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Related: About this forumPic Of The Moment: As Obamacare Signups Hit 8 Million, President Takes On Republican Governors
Obamacare Sign-Ups Hit 8 Million in Remarkable Turnaround
Obama Blasts GOP Govs Turning Down Medicaid Expansion: 'That's Wrong'
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central scrutinizer
(11,637 posts)That is the Republican way, except when they are actively working to punish anybody who isn't a millionaire.
lark
(23,061 posts)The a*holes in our right wing legislature approved gutting Medicaid and insisted on a ton of provisions limiting care. Since it's such a obvious ploy to not cover healthcare for the poor, ACHA has not approved the plan and has given FL. just a few weeks to come to the light of sanity. Of course, that doesn't exist for these idiot t-baggers so we face having Medicaid $ from the government cut 5% per month until it all goes away (at least that was my undetrstanding from the last article I read on this). Now, that's REALLY nuts. People on Medicaid would be limited to no more than 6 visits to primary care PER YEAR and 6 ED visits. How are people with high blood pressure who need numerous visits while trying to stabilize them going to live with these limits?
Did you also know that a lot of states don't cover all the people with incomes less than the federal poverty limit? It's true. In FL. only incomes 33-1/3% below the FPL are covered and in AL. I believe it's 18%. Since it's $11,900 for a single person, that means in FL must have income below $3986. to qualify. How the fuck does anyone live on that?
Republicans = a sickening species.
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)What sad is that the right wing brand was severely damaged by 2008...especially the Bush name. Obama could have further exposed their criminality once he had the levers of power at his disposal. But he wimped out. I'm not saying he could solve or change everything like people whine about but at least a speech or utilizing the bully pulpit like Reagan did would've been helpful. If Bush's crimes saw more light of day the public would be more against them. But instead Obama rehabilitated the Bush name, appeared in speeches beside him and paved the way for Jeb Bush to ascend even higher(along with all the Bush admin cronies from before) when the political pendulum swings back as it always does when people see the current leaders have changed little.
Stuart G
(38,410 posts)The residents of these states who are affected should be filled with rage! And, with that rage they (along with those who aren't affected but are also angry) should set up huge rallies with unbelievable numbers of people! Wouldn't that just make such a great statement???!!!
tooeyeten
(1,074 posts)They should be outraged, but who do they tell, who will listen, but more importantly who would report it?
Tarheel_Dem
(31,221 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)DhhD
(4,695 posts)Progressives: If we start with Obamacare and demand that our elected representative begin getting single payer started, then ever person can have almost free healthcare in the near future.
GOPers: Since we are paying for our private insurance through our employer, then we do not want others to have Obamacare at no cost to them even if it means that someday soon we could also have almost free healthcare through single payer while being employed. Le's all vote to destroy our health and lose our property to having an illness pop up as we as GOP supporters and voters, want to extend our working life maybe up to the age of 70 before receiving SS and the single payer Medicare.
DhhD
(4,695 posts)atmosphere like caring for the poor.
azureblue
(2,145 posts)"Are you a Christian? (of course they will say yes)
Is Christ your Lord and savior?
Then, to be a Christian, you must do as Christ taught, for as Jesus said, "by their fruits ye shall know them (Christians)"
So let me refer you to the Bible, the Book of Matthew, Chapter 25, beginning with verse 31. You do believe the Bible is the Word of God, don't you?
Let me quote to you the important part:
42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.
44 They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? 45 He will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. 46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
Now here is Christ telling you that if you do not help the sick, if you refuse to help them get care, then you are condemning yourself to eternal hell. Or, most likely, you are refusing Christ. No, sorry, there is no parsing the words of Christ. You can't be a Christian when is it convenient for you. So why do you want sick people to go without health care, even though Christ himself commands you do help them?"
This always locks up their brains, and most important, makes them doubt their own faith. They will try to dodge, evade, parse, deny, but you can respond with "remember Peter, who denied Christ? How many times will you deny Christ? You already have one count against you."
DhhD
(4,695 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)geretogo
(1,281 posts)azureblue
(2,145 posts)the point is to totally break the Repub framing, and use their most sensitive spot - their warped version of Christianity - against them. And phrase it the same way a preacher phrases it - that way, their Sunday sitting the pew reflex kicks in. Hit all the dogma trigger phrases quickly until they are overwhelmed. I will add a PS - often the response will be "well, we can agree to disagree", and the response is, "oh, you disagree with Jesus? All I am doing is telling you what Jesus says to do, and you do not not to do it."
sorechasm
(631 posts)''If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it.'' Stephen Colbert
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)...since the impotent/corrupt media won't say it.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)loud-mouthed, with a well-connected microphone.
santamargarita
(3,170 posts)tooeyeten
(1,074 posts)Has an alternative plan,
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/multimedia/video/8914576-171/jindal-administration-launches-health-initiative
Isn't he special?
