I had stated in my last post I would begin sharing information from
the recent conference I attended on Medicaid Health Policy in Washington
DC. This conference was very informative and gave me quite a good deal of
information.
Medicaid is a much used program all across our nation. It is funded with
Federal and State dollars, in Missouri this comes to quite a huge portion of
our state’s budget every year. This portion of the budget continues to
grow each and every year. The question is how to meet the needs of the
citizens that are receiving these benefits while also trying to make the best
use of the limited funds that we have available. We also must consider
the ever growing list of citizens whom are applying for assistance from the
Medicaid program. I have no answer for this situation at this time but at
least I do understand the situation better from a policy standpoint.
I am concerned about the current administration of our Medicaid system. I am
still looking at the past few years of legislation that impacted Medicaid and
made changes. As a nurse I have had patients that applied for Medicaid
but by the time a response was received it was too late. I cannot begin
to tell you how many calls I receive each week due to the constituent applying
for Medicaid but not receiving a timely response.
After attending this conference, as well as several teleconferences and
webinars, I feel strongly that Medicaid’s administration/structure must be
addressed first. If the structure is so that the system cannot function
in an effective and efficient manner, it will do no good to add more money or
people to the system, it would in fact, make the situation worse for all those
involved.
HB 11, in this past legislative session, included a component that will hopefully
address this through a task force. I am hopeful that if I am not included
on this team as a member I will at least be able to be an active participant
through attending and listening to the meetings and talking with the team
members. I will keep you posted on this issue as I continue to learn
more.
Long Term Care in Missouri
I am also preparing for the beginning of a series of brainstorming
sessions that I will host at the Capitol in regards to the Long Term Care
situation in Missouri. This issue is a related one to Medicaid but has
several other contributing factors to it as well. The first meeting will
be in August and we will begin looking at where Long Term Care is and begin
outlining where we would like to see Long Term Care in Missouri. Care of
our elderly is very important. How we treat our young, old and
defenseless citizens shows very clearly what type of people and society we
have. I want this to be a great picture of who we are as
Missourians. If you have any input that you would like to share, please
do not hesitate to contact me, my email is tila.hubrecht@house.mo.gov.
