Medicaid

The Medicaid Cuts Affecting Children And Adults With Disabilities: The Safety Net Full Of Holes!

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It has been shown that children and adults with disabilities often cannot find medical doctors who will see them, and that seeing a specialist who is willing to accept Medicaid is a long drawn out process, even for those with severe health issues.

And state after state is cutting Medicaid access to more disabled people in the name of cost controls, and therefore sending a message that disabled people, supposedly covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, a proud moment in the administration of President George H. W. Bush, no longer matter in the name of tax cuts for the rich and the corporations!

What could be more obscene and disgraceful than to show lack of concern for the health of those among us who are basically being blamed for their disabilities!

What could be worse than to say that their lives do not matter, as long as the almighty dollar stands in the way!

The quality of life of disabled people is something those of us fortunate to have no such disabilities do not experience.

But there is a high level of immorality and indecency in allowing the abuse of those who wish they had no disabilities, and are being told they do not matter, and turning our eyes away!

Two decades after the ADA, we are seeing a major deterioration, with little conscience displayed by America’s governors and state legislatures. This says a lot about the concept of America as a special land better than anywhere else, a total lie if we can choose to victimize the helpless and justify it!

The Degradation And Abuse Of The Elderly In Florida: The Tip Of The Iceberg!

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The true character of a civilization is demonstrated by how it treats its elderly, and America does not look very good in that regard, and the forecast is that conditions will get much worse, particularly in the state which has more elderly citizens than any other, Florida!

An investigation by WLRN, the NPR station in South Florida, and the Miami Herald, has revealed shocking and horrific mistreatment of elderly in assisted living facilities, with lack of regulation and oversight by the Florida Agency of Health Care Administration. This is even before Governor Rick Scott and the overwhelmingly Republican legislature set out with the present massive budget cut to put all Medicaid patients into managed HMOs, a guarantee of even worse conditions in the future.

The stories of neglect and abuse are a scandal that the state of Florida should be ashamed of, but not in the present era of Rick Scott, who became wealthy by abuse and fraud in the hospital chain that he ran in the 1990s, and avoided prison by paying a heavy fine!

Anyone in their right mind who is elderly should have to start consideration of what will happen to him or her when disability or serious illness sets in, as to live in an assisted living facility, particularly in Florida, seems a ticket to a death sentence!

Obama Action On Bin Laden Proof John Kerry Was Right In 2004 Campaign Stand On War On Terror

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In 2004, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Presidential nominee, was trashed by the Bush Administration and Vice President Dick Cheney for his assertion that defeating terrorism was based on law enforcement, rather than constant military intervention!

Kerry said intelligence gathering and law enforcement, in cooperation with other nations, was the way to fight terrorism, rather than create military clashes with other civilizations.

Kerry also said that we should look at terrorism as a nuisance, not as a constant threat to everyone on a daily basis. If we militarize the struggle against terrorism, we will be involved in endless military confrontations, he declared! Instead, we should work to improve relations with the Islamic world!

Instead, we have spent four trillion dollars and lost 49,000 men, dead and wounded combined, in fighting an endless war against terrorism, which cannot be won by military strategy alone, as shown by the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The last decade did not have to be a decade of war, causing our tremendous national debt. We did not need to overreact as we did, and this will always be the condemnation that the Bush Administration deserves!

We live in a world now more unsafe than it was on September 12, 2001, and if we had had President Al Gore or President John Kerry, that would not have been the result, and we would not have to be considering destroying Medicare and Medicaid, and denying children educational needs, and damaging the environment, and the denial of civil liberties that was brought about by the Patriot Act hysteria right after September 11!

So although losing the Presidency, we owe gratitude to Senator John Kerry for his vision and wisdom, not appreciated by his countrymen in 2004!

Can The “Gang Of Six” In The Senate Promote A Solution To National Debt Crisis?

