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Let's Drop Medicaid Stereotypes

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Gary Stein of Tampa, retired public health professional turned advocate for health reform, has written a column about the unfortunate stereotypes that some doctors (and others, including politicians) have about Medicaid patients.

The column, published in ContextFlorida and in Huffington Post, says too many leap to conclusions about  "couch potatoes and welfare queens" when they see Medicaid patients who have nice clothes or decent homes and who waste money on cigarettes or other vices.

Those assumptions may be off-base, Stein writes. Those patients may be new to Medicaid, having recently been laid off or retired, he says. And cigarettes? An addiction, not easy to quit.

Stein knows whereof he writes: He and his family rely on Medicaid, Medicare and a children's health insurance program for their health care.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.