Shut Out of Healthcare After Katrina
Many hurricane victims don't qualify for aid if
their insurance coverage vanished with their jobs.
Like most of those whose lives were upended by Hurricane Katrina, 52-year-old school bus driver Emanuel Wilson can thank the federal government for the fact that he has money to pay rent. He's also been given food stamps to make sure he can buy groceries. And if he had young children, the government would almost certainly be helping them get back to school.
But what Wilson needs is chemotherapy, and that is something the government seems unable to help him with. Wilson was being treated with monthly chemo injections for his intestinal cancer before the hurricane.
He has been denied assistance largely because, before the storm, he had what the government says it wants every American to have: health insurance.
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Under the present rules for Katrina victims, if you are destitute, the government will pay your medical bills. Ditto if you are severely disabled or have children. But if you're an adult who had a job that included health benefits and you lost that job because of the storm, the government can't seem to help.
That's true even if, as with Wilson, there is every prospect that you can get your old job back as soon as things begin returning to normal.
"I went to Medicaid, and the lady I talked to let me know that Medicaid is mostly if you're disabled or pregnant," said Wilson, who fled New Orleans to Baton Rouge, La. "I don't want to become disabled, and I don't think I can become pregnant, so that leaves me out in the cold."
Wilson can't reinstate his health insurance — which expires at the end of this month — because the storm wiped out his job. The government says he doesn't fall into any of the rigid eligibility categories for federally sponsored Medicaid.
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In the Senate, a bipartisan bill would open Medicaid — the federal program created to serve the needy — for tens of thousands of displaced people like Wilson for up to 10 months. The Bush administration opposes that, saying it would create a major new entitlement.
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While Washington debates, Wilson's chances of getting the chemotherapy he needs from local medical providers may be slim, because much of the private and public financing for Louisiana's healthcare system is drying up. Businesses shut down by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita don't generate income to pay for employee health plans or state tax revenue to support public programs. Not only patients, but healthcare providers, face a precarious future.
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In the Senate, a $9-billion bill with bipartisan support would help cover costs of healthcare in Louisiana, Mississippi and parts of Alabama. Childless adults with low incomes — like Wilson — could get Medicaid. Subsidies would help others maintain private coverage. Hospitals and other facilities could tap into an $800-million fund for hurricane costs.
But opposition by the administration has stalled the legislation. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said it would establish "a massive new federal program" and "a new Medicaid entitlement."
Bureaucrats and politicians always worry more about paperwork than need.
Posted: Sun - October 9, 2005 at 11:25 AM