St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Racing to beat Medicaid cuts

[usregimechange]

By Ron Harris
Of the Post-Dispatch
05/30/2005

Thousands of poor, elderly and disabled Medicaid recipients across Missouri are hurrying into medical clinics and dentists' offices, hoping to get treatment before massive program cuts take effect and they lose their coverage in July or August.

Gov. Matt Blunt and the Legislature cut the budget and changed the law, so fewer people qualify for coverage under the joint federal-state health insurance program...

About 60,000 people will be eliminated because of the new income restrictions. Before the cuts, for instance, Medicaid covered those earning less than 75 percent of the poverty level. The new cap has been reduced to 23 percent. Consequently, a single parent with two children can earn no more than $292 a month to be eligible for Medicaid; for a mother with three kids, the lid is about $342, although her children still would be covered.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/2187F5D6B8E32644862570120013C827?OpenDocument

[TexasLawyer]

1. The lesson that Reagan taught America

This is how to make your deficits REALLY grow:

Force the working poor to quit their jobs. Punish them for job training and any attempt at bettering themselves.


Before the cuts, for instance, Medicaid covered those earning less than 75 percent of the poverty level. The new cap has been reduced to 23 percent. Consequently, a single parent with two children can earn no more than $292 a month to be eligible for Medicaid;

[rodeodance]

2. Jr. wants to rescure 8 celled tissues and we can not care of the ones who

on this Earth as citizens.

[usregimechange]

3. Life begins at conception and ends at birth you know.

[scratchtasia]

7. Except...

Except in the case of a persistent vegetative state. Now that's living.

[usregimechange]

12. Ha!

[wookie294]

4. Halliburton says, ''Thank you!''

[Paranoid_Portlander]

5. What happens to my very elderly aunt...

... who is presently not on Medicaid but plans to be on it soon because she is in a nursing home that charges $5300 per month? Her social security income is $600 per month. This is not a rhetorical question.

[usregimechange]

6. kick

[burythehatchet]

8. she is at the mercy of people who betrayed her

God help us.

[elehhhhna]

11. Good question.

That's why SS is referred to as "Mother-in-law insurance".

[usregimechange]

9. Suddenly gay marriage in Mass. isn't so important.

[usregimechange]

10. Is Missouri a test grounds for what America can look forward to?

[xmas74]

19. Yes.

Look at our governor and look who he's connected to.
Harry and Mel are rolling over in their graves as we speak. They would both hate what has happened to MO-especially Mel.
Let's hope that Robin (over Jay) takes on Matt in '08. She would be much better.

[usregimechange]

13. It is time we talked about moral values!

[Chicago Democrat]

14. OK HOW DOES A Parent with 2 KIDS live on $292 in the USA?!!!

Answer: She doesnt! This is insane and a NATIONAL DISGRACE!

[FlaGranny]

15. The only way I can think of

is to garbage dive behind the local restaurants for food and find a nice big cardboard box for shelter.

Edit: Add - begging on street corners.

[Roy]

32. Actually..

People have been arrested for taking food out of dumpsters here.

[HeeBGBz]

16. Baby Blunt strikes again

Evil little Bush clone

[progressoid]

17. $292 - That's about what Frist pays for a pair of shoes

[xmas74]

18. Strange part about that coverage

I have a friend who is putting herself through college. She is currently receiving TANF because her school does not want her to work while she is in the nursing program. She has one child. Total she receives monthly in TANF: $362 a month.
She gets welfare and she won't even qualify for Medicaid!

[usregimechange]

31. People will die because of this policy.

[hadrons]

20. check out these fools on Medicaid who voted for Blunt

Medicaid cuts could carry a political cost, too

By KEVIN MURPHY

The Kansas City Star

GERSTER, Mo. — Gary Ruckel, like most rural Missourians, backed Matt Blunt for governor last fall and voted other Republicans into legislative seats.

Ruckel agreed with Blunt on issues such as gun control and gay marriage, but he was not considering a subject that hit much closer to home: medical care.

So when Blunt proposed cuts in Medicaid last month that could cost Ruckel and his wife, Vivian Ruckel, some services, the couple had second thoughts about backing Republicans.

....

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/10929121.htm

He needs 9 different meds, she 20 (not a typo, 20) and these two fools only cared about gun control and gay marriage

[The_Casual_Observer]

26. He can use his gun to commit suicide after his pills run out.

God bless America.

[ninkasi]

21. Any time we are under Republican control...

the middle to lower classes get shafted. Conservatives talk about moral values, but what they really mean is that they get obsessive about sex...gay marriage, for example. They also want to control women's bodies, and her reproductive rights.

What their moral values do not cover are any of the things that common human decency should put first. We are the richest country in the world, but most of the wealth is held by a relatively small percentage of people.

We let our children starve and go homeless; we discard the elderly as being of no use; we let people die because they can not afford medical care.. .our so-called president is more concerned about frozen embryos than children already alive, but leading lives of wretched poverty and hopelessness.

It happens every time they control things. Every single time. Yet somehow, they have convinced the brain-dead that they are the party of morals, the party that values life. We are held in contempt by the rest of the world for good reason.

Just think of the good that the money used in Iraq to enrich the already obscenely rich, were used instead to take care of our own people. Instead, the neocons are willing to squander immense sums to invade another country, and cause them death, destruction, and grief. I don't understand how we can have so many people in this country who wear blinders, and don't see these things.

[ikojo]

28. It was a Democrat who pushed for and signed

Welfare "Reform". He did the Republican's work for them.

[ikojo]

29. It was a Democrat who pushed for and signed

Welfare "Reform". He did the Republican's work for them.

[usregimechange]

22. kick

[jbnow]

23. Don't understand how they can do it

for the elderly and disabled at least. SSI pays more then that cut off and if you get SSI you automatically get Medicaid. How can they change that?

For the poor parents it is no surprise. They join the rest of the working poor who have no kids and can't get Medicaid to begin with.

America should be ashamed. More hypocrisy to our claim of moral superiority...and still they want these permanent tax breaks, and every week I get mail telling me to call my reps to end the "death tax" that inconveniences the wealthy. Our jobs keep leaving, employer insurance less available and more expensive.

Great priorities.

[deadparrot]

24. Heh...that's our gub'ner.

Matt Blunt--Ain't nothin' but a family thing.

Daddy's the Majority Whip in the House. :puke:

[usregimechange]

27. Yeah, Daddy is my US rep to make matters worse.

:banghead:

[ikojo]

30. I think Baby Blunt has presidential aspirations

and that is scary. He is an Ashcroft clone.

[Jamison]

33. He does

He's stated before that he'd be interested in running for the Presidency someday...thankfully he'll be too young still in '08, but look out in '12. He's very power hungry.

[The_Casual_Observer]

25. A reminder: They can't even spend all the money they are sending to

help all the good freedom loving folks in Iraq.

[anitar1]

34. Govenor Matt Blunt must be chuckling over his

cocktails every evening for a job well done! I pray that Karma dumps on each and everyone of these scum.

[usregimechange]

35. Well he is about the most unpopular GOV. in the US right now.

[cap]

36. I hope this causes people to re-evaluate the role of government in their

lives. Big Government has equaled spend money on good-for-nothing blacks in Republican rhetoric. And now, folks who depend on government are seeing the payback for voting for that ideology. Let's see if free enterprise is gonna do anything for the folks on Medicaid. Make 'em go out and work!/sarcasm