Tag Archives: Medicaid

February 1, 2013 · 7:45 pm

Five Problems Bigger Than the National Debt

I am so tired of hearing politicians talk about the “DEFICIT” like it was the biggest threat to America since communism or some other previous excuse not to deal with real problems…

This is an entirely manufactured “crisis” and the “Conservatives” are trying to use it to kill programs they have always hated  anyway- like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and VA Benefits.  They are also using it as an excuse to cut federal jobs.

For example, I called the Veteran’s Administration 12 times today trying to check direct depositing my Mother’s benefits from my Father’s service.  I wasn’t allowed to do it on the web because it is a Custodial situation.  Each time I got a message telling me they could not take my call because of high call volumes and to call back later.  It took 2 years to get the benefit application approved due to “staffing” issues- and then only with Congressional help…..Hire some people, goddammit!

This is madness….

Anyway….

I’ve had my say on this many times.  We do not have any deficit problem that can’t be solved by higher employment, growth and investment in much-needed infrastructure projects.  The GOP and their Democratic enablers are only making the situation worse by not addressing these core issues responsibly and intelligently.

Someone needs to break the DC bubble and it sounds like maybe, just maybe, there may be some sensibility leaking into the Capitol.

But they still have a long ways to go and need to start by not listening to the Tea Party fools and their Billionaire sponsors or the Corporate chieftains.  Of course ending corporate welfare, such as subsidies to the oil companies, and making the wealthy pay their fair share by closing tax loopholes would also help…

I’ll keep hoping they will hear Paul Krugman’s voice calling from the wilderness.  Meaning outside of DC and it’s suburbs…

From Yahoo Finance:

With even top Republicans such as Eric Cantor beginning to question the political wisdom of waging perpetual warfare over the deficit, it’s possible that Washington may slowly turn its attention to other, more pressing matters.What could be more urgent than deficit reduction? you may ask.My answer: Almost everything.If deficit reduction was ever urgent, it no longer is. We’ve already accomplished most of the deficit-reduction required in this decade, nearly enough to stabilize our debt, but at a great cost to current economic growth. We’ve sacrificed with high unemployment, tepid growth and underinvestment in public goods.Not to mention our inability to get anything else done while we bicker about deficits.The $16 trillion debt sounds like a terrible thing, but no one has been able to show how this high level of debt has had any negative impact on the economy or on the people so far. Has anyone come around looking for your share of it?Interest rates are very low, so the public debt isn’t crowding out private investment. The burden from interest payments is extremely low, less than half what it was when Ronald Reagan was exploding the federal budget back in the 1980s. We survived.

MORE:   Five problems bigger than the national debt – Yahoo! Finance.

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September 3, 2011 · 8:43 pm

Cincinnati Man, Dies From Toothache, Couldn’t Afford Meds

This is just incredibly sad.  And wouldn’t have happened in Canada, the UK, France or most other civilized countries.

This type of tragedy will just continue to play out until people get past their fear of “socialized medicine” and develop a healthy fear of how the insurance companies prevent people from being covered or getting the care they need.

Tell me again how everything is better in the U.S.A and I’ll tell you again to stop drinking the Kool Aid.  The insurance companies played the public like a cheap violin during the health care debate to prevent a public option.

Now we still have inequality and tragedy for the growing number of people without health insurance…

Oh, and don’t forget the GOP still wants to get rid of Medicare and Medicaid for the elderly and the very poor who do have some government coverage.

 

 

Kyle Willis, a 24-year-old man from Ohio, died on Wednesday from a tooth infection, Cincinati’s WLWT reported.

According to the station, Willis’ wisdom tooth began hurting two weeks ago, and dentists said it needed to be removed.

Willis, however, was a single father without health insurance, and couldn’t afford the procedure.

After developing severe headaches and facial swelling, he went to the emergency room.

Although doctors recommended antibiotics and pain medication, Willis could only afford one.

Patti Collins, Willis’s aunt, told WLWT what happened next.

