No Health for You
Good editorial on a meanspirited and terrible law taking effect today that in order to solve the non-problem of Medicaid-ineligibles getting benefits will result in a lot of Medicaid-eligibles not getting health care.
One shouldn't really assume that the GOP is acting in good faith here. I don't think they mistakenly believe there's a big problem here and are unintentionally going to deny benefits to people who are entitled to them. Rather, they don't want to make a frontal assault on Medicaid, but are actually happy to see poor people suffer without health care. Making it harder for people to claim legitimate benefits is a feature, not a bug, in this plan.
If, however, one were to discuss this issue in good faith it does strike me as possibly illustrating yet another reason why America should probably consider a national ID card. Passports and driver's licenses work pretty well for most people, but not well at all for the urban and/or elderly poor who rarely have the former and often lack the latter.
Geez, Matt, we really don't need a picture of you in front of every fucking post. Do something about it!
July 1, 2006 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ditto. On the picture thing. At very least, find a picture that doesn't make you look so shady.
July 1, 2006 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
What this will really do is penalize healthcare providers. They will still have to provide care (EMTLA) but will no longer be compensated for it, unless of course the states find a backdoor way to do so, as they probably will have to.
Still, wouldn't a valid social security number be adequete proof? I think almost everyone has one of those and while there are definitely some non-trivial glitches in SSA's database it's not difficult to check that SS# XXX-XX-XXXX belongs to John Doe. DMVs do it all the time now.
July 2, 2006 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
This makes me want to track down the kid I new in college who got arrested for making the best fake IDs Nashville PD ever saw and put him to work making fake passports for some of these people.....
July 2, 2006 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink