States’ Policies on Health Care Exclude Some of the Poorest

[lhooq]

1. And I am one of them

I don't consider myself poor, but I do live off of savings, and live frugally. Hence, my adjusted gross income on my form 1040 was way below the $12k poverty cutoff for a single, head of household. I am fortunate to be in good health. I've seen a doctor exactly once since 2009.

So what do you think will happen? The poor and the sick will skimp on primary care allowing their hypertension or diabetes to get progressively worse. Eventually, some catastrophic event will happen, a heart attack for instance, and they will end up in the ER. As a consequence, they'll lose physical capability and need additional care. They may have no other resort but to apply for SSDI. Expect lots of costs, lots of cost shifting, and in the end we are all going to pay.

(We already are paying. Here in Florida, our federal taxes that help fund the Medicaid expansion won't be returning to this state. Californians -- you ought to thank us Floridians for our generosity!)

I guess the GOP believes they've the got the secret in how to win at the game of cost shifting musical chairs.