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The states that rejected the Medicaid Expansion to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) are the states with the highest rates of uninsured Americans. They account for almost 60% of the uninsured.
Arkansas is one of the few southern states that accepted some form of the Medicaid Expansion. They got a waiver that gave them a private option. In other words, the Medicaid Expansion funds is used to purchase private insurance for the poor.
The Republicans voted to support their waivered Medicaid Expansion last year. Over 80,000 Arkansans took advantage of it. Many Republicans are now voting not to re-authorize the program. In effect it would yank coverage from the 80,000+ that received healthcare insurance so far.
One of the Republicans that voted against the reauthorization is Josh Miller. Who is Josh Miller? Mr. Josh Miller is a paralyzed state representative. Here is how the Arkansas Times describes him.
Who is Josh Miller?
Miller, 33, was on an alcohol-fueled drive with a friend about 11 years ago (he can’t remember who was driving) when their pickup plunged off a ravine near Choctaw. He was rescued, but suffered a broken neck and was paralyzed. Miller was uninsured. What young, fit man needs health insurance, he thought then. (He had some reason to know better. Not long before, he’d broken his hand in a fight and had to refuse the recommended surgery to fix the injuries properly because he was uninsured.)
Josh Miller got bailed out by Medicaid/Government and is still on the dole.
In other words, Josh Miller irresponsibly drove or was driven in a car where alcohol had been consumed. The car got into a very bad accident. Josh Miller was uninsured. It costs the taxpayers over $1 million to save Josh Miller. Medicaid made him whole. He is now collecting disability checks from the government. He is on the dole.
The Arkansas Times reported the following.
My question: How could someone who’s received — and continues to receive — significant public assistance oppose health insurance for the working poor? Isn’t Miller himself a shining example of how government help can encourage productive citizens?
Miller sees it differently. He said some who qualify for the private option aren’t working hard enough. He claims many want health insurance just so they can get prescription drugs to abuse. He draws distinctions with government help for catastrophic occurrences such as he suffered. He falls back, too, on a developing defense from private option holdouts that they prefer an alternative that wouldn’t end coverage for the 100,000 people currently signed up, at least until next year. This is disingenuous. He and other opponents have made clear that they want to strip Obamacare from government root and branch. Here’s how Miller boiled his opposition down:
“My problem is two things,” Miller said. “One, we are giving it to able-bodied folks who can work … and two, how do we pay for it?”
Lucky for Josh Miller, such thinking didn’t prevail when Congress — over Republican opposition — created the programs that sustain him.
This story is still ongoing. We will see if morality ultimately reigns in Arkansas in the end.
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