Iowa Governor Says State Won’t Need To Offset Medicaid Managed Care Firms’ Losses
Gov. Terry Branstad says the three companies were prepared to lose money in the initial stages of the new program. Also, an in-depth look at the difficulties former inmates have finding Medicaid coverage and a study examines the wide disparities in Medicaid coverage for addiction treatment.
Des Moines Register:
Medicaid Firms Won't Need Big Raises To Make Up For Losses, Branstad Says
Private Medicaid-management firms shouldn’t need large infusions of extra taxpayer money to make up for the hundreds of millions of dollars they’re losing in Iowa, Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday. “They recognized that in the start-up, there would be some losses. But they’re in it for the long term, and they’ve done it in many other states,” the governor told reporters at his weekly news conference in Des Moines. Branstad last year pushed through a controversial shift to private management of the $4 billion health-care program for more than 500,000 poor or disabled Iowans. (Leys, 12/5)
Kaiser Health News:
Signed Out Of Prison But Not Signed Up For Insurance, Inmates Fall Prey To Ills
Before he went to prison, Ernest killed his 2-year-old daughter in the grip of a psychotic delusion. When the Indiana Department of Correction released him in 2015, he was terrified something awful might happen again. He had to see a doctor. He had only a month’s worth of pills to control his delusions and mania. He was desperate for insurance coverage. But the state failed to enroll him in Medicaid, although under the Affordable Care Act Indiana had expanded the health insurance program, making most ex-inmates eligible. Left to navigate an unwieldy bureaucracy on his own, he came within days of running out of the pills that ground him in reality. (Hancock and Schwartzapfel, 12/6)
Related earlier KHN/NPR coverage: Helping Ex-Inmates Stay Out Of The ER Brings Multiple Benefits
Kaiser Health News:
Medicaid Coverage For Addiction Treatment Varies Dramatically
When Ashley Hurteau, 32, was arrested in 2015, she faced a list of charges for crimes she committed to finance a drug craving she had struggled with for more than a decade. “I wasn’t using it to get high,” she said. “I was using it to survive.” Homeless, uninsured and addicted to heroin, Hurteau, a New Hampshire resident, had tried and failed to get help. Services came at a price she couldn’t afford. (Heredia Rodriguez, 12/6)
