Residents of red states are reaping what they sowed. This is what they get for electing Republicans.
On July 1st, the Affordable Care Act will begin providing temporary health care coverage to Americans who can’t find affordable insurance in the individual health care market through high-risk insurance pools. The law allows states to decide whether they will 1) participate in a new high-risk health-insurance pool, 2) build on an existing program (if they have one), 3) establish a separate state-based high risk pool with federal funding, or 4) do nothing at all, in which case, the federal government would come in and administer the program. Last month, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote states to ask how they plan to implement the high-risk insurance pool provision. Last Friday, most of the states responded:
The states that opted out of the program complained that the $5 billion in federal dollars would not be enough to fully fund their pools, and they said that they could not cover the uninsured with state funds. While their concerns are not without merit, they raise two important questions. First, if the states can’t find enough dollars to cover the uninsured for three and a half years, how in the world would they have enough money to develop reform on a state level, as Republicans argue they should? And second, why are these mostly conservative states, relying on the federal government to cover the uninsurable population?
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Voting Republican needs to be seen as a two step process.
1. Vote.
2. Bend over.
8 Responses to “Red States Say No to High Risk Pools”
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Simple: they do what they have always done. They gripe about big government and then be the first in line for whatever the government can give them. The “do as I say but not as I do crowd.” Oh, can anyone say ‘single payer” now?
When have I ever stopped saying it, Judi? 😉
I thought during the health care debates that the GOP was arguing against universal health care and pointed to high risk pools as a more sustainable solution…
I may be mistaken, but if I’m not, I guess it was just a load of BS, but then what was I expecting. I don’t know of anymore principled Republicans left out there…
Kevin, you are not mistaken. They lied. I’m sure that there are some principled Republicans, but the are far from the halls of power, hiding.
Kevin,
The last respectable Republican was Lincoln Chafee from RI. He got voted out because he wasn’t kooky enough for the Repubs. How sad is that?
Very sad.
Ok, so wait just a minute here. Now the Fed is going to step in to administer the program because $5B isn’t enough? Are you fucking kidding me? We all know that the red states get more money than they put into the treasury by a significant amount. So now they are gonna suck up even MORE money to administer their high risk pool? Aren’t these the same assholes SCREAMING about the deficit? WTF is that?
Here’s the plan: 1. get all the Dems/progressives out of those states. 2. Wall off the states. 3. Kick their asses out of the union. 4. Let them enjoy their God, guns and theocracy. Done.
Lisa, that’s my point exactly. The problem with your idea is the the term military intelligence id oxymoronic. They would certainly leave nukes behind by accident. Do you want President Palin of the Racist Theocracy of Dixie to have her finger on a nuclear trigger?
Perhaps a better solution is a law under which states receive federal funding proportionately to what they put into the treasury.