Texas has more residents without access to basic medical care than any other state in the country -- by a fairly significant margin. Gov. Rick Perry (R), for reasons that defy comprehension, is eager to keep it that way.
After writing a letter to the Obama administration declaring his intention to ignore the Affordable Care Act, the right-wing governor went on Fox News to explain, "If anyone had any doubt, we wanted to put it clearly to bed that Texas wasn't going to be a part of expanding socializing of our medicine. So we're not going to participate in any exchanges. We're not going to expand Medicaid."
On the exchange, Perry may not understand the policy details, but by refusing to create a marketplace where private insurers can compete for customers' business, he's simply inviting more federal control over Texas' health care system. Why the governor wants Washington to set up Texas' exchange for Texans remains unclear. For that matter, the fact that Perry thinks competition between private insurers is tantamount to "socializing" suggests someone might want to buy the poor guy a dictionary.
But it's the Medicaid decision that arguably matters most. Again, it's not at all clear if Perry understands the policy consequences of his posturing, but the Texas governor is effectively announcing that Texas hospitals will lose nearly $1 billion in funding for one reason: Perry wants fewer poor people in his state to be able to see a doctor.
Perry's "plan," in other words, is to make Texas hospitals and struggling Texas families suffer because he has an ideological axe to grind and may want to run for president again in 2016.
This is just madness.
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stupid is as stupid does
or is that evil is as evil does,,,,,,,,,?
I think Mrs. Gump's aphorism is just about the only explanation for Governor Perry's behavior...
Actually, I can think of a few reasons why states should let the Feds do it. It may actually be more efficient. Some problems with affordability is the inability to sell insurance across state lines. And then again why reinvent the wheel fifty times?
Maybe someone can point out the downside of letting the Feds handle the headaches?
Mama said theys my magic legs, they could take me anywhere, then they stopped the medicare payments. Now i just sit in my own poop.
The problem with allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines is that it incentives the same race to the bottom you see with corporation statutes and credit card laws.
Delaware has corporation laws that enable secrecy, emasculate shareholders, and allow officers and directors to get away with damn near anything. Which is why everyone incorporates in Delaware and other states have made their own corporation laws progressively worse to try to staunch the loss of of incorporation taxes and fees.
South Dakota passes laws that allow credit card issuers to get away with damn near anything, so every big bank runs their credit card operations out of there and consumers suffer.
If health insurance can be sold across state lines without being subject to regulation in the state where the policy holder lives, then every insurer sets up shop in the state that lets them get away with the most and states race to the bottom in an effort be that state.
Of course, letting the federal government do the regulating would solve that problem but that, of course, would be tyranny.
Good points. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Feds actually start doing the legwork.
@Steve
The insurance companies are free to sell across state lines so long as they comply with local laws. But Republicans want to preempt the state regulations with federal law. Such a federal law violates our principle of federalism. So much for the 10th Amendment and Republicans beliefs in states rights. The Dems need to wake up and bludgeon the Republicans with their own words.
Here Here
some people are going to die justn to get that black man out of that white house, God bless the real americans
Gov. Perry to Texans: Drop Dead
Literally, in this case.
It's the standard Republican MO for the past 20 years (possibly longer, that's just when I started paying attention as a kid): Grand posturing that hurts/endangers the general welfare to cater to their voters because they're confident that Democrats will clean up their mess.
TexASS. The dirty, stinky, unwiped Anis of America.
Anus, my friend. Anus.
That's just really uncool of you. You realize that you're treating Texans with the same level of disrespect as Perry is, don't you?
What RadioClash said. Yeah, they made a mistake electing this bozo, but the typical voter couldn't have seen this coming.
SamuraiCowboy why don't you come down here & say that? Funny part is that it seems like everyone from other parts of the country want to move down here & be like us. You can keep yor Yanky, Liberal, tree Huggin butt up there where you belong.
