Medicaid is a growing part of the health care industry, as more people have enrolled due to the tough economy. The Affordable Care Act, which became law in 2010, will also expand eligibility for this program.
What is Medicaid?
Medicaid is a health insurance program for low-income people, pregnant women, children, and people with certain disabilities. The program is administered at the state level, so specific rules governing who is eligible vary from state to state. The cost of providing treatment is shared between the state government and the federal government. The federal government has a formula for the amount of funding that it will match for each state.
What are the advantages?
Medicaid provides a safety net for people who are unable to afford health care by themselves. Because of the high costs of both health care and health insurance, the lowest income people would be shut out of the system due to cost. This offers a government-subsidized way to solve the problem.
What are the drawbacks?
One of the downsides of Medicaid is lack of access to care. Due to the relatively low reimbursement rates, many doctors do not accept new patients. A Medicaid physician directory is a helpful resource in locating doctors who are willing to see new patients.
Treating diabetes
Diabetes is a very common problem among patients, and doctors who treat Medicaid patients are usually very well versed in treatment options for diabetes, which will vary depending on what stage of diabetes a patient has. Some early cases can be managed with changes to diet and exercise, while more advance cases require medication and monitoring.
Diabetes occurs when people are no longer able to properly breakdown sugars in their bodies. Eventually, most diabetics will require insulin injections to help manage the sugar levels in their blood. However, there are numerous oral medications that can extend the time period before insulin becomes necessary. There are also new types of insulin available that are longer-lasting. Traditionally insulin injections occur very frequently, making the disease hard to manage from a patient's perspective. New advances in medicine have made it easier to control the variation in blood sugar over time.
A new advance in the field of diabetes management has been continuous blood sugar monitoring. Diabetes is dangerous, and potentially fatal, if blood sugar levels get either too high or too low. Traditionally, a diabetic has had to take blood samples frequently to monitor sugar levels. However, new devices do this continuously, without the need for painfully sticking fingers with needles to get blood samples.
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