Expanding Arizona’s Medicaid program is vital to the wellbeing of children and their parents — our state’s working poor. As Arizona’s leading professional pediatric organization, we strongly urge support for Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposal.
Medicaid expansion will:
• Reduce health care costs by providing preventive care services. Children on Medicaid receive routine check-ups, immunizations and acute care services in physician offices, decreasing ER visits and hospitalizations.
• Reduce the uncompensated care burden on Arizona hospitals, especially in rural communities. The current system is not sustainable over the long term.
• Provide Arizona with up to $2 billion in federal dollars that otherwise would be lost to other states.
Arizona’s AHCCCS Medicaid program is nationally recognized for its high quality, cost-effective care. Expanding it will continue that tradition and have a dramatic impact on the quality of life for many struggling families.
Our 900 members across the state urge the Arizona Legislature to support Gov. Brewer’s proposal. It’s the most cost-effective way for the state to restore coverage for low- income adults and supports the will of the voters who approved expanding AHCCCS.
Dale Guthrie, M.D.
President, Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
VofReason posted at 1:20 pm on Mon, Mar 11, 2013.
Makes sense. So why would they have people less than a mile away building cars then Americans? Not that Canadians are 3rd world and are just happy to get a shiney quarter for a days work. Maybe it has something to do with unions pricing themselves out of the market
sockratties posted at 8:41 am on Sun, Mar 10, 2013.
VoR... The main tourist attraction in Windsor is gambling. Windsor is big in manufacturing of Chrysler and Ford autos for the export and U.S. markets, and booze which came about when Detroit was a “dry” city. Windsor provides access to the Quebec corridor via a tunnel under the Detroit river. Tariff and tax arrangements between Canada and the U.S. accommodate cheaper manufacturing costs in Windsor than Detroit. Those aren’t American jobs building Chrysler minivans or Ford truck engines.
VofReason posted at 2:01 pm on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
Maybe we can learn something from the Canadians. After all, Windsor Canada is right across a small body of water from Detroit Michigan. Windsor, clean, low crime, and lives on tourism. Detroit, war zone, high crime, poverty, blight. Wonder what the difference is?
VofReason posted at 1:55 pm on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
This is interesting news bobunf. I have to admit, I have had health insurance and went to a doctor at least annually to ensure good health. So is your point that most people are too stupid to see this as a good path? That we need to have the government take more tax money to somehow teach people that their health is important?
bobunf posted at 1:31 am on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
Not granting access is penny wise and pound foolish in the extreme, and largely explains why Americans pay more than double what people in other developed countries pay. People who live longer, and do not fear bankruptcy from medical costs.
As my Canadian friends put it, "I'm alive and not broke."
bobunf posted at 1:27 am on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
As Americans age they gradually become more settled in careers, jobs and marriages, and consequently secure better access to the health care system. The gradual improvement in comparative US mortality rates suggests the process:
Increasing percentages of the population obtain health insurance as they age. Health insurance becomes more continuous and improves as the population ages. This is a gradual process beginning in the mid to late twenties
With insurance, greater percentages of the population ascend the learning curves for useful access to the health care system. The whole process of finding doctors, learning when and how to use them, trusting and actually following the advice of health care professionals, learning how insurance works, etc. will involve years of gradually increasing knowledge and experience on the part of patients.
The beneficial effects of accessing the health care system in terms of prevention, earlier diagnoses and treatment will gradually accumulate over more years.
The British, Irish, New Zealanders, Japanese, etc. experience no change in their access to health care as they age. They learn how to use medicine to stay healthy from a young age, and always have access to high quality health care.
bobunf posted at 1:22 am on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
Sorry for the choppy post, but the spam filter seems to be on over-drive tonight.
bobunf posted at 1:21 am on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
, US mortality rates converge with those of other developed countries.
bobunf posted at 1:21 am on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
By the 80th age cohort, after Medicare has been in effect for 15 years
bobunf posted at 1:20 am on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
The most significant reason for these incredibly dismal outcome is the lack of access to health care. Compare US excess mortality rates to the percentage uninsured. The two sets of data track with about a 15 year lag.
bobunf posted at 1:19 am on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
The United States has the most expensive health care in the world - by miles. We also have the worst health outcomes of any developed country - by very significant numbers of Americans who are unnecessarily dead.
sockratties posted at 4:20 pm on Wed, Mar 6, 2013.
VoR... There was an uppercase rant about the unborn before your last post that I was responding to... a typical leon. It's gone now but my troll note is still there.
VofReason posted at 2:10 pm on Wed, Mar 6, 2013.
Right, unless you throw fiscal and personal responsibility to the wind, you are indeed a "troll"- no?
sockratties posted at 7:27 am on Wed, Mar 6, 2013.
Don't feed the ranting trolls!
Leon Ceniceros posted at 2:56 pm on Tue, Mar 5, 2013.
IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO PROVIDE FOR YOUR (NOT MINE, NOT A STRANGER...BUT.... "YOURS") CHILDREN....THEN WHY ARE YOU BRINGING THEM INTO THE WORLD IN THE FIRST PLACE ???
