Deal’s Medicaid decision denies health insurance to 600,000
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2013/02/20/deals-medicaid-decision-denies-health-insurance-to-600000/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

In Reversal, Florida to Take Health Law’s Medicaid Expansion
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/us/in-reversal-florida-says-it-will-expand-medicaid-program.html?_r=0

Georgia has 4 Level I Trauma Centers spread to several corners of the state; and a rapid ETA to these near an hour promises a much better outcome for people who have suffered severe trauma.

Deal's moronic decision not only impacts the poor, elderly and children significantly, but it will cost the average family of three nearly $2000 and will impact private hospitals who will still care for Medicaid patients through their ERs.

Deal is the member of Congress who switched from Dem to Republican and was chased out of Congress because  he was afraid to face Ethics charges.


-- Modified on 2/21/2013 6:42:31 PM

In your haste to brand the governor a “dumbass,” you haven’t thought about one, have you?

      Look at California – thanks to their insane spending, legacy costs, and refusal to raise the property tax, they had to raise St. Croix’s income and sales taxes this year just so Gov Brown could balance the budget. Can California afford to pay even 10% of expanded Medicaid in 2020? Nope. Can they pay 100% of the expansion three years later?  Of course not.

        But they’ll take the money from Uncle Sam while it’s offered and worry about paying the bill later. No, sorry, they can’t cut the Medicaid enrollee level back to normal in 10 years.

     Plus your article is oblivious to the “woodwork effect” - People who were eligible for Medicaid before Obamacare but not enrolled, are not covered by the 100% federal match rate. Well who pays for them? The taxpayers pick up the bill over the traditional match rate.

     Further, let’s not assume that Medicaid is remotely comparable to private insurance. In many states, Medicaid pays doctors so little, the poor can't find a private physician to see them so they must go to the ER to get care.

      So the decision to take money now and worry about paying for the expansion down the road is a lot more complex than your article recognizes.

California has a history of disaster when it comes to setting up and running computer systems for any level of government.

LAUSD was trying to fix a computer glitch for over a year that didn't pay some people and paid others too much.

I forget what it was for, but a couple weeks ago the state fired a computer contractor that was three years behind, tens of millions of dollars over, with an error rate of 100 times the acceptable level.  

There are so many stories that I can't even begin to recall them all.  

The state is currently setting up a program that will start to enrol up to 5 million people starting October 1st, with benefits to start January 1st.  The program has to be accessible by government (state and fed), patients, doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and insurance companies.  It will be signing up millions of people, hopefully without duplications and/or fraud.  The regulations that will govern the system are not fully established, so they don't know what to program.

While other government programs come in two or three years late, this has to be set up in 9 months.

I will post October 1st and we can see who well it is going.

who think government will magically pay for everything like money grows on trees.

People like you and your ilk need to grow up. You want a liberal run government, move to Greece. You want a liberal run government, move to Detroit.

Oh yeah, they're BROKE!!

Deal was at least smart enough to understand that when the Fed runs out of money (yes. the feds CAN run out of money), they would leave the states holding the bag.

Don't stop at Detroit.  Try Illinois.

Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigoso said that Los Angeles would not go bankrupt under his reign, but he only has another year to go.

CA's new "budget" just came up short  billlions, so after raising taxes three months ago, they want to raise them again.  In the meantime, we are building a bullet train that will never be finished.

I have many very liberal friends who work in SF.  The second they have kids, they move out of the city.  SF is becoming a child free city, unless you are poor, because it is too expensive for families and a terrible place to raise kids.   (SF has a vast tourist business and Tech, which is super rich young people who can afford a luxurious life style, until they have kids.)

The list of cities in L.A. in serious finiancial trouble it too long to list.  

And NY city is just doing so well.

probably have run on a promise to address the debt. One of his first bills will be to cut back entitlements including the Medicaid expansion.

      So, as Snowman points out, there is a real possiblity that the feds will either run out of money or will cut this cost to reduce the debt.

      And remember the expansion is not about covering the poor - the expansion covers adults who make up to 138% above the federal poverty level.  I'll help the truly poor but why should I have to pay for these guys?.

