HEALTH - Medicare / Medicaid Disconnect

"Fixing the disconnect between Medicare and Medicaid to serve the most vulnerable Americans" PBS NewsHour 6/27/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Next, another in our ongoing series about long-term care.

Providing that care at a reasonable cost, especially for low-income Americans and those who are elderly or who have disabilities, has long been a challenge.

The state of California is trying to tackle that problem, as special correspondent Kathleen McCleery reports.

KATHLEEN MCCLEERY (NewsHour):  Eighty-five-year-old Lydia Cornell has diabetes, congestive heart failure, and has suffered multiple strokes.  She lives with her daughter, Elsa, who cares for her and manages her medical problems.

ELSA MALIWAT:  My mom sees like four different doctors, like her primary physician, who manages her diabetes, and then a cardiologist, because my mom had two strokes already.  She also sees a nephrologist now because she’s been a longtime diabetic, as well as a podiatrist.

KATHLEEN McCLEERY:  After her husband died, Cornell exhausted her financial resources.  Her low income allows her to receive Medicaid.  California calls it Medi-Cal.  And she gets Medicare too.

She’s one of more than a million Californians and nine million Americans who qualify for both.  It’s an especially vulnerable group, says attorney and longtime consumer advocate Greg Knoll, CEO of the Legal Aid Society in San Diego.