If you get sick, if a member of your family gets sick, what do you do?
If you are lucky, a household member works for a company that offers a family medical insurance plan. If not, what?
Most likely, sick people would be taken to a hospital emergency room, where they will not be turned away and receive services.
If people with colds and no health insurance fill the emergency rooms, people with real emergencies may not get services due to the overcrowding of the emergency room.
Today, many responsible adults work more than one job, some at minimum wage, some part time, and are not offered medical insurance for themselves, much less their families.
Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program are available based on a person’s income and resources.
Verification of income, resources and personal identification are required to apply for those programs.
Each state offers different programs outlined in an agreement with the federal government, including the details of shared funding.
Reimbursement for medical services does not go to the person. The payment goes directly to the provider.
Reducing the allocation of federal funds for those programs is not solving a problem, it’s adding unnecessary costs to hospitals, reducing the community’s general health and will add burdens to hard-working people and their families in low-income brackets to stay healthy.
I know there are other budget line items that could be cut. Leave Medicaid and CHIP alone.
Eileen Cummings
Sequim