Could it be that every sleazebag in the entire industry is trying to make a buck off of it instead of treating illness?

Most nations spend about half on health care than we do. Of course, most nations have a (mostly) publicly funded system. We, on the other hand, let scumbags make a buck off of other people's misfortune.

So this is an easy problem to solve. Just take the profit out of health care. Problem fucking solved.

What % Federal Budget go towards health care?

I should have said the expansion "include individuals between the ages of 19 up to 65 with income up to 138% FPL."

Meidcare, Medicaid and CHIP consist of 21% of the federal budget. NOT AN INSIGNIFICANT AMOUNT.

With Obamacare and the subscription bills passed by GWB, these numbers are quickly heading north.

The fact that you ask that question however is a KEY POINT as to why we find ourselves so deep in debt. This attitude of "oh, its only 2%, oh, its only 20 billion".

Let me clue you in on a mathematical fact. Small numbers quickly add up to large ones.

You could say the same for big oil and banks. Oil companies posting record profits year after year and controlling the price of gas as a group.

It's because Health care in the U.S is a seller's market and we're all buyers--buyers with little knowledge and ZERO ability to negotiate. Hospitals and health care providers offer services at prices that very often bear little relationship to costs. They charge whatever they want to, and mostly--because it's a life-and-death issue--we have to pay.

Medical care keeps getting better.  When my parents friends started having mobility problems they would get a case at Schwabs, the local drug store.  Now they get a new hip or knee.  The wait for knees and hips in Canada, France, and the UK is muck longer than here, which means people are in pain for that much more time.

A few years ago, I had a medical condition that required me to take a drug that was "semi-experimental."  The reason it was "semi" was it was an improvement on the previous generation of drug.  I was on it for 9 months.  By the time that I finished, the NEXT one was being tested.  They are constantly researching how to make it (read them) better, and the one I took had to be paid off in nine months because it was getting obsolete.

Finally, look at hospital rooms 10, 20, or 30 years ago.  The biggest expense when i was a kid was sheets.  Now everyone is hooked up to computers.  And each year every machine gets better.  It is a constant stream of research that costs a fortune and has to be recouped very quickly because next year it will be improved again.

When I was a kid my father did house calls.  He could carry every piece of equipment that he used in a bag the size of one I take to the gym.  His office lab was a centrifuge and a microscope about the same level as the one in my junior high school science class.

The same thing that happens to your cell phone or I-pad or TV is happening at every level in medicine.  It is 1000 times better.  It costs.

Of course, the State could pay for the research and cut out the companies, but it would still cost so it would have to be covered in taxes. And that creates other issues.

It's expensive because American's want the latest and greatest Medical equipment every year and so this adds to the higher costs of health care.  A Medical clinic will buy the latest Cat Scan that costs about $250,000 and then make sure everyone visiting to the clinic get's scanned regardless of whether it's needed or not. This so they can recoup the costs quickly.  In Europe, Japan you have 10+yr old Cat scans running at Medical clinics with no problems.

Walk into a Wal-Mart and look at the price of 3 liters of soda. Then look at the price of a quart of apple juice.

When your average American family has to have two sources of income just to keep their heads above water, that means people are often too busy working to cook decent meals for their kids.

This has been going on for so long now that many people have lost all ability to cook. Their parents fed them prepared meals growing up and now the only cooking utensil they know how to use is the microwave.

There was a 20 something year old girl that used to work in my office, and her children had never had a meal that wasn't from McDonald's or some other fast food joint. She simply had no idea how to cook. This isn't surprising when you toss in the time to commute, people are often away from home 12-13 hours a day.

This is what happens with income inequality. One problem compounds another. People don't know how to cook healthy meals for their kids, so health care costs skyrocket. We aren't taxing the rich to pay for public transportation, so instead everyone buys a car so rich scumbags can continually make money off of cars and gasoline. Cars take up 5 times the space to move 20 people that a bus takes up, and commutes get longer and longer.

Many people don't even have access to fresh produce, or even grocery stores. Many grocery stores in urban areas have shut their doors. They have few options other than McDonald's.

