Masshealth And State Fiscal Health: Fill & Download for Free

Conservative, moderate and liberal in the US do not follow the textbook definitions from my polisci courses.Conservative in the textbook sense is someone who wants only slow and careful change in society and law, or the occasional considered move backward to something that worked well in the face of something newer that works poorly. This does not mean they disapprove of all change, but the changes should only be to things that are well and truly broken, and they want to understand the ramifications of a change as much as possible before making the change.For example, when the state of Massachusetts passed a health care bill in the mid 2000s ensuring much better coverage for all residents of the state, the state did not move to MassHealth for All. It kept the existing structure of insurance companies, private and public hospitals, subsidies for the less affluent and more coverage under state health auspices. It did not put in a public option for everybody. It was a moderate change that kept the existing system in place but improved how well it worked. It was a conservative response to a broken healthcare system that made it somewhat less broken. Somewhat.Conservative in the current American lexicon does not necessarily mean conservative. It means the political right-wing, which has become more authoritarian, more radical and less about community-based solutions. Conservatives want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act despite how much better the system is than what we had before; privatize Social Security and Medicare despite how well each protects our seniors as public programs; end business regulations that protect our citizens; drastically reduce taxes on our wealthiest, so the businesses and wealthy can make even more money and thus maybe spend on a few more jobs; and cut or end social safety net spending because they feel that it leads to dependence and moral hazard for the poor, even though they promote similar measures for the wealthy.Conservatives want the laws of the land to be more in line with “prosperity gospel” Christian morality, which they feel is where the country always was even though there is plenty of proof otherwise. They feel that government is inherently bad even when they themselves might rely on government programs for their own good—many don’t even know that Social Security and Medicare are government programs.A radical wants changes but doesn't necessarily think through the ramifications beyond the immediate change, and that is where the current leadership of conservatives is. They are right-wing radicals even though they still play at being judicious conservatives.Moderate generally means someone in the middle, not averse to change but not not necessarily embracing it full throttle. In most countries this means somebody who is not at a political extreme, not rocking the boat.Moderates in the U.S. are actually a little harder to find than you might think. They might consider themselves culturally liberal but fiscally conservative, or might think that they simply are in the middle. However, there is a lot of evidence that self-described moderates are actually more liberal than much of the current political leadership of the political left. Consider that over 60% of our population wants Medicare for all, and over 90% want expanded background checks for guns. Despite the fact that moderates clearly want these, and even a plurality of conservatives, over half of the political leadership in our country does not.Liberal has changed a lot over time in the U.S. and does not currently mean the same thing here that it does abroad. The old school distrusted government, wanting small government and protection of individual freedoms. Its modern American descendent is libertarianism, which oddly tends to align itself more with conservatives than it does with liberals.Liberal generally refers to people who want individual freedoms protected but who view government as a good way to protect those freedoms. Liberals want respect and dignity as the cornerstone of the treatment of individuals, improved social safety net infrastructure, and increased government spending for the commons (also known as public community goods, like roads, bridges, parklands, water and sewer, the power grid, the Internet, and sometimes including the arts). They want to repair existing infrastructure and built new infrastructure where needed. They want to strengthen Social Security and Medicare and keep them publicly run.They are willing to raise taxes a little if it means the general standard of living will go up a lot. They are fine with private ownership but feel that in some business sectors a profit motive leads to moral hazard, like for-profit prisons. While some regulations are troublesome, on the whole good regulations make for good neighbors, more comfortable homes and safer cities. Oddly enough, liberals use a lot of fact based and judicious consideration before pushing for change, which means that they take a more conservative approach to change than you might expect.That said, most American Liberals would be closer to centrists in many European countries. They have learned better ways of adapting to the times.Hopefully this explanation of American politics, and how it compares to politics abroad, has not made your head spin.

