Asset test bars 900 kids from CHIP (TX health care program)

[Rose Siding]

AUSTIN – Texas' new wealth restrictions for poor families caused nearly 900 low-income children to be denied health care in the rules' first two months, according to the state.
...
Under the new rule, as families apply for CHIP or come up for renewal each six months, they are supposed to be denied coverage if their incomes exceed 150 percent of the federal poverty level ($23,505 for a family of three) and they own more than $5,000 in specified assets.

Some educational and retirement savings are exempt, but affected families can't have more than $5,000 in cash or in checking or savings accounts. Their first car can't be worth more than $15,000, and any other cars they own can't exceed $4,650 in value.

State Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, a House health care policy writer, has said CHIP families with expensive vehicles ought "to save money by obtaining more affordable transportation."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/socialservices/stories/113004dntexchip.2297c.html

[Occulus]

1. The party of property rights

punishing those who own property, a small thing they can be proud of. Family of three? Mom, dad, and a kid, Dad and two kids, mom and two kids? Get them to school in your rickshaw, O undeserving serfs!

:puke:

[rainbow4321]

4. Collin County..anything over $2,328/YEAR is considered wealthy

If you make ANY MORE than that, you are not eligible for indigent healthcare. And yes, this is a repuke red county..one of the top three in TX.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3025494


In June, he spent seven days in a McKinney hospital after a near-fatal highway accident. When Wright, who was uninsured, applied for county help to pay more than $50,000 in doctor and hospital bills, he found that Texas' wealthiest county — home to sprawling new houses, luxury stores and corporate campuses — gives little to help the poor in need of medical care.

"They said I made too much," said Wright, who would have to have earned less than $2,328 a year to qualify for indigent health care in Collin County.

Social workers in Plano, and Dallas County officials who say their public hospital is losing millions of dollars a year handling patients streaming in from their northern neighbor, have recently begun putting heat on Collin County to open its wallet and its heart.
But the county's fiscal conservatism has thus far proved to be an immovable force. "They brag they haven't spent taxpayer money on this in 20 years," said Pam Kaus, health care coordinator for Collin County Interfaith. The group, which has been vocal on the issue, was rebuffed in 2003 when it sought county money to open a clinic.

Beyond that, county officials handed him a list of 31 documents he was required to supply with his application, including canceled rent checks, automobile registrations, savings and checking account statements, and a reference list. "Every time I'd hand one thing in, they'd ask for another," Wright said. "They even asked for my dad's W-2s. He's a truck driver."

[Mystified]

5. Is that a typo?

Should that be $2,328 a month, rather than a year?

[happyslug]

6. No that is a year

Even in my home state of Pennsylvania the limits as to income are similar.

Asset Limits: Transitionary Aid to Needy Families (TANF): $2000
General Assistance (GA): $250

Income Limit per month: $468-$579 (Depending on which county you live in).
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/055/chapter183/chap183toc.html

[rainbow4321]

7. NOPE..it is per YEAR...

Hence the outrage of some of the people in Collin County who want to help the indigent as well as the Parkland Hospital officials in Dallas County who have to foot the bill for non-county residents.
Ok..Collin County has no county hospital. So when the poor need healthcare, they go down to Dallas County's county hospital, Parkland.
Parkland, in turn, treats them and then tries to go to Collin County and says 'we treated your indigent, pay us for their care". Collin County tells them "but in our eyes/definitions, they are NOT indigent". So Dallas County has to get THEIR taxpayers to foot the bill. As long as Collin County keeps it's definition of indigent at
2,328 a year, they will never have to pay..and they, as you can see from the article, are pretty damn proud of it. In contrast, Dallas County's definition of being indigent is like in the $30,000/year range.
What really ticks Dallas County off is that Collin County is one of the richest counties in the STATE..so to have them suddenly get stingy with the indigent care is really beyond belief.

[Ilsa]

8. I think that is where

the revolution should begin. Yep. Collin County, home of affluent asswipes.

[displacedtexan]

2. Newer cars are easier to finance these days. Zero down & all.

Older cars-- you usually have to pay cash.

What a crock!

These people are soooooo out of touch with reality.

What about the cost of rent, the cost of food & clothing, the cost of school supplies and fees, the cost of health care (when your only option is a Doc In The Box?

$23K goes out the door really fast, folks!

[rainbow4321]

3. "wealth restrictions for poor families"

This has to be a phrase shrub invented as gov...no one else could be this friggin' stupid. On second thought, we have a shitload of shrub wanna-be's down here who all came from the same shallow gene pool..so it could have come from any of the state lawmakers.