DIE POORS, Part 2

Appearing today in  Fosters is an opinion piece by GOP State Representatives Laurie Sanborn and Neal Kurk. It's titled: 

Expand Medicaid? Only if you want a state tax Increase

This tells you all you need to know about the level of concern these representatives have for the uninsured population of our state. Their quotes are in red. The opening lines:

Many people in New Hampshire believe that low-income New Hampshire adults should have health insurance. Some low-income adults have it now through their employers, but many do not.

Many people believe. Not these two! 

The sad reality is that, once New Hampshire expands Medicaid under Obamare, it will be politically impossible to stop it. Why? Because, for example, when costs inevitably rise, expansion supporters will successfully argue that the state cannot deprive 50-60,000 low-income individuals of their health insurance. 

Therefore the solution is to perpetuate the current level of deprivation! 

Are we discouraging people who are currently working part-time or in an entry level job from striving for full-time or a higher paying job, just to stay on taxpayer funded health care? 

Seriously? Do either of you two have a clue about the cost of living in this state, or the availability of jobs? Why not try talking to people outside of your sphere of glibertarian inanity? 

Is it fair to those who pay their full premiums, deductibles and co-pays to have fewer choices of hospitals and doctors than those who pay nothing for their health costs under Expanded Medicaid? 

LET THE POORS DIE! 

Is it fair that eligibility for expanded Medicaid is based on income only and not assets, so that a 50-year old who lives on a yacht and has a very low income qualifies for free health insurance?

I feel certain that the NH population of low income 50 year old yacht dwellers is roughly the same as the percentage of NH welfare recipients who drive Cadillacs.

Read the whole thing. Nowhere in this opinion piece will you find even the slightest expression of concern for the working poor in our state. 

DIE, POORS!

 Charlie Pierce on Senator Kelly Ayotte's appearance this week on Meet the Press:

I have to tell you, it takes a rare performance by one of The Sunday Showz to so dominate the weekend's gobshitery that we hardly even notice that Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-Weathervane) burbled the following English substitute in response to a question on health-care from The Dancin' Master.

Well, I would say let's get to the table on a bipartisan basis and let's make sure that we have a plan that has more choice, not less. Let's have one where we're driving down costs and increasing competition. Have the insurance companies compete in a way that they aren't right now. Let's get together and figure out what are the best models from the state law on the high-risk pools to address pre-existing conditions. There are many ideas I think that we could do that won't harm people who have policies now that they would like to keep. And I think that's the problem that we're seeing, is a law that harms so many people who right now were trying to do the right thing and have health insurance, and now they're receiving these cancellation notices and higher premiums. And it seems to me that we should work together to address this health care reform instead of the way this was done on party lines.

In other words, Senator Weathervane (thank you Charlie!) wants to keep on having the same ineffectual "discussion" the GOP has been having for decades about health care. The "discussion" that involves a lot of moving lips and hot air - and absolutely no action. 

This especially offends me:

And I think that's the problem that we're seeing, is a law that harms so many people who right now were trying to do the right thing and have health insurance, and now they're receiving these cancellation notices and higher premiums. 

Apparently those of us (and yes, this group includes me) who can't afford insurance are doing the wrong thing by choosing to pay our rent instead of getting health insurance? Ayotte has had plenty to say about the folks whose insurance is cancelled, but she's never expressed any interest in or concern for those of us who can't afford health insurance. 

The GOP health care plan: DIE, POORS!