I have spent many years researching this topic, trying to get to the bottom of why healthcare costs have increased overtime. I have come to the conclusion that it is because America's legal definition of "healthcare" was changed.Do you wonder why you receive healthcare through the corporation you work for, and not on your own in the form of a healthcare service?Healthcare today is public on the stock market and not private because companies are incentivized to provide healthcare insurance from Wall Street. Prior to 1972 most all forms of healthcare was in public service organizations.Let's go on a healthcare history lesson…America's Healthcare Roots:Before the 20th century, Americans paid for healthcare costs out of their own pocket at public hospitals, public dentists, mental health institutions, and public pharmacies funding by local municipalities and state governments. Again you have to remember this was before Wall Street and the stock market even exited in the 19th century. There was no concept of compulsory healthcare unlike in Europe. As medicine and surgical procedures became more complex and legitimate in the 20th century, costs started to rise so America started turning to government for federal funding in a crisis.So in 1965 LBJ signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 building on FDR's "Fair New Deal". For the time creating Medicare for all for Americans 65 and older, and Medicaid for Americans who were not privileged enough to afford out of pocket medical expenses. Medicaid was directly tied to the cost of medical care. If you were a middle class kid growing up in the 1960's, chances are your family was on Medicaid or on private healthcare supplemented by Medicaid and Medicare. Bear in mind at this point, healthcare was not offered by any employer in the country. This concept would not come until much later on.The Beginning Of The End:Surprise but no surprise, a lot of people took advantage of it. It was extremely popular. However the federal budget was not expecting so many Americans to use it, so costs skyrocketed in the span of just a few years to the tune of billions over budget. Democrats and Republicans started to split into two factions. There was a few politicians that believed that we could turn to the private sector to solve the crisis. Try to keep in mind the only problem was that it cost too much.So in 1969 America elected Richard Nixon on the promise that he was going to reform America's too costly healthcare system. In 1971 he met with Sidney Garfield of Kaiser Permanente Corporation to talk about the economic success of a new and emerging business model called, "for-profit healthcare" that was believed could bring costs drastically down for the middle class.In 1973 President Nixon signed the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, which for the first time provided hundreds of billions in funding towards companies that would provide HMO's through your employer. This forced Americans to receive healthcare through their employer in the form of a for-profit company instead of Medicaid whether they wanted it or not. Snopes actually did an article about this. Even they admit that although for-profit healthcare was not illegal before 1973, this played a huge role in creating the environment in which for-profit healthcare has blown up today.This plan worked temporarily to supply healthcare and did not bring costs up immediately, but as you know the main goal of a business is to make money and that is exactly what would happen. The opposite of the intended results.The Reagan Years:Something happened that drastically changed our healthcare system forever. The decade began with Ted Kennedy campaigning for the 1980 election, a promise to adopt a single payer healthcare system for "every man, woman, and child". However he ended up losing to Reagan in the election.Reagan stepped into office as a middle finger to the Jimmy Carter administration. The economy was in a recession and oil crisis because of OPEC, and the American people wanted less government and not more.The year 1982 was a major year for the middle class. It was perhaps the nail in the coffin for our Medicare and Medicaid system. In 1982, President Reagan signed the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 which included the ban on Medicaid and Medicare departments from paying for your healthcare. I bet you never heard of this before, but you should.https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v46n7/v46n7p49.pdfFrom 1982 and onward, Medicaid and Medicare was tied to a fixed cost instead of allowing public hospitals and care facilities to set the price. So from then on it did not matter how much your medical treatment would cost the hospital, the government would only pay a set amount. This forced hospitals across the country to act as a "for-profit business". They hard to charge more towards the customer or cut costs if they wanted to break even.New York Times Interview:Reagan, Deregulation and America’s Exceptional Rise in Health Care Costs"If providers could get costs down, they made money. If they couldn't, they lost money. Hospitals and other providers began to behave more like businesses," Mr. Gaumer said. "And the culture of health care delivery began to change. "Now hospitals would more likely use this bill to cut costs which means less care for the patient in the form of outpatient "managed care", but not health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. They took this as an excuse to raise prices on pharmaceutical drugs including chemotherapy and blood pressure medications. Now that Medicaid would not cover full costs of a medical bill towards an insurance company, an insurance company would take the liberty to increase costs on the customer. We saw this happen in the 1980's with healthcare costs skyrocketing in just one decade of time.The Cost of Health Care: 1958 vs. 2012What are the recent and forecasted trends in prescription drug spending? — Peterson-Kaiser Health System TrackerModern Years:From 1980–2009 the cost of healthcare in the United States rose 700%, more than any other developed nation in the world as corporations realized they could make more money and charge more for medications. This had nothing