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In the midst of the national debt crisis, and the issue of the extension of the debt limit just around the corner, six US Senators, three Democrats and three Republicans, have been meeting for months trying to come up with a plan that can be accepted by both parties, and show the American people that the politicians in Washington can work together on an issue that is threatening the short term and long term stability of the economy.

The Democrats are Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, and Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota. The Republicans are Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and Senator Michael Crapo of Idaho.

No matter what these six Senators come up with, it could fail in the Republican controlled House of Representatives, if the extremist Tea Party people refuse to budge on tax reform or tax increases on the wealthy and corporations, even by getting rid of tax loopholes and tax breaks.

It is clear there will have to be not only tax increases, as well as cuts in military spending, but also reforms of Medicare and Medicaid that will not destroy the system but modify it, and long range planning to change the full Social Security age and tax all income on Social Security, instead of the limit on contributions now in the law.

This is a time for politicians to do what needs to be done, without fear of losing their seats in future elections, and to take the philosophical view that they would rather do what is proper and sensible to do, than to bend to extremists who have no understanding of the need for change, and only want to promote their one sided, impractical, and dangerous views of the future of the nation, despite the realities of the urgency of action!

The Lack Of Reality Of The American People As Shown In Public Opinion Polls

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It is becoming very clear that the American people, based on public opinion polls, at least, are living in a dream world, avoiding reality!

Polls indicate that the people do not want entitlement cuts to deal with the debt problems the nation faces.

At the same time, they do not want to see the debt limit raised next month!

The lack of economic knowledge and understanding is pitiful, as indeed many Americans lack the ability to balance their own checkbook or take care of their own finances, and yet, somehow, magically, they seem to think that the only thing that matters is do not touch anything, and refuse to recognize that entitlements must be paid for, and that the good faith and credit of the United States government is at stake if the debt limit is not raised!

While it is clear that most Americans want the corporations and the rich to pay more taxes, it is also clear that even doing so cannot resolve the debt or deficit crisis!

The fact is that all of us will have to pay MORE taxes in order to sustain the entitlements that most Americans do not want to be cut back! There is no free lunch, as the saying goes, and praying for divine guidance will also not be enough to deal with reality!

So the answer is to make sure that corporations and the top two percent of the people pay a higher tax rate as they paid under Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton.

Secondly, all of the rest of us will also have to pay higher taxes and stop complaining about it, since we want the various entitlement programs to be sustained.

Third, there is an essential requirement to start cutting back on overseas defense bases and military commitments, which are having a horrible effect on our budget deficits.

Fourth, there is a dire need to reform the Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security system long term, so as to sustain them. Anyone who suggests no changes is being totally irresponsible!

Fifth, the debt limit MUST be raised next month, as not to do so would be totally reckless, dangerous, and detrimental to the economic welfare of the nation, as well as the world at large!

Finally, the spirit of compromise somehow must be promoted, or else the nation will at some point be in as dangerous a situation internally as it was 150 years ago, with economic class warfare, age warfare, racial warfare in the offing, a horrific thought!

A spirit of nationalism, and bipartisanship, is sorely needed, and right now, to resolve the nation’s ills!

President Obama Comes Out Swinging: It’s About Time!

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Many liberals and progressives have been frustrated by President Obama’s desire to come across as moderate and to cooperate with the Republican Party opposition, despite their concerted campaign to oppose him in every possible way in the past two and a half years.

Obama’s willingness to compromise on the budget deal in December and again this month has made many wonder if Obama had the “cajones” to come out swinging against the GOP agenda to take us back to the 1920s, or even the Gilded Age of the late 19th century!

Obama’s speech this Wednesday resolved that issue, as the President came out in an assertive manner against the Paul Ryan plan to gut Medicare, and promote a ruthless cutting of the social safety and economic regulatory network that the Democrats set up under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society!

Obama declared that he will not allow the destruction of Medicare, in favor of a voucher system which would put senior citizens and disabled people back into poverty, as was the case before Johnson pushed through a way to promote dignity in old age by providing what every other industrial nation has, not only for older and disabled people, but all citizens in their nations!

