The Derby City Chapter of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association Network- Serving Kentuckiana.
Message From the President
Dear Members & Friends-
Our speaker this month will be Stuart Cohen from Invacare Corporation. He will speak about a variety of their products, including Custom Manual and Power chairs. Food and drink will be provided at the meeting. I hope everyone can attend what is sure to be an interesting and informative meeting. In September we will have our annual picnic at Camp Crooked Creek. Directions will be provided in next month's newsletter.
October's's meeting will be held at 6:30 at Frazier Rehab, 4th floor dining hall.
- David Allgood
The following is from the Internet's AP site, July 15, 2205 GOVERNORS MEET ON Medicaid REFORM
One woman visited the emergency room four times rather than pay a $1 fee for her insulin. That way she could get it for free. Another found herself choosing between diapers for her grandchildren or medicine for her diabetes and heart problems. She, too, ended up in the hospital, treated by Dr. Kevin Larsen, a specialist in internal medicine in Minneapolis.
Larsen offered the two cases as examples of how some of the poorest patients were effected by Minnesota's decision to impose small co-pays for its Medicaid population two years ago. The fees—$3 for a brand name drug and $1 for a generic drug –hardly seem high, Larsen says, but they made the drugs unaffordable.
"It's really incredible the little, tiny bits of disposable income that these patients have and how big a chunk that these seemingly marginal, nominal pays take out of that disposable income," he said.
As the nation's governors grapple with the soaring costs of Medicaid, they're eying copayments—patient's contribution to the cost of health care. At their meeting this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa, the governors are expected to recommend an easing of recommendations will carry great influence as Congress
federal rules limiting what states can charge recipients.
The federal government must sign off in shifting more of the costs to patients, but the governors' recseeks to reduce Medicaid spending by $10 billion over the next five years. This year, states and the federal government will spend about $329 billion on Medicaid, which serves about 53 million people.
The cost-sharing proposals are perhaps the most controversial of the recommendations, but among governors themselves, both Republican and Democratic, there is overwhelming support, said GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, the incoming chairman of the National Governor's Association.
"We all came to the conclusion that the only way to save it is to make it a more efficient, responsible program," Huckabee said in an interview with the Associated Press. "If nothing else, we're just asking that they give us a chance to implement this. They can always go back and say, `You guys screwed it up. It's not working for these poor families.' But we've got a track record on welfare reform, and I think we can develop a track record on Medicaid reform."
States, within limits, can require some beneficiaries to share in the costs of their health care. Typically, the co-payments limits range between 50 cents to $3 per service.
And some segments of the population are pretty much exempt from cost-sharing requirements altogether, including people living in nursing homes or other institutions, children, pregnant women, and people receiving hospice care.
Also, even if beneficiaries are charged a co-pay but
