Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Opinion
USA Today
11/11/2013
As the Obamacare debacle rolls on — looking even worse than it did a week ago, if that’s possible — there’s a separate but related issue involving Medicaid expansion. And, as with Obamacare, people who oppose the expansion risk being called heartless murderers for “denying sick people care.”
The thing is, though, there’s a difference between care and coverage. Insurance programs, whether Obamacare or Medicaid, only provide coverage. It’s doctors who provide care. But because government insurance programs — even money-sucking ones like Medicaid, which costs $450 billion a year — can’t pay doctors enough and smother them with paperwork, doctors are hard to find. Without doctors, coverage doesn’t mean much.
That’s the point of How Medicaid Fails The Poor, a new book by Forbes columnist and Manhattan Institute fellow Avik Roy. Coverage isn’t care, notes Roy — and in the case of Medicaid, coverage may be worse than not being covered…
The op-ed continues at USA Today.
Related: Obamacare options grim for young people
…If young adults choose to voluntarily give their hard-earned money to their elders — whether grandparents, neighbors or friends — to help with medical costs, that’s their prerogative. But it should be their choice, not another burden forced on them by the Boomers and their ilk.
