States Rein In Health Costs (as Federal aid drops) -LAT

[Rose Siding]

SIKESTON, Mo. — Hundreds of thousands of poor people across the nation will lose their state-subsidized health insurance in the coming months as legislators scramble to hold down the enormous — and ever-escalating — cost of Medicaid.

Here in impoverished southeast Missouri, nurses at a family health clinic stash drug samples for patients they know won't be able to afford their prescriptions after their coverage is eliminated this summer. Doctors try to comfort waitresses, sales clerks and others who will soon lose coverage for medical, dental and mental healthcare.
....
In Tennessee, Gov. Phil Bredesen plans to end coverage for more than 320,000 adults, many of them elderly. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to shift more Medicaid recipients into managed care and require some to pay monthly premiums.
....
State Rep. Trent Skaggs, a Democrat from Kansas City, considers the new rules cruel, especially at a time when more than 45 million Americans lack insurance. He worries parents will stop working so their income will drop low enough to qualify their family for free care.

Rather than raise costs for minimum-wage clerks, Skaggs suggests increasing insurance premiums for lawmakers who get health coverage through the state. He recently introduced a measure that would have cost the average politician $115 a month — the measure failed on a close vote.

........MORE........

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-medicaid24apr24,0,3416218.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[rockedthevoteinMA]

1. Here's a petition set up for this reason...

http://www.medicaidmatters.org

[Lindsey]

2. I just read this and it absolutley makes me enraged!!!!!!

How "Christian" of these Bush voters to destroy the poor and downtrodden. What in the HELL are people thinking? I think Missouri was a red state. But it's not just Missouri......it's going to happen all over the country. I feel terrible for those who voted for Kerry who are involved in this travesty, but for those who voted for Bush and will loose their coverage - "f" them (I'm sorry, but this really upsets me as both of my sisters are disabled). :-(

[rodeodance]

3. I am with you--and lets hope this is one straw that breaks the camels back

[rodeodance]

4. yesterday in Bush's radio address he again told Congress to cut Med-

icaid and in the same breath asked for 80plus BILLION for the wars!!

[Trillo]

5. A living wage would also mitigate the problem,

but employers have the politicians so wrapped around their self-interest fingers it doesn't appear to be something legislators can get passed. Skagg's observation that some parents might stop working to decrease their income to quality would certainly be one type of passive (or is it active?) resistance to the tyranny the whole system is imposing on them.

[hadrons]

6. check out this 'red state' rural Missourians who are on Medicaid

Medicaid cuts could carry a political cost, too

GERSTER, Mo. — Gary Ruckel, like most rural Missourians, backed Matt Blunt for governor last fall and voted other Republicans into legislative seats.

Ruckel agreed with Blunt on issues such as gun control and gay marriage, but he was not considering a subject that hit much closer to home: medical care.

So when Blunt proposed cuts in Medicaid last month that could cost Ruckel and his wife, Vivian Ruckel, some services, the couple had second thoughts about backing Republicans.

“It kind of jumps back and kicks you in the teeth, is what it does, because I wasn't planning on this,” said Ruckel, who lives about 50 miles north of Springfield. “If they cut back on Medicaid, it's going to crucify us, because we don't make that much.”

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/10929121.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

read this: Ruckel and his wife, both 64, said they were among those in need. Ruckel, a former police officer and prison guard, has emphysema, arthritis, a spinal defect and other ailments. His wife is in worse shape, suffering heart and lung ailments, and kidney disease. She tires quickly and cannot do much outside the home. Ruckel is on nine medications; his wife is on 21.

what issues were they worried about??? gun control and gay marriage :eyes:

[ninkasi]

7. That's what we all predicted here at DU

Funny, isn't it, how people can vote for the repukes because of issues like gay marriage, but when the tactics the right wingers also employ, like gutting social services hits them personally, they are in a state of shock. I wonder how many others will wonder, as they can no longer pay for medicine, as they have to curtail visits to their doctors, as they can no longer find jobs paying living wages, if pulling that Republican lever was worth it.

It's sad, but when the feelings and emotions of thousands of gay and lesbian couples are trampled on, when they can not make medical decisions for their partners of many years, or are kept away from their bedsides by relatives who refused to accept their children's gay parters, these people did not care. They had no sympathy for their feelings. They oh, so self-righteously proclaimed that these people were sinful, and not deserving of respect and acceptance.

Now it will come back to bite them; even worse, many people are going to die because of the Republican's policies. So, as they lose their lives, denied medicines and health care, I can only hope that preventing gay marriages and giving tax cut after tax cut to the obscenely rich will provide them comfort in their declining years. As far as the ones of us who tried to prevent the right wing takeover, and who voted for Democratic candidates, I genuinely grieve. What a pity that the rest of us must also be punished due to the ignorance of the rest.

[OzarkDem]

9. Well, duh, Mr. & Mrs. Ruckel

Sometimes failure is a good teacher.

These people are so out of touch its impossible to reason or communicate with them any longer except in the most brutal fashion.

Al Gore repeated endlessly that this would happen in 2000.

John Kerry repeated the same thing endlessly in 2004.

Its also likely they'll convince themselves their misfortune isn't Bush's fault in 2006 and 2008.

How else can you get through to them?

[Rose Siding]

8. ABC's version: US Govs "may have poor pay larger share"

U.S. Governors Consider Medicaid Reform
U.S. Governors May Have Poor Pay Larger Share of Health Care Bills As Part of Medicaid Reform

Apr 24, 2005 — The nation's governors, weighing what to tell Congress they want from Medicaid reform, may take aim at the common practice of seniors giving away their assets so the government pays for nursing home care. They could also demand that the poor pay a share or a greater share of their health care bills.

Those proposals, along with more consumer-friendly recommendations like tax credits for long-term care insurance, are being circulated among the governors in a 12-page document a working draft of a statement that could be taken to Congress and the Bush administration. The idea is that the governors would have a united position in the debate over how to rein in soaring costs of the state-federal health care program for the poor.

Governors have not yet agreed on the recommendations and it's unclear yet whether a majority will, according to interviews with governors, state Medicaid officials, aides and health care professionals who have been involved or apprised of the discussions and seen the draft document.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=698706&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312