I’ve been in touch with a member of Rep. Ryan’s staff about the odd citation on this paragraph about Medicaid in the Path to Prosperity proposal:
Because Medicaid’s reimbursement rates have been ratcheted down to below-market levels, the care that Medicaid patients receive is often substandard. Recent studies have indicated that Medicaid patients are more likely to die after coronary artery bypass surgery, less likely to get standard care for blocked heart arteries, and more likely to die from treatable cancer, than those with other coverage options. By some measures, such as in-hospital death rates following major surgeries, Medicaid patients fared even worse than the uninsured.
As you remember, this paragraph was a sore point for us, because it seems like it says that people are better off uninsured than on Medicaid. Rep. Ryan’s staff evidently made an honest error and forgot the correct citation (happens to the best of us), which they’ve now corrected on their website. (page 40) The correct source for this paragraph is, of course:
Gottlieb, Scott, M.D. “Medicaid Is Worse Than No Coverage at All.” The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2011
You already know what I think of that editorial.
However, I need to say I appreciate the efforts of Rep. Ryan’s staff to source their document properly and make the correction.
