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Summer Harrison
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Since April 2009 I've been blogging about the medical civil rights of children as well as adults with disabilities. As state budgets reacted to the larger economic picture, the rights of children with disabilities to remain at home with their families has been threatened by Medicaid budget cuts.
What has become obvious in the past two years is the extent of those cuts that are due to the privatization of Medicaid and Medicare: auctioning off state and federal contracts to for-profit corporations.
As of the first three months of 2011, more than $10 billion in Medicaid and Medicare funds are being paid out every month to companies more concerned with shareholders than policyholders. In the next five years, at the current rate of increase, this subsidy to the private health insurance could top $1 trillion.
There is little regulation and virtually no enforcement of minimum spending requirements. The top four companies already have a history of criminal Medicaid fraud, for reporting expenses bloated by up to 299%.
I also run an organization, the Children's Disability Rights Education Association. The website is directed towards providing practical information and advice to families and caregivers for children of all ages with disabilities to learn how best to secure their children's rights to medical care.
www.disabilitymom.blogspot.com
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