Unwinding Medicaid - 5.5 Million Lose Coverage
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A friend asked me if there was a searchable collection of our past articles. While it may improve when I learn more, the current version is here. I will put the link in our resources section below.
Medicaid Unwinding Update
Recall that since the pandemic is officially over the US government’s expansion of Medicaid to limit the spread of the disease is also over. During the pandemic yearly enrollment in Medicaid was not necessary. Unwinding is the process of restoring the yearly eligibility. Thus far about 5.5 million people have been removed from Medicaid. Here is a link to the Kaiser Family Foundation story.
Check the chart for a moment. Texas has dis-enrolled over 600,000 and Florida over 400,000 and New York over 320,000 and California about 300,000.
If you average across all the states 74% of those denied coverage were for procedural errors and should have healthcare - that’s almost 4.1 million people! Procedural issues are incorrect forms, incomplete forms, errors in contact information, etc. Of all the people removed by New Mexico 97% were for procedural errors. Included in this list are chronically ill patients and children.
We can avoid this, of course, if there were Universal Health Care. Everybody in, cradle to grave. Let’s remind our legislators.
PHARMA REBATE NEWS
We have been reporting on how drug makers and Pharmacy Benefit Manger’s are responsible for jacking up prices of drugs way beyond what are fair prices. Today the General Accounting Office issued a report that heartily agrees. They analyzed rebates in Medicare part D - optional drug coverage for Medicare. They chose that because the government has oversight there and so can collect data. Specifically, “ (the) GAO found plan sponsors—private companies that provide voluntary Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage—received $48.6 billion in rebates from drug manufacturers in 2021. Three therapeutic drug classes accounted for 73 percent of rebates: (1) endocrine metabolic agents, including anti-diabetic drugs; (2) blood modifiers, including anti-stroke drugs; and (3) respiratory agents, including anti-asthma drugs.”
“However, rebates do not lower individual beneficiary payments for drugs, as these are based on the gross cost of the drug before accounting for rebates. Thus drugs with higher gross costs generally result in higher beneficiary payments relative to payments for competing drugs with lower gross costs.”
Succinctly that means that drug makers give the private insurance plan a rebate on the cost to put it on the formulary so that their drug is sold and not their competitors and we can keep patient costs high since the amount patients pay is based on the now inflated list price (inflated to cover the rebate).
Did you catch that $48 billion paid by drug makers in one year to squeeze extra money from patients. I’ll say it but you already know that Single Payer Universal Healthcare, paying private providers with public insurance, takes care of this (it is in HR 3421).
ACTION
Call or email your Senators and Congressperson in Washington DC to remind them that so far 5.5 million of us lost health care due to Medicaid unwinding and over 4 million of those denied coverage are errors. HR 3421, the improved Medicare for All act fixes that. Also mention that the GAO found that drug rebates in 2021 to Medicare part D increased costs to patients and put $48 billion into corporate pockets. Universal Healthcare fixes that too.
You can use RESISTBOT to send the message by texting SIGN PDGPUY to 50409 to send
“I am your constituent and I just learned that over 5.5 million of us lost health insurance due to Medicaid unwinding and that over 4 million of those removed were for procedural errors. THAT INCLUDES CHILDREN. What part of that is ok with you?
I also noticed that the GAO found $48 billion was rebated to corporations that sell Medicare Plan D Drug plans in one year! The effect was to raise prices for patients and squeeze out competitive drugs.
I want you to enact HR 3421, the much improved Medicare for All act, so that all of us have healthcare that works for all of us. We will all have healthcare, all prescriptions negotiated to a fair price. NO MORE CHEATING. LIVES ARE AT STAKE. ACT LIKE IT.”
RESOURCES
Healthcare Advocacy (Us)
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Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
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https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/addr/
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All
Physicians for a National Health Plan
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org