Obama declared that he would not abandon the needs and security not only of senior citizens and the disabled, but also the young, the poor, and the average working man and woman, who is being victimized by a tax policy that has created more stratification of incomes than ever in American history, and greater than any other democratic nation in the world!

While there is a need for reforms within Medicare and Medicaid and other government programs, Obama said he would use a scalpel rather than a machete to deal with necessary changes.

He defended the rights of working people and the middle class, who have borne the burden of taxes, while the elite upper classes have been gaining tremendous tax breaks for the past decade, at the same time that the Bush Administration put us into tremendous national debt growth due to two unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a Prescription Drug Plan not paid for by taxpayers!

Obama emphasized the importance of investments in education, transportation infrastructure and energy research, and cuts in wasteful defense spending, of which there is much evidence, and the need to stop thinking of all defense expenditures as sacrosanct.

Obama also said what is going on is part of the perennial battle over the role and size of government, going back to the Founding Fathers (meaning the struggle between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson). We must understand, he declared, that this is a country which has a social compact to care about others, not just oneself, and that the concept of ME must be transformed to WE–that when some are victimized, the rest of us should be seen as lessened in our commitment to human dignity! The “American Dream” must be kept alive for future generations!

The Republican reaction was to say that Obama was overly “partisan”, as if they have not been such since Day One of the Obama Presidency!

The problem in reality is that Obama has not been partisan enough, and finally seems to have woken up to that fact, that this is a battle over the future of the country, and we cannot allow the extreme right wing of the GOP to win control of all branches of government!

We must fight back and give the Republican Party “hell” as Harry Truman did in 1948, and speak for real change as Franklin D. Roosevelt did with his New Deal in the 1930s and Lyndon Johnson did with his Great Society in the 1960s!

This is a battle to retain the political, social and economic reforms of the past hundred years, and to move into the future with optimism, and a belief that all citizens must play their role in the future of the nation, rather than the obsessive gathering of wealth at the expense of society at large!

So a salute to the President, and we look forward to a year and a half of active, aggressive campaigning by him as he seeks a second term in the White House, and a repudiation of the anti labor, anti women, anti children, anti elderly, anti poor, anti environment, anti science, anti health care, anti consumer regulation, anti financial regulation, anti education, anti Hispanic and Latino, anti African American, and ultimately anti middle class agenda of the Republican Party, and the Tea Party extremists within and outside the party establishment!

Chinks In The Armor Of Florida Governor Rick Scott Start To Show!

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Within just two days, Florida Governor Rick Scott, called by many Floridians “King Rick”, because of his arrogance, stubbornness, and dictatorial manner, which has alienated so many people that there are demands for a recall or impeachment of the Medicare scam Governor, has suddenly changed course!

After protests at his inhumane cuts to Medicaid by executive order, he has now bowed to the protests and is rescinding the cuts with the legislature being expected to provide funding to cover the costs he wanted to save.

Also, we have learned that the evidence and facts used by his counsel to make the case against the high speed rail project from Orlando to Tampa were untrue, although now that Florida has rejected those funds, which would have created thousands of jobs and improved the traffic situation in central Florida, it is unlikely that the federal funds will still be available!

Also, Scott has suddenly reversed on the database for prescription medications that he bitterly opposed as an invasion of privacy, despite the fact that Florida is the leading “pill mill” state, particularly for the dangerous drug Oxycodone. Now he reluctantly agrees to it, just as he was about to be blasted by a fellow Governor of Kentucky before a congressional hearing, who was ready to point out that Florida is the biggest source of pill addiction in the nation, and that 42 states already have data registries to keep track of pill sales and distribution!

Despite these concessions, done very reluctantly on the first and third issues listed above, and the likelihood that the high speed rail project is dead after the lies that were used to destroy the project, the move should still be on to remove Rick Scott from the office that he disgraces every day by his actions and words!

