"A Ludicrous Delay"

Few people speak as intelligently and pointedly about NC policy issues as Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy Watch.

So we're going to let him speak for himself about the latest atrocities in the unfolding Medicaid story. Excerpts quoted below; you can read the full story at the Fitzsimon Files:

Lawmakers slashed $356 million from the Medicaid budget in the current fiscal year, and another 407 million next year. State Medicaid dollars are matched two to one by the federal government so the cuts take a total of more than $2 billion dollars out of the program.

That funding not only supports tens of thousands of jobs in the health care industry, it pays for services to children, seniors, pregnant women, people with a disability, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other vulnerable populations.

Republicans didn’t slash many specific Medicaid programs and services. They were too politically smart to do that. Instead they ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to come up with the savings—even if that means slashing vital services.....

State officials say almost everything is on the table, like no longer providing prosthetics to people who lose an arm or leg, ending dental services for seniors, even stopping prescription drug coverage.

The more you hear, the worse it sounds. Doctors could only prescribe life-saving medication for people living with HIV/AIDS after prior authorization, a ludicrous delay since the patient literally needs the drugs to survive.

As the North Carolina AIDS Action Network points out, a recent multinational study led by researchers at UNC found that early drug treatment for HIV/AIDS patients reduces transmission rates as much as 96 percent.

Nobody should need some additional authorization to prevent more people from being infected with HIV or to help people stay alive who are living with the disease.

And state officials shouldn’t have to make it harder for people with Multiple Sclerosis to see a doctor or even remotely consider denying an artificial limb to a woman who loses an arm or leg.

They shouldn’t have to, but they do because of the draconian and heartless budget the Republicans approved.

They ought to be ashamed.