Bush administration targets medical care for the poor

[madison2000]

WSWS : News & Analysis : North America
US: Bush administration targets medical care for the poor
By Jamie Chapman
31 December 2004

The federal government has dispatched auditors to state capitals around the country in an effort to rein in the cost of Medicaid, the program designed to provide medical coverage for the poor. The program also pays for about 70 percent of the nation’s nursing home patients.

The cost of the program is shared between the states and the federal government. The purpose of the audits is to challenge reimbursements put in by the states for the federal share of treatments.

Such an attempt to shift a larger share of Medicaid costs onto the states would wreak havoc on those denied Medicaid services as a result. Budgets for state services are still reeling from the impact of the recession and the collapse of the stock market bubble.

Enacted in 1965, Medicaid established the right of those with low incomes to obtain basic medical care, including hospital care (inpatient and outpatient), physician services and nursing home care. It was among the last social reforms carried out at the end of the postwar boom, along with Medicare, a government program to provide health care to the elderly.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/dec2004/medi-d31.shtml

[camby]

1. Well, HELL - they gotta pay for the war and all those tax cuts

and the money has to come from SOMEWHERE....Let's squeeze some blood out of that Medicaid turnip - those folks don't have a political voice anyway. Too bad, so sad.

[madison2000]

2. Huckabee quote

Speaking of Bush’s plan to shift billions of Medicaid costs away from the federal government and onto the states, one governor, Republican Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, described it in the following terms: “To balance the federal budget off the backs of the poorest people in the country is simply unacceptable. You don’t pull the feeding tubes from people. You don’t pull the wheelchair out from under the child with muscular dystrophy.”

[noamnety]

5. Huckabee has a lot to learn, I guess

He appears to be uninformed about Republican Values.

[madison2000]

6. Tough being a Republican governor of a state that

needs those "socialist" programs so badly!
He "gets" that his state won't be able to afford to take care of its own.

[noamnety]

8. begs the question

If he's a republican, does he really care about the people affected, or is he just sweating it out because screwing over those people could affect his chances of reelection?

I know that's a snarky thing to say, but I ask it seriously, what does he think the republicans stand for at this point? He has to know that's exactly how they plan to balance the budget, on the backs of the poorest, and by pulling feeding tubes.

[ananda]

7. They will do anything..

"You don’t pull the feeding tubes from people. You don’t pull the wheelchair out from under the child with muscular dystrophy.”

No human would do that... but the GOP rightwingers have lost their humanity and -they- would.

Also, look at the cognitive dissonance between the way Americans view the declining debacle in Iraq and the tsunami disaster in Asia.

The worst are full of passionate intensity, while the best lack all conviction... and the poor and the oppressed are .. basically.. silent and inactive. Well, the problem is, where else are they going to go? Mexico or Latin America? Not hardly. Canada? Not welcome and not feasible. Overseas? Not doable and, even if it were, only Europe is liveable.

America has had a vested interest in keeping many countries in the ME, Africa, and Asia operating under oppressive governments and a divided, poor populace. That way American businesses and corporate interests could exploit these governments, use the cheap or slave labor, and sell arms to all sides in any internal or external conflicts. Another side effect is that this policy has brought immigrants to our shores, and they are mostly silent and politically inactive for two reasons: one, they cannot go anywhere else and wouldn't want to even if they could .. and two, they are effectively marginilized, exploited, and invisibilized by those entrenched groups in America that have evolved out of greed and a slave-owning or robber-baron society that they wish to return to.

The rich are getting richer here in America. Life is very good for them. Greed and slavery are working for them... and they don't really have to look at the dregs they leave behind, the struggling poor, the immigrants, the suffering debt-ridden middle class now losing more and more in job security, wages, and benefits.

I don't think this kind of inhumanity can last that long, though, simply because it is inhuman and harms so many. Eventually, everyone will suffer, including the rich and the exclusive rightwing elites. Only then will things begin to change, but my deep concern is that it will be too late to repair all the damage to the environment and formerly protected lands, forests, and ecosystems.

Sue

[rodeodance]

3. the money paid these auditors-hotel and food bills etc would be better

spent giving to homeless shelters or charities!!

[The Zanti Regent]

11. but Jesus will take care of the needy!

That is the same stupid garbage I hear from my family all the time...

[madrchsod]

4. i guess i`ll just fuck`n die

when i stop working. or if i need a nursing home i guess i`ll score some junk and shoot my way to heaven. "the future is so bright i`ve got to wear shades"

[Skittles]

9. compassionate Christians

:puke:

[proudbluestater]

10. Here's the sad thing. They will cut care for those really destitute,

but Medicare will continue to buy "scooters" for the elderly who are totally able to walk. I detest seeing that Scooter Store ad on tv late nights, guaranteeing that medicare will cover it. When the Boomers retire there will be 0 left, but the folks today get all the Scooters they want. /rant off.

[CatholicEdHead]

12. Still drop in bucket

The scooter cost is sitll a drop in a bucket. Compare a scooter price versus many things in healthcare and the scooter costs are relitivly small.