NYT:
Starting Friday, most Medicaid recipients in Mississippi will be limited to five prescription drugs at a time, with no process for appeal. The cap appears to be the most restrictive in the nation, but is just one of many measures being taken by states seeking to rein in soaring Medicaid costs.
It will hit hard for people like Erainna Johnson, 42, left legally blind by a stroke in 1997. She takes 19 medications - already more than the previous Medicaid limit of seven - relying on family members, her church and free samples from doctors to make up the difference. "Sometimes I just crack my pills in half, honestly," she said, sitting in the living room of her trailer here.
Mississippi is among many states moving aggressively to contain Medicaid costs, saying severe measures are necessary if the program is to continue. In Missouri, new cuts also took effect Friday in an effort to reduce the rolls; for example, a single mother of three in Missouri is now ineligible if she makes more than $350 a month. About a dozen states limit the number of prescriptions offered to adult patients, but almost all provide for an appeal process or allow doctors to override the limit.
In Mississippi, where more than a quarter of the population is on Medicaid, the cap includes a limit of two name-brand drugs. The only patients exempt from the rule are children, people in nursing homes and patients with H.I.V., who were given an 11th-hour reprieve because virtually none of the anti-viral drugs used were available in generic form.
Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican who backed steeper cuts to Medicaid than those enacted, said the Legislature had come up with the limit on prescription drugs on its own.
I would really like to see someone ask these Republicans how they justify this kind of cost-cutting for life-saving drugs with their lip service to "all human life is sacred." Let's FORCE them to admit that when push comes to shove, money overrules life every time.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire