(Columbia) Aug. 16, 2005 - Medicaid may be changing drastically based on a proposal that is currently under consideration.

The governor says the program needs to save money, but advocates say sick people will get sicker if these changes go through.

Lexington resident Susan Swails suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic illnesses. She's on Medicaid, and that helps her and her wallet, "Medicaid has been real good for me. It helps me get my medicine and if I have to go to the hospital, I can go in."

Medicaid provides health care for people with low incomes, the elderly and disabled. The state and federal government share the cost.

Now, South Carolina is proposing changes to the Medicaid system that would affect one million Medicaid residents, although not children.

Instead of unlimited care, adults would get a personal health account with a specific amount of money in it for them to buy health care plans in the market place.

Susan Bowling of the Department of Health and Human Services says, "Managed care plans, medical home plans, preferred provider organizations, Blue Cross, ETNA, we want to push the plans out, instead of us trying to administer a health insurance program for almost one million individuals."

Bowling is the deputy of medical services for the state. She says the proposed changes are to control future growth rate for Medicaid over the next decade, "We do not want to short change anybody, what we're trying to do is to improve the delivery system today to hopefully avoid having to make some cuts to services or eligibles in the next several years."

Swails fears she'll go over the set amount in her personal account and will have to fork out more money for health care, "It can't be that much money and my medicines would probably be over $1,000 a month, and that's a lot of money to me."

Bowling explains part of the plan, "We're going to contract with enrollment counselors, and one of the first steps that they will take is to conduct a health assessment. Based on this health assessment, they will then have the knowledge of all the plans we have available. They will meet and discuss the plans with the beneficiaries, and help them to choose a plan that would best meet their needs."

The federal government will look at the proposed changes and will send back recommendations.

About 75 people attended an NAACP hearing on the changes Tuesday night. It's the first of several hearings the civil rights group plans to make people aware of the changes to the state-federal health insurance program for some 850,000 poor and disabled people in South Carolina.

The group has not formally accepted or rejected the plan, but South Carolina chapter president Lonnie Randolph said a decision could come in several weeks.

Some at the hearing were angry they weren't told about the changes until recently. The NAACP said it hadn't heard about the proposal until recent newspaper articles and several black legislators, too, said they weren't informed.

Blacks account for 417,000 of the state's Medicaid participants and about 240,000 of those beneficiaries are children.

State Health and Human Services Director Robert Kerr says the state is still early in the process and he wants to hear from people.

Reported by Lucas McFadden with AP

Posted 6:25pm by Chantelle Janelle