Medicaid programs also a casualty of last night's surprise vote, angry advocates say WI

[iwishiwas]

Walker and his Repug poodles also hacked down Wisconsin's Badger Care program.

Medicaid programs also a casualty of last night's surprise vote, angry advocates say

SHAWN DOHERTY | The Capital Times | [e-mail] madison.com | (8) Comments | Posted: Thursday, March 10, 2011 10:00 am

...................Advocates were as caught by surprise as the rest of the state late yesterday afternoon as news spread that the Republicans would be splicing parts of the original bill, which Walker had insisted was a fiscal matter necessary to balance the budget, into a separate measure as a way to get around what had been holding the bill up for weeks---the need with any fiscal legislation to get a quorum of 20 senators, which in this case would have required one Democrat to be present along with the 19 Republicans.

To do this, Republicans hacked off not just the controversial collective bargaining pieces of the original legislation. They peeled off all the Medicaid provisions, too, which are equally Draconian and unprecedented.

I spoke to several advocates and analysts about what got passed last night, and they said that the language of the measure---which many of them had only received after the vote--- was so complex and confusing that aspects of it baffled them. Still, it appeared that the parts of the original legislation that had most concerned them were indeed part of the package approved last night.

These include provisions handing what would amount to unilateral authority to revamp and even gut the Medicaid programs, including changes in eligibility standards and benefits, to the state health department. For years, such changes have needed to go through a legislative process involving hearings and public input.

Making advocates especially nervous about this change is that the state's new secretary of health is Dennis W. Smith, a Washington bureaucrat well-known for his staunchly conservative views, including opposition to federal health care reform. As I have reported before, Smith as a senior fellow at the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation authored a series of memos advocating that states walk away entirely from Medicaid programs...........................


http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/vital_signs/article_b73d5b68-4b2e-11e0-be9f-001cc4c03286.html

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/vital_signs/article_bbc93402-19b7-11e0-98fe-001cc4c002e0.html

[tabatha]

1. Jeepers - the Koch brothers are taking over the country.

Illegally and with gangster tactics.

[jwirr]

2. This isn't the first branch of the Koch family to overstep their lines:

google Karl Otto Koch and Ilsa Koch. Great Nazi's.

[tabatha]

3. Any relation?

[jwirr]

4. I tried to look for one but couldn't find a link. This branch immigrated

from Darmstadt/Hesse in 1888 and the last KOK was born in that area of Germany in 1897. That is all I could find. Just thought it was interesting. Haters all.

[tabatha]

5. More Koch stuff.

As the days of Apartheid were ending, I was quite supportive of the solutions proposed in this book "After Apartheid The Solution for South Africa" (I once encountered one of the authors of this book).

I have just discovered that Charles Koch supported the writing of this book.

What made me look this up, is that I received some literature in conjunction with this book from the Cato Institute. I never joined or followed up, but have recently learned that the Cato institute is a Koch bros rag.

Disappointing to say the least.

[jwirr]

6. I haven' t read the book - what was their solution?

[tabatha]

7. It was to set up a system much like Swiss cantons.

Because of all of the tribes in South Africa it sounded like a good idea at the time.

But, it did not go that way, and probably a good idea that it did not.

However, a number of libertarian policies were implemented that have turned out to be more harmful than helpful - like privatizing water.

And I totally lost it, when I read that one of the authors had suggested privatizing the sea. I could not believe that anyone would propose such a dumb idea. Someone only without any understanding of ecology.

[jwirr]

8. Someone like a rethug. Thank you.