News - May 12, 2016 - by Ray Hagar

Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson, D-Reno, said Thursday she will push to increase Medicaid payments to doctors at the 2017 Nevada Legislature.

Benitez-Thompson said Thursday on the Nevada Newsmakers TV program that currently, few doctors in Nevada will care for Medicaid patients because the reimbursement rates are too low.
"We absolutely need to do something about Medicaid funding and the dollars that are going to our Medicaid physicians," Benitez-Thompson said. "Right now, we have a critical shortage of physicians in Nevada, in general. But we also have a critical shortage of physicians who will take Medicaid patients.

Medicaid is a federal government program, financed by federal, state and local funds, to care for the medical and hospitalization needs of those in poverty.
"So you might have a Medicaid card but if you need to see a cardiologist ... please call me if you have found a cardiologist in town who will take Medicaid," she said. "When it comes to these specialists, it is almost impossible to find someone who will take Medicaid and that has a lot to do with our reimbursement rate for providers."

Increasing the Medicaid payouts to doctors could also help in attracting new doctors to the state, she said. Benitez-Thompson also predicted health care will be a big topic for the 2017 Legislature.
"One of the biggest issues we are going to be talking about is health care," she said.

Benitez-Thompson could be a power player during the health care debate at the 2017 Legislature.
If Democrats regain the majority in the Assembly, Benitez-Thompson could become chairwoman of the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services or even the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which controls the purse strings in the lower house.

Benitez-Thompson chaired the Assembly Government Affairs Committee during the 2013 Legislature when Democrats held the Assembly majority. In 2015, the licensed social worker was a key member of the Health and Human Services Committee, although Republicans held the majority.

First elected in 2010, the former Miss Nevada will be entering her fourth regular session, putting her into the top half of the Assembly in terms of experience. The 2010 election produced a number of Hispanic Democrats in the Assembly who have retained their seats, such as Benitez-Thompson, Irene Bustamante-Adams, Olivia Diaz and Richard Carillo.

Benitez-Thompson was also critical of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as 'Obamacare," for it's expensive deductible rates that families and individuals must pay before insurance reimbursement kicks in.
"You see new types of health care policies that are coming out that are so burdensome on working families, where there is no co-pay and you are straight out of pocket until you hit your deductible," she said."So you just better plan for that $6,000 or if you have a family -- $12,000 -- as an expense every year.

"We've got to fix health care and we've got to curb the costs," Benitez-Thompson said. "Is the (Obamacare) policy working the way that we thought it necessarily would? Not exactly."
Although Benitez-Thompson was critical of Obamacare, she praised President Obama for reviving the economy since his election in 2008.

"I, as an individual, feel that I am in a much better place than when he first assumed the role as president," she said. "You look back and I don't think there's an argument that we are better off economically -- that the individual family, especially the middle class family -- is in a much better situation than they were eight years ago."