The State and Congressional Republicans: A Problem For Presidential “Possibility” Republicans!

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The Republican Party, state level and Congressional level, is moving so far to the right of center in American politics that they are presenting a real problem for Presidential “Possibility” Republicans, helping to spur those ambitious for the Presidency to hold back and reassess their chances! It is amazing that no major candidate has yet announced his or her run for the Presidency on the Republican side!

So many of the Republican Presidential field are as loony and dangerous as the state governors, the Tea Party House members, and Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who would wipe out Medicare and Medicaid as we know it, in a mad dash to cut taxes on the wealthy from 35 percent to 25 percent, making the Republican Party the opposite of Robin Hood–stealing from the masses to give more to the wealthy!

At this point, only a few Republican possibilities for President seem able to appeal to independents and the middle class–Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, Tim Pawlenty–but they would need to separate themselves from the hard right move of the GOP toward the lunatic fringe!

And if any of the three above were to separate themselves enough to win the nomination, they would have a massive headache as to how to move ahead as a centrist leader of a party that is far out of the mainstream!

As the GOP moves further to the right, therefore, the likelihood of an Obama win in 2012 grows geometrically, rather than arithmetically!

Florida’s Governor, The Republican Party, And The Attack On The Disabled: A Personal Note!

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The author of this blog is now facing the reality of what the Republican Party, the state of Florida, and Governor Rick Scott are perpetrating in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s!

The attack has begun on Medicare and Medicaid, with the proposal of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who proposes privatization of both programs over a ten year period for all under the age of 55, leading to vouchers in the future, which will not provide adequate medical coverage for the elderly, the sick, the poor, and the disabled who benefit from these two programs of the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson!

But meanwhile, in many states controlled by GOP Governors, including the state of Florida in which I live with my younger son, Paul, who is on Social Security, Medicare, and until March 31 of this year on Medicaid, the attack has begun to wipe out those on the Medicaid rolls, as simply too costly for these states!

Rather than raise taxes on the very wealthy and corporations, and certainly NOT lower taxes on these privileged groups, Rick Scott of Florida, along with Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Paul LePage of Maine, and others are rapidly wiping disabled people, such as my son, off of Medicaid, without any justification in writing, any explanation, any concern about what it might do to my son’s health and well being, and that of millions of others in these states!

After nine years on Medicaid, and thank God, not much use, but occasionally having hospital bills because of seizures, my son is now faced with the possibility that future visits to hospitals will result in a massive bill, as a backup to Medicare coverage, that he will not be able to pay at the age of 27, as he does not have the ability to support himself financially, although he works very hard and diligently as a usher at a local movie theatre for the past six years, but only earns about $2,000 a year.

Were it not for the death of his mother six years ago, Paul would not be on Medicare coverage, and would not have any Medicaid coverage now as a result of the decision of Rick Scott’s government in Florida to cut him off from medical benefits! Being unable to pay the bill that Medicaid would have covered, Paul’s small attempt to establish a good credit rating will be destroyed once he has a hospital bill he cannot pay. And, unfortunately, as a retired (at least full time) faculty member in a couple of months, the author will not have the ability or legal responsibility to be able to pay what is likely to be a hefty bill from the hospital in the thousands of dollars, when a hospital admission were to occur!

The author is also concerned at the danger that Paul’s expensive medication for his seizure issues, more than $1,000 a month, might possibly be taken away, and the author’s inability to pay out for that kind of medication out of his own retirement income, even with future part time teaching!

Paul’s situation is just one example of what millions of people across America will be facing with the heartless, aloof, unconcerned attitude that Rick Scott and other Republicans, national, state and local, have on the issue of medical care for those less fortunate.

Paul is fortunate to have a loving father, and in the future, a loving brother, David, who will do whatever they can to insure him as good a life as they can afford, but what about the many people who will not have such fortune, and face being forced out of group homes and off Medicaid, and probably off prescription drugs they need to live and prosper? With Governor Scott’s executive order cutting funding immediately for Medicaid and disabled people, we will be seeing people much more health challenged than my son who will lose assistance in their daily lives, and in many cases, may have no place to live, and therefore, an inability to survive!

