Some desperate patients went to court in Hamilton County Monday, begging a judge for help.
They say the state won’t let them see their longtime doctors anymore.
The patients are so sick, they’re in the state’s Medicaid program for the aged, blind and disabled.
They’ve sued to keep their Health Alliance doctors and hospitals after the state’s Medicaid provider, Buckeye Insurance, dropped the Health Alliance in April.
Buckeye says the patients can go to new doctors and hospitals.
But patients like Steven Reece and Hillary Phillips say they haven’t been able to find new doctors – or equal care.
That’s why the’re sitting in court asking Judge Robert Winkler to at least give them some temporary relief so they can see their doctors until the suit is settled.
That’s what the hearing was about on Monday, legal wrangling between the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and the Legal Aid Society representing the patients.
But in the end, no answers for the patients.
“I just want to know why. How can they do this to us?,” asked Hillary Phillips, a Medicaid patient. “We’re the blind and disabled. How can they argue over a few bucks? Does that make it okay to kill lives?”
Again, Buckeye and the state say the patients do have other medical options. The judge says he’ll rule as soon as next week.
We’ll let you know what he decides.
