[Vision2020] Health care {insurance} reform passed

Love America skialaska0 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 24 18:17:13 PDT 2010


A lot of you are missing the point of why states need to stop certain
aspects of the new health care law...
Look at FY08 Medicaid spending in Idaho... $369,000,000 for around 220,000
residents or around $1670 per person.  Under the new law* everyone* who is
Medicaid eligible will be required to go on Medicaid.   A quick glance at
the number of people in Idaho reveals that around 450,000 residents fit the
new guidelines...The entire budget of the university system was $399 million
in FY08.  So double the amount of money the state is forced to spend
and what is left for the state to do?   Shut down the entire university
system?  Double state income and sales taxes?  Just about every state has a
severe budget crisis now, how in the heck does each state handle doubling
the number of residents on Medicaid??? Idaho, Alaska, Arizona, etc. is not
going to get more funds from the federal government to cover Medicaid.

Then add in that Medicaid sucks, you have no real choice of doctors, they
decide your treatment plans and options, they can deny "expensive"
medications, many states drug test those who receive Medicaid, other add in
the insult of throwing in various child protective service requirements.  It
is clear that members of both political parties consider those to be
on Medicaid to be drugged out child beaters since we all know poor folks are
evil...Once the poor in this country realize how shafted they are under this
new system maybe they will complain...but I doubt it.   Have any of you
actually read the new law?  Please read it, ignore the commentators and
politicians and news outlets, just read it and realize what we have just
done as a nation.  It is scary.   If we really want government health care
lets just do it right and adopt Canada's plan....

On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com> wrote:

> Donovan --
>
> I just took a look at those numbers again (they didn't look right) and
> found that I made a mistake in my back-of-the-envelope corrections.
>
> At a 3% rate of inflation, the family of two you described comes out over
> the 133%-of-poverty threshold, making her (based on her unmodified gross
> income) ineligible for Medicaid. Interestingly, she makes $184 dollars over
> the poorest possible individual that might have have to pay for insurance.
> This indicates that whomever you're relying on for your numbers invented her
> as the poorest possible person to have to pay for health care, receiving the
> lowest possible subsidy.
>
> Unfortunately, however, while the health care bill eliminates certain
> exemptions for modified gross income (like child-care) for eligibility
> purposes, it includes an unconditional exemption equal to 5% of the poverty
> line, or a little over $750 in 2014 dollars. Consequently, she just barely
> scrapes under the wire for eligibility, and can receive Medicaid, which
> exempts her from the mandate.
>
> -- ACS
>
> *
> http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2010/03/19/the-health-care-reform-reconciliation-bill/
>
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