WHY SHOULD ME AND OTHER STRANGERS WHO ARE TAX-PAYERS.....HAVE TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILDREN ???
THEY DON'T GO ON OUR ....STATE OF ARIZONA OR IRS TAX FORMS AS...."DEPENDENTS".....THEY GO ON YOURS.
WE STRANGERS PAY TO HOUSE, TO EDUCATE, TO FEED, TO HOSPITALIZE AND TO PROVIDE MEDICAL CARE FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S CHILDREN.
YOU PROCREATED = YOU TAKE CARE OF YOUR OWN CHILDREN.
VofReason posted at 1:26 pm on Tue, Mar 5, 2013.
Knowing that this is at the behest of the Obama Administrations federal government makes me think it is also along the lines of the also from Columbia University's Cloward and Piffien desire to overwelm the system. Get more people on the dole and at some point the system will fall. That way they can make the system the way they really want. Ask any gold digger, even they know not to hook up with a sugar daddy who puts it all on his credit card.
Accuracy posted at 10:51 am on Tue, Mar 5, 2013.
In his LETTER; Dale Guthrie is promoting the government-run health insurance program for the poor, called “ObamaCare” Medicaid Expansion. And he is for the state of Arizona to accept the Medicaid money.
All over the country, state governors and legislatures have been wrestling with the decision of whether or not to sign up for ObamaCare’s significant expansion of government-run Medicaid.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that forcing the expansion of Medicaid (for states to restore coverage for low-income adults) is unconstitutional. Dr. Ben Carson (Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore), in his address and interviews, has spoken out against government-run ObamaCare.
Rich posted at 10:21 pm on Mon, Mar 4, 2013.
Dale,
If a sick child shows up at your office, you won't treat it unless we all pay? Hippocrates would be so proud!
sockratties posted at 7:07 pm on Mon, Mar 4, 2013.
If Arizona is receiving medicare funds from the federal trough, it is either being returned to Arizona with a federal bite out of it or coming from other states who need to fund their own needs, which puts us on their welfare list. In either case there is no argument for Washington to be involved and Arizona should have the pride and decency to take care of its own.
sockratties posted at 7:00 pm on Mon, Mar 4, 2013.
truth... so how is your comment about medicare?
sockratties posted at 6:58 pm on Mon, Mar 4, 2013.
The economy locally may improve but spending public money never improves the economic health of the country. It’s our money to start with. It’s like paying your kids to mow the lawn. Your lawn may look better but there is no more money in your household than you started out with. Medicare is a redistribution of taxpayer money. Jobs should not be the bait in the trap. The decision needs to rest on if or if not the medical result is worth the investment. Using borrowed money and a money absorbing bureaucracy to achieve anything is more expensive than paying up front without circulating tax money through Washington to get it back to Arizona.
truth posted at 4:06 pm on Mon, Mar 4, 2013.
The drop in inspections could make an outbreak of foodborne disease more likely, putting the public at risk, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general. An estimated 76 million people in the United States get sick every year with foodborne illness and 5,000 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ESCOLAR; THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS FISH
Nearly 60% of tuna sold at restaurants and grocery stores in the U.S. Is not tuna, a DNA study by a group oceana found. Most of the mislabeled tuna was in fact an extremely oily fish called escolar, known to cause diarrhea.
Escolar is the most controversial fish that you are likely to find in your fish market.
Where is the controversy in a buttery, delicious fish? I would say it is in the laxative like effect it has on a certain percentage of the population.
Some reports of Escolar related illness include cramping, nausea, diarrhea, the itis, and other abdominal pains.
Oily orange droplets pouring out of your pooper. Keriorrhoea occurs because the wax esters in the flesh of the fish pool up in your intestine. The same study found that red snapper was misrepresented 87% of the time. And the far right and tea party says we need less government.
Bluepoet posted at 1:22 pm on Mon, Mar 4, 2013.
Again, a group of doctors attributing this to Jan Brewer, who would have gleefully continued to kill AHCCCS, while insurance rates skyrocketed. I can understand why they would do so, however. To call it Obamacare, in this state, would be political suicide. Even the ineffectual, watered-down version of Obamacare (thanks to the Republicans, for that ineffectiveness, again!)
VofReason posted at 1:19 pm on Mon, Mar 4, 2013.
Just checking, but didn't AZ pay for 40% of the births that occured in the most recent year for those stats. Perhaps what we really need is a process to save people who don't know how to make decisions from making the most important decisions. Require that any woman of child bearing age accepting public assistance be on a consistant applied birth control like norplant.
valleynative posted at 1:05 pm on Mon, Mar 4, 2013.
I believe the argument that paying for preventative care reduces costs has been debunked, because people living on low incomes don't often take advantage of it.
Even if the office visit is free, it's still a nuisance for them to take the time and find the transportation to get to the doctor, so rather than seeing a physician for routine checkups, they wait until they're sick and go to the ER, since it's more convenient and they're not paying the extra cost.
The other arguments are still valid, with the understanding that the money coming to Arizona from the feds is actually coming from China, and our future generations.