Replies to post #188784 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Mississippi Rejection Of Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Leaves People Uninsured


Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi has long been one of the sickest and poorest states in America, with some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease and more than 1 in 7 residents without insurance. And so you might think Mississippi would jump at the prospect of billions of federal dollars to expand Medicaid.

You'd be wrong.

Leaders of the deeply conservative state say that even if Mississippi receives boatloads of cash under President Barack Obama's health care law, it can't afford the corresponding share of state money it will have to put up to add hundreds of thousands of people to the government health insurance program for the poor.

"While some people say Obamacare will come as an economic boost with `free' money, the reality is simple: No money is free," said Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. "Since when did the federal government ever give free money without asking for something in return?"

GOP Govs. Rick Scott of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Nathan Deal of Georgia, Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas have said they, too, will reject a Medicaid expansion, calling it too expensive.

While many states are wrestling with the issue, perhaps nowhere but Mississippi are the health issues and the politics so stark.

Some advocates suspect the governors' stand is not about the money at all, but about politics, saying the Republicans are using the Medicaid issue to attack the Obama administration.

They point out that the share the states must contribute is relatively small for the amount of federal funding they would receive, and that politicians from those states have eagerly taken big money from Washington for highways, disaster recovery and other projects that required a contribution of state dollars.

"I think some of this might be posturing before the presidential election," said Michael Doonan, a Brandeis University expert on health care policy and a former aide to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Supporters of the expansion say turning down the money for doctors' visits, prescriptions and other care would itself be foolish fiscal policy, not only hurting the poor but jeopardizing the jobs of thousands of people at hospitals and other institutions that rely on Medicaid money.

The governor and GOP leaders in the Republican-controlled Legislature have argued that the expansion will foster a culture of dependency on government, that it's impossible to predict how much revenue Mississippi might collect several years from now, and that there is no guarantee future administrations in Washington will follow through on funding promises.

In addition to requiring most Americans to buy insurance, the Obama health care law would expand the number of people on Medicaid by raising the income ceiling for eligibility. A divided Supreme Court this year upheld the law but said the Medicaid expansion would be optional, not mandatory. Some Republican governors are digging in, hoping Mitt Romney will get elected and roll back the law.

Under the law, Washington would pay 100 percent of the costs of expanding Medicaid from 2014 to 2016. Between 2017 and 2020, the federal share would decrease to 90 percent and the states' contribution would rise in stages to 10 percent, and that's where it would stay.

Mississippi's governor said that even in the years when Washington is supposed to cover 100 percent, states would still have to pay millions in administrative expenses.

The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation has projected that between 2014 and 2019, Mississippi would receive nearly $9.9 billion in federal money for Medicaid expansion, while the state would pay $429 million. That's $1 from the state for every $23 from Uncle Sam.

By some estimates, the expansion would add 400,000 people to the state's Medicaid rolls, increasing enrollment from the current 1 in 5 Mississippi residents to about 1 in 3. Mississippi is spending nearly $822 million of its own money on Medicaid in the current fiscal year, or almost 15 percent of the state-funded portion of the overall state budget.

Among the estimated 476,000 uninsured Mississippians who could be added to Medicaid is Wilna Alexander, 54, of Jackson. She said she earned $12,000 to $13,000 last year as a part-time cook. She said was on Medicaid but lost coverage more than two years ago when she began working. She said she has never had a regular doctor.

"Most of the time, when I go to the hospital, I have to be real sick," Alexander said.

She said that during one visit to University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, she was found to have strep throat. She had to borrow money to buy antibiotics. The hospital gave her a list of "free" clinics, but Alexander found that one near her house demanded $80 to see her.

Democratic state Sen. Hob Bryan said turning down the money would be wrong. "It will mean thousands of jobs for the state and it will mean additional revenue for the state general fund and it will mean hundreds of thousands of people will get better health care," he said.

But House Appropriations chairman Rep. Herb Frierson, a Republican, said federal money doesn't fall from the sky: "It comes out of somebody's pocket."

Ultimately, pressure from politically powerful health care groups might make it difficult for Mississippi leaders to reject the money. Hospital administrators worry that without a Medicaid expansion, they could be saddled with rising costs from treating uninsured patients.

