Study: Sanders' economic plan piles $18T on federal debt

[Chan790]

104. Ever been on Medicaid?

It's not that great.

It's free insurance that 95% of medical professionals won't accept, it often requires insane amounts of hoop jumping (need an MRI? You've got to get an x-ray first so they can determine that the x-ray isn't diagnostic...even where the x-ray couldn't possibly be diagnostic. (e.g. soft-tissue spinal injuries)), the wait times to see even a run-of-the-mill specialist can be extreme. (I know someone that had to wait 6 months to see a ENT for chronic sinus infection because the ENT doctor only saw Medicaid patients on Mondays in the afternoon and he was the only ENT covered...ENTs aren't even uncommon; I'd imagine the impact on prognosis would be severe if you had to wait for an oncologist, endocrinologist or rare-disease specialist.)

Even with the expansion of Medicaid...nobody wants to be subjected to Medicaid; you get what you pay for. I actually advised someone this year to lie and report a higher income (by about $4000) so they could qualify into the exchange (and pay for insurance) and out of Medicaid (free!) because they really need better care than they will get out of Medicaid.