NY Times on West Virginia’s personal responsibility approach to Medicaid. This approach should be universal:
Ignoring doctors’ orders may now start exacting a new price among West Virginia’s Medicaid recipients. Under a reorganized schedule of aid, the state, hoping for savings over time, plans to reward “responsible” patients with significant extra benefits or — as critics describe it — punish those who do not join weight-loss or antismoking programs, or who miss too many appointments, by denying important services.
This guy doesn’t look too happy about it:
“I told them I eat what I want to eat and the hell with them.”
“I’ve been smoking for 50 years — why should I stop now?” he added for good measure. “This is supposed to be a free world.”
