Gov. Perry Wants to Eliminate Medicaid and CHIPs (Child Health Program) in Texas

Why not secede from the federal government?

 

if an adult (parent) sucks and will not get a job, or wastes money on something else instead of getting insurance for there child. why take insurance away from a little itty bitty micro baby?

im joking that sounds like a great plan. i say start 2 to 3 more wars and stop having school for kids past the 5th grade, except for the very smartest and start making them work in the factories. making bombs and such.

 

Medicaid is a state program not federal that is Medicare. Every state but AZ has Medicaid and recieves federal matching funds for providing basic services. AZ has a similar system called ACHHS.

Also states have what's called reciprocity where if you have Medicaid from TX and you go to NM and get hurt the NM hospital will recieve funding from TX Medicaid according to their fee schedule.

Each state administers its own Medicaid program, if Perry wanted to eliminate Medicaid he probably could, the federal government has no say in it. However Texas would have a HUGE problem on their hands because it is a federal law that ERs must stabilize patients even if they cannot pay. Without Medicaid all of the poor would go to the ER for EVERYTHING, bankrupting the hospitals. The federal government would have to bailout the hospitals through the Disproportionate Share System, (which they already do yearly). I wonder on those grounds if the federal government could block this? Doubtful...

God forgive me but I would love to see this happen just to watch Perry preside over a literal bankruptcy of just about every hospital in Texas.

 

Rick Perry is not, in any way, a libertarian. A libertarian might not agree with forcing people to pay taxes to support welfare, but no libertarian would propose that people who're dependent on welfare simply be tossed to the wind. Things are never just one way or the other. It's the pervasiveness of this point of view that turns all political discussion into a gathering of monkeys flinging feces at each other.

 

Does medicaid eligibility change between states? I think it does. I think some states take household income, while others take family income for instance(may be confusing with WIC). It gets so confusing since its a federal program administered by the states. My kids are currently on medicaid, and will soon be transferred onto Peachcare which I believe is GA's CHIP program.

I'd agree that leaving each state up to itself to have medicaid type benefits could have bad consequences.

My problem with Medicaid is that it is an all or nothing program. Making one dollar more than another person could cost you thousands of dollars worth of benefits. We have this guy who works as our janitor once a week. If he makes over $600 for two consecutive months, he loses his medicaid benefit. He has had to work fewer hours at times or have his pay delayed to a less busy month in order to comply with the income limitation.

 

Medicaid does have a spend down component:

http://www.lawv.net/Home/PublicWeb/Library/Documents/MedicaidSpendDown

This is a program for people who have too much income for the regular Medicaid program, but who also have high medical bills. In this program Medicaid can pay some, but not all, of your medical bills.

You must show your medical bills are equal to a required dollar amount. Once you do that Medicaid will pay any additional medical bills. In effect, you "spend down" your income by meeting some of the medical bills.

It is like paying a “deductible” in an insurance policy. You have to pay some first. Then Medicaid will cover the rest.

This benefit is granted for six months at a time. Every six months you will have to meet a new “spend down amount.”

You will be responsible for all medical bills up to your “spend down amount.” Medicaid will cover all medical costs above that amount for the rest of that six month period.

 

Yes that's exactly part of the problem. Working too much can cost you your medicaid. It would be nice to have a single payer system where all of that didn't matter. Then the more you worked just meant you got to take home more money which you could spend on your family and pour back into the economy.

 

I'm pro-life! Until you get born, then f*** you, kid!

 

Does he realize that if his kids get sick and he takes them to the ER he will not only be one of those free loading liberals but will also cost the health care system more than if he was on CHIP in the first place?

 

Of course not. He's a moron, obviously. In fact, he probably thinks that, unlike those other free-loading welfare moms in the ER, he paid for this service fair and square with his oppressively high taxes.

 

I didn't think there was such a thing.

 

hey, i was able to rep you.

no kidding..this is disgusting.

 

Ha, you stole my conan quote.

Although I took it out of my sig after about 6 months, so I suppose you can borrow it

 

glynch thinks neocon/republican/conservative = libertarian. he really knows nothing about libertarianism so dont pay attention to him when he tries to link the two.

 

i didn't realize you had it in your sig! :grin:

 

Really you'd be better of just not paying attention to him in general.

 

On the other hand, most so-called libertarians know nothing about libertarianism as well.

 

What about Emeril, Rachel Ray, Gordon Ramsey and Martha Stewart?