Your expose on Medicaid (“Storefront Medicine”, Oct. 31) describes many of the pitfalls of the program that have been well-known to the medical profession for many years.
The true culprit is the Medicaid program itself, that makes it impossible for any honest physician to practice medicine through the program. Only by fraudulent means can a participant earn a living; Medicaid payments are invariably delayed and denials of charges by the state, for the flimsiest of reasons, are the rule. Maybe this is the only way by which limited resources available can be stretched out, but it makes it impossible for anybody to plan or cover his expenses.
The point, however, at a time when the Clintons are attempting to reform the health industry, is the implicit philosophy that a universal coverage cannot be taken away. The fact that the public at large may feel entitled to receive full care creates the same expectations and thus the same opportunities for abuse that the Medicaid program has created.
Without some sense of responsibility on the part of the individual patient, the demands for drugs and services will go ad infinitum, and the expense for universal coverage will increase ad infinitum as well.
