This is what happens when people start believing their own bullshit.
Political scientist and commentator G. Terry Madonna also said he expects [Pennsylvania Governor Tom] Corbett to announce a plan to accept [Medicaid] expansion funds and use them to enable people to buy coverage on the private market rather than adding them to Medicaid, a government program.
He said he expects that path will enable Corbett to tap federal funds to cover uninsured Pennsylvania residents without needing approval from the Pennsylvania legislature, where Republican House members have resisted assorted Corbett proposals. [State Senator Pat] Vance also said Corbett doesn’t expect to need legislative approval.
Madonna noted that if Corbett uses federal funds to pay for private coverage, the coverage will likely provide less in terms of medical benefits. That’s because Medicaid has cost advantages such as lower payments for doctors and hospitals.
Presumably, the conservative critique of government-provided health care is that it takes money from productive people and gives it to unproductive people, and thereby allows unproductive people to be moochers their whole lives rather than pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. They also seem to think that private business is always more efficient than the government.
But Medicaid is more efficient than private insurance because it has enough scale to hold down costs, and its cheaper because it isn’t trying to make a profit or spending a lot of money on marketing. So, in this case, the governor is going to accept the Medicaid money (the redistribution of wealth) but he is going to make sure that the money doesn’t go as far as it should by giving all the money to health care profiteers. And he’s going to pretend that this corporate welfare isn’t government-provided health care.
How do we get rid of this political party?
And I’m sure Obama will provide him a waiver, just like with Arkansas and Iowa (and possibly Alaska).
Why not?
The alternative is to deny people heath care.
I didn’t say I wouldn’t give them the waivers if I was in his position, but it’s going to destroy Medicaid.
Those waivers haven’t been approved yet, if they ever will.
Someone we may know:
“How do we get rid of this political party?”
Neutron bombs.
How do we get rid of this political party?
Start by not running moronic candidates against people like Corbett. Did you, or anyone, know where Onorato stood on anything besides wanting to clean up Harrisburg, what ever that meant?
Ugh. You reminded me of Virginia. And right after dinner, too.
You want to know why “Democrats” don’t vote in off-year elections? Look at T-Mac. Or, as Boo knows, the goof the Democrats elected to take on Corbett in ’10. Who is excited to come out and vote for any of those types? The DCCC/DSCC don’t help things either. But getting back to the Governors. Does anyone like T-Mac at all? All anyone is doing is holding their nose and voting against The Cooch. That’s not a way to drive turnout.
Here in Illinois all candidates have dropped out of the Governor’s primary except Quinn and Daley who seem to be in a race to the Right.
Daley is a right-winger? On everything, or just what we generally consider economic matters? Either way, it brings to mind Captain Renault.
Breaking unions, Privatization of state services. Regressive Taxation. Hardly Leftist.
More to the point: how do we get rid of both political parties?
Still thinking about that long Beast article about the Millennials. Gave me some hope that we might be able to get rid of the 2-party “system” after all.
I don’t know why everyone hates on Terry McAuliffe on this site. My husband and I are both working for his campaign and no, we don’t have to hold our noses to do so. But as for the medicaid question, I’m not so sure pushing people into the exchanges is such a terrible idea.
Medicaid is run by the states and Medicaid reimbursement varies quite a lot. My oldest son is was adopted as a special needs child which meant we had Medicaid for him as well as our insurance. New Jersey Medicaid paid $2000.00 for hearing aids (this was fifteen years ago) but when we moved to Virginia, Medicaid would only provide $800.00 for hearing aids. New Jersey was much more generous and yet, there was only one practice in Cape May County that accepted Medicaid. It might be more efficient but it is often difficult and sometimes impossible to find a practitioner who accepts it.
What concerns me about the exchanges is that they tack on a huge surcharge for smokers. I’ve been looking into it because it’s not clear if VA will accept the expansion and my son is just above the poverty level, so he will qualify for the exchange even if they don’t accept the expansion. He smokes and the surcharge is around 1800.00 which would be really difficult for him to pay. Without the surcharge, the bronze plan is basically free but with the surcharge, we will probably have to help him pay for a plan.
The smoking surcharge is because smokers have terrible health care costs. It’s akin to charging those with DUI convictions more for car insurance.
Never mind the cost. Get your son to stop smoking to save his life!
Terry McAuliffe isn’t bad – for a Republican. Are you sure you are not closet Republicans?
I understand why the surcharge is there but it doesn’t change the fact that someone who makes about $1000.00 per month, is going to find it nearly impossible to pony up $180.00 per month for healthcare. There are so many things I would like my son to stop doing. If I had any way at all to get him stop, smoking would be at the top of the list.
I am quite certain I am not a Republican but I will say this for them, they are much better at strategic thinking and making effective use of their time in office. Terry McAuliffe is the nominee. Undercutting him does no one any good. Insisting that he must be a drag on turnout helps make that true. Was he our first choice? It doesn’t matter as he was our only choice; he ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination. And why was that? Because none of the “better” Democrats were willing to step up when it looked like the Republicans were going to cruise to victory. Well Terry did step up and now he’s our nominee with an excellent chance of being elected so how about a little support or, failing that, a little silence?
Actually, evidence suggests that smoking lowers overall health costs because people die before they endure the real costs of healthcare later on in life.
Also, if we’re concerned about that, then increase the tax in the southern tobacco states.
I’m working with (or rather worked with because they are on the rolls but not on the job) two smokers with lung cancer. One also has throat cancer. They are undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. Tell me again that they are going to die before they endure “real costs”. IMHO they are racking up much more than heart attack or stroke patients (who often are also smokers).
My grandsons are not very bright but they are smart enough to not smoke and to not have unprotected sex.
Here’s the point, from a purely financial aspect and ignoring the social impacts of smoking:
Smoking is a big source of heath care costs; it’s just that reduced smoking doesn’t necessarily mean huge savings.
Republicans are doing a fine job eliminating themselves, Booman. Please proceed, GOP.