24th
“It feels like a gamble with his health” reads a quote from today’s LA Times news article on how physcians in California will be accepting less patients who are insured with Medi-Cal.
For some of you non-california residents, Medi-Cal is medicaid in California and now the reimbursment rates for physicians are decreasing yet again. Thus, less physicians are willing to accept to see Medi-Cal patients.
What does this mean for being an adolescent or young adult (age 15-39)-you’re in between a rock and a hard place. Currently, Medi-Cal provides health coverage for over 6.5 million low-incomed individuals and familes. Medi-Cal covers 26% of the 10 million children under 19 in California.
In 1965 President Johnson signed Medicaid into law on July 30, creating Title XIX of the Social Security Act, almost 43 years later, have we made the impact that we had hoped to make? I would say yes of course we have in terms of treatments, but when the general population (40+ million uninsured), lack that access or cannot afford health care, then we must go back and assess how we can build a strong country that values the health of its citizens and their education before anything else.
Thomas Jefferson observed that without health there is no happiness, and called for the government to give highest priority to the health of citizenry. I believe that against the back drop of potentially exciting prospect for health gains, there still exist disparities. Such inequities prevent reassurances that the advancement we strive to discover extend throughout the entire population.
The question I pose is, what would you do to change it?
Ali Ansary is an AYA Cancer Advocate. He is a co-author for the SeventyK Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patient’s Bill of Rights.
To Contribute to our blog, please email us at contact@seventyk.org