There's this little organization I've spent some time with that shows people how to grow their own food. It's basically taking the square-foot gardening concept and turning it into social activism. A lot of people aren't aware that they too can become a gardener even if you don't have a yard. All you need is a little sun, a place to put a planter box, some dirt, some seeds, and some water.

you are addressing your fat ass blubber laden slob and  fellow team pinko member jeffiepuke.

You're Welcome
GOP = For God and Country

yes, you are right. Bad choices are a huge portion of the problem. Certain conditions are more severe, last longer, and are more expensive to treat than 30 years ago.

And so many could be avoided by someting as simple as walking up a flight of stairs.

To disagree a little, I would have said it more diplomatically. But that is a disagreement over style, not substance.

Laffy, I'm not saying that laziness isn't a factor in this. It most certainly is. But it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that when you have a society that rewards laziness, you get more of it.

Have you ever noticed that places like France doesn't have a massive obesity epidemic? Or Germany? Or don't see very many obese people in Japan, do you? Do you think they just don't have lazy people there?

There are whole cities in Europe where you're not allowed to drive a car. People get around the city by walking. Most countries don't have the 'burbs either. There are cities and then there is farmland and nothing in between.

The way a society is structured determines who the people in that society will become.

It's everything.

For instance, the United States has three times the number of people (per capita) who have mental illness than the Japanese. Are Americans just crazier, or is our way of life making them crazier?

When the people around the world are polled about their general happiness, the nations that win are places like South Africa and Norway. Not the USA.

Americans lock their doors at night. Other people in other nations don't.

Nearly 100% of Europeans are literate, and 50% are bilingual. Only 9% of Americans are bilingual. 87% of girls in Afghanistan can't even read.

The way a society is structured determines who the people in that society will become. That's Sociology 101.

Another question we could ask is how many people in America report having mental problems when far fewer have health insurance plans that cover mental health?

There are two major contributing factors for what causes mental illness. It's genetic and environmental. Also, understand that someone might have the genetic profile for a mental illness as serious as psychopathy, but if such a person is raised in a nurturing and loving household, their chances of developing psychopathy is slim.

In other words, one's environment heavily determines if mental illness will develop. To illustrate this, soldiers don't generally develop PTSD unless they fight on a battlefield. Studies have also been done that shows that many people who live in urban ghettos behave in a manner that is entirely consistant with PTSD. We have a lot of ghettos in this country. Japan does not.

Yes, Japan does have a high suicide rate. However, I should note that what counts as a mental illness in one culture, isn't necessarily considered a mental illness in another. What is considered normal behavior is dependent upon the culture in which you live.

Everything isn't a mental illness now. We just have a FAR better understanding of how the mind works. It's one scientific field that is making break thrus every year. From a scientific standpoint, our understanding of the mind in the 60's might as well been our understanding in the stone age.

There is actually a debate in psychological circles about whether ADD and ADHD are mental illnesses at all, but rather just an alternative mode of thinking. From an evolutionary standpoint, people with ADD or ADHD would make superior hunter/gatherers. With modern civilization, human labor is far more focused on detail-oriented work.

Other mental illnesses didn't exist when you were young. There was no schizotypal personality disorder, those patients were just lumped in with schizophrenics and given poor treatment. We used to treat Postpartum depression by taking a woman's child away and giving them shock treatment. We used to perform lobotomies by chaining people up and driving spikes into their brains through their nasal cavities.

People also didn't notice ADD and ADHD as much years ago when we weren't such a sedentary society. In a society where kids only went to school until the 6th grade so they could work on the farm, such things would go unnoticed. It didn't mean those mental illnesses didn't exist.

There's been a lot of bullshit raised about how supposedly vaccines cause autism. That's simply not true. There are varing degrees of autism. You could think of Asberger's Syndrome as autism-lite. I imagine all the world's engineers are on the autism spectrum. I personally have Asberger's, but all it's done to me is that I struggle in certain social situations. On the upside, I have a brain that sucks up information like a fucking vacuum. My pleasure reading are college textbooks.

But this is just another reason why we need to take the profit out of health care.

A better way to treating kids with ADD or ADHD would be to put them in a different learning environment. Instead of their "mental illness" being a detriment, it can instead be utilized as an asset.