Karely Ordaz Section104

Letters to the Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

(415) 777-7100

Dear Editor:

It is extremely important that there is a well-defined federal Medicaid law that provides little room for interpretation. The law should clearly state the lowest reimbursement rates that states can adopt and must say whether third parties can object to those rates. This will limit confusion. Next, it is crucial to reflect upon the consequences that the reduction of reimbursement rates may have on patients. Considering that 43% of Medicaid expenditures go to the low income disabled means that they will be more susceptible to care exclusions. Being less attractive to providers, the low income disabled will face many challenges when seeking basic health services. Finally, it is essential to consider the reasons why California chose to reduce Medicaid reimbursement rates. It seems likely that this was done to reduce costs. In the long-run, this short term goal will fail to save costs because relatively the number of individuals joining Medicaid is increasing meaning that overall costs will inevitably go up. Rather than cutting reimbursement rates, California should look for other ways to reduce cost.

Sincerely,

Karely Ordaz

1231 40^th Avenue

Oakland, CA 94601

kordaz09@berkeley.edu

(510) 927-1292

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/03/state/n005719D03.DTL