“‘The (doctors) gave him antibiotic and pain medication. But he couldn’t afford to pay for the antibiotic, so he chose the pain meds, which was not what he needed,’ Collins said. Doctors told Willis’ family that while the pain had stopped, the infection kept spreading — eventually attacking his brain and causing it to swell.”

Willis leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter, and family members are hoping to create a fund for her future college education.

Dr. Irvin Silverstein, a dentist at the University of California told ABC news that Willis’ story isn’t uncommon.

“People don’t realize that dental disease can cause serious illness.The problems are not just cosmetic. Many people die from dental disease. When people are unemployed or don’t have insurance, where do they go? What do they do? Silverstein said. People end up dying, and these are the most treatable, preventable diseases in the world.”

Four years ago, 12-year-old Demonte Drived died after his mother, Alyce, couldn’t find a dentist who took Medicaid and bacteria from a tooth abscess spread to his brain.

A Kaiser Family Foundation report found that between 2007 and 2008, the number of uninsured adults rose by 1.5 million.

via Kyle Willis, Cincinnati Man, Dies From Toothache, Couldn’t Afford Meds (VIDEO).

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August 4, 2011 · 6:08 pm

Eric Cantor Intends to Break America’s Promises

Eric Cantor is evil.  There is no other way to put it.

I’m ashamed he’s from my home state of Virginia.

Virginia used to stand for honor, gentility, manners, culture and education.

Virginians were once known for their tradition of hospitality and concern for others.

It’s the state that gave us Thomas Jefferson and George Washington….

Well, that’s all obviously gone with the wind…

So to speak….

 

U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) on Wednesday suggested that Republicans will continue a push to overhaul programs such as Medicare, saying in an interview that “promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many” and that younger Americans will have to adjust.

“What we have to be, I think, focused on is truth in budgeting here,” Cantor told The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal. He said “the better way” for Americans is to “get the fiscal house in order” and “come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many.”

He added that younger Americans will have “ample time to try and plan our lives so that we can adjust” to the post-Medicare society.

As Cantor sees it, the existing Medicare program simply must be eliminated for fiscal reasons, replaced with a privatized system. In other words, the Paul Ryan plan that was soundly rejected by voters and policy experts alike is still the preferred model for the House Republican leadership.

As a matter of policy, this is still hopelessly ridiculous, for all the reasons we talked about in the Spring. But on a political level, this is just as misguided. The more Cantor and his allies base their agenda on ending Medicare, the happier Democrats are.

Also note the rhetoric the oft-confused House Majority Leader uses: the United States has made promises to the public, and as far as Eric Cantor is concerned, “many” Americans will simply have to accept that those promises “are not going to be kept.”

Why not? Because Republicans say so. Promises to Grover Norquist are sacrosanct, but promises to senior citizens are not.

This is, to put it mildly, a gift for Democrats. I’ll look forward to the DNC running ads in, say, Florida, telling voters that the leading House Republican believes the United States committed to the Medicare program, but now believes those promises “are not going to be kept.”

And in an ideal political environment, the Republican presidential hopefuls would spend the next few weeks responding to a straightforward question: “Do you agree with Eric Cantor that America’s promises to Medicare beneficiaries should be broken?”

via Political Animal – Cantor intends to break America’s promises.

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July 24, 2011 · 10:00 pm

Daily Kos: What might FDR have done about the debt limit?

I keep thinking and saying that Obama had an opportunity to do as much for the country as FDR and blew it.  And continues to blow it.  This article supports that theory.  It’s long but worth reading.

I’m becoming more and more disappointed in the President and how meekly he handles the GOP and how little he is standing firm on core Democratic principles.  When he agreed to bargain with cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he started to lose me…

This article really compares and contrasts FDR and President Obama extremely well.

Here is a brief excerpt to the article by Dante Atkins at Daily Kos:

The only recent president who has faced an economic crisis more prolonged or more severe than the one our economy faces was the progressive legend Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who faced down both the Great Depression and the Nazis with equal aplomb and bested them both, and the contrast between how Obama is handling his economic showdowns with Republicans entering his reelection and how Roosevelt handled a similar time in his presidency could not be more clear. Obama has wanted to bring the nation above politics and create a grand bargain that incorporates ideas from both parties in an attempt to prove that our country is not as divided as our politics suggests, and he has, in his own words, been repeatedly left at the altar by Republicans with no conscience who want nothing more than to destroy him and his presidency. President Roosevelt, by contrast, was ideological: he was convinced that his way of managing the economy—the Keynesian approach of government as the spender of last resort—was right, and the austerity methods of the Republicans were wrong.

