THE MEDI-CAL MODEL

Here, from hotair.com’s Jazz Shaw, is a key part of his excellent analysis of California’s increasingly disastrous “Medi-Cal” health care:

There’s an article out this week in the LA Times which covers the growing complaints of low income families who charge that the poor reimbursement rates and strained pool of providers means that they are basically receiving lower quality coverage compared to those with private plans offered through their employers.

A group of Medi-Cal beneficiaries filed a lawsuit against the state Wednesday, alleging that low payments to doctors are creating an unequal healthcare system in California.

Thomas A. Saenz, an attorney representing the plaintiffs and president and general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the state is required to provide coverage to low-income Californians through Medi-Cal that’s equivalent to the care other Californians receive through private insurance or Medicare.

But Medi-Cal patients have a harder time finding doctors, wait longer for appointments, end up in the emergency room more often and have their diseases diagnosed later than those in other insurance programs, Saenz said. That’s in part because the state mismanages the health program and delays payments to doctors, making them unwilling to see Medi-Cal patients, he said.

Fewer choices in doctors. Longer wait times for appointments. Delayed diagnosis and care. Is any of this sounding familiar? It’s the same trouble we’ve seen on a national level with the Medicaid expansion that took place under Obamacare. Keep in mind that all of this was not only predictable, but had been screamed about by opponents of the program from the beginning. Back in 2012 Heritage was warning everyone about this, explaining why Medicaid needed serious reform before we could talk about expanding it.

Please don’t stop at what you just read.  Use the link I’ve provided and read the rest as well.  See what all-left, all-the-time California is finding out about what increased government control does to health care.

Look, I’m no expert in this field to say the least.  I don’t know if what Trump & Co. is cooking up to replace ObamaCare is better, no different or worse.  But I do know that ObamaCare was, and remains, an unworkable monstrosity, therefore something has to be done to significantly change it.

I hope the Medi-Cal debacle provides some guidance in that effort.  That would be a thin silver lining in its otherwise dark cloud.