to do with Obamacare. Before the 1980's the United States had the most efficient, cheapest, and best health treatment centers in the world under the Medicaid system. Today we have the most expensive and most inefficient.This has not only made healthcare unaffordable to the average American family, it has made the United States perhaps the most dangerous place to ask for a medical opinion. It's called "informed consent" Let's take cancer. It is estimated that 15–20% of all cancers are misdiagnosed by doctors every year.Doing harm in American health care: The case of misdiagnosisCancer Misdiagnosis is Alarmingly More Common Than We Thought12 million Americans misdiagnosed each year"One study found that about 28 percent of the mistakes made out of 583 cases were life threatening or life altering." - CBS NewsImagine treating yourself for a cancer that you don't even have? What if I told you that the third leading cause of death in America is our healthcare system? Every year 12 million Americans are misdiagnosed with a disease. Medical malpractice is the third leading cause of death.Medical Errors Third Leading Cause Of Death In America"More than 250,000 people in the United States die every year because of medical mistakes, making it the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer." - CNBC NewsThe modern healthcare system has created a medical environment in which doctors cannot provide the best care for their patients. The decks are stacked against them. We have allowed special interests to control the narrative.The more opioids doctors prescribe, the more they get paidCancer drug choices tied to drugmaker payouts to doctorsIt's a step on or be stepped on situation. Medical practices could not survive unless they adopted the modern system. America systematically created a healthcare system that turned treatment into a business. If patients are cured, you no longer have any customers. This is the environment we created.U.S. Health Care Ranked Worst in the Developed WorldOpioid death rates soared in communities where pain pills …Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed by President Obama since 2010 has provided new Medicaid healthcare coverage for 18 million American citizens, and extended the age of family healthcare from 22 to 26 years of age.However it did not reverse us back to the old healthcare system, because it bailed out the insurance companies. Instead of rolling back government subsidies on Wall Street we increased them. Medicaid still does not cover 100% of costs for the patient. It can even be much worse which I will explain below.ObamaCare Enriches Only Insurance Giants and Their ShareholdersWe have to remember what Obamacare is. Obamacare was modeled after Massachusetts MassHealth, which was started by Republican Mitt Romney. You can read about what can happen if you can’t afford your bills on Medicaid. Only in America can your house be taken because someone in your family gets alzheimer's disease. It’s a scary reality for many.The misguided — and costly — evolution of ‘Romneycare’ - The Boston GlobeMedicaid’s Dark Secret“Sure enough, just weeks after Edna entered the nursing home, Tawanda received a notice that MassHealth had put a lien on the house. This went on until the end of 2009, when Edna died, at home, in Oliver’s arms. Afterward, Tawanda received a letter from the Massachusetts Office of Health and Human Services, which oversees MassHealth, notifying her that the state was seeking “reimbursement from [Edna’s] estate for Medicaid payments made on her behalf.” For Edna’s five years on MassHealth, she owed $198,660.26.” - The AtlanticIn 2020 Americans have no choice but to go through their employer for healthcare if they choose to keep a job and not collect welfare. Americans are not allowed to bid on the same plans their employers have access to.This is also extremely important during a pandemic. Now that we are suffering from COVID-19, we face a public health economic crisis. This is not a joking matter anymore.Total Cost of Her COVID-19 Treatment: $34,927.43“Over the next several days, Askini saw her temperature spike and drop dangerously, and she developed a cough that gurgled because of all the liquid in her lungs. After two more trips to the ER that week, Askini was given a final test on the seventh day of her illness, and once doctors helped manage her flu and pneumonia symptoms, they again sent her home to recover. She waited another three days for a lab to process her test, and at last she had a diagnosis: COVID-19. A few days later, Askini got the bills for her testing and treatment: $34,927.43. “I was pretty sticker-shocked,” she says. “I personally don’t know anybody who has that kind of money.” - TimeVeterans under Medicare do not experience this. The VA is allowed to negotiate prices down. In America right now, heath insurance and pharmaceutical companies have no limit on what they can charge. That is why single payer is a very popular option we almost followed in the 1960's and then again in 1980 if Ted Kennedy had become President, because it's drastically cheaper than even the current system we have in place. It allows government to negotiate the price of treatment. Then healthcare would no longer be tied to the employer, so you wouldn’t lose your health insurance if you switch jobs. Healthcare would be once again based on quality care first, over profits first which is the legal definition of a for-profit business.Single-payer health care is better than ObamaCareWhy Single-Payer Health Care Saves MoneyThe reality is the United States was the first country in the world to almost adopt a single payer healthcare system under LBJ, and today we are the last developed nation in the world without one. What single payer does is a control on prices. In consequence the United States has by far has the most expensive and worst healthcare system of the entire world.Why don't we do what President John F. Kennedy wanted to do 60 years ago? Adopt the healthcare system the entire world has already figured out how to accomplish. Let's return to the great healthcare system we once had. It would be wise for both sides of the aisle to face reality. Americans don't want Obamacare, they want a single payer healthcare system now.