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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRick Perry...Texas Won’t Implement The Affordable Care Act, Leaving Millions of Texans Uninsured
Early Monday morning, Gov. Rick Perry (R) announced that Texas wont create a state insurance exchange nor accept expanded Medicaid funds outlined in the Affordable Care Act. In a statement, Perry said, Neither a state exchange nor the expansion of Medicaid under this program would result in better patient protection or in more affordable care.
Perrys announcement is an especially harmful move because Texas will benefit more from the Affordable Care Act than any other state. Texas was recently ranked worst in the country for health care delivery by the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, scoring weak or very weak in nine of 12 categories. Perrys office discounted the study as overly broad, and has argued that Texans real problem is personal health choices, not lack of health insurance.
More than 25 percent of Texans 6,234,900 people are uninsured, the highest rate in the nation. After five years of health reform, Texas would be able to insure 1,798,314 more Americans under the Medicaid expansion alone more than any state in the nation. Setting up a state health insurance exchange would enable the remaining millions of uninsured Texans to purchase affordable health insurance. Thus, despite Perrys claims, implementing the law would result in better patient protection and greater access to coverage.
Though the Supreme Court ruled that states can reject the expanded Medicaid funds without any penalty, any state that refuses to set up a health insurance exchange will have one set up for them by the federal government. This doesnt lessen the impact of Perrys decision to deny 1.8 million uninsured Texans the opportunity to be covered under Medicaid. He joins other Republican governors across the country in pledging to or considering turning down $258 billion in Medicaid funds and leaving 9.2 million Americans uninsured. A new study by the Brookings Institution found that states led by Republican governors have the most uninsured Americans, making political moves like Perrys particularly harmful to Americans health.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/07/09/512671/texas-wont-implement-obamacare/
February:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/02/28/433626/texas-medicaid-director-91-percent-of-texans-will-have-insurance-if-state-implements-obamacare/
LaurenG
(24,841 posts)dumbass. He's hard to get my head around.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)If he doesn't set up the exchange, the Federal Government will do it without his input.
thecrow
(5,519 posts)Indydem
(2,642 posts)"More than 25 percent of Texans 6,234,900 people are uninsured, the highest rate in the nation. After five years of health reform, Texas would be able to insure 1,798,314 more Americans under the Medicaid expansion alone"
AFTER 5 YEARS 4,436,586 PEOPLE WILL STILL BE UNINSURED. 5 FUCKING YEARS! AND THEY'LL BE PAYING A FUCKING PENALTY!!
So after 5 years, the uninsured rate will go from 25% to 18%? THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS.
ACA is a piece of shit. It always has been. I will never understand how so many liberals and progressives cheer this fucking turd that does NOTHING to help those who need it.
Single. Payer. NOW. Quit fucking around.
AFTER 5 YEARS 4,436,586 PEOPLE WILL STILL BE UNINSURED. 5 FUCKING YEARS! AND THEY'LL BE PAYING A FUCKING PENALTY!!
...rant assumes that only those eligible under Medicaid would become insured (subtracting the number of Medicaid eligible from the number of uninsured).
"ACA is a piece of shit."
Well, that's one way to describe 1,798,314 obtaining Medicaid coverage.
"Single. Payer. NOW. Quit fucking around."
Rick Perry will get right on that. In the mean time, ACA will provide coverage to millions more Americans.
Indydem
(2,642 posts)National single payer can't be stopped by a snot-nosed shit stain governor.
This half-assed exchange garbage can.
"This half-assed exchange garbage can."
That's as wrong as Perry's thinking. The exchanges are going to happen with or without him and his ilk.
The Affordable Care Act requires states to have exchanges. A state has several options: It can build the exchange itself, or it can collaborate with the federal government to build it, or it can let the federal government run it. The state has to tell the feds what path it has decided to take by mid-November. If the state does not want to run its own exchange, or collaborate with the feds to run it, the feds will begin setting up the exchange themselves in January.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/bobby-jindals-big-blow-for-states-rights/2012/06/29/gJQAm7F9BW_blog.html
Indydem
(2,642 posts)The federal government can set up a national exchange for citizens of any state that refuses to create their own, true.
But they were so worried about getting it mandated that we all buy a for-profit product we don't want that they forgot to implement funding for said federal exchange.
SO, those who live in states that refuse to establish exchanges will be SOL.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)msongs
(67,470 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)"More than 25 percent of Texans 6,234,900 people are uninsured, the highest rate in the nation. After five years of health reform, Texas would be able to insure 1,798,314 more Americans under the Medicaid expansion alone"
AFTER 5 YEARS 4,436,586 PEOPLE WILL STILL BE UNINSURED. 5 FUCKING YEARS! AND THEY'LL BE PAYING A FUCKING PENALTY!!
That is not correct. The ACA has multiple ways of getting coverage to folks currently uninsured. Medicaid expansion is only one of them.
Indydem
(2,642 posts)And giving subsidies to state exchanges for those who qualify.
If you don't qualify? Tough shit, buy the for-profit dog shit we order you to or we'll send the IRS after your $2050.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)get hit. I am a single payer proponent, but let's be honest and not talk about single payer as if its free.
Indydem
(2,642 posts)I am enraged that my government, with a gun to my head, is forcing me to buy insurance I don't want.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)You're right that there's no magic wand to make health care free. Someone has to pay the cost. But "the cost" is not a fixed amount. Getting the big for-profit insurance companies out of the picture would mean that the total cost of health care would no longer include the private insurers' administration costs (largely devoted to denying actual health care, but also including their advertising, plus big salaries for their executives and profits for their shareholders). The parallel costs under single payer would be much less. Single payer would also greatly reduce the extra work that health care providers must now do to deal with all the paperwork.
It's not free, but it comes a lot closer to free than does any system that depends on the for-profit insurers.
msongs
(67,470 posts)Volaris
(10,277 posts)like (I'm told--I have never lived there) it was before His Majesty the Shrub began his rise to power there, that is pretty big victory for Dem's...
gulliver
(13,198 posts)I hope he decides to become unofficial spokesman for Republicans on the issue.
ajain31
(63 posts)Hello Friends,
Governor Rick Perry millions of under-privileged poor Texans who do not have any Health Coverage will be covered under The Affordable Care ACT (ACA) expansion of MEDICAID!
My Physician wife's practice is partly dependent on MEDICAID and its viability. Please allow the expansion of MEDICAID to occur in Texas under The Affordable Care ACT.
FACT: If states choose to expand Medicaid, the federal government will cover 100 percent of the costs from 2014 to 2016. The feds' contribution will begin to decrease in 2017, but will never be less than 90 percent, under the ACA.
That's why I created a petition to Governor Rick Perry, Texas Governor, The Texas State House, The Texas State Senate, and Governor Rick Perry, which says:
"Please ACCEPT the FREE EXPANSION of MEDICAID under The Affordable Care ACT."
Will you sign this petition? Click here:
http://signon.org/sign/accept-free-expansion?source=c.em.cp&r_by=7268737
Thanks!
Ajay Jain
ajain31@gmail.com
Twitter Handle ajain31
Mobile: 214-207-9781