Fwd: qotd: Keep people out of Medicaid to avoid fraud?

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: qotd: Keep people out of Medicaid to avoid fraud?
Date: Mon, 13 May 2013 10:11:19 -0700
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>



Los Angeles Times
May 10, 2013
Healthcare puts Jerry Brown, Capitol Democrats on different sides
By Anthony York and Chris Megerian

With California's deficit wiped out and its economy starting to hum,
this was to be a year when Gov. Jerry Brown was free of the budget
logjams that have paralyzed the Capitol.

But instead, the governor has a fight on his hands — with his fellow
Democrats. He is on a collision course with them over how to reshape the
state's sprawling, complicated healthcare system to conform with
President Obama's national overhaul.

The sticking points in extending public healthcare to more Californians
include how many to add to state insurance rolls, how much to pay
doctors and hospitals, and how much money to give counties for their
care of the indigent.

The Democrats who control the Legislature — with a veto-proof
supermajority — want to make it easier to obtain public insurance than
Brown does and send more money to the doctors, hospitals and counties
than the governor wants to part with.

The major bill that would expand public insurance under Medi-Cal is from
Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles). The measure would make
it easier for Californians to enroll in the program by allowing people
to sign up online and eliminating requirements that recipients file
semiannual financial reports to prove they are still eligible.

Administration officials have said the governor opposes those changes
out of concern that the easier enrollment process could lead to fraud.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-brown-healthcare-20130511,0,6700749.story


Comment: Isn't the idea of the Affordable Care Act to get as many
people covered as is possible, considering the administrative
complexities of this highly flawed model of reform? So what does
California Governor Jerry Brown recommend? Do not make enrollment easier
since it might lead to fraud!

Enrollment fraud could not possibly occur under a single payer system
since it automatically enrolls everyone. We need a change in attitude. A
single payer system would start us thinking in the right way about how
to cover everyone and still pay for it.