Utahns: Mandated charity work for Medicaid is ‘demeaning’

[dkf]

Annette Wright minces no words when asked about the prospect of having to do community service for her Medicaid coverage.

It’s “crazy” and “demeaning,” because it presumes people on the low-income health care program don’t already give back, said the 54-year-old career actress. “Volunteering should come from the heart. It’s something you do because you want to, not because you have to. What they’re doing is more like coercion.”

Such was the prevailing sentiment Thursday at a public hearing on an experiment that, if approved by the federal government, would require fewer than 100 Medicaid recipients to do charity work in exchange for health insurance. The pilot program is meant to build a sense of community, not punish the poor, said its architect, Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland.

“A participant will feel more involved,” says a blueprint proposal. “The spirit of entitlement will be lessened; less of a handout and more of an earning.”

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52937702-78/health-medicaid-service-federal.html.csp

[joeybee12]

1. No, the participant will feel under house arrest...

Maybe this asshole Menlove should be forced to "volunteer" for something.

[Fumesucker]

2. Wouldn't this violate equal protection?

If only some Medicaid recipients have to "volunteer"?

[kestrel91316]

8. It's an experiment. I think not.

[Fumesucker]

10. We've had social experiments before...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment

[Brickbat]

3. Wait, Republicans mandating the building of a sense of community?

Head asplode.

[tularetom]

4. When I first read this it looked like a good idea

Community service is what we all should do more of.

Then I read the comments by the republican who authored the bill. Unfortunately, it appears the intent of this bill IS to punish the poor. You can tell by the use of the words "handout" and "spirit of entitlement". These are dog whistle buzzwords meaning "unworthy poor people getting something for nothing from my tax dollars".

[geardaddy]

5. Disgusting.

[backtoblue]

6. same thing as community service for crimes.

nt.

[Newest Reality]

7. The Repugs are Persistent

It seems they keep fielding ways to break our safety nets to see how the flag will fly. Why not stick your foot in the door and see if you can make the sale before somebody can slam it shut?

The spirit of entitlement lessened? Handout? That is a hysterical tragedy in practice. It can be viewed as an example of manipulative Newspeak that conveys a message that what each of us pays out for a common provision for care and well being is somehow nothing more than a handout. They even pervert the meaning of the entitlement itself to confuse people with some notion that what you are entitled to by social contract is some form of charity.

If there is no right to anything concerning basic needs when you are not able to obtain the ways and means to procure them and then are told that you must earn them, regardless of your circumstances, then what meaning or value does rights, dignity and the value of each of us have?

The value of our care of the poor, the sick, the old is immeasurable and vital to all of us because we do not exist separately, in a Randian illusion of complete Independence. There will be a greater price to pay, by those who are able-bodied or financially viable in this society. It will be paid with with a greater percentage of interest and thusly, be far more expensive in ways that go beyond financial costs, to pay.

[arbusto_baboso]

9. This is the same kind of humiliating requirement...

that the Mormon church requires of any church members it finacially assists.

NOW do you see why I keep calling it a fucking cult???