Showing posts with label Medicaid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medicaid. Show all posts
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Missourians! Know This About Your Republican Party Legislature in Jefferson City
I don't think enough Missourians know how many times our Republican Party legislature in Jefferson City has overruled our, the people's will and vote. Herewith are three very recent examples.
So glad our Republican Party legislature in Jefferson City overturned the people's vote to--
1) Not approve concealed carry 2) Not approve of Right to Work laws and now, the most recent 2) accept Medicaid funding from the Federal Government so the poorest of the state has health care. On each of these issues, the people spoke and the Republican Party legislators in our state capitol overturned it, them, and did the exact opposite. Aren't you glad we have representative government, folks? I know I am.
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Republicans in Jefferson City Have Done it Again
Have you heard this latest obscenity from Republican legislators in Jefferson City? Missourians voted for the state to accept federal Medicaid dollars from Washington so more Missourians would have health insurance--and so, health care--but the Republicans wanted nothing of it. So in spite of our voice and vote, they voted down accepting this money and funding Medicaid for more Missourians, more lower income Missourians.
Once again, like on the people voting down the "Right to Work" law some time ago, we, the people, vote on something, let our will be known but the GOP, the Republicans do away with it. We all, Missourians, voted to end the Right to Work legislation and we voted to expand Medicaid but the Republicans upended both our votes. Not done there, our own Kansas City Star reports that one representative, Justin Hill of Lake St. Louis, is quoted as having said “I am proud to stand against the will of the people.” What unmitigated gall. Clearly he and his fellow Republicans know not at all how our election system and government is supposed to work. And check this out--from the same Star article: "Business people, social workers and others stood on the floor repeating the facts: Missouri has more than enough money to extend health insurance coverage to the working poor. Expanding Medicaid will actually bring more money into the state."
This is insane. This is obscene. This is heartless and immoral. The way these Republicans would have it, it's all only for them and their own political party and their donors. This is wrong. So wrong. We must stand up, Missourians. And we must vote these people, these Republicans, out of office. They must be made to pay for not just ignoring but denying the will of we, the people.
Thursday, March 18, 2021
Know This About Amazon and Jeff Bezos and Union Organization
Amazon:
--World's 4th biggest company
--$21 billion a year in profit
--Owner Jeff Bezos is worth $184B, up $70B in a year
--Sends workers 5 anti-union messages a day
--36,000+ employees are on food stamps and Medicaid
--Cost to lift them from poverty? 2% of annual profit
--Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle
Friday, February 5, 2021
Quote of the Day -- On Liberals -- And Conservatives
"Liberals got women the right to vote.
Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote.
Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty.
Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act.
Liberals created Medicare.
Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act.
What did Conservatives do?
They opposed them on every one of those things...every one.
So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor."
--Matt Santos, character in "The West Wing"
--Matt Santos, character in "The West Wing"
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
This President Attacks Our Own Government
Not done there, this, too.
And that's only two.
This is a President who has openly attacked our
--US Postal Service
--Social Security
--Medicare
--Medicaid
--Military
--Census
--Department of Justice
--FBI
Tell me again why he should be reelected?
86 45
BYEDON
Thursday, October 18, 2018
AARP: Tits on a Boar
To what other conclusion can one come about AARP, ostensibly named the "American Association for Retired People" than that they are useless, ineffectual?
Sure, you can get discounts to buy things if you want, if you join as a member but when it comes down to representing, really representing those "retired people", do they do anything?
When one political party in this nation not only comes out for taking funds from even just Social Security, let alone Medicare and then Medicaid, too, all so already-wealthy people can get still more of the nation's wealth, does the AARP do anything? Do they speak up? Do they attack even the IDEA of depleting the Social Security fund, let alone the political party that wants to do this?
Oh, hell no.
No, they don't.
Not only do they not attack the idea or the person proposing it or the idea, AARP does----nothing.
And it's not that this has only happened once that a person in that political party has tried attacking, depleting the Social Security fund, as just one example, it keeps happening, again and again, over the years.
AARP?
Silent. Deafeningly silent. Not a word.
If you're a member and get their magazine in the mail, what are the articles about? Some examples:
--Commit Yourself to an Exercise Routine
--Get Financial Advice Without Going Broke
--Test Your Knowledge of Voting Facts
--Find the Best Health Care Where You Live
And this one. I love this next one:
--Why a Vacation Might Make You Feel Better
Like we need an article for that.