Perry is a Christian, so perhaps he subscribes to the Christian Scientist philosophy that "that sickness is the result of fear, ignorance, or sin, and that when the erroneous belief is corrected, the sickness will disappear."
In simple terms, The Lord will Provide. Unfortunately, there appears to be a multitude of Texans who are not living in a State of Grace.
Sadly, it is consistently Christian to pick and chose what and who is covered by what doctrine. Obviously, well-off folks in Texas are not subject to this medieval philosophy.
More like being poor is punishment for being lazy or being stupid or being...well, it must be something bad or you wouldn't be so poor!! And if you're poor and lazy and stupid and whatever, don't be expecting any handouts from the great state of Texas. (And that goes for all you poor, lazy children; all you poor, lazy elderly citizens; and all the poor, lazy disabled folks, too!) And don't forget--if you're working one or two or three minimum wage jobs for employers that don't provide health insurance, well, that's just your own damn fault. Get a better job, freeloader!
"that sickness is the result of fear, ignorance, or sin, and that when the erroneous belief is corrected, the sickness will disappear."
OH, if only this were true!!!! Just think of how many of these morons would die off overnight!
CB107 looks like you were turned down trying to get something for nothing. Here in Texas, we like to work for our paychecks. Makes you feel better & grows hair on your chest. But if you are a woman, I can see where that may be a little awkward.
"Texas covers only working adults up to 26 percent of the poverty line. The poverty line for an individual is $11,170. So, you could be a single person making $3,000 a year and you’re still not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid in Texas.That’s part of the reason Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation."
http:// www.washingtonpost.com/ blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/03/the-affordable-care-acts-giveaway-to-stingy-red-states/
Another way he cuts down on Medicaid and CHIP is by now requiring people to reapply every six months. If they miss the renewal date, they get cut off and have to go through a very onerous process to reapply again.
"The three things I hate are poor people, democrats, and uh... huh huh... what's the third one?"
If he hates poor people, he must hate Jesus, too. "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me."
I have met lumps of malignant cancer more Christian than American Conservatives.
You've got it all wrong. He doesn't hate Jesus, he just knows that according to the prosperity gospel that Jesus must not like poor people very much seeing as how he has blessed Mister Perry with so much. God blesses those who follow him, and curses poor people. If they weren't so lazy they'd get jobs and Jesus would bless them too. It's all very biblical if you contort it that way.
If Obamacare is a tax, Perry just raised taxes.
Ok, Someone please help me out here. What are all these Governor's talking about basically Nullifying the ACH? I was under the impression it was "The Law of the Land". By the way, what more can you expect from a Southern Governor who flirts with Secessionist nut-jobs?
Two things. First, the ACA gives the states the option of setting up their own exchanges. If they don't, the law says the feds will do it for them. Second, Roberts and Kagan "saved" the Medicare expansion from unconstitutionality by making it voluntary rather than mandatory.
They are just posturing. The law states that if a state doesn't comply, the Feds will to it for them.
Ah Ok, Thank You. I thought it was more of an attempt to keep his Conservative/anti-government/anti-Progress/Pro-Obama is the Kenyan Anti-Christ Image up when Scott came out, but then this "Oops" Clown joined in, so it got me wondering.
On the exchanges , the Feds do it if they opt out. No similar option on the Medicaid expansion.
It's probably the first example of why the Kagan appointment is probably the most important, profound and long lasting effect of President Obama's first term.
maybe we need to go out and buy en mass a small dictionary and mail it to the good Gov. maybe if he gets a million of them with yellow hi lites socialism he might understand. Can't guarantee it but it might be worth it.
"someone might want to buy the poor guy a dictionary."
You're assuming that the poor boy knows how to use a dictionary (alphabetical order and all that "elite" stuff) or even that he can read. Do you have any evidence for your assumptions? His record at A&M strongly suggests that his reading ability is inferior even to George WTF Bush's. When a CT just barely passes, then you know he is severely challenged intellectually.
Isn't it Socialist to force letters to go in alphabetical order?
