Shut Out on Healthcare After Storm

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON — Like most of those whose lives were upended by Hurricane Katrina, 52-year-old school bus driver Emanuel Wilson can thank the federal government for the fact that he has money to pay rent. He's also been given food stamps to make sure he can buy groceries. And if he had young children, the government would almost certainly be helping them get back to school.

But what Wilson needs is chemotherapy, and that is something the government seems unable to help him with. Wilson was being treated with monthly chemo injections for his intestinal cancer before the hurricane.

He has been denied assistance largely because, before the storm, he had what the government says it wants every American to have: health insurance.
.....
He's not alone. Of 6,322 displaced households that had applied for Medicaid through Sept. 23 in Louisiana, more than half, 3,456, were not eligible under current rules, according to the state.

In the Senate, a bipartisan bill would open Medicaid — the federal program created to serve the needy — for tens of thousands of displaced people like Wilson for up to 10 months. The Bush administration opposes that, saying it would create a major new entitlement.........

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health9oct09,0,514336.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[mcscajun]

1. When even Newt Gingrich is showing more compassion than *

You know we're living in a parallel universe.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Wilson's predicament illustrated deeper problems with health coverage in America. The administration, he said, is missing an opportunity to use the disaster as a laboratory for reforms. But he also disagrees with the approach proposed in the Senate.

"We ought to give these people vouchers to buy private health insurance," Gingrich said. "There is no reason you can't help everybody who is displaced. If you voucherize everyone in this displaced group, that could be a major step toward a better healthcare system."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health9oct09,0,514336.story?coll=la-home-headlines