Well ladies and gentlemen, we are here to talk about Medicaid and
if it should have copays. As many of you know, Medicaid is State provided
health insurance for the poor, but not everyone on Medicaid is actually poor.
So this is the question, when and where should there be copays for these
people who cannot afford health insurance?
My experience: Medicaid has copays setup for individuals
based on their income. So by estimating what money they earn, the State
government determines what the copay at the doctor’s office or drug store
should be. As someone who works in a pharmacy, the copay is typically one
dollar. This is good as the income the individual makes helps to make a
single dollar affordable whether they are on unemployment or working at a
regular job. It reduces costs at the State level and personally I feel
that copays should be expanded to account even further to truly measure what is
actually affordable to the patient and what is not. At the same time, I
believe that drugs necessary for the health of the patient should be covered
like maintenance medications and cures for common diseases. Things like
over the counter drugs like Tylenol, Aspirin and Advil have no place being
covered as they are already more than affordable over the counter.
Vitamins too have been covered by Medicaid and made free despite not
being medically proven to actually improve health in some instances, and that
they too are over the counter. As such, I have helped fill so many
prescriptions for patients as the pharmacist grumbles looking at their medical
history saying only one out of all the medications (as only one was a
medication) should even be going through Medicaid. And finally, once at
the counter, the patients in some (not all, but some) cases complains they have
to pay a dollar, while they wear fur coats or other expensive clothes.
Kind of dumb is it not.
To the other side: To try and stay objective, the
people saying I am saying all people on Medicaid are robbing our taxpayer
dollars is wrong. It is a known fact that there are legitimate people who
cannot afford health care. As such, they deserve to get health care
catered to their income. However, this does not mean a small nominal fee
should not be paid which reduces the overall costs that Medicaid has to pay so
long as it is based on income. Medicaid is welfare given to the poor.
You are entitled to none of the benefits given out by it, and as such the
benefits can be changed by the State government at will and you can do nothing
about it. But, this does not mean we will leave actual poor people to die
in the street. So Medicaid or some form of it will always be there for
the actual poor, but for those who use the system to take advantage of the
benefits should understand that they have to pay more because they earn more
than the people who really need it.
Conclusion: I am not trying to sound evil or
harsh even though I know I am coming off that way. However, people
complaining because they think they are entitled to a free lunch is just wrong.
People who are wearing expensive clothes, while on welfare of any kind
and continue to buy expensive items because they have a free ride is also
wrong. So if you cannot kick people off welfare like Medicaid, you can at
least reduce their burden on the system by making them pay a little more out of
their own pocket for their medicine.
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