Unlike Obama, Roosevelt did not accept the conservative meme that macroeconomics and microeconomics have the same fundamental principles and that government has to “live within its means like families do.” Instead, Roosevelt understood that economic downturns reduce national income and that reduced national income leads to further downturn, creating a deflationary cycle that can only be broken when government steps in to put people back to work and break the cycle—a consideration that came second to balancing the budget.

via Daily Kos: What might FDR have done about the debt limit?.

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July 9, 2011 · 3:08 pm

Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath

All I can think of is Marie Antoinette’s response to being told the peasants had no bread.  She allegedly said “Well, let them eat cake.”

This is the guy who wants to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while he drinks $700 worth of wine in a restaurant.

These Republicans really do live in a different world.  They can’t imagine what life is like for most people.  That’s got to be why they do the things they do…

Or, they are just evil….

Your choice….

From TalkingPointsMemo.com:

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.

It was the same night reports started trickling out about President Obama pressing Congressional leaders to consider changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP support for targeted tax increases.

The pomp and circumstance surrounding the waiter’s presentation, uncorking and decanting of the pricey Pinot Noir caught the attention of another diner who had already recognized Ryan sitting with two other men nearby.

Susan Feinberg, an associate business professor at Rutgers, was at Bistro Bis celebrating her birthday with her husband that night. When she saw the label on the bottle of Jayer-Gilles 2004 Echezeaux Grand Cru Ryan’s table had ordered, she quickly looked it up on the wine list and saw that it sold for an eye-popping $350, the most expensive wine in the house along with one other with the same pricetag.

Feinberg, an economist by training, was even more appalled when the table ordered a second bottle. She quickly did the math and figured out that the $700 in wine the trio consumed over the course of 90 minutes amounted to more than the entire weekly income of a couple making minimum wage.

“We were just stunned,” said Feinberg, who e-mailed TPM about her encounter later the same evening. “I was an economist so I started doing the envelope calculations and quickly figured out that those two bottles of wine was more than two-income working family making minimum wage earned in a week.”

via Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath | TPMDC.

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July 6, 2011 · 11:15 pm

In Debt Talks, Obama Offers Social Security Cuts

If he does this, he’s lost me….

If he supports Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cuts, he might as well be a Republican President.  No Democrat should ever support cuts to these programs.

I will have no patience for this type of sell out.

I truly hope this is not true…

This is wrong on so many levels:  Factually and Morally.

From the Washington Post:

President Obama is pressing congressional leaders to consider a far-reaching debt-reduction plan that would force Democrats to accept major changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for Republican support for fresh tax revenue.

At a meeting with top House and Senate leaders set for Thursday morning, Obama plans to argue that a rare consensus has emerged about the size and scope of the nation’s budget problems and that policymakers should seize the moment to take dramatic action.

As part of his pitch, Obama is proposing significant reductions in Medicare spending and for the first time is offering to tackle the rising cost of Social Security, according to people in both parties with knowledge of the proposal. The move marks a major shift for the White House and could present a direct challenge to Democratic lawmakers who have vowed to protect health and retirement benefits from the assault on government spending.

“Obviously, there will be some Democrats who don’t believe we need to do entitlement reform. But there seems to be some hunger to do something of some significance,” said a Democratic official familiar with the administration’s thinking. “These moments come along at most once a decade. And it would be a real mistake if we let it pass us by.”

Rather than roughly $2 trillion in savings, the White House is now seeking a plan that would slash more than $4 trillion from annual budget deficits over the next decade, stabilize borrowing and defuse the biggest budgetary time bombs that are set to explode as the cost of health care rises and the nation’s population ages.

