Be smart with Medicaid

Cutting Medicaid costs, especially at the emergency room, is a poor choice for our health care system. While expenses do run high, the choice of saving money over human health will only worsen the problem.

As Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jeff Collins says, “You’re asking patients without primary care doctors to self-diagnose.”

I think this is where the problem starts. There wouldn’t be a surplus of patients at the ER if they had an option to see a primary care doctor first, especially because two-thirds of the Medicaid patients are children.

While budget cuts are necessary, the $300 million cut needs to be balanced. Instead of Medicaid only paying for three nonemergency visits to the ER, maybe they should include three visits to a primary care doctor as well. I think Collins has a great idea of setting up initial screenings to help filter where patients should go. Then they can build a network of doctors, each specifying to a group of specific needs. This way the number of patients at the ER will be reduced.

This plan may stretch the budget initially, but in the long run it will save money and, more importantly, lives.

Alison Owens

Cheney