Health Care Payments with Food Stamps? Good Idea?

A good idea? Anything that helps bring down the cost of medical care is a good idea so not give it a try? Well, the best of ideas always have to be evaluated to see how the people that are thinking this up can benefit by it's implementation.

The old adage that 'there is no good idea that can't be wrecked by a politican' will find a use here.

National Center for Political Anaylsis
There are currently 60 million participants in the Food Stamp program (SNAP), all low-income shoppers who can enter any supermarket in America and buy almost anything the facility has to offer. They do so by either trading their government vouchers for a limited amount of low-cost, essential goods or by supplementing their own cash with the vouchers to buy higher-cost goods. Every good is bought at market price, ensuring that supermarkets cover the costs necessary to stay in business.

Unfortunately, we don't allow Medicaid enrollees the same privilege. Basic health services provided by MinuteClinics cost more than twice as much as Medicaid pays. Because Medicaid alone would not cover health costs, most MinuteClinics refuse to accept Medicaid. Low-income families who want to receive basic health services must pay full price instead - a price most of them can't afford (they are on Medicaid after all). If low-income families were allowed to supplement Medicaid with $30-$50 of their own money, MinuteClinics would happily accept both Medicaid and cash to cover the costs of providing health services. In one fell swoop we could make high-quality care available to millions of people.