The Obama administration has rejected a proposal from Republican governors to convert Medicaid into a "block grant" program that would essentially allow the states to shuffle more people off of the Medicaid rolls. Due to ever rising health-care costs, the recession and unemployment, more people are qualifying for Medicaid, and states are having a harder time paying for it. So Republican governors are looking for a way to stop providing health care to people at a time when it's most needed. The GOP has been remarkably successful in using deficits caused by the recession to gut the social safety net even as the wealthy grab an ever larger piece of the pie.
Here's Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's pitch:
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said states should also be free, for instance, to compel Medicaid patients to pay for part of their medicine, saying, "We have people pull up at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say they can't afford their co-payment."
Sound familiar? Here's Ronald Reagan in 1976, complaining about a Cadillac-driving welfare queen:
She has eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards and is collecting veteran's benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands. And she is collecting Social Security on her cards. She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income is over $150,000.
There are more people on Medicaid because there are more people who don't have jobs. In the minds of Republicans, these are people who are living lives of refined luxury. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that these strapping young bucks buying Ambien don't even drive American cars anymore. Although, I suppose driving up to the pharmacy window in a GM vehicle might remind everyone of the company's recovery.