There is a need for everyone across the country who believes in human rights and dignity, and recognizes the crime being visited against the most unfortunate among us by Governor Rick Scott and other governors mentioned above, and by the Ryan plan in Congress for the next fiscal year, to organize and fight on this issue, by emails, phone calls, visits to state and congressional offices all over the nation, and marches and demonstrations nonstop to demand that this denial of rights and dignity to the most disabled and unfortunate among us be immediately stopped dead in its tracks, before we have dead people as a result of GOP “death panels” who decide we cannot afford Medicaid, but must make sure every fetus is born, but have no concern for what happens after birth!

For those who are reading this, thank you for your consideration of what I am saying, and know how much I love both my sons, and will continue to fight for them and all other people in this country who deserve nothing less than humane consideration by government at all levels!

The Tea Party Movement and the Republican Party may not care about what happens to the disabled and unfortunate among us, but we must pay them for their callousness with political action to repudiate their despicable, disgraceful message on how to save money at the expense of the needy!

The Tea Party Movement Revealed: Radical Anarchists Of The Far Right!

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The Tea Party Movement has now been revealed as what it is: radical anarchists of the FAR Right, a dangerous group that will brook no compromise, and now plans to challenge Speaker of the House John Boehner in the 2012 primaries, because he had the gall to make a compromise deal with Barack Obama and the Democrats to avoid a government shutdown at the last possible moment last evening!

Obama and the Democrats agreed to about $39 billion in budget cuts from the original budget sent by the President, a record amount, which Barack Obama claimed was a victory for common sense.

Actually, the Democrats and Obama gave in too much, but they held out for protection of the environment, the funding of the President’s Health Care law, and continuation of miniscule funding of Planned Parenthood.

Boehner has been in an impossible position having to deal with House freshmen who are totally irresponsible in their demands for massive budget cuts, and have been, unfortunately, assisted in their recklessness by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who has been undermining Boehner all along, as he and Congressman Kevin McCarthy have been working to push Boehner into an untenable position as Speaker.

If one thinks Cantor and McCarthy are “friends” of Boehner, one has to be absolutely blind! We will now see a large negative vote on the permanent budget for the next six months, when it comes up for a vote next week, and Boehner is in great danger of a revolt led by Cantor and McCarthy, and he might wish he had not been elected Speaker! To imagine that John Boehner might be seen in a sympathetic light by some shows how far right the GOP is going!

And if there is a true “Rasputin” of the Far Right, it is Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who has recklessly and irresponsibly promoted a radical attack on Medicare and Medicaid in the fiscal year 2012 budget and beyond, in his role as Chairman of the House Budget Committee!

What Ryan proposes is to make Medicare a voucher system, and put Medicaid under block grants that state governors decide how to dispense, all of which means the total destruction of both programs for future generations of elderly, sick, and poor people, all this at the same time as the plan to defund the President’s Health Care program for all Americans not covered under either plan now!

All this while tax cuts down to 25 percent top rate from 35 percent for the ultra rich top two percent, and also cuts in corporate taxes further, which means an attack on the middle class and the poor, as America is transformed more than ever into a plutocracy, rather than the image of a democracy, in which we have government of, by, and for the people, not the elite rich!

With the concessions made by Obama and the Democrats this time, in the next round there can be NO concessions, as this is a battle for the future of the entire nation, and the plutocracy that has developed MUST be stopped dead in its tracks!

And realize finally that this is not just an economic struggle, but also a social struggle, as the Tea Party Movement has its ugly desire to intervene in people’s private lives, as related to abortion, gay rights, and women’s rights. This is a battle for economic and social justice, the battle fought by progressives and liberals for more than a century, and a constant struggle that one can never rest from, as the far right continues its determination to dictate the continued dominance of an evil, selfish, greedy plutocracy!