"I would at least like to see that our state Legislature has examined how it would work instead of saying, `No, it's not working for us and we don't even want to try,'" said Alvin Hoover, CEO of King's Daughters Medical Center in the small town of Brookhaven.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/mississippi-medicaid-expansion_n_1978913.html

Please please leave Mississippi! We're sick of paying your bills because of your stupid ideological decisions
......... ..BLUE STATES are sick of this now! ... Please Leave the UNION!

[StephanieVanbryce]

Sad America-loving conservatives already demanding secession

Hunter
Mon Nov 12, 2012 at 03:52 PM PST


The next Republican action: Everybody drive
your cars only in reverse, just to spite the guy!
C'mon, we can do this!

Aw, the party of 'Merika has an enormous post-election sad: [ http://gawker.com/5959719 ]

In the aftermath of last week's presidential election, residents in at least nineteen states have put up petitions on the government's "We the People" petitioning website seeking the right to secede from the rest of the country. […]

Petitions for secession filed from Louisiana and Texas have already received well over 10,000 signatures. Per the website's own rules, petitions that garner 25,000 signatures or more within 30 days require a response from the Obama administration.

Apparently this is the part of the conservative realization that (1) yes, the president is still a scary black man, and (2) nobody in America but them has a problem with that. There's also been some premise going around that Obama's moderateness and centrism the last four years only goes to prove how much he's going to be a crazy secret-Muslim radical during the next four years, and if you can unpack that logic, you've got me beat. I have no idea what they're going on about. Oh, and the Texas version has already topped the 25K threshold, [ https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/peacefully-grant-state-texas-withdraw-united-states-america-and-create-its-own-new-government/BmdWCP8B ] so congratulations, Texas conservatives! You'll be getting a special note from the Obama administration suggesting where you can go!

This doesn't seem to be a purely regional thing, since even folks in Oregon and New York are piping up with their own petitions (and really, if you're an Oregon or New York conservative, I feel a good amount of pity for you, I really do). But I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This notion of conservative secession has its merits. Of course, as "True America" we'd want to attach some constraints to the separatists: no nuclear weapons, get your own damn military, and we'll be carving out territory for you that consists entirely of places close to sea level, so that you can ignore climate change from the best possible vantage point. But this sounds pretty doable, once the logistics get worked out. So what are you going to call yourselves? United Galts of America? New Jesusland? That's great, we'll send you a card.

It's very IMPORTANT you read this GAWKER link
[ http://gawker.com/5959719 ]

It's got a lot of embedded links in it and it gives you the details


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/12/1160873/-Sad-America-loving-conservatives-already-demanding-secession

Oh .. PLEASE do this CONservatives! STOP just talking about it AND do IT .. WE already have plans ..Just waiting
on you to PUT UP or SHUT UP! .........WE prefer You Take ACTION! ... thank you.

[fuagf]

"THE SECESSION MOVEMENT" .. 1861 cartoon ..



Title: The "secession movement"
Creator(s): Currier & Ives.,
Date Created/Published: New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1861.
Medium: 1 print on wove paper : lithograph ; image 30 x 42 cm.
Summary: The movement of several Southern states toward secession in early 1861 is portrayed as a doomed enterprise. The artist shows Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, all represented by men riding donkeys, following the lead of South Carolina toward a cliff. South Carolina, who rides a pig, pursues a butterfly "Secession Humbug." A sixth man, Georgia, rides down an inclined path rather than follow the group, confessing, "We have some doubts about "the end" of that road and think it expedient to deviate a little." South Carolina, reaching for the butterfly, says, "We go the whole hog.--Old Hickory is dead, and now we'll have it." His reference to Andrew Jackson ("Old Hickory") is in keeping with the anti-Democratic line of the cartoon. The work is in fact based on an 1837 satire criticizing Jacksonian fiscal policy and its bullionist pursuit of the "Gold Humbug." (See "Fifty Cents. Shin Plaster," no. 1837-11.) Florida, immediately behind South Carolina, cries, "Go it Carolina! we are the boys to "wreck" the Union." Next follows Alabama, who declares, "We go it blind, Cotton is King!'" Mississippi says, "Down with the Union! Missippi "repudiates her bonds."" Last is Louisiana, who says, "Go it boys! We'll soon taste the "sweets" of secession," alluding to the state's domination of the sugar trade.

Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-32995 (b&w film copy neg.)
Call Number: PGA - Currier & Ives--Secession movement (B size) [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003674576/