Should Medicaid (welfare) pay for facelifts? Should Medicaid pay for cosmetic breast augmentation? Most of you reading this would answer, “no…are you kidding?!” Well, you’ll be glad to know that currently Medicaid doesn’t pay for these procedures. But there are some medical procedures they do pay for that cost the taxpayers of the state a lot of money and are…well….unnecessary.
How about epidural anesthesia so the birth of the Medicaid patient’s baby is wonderfully painless? Should Medicaid be paying for this? I think about the days when I did OB anesthesia and saw the 19 year old unmarried girl having their third child insisting on a labor epidural so that the experience would be painless (not tolerable, but painless).
Why not have these patients pay for this out of their own pocket (if they can’t afford it, their family can pool their funds for this luxury)? This would save the state a lot of money and the anesthesiologists in the state would be wildly in favor of this. Whenever I hear that it is difficult to come up with ideas for budget cuts here in the state I wonder just how much thought is given to the extent to which money is wasted on things like this.
Maybe Medicaid doesn’t pay for breast augmentation, but it has paid for breast-REDUCTION surgery in Oklahoma. Not to mention condoms, vasectomies, and nursing-home care for millionaires who are shrewd enough to shelter their assets and income.
Last week my heroic wife gave birth for the fifth time without an epidural. But it warms my heart to know I have the privilege of paying for unmarried welfare recipients to have epidurals.
Comment by Brandon Dutcher — July 12, 2011 @ 2:22 am
Mises said (I am paraphrasing) “…that which is subsidized proliferates. That which is taxed is destroyed.” Maybe this applies to healthcare…..DUH! Pretty common sense stuff…thx for your comment…best to you and your new addition.
Comment by surgerycenterok — July 12, 2011 @ 1:24 pm
Correction: The breast-reduction surgery was for a teenager in an Oklahoma juvenile detention facility; it was taxpayer dollars but I’m not sure if it was Medicaid.
Another idea is to levy a $50 fee on Medicaid patients who refuse to quit smoking. This idea is popular with Oklahoma voters: http://soonerpoll.com/medicaid-smoker-fees-popular-with-oklahoma-voters/
Comment by Brandon Dutcher — July 13, 2011 @ 6:35 pm
The only answer is to abolish Medicaid. As long as that system exists, little or no accountability exists in maintaining one’s health. It should not surprise us that we get more illness when we subsidize it. We get more illegitimacy when we subsidize it. We even get more illiteracy when we subsidize it. Public schools almost always get more money when they are awful.
I’m convinced that Medicaid doesn’t exist for the benefit of the poor. It exists for the benefit of those who have figured out a way to get rich from this corrupt system.
Comment by surgerycenterok — July 13, 2011 @ 6:49 pm