That would represent a major legislative achievement, but it would also put Obama and GOP leaders at odds with major factions of their own parties. While Democrats would be asked to cut social-safety-net programs, Republicans would be asked to raise taxes, perhaps by letting tax breaks for the nation’s wealthiest households expire on schedule at the end of next year.

The administration argues that lawmakers would also get an important victory to sell to voters in 2012. “The fiscal good has to outweigh the pain,” said a Democratic official familiar with the discussions.

It is not clear whether that argument can prevail on Capitol Hill. Thursday’s meeting at the White House — an attempt by Obama to break the impasse that halted debt-reduction talks two weeks ago — will provide a critical opportunity for leaders in both parties to say how far they’re willing to go to restrain government borrowing as the clock ticks toward an Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling.

Obama has already spoken to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) about the possibility of building support for a more ambitious debt-reduction plan, according to people with knowledge of those talks, who, like others quoted in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to shed light on private negotiations. The two discussed various options for overhauling the tax code and cutting entitlement spending, but they reached no agreement.

via In debt talks, Obama offers Social Security cuts – The Washington Post.

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April 20, 2011 · 7:29 pm

Medicare Cuts Proposed by Republicans Face Broad Opposition in ABC News Poll – ABC News

I have two big concerns:

  1. Republicans don’t care about what most Americans think and will ram their agenda through anyway.
  2. People will forget this by Election Day next year and vote against their interests again

This should just kill the GOP if everyone pays attention, remembers and votes to protect their own interests instead of those of the Rich, Big Corporations and Tea Party fanatics.

Americans strongly reject Medicare cuts and broadly support higher taxes on the wealthy, underscoring the political risks in Republican debt-reduction plans. And on one key factor in the debate — protecting the middle class — President Obama retains the upper hand.

Those and other results from the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll underscore the hazards of the federal spending debate for Republicans as well as for Obama. As poorly as the president is rated for handling the deficit — just 39 percent approve — the Republican leaders in Congress do a bit worse, with just 33 percent approval on the same issue.

Similarly, while just 42 percent approve of Obama’s handling of the economy overall, fewer still, 34 percent, approve of how the Republicans in Congress are dealing with it. And the public by a 12-point margin trusts Obama to protect middle-class Americans, a theme he’s likely to sound loudly and often as the 2012 election campaign warms up.

via Medicare Cuts Proposed by Republicans Face Broad Opposition in ABC News Poll – ABC News.

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April 15, 2011 · 9:01 pm

The Republican Medicare Masacre

This is a very clear summary of the Republican Budget plan that they voted on today…

Basically, it ends Medicare for anyone currently under age 55.

Do you want to be old and at the mercy of insurance companies?

Do you have enough money saved to pay the additional $7000 per year it would cost you to pay for this insurance?  That is if the insurance companies will even offer it…

Think long and hard, folks…

Elections have consequences….

From the NY TImes:

Representative Paul Ryan and the House Republicans are portraying their budget proposal for the next fiscal year as a courageous effort to finally bring federal spending on Medicare under control. An analysis issued last week by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that the Ryan proposal would sharply reduce federal spending — but at the price of shifting more of Medicare’s costs onto beneficiaries and their families.

How much more? Calculations derived from the C.B.O. analysis show that in 2022, when the Ryan plan would kick in, the typical 65-year-old would pay $6,400 to $7,000 more per year than would be paid for comparable coverage under traditional Medicare.

Mr. Ryan’s proposal would change Medicare from an entitlement program in which the government pays for a defined set of medical services into a “premium support” program in which the government would give beneficiaries money to help them buy private insurance. He contends that competition among health care plans and more judicious use of health care services by beneficiaries can help bring down the cost of health care and reduce the federal government’s burden.

But the C.B.O. says a private plan offering comparable benefits would be a lot more expensive than traditional Medicare because the private insurer would have higher administrative costs, would need to make a profit and, in an extrapolation of current trends, would pay hospitals, doctors and other providers substantially more than Medicare does. Beneficiaries would have to pay higher out-of-pocket costs or buy skimpier policies.

