Medicaid & Food

Medicaid has finally woken up and decided that if you have a waiver to get food in pilot programs you're actually gonna be able to feed a lot of people more healthy foods. And I applaud what they've done. So far you've got Arkansas, Oregon, and Massachusetts who have done this Medicaid for groceries. And now New Mexico, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maine are getting waiver requests that give money for nutrition support. See, I think that this is a great way to change behaviors and combat obesity. 

Sally: Yes, I think this is wonderful. And yes, seeing New Mexico, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maine joining those other states that are already doing this is great. And hopefully we'll see more. We are seeing a lot of studies coming out right now showing that if we help with food security and help people gain access to fresh, nutritious foods, that our healthcare costs go down. In fact, there's a study recently that we've talked about, Phil, about diabetics and about how, if they are provided with a box of fresh food each week that they can consume healthily that their medication costs are actually going down. 

Phil: Yeah, it's a great step in the right direction. Changing behavior.