I live in a state (NY) that would see very little of the federal dollars that will go to expand Medicare. My taxes already go to providing coverage for a lot of people in my state.
I am fine with my tax dollars going to get more people access to health care because I care about my fellow citizens, even if the people who are helped are in a different state.
Gov. Perry has this exactly BACKWARDS. If anyone should be complaining about this use of federal dollars it's ME. My taxes would be going to help the citizens of HIS state.
If he doesn't care about his citizens, then why the "floss" should I?
I meant expand Medicaid...
For starters, because we are first United States' citizens. To be truthful, I don't even identify as Texan. I wound up here by a series of happenstances and decisions not entirely within my control.
Perry is vindictive and will use what rhetorical tactics he can to satisfy the qualms of his party, even when it appears contrary to his own behavioral precedence. This is politics at the sake of humanitarianism.
The word "socialism" is now tossed around as a devil term. It honestly doesn't matter what the word means, rather, what it can be used to represent. Considering the ever-increasing, technology-inducing inter-dependence of our nation and the rising tendency toward globalism, life is not as it was. Life is complicated. Republican rhetoric has a very "Red Scare" vibe to it. Socialism is not the "us", what "American idealism" proposes. Socialism, to them, marks the end of an ideological era.
Perry cares. He cares a lot about his constituents and the culture. He cares that people are being reared from an early age to vote for him and people with some semblance to him. When people stare for so long at the face of culture, they tend to forget what that culture means and where it comes from. Our interactions with ourselves and our environment can only be considered when we live.
josgriff
I got crabby this morning (don't usually say "floss") but darn-it!!
I care - no matter what your idiot governor says!
We - meaning all US citizens - are in this together. It is easy - for some people anyway apparently - to think of the Federal Government as "them". But I think of it as "us" working together to do things we can't do alone - "We the People".
It is obvious that there are many people in Texas that need health care. "We the People" are all set to help provide that health care. It is beyond annoying that Gov. Perry is slapping away this help.
*eye-roll*!!!!!
Thank God I dont live in TexASS! What a moron. Is it any wonder why Texass is so lw on every scale against other states in education healthcare, payrates etc.
Oh really? My wife & I are both products of Public Schools here in Texas. She being an RN & myself being in Construction with just a High School education. We have done exremely well, paid off our house early & buy our own Insurance. Most situations are what you make of them. If you don't get off your ass & do something for youself, then don't cry about what we have. On second thought, I thank God you don't live in Texas either.
As a Texan, I wish I could say something good about this, but it's impossible. Perry has managed to out-tool himself. Stupid, inept, oblivious... choose your adjective.
Sorry to hear, Karen. I feel bad for anyone who lives in Texas with that moron as governor. And he claims to be a Christian?!
Yet, knowing what they know about him and his "shortcomings", the good people of Texas keep putting him in the governor's mansion. The perfect example of a large body of people who vote against their own best interests. What a shame!
Well, Karen . . . you can always come on over to Florida, where our governor is so focused on voter suppression that he forgets to warn us about a TB outbreak in our largest city (which also happens to be an international port).
Hey, it's always exciting in the Sunshine State!!
When you live in the Faux reality things are different .
Same thing happening here in Florida with Felon in Chief Rick Scott.
I can't wait to see how this ends up when the Mega Hospital Corporations start realizing this is really going to hurt their bottom line , and after all isn't that what health care is all about , making money.
The two Rick dickheads will be forced to choose between Ideology and campaign donations .
Back off Rick or we pull the donations....Oh the Humanity
And, as we'll see when our resident troll comes out from under his bridge, this is yet another instance where facts that are inconsistent with the way their dogma tells them things must be are irrelevant to them. So far, every governor who's rejected it has made a statement that simply treats the expansion as if it is to be 100% funded by the state.
