The Tribune is to be highly commended for its in-depth study of the Medicaid system in Illinois. How regrettable it is that a humane program begun some 30 years ago to assist the poor medically has grown to be such a corrupt system today, abused by users and practitioners alike.
The study is timely for what it will contribute to the national debate on health insurance for all Americans.
As you indicate in your final article, solutions to Illinois’ programs are not easy nor inexpensive to implement, but couldn’t one of the more flagrant abuses be easily and inexpensively reduced right away? I’m thinking of the practice of some who consult several doctors at a time in the hope of getting prescriptions which they then sell on the street for profit.
I believe that people at the University of Illinois made the suggestion that a Medicaid card be issued which would record each visit to a doctor. This would stop, or at least slow down, multiple visits and save substantial amounts of money for doctor and pharmaceutical fees.
I urge all who have read your series on Medicaid and are as concerned and outraged as I am with its poor management to write Gov. Edgar and their representatives in Springfield and insist that corrective action be taken. Too many other programs, such as public education and the funding of the state retirement system, are short-changed fiscally so as to feed the Medicaid monster.
