Doctor says people needing care should 'abandon the island' after Puerto Rico’s medical system crippled by #Maria https://t.co/ArQdxwM9Xy pic.twitter.com/8a1xYEjiTv
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) September 25, 2017
Roughly half of everyone living in Puerto Rico has health insurance through Medicaid. Medicaid is obligated to pay for medically necessary care in an emergency even if the hospital is not in the provider network. The doctor in this clip is making a recommendation that anyone who needs significant care and whose family can find a way to get them off the island to go to the mainland.
I grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts. There was a large Puerto Rican population there. I would be shocked if some of the kids I grew up with are not talking with their siblings and their cousins about ways to get a family member to Lowell General Hospital for treatment next week. Those same discussions have to be occurring all over America. And these are the discussions that are best for the families involved.
However, it will drain the already inadequate Puerto Rican Medicaid block grant as some of the potential medical evacuees will be insured via Medicaid and when they present their cards to mainland hospitals, the care will be medically necessary and unavailable in Puerto Rico. The prices that will be charged will be far higher than the prices hospitals on the island charge to Medicaid. So each given unit of service will be a more expensive unit of service and a higher proportion of the fixed budget of the Medicaid program.
Block grants don’t work when there is a large shock that needs an immediate response.
Medicaid and emergent care under block grantsPost + Comments (29)