The Move Is On to Cut Health System Costs

In a move that affects the bottom line of hospitals and pharmacies, Washington cuts more money from their Medicaid program.

This particular innovation may have more applications right across
America if the whole picture affecting the health system is taken into
account. It's not a national secret that the health system isn't
"healthy" and that it needs some serious revamping to make it over into
something that provides access to medical services for everyone. But,
that's another story.

This story deals with the operating budgets of hospitals and
pharmacies by directly affecting what they generate in revenues. The
State of Washington has done some budget slicing to their Medicaid
program that shaves hospital revenues by close to 4% and pharmacies
will be hit with a 2% budget cut. In other words, when a druggist
dispenses prescription drugs to Medicaid patients, they will be
getting, from now on, 2% less for those drugs.

This is billed as not only a cost saving measure to buck up the
system and make it more cost effective, but as an efficiency move with
an eye to cutting down on excesses in the health care structure. While
this move may sound a lot like the campaign promises of the current
president, there is still a long road to travel to make changes that
will boot the bloat from the system.

Washington has broader plans for cuts and trims that involve, among
other things, refusing to pay for as many C-sections and will insist
that more prescriptions be filled using generic drugs. While this may
ultimately spell economic disaster for Big Pharma, it is definitely a
step in the right direction to address out of control health care costs.

In another move that raised a few eyebrows, Washington also informed
Medicaid recipients they would also be paying more out-of-pocket
expenses for things like nutrition supplements and home-health devices.

The next question is how this approach would fly in other states.
This is a tough question to address, as each state has a different
approach to how the administer their Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Ultimately this will have to be a decision that each state takes based
on the merits of their existing administration, and political will.

Even though the health care system needs to be retooled in the worst
way, sadly, there are proponents who would rather avoid the major issue
of accessible health care for all because it would offend the big
private insurance lobby. Realistically speaking, unless the big
insurance monopoly is tackled, the cost of health insurance is going to
continue to rise, thus shutting out low income Americans.

To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.