It’s time for all the disability rights, children’s rights, elder rights, waiting list rights, civil rights and human rights communities to realize that many of the cuts we’re seeing in our Medicaid and Medicare programs aren’t because of budget cuts, but because our state has auctioned off part of its program to a for-profit HMO.
Ten of these companies alone get state and federal subsidies totaling around $11 billion every month. They routinely “save” twenty-to-fifty percent of that towards profits. They “save” it by denying long-standing prescriptions, cutting home care services, forgetting to tell people what services they are entitled to, and “cherry-picking” customers on the basis of profitability.
They also save it by fraudulently inflating reported costs as much as 299%. The White House rewarded this particular company (Wellcare) by promising never to call them criminals, and never to take this non-criminal past into consideration when awarding them future contracts.
According to these companies’ latest filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), another 1.5 million Americans are about to join the 14 million who have already had control over life-and-death Medicaid decisions sold to these for-profit HMOs.
At the same time, the Administration seems to be unravelling fifty years of civil rights legislation. Everyone on Medicaid could lose their right to the protections of federal law, if the Supreme Court takes seriously an Administration-backed amicus brief submitted in May. Proposed regulations for Medicaid access support state supremacy and the government’s promise of hands-off keeping track of how $11 billion a month (now and growing) of taxpayer money is being spent. Or even if it’s being spent at all, since at least seventy percent of enrollees will be exempt from federal survey.
As recently as August 5, the White House delivered another blow to Medicaid rights by telling states how to sell-off their Medicaid programs while avoiding Obama’s previous federal Medicaid regulations.
My daughter Hannah’s life was auctioned off to one of these companies in February 2009. It has been a constant battle since then to protect her life, and her civil right to live at home with me. The two companies who split Hawaii’s contract for the “aged, blind and disabled” population have both been caught stealing from Medicaid funds in other states. An undisclosed increase in the premiums paid by Hawaii last summer propelled one of them from an operating profit a year ago of 16.5% up to a current figure of (at least) 19.9%.
Adding insult to injury, these companies are using this generous federal subsidy to out-perform the S&P 500 by as much as 23-30%. Last May, Moody’s even went so far as to announce that ratings would now include how much a company was able to not spend of premiums received.
I’ve started a petition to our members of Congress to stop allowing Medicaid and Medicare to be sold to for-profit companies. Taxpayer money for public health care should not be saved towards corporate profits, and our most vulnerable population should not have to suffer so these companies can boost shareholder earnings.
I would also like to hear from caregivers and families who are experiencing Medicaid service cuts. I have a survey that will provide some insight into the types of services that are being cut, and the formal Medicaid entities (state, non-profit or for-profit) that are behind the cuts.
Throughout American history, every minority has been able to gain its civil rights by speaking up for itself. The community of children, the elderly, and people of all ages with disabilities in many cases cannot do so. Please consider lending them your voice by signing our petition, and helping us get the word out to others.
