This blog post is from the Healthcare Action Committee formed during our first meeting. For information on how to get involved with them, e-mail azagainsttrumpagenda@gmail.com or comment on this blog post.

I want to urge all of you to send a email to Arizona’s Medicaid Agency to

publicinput@azahcccs.gov. The Governor desires to take all able bodied adults off the

rolls of Medicaid/AHCCCS. There is an estimated 700,00 people this could effect. He

also wants to punish Medicaid recipients monetarily if they go to the E.R. If the

Governor does this it will mean an increase of the uninsured and uncompensated care.

Since Medicaid expansion uncompensated care has decreased greatly, and

Arizona is one of the leading states for growth in healthcare. Hospitals and clinics are

building. A local clinic has hired 300 people in the last 3 years and will employ more in

the near future, it is clinics like this that will keep people out of the ER, not monetary

punishment. Revenue is up for the state, because healthcare dollars are spent in the

community and taxes are collected.

I have worked in the trenches of healthcare in Arizona and I experienced this

when the State of Arizona removed childless adults form AHCCCS and decided that

the ER was the back up system for them. There was a great increase in uncompensated

care resulting from that. Healthcare is starting to make gains after Medicaid expansion

but the Governor wants to go backwards. Medicaid works and we need to tell our

government to expand and improve Medicaid, our voices need to be heard. If the

Governor makes these changes much will be lost.

The open period for public input ends February 28th. Your voice will be heard in

this forum. There are recent articles in the Arizona Republic, that discuss what the

Governor wants to do and what the results of these changes would be. I encourage all

of you to get involved, make a difference and make your voices heard.

Arizona Medicaid Agency @ publicinput@azahcccs.gov

By William Bayless