All no doubt fine articles but let me say this again---ONE POLITICAL PARTY IS REPEATEDLY, OVER THE YEARS, WORKING, FIGHTING TO DEPLETE THE SOCIAL SECURITY FUND.
And if you're an AARP member, you wouldn't know it.
It's almost as though they don't want to upset or alienate any people in that political party--let's go ahead and say it---Republicans, either members or, God forbid, members of Congress.
Sure, don't upset any Republican or Republicans, even though they vote and have voted, time and again, to drain the Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid funds for other purposes.
And the latest use or attempted use of Social Security funds?
Well, those pesky Republicans voted for TAX CUTS FOR THE ALREADY-WEALTHY AND CORPORATIONS earlier this year. It's blowing up the deficit so THEY WANT TO TAKE MONEY FROM SOCIAL SECURITY and what they call "entitlements" to pay for those now deficits. Don't believe it? Check out the very recent headline:
The deficit is rising, so Republicans want to cut Social Security, Medicare
GOP introduces plan to
massively cut Social Security
You would think that, since they're supposed to be for retired people--it is in their name, after all--that each and every time a politician, any politician, from any party, even mentioned, once, aloud, draining the Social Security fund or Medicare or Medicaid, that that same organization would be screaming bloody murder to its members to, for heaven sake, contact their representative and express their disbelief and strong support for these programs.
But AARP?
Not a word. Never. Not a peep.
But if you want a tote bag with your new membership and 5% off your next purchase of some tchotchke or a roadside atlas or advice on why you might enjoy a vacation, well, then, AARP is just the group for you.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
The Republicans Are Shattering the Nation, Honestly
Besides the fantastic leaders the Republicans have foisted on us---think Nixon, Trump and Greitens, as just 3 quick examples--it seems we just keep getting yet more gifts from these people. This news story broke today.
The US's national debt spiked $1 trillion
in less than 6 months
So they railed against big budgets and too much spending for 8 years while a Democrat was in the White House but when they get their own man in there, what do they do? Do they slash spending and whittle down the deficit they hate so much?
Heck no!
They've done quite the opposite, as we keep seeing! First it was with their budget giveaway for the already-wealthy and corporations.
Not done there, they also did their best to increase other spending and unnecessary, at that.
Then look what they've done to "Obamacare" and health care in the nation, folks.
The stupidity of Trumpcare: Government will spend $33 billion more to cover 8.9 million fewer Americans, as premiums soar
They wanted to make sure they undid President Obama's legacy on health care, for sure. So we'll all be paying more for health insurance, fewer will have coverage and so, access to health care and then the nation will spend more to get it all.
Fantastic, no?
Finally, here are just two of the results of their tax plan.
They famously, even infamously did it in and to Kansas, as we all watched, right next door, from 2012 to today with Governor Brownback's and the Republican Party's tax cuts for the already-wealthy and corporations.
Did anyone learn?
Oh, heck no. So here we go again. Some more. But on a larger, national scale now.
God help them if they go after Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other budgets.
For the love of God and all that's good, someone, someone tell me why anyone but the wealthy votes Republican.
Monday, July 31, 2017
It's Cool to Trash Gubmint
I am really more than a bit tired of the trend--because that's all it is, a trend--to be against or to out and out hate government.
Like most trends, it's tiresome but this one goes beyond that. It's not just wrong but wrong-headed, too
Seems Right Wingers and Republicans and Libertarians, all, at minimum, like to rail against government. They sometimes literally say or will write, on social media, that "government doesn't do anything right."
To that I like to point out just a few of the things government has gotten us all.
The Interstate Highway System
The Social Security system, which lifted millions of Americans out of poverty and keeps millions more out of same.
And then there's Medicare.
Note that's "healthy and employed" so they can stay at work and be productive and benefit our society, locally and nationally. So there aren't just costs to Medicare and Medicaid, to be clear. There are benefits as well.
Heck, "gubmint" took us all, took man to the moon, for God's sake, no small task.
Government cleaned up some of our dirtiest and most-polluted rivers.
Including, of course, the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency.
Heck, at one point, at least a few of our rivers were so polluted, they actually caught fire.
And these are just a few, quick examples of how government actually not only works for us but helps us all, individually and collectively.
Again, this is a case of all of us benefiting, too, due to "gubmint", these regulations called the Clean Air Act of 1970 and what it's done for us. We live longer lives, better lives, healthier lives and so, more productive lives because we require companies to pollute less. It's a total win for all, including those companies.
