Friday, August 29, 2008

Georgia Cuts Doctors Payments for Medicaid

Categories: Georgia, Medicaid

So how'd you like to depend on a doctor whose income has just been cut? That's the situation facing Georgians on Medicaid, as the state moves to bring its Medicaid program under control by postponing a planned increase in payments to doctors. The head of the state medical association says "The postponement of this will make it less likely that physicians will treat Medicaid patients."

If that's the situation, lawmakers ought to do whatever they can to decrease the number of people who need Medicaid, and increase the number of people who can afford health care outside of the insurance/government system.

How can that be done? There are a lot of factors involved and some are only long-range solutions, but a few come to mind immediately: Increase the use of competition in the health care sector and improve opportunities for children to learn through school choice, so that they can graduate from school and land jobs that will pay for insurance.