"Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better." ~Peter F. Drucker
Dear Governor Cuomo:
Send your Medicaid Redesign Team (committee) packing and preparing for their new diet. It's reported, "Every year it's the 800-pound gorilla of the state budget, soaking up money that could be used for tax cuts to make our economy competitive, or for expanding health-care coverage, or for improving education—or for all that, and more. Medicaid is also the major component in county property taxes—and New York's excess property tax burden, now about 62 percent above the national average per capita."
I've copied a comparison of various State's Medicaid Expenditures per person served for 2008. The present numbers are much higher, but the comparison remains. Note that very progressive States with large urban centers have much lower per person expenses. Read the data and then the solution which follows.
Medicaid Cost Per Person Served, 1998
(Red States less than half New York's cost)
New York ~ $8,961
California $2,386,
Washington $2,563
Oregon $3,652
Virginia $3,740
Florida $3,607
Texas $4,419
Illinois $4,435
Delaware $4,440
Michigan $4,494
Ohio $5,346
Massachusetts $6,870
Wisconsin $5,457
Pennsylvania $5,808
New Jersey $6,856
Rhode Island $6,603
Is there less compassion for the poor in California, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, or Washington? No need to reinvent the wheel or waste time drafting new laws and regulations, just copy them from California or Illinois or Michigan or Oregon or Virginia or even, Texas. Watch the Medicaid costs be cut in half, local property taxes fall and state budget be easier to balance.
Cuomo's choice: "Do or not do There is no try" ~ Yoda
or "Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel." ~John Quinton
