospital Readmissions
Legislation
M&A
Malpractice
Meaningful Use
Medicaid
Medical Care
Medicare
Medicare Advantage
Mobile
Pay For Performance
Pharmaceutical
Physicians
Providers
Regulation
Repealing Reform
Telehealth
Telemedicine
Wellness and Prevention
Workplace
Related Posts
Commentary
March 28, 2024
More Economic News
The Congressional Budget Office is expressing increasing alarm at the federal deficit and debt situation.
Commentary
March 27, 2024
Funniest Story of the Day
Would would have thought that hail could destroy a solar farm? Certainly not the nut-case…
Commentary
March 27, 2024
What Is Going on in the US Debt Markets?
The Treasury seems determined to rely on massive amounts of short-term debt to finance our…