[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')oday on the Senate floor, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) railed against Medicaid, the health insurance program funded by both the federal and state governments for low-income Americans, by calling it a “medical ghetto” and blasting Democrats for proposing to expand the program:

– “We’ve heard eloquent statements about how moving 15 million low-income Americans into a program called Medicaid, which is a medical ghetto, is not health care reform.”

– “The governor of Tennessee, who is a Democratic governor, has estimated that the cost to our state of this bill — of moving 15 million Americans into this medical ghetto — is about $800 million over five years.”

– “Or arrogant in its dumping of 15 million low-income Americans into a medical ghetto called Medicaid that none of us, or any of our families, would ever want to be a part of for our health care.”

Conservatives frequently rail against this program, which currently covers around 60 million Americans, including people who are often rejected by private plans. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) has suggested that people are better off uninsured than insured under Medicaid.

While Alexander may think he is too good for Medicaid coverage, a 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 74 percent of Americans consider Medicaid very important and most would oppose cuts to the program. Families USA has pointed out that, despite its flaws, Medicaid is cost-effective and provides a solid foundation on which to expand coverage:

Medicaid is cost-effective compared to private health insurance. After controlling for health status (since Medicaid enrollees tend to have greater health care needs), it costs more than 20 percent less to cover low-income people in Medicaid than it does to cover them in private health insurance.

The program protects low-income Americans from uncontrollable out-of-pocket costs charged by private insurers and also “covers services not usually covered in private health insurance.” Under the Senate health bill, “most nonelderly people with income below 133 percent of the [federal poverty line] would be made eligible for Medicaid” starting in 2014. Additionally, the legislation would “increase federal Medicaid funding for states that cover recommended preventive services and immunizations at no extra cost.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/21/alexander-medicaid-ghetto/

[frankthetank]

This guy is a politician. It doesn't matter what party he is a part of. His backer's want him to take a view they will accept so he'll say what he needs to to satisfy them. I'm sure there is plenty of motivation for the other side that is backing this healthcare agenda (i hate to say this, buti doubt its because they really care about these people...and more about $$$)

I have no idea if Medicaid is ghetto. I'm sure if you live IN the ghetto and go to a ghetto hospital, you'll probably receive some pretty ghetto care

Get rid of the whole system and have doctors take cash(barter) only... you'll see prices come down in a hurry. Its probably where its going in the long run anyways...say 10-30 years from now... maybe sooner, maybe later...

[PrestonSturges]

I watched the start of Cavutos business show on Fox, and he went off about how HCR would destroy the country, then he went straight to a couple of teabaggers that claim to represent the majority of the country.

Not Republicans, not their puppet masters in the insurance industry, but straight to the corporate butt monkeys previously known as teabaggers.

Too bad that the independent/libertarian wing was co-opted by industry as soon as they had a chance to cash in. These corporate mouthpieces are bad enough, but the overlap of corporations/conspiracy nuts/white supremacists/neonazis is sinister indeed.

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'I') watched the start of Cavutos business show on Fox, and he went off about how HCR would destroy the country, then he went straight to a couple of teabaggers that claim to represent the majority of the country.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'I') watched the start of Cavutos business show on Fox, and he went off about how HCR would destroy the country, then he went straight to a couple of teabaggers that claim to represent the majority of the country.

[Plantagenet]

SNL got it right when they parodied Obama meeting Hu....Obama always has the same solution to every problem.....SPEND MORE MONEY.

Putting 30 million more people into Medicare and other goverment programs is not going to reduce healthcare costs or reduce the unsustainable deficits or fix the 40 TRILLION dollar shortfall that exists in projected SS & medicare obligations.

All Obama and the BOers know how to do is borrow money from China, print money, and spend money.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'S')NL got it right when they parodied Obama meeting Hu....Obama always has the same solution to every problem.....SPEND MORE MONEY.

Putting 30 million more people into Medicare and other goverment programs is not going to reduce healthcare costs or reduce the unsustainable deficits or fix the 40 TRILLION dollar shortfall that exists in projected SS & medicare obligations.

All Obama and the BOers know how to do is borrow money from China, print money, and spend money.

[rangerone314]

Its pretty obvious that he is saying that the people on Medicaid are not decent people, and he'd rather let them die and not spend his masters' money on them.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rangerone314', 'I')ts pretty obvious that he is saying that the people on Medicaid are not decent people, and he'd rather let them die and not spend his masters' money on them.

[PrestonSturges]

It doesn't matter that we aren't talking about black people specifically, HCR opponents are deliberately tapping the same deep vein of hatred for "the Other," which we see in so many ethnic conflicts around the world where the two sides are indistinguishable to an outsider. On the militia websites, we see that Obama supporters are getting the same sort of hatred that was reserved for "race traitors" with talk of lynching and arson.

[efarmer]

Washington D.C. is a mental ghetto where corporate pimps buy
protection from Red Bloods and Blue Crips, who talk trash for hire
in return for "donations".

Efarmer lays trash talk stink on Washington's "hood" for free,
which is a better deal than they give us.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'I')t doesn't matter that we aren't talking about black people specifically, HCR opponents are deliberately tapping the same deep vein of hatred for "the Other," which we see in so many ethnic conflicts around the world where the two sides are indistinguishable to an outsider.

[RedStateGreen]

Since Medicaid is administered by the states, Lamar Alexander is ragging on his own home state with his comments.

I worked with indigent populations for almost ten years as a doctor. Medicaid is a whole heck of a lot better than no insurance at all, and although a lot of doctors don't like it because it doesn't pay well, expanding it is one way to get everyone at least SOME coverage.

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'I')t's also a hell of a lot more specific and funnier than tea bagger. But it was the wingnuts themselves that used teabags as a theme of their early protests.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'I')t's also a hell of a lot more specific and funnier than tea bagger. But it was the wingnuts themselves that used teabags as a theme of their early protests.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'I')t's also a hell of a lot more specific and funnier than tea bagger. But it was the wingnuts themselves that used teabags as a theme of their early protests.

[Timo]

A growing chorus here in the US is very busy demonstrating a whole new peak, only this doesn't seem to be a theory. Collectively, we seem to have hit Peak Intelligence. Facts and rational thought are just too hard to cram into our simple little minds. Life is easier if we only think about things that we agree with. Everything else is evil and un-American and we should spare no expense screaming our thoughts to the whole universe. If we scream loud enough and take over the media, eventually, everyone will be just as dumb as us, and everything will be right in the world.