Quoting from the article (since the link doesn't seem to take you directly to it!):
PHOENIX — Arizona’s cash-strapped Medicaid program is considering charging patients $50 a year if they smoke, have diabetes or are overweight.
Monica Coury, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, says the tax is intended to push patients to take better care of themselves. The fee would only apply to childless unmarried adults. One part of the proposal affects people with diabetes. Coury says diabetes patients who fail to follow their doctor’s orders to lose weight would be subjected to the $50 charge.
State Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Phoenix says it isn’t fair to charge diabetics $50. Sinema says the fee fines people who may have medical conditions beyond their control. AP
Copyright 2011 Associated Press.
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I live in AZ.
ReplyDeleteIt's a financial disaster. People are losing homes left and right -- not people who just bought an extravagant house, but hardworking people who have lost jobs or suffered paycuts and can no longer afford to keep a roof over their head.
My husband is a state employee...steep paycuts and furloughs haunt our family.
Great. Make the poor pay $50 a year. How is THAT going to be enforced?
For goodness sake...it just never ends.