Reduce payments, reduce patients....

It was inevitable; as states cut back on Medicaid reimbursement rates to doctors, doctors cut patients from their rolls. I wonder how it is this Administration believes adding more people to a system that is not only broken, but is losing money faster than a bucket hit with buckshot, will somehow be better. While Obama travels the country praising the current Medicare/Medicaid system, real people are being dropped like a hot potato when they get too expensive to treat. Doctors can no longer afford to see these patients at a loss.

It has not taken long for communities like Flint to feel the downstream effects of a nationwide torrent of state cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor and disabled. With states squeezing payments to providers even as the economy fuels explosive growth in enrollment, patients are finding it increasingly difficult to find doctors and dentists who will accept their coverage. Inevitably, many defer care or wind up in hospital emergency rooms, which are required to take anyone in an urgent condition.

There is no reasoning adding more people will drive costs down-no matter how high you raise taxes. A key piece in the entire debate? There is little talk of how to actually lower costs; most talk centers around how to pay for health care. While both sides will never agree on every step to take it is unbelievable to me we cannot start with processes that will lower the costs of health care. We do not need to pay for insurance competition across state lines or tort reform or allowing more people to take advantage of health savings accounts. All of those things and may others are free to implement and are an excellent beginning to lowering the cost of health care. However, as Obama likes to often point out, there isn't much else in this process but partisanship and bickering-I would just disagree on who's creating the blockade.