Medicare: How about help across state lines

It is indeed "outrageous that millions of the poorest people in the country will be denied health insurance because of decisions made mostly by Republican governors and legislatures." (A Population Betrayed. New York Times, October 4, 2013: A30).

However there may be something that we can do about it. Perhaps Massachusetts which will face the fewest demands under Obamacare could rewrite its regulations for Medicaid eligibility so that those denied insurance through Medicaid in say Tennessee would be eligible for Medicaid in Massachusetts.

This would be relatively simple to manage at a distance, all that Massachusetts would be providing is insurance. Care would still be provided in Tennessee and providers would have to conform to the Tennessee standards.

This generosity would cost Massachusetts nothing as the Federal Government would be paying the additional Medicare costs (at least for the first three years, and by then Tennessee and the other non-expansion states might have seen the error of heir ways).

As an experiment in being good neighbors, this would be well worth doing.


Sent to New York Times