Fox News' Medical A Team doctor Marc Siegel blasts Medicaid patients as opioid abusers who are milking the system by using covered services and refusing to work because Medicaid is so damn generous.
This is what Trump meant by not wanting to cut Medicaid?
Fox News rolled out another quack doctor from their Medical A-Team on "Fox and Friends" to attack Medicaid services that the elderly and poor rely on for the health care needs.
The GOP and Trump never ran on Medicaid reform cuts, but making health care cheaper and tremendously better than Obamacare....
but listening to Siegel you'd never know that.
Reviewing the Senate healthcare bill, it translates into a destruction of Medicaid with the caveat of giving the wealthy massive tax cuts.
Co-host Bran Kilmeade defended the draconian Senate bill by saying "Medicaid reform must be a top priority - what needs to be done?"
Dr. Siegel jumped right in with a prepared opening monologue, "No disincentive for overuse. No co-pays. No deductibles. In states that have the Medicaid expansion, emergency room visits are up by nine percent."
He continued, "Now, hospitals like that, because patients that used to be uninsured now have their Medicaid card, but they're flocking into the ERs to get services they don't often need. Did you know, Brian, that 15 percent of Medicaid patients are prescribed an opioid every year? Now, that's the doctor's fault for over-prescribing, but Medicaid allows doctors to over-prescribe. And that's one of the secret stories that we're breaking right now, is that the opioid epidemic is tied to Medicaid as an enabler. Doctors are the problem. Medicaid is enabling it."
And what's Siegel's suggestion to fix it all?
Cut the program to the bone because what medical services do the elderly and poor actually need, amirite? I mean they are high on drugs all day anyway.
Siegel, "Well, I'd scale it back to basic services. What does a person really need? Look, there's a lot of disabled patients, a lot of children that are on Medicaid. There's people that -- really poor people really need Medicaid. But do they need a wheelchair every two years? I don't think so. I want to scale back the excess."
Hey Doctor Seigel, have you ever SEEN a child? Keeping them in the same wheelchair for over two years is the equivalent of keeping them in the same SHOES. Kids outgrow their wheelchairs and padding setups for that equipment. Two years is generous to the TAXPAYER, not the patient.
Kilmeade asked, "What does that mean? I'm sorry, can you tell me, what does that mean? Premium buy-ins?
Siegel replied, "And have you some income -- OK? -- we're talking about the Medicaid expansion states. Then you can pay a premium to get more than you would just freely be given. And, also, we need bridge-to-jobs programs in the Medicaid expansion states because people that don't have jobs, Brian, get their Medicaid card, and they say, "I don't want to give it up. I don't want to give up that Medicaid because I can't afford to take that job. I won't get as good of health care."
The elderly on fixed incomes and those hovering around the poverty lines can BUY extra Medicaid coverage. Wow, free markets rule once again! And they can pay for it by the massive amounts of money they've stowed away all year in those lovely health savings accounts too.
If you're careful, a person can stretch 18 - $20,000 dollars a year to all sorts of heights. Just stop eating.
