Rick Perry is the governor of a state that has the highest percentage of uninsured. After the full implementation of Obamacare in 2014, many will remain uninsured because Texas Governor Rick Perry is not accepting the Medicaid Expansion to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Perry runs around Texas telling his constituents that it would bankrupt the state. He says this even though 100% of the cost of the expansion is paid for by the federal government for the first 3 years. Thereafter the states are responsible for only 10%.
Most of the states with the highest uninsured rates are the ones neither setting up exchanges nor accepting the Medicaid expansion to Obamacare. These states have chosen the status quo. Millions of American citizens that could qualify for healthcare insurance through the Medicaid expansion will be left in the cold.
Make no mistake; the governors of these states have choices. They could take the 3 year Medicaid expansion at 100% and then opt out in year 4 if they really thought their state would get bankrupted. Their citizens could have at least 3 years’ worth of preventative care, coverage for their children, and much more. They could make the poor and the working poor in their states healthier.
Opposition to Obamacare has characteristics of an addiction. One knows intrinsically when one is doing wrong or doing something detrimental. However, the cravings make one disregard reality and acquiesce to the drug. What is the drug? The drug is hate for all things Obama.
Politics is a blood sport. Politicians and parties attempt to get an advantage at every turn. That is OK as long as it does not materially or deliberately affect the overall well-being of the constituent.
There are many stories detailing the plight of the poor whose only recourse is the emergency room. They get to the emergency rooms only to be stabilized and not really diagnosed in detail. Generally, not until it is too late do they get care at a point when it is most expensive and deadly. One of the most gut wrenching stories was detailed by a Galveston, Texas medical student where she literally watched a patient die over a few months. The patient died not because they could not help his cancer, but because he was uninsured.
There are so many real stories out there that every politician opposing Obamacare has access to. They instead promote stories that are generally debunked soon after they are released to the public. They choose to continue promoting stories they know are debunked.
Politics Done Right on KPFT – Interview with PNHP President Dr. Robert Zarr
Dr. Robert Zarr. Dr. Robert Zarr is a board-certified pediatrician at Unity Health Care in Washington, DC, where he cares for a low-income and immigrant population. He is president of Physicians for a National Health Program.
Lying about real life stories is not enough for those opposing Obamacare. The Keiser Family Foundation stated that since the inception of Obamacare, national spending on healthcare experienced the lowest rate of growth ever since the federal government began taking these statistics. No one knows for sure how much of this can be attributed to Obamacare. One fact is that many specifics like reducing readmissions which is encouraged by Obamacare, has effected some quantifiable cost reductions. None of this matters to the politicians opposing Obamacare.
Americans are busy. For their own cultural reasons they may be predisposed to watch one channel over another. If Fox News and to some extent CNN is promoting the verifiable lies of these politicians by given them a platform where they spew the lies and misinformation mostly unchallenged, how can that American citizen help being confused. Is traditional media not the arbiter of truth? Don’t they work for every American citizen to ensure they are not misled by government? The answer is simple. The traditional media does not work for the American citizen. The traditional media cannot be trusted. Much of the traditional media is nothing but a conduit or the propaganda arm of the American Plutocracy.
When does lying and misinforming make the leap from hard nose political blood sport to immoral and evil? When politicians and their supporters lie and misinforms at the detriment of one’s health or life.
It is immoral and evil to encourage young people to forego insurance when you have no intentions of being there if they get sick or get into an accident. It is immoral and evil to build websites that trick citizens into accessing them while providing them with misleading information that dissuades them from getting the healthcare they need. It is evil and immoral to create false stories mimicking real people’s circumstances in an attempt to curtail the number of enrollees to Obamacare.
The president in his most recent policy speech implies that his last three years will be focused on inequality and every citizen’s access to success. The pope has been more vocal in calling out the ills of trickledown economics and unfettered capitalism. Obamacare is a piece of one of the legs on the stool that will lift all citizens. You cannot have access to success if you are sick and without insurance or bankrupted by getting sick. You cannot have access to success if those that purport to care are absent or promoting that which will cause your demise.
The state of Texas has the distinction of executing more citizens than any other state. Rick Perry has condemned many thousands of his fellow Texans to death by neglect. For these he did not need a trial. Not providing ones citizens with available healthcare is a death sentence. Many other governors in Red States have done the same. What will the Evangelical churches do for you if Obamacare fails? What will the Southern Baptist churches do for you if Obamacare fails? What will Conservatives and Republicans do for you if Obamacare fails? It is time for all to take stock. When does lying and misinforming become immoral and evil? It is now.