Katie
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If you lost your job due to outsourcing, I think there is some government assistance specifically for this.
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I think the biggest problem is that the information and how to find it just isn't out there visibly. There's a guy here who's emailing me privately about the Katie Beckett program. He must be half attorney because he knows so much about it.
I'm definitely not half attorney, but I have been fighting my own battle with Medicaid for about the past 18 months. And no, I don't get any special treatment or help because I work for the State of Wisconsin.
It's sad that LBJ is only remembered for Vietnam since Medicaid has been a great help with my daughter. She has cerebral palsy from a birth injury and has had close to $300,000 in medical bills since she was born, about 15% not covered by insurance, all of which has been picked up by Medicaid. There is a treatment called HBOT that is supposed to help with her condition, but Medicaid has refused to pay for the treatment, which is why I sound like an attorney. I'm actually close to filing a case in federal court just to get the state to pay for the treatment. I have the advantage of a case in Georgia to help me - Georgia Dep't of Community Health v. Freels, 258 Ga. App. 446, 576 S.E. 2d 2 (Ct. App. 2002) if you want to read about the insanity of Medicaid.
I'm disappointed that Rex did not receive the help he needed from Medicaid because it was the responsibility of the state to ensure he received that help, but I know from my own experiences that it is often the case that the opposite is happening. Some states try to do the very least they can under Title XIX just to save money. There was even a case in federal court against the State of Arkansas where the judge wrote in the decision, "Finally, we remind the state that it has a duty under 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(43) to inform Medicaid recipients about the EPSDT services that are available to them and that it must arrange for the corrective treatment prescribed by physicians. The state may not shirk its responsibilities to Medicaid recipients by burying information about available services in a complex bureaucratic scheme."
So it is no wonder that Rex ended up where he is. From the beginning, the State of Idaho shirked its responsibilities to inform him of the rights his daughter has under Title XIX. National healthcare will not help in this case since it is more or less already there. The problem is that no one knows about the benefits because they are buried in a complex mess of social workers, forms, and approvals. Generally this is worse in states where they hire a private HMO to manage Title XIX, since the HMO is paid based on how much money they can save the state. This leads them to do pretty much anything they can to deny services.
As for me, I have received great support from my local community to raise the money to pay for my daughter's HBOT treatment, regardless of what happens with Medicaid. My family organized a fundraiser - hannahshopefestival.com - and the community really came through. Now I can get my daughter the treatment she needs and worry about Medicaid later.
I am honored to work in a profession where the community is so willing to help one of their own in a time of need. Please do what you can to help Rex since you never know when something just like this will happen to your family. I know I never expected anything like what happened with my daughter. I'll definitely be buying my tickets when I get my paycheck tomorrow.
Joshua Perry
http://www.greenarrow.net -
I thought Medicaid was for poor people. I don't know about Rex's finances but from hearing him talk about being able to work 40 hours a week and be comfortable, I doubt he'd qualify for it.
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Katie Beckett is medicaid for people who have children that are sick enough they'd break even a wealthy family. Or in other words... Katie Beckett qualifes families that would make too much money otherwise for medicaid. We have been qualified on KB since 03 and on Social Security Disability since 04'. Social Security trumps KB but it's income based. If we make to much to qualify for SSDI then we would roll back to KB.
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Just been reading all this, and I have to say as a UK citizen your healthcare system is pretty barbaric.
There still seems to be some political reticence on the part of some posters to even consider a national health system like we have in the civilised world.
Of course Michael Moore's new film is getting some good press over in the UK at the moment, which I hope is good news for American opinions on US healthcare, I've heard some of the horror stories, and Rex's is one that just wouldn't have happened in the UK. Why the hell should the guy have to worry about money as well as his daughter ?
I'm pretty lucky, I haven't needed the NHS, but I'm more than happy to pay for it, the cost is not exhorbitant as a % of my taxes, in fact it is almost certainly cheaper than your own insurance premiums (I have a rough idea of what you're paying), and remember you've already got a huge (and to my mind) pointless beaurocracy in the form of Medicaid. All having a national health service would mean for America is the elimination of a huge middle tier of insurance agents and claims adjusters, and who'd miss them? I've only needed insurance twice, once for a burglary and once for some drains, on both occasions they've wriggled out of paying the full amount, I'm glad I don't have to trust them for anything else.
I'll buy a raffle ticket to help out one specific (and particularly sad) case in a developing country, but please America, get a health service.....
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This is just my "political" opinion but Health Care in the US is Huge business and in the US big business is the "bible" of the country. Changing it from a "for profit" system to a "non-profit", government run system would be as likely to succeed as the peace process in the middle east. There is just to much vested interest in the status quo. There are so many "Pros" and "Cons" on both sides of the issue that I doubt we'd ever get a real workable concensus. If we every actually did there would be so many compromises along the way the resulting system would probably be unworkable anyway.
Sorry this was a little off track of the main topic for this area, but if folks really thing they want a National Health Care system we need to start writting congress (I do about something at least once a week, I'm sure I'm on a watch list somewhere
)James.
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I agree but I really think if we want change then we need to make it closed ended change. A group of intelligent, savvy, non-emotional people need to sit down and draft a ratification to the current system. They need it present it in various revisions to a much larger group that provides feedback and commentary on each part of it. Then it would a huge part of acredidation to get a group of physicians to participate in a mock scenario to carry the idea all the way through implmentation. Placebo patients go to real physicians and a placebo process is followed from treatment to release and billing. Then we have a panel of bona fide physicians sign on off on the plan. Once that's done we work with an insurance company in the same spirit and get them to sign off on it. Once we've worked out all the kinks and made it a smooth and tested process, we wrap it up to put it on a future presidents door and we tell him Merry Election, make this work and we'll make sure you are the new man wearing the trappings of power.
Yeah, it sounds great and I realize there's a lot of ****WORK**** in that grand scheme but it at least is the beginnings of an idea. I do believe there are a few reading this thread that are way more savvy than myself who could probably pen something out absent mindedly as they watched mythbusters or Man Vs. Wild on T.V.
We are overloooking another piece of the equation that I think is bigger. How to help families who have had true hardship. My family is under burder for medical bills but that's only 1/3 of the issue. We were devestated by a layoff, burning through a 401K and other 'bad luck' issues. There has to be some way to get relief for families like us.
-- Today I'm calling all my creditors to ask for debt forgiveness or debt reduction. If you are a believer of any sort say a prayer for me because I'm taking on one of the most powerful mogul businesses in America.
But in order for this to all work (what I'm trying here and in other places on the net) I have to do my part so that you are more willing to do yours. This means that I cannot just sit with my pretty little hand out. I've got to break a few fingernails and try to better my situation.
By the way I've tried to get help from breakingnews@ktvb.com (my local T.V. station) and from the Oprah Winfrey show. I think it would really bolster my efforts if other people wrote in on my behalf saying, "This guy is the real deal and he's got some issues that really do matter to people in the U.S." so take 5 minutes to go wade through the Oprah site and send a comment. Use the email above to contact my local news agency. It's hard to deny a bigger group with one battle cry.
If that doesn't work then I'm burning a bra er... no wait a bottle... uh... a feeding pump on the steps of the nations capital in protest.
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