Stephanie Armour
speaker
133 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2021
last heard Feb 2023
Stephanie Armour’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
The idea is to really test whether allowing people access to these benefits pays off in terms of lower health care costs long term.
That speaks to the research that we increasingly are seeing that is showing that there can be an impact on health and savings by reducing the medical visits or the need for medication or helping to control serious illnesses by using food to help with conditions.
For example, someone who is diabetic may be able to get a medically tailored meal to help with their diabetes.
Someone with a heart condition may be able to get a low-salt meal.
So budget-wise, some of the proponents feel like this could actually help governments save money in the long term.
Well, Medicare is a federal health insurance program that's generally for people who are 65 and older, whereas Medicaid is a federal and state program that gives health coverage to people who are generally lower income and disabled.
These are sort of test programs, if you will, that are being done in three states in Medicaid.
There is a push and interest in having this done in Medicare as well.
Whether that will happen, I don't know.
I know Congress has been looking at it.
There's also some interest among private insurers, the commercial market, in getting involved in some of these food as medicine programs.
It hasn't taken off to quite the same extent yet in the commercial market, but I think that's kind of why all eyes are on these states now that are trying this with Medicaid to see what happens.
Yeah, that's correct.
What you'll hear from some of the critics of this program is sort of feeling like this strays too far from the original intent of Medicaid and feeling like their point is kind of where do you draw the line?
What becomes a social determinant of health?
Could it be transportation, need for a car?
So their argument is that it's too slippery a slope, whereas their proponents say that the studies show that this clearly social needs are very much a part of someone's health as well.
This is something that I think has been fairly bipartisan among its support.
It's something that some GOP lawmakers have liked, one, because it allows for state control of Medicaid, but also because of the return on investment and the cost savings that some GOP lawmakers believe that they will see as well.
That's why you see this in Arkansas as well as Oregon.
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