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The Battle of the Entitlement Reforms
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10915 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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5 / 1993 |
2,274 Words |
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David Alan Coia
David Alan Coia is a national reporter for the Washington
Times. |
In the search for America's health plan and a healthy American budget, everyone seems to have something to point a finger at--whether it is a program to vilify or a solution to offer.
Health-care-reform proposals have been tossed back and forth so frequently in recent years that there is often little distinction between a Democratic or a Republican idea, although each group makes claims for the features included in its latest package of offerings.
The bottom line is that not everyone can afford to pay for health care, not everyone is covered by health insurance, and although our aging population has more time to ponder the problem, no one has yet invented the free lunch.
According to government reports, entitlement programs--including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid--currently claim a 49 percent share of every tax dollar.
Medicaid is a combined federal and state program that provides medical assistance to some low-income individuals and families. Although the program utilizes federal and state funding, Medicaid is administered by the states themselves under federal guidelines.
According to the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA), Medicaid provides medical assistance to those who are eligible for cash assistance under such programs as Aid to Families with Dependent Children and supplemental security income. Medicaid benefits may also be available to others who have enough income for basic living expenses but cannot afford to pay for medical care.
In 1991, Medicaid paid out nearly $77 billion for services to 28 million people, HIAA said. Economist Michele Davis of Citizens for a Sound Economy put the total tax cost of Medicaid at $126 billion, with $72 billion coming from federal dollars and $54 billion coming from the states.
"Medicaid costs have ballooned as the program has strayed further away from its declared mission of paying for health care for low-income families and individuals," Davis wrote in a February 1993 report titled "Medicaid: Too Many Goals, Too Little Return on Our Tax Dollars." "Medicaid never covered the poor, and over time it has covered a smaller portion of the poor," Davis wrote.
Medicare is the federal
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