Major Nikon
(36,818 posts)I believe that every Floridian who is sick should be able to see a doctor. Every person should get the necessary care to stay healthy and alive. Sadly, not every Floridian can afford health care.
One of my constituents, Charlene Dill, could not afford it. Last month, at 32, Charlene died of heart disease, leaving her three young children behind.
This young mother didn't have to die.
Charlene knew she had a heart problem, but she couldn't afford the medications and frequent visits to the doctor. She worked three jobs but earned only $11,000 last year. With only $11,000 to feed her three children, keep a roof over their heads and pay the property taxes on her trailer, Charlene couldn't afford standard health coverage. And because she made more than $5,400, she was not eligible for free or reduced-cost coverage under Florida Medicaid.
Floridians with annual incomes between $5,400 and $11,400 are stuck in the "Medicaid expansion gap." Charlene Dill was one of an estimated 1 million uninsured Floridians who fell into that gap. It cost Charlene her life.
When Congress passed Obamacare, it included a provision to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor, like Charlene. States expanding Medicaid would receive the full cost of that coverage from the federal government for three years, and then 90 percent of the cost after that. The U.S. Supreme Court determined that states could drop that expansion after the first three years, without penalty, and pay nothing.
The federal government committed more than $50 billion to fund Florida's Medicaid expansion. You might think that our cash-strapped state would be clamoring for money to provide health care to the sick and poor. But you would be wrong. Republican ideologues in the Legislature refused the money. And now, Charlene Dill is gone.
Florida has the second highest rate of uninsured individuals in the nation. Twenty percent of our state has no coverage. When these people get sick, they go to the emergency room. Emergency rooms cannot provide long-term care, manage chronic health conditions or provide lifesaving treatments on a one-off basis.
Charlene could never get the care from one single visit to the emergency room that she needed to stay alive. And she won't be the only one. One study estimates that approximately 1,158 to 2,221 Floridians will die each year as a result of Republicans' stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid.
Even if you leave aside the obvious moral merit of providing health care to nearly 1 million Floridians, the GOP's refusal to expand Medicaid defies any economic sense. Florida's forfeiture of tens of billions of federal dollars means that our federal tax dollars will instead pay for health coverage for the working poor in New York, California and other states that expanded Medicaid. But our own residents will receive nothing. That's a high price to pay for the GOP's blind adherence to ideology.
The rejection of Medicaid funding is only the latest instance of our GOP state legislators putting party politics ahead of what's good for Florida. Their intractable opposition to the President has led them repeatedly to turn down federal aid with no strings attached - money that is urgently needed in central Florida.
In 2011, GOP lawmakers attempted to block $8.3 million in federal aid to allow the Osceola County Health Department to expand its community health centers. Why? Because they didn't like Obamacare.
Lawmakers also turned down $2.1 million over a five-year period to help elderly and disabled nursing home patients regain independence and move back home - again, because they didn't like Obamacare. (Ironically, the same legislators so morally opposed to accepting any money from Obamacare made an exception for $2.6 million in funding for "abstinence-only" sex education.)
Republican legislators argue that accepting funds from a bill that they opposed would be politically "inconsistent." But what is more important, saving face or saving lives?
To Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee, on behalf of all of Florida, I have one request of you: Choose life. Expand Medicaid. Take the money. And spare 1 million Floridians from suffering, from sickness and from death.
Charlene Dill: R.I.P.
Alan Grayson,
US House Representative (D-FL 9th District)
Cha
(296,796 posts)AllyCat
(16,139 posts)Off Badgercare. We had a great program. Now he's made it less accessible.
MADem
(135,425 posts)So glad that he has articulated this.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)That gets right to the point.
indepat
(20,899 posts)Response to EarlG (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Oct 2013
If you happened to catch yesterdays House Energy and Commerce Committee hearings on the failures and foibles of the Obamacare website launchor as New Jersey Democrat Frank Palone so aptly named the proceedings, the monkey court you heard Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) argue that a line of source code embedded in the software that operates the website violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, better know as HIPAA, and infringes on our medical privacy rights.
(clip)
It was exactly the sort of ignorant performance weve come to expect from so many GOP Members of Congress based on their theory that when you dont know the facts or understand the law, it is best to bang your shoe on the table loudly and hope that someone just might pay attention to you.
In this instance, no matter how hard Barton bangs or barks, it will not make his argument any better when it comes to the real world where those of us who are not Members of the House GOP caucus live. It will also not protect Mr. Barton from being exposed as either a completely dishonest participant in the hearings or, put simply, wholly and completely ignorant of the law he sought to use to make his point.
For starters, Congressman Barton, it might pain you to know that the HIPAA law doesnt even apply to the healthcare.gov website!
...(more at link if you care to read)
ailsagirl
(22,885 posts)I don't know how many ways we've said it over the years-- but periodically I have to reiterate it for my own mental health