The REAL Death Panels; Republican Governors Who Deny Health Care For 5 Million People

[napkinz]

Last edited Thu Apr 24, 2014, 05:28 PM - Edit history (1)

April 22, 2014
By Ronald DeGrove

Judging by the fruit of their labors, it seems it is morally acceptable to many Republicans, especially to Republican lawmakers at the state and federal level as well as many governors in the Greedy Old Party, for Americans who suffer from chronic health conditions and lack insurance coverage to just go ahead and die.

Writing for TPM Tuesday morning, Dylan Scott highlighted Governors Nathan Deal of GA and Sam Brownback of KS as examples of Republican state executives who are refusing to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Not content with opposition to the ACA from the Governor’s Mansions, their respective GOP controlled legislatures are working to cement into law the states refusal of health care for its poorest citizens. Georgia House Speaker David Ralston views this as an “opportunity to stake out the issue as policy.”

Sitting in high office across our nation are men and women who earnestly believe it is the best policy for their citizens to lack access to health coverage. There, ladies and gentlemen, are your death panels.

-snip-

The Kaiser Family Foundation issued a report last week entitled, The Coverage Gap: Uninsured Poor Adults in States That Do Not Expand Medicaid. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture for folks like Charlene Dill. The eligibility level for Medicaid is $27,000 a year for a family of three. That is, if your family earns more than $27k annually you are NOT eligible for Medicaid. That number is the federal level. State levels are often much lower, especially in states ruled by Republicans who have sold their collective souls to oppose President Obama and his signature domestic policy.

The KFF report goes on to say that, nearly five million American adults living below the poverty line have no access to health care because their governors and other elected representatives believe with a nearly religious fervor that it would be burdensome upon the citizens of their states to ensure that no one suffers needlessly. Twenty-four states have dug in their heels on this mean spirited policy, and just as the Speaker from Georgia said, it is a policy. A political policy to make sure, with purpose and with malice aforethought, they put in place laws to prevent poor citizens of this nation from receiving the necessary medical attention that may save their lives. Twenty-four governors calculate that it is a better idea to deny health coverage to people earning less than $27,000 dollars a year. Remember, that figure is for a family of three. The average cut off salary in these states is $9,000 a year. If you make over $9,000 a year you are on your own for health insurance in most red states.

The numbers of uninsured poor are staggering.

Florida 763,890
Georgia 409,350
North Carolina 318,710
South Carolina 194,330
Tennessee 161,650
Kansas 77,165
Texas 1,046,430.

read more: http://progressivepopulist.org/2014/04/22/real-death-panels-republican-governors-deny-health-care-5-million-people/

[sheshe2]

1. Exactly napkinz.

Death Panels R Us...signed the GOP.

[napkinz]

2. "Death Panels R Us"

that would make a great graphic ... just replace the giraffe with an elephant

[sheshe2]

3. It sure would!

GOTV2014!

Thanks for your great OP!

[napkinz]

7. I find myself posting about this issue almost every week

I wish that weren't so.

Shame on these Republican governors.

[napkinz]

5. and it's not just the governors ...

If You Don’t Have Healthcare, The GOP Doesn’t Care If You Die

RYAN DENSON


What kind of heartless monster would support the ER turning away an individual because they lack insurance or aren’t dying right there on the hospital floor? You guessed it! Republicans!

While prominent Republicans, like Mitt Romney, Jim DeMint and Haley Barbour have turned to the “ER’s will treat you” as a way to support the rejection of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, they are quickly changing their tunes. Now, instead of advocating for ERs to treat the uninsured like decent human beings, they aim to keep the uninsured from using emergency rooms at all. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal is lobbying on Congress to allow hospitals to turn people away from emergency rooms who lack health insurance. Let’s remember, President Reagan signed into law The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act is a 1986 which requires hospitals to provide emergency health care treatment to anyone who needs it, regardless of their citizenship or their ability to pay for the said treatments. But the Governor thinks this is all “bad facts” which made “bad law:”

“If they really want to get serious about lowering the cost of health care in this country, they would revisit another federal statute that has been there for a long time. It came as a result of bad facts, and we have a saying that bad facts make bad law.”

And with that, a Republican wants federally subsidized hospitals to turn away ill human beings who lack insurance. Certainly customary of the “pro-life” party, right?

Georgia Senatorial candidate and current Congressman Paul Broun (famous for his “science is lies straight from the pit of hell” comment) has introduced a bill that would allow ERs to treat only patients who they determine have an “emergency medical condition.”

“(Patient Option Act) Amends SSA title XVIII (Medicare) and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to allow certified medical professionals to assess the nature and extent of an emergency room patient’s illness or injury to determine whether an emergency medical condition exists (triage).”

read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/04/12/gop-doesnt-care-die/

[tabasco]

4. A crime against the American people

But your post is much too image intensive.

[meanit]

6. Almost everything

Republicans blame liberals for doing, are things that they are actually doing themselves.

[napkinz]

8. The Republican Medicaid Blockade: Time to Go on Offense on Health Care

Anna Galland
04/10/2014

-snip-

In two dozen states, Republican governors and state legislators are refusing to allow their constituents to take advantage of the expanded access to Medicaid that's part of the Affordable Care Act. As a result, more than 5 million Americans are being denied health care -- many are getting sick and some will die.

That's appalling. For no good reason other than pure ideology -- and that it underscores just how stridently they oppose President Obama -- these Republican governors and legislators have set up a blockade between millions of their their constituents and the doctor's office.

It's not like there's a fiscal reason to keep people from getting health care through Medicaid. This program is a huge bargain for states. The federal government is committed to paying 90 percent or more of the cost, forever. State budgets would see significant savings from things like reduced emergency room visits. Ending the Medicaid blockade is the fiscally conservative thing to do.

And people in every state already pay taxes to fund Medicaid, so what these Republican governors and legislators are doing is essentially taxing their own citizens and then sending the money away to pay for coverage for people in other states. Call them "tax and send" Republicans.

read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-galland/the-republican-medicaid-b_b_5126528.html

[napkinz]

9. Bernie Sanders Lays The Smack-Down : GOP Freedom Is ‘The Freedom To Die’ (Video)

April 24, 2014
Bob Cull

Last week Bernie Sanders appeared with Ed Shultz on his MSNBC show where Ed asked him to discuss what he has said about the difference between the Democrats and Republicans when it comes to what freedom means.

“Ed, at the end of the day these guys have absolutely nothing to say,” Sanders said. “This is what the Republican platform is, despite the fact that the wealthiest people in this country are doing phenomenally well, what the Republican idea of freedom is is to give more tax breaks, huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. Under the Ryan budget the average millionaire gets 200,000 dollars a year in tax breaks.”

“One out of four corporations pay zero in taxes,” he continued, “they want to give even more tax breaks for large corporations. Meanwhile the people who are hurting, the middle class, the working class, low income people, what the Republican proposal in the Ryan budget is about and what all of these guys believe, is massive cuts to Medicare, transforming it from the program it is today, Medicaid, Pell Grants and education, horrendous cuts to Food Stamps.”

“So their definition of freedom is is that if you are 70 years of age and you are poor and you have no health insurance, you’re going to have the freedom literally to die,” he concluded.

read more: http://aattp.org/bernie-sanders-lays-the-smack-down-gop-freedom-is-the-freedom-to-die-video/

[moondust]

10. K/R

[napkinz]

11. kick

nt