Republican legislatures in two dozen states are still not allowing an expanded Medicaid program --- a vital provision of Obamacare --- to benefit their lowest-income residents.
Other than their visceral hatred for the president and everything associated with him, I can't think of any reason why these public officials would be so hell-bent on punishing their states' poorest citizens.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot; many of these lawmakers seem to believe that the poor are to blame for their own misfortune. Yet, there's at least one potentially lethal fly in the ointment. Apparently, many small-town hospitals are shutting down, having been deprived of the Medicaid funding so vital to their survival.
The upshot is that the health of everyone in those states is at risk, regardless of financial status. Timely treatment for life-threatening injuries or medical traumas is no longer available. It's already happening.
A very well-written and well-documented article is available on-line from Bloomberg News. (Obamacare Cutbacks Shut Hospitals Where Medicaid Went Unexpanded; Byline: Toluse Olorunnipa, 11/24/13).
It doesn't matter how anyone voted or whether or not one is insured. Consider the case of a prototypical Harrumphing Old White Dude: an ironbound, 69-year-old Republican! A heavy smoker and voracious eater with 25 pounds of extra belly freight, he's assaulted by that cardiac yelp: the intense chest pain that also radiates down his left arm.
The nearest hospital, starved for funding has recently shut down. The next-closest medical center is forty miles down the road; the only ambulances in the region are busy. No matter how hard he prays to the Lord, Harrumphing Old White Dude will have breathed his last!
Do I paint a grim picture? Like I said, it's already happening, folks. If you're a resident of one of the affected states, there's a solution to this horrific state of affairs. Vote Democratic this November.
[Dan, please remove the many bank space lines between this post and the comments
ReplyDeleteline--I almost didn't comment because I thought blogspot was busted.]
Medicaid missing in action is a huge problem nationwide--for patients, medical workers, allied institutions and taxpayers. But the ACA and its concomitant problems are intertwined and complex...the current and counting ugly social
phenomenon at work underpinning it all is--few care about the welfare of strangers. I mention this many times in my posts, as well as the irony that even evildoers themselves will pay for the folly they visit on hapless others, per your scenario here.