By: DAVID FREDDOSO
Online Opinion Editor
Washington Examiner
12/17/09
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, Okla., writes in today’s Wall Street Journal that access to government programs does not necessarily imply access to health care:
In Maryland, 17,000 Medicaid patients are currently on a waiting list for medical services, and as many as 250 may have died while awaiting care, according to state auditors. Kansas, the home state of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, faces a Medicaid backlog of more than 15,000 applicants.
Consider this in the light of how many doctors refuse to take Medicare and Medicaid patients, as well as Medicare’s high rate of denial of claims compared to private insurers.
