RSSHow’s That Socialized Medicine Working Out For You?
J.J. Jackson | March 18, 2010
Believe it or not, we already have socialized medicine in America and it is plagued with the same cost overruns, inability to pay market rates for care and denied care that all other socialized medical systems around the world have. You probably have never heard it called socialized medicine but you might of heard of it by its more common names of Medicare and Medicaid.
I know it if politically incorrect to describe these third rails of American politics as socialized medicine by you do not come to me for political correctness now do you? You come to me for the truth. Both of these plans take money from one American’s pocket and then gives it to another. The “other” need not earn it; it is just given by government fiat.
The horror stories about how these programs operate are usually hidden deep on the pages of the local news paper if they are reported on at all. But every now and again we get the truth. Every now and again we get the facts about how these programs decline care and leave those on them desperate for solutions.
We also every now and again get the fiscal truth about these programs. Right now 121 Walgreens stores are set to stop accepting new Medicaid patients. Why? Well, quite simply, the reimbursement rates are not in line with market prices of drugs and services and Walgreens is tired of loosing money.
Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won’t take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement.
The company, which operates 121 stores in the state, will continue filling Medicaid prescriptions for current patients.
In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a “continued reduction in reimbursement” under the state’s Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.
The response from Doug Porter, the director of Medicaid for the state says not to worry though!
Doug Porter, the state’s director of Medicaid, said Medicaid recipients should be able to readily find another pharmacy because “we have many more pharmacy providers in our network than we need” for the state’s 1 million Medicaid clients.
This is sort of like the people who told those working in the World Trade Center on September 11th to return to their offices and that everything was ok. Boy, that worked out well for those that listened right? Because while Mr. Porter is towing the bureaucratic line to stave off a panic if people knew the truth, the truth is still there to be seen. The truth is that a collapse is imminent.
See, Bartell Drugs also stopped accepting new patients with Medicaid cards last month in 57 of their Washington State stores. See a pattern here? Oh and Ritzville Drug Company, according to the story, also has announced that it will stop taking Medicaid patients too. And as the story further mentions Fred Meyer and Safeway are currently continuing to service their existing Medicaid customers and accepting new ones but, “both expressed concern that the reimbursement rate is too low for pharmacies to make a profit.”
This all comes about because the reimbursement to pharmacies under the plan is about 84% of their wholesale costs. You can do the math pretty easily I think. It is damn hard to make a profit when you are getting 16% less than it costs you to buy something!
So while Mr. Porter is busy telling people not to worry and that there are plenty of places Medicaid patients can go, the number of those places they can go are getting fewer and fewer. It is political reality catching up with the state of Washington is what it is.
We hear about how a new socialized medicine plan out of Washington DC will help increase choice? I would love to know how when all we hear about is how people are pulling out of the existing socialized medicine plans as fast as they can. What are these people promoting yet another plan that is more of the same smoking? Because whatever it is the rest of us are going to need some of it too to help ease the pain that their plans always bring.
For all the talk by liberals about how great Obamacare will be, it is doomed to the same fate as Medicaid because the laws of economics cannot be suspended indefinitely. Eventually they cause socialism to collapse and the rubble to burn.
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