Dr. Alieta Eck
By Alieta Eck, M.D.
A Star Ledger headline reads: “ObamaCare fuels applicant boom for NJ Medicaid—Advocate hails 35% increase in October.” Almost 22,000 new applications were filed in October, up from 16,000 in September. Is this a triumph? Was a 990-page law needed to accomplish this? The taxpayers will have to fork over $5,000 per applicant to a Medicaid HMO—that’s $110 million—and what will the patients get?
I am a physician who volunteers at the Zarephath Health Center, a non-government charity clinic in central NJ, where volunteers care for the poor and uninsured. We see Medicaid patients who cannot find a Medicaid doctor. The other day I saw a 35-year-old mother with severe asthma. She is on Medicaid and had gone to the emergency room a few days earlier. She was instructed to find a physician for follow-up treatment. Unable to find a doctor who takes Medicaid, she was welcomed at our clinic. I saw her, spent time hearing her story, and was happy to give her prescriptions to keep her asthma in check.
The next day she returned with the odd complaint that no pharmacy would fill her prescriptions. Since I had not enrolled as a “non-billing Medicaid provider,” the pharmacies were told they would not be paid if they filled my prescriptions. I have a license, am board certified in internal medicine, and pay each year to keep my controlled-substances licenses updated, so why would they not honor my prescriptions?
When the patient called the Medicaid office, they instructed her to go back to the emergency room to get her prescriptions rewritten there—presumably copied by a physician enrolled in the program. Why would the Medicaid program deny her the medicines she needed? One would think they would appreciate the fact that a doctor was willing to see and care for her without costing the system anything. But apparently this is not how a bloated bureaucracy works.
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Posted: December 3rd, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: Alieta Eck, Health Care, ObamaCare | Tags: Dr. Alieta Eck, Medicaid, ObamaCare | 6 Comments »
Governor Chris Christie’s post-election attempt to replace Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr with Senator Kevin O’Toole was not a matter of Christie doing Senate President Steve Sweeney’s bidding, as has been widely perceived, but the culmination of a months long battle over differing strategies over how to wage the legislative campaign.
That Christie was unable to persuade Senate Republicans to dump Kean as their leader in favor of O’Toole was viewed by the media and political observers as a shocking act of defiance of the governor by the caucus viewed as obedient followers. But insiders say the united Republican front portrayed to the public masked an ongoing dispute between Kean’s and Christie’s political teams that resulted in Christie’s landslide reelection yielding no pick up of seats in the Senate.
Early on in the campaign, the Christie campaign concluded winning a majority in the State Senate, picking up 5 seats, was unlikely given the legislative map and the resources that South Jersey Democrats and their Independent Expenditure supporters were known to be deploying to defend their turf. Team Christie devised a strategy of winning a “functional majority,” by winning three Senate seats…District 14 (Middlesex and Mercer Counties) where former Senator Peter Inverso came out of retirement in an attempt to unseat Democrat Linda Greenstein, District 18 (Middlesex County), gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono’s district where East Brunswick Mayor David Stahl switched parties to run as a Republican against Assemblyman Peter Barnes, and District 38 (Bergen County) where businessman/educator Fernando Alonso was out to defeat Democratic Senator Bob Gordon…and courting policy friendly Democrats…Senators Brian Stack and Sandra Cunningham of Hudson County…to deliver the 20th and 21st votes for a majority when needed during Christie’s second term.
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Posted: December 3rd, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2013 Election, NJ Senate Republicans | Tags: 2013 Election, Chris Christie, NJ Legislature, NJ Senate Republicans, NJ State Senate, Tom Kean JR | 4 Comments »
Governor Chris Christie will hold his first Statehouse press conference since being reelected at 1:45 this afternoon. According to the announcement from his press office, he will be announcing personnel changes in his administration and taking questions from the press corps.
View the press conference live here:
Posted: December 2nd, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Chris Christie, Christie Administration | Tags: Governor Chris Christie, Governor Chris Christie Press Conference | Comments Off on Christie To Announce Personnel Changes
With Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal and Republican strategist Steve Some.
Posted: November 30th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: NJ Media, NJNewsCommons, NJTV, Vin Gopal | Tags: Mary Alice Williams, NJ TV, Steve Some, Vin Gopal | Comments Off on Black Friday Political Roundtable on NJ TV
Obama predicts US will see woman president ‘very soon’ (via
AFP)
A woman in the White House? President Barack Obama says that will happen “very soon,” according to remarks released Friday. “We have some amazing female [public] servants all across the country and there is no doubt that sometime very soon, we’re going…
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Posted: November 30th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton | 3 Comments »
Desperately-needed food, water, clothing and other supplies are being rushed to Typhoon Haiyan survivors in the Philippines. But as weeks turn into months, perhaps what the hundreds of thousands left homeless will need most is hope.
Superstorm Sandy survivors are uniquely positioned to give that hope, since they understand what it is like to see your community devastated in the blink of an eye. By writing a simple letter sharing concern and encouragement and mailing it to “Rebirth for the Philippines,” schools, churches, scout troops and other organizations as well as individuals can let the Filipino people know they are not forgotten. Children who can’t write can draw pictures. What is important is to do something to brighten the lives of the survivors and reassure them that they are not alone.
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Posted: November 29th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Kathleen Koch, Typhoon Haiyan | Tags: Kathleen Koch, Project Rebirth, Rebirth for The Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan | Comments Off on Rebirth for The Philippines
Congressman Chris Smith and Monmouth County Shaun Golden prepared to survey Hurricane Sandy damage. file photo
Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ4) announced that FEMA will be reimbursing the Borough of Belmar and the South Monmouth Regional Sewerage Authority (SMRSA) 90%, instead of the standard 75%, of the cost of repairs to infrastructure damaged by Superstorm Sandy. Belmar is slated to receive $1.74 million for repairs to marina buildings, bridges, docks and other facilities, in addition to the $9 million already granted for their boardwalk replacement. SMRSA will receive $2.083 million to relocate and replace a pump station.
“As someone who has been going to Belmar since I was a young boy, I can easily envision how these improvements will change the Belmar waterfront which was nearly unrecognizable to me when I first saw it days after Superstorm Sandy hit,” said Smith. “Boardwalks and marina facilities are the critical for many Jersey Shore towns and rebuilding them and restoring them is essential to recovery.”
The Belmar grant will help fund nine construction sites, four of which are completed and the others underway.
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Posted: November 28th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Belmar, Chris Smith, FEMA, Superstorm Sandy | Tags: Belmar, Congressman Chris Smith, FEMA, SMRSA, Southern Monmouth Regional Sewerage Authority, Superstorm Sandy | 7 Comments »
