Colorado Medicaid experience (Denver, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction: low income, health insurance, lawyer)

[DrDog]

Are you on Medicaid and if so, what has been your experience? Pros, cons, costs?

[Colorado Rambler]

Why do you ask?

[DrDog]

I guess nobody that posts here is on Medicaid?

[2bindenver]

Costs for patients great.

Time to get appointments terrible. A friend told me she set a first appointment with an endo for May 2019. I told her she can get insulin from Walmart without a rx

[WoundedSpirit]

I was on it for several years when living in Colorado. The hardest part was getting it. They kept denying me saying I made too much even though there were two of us living on one income (SSDI). I finally got help through legal aid, and was approved for long term because I am disabled. Medicaid never even mentioned this option until a lawyer got involved.

Once I finally had it, it was great. Paid for all my co-pays, drugs, and durable medical equipment, some home-based assistance. I think it helped that I also had Medicare through Kaiser. I never had to wait very long for an appointment, and I had several specialists.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by DrDog

Are you on Medicaid and if so, what has been your experience? Pros, cons, costs?

I now have Medicaid/Medicare, and I'd say Medicaid saved my life. I ran through all my savings trying to pay medical bills when I became disabled 15 years ago. I had applied for SSDI, but in my case it took 5 years to get approved - in part because I didn't have complete medical work-ups because I couldn't afford them - Catch 22! At the time I was still living in Colorado Springs which had a low income medical clinic, but back then the wait list was TWO YEARS. I kid you not.

I ended up living in the tiny town of Nucla here on the Western Slope and they had better medical care than Colorado Springs did. I qualified for treatment at the rural medical clinic in Norwood and St Mary's in Grand Junction. When my SSDI (along with Medicaid) came through, I was able to get treatment from specialists in the Springs as well as University Hospital in Denver. Good thing because I was at the end of my rope in more ways than one.

The biggest problem I've had with Medicaid here in the Four Corners is that it has been very difficult to find a primary care doc who will accept Medicaid. We've had several primary care providers here in the Four Corners suddenly retire within months of one another leaving a large number of patients to scramble for care. I don't know if this is a state wide problem or just an on-going problem in the more rural areas of Colorado.

Oddly enough, I've never had a problem finding a specialist who accepts Medicaid - even way out here in the middle of nowhere. When the Medicaid expansion came along one of the things that improved was access to dental care. Prior to this, dental was not covered and many lower income folks had to go without. Now Medicaid provides $1,000/year toward dental care and I can now get some much needed dental work done. Thank you people of Colorado!

Medicaid has its problems - what health care program doesn't? But it does allow low income folks to get medical care on a regular basis rather than resorting to the ER which is very expensive and doesn't provide long term treatment for those who need it. I for one am glad that the Medicaid program exists.

[DrDog]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

I now have Medicaid/Medicare, and I'd say Medicaid saved my life. I ran through all my savings trying to pay medical bills when I became disabled 15 years ago. I had applied for SSDI, but in my case it took 5 years to get approved - in part because I didn't have complete medical work-ups because I couldn't afford them - Catch 22! At the time I was still living in Colorado Springs which had a low income medical clinic, but back then the wait list was TWO YEARS. I kid you not.

I ended up living in the tiny town of Nucla here on the Western Slope and they had better medical care than Colorado Springs did. I qualified for treatment at the rural medical clinic in Norwood and St Mary's in Grand Junction. When my SSDI (along with Medicaid) came through, I was able to get treatment from specialists in the Springs as well as University Hospital in Denver. Good thing because I was at the end of my rope in more ways than one.

The biggest problem I've had with Medicaid here in the Four Corners is that it has been very difficult to find a primary care doc who will accept Medicaid. We've had several primary care providers here in the Four Corners suddenly retire within months of one another leaving a large number of patients to scramble for care. I don't know if this is a state wide problem or just an on-going problem in the more rural areas of Colorado.

Oddly enough, I've never had a problem finding a specialist who accepts Medicaid - even way out here in the middle of nowhere. When the Medicaid expansion came along one of the things that improved was access to dental care. Prior to this, dental was not covered and many lower income folks had to go without. Now Medicaid provides $1,000/year toward dental care and I can now get some much needed dental work done. Thank you people of Colorado!

Medicaid has its problems - what health care program doesn't? But it does allow low income folks to get medical care on a regular basis rather than resorting to the ER which is very expensive and doesn't provide long term treatment for those who need it. I for one am glad that the Medicaid program exists.

Thanks for the informative responses.

I work in healthcare and see a lot of Medicaid patients come to the ER or Urgent care with very minor problems, chronic problems, and dental problems, none of which warrant ER/UC use. This costs taxpayers a lot and I wonder why Medicaid patients do this. The possible reasons I came up with were:
1. They can’t get primary care providers to take Medicaid.
2. They’re not smart enough to know what an urgent medical problem is.
3. They’re just lazy, and since care is free, why not just go to the UC/ER.

I’m really hoping it’s #1, but some interactions indicate otherwise.

[Colorado Rambler]

I can't even remember the last time I went to the ER, but I can envision myself going under certain scenarios because I currently don't have a primary care doc. My old doctor was wonderful and could generally see his patients the same day they called if they were really sick and/or in pain. Now a person in my town has to call the clinic and often must wait 2 or 3 or 4 days or more to get in to see someone. So, I can see where such folks might use the ER instead. Medicaid really needs to do a better job of reimbursing primary care providers. It is extremely frustrating to go down the list of doctors who theoretically take Medicaid only to discover that this one is not accepting new patients, that one has a six month wait list and so on.

Recently I got a letter from Colorado Medicaid informing me that I could find a primary care provider via their online database. I went to the website as instructed and typed in my search. Back came the names of doctors in Shiprock, NM, Chinle, AZ, and Blanding, Utah. All these MD's were with the Indian Health Service which a white girl like me doesn't qualify for. I also got the names of doctors out of Montrose and Grand Junction - a pretty far trip from Cortez.

So there are some good reasons that Medicaid patients may be showing up in your ER.

One of the major reasons I want to move back to the Springs is to have access to better healthcare. Alas, the rents in the Springs have become nearly as bad as the ones in a resort town, so I am completely stymied. Even the most intelligent person can only do so much under the current system.

[Vision67]

Our American Health care system is seriously broken.

My hope is that the younger generation will become politically active enough to fix it.

I've traveled the world and I've experienced other counties where their health care systems actually work for all citizens.

If we wanted to fix our system, we could actually do it.

"I have a Dream" MLK

[DrDog]

Originally Posted by Vision67

Our American Health care system is seriously broken.

My hope is that the younger generation will become politically active enough to fix it.

I've traveled the world and I've experienced other counties where their health care systems actually work for all citizens.

If we wanted to fix our system, we could actually do it.

"I have a Dream" MLK

I don’t see it ever getting fixed. The overuse of the system by those that get free care shows me that universal healthcare would go bankrupt immediately. I routinely see patients on Medicaid that are healthy yet have 10 or so ER/UC visits per year. Do the math.

Ironically, I think it would someone like Trump to fix healthcare. I can’t see any other politician shutting down health insurance, big pharma, and all the other middle men that would have to go for universal healthcare to be affordable.