Tell them the Medicaid expansion will be 100% funded by the feds through 2017, at which point they'll have to pick up only ten percent of the tab and you get one of four answers:
1. Hah! Your so-called "facts" mean nothing to us because they're from the evil, lyin' federal guvvermint and we don't believe nothin' them people say! We know this would cost our a bazillion jillion dollars startin' on day one because we just know it and we' ain't having none of it. Nope.
2. Pickin' up the tab for ten percent of this would still be a lot of money and we don't believe we'll see any net savings as a result of getting these people out of the ER's and into the regular health care system because this is a guvvermint program which means it can't possibly do no good. You libruls are tryin' to force us to raise taxes to pay for health care for lazy, no-account, shiftless t-bone steak eating strapping young bucks and Cadillac drivin' welfare queens. And I've got a bunch of anecdotes from friends of friends to prove it.
3. We don't believe the federal guvvermint will keep paying 90% of the costs. They'll have to cut it and then where will be we be? Nope, we can't help no one without insurance now because there's a chance that at some point in the future the feds'll cut the funding and then we'll have to cut the program and that would just be cruel, wouldn't it?
4. "Argle bargle soshulism! Yerk blargh! Blargh!"
# 4 - are you quoting Tom Tommorow?
Rick Perry can go @!$%# himself in the ear.. Can anyone say D-party? Oh Texas, I'll leave it to you to misspell anus and continue manufacturing textbooks for the nation's public schools.. Have fun at church! You're going to need all the hey-elp you can git. Say how is that butter flavored Crisco anyhow?
Perry believes medicaid recipients lean Democrat.So what if they do die, it's one less voter to contend with, right Rick.
There's a simple answer - vote the bastard out.
From the 14th Amendment to the Constitution: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Barry, thats the 4th amendment, not the 14th.
But lets not forget that the Texas GOP platform also wants us to stop teaching our children critical thinking among other things.
Ricky boy is just carrying on Jesus' work.
Praze the Lard!
The funny thing is if the states don't set up exchanges, the federal government does it for them. so by trying to fight a "Government takeover" by refusing to follow the rules, they've essentially made it so the Government would have to do this.
Their stupidity is causing the exact thing they don't want. It's hilarious.
Oops . . .
And then tell us how OBAMA ruined America...yep Rick you're a gem...
OK off topic but STEVE you've gotta blog on THIS!!!
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Willard's_Fiery_Pants
Asking everyone to Please call early and often between now and July 30th. Call Rick Perry's office number is 512-463-2000 or 512-462-1782 and voice you thoughts and opinions on not accepting money which we all pay into for improving Texans health.
The saying used to be "All hat and no cattle." Mr Perry show it is all hat no brain. Aren't the people in Texas suffering enough with the weather, drought and ilegales now no health care for you.
i'm really beginning to dispair over the future of the united states. perry is no anomaly; he's a new trend. its happened before, a country more or less acquainted with the realities of the calendar, choosing to accept a self-imposed time warp in pursuit of the imagined innocence of the eighth century. iran comes to mind. perry and his ilk certainly could pass for "judeo-christian" ayatollahs.
If he were truly Christian, he would care about the poor. I wonder if he's ever read the Gospel of Matthew:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory...all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another...the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
“And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
“Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’
“He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
I received this email today;and, ask if we can agree that only a few will ever get time to read through these events that are moving so fast?
Just a reminder... also don't forget much more has been added to ObamaCare as it now totals over 2700 pages. Almost every thing has been included to give the government complete control over a citizens life and everyday dealings.
I don't know where you got this information, but it's referring to House Bill 3200 which eventually , after amendments, became the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Anything in the original House Bill could have been changed so why are you presenting outdated and inaccurate information? Your first example cited page 272 of the proposed bill. Page 272 of the proposed bill does address cancer treatments but there is no mention of age or denial of service. The whole page is devoted to ensuring that bills for government payment for cancer treatment for an individual are not excessive. Payments for treatment will be adjusted to match those of other providers of the same treatment.
Other examples cited by you have similar problems. Also the sections mentioned are inaccurate for even the proposed House Bill. Section numbering started at 1001.