Do states have a constitutional right to set health care policy?

No

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by Roberto Alvarez-Galloso

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When the government plays the role of a health care surrogate, it is usually a recipe for disaster. While people are talking about Universal Health Care versus Private Health Care, it should be remembered that we have a semi private health care regulated by the government.

We do not have to go far to see Medicare and Medicaid as part of the regulations by government. Medicare and Medicaid started with good intentions. Medicare was the Federally Funded program that covered people who were 65 years of age and over as well as those with End Stage Renal Disease. Medicare also covered disability.

Medicaid was the joint Federal and State Program which helped the indigenous until they were able to find health insurance. While the State may have good intentions with these and similar programs, we have been witness to the fact that the Patient Physician Relationship has been eroded by over regulation by the state and its allies in the bureaucracy, lobbies, and insurance companies.

An example of how the state can ruin health care policy is in Tennessee. Tennessee has the Tenn Care program which was created as an alternative to the traditional Medicaid Program. It had a great start and was going to help those that could not help themselves in matters of health.

Tenn Care started to run into trouble with the politicians, citizens, and insurance companies abusing and milking the system. It arrived at a point where there was an FBI Operation called the Tennessee Waltz which managed to arrest those involved in abuse of Tenn Care.

Governor Bredesen of Tennessee almost abolished Tenn Care in order to revert to traditional Medicaid but was forced to back down after a strike inside the State's Capitol. While most of the problems surrounding Tenn Care have been resolved, WBIR [an NBC Affiliate in Tennessee] announced the arrest of an Alabama Woman named Vicky Hookey for Tenn Care Fraud. It appears that Ms. Hookey claimed to live in Tennessee when she is a resident of Alabama.

In the process of all of the soap opera charades of Tenn Care, it was the patient that suffered because of the state setting up a health care policy instead of leaving health care to the patient and the Physician.

While there have been some exceptions such as the success of the Dirigo Health Program in Maine, many states have had to deal with excessive bureaucracy, lobbyists, and the insurance companies when it comes to health care policy. The majority of times, this has lead to the patient losing his or her battle for better health.

It must be remembered that the bureaucrats, lobbyists, and insurance companies may have employees who have never set foot in Medical School or any other Schools where Health Care is taught. The interests of the bureaucrats, lobbyists, and insurance companies is only to acquire money for themselves and to give to the state what the state wants.

There have been some exceptions to the rule such as the Health Care Program in the Commonwealth of Kentucky called KY Health Choices. KY Health Care is one of the few programs in the United States of America that assigns responsibility to the beneficiary. There is the requirement to be responsible for payments based on an income based sliding fee scale.

KY health Choices also provides incentives for those who engage in preventive behavior such as smoking cessation and weight loss programs. The program is also uses practices that have functioned in the private sector to develop programs for mental and physical health.

Reference:

htt p://www.ncsl.org/pro grams/health/kymedic aid.htm

http://www.wb ir.com/news/local/st ory.aspx?storyid=770 09

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