Have governments, has our government, at times gone wrong, done wrong by the very people it is to serve?
Of course.
Of course.
Has there been, is there waste in government?
Most certainly.
But it's up to us, the people, to keep our government on the "straight and narrow." Things will go wrong, things will be done poorly or wrongly and/or not at all, at times. But government can do and has done great things, over time, certainly.
Government is, after all, us, we the people.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Republicans, Their AHCA, aka "Trumpcare", at Last
Cut health insurance coverage for 23 million Americans?
Slash Medicaid?
Make it harder for the elderly to get health insurance?
Make it harder for the disabled to have health insurance?
Make it harder for America's Veterans to have health insurance?
Make it harder for women to have health insurance?
Make it harder for families to have health insurance?
Take away the mandate for those with pre-existing conditions to get and have health insurance?
Make it harder for women to have health insurance?
Make it harder for families to have health insurance?
Take away the mandate for those with pre-existing conditions to get and have health insurance?
But give yet more tax cuts to the already-wealthy?
Really?
This is who we are?
This is who we want to be?
Tell us how this isn't oligarchy and plutocracy, both.
Fortunately, there is this.
Four GOP senators say they can't vote
for Republican health care bill
And it only takes 4 Republicans defecting to kill it. There's no telling how many more won't be able to back it, as word of this nightmare gets out.
One last note. Check out what happened at the very cowardly and heartless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office today, too.
This is not going to go well. It's not going to go well for them. How every Republican in Congress isn't already running from this thing, this health care nightmare, is anyone's guess.
I will be very, very surprised if this bill of theirs, the Republicans, isn't DOA.
Already.
Links:
Here's the simplest takedown of the Republican scheme to take away health care from millions
This is not going to go well. It's not going to go well for them. How every Republican in Congress isn't already running from this thing, this health care nightmare, is anyone's guess.
I will be very, very surprised if this bill of theirs, the Republicans, isn't DOA.
Already.
Links:
Here's the simplest takedown of the Republican scheme to take away health care from millions
Senate's health care bill shreds Medicaid
and essential health benefits
The people who will be hurt the most
by Trump's Medicaid plan
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Senator Roy Blunt Is Lying To Missourians and America About Health Care Today
Obamacare is imploding. In Missouri, premiums on the Obamacare exchanges have increased by 145 percent, on average, since 2013, and 25 counties may have no provider offering health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges next year.
That's what he says and what Republicans in that political party want us to believe but here are the facts.
First, Obamacare is anything but "imploding."
More Americans have health insurance
than ever
Even doctors support it.
Even doctors who voted Trump support Obamacare.
Their plan, the Republicans' plan, the AHCA, "Trumpcare", would hurt the disabled, for starters.
Their plan would also hurt the poor.
It would hurt the elderly.
it would hurt Veterans, for God's sake.
Heck, even their supposed leader, President Trump calls it out for what it is.
And why wouldn't he call it mean?
So just who would or does their ultra-secret plan help? Take a guess. It's Republicans, after all.
If you already have money, here's yet one more plan--and a great one--for you. If you're sick or get sick or you're elderly or disabled or a Veteran?
It sucks to be you.
So while the rich get even richer, more Americans would be dropped from heath care insurance, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office or CBO.
That isn't even touching exactly how they're writing their horrible health care bill for nation.
The fact is, right now, Americans very much support the current plan, the ACA, "Obamacare. This is from February of this year.
And this is from April of this year.
And if Obamacare is "imploding", how do Americans feel about the Republicans' upcoming plan?
Check out exactly how few Americans support the Republicans' new plan for us.
So, it seems clear here, given all the above, that Senator Blunt and any and all like him who would say or are saying that Obamacare is collapsing in on itself and/or that Americans don't want or don't like Obamacare clearly don't know the facts or, especially, the wishes of the American people.
Don't tell us it's raining, Senator Blunt. We know better.
Monday, September 14, 2015
Missouri, Ferguson, Racism and Possible Solutions in the NYT today
From the New York Times "Monday briefing":
Racial inequality in Missouri
A commission appointed by the governor after the death of Michael Brown in August 2014 is calling for sweeping changes on matters of policing, the courts, education, health care, housing and more.
Among the top priorities outlined in the 198-page report that will be made public in Ferguson, Mo., this afternoon: increasing the minimum wage, expanding eligibility for Medicaid and consolidating the patchwork of 60 police forces and 81 municipal courts that cover St. Louis and its suburbs.
