Gov’t-Run Health Care Death Sentence in AZ: No More Liver Transplants for Hep-C Patients
“Significant fiscal challenges” will eliminate other benefits for adults
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Arizona’s Medicaid agency will no longer cover some non-experimental organ transplants for its adult members, including liver transplants for patients with Hepatitis C, a move blasted as “a death sentence” by one patient advocacy group.
Medicaid is a federally subsidized, state-administered health-care program for low-income people. Some Medicaid benefits are mandated by the federal government, with states choosing to cover additional benefits.
The federal government spent $275.4 billion on Medicaid in fiscal 2010 and $451.1 billion on Medicare, for a total of $726.5 billion on these two government health-care programs, according to the Office of Management and Budget. By contrast, the federal government spent $692 billion on the U.S. Defense Department in fiscal 2010.
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