Utah Medicaid made an announcement today that they will cut the supplemental coverage of Part B therapies (physical, occupational, speech, physician services)on November 1st of this year. The result? Thousands of Utah's elderly will not receive the therapy they need in nursing homes all over the state--meaning more falls, more injuries, more bedsores, and more contractures (frozen joints). This is not only a recipe for increased costs due to injuries and conditions associated with neglect--but it's a recipe for increased sorrow, pain, and depression among our state's most vulnerable population. Those who made this decision should understand the devastating consequences of these cuts. And they should immediately make changes to protect our elderly.

I am a Physical Therapist who works in nursing homes. I have seen first hand the horrible effects on great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers in nursing homes who are denied therapies like these.

10 Years??!!! Zehn Jahre??!!! Dix ans??!!!

Are you kidding? This is the best argument yet for radical healthcare change at the Federal level and to follow European models that have effectively delivered government-secured healthcare to their citizens.

I would rather pay the government 60% in taxes and get guaranteed healthcare, than pay 100% of my household income for health insurance premiums alone - that is if I could even get a policy that did not eliminate everything as a pre-existing condition.

Of course the current system is complex - that's part of the problem. The solution needs to be much simpler and much, much sooner.

On September 28 of 2004 Kenneth Cooper MD spoke at a forum at Brigham Young University. The title of his talke was: How to increase the odds for a life time of good health and reduce the cost of health care.
He compared the cost of health care in the United States and Costa Rica. He stated that in the United States we pay approximately 4,800 dollars per person for health care and in Costa Rica they pay approximately 300 hundred dollars per person for healh care. And yet the average life expectancy in both countries is 77 years. It is obvious that throwing more money at a problem is not always the solution. If people would change their life styles ie: eating healthier, exercising, and reducing stress in their lives, maybe the quality of their life would improve.

Why are these health care reform organizations fitted with tunnel vision? They are focusing on the wrong end of health. We need laws a regulations regulalting what amounts to highway robbery by hospitals, clinics, and pharmacutical companies. It's no wonder health care insurance is so costly and not the only factor in who is responsible for excessive health care cost. Mandating a national health care insurance will do nothing to control costs, it will only feed the industry charging excessive prices for services. The IHC'c and HMO's and health care clinics is why health care cost so much and insurance only follows the excessive cost being charged. These study panels must open their eyes and target the real culprits profiteering off of the sick and injured. A national insurance program would be a never ending and sprialing out of control cost feeding the excesses in the industry. It will do nothing to improve health care. To have a truely sane and reasonable health care system all health care services must be nationalized and under government control, otherwise it will just be a never ending escalating tax burden. Force businesses to participate in health care insurance cost for all employees.

Bob G -- how can you possibly be the expert you claim to be on every political or economic issue this paper writes about? I suspect you're just *very* opinionated and not really expert at all.