please review my editorial on defunding proposal of medicaid...warning-supports a Repub,sorta

[w8liftinglady]

for spelling,punctuation,et al...




Despite our "Party Affiliation",I think most of us want what's best for our state. None exemplifies this better than State Representative Jim Pitts. Mr. Pitts is one of the few representatives who has truly placed his constituents' needs ahead of partisan publicity acts. His honesty about certain proposals to defund Texas Medicaid exemplified this.

As most of you should know,Texas has a profound number of residents who do not have private insurance. According to The Center for Disease Control, 6.2 million adults between 18 and 64 years of age and 1.8 million children under 18 have no health insurance in Texas(out of 59 million uninsured Americans). We have led the nation for years.

As of FY 2007,4.1 million Texans received Medicaid. The percentage of recipients of Medicaid services who were children was 70% in FY 2007. Medicaid paid $2.1 billion to nursing homes,$2.1 billion to hospitals and $1.9 billion on medications in 2007 alone. You can get this and more information from the State Department of Health and Human Resources.

An individual may not apply for Medicaid before using all other resources(i.e. any bank holdings,401-ks), which means you must essentially be penniless to even apply. Many American workers who are finding themselves chronically unemployed/underemployed have done just that.

Mr. Pitts was smart to point out that the state is in serious disarray,probably $18 billion in debt by the end of this year. I will give him credit for being upfront and honest with his constituents.

Despite having state services cut to the bone,certain politicians want to see more cuts. They also want to see extension of the Bush Administration Tax cuts to the top two percent...the ones that took place during two wars...which got us into this impoverished position to begin with.

When will these cuts be enough?