The full article is here:
Here's hoping there are improvements. And soon.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Thursday, November 20, 2014
The Seven Biggest Economic Lies (guest post)
The Seven Biggest Economic Lies from economist Robert Reich:
1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else.
Baloney.
Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans' wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and has dropped since George W. Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.
2. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth.
False.
From the end of World War II until 1981, the richest Americans faced a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent or above. Under Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Even after all deductions and credits, the top taxes on the very rich were far higher than they've been since. Yet the economy grew faster during those years than it has since. (Don't believe small businesses would be hurt by a higher marginal tax; fewer than 2 percent of small business owners are in the highest tax bracket.)
3. Shrinking government generates more jobs.
Wrong again.
It means fewer government workers -- everyone from teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and social workers at the state and local levels to safety inspectors and military personnel at the federal. And fewer government contractors, who would employ fewer private-sector workers. According to Moody's economist Mark Zandi (a campaign advisor to John McCain), the $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP will cost the economy 700,000 jobs this year and next.
4. Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than boosting the economy.
Untrue.
With so many Americans out of work, budget cuts now will shrink the economy. They'll increase unemployment and reduce tax revenues. That will worsen the ratio of the debt to the total economy. The first priority must be getting jobs and growth back by boosting the economy. Only then, when jobs and growth are returning vigorously, should we turn to cutting the deficit.
5. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget deficits.
Wrong.
Medicare and Medicaid spending is rising quickly, to be sure. But that's because the nation's health-care costs are rising so fast. One of the best ways of slowing these costs is to use Medicare and Medicaid's bargaining power over drug companies and hospitals to reduce costs, and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for-healthy outcomes system. And since Medicare has far lower administrative costs than private health insurers, we should make Medicare available to everyone.
6. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.
Don't believe it.
Social Security is solvent for the next 26 years. It could be solvent for the next century if we raised the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800.
7. It's unfair that lower-income Americans don't pay income tax.
Wrong.
There's nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user fees, and tolls than everyone else.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Republican, Right Wing goals don't work
What Republican, Right Wing, "small government" policies are resulting in clear and obvious results in the South:
First off, poverty rates are a lot higher in the South.
In fact, as many as one in four Southern kids lives in poverty, compared to the national average of one in five.
In the map above, red shading indicates a poverty rates between 17.9 and 22.8 percent. Orange indicates 15.9 to 17.8 percent; light orange, 12.2-15.8 percent; pale yellow, 9 to 12.1 percent. As you can see, there's a lot of high-poverty red in the South.
And minimum wages are much lower.
Virtually no Southern states, with the exception of Florida, have a minimum wage higher than the federal floor of $7.25 an hour. Many Southern states do have relatively low living costs. But they are not dramatically lower than costs of living in other states, such as Ohio and Missouri, that have set minimum wages at least slightly higher than the national limit. The Southern states are doing the absolute minimum for their poorest citizens by keeping the minimum wage at the lowest levels possible.
And people living in the South are a lot less likely to move up the economic ladder.
If you want to achieve the American Dream, don't move to the South. That's because states in the South have extremely low levels of economic mobility. In the map above, pale yellow represents places with higher mobility, while red indicates low mobility.
Many living in poverty in the South are being denied access to affordable health care.
States that didn't choose to expand Medicaid under Obamacare are highlighted in lighter gray.
...which is costing these states a ton of money.
This map shows how much money the 19 states that rejected Medicaid expansion will lose by 2022 as a result of doing so (assuming all other states participate).
This is particularly troubling because the South has several health crises on its hands. Like obesity.
Obesity rates are too high across the U.S. But they're particularly high in the South.
Southern states also have a higher percentage of cigarette smokers.
Most Southern states have a higher percentage of smokers than anywhere else in the country. Incidentally, most Southern states have relatively low taxes on cigarettes.
And a much higher rate of teen births.
The map plots birth rates among women ages 15 to 19. In states shaded dark blue, there are more than 50 births per 1,000 teenage women.
Perhaps all this is why some Southern states are among the least happy states in the country.
That's according to Gallup's recent "State of American Well-Being" report, which surveyed thousands of Americans and ranked states based on an average of six measures: "life evaluation," emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviors, work environment and basic access to things like food, water and shelter.
Sure seems like an indictment to me.
Link to original post: These 9 Maps Should Absolutely Outrage Southerners
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