The Ryan plan has no chance of becoming law while the Democrats still control the Senate and the White House. But if health care becomes a defining issue in the 2012 elections — as it should — everyone under the age of 55 is on notice that Mr. Ryan’s plan would impose heavy costs on them when they reach age 65.

via The Republican Medicare Reshuffle – NYTimes.com.

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April 13, 2011 · 9:51 pm

Poll: Budget deal wins support, but Americans wary

Interesting numbers from USA Today/Gallup Poll…

In summary, the “public” is okay with the budget deal from last week, but most don’t want anymore cuts to Domestic spending…

They also want to rescind the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich…

And no one wants to cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security…

I hope President Obama is willing to go to the mat for those programs…

I’m not yet convinced he will…

In the public’s view, so far so good.

By more than 2-to-1, 62%-25%, those polled say they approve of the deal, and few see it as a partisan victory. Three of four say it was a victory either for neither side (56%) or for both sides (20%).

There is less consensus on what to do next, though, and little encouragement for policymakers such as House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan who are urging bold action to control the exploding costs of Medicare.

“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die,” says Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego. “People want a balanced budget … but they really don’t like the cuts that are involved.”

He questions whether it will be possible for the White House and Congress to strike a grand bargain that calls on both to take some political hits. “I’m not sure there’s enough mutual trust possible in Washington these days for that kind of deal to be made.”

In the poll, those surveyed:

• Are split over whether there should be significant additional cuts in domestic spending: 47% say no, 45% yes. On this issue, there is a yawning divide between the parties. Democrats by 2-to-1 oppose more cuts; Republicans by 2-to-1 support them.

• Overwhelmingly oppose making major changes to Medicare. By 2-to-1, they support minor changes or none at all to control costs, rather than major changes or a complete overhaul. Even a third of Republicans say the government should not try to control the costs of Medicare.

• Favor imposing higher taxes on families with household incomes of $250,000 and above, as Obama has endorsed: 59% support the idea, 37% oppose it.

Still, the divide on the issue could make Republicans less likely to compromise on it. While 78% of Democrats favor higher taxes on top earners, 60% of Republicans oppose it.

via Poll: Budget deal wins support, but Americans wary – USATODAY.com.

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April 11, 2011 · 11:30 pm

Conservative Economists Criticize ‘Off The Deep End’ Republican Budget

This crazy budget proposal from Paul Ryan and the GOP is already in serious trouble.  It both cuts Medicare and Taxes for the Rich while increasing Defense spending.  That’s just crazy….

Now some of the old line Conservatives are coming out in agreement that it’s not a serious, much less “courageous” proposal….

I’m hoping this is another example of smoke and mirrors where the smoke is starting to clear, the mirror’s are breaking and Toto has pulled back the curtain to reveal the Koch Brothers and their fellow wealthy friends, who now own the GOP, are the wizards behind the curtain….

From TalkingPointsMemo.com:

“It doesn’t address in any serious or courageous way the issue of the near and medium-term deficit,” David Stockman told me in a Thursday phone interview. “I think the biggest problem is revenues. It is simply unrealistic to say that raising revenue isn’t part of the solution. It’s a measure of how far off the deep end Republicans have gone with this religious catechism about taxes.”

Stockman, who directed Ronald Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget, approves of Ryan’s entitlement proposals, but breaks faith over taxes and the GOP’s unwillingness to slash defense spending. And he laughs off the notion that the plan will do anything about unemployment, let alone dramatically reduce it, which Ryan and his plan claim it will. “This isn’t 1980. It’s not morning again in America. it’s late afternoon, or possibly even sunset.”

On this score, Doug Holtz-Eakin — a former McCain and George W. Bush economic adviser — told Huffington Post Ryan’s plan is “implausibly optimistic.”

The libertarian economist Tyler Cowen wrote up a point-by-point critique of the plan. His principle objections are that the plan doesn’t do anything to control health care costs, and cutting Medicaid is neither good policy, nor urgent. Indeed, he notes, “Medicaid should be one of the last parts of the health care budget to cut.” Emphasis in the original.

via Conservative Economists Criticize ‘Off The Deep End’ Republican Budget | TPMDC.

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