It's Official... The Death Panels Are Here... And Staffed By The GOP...

[WillyT]

Last edited Sat Dec 29, 2012, 03:03 PM - Edit history (1)

GOP Governors Deny The Poor Health Care In Opposing Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion
Peter S. Goodman & Jeffrey Young - HuffPo
Posted: 12/28/2012 8:44 am EST | Updated: 12/29/2012 9:40 am EST

RUSTON, La. -- With no health insurance and not enough money for a doctor, Laura Johnson is long accustomed to treating her ailments with a self-written prescription: home remedies, prayer and denial.

Over decades, she made her living assisting elderly people in nursing homes in jobs that paid just above minimum wage and included no health benefits. So even as her feet swelled to such an extent that she could no longer stuff them into her shoes, and even as nausea, headaches and dizziness plagued her, she reached for the aspirin bottle or made do with a teaspoon of vinegar. She propped her feet up on pillows and hoped for relief.

"Before I got sick," she said, "I hadn't been to the doctor in 20 years."

After she collapsed last year and landed in in a local emergency room, doctors diagnosed her with congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and hypothyroid. They ordered her not to work. She arranged a Social Security disability benefit, and she enrolled in Medicaid, the government-furnished insurance program for the poor. She used her Medicaid card to secure needed prescription medications. Her ailments stabilized.

But this year, the state determined that the $819 a month she draws in disability payments exceed the allowable limit. By the federal government's reckoning, her $9,800 annual income made her officially poor. But under the standards set by Louisiana, she was too well off to receive Medicaid.

This is how Johnson, 57, finds herself back amid the roughly 49 million Americans who lack health insurance. This is why she must again reach into her pocket to secure her prescription drugs, a supply that runs about $200 a month. That sum is beyond her, so she has gone more than four months without taking her pills on a regular basis. Once again, her feet are swelling and her chest is filling with fluid. Once again, she is confronted with the realization that a lifetime of labor does not entitle her to see a doctor any more than it enables her to gain crucial medications.

"It just doesn't seem right to me," she said. "It just doesn't seem fair."

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/gop-obamacare-medicaid_n_2347933.html?utm_hp_ref=business

[L0oniX]

1. God bless America!

[Angry Dragon]

2. Republicans are on my terrorist list

[Barack_America]

3. Die Quickly.

The GOP's solution to healthcare for the poor.

Grayson was right about that.

[Doctor_J]

4. I would think that Piyish Jindal would be liable for negligent homicide

I would like to see some DoJ go-getter trot this out and see what happens.

[libodem]

14. Yes

Make him responsible for every subsequent death. Absolutely!!!

[iemitsu]

5. Its not right and its not fair but until we get some

decent people in office things aren't going to change.
And we need to dump our faith in capitalism as an economic panacea.
Capitalism breeds an ugly being, one that values money more than humanity.
Those in Louisiana, who set the policies that deny Laura Johnson medical and prescription coverage, are criminal but so are the citizens, who elected them.
I doubt that, in person, you could find even one Louisianan, who would defend the formula, which set a $9,800. yearly income as too high for Medicaid eligibility, yet secretly, in the ballot box they vote for these policies. This is a perfect example of why we can't let Medicare/Medicaid eligibility be determined by the states, why we must resist all efforts to turn these programs into "block grants" for states to administer as they see fit. Since I live in blue state, that contributes more to the Federal tax coffers than we receive, and Louisiana is a red state that receives more than they contribute, I object to that state denying Laura Johnson benefits I paid for.
Poor woman. I bet she wishes she was born in Cuba.

[jillan]

6. Today's GOP is pro-death. No doubt about it.

[Rex]

7. Plutocracy.

For the Wealthy and by the Wealthy.

[We_todd_did]

8. Im sorry

I don't think its fair that the government can turn their backs on the very people like that. The government reminds me of my car. I never OWNED a cat before. I feed it take care of it. Meanwhile there are other cats out there that have such an unfortunate life. My cat has no idea what that's like. The government the same way. It has no idea h good they have it. They had an idea once that they can make the world a better place. They lost focus and the result is what has happened to that poor woman. Its so easy for something like the government to do such a thing because their resources extend well beyond ours. I gave my shoes to a homeless man once and I wold do it again. I had walk a mile in his shoes and let me tell you my friend it wasn't easy. I wish I can single-handedly change the world and reconnect everyone to focus on our real goal in the universe. We need to feed the starving, cure the sick, help the needy, and fix the broken. That's the road we need to travel. I can go on and on, but I need help. I can't do it alone. We need to come together for a real change... My best wishes from the Bus Driver who gave his shoes away.

[iemitsu]

9. Welcome to DU and thank you for being part of the solution and not the problem.

Neither my car nor my cat recognizes how easy they have it. I pay the bills and I make sure they are maintained.
I try very hard to keep them alive and healthy for as long as possible. New cats require lots of attention and new cars all come with their own quirks. Replacing a car or cat is expensive and risky both emotionally and financially. So even when I have to invest more than usual, to maintain their health, I am willing to spend the money, as both car and cat have served me well in the past, we know each other, and we are comfortable together. Keeping my old car and cat requires me to be loyal to them and pay some attention to their needs but that cost is minimal compared to the benefits I receive.
But in Louisiana, people do not have it so easy. Those in charge of setting policy would rather jettison the old car and cat (Laura Johnson) for shiny new ones, even at great financial and human expense. The expense doesn't matter to them because they are not the ones paying the bill, they are the middle-men, skimming from Laura's benefits so they can look grand driving bright new cars and hanging out with attractive, young, and healthy people.
Laura Johnson, according to Louisiana's governing body, ought to recognize her own obsolescence and consign herself to the scrapheap where we all go when the value of our work has been exhausted.
I am the same age as Laura and facing the consequences of growing older. I guess I'm glad I don't have to grow old in Louisiana.

[WillyT]

10. Welcome To DU We_todd_did !!!

Glad ta have ya aboard !!!

[WCGreen]

11. It's the governors fault....

Plain and simple.

[JCMach1]

12. Time to end doctors' monopoly on prescribing relatively safe medications

i.e. join the majority of the rest of the world.

And get some damn price controls on basic meds in-place. $200 is insane.

[AZ Progressive]

13. Playing Politics with the collateral damage being Many American people's lives

It's astonishing how so many people in power have even more blood on their hands than serial killers. The serial killers are nothing more than the "low class" petty killers. Power and murder so often go hand in hand.

[judesedit]

15. We have to take the heathcare plans WE pay for from Congress. Let them pay like the rest of us.

Their plans cover plastic surgery, abortions, viagra, you name it. This we pay for for them. Take it away, I say. They are the most do-nothing Congress since the 40's and shouldn't even be paid.

[WillyT]

16. Kick !!!