The grim future of Medicaid

[True Dough]

[milestogo]

1. I have a neighbor who is on medicaid.

When I met her she had just been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor. She went through surgery and hospitalization with the very best care and she came through it. I asked if she was going to be paying bills for a long time, and she said "there were no bills". She has some mental health issues which require a psychiatrist, and she pays nothing for those either.

She lives with her stably employed partner of 20 years, but they are not married. She works part time at a convenience store, but there is an understanding between her and the employer that she cannot exceed a certain number of hours or she will lose Medicaid and snap. She does odd jobs for cash only.

She doesn't want more hours or to get insurance through her employer - because she would work harder and end up with less money. She doesn't want to get married and be covered on her husband's insurance because the out of pocket copays - would probably be very large.

It sounds like the coverage she has is good - but it does distort her life in so many ways. I think this is true for a lot of people.

[dalton99a]

2. America is great again

[GoCubsGo]

3. Most of it will kick in AFTER the mid-terms.

Which is a good part of why the Republican have been so smug and giddy about passing this abomination. It's the same playbook they have been using for decades: Destroy everything. Let the Democrats fix things, and them blame them, and whichever boogeyman they're screaming about at the time, for the mess. And, they expect everyone to fall for it again. Which, sadly, many probably will.

If the Dems win back both houses of Congress next year, they can fix a lot of this before the worst of it hits. The only problem is that damage will still be done that they'll have spend precious time having to mitigate this disaster. And, who knows what other landmines have been laid that will blow up in our faces years from now.