As I understand it the biggest problem is growth in the numbers of persons on MediCal and the lack of the state being willing to spend more to accommodate them while the feds cut back the entire Medicaid budget by billions leaving the states to fend for themselves - Marta
On Apr 17, 2006, at 1:37 PM, Jim Devine wrote:
> the big problem in California, as I understand it, is not all the
> languages as much as the small budget for MediCal -- compared to the
> generally steep rise in medical costs.
>
> On 4/17/06, Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 17, 2006, at 11:15 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>> Marta Russell wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Not in my neighborhood. They are middle age people. "On balance in
>> contributing to the fisc" doesn't really mean anything to me. I
>> see the
>> consequences of an overburdened system all around here. The
>> emergency rooms
>> are overrun with non english speaking legals or illegals. The
>> public health
>> care system is shutting down in LA. Emergency rooms are closing.
>> What
>> emergency rooms remain open require 12 hour+ waits to see a
>> doctor. My
>> disabled friends suffer because there are so many people on
>> MediCal that
>> they have cut doctor pay down to next to nothing and they don't
>> get decent
>> service. Its a bottom of the barrel thing. I don't care what the
>> national
>> stats say. What is happening on the ground here is real.
>>
>> Ok, then it's your observation vs. more than 20 years of extensive
>> survey
>> and interview research into Mexican immigration by the sociologist
>> Douglas
>> Massey.
>>
>> Doug
>>
>> When people start seeing the state spending tens of thousands of
>> dollars
>> printing every Medi-Cal notice in 21 different languages, even the
>> most left
>> in the disability community are alarmed by what this portends.
>> One person
>> I know who has spent her life dedicated to homeless and legal
>> services said,
>> I get this notice from MediCal in all these languages and I can't
>> even get
>> my teeth fixed. So there is certainly a clash. And how would you
>> feel if
>> you couldn't get your teeth fixed because the system is loaded
>> down so much
>> that they cut dental benefits?
>>
>> Marta
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence
> of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles
>
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