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Houston lawmaker asks: 'What's Medicaid?'
Posted by timethief • 3/24/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: economics, gary elkins, Ignorance, medicaid, politics, republican idioicy, texas
At a hearing Thursday of the House Committee on Human Services, Rep. Gary Elkins and other members of the panel considered more than two dozen bills related to Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Medicaid, for the record, is the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people and people with disabilities. Elkins is new to the Human Services Committee. However, he's served in the House since 1995, where one of the main tasks is crafting the state budget.
A quarter of the state budget is Medicaid.
Three hours into the hearing, Elkins asked: "What's Medicaid?"
The Houston Republican continued: "I know I hear it — I really don't know what it is. I know that's a big shock to everybody here in the audience, OK."
He could have kept quiet. He could have asked an aide. He could have Googled it. Instead, he asked the question into the microphone in the middle of a public hearing.
Found here --> www.statesman.com/search/content/region/legislature/stories/03/21/0321dome....
Discussion question:
(1) Are you concerned that politicians like Elkins who clearly has no knowledge in this area will be making decisions on medicaid?
(2) Is Elkins your state representative? And if so, did you vote for him?
(3) If your answer to (2) is yes x 2 then will you vote for him again?
User Comments
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1.) the primary job of elected officials is to get re-elected. All the stuff they do between elections is just to fill time. I'm not surprised that he didn't know anything about it, although it confirms my general disappointment in our elected officials. Pretty much speaking up in public was a bonehead move on his part.-
I was totally shocked when I read this. It's a mind blower that this elected representative, who has been serving since 1995 did not know what medicaid is, despite the fact that 1/4 of the state budget is medicaid.
IMO what we citizens in democracies need is the ability to remove elected politicians from office, when they do not prove to be competent enough to do their homework, prior to making decisions. -
he's probably always voted what the lobbyists told him too. Maybe they missed a payment, so he had to really think about it.
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It just goes to show you how detached our "representatives" are from the real world.
Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that anyone making over a certain dollar amount per year, and living in gated communities don't know what medicaid is, either. As it is, from what I've heard and seen, even regular people who've heard of it don't know how it works.
*shakes head*
Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their burdens.
George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 177 -
Government grants in medical aid?
Yes, great idea. The sub-prime mortgage grant idea went swell! Let's give government more responsibility.-
Medicaid is a state/government based insurance program for people who can't afford or can't get private insurance. We pay for it with our taxes.
Like, 120 million people in the US who are either already using, or are trying to qualify for it.
It's been around for years, and thank God we have it - otherwise I wouldn't be insured at all.
And the government didn't give any grants for sub-prime mortgages. Get your facts straight, then come back with something sensible to say. -
anarchist: One who believes in or advocates the absence of government in all forms (compare anarchism), especially one who works toward the realization of such; One who disregards laws and social norms as a form of rebellion against authority.
Oh, hey! Check this out!
www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/im-a-nobody-nobody-is-perfect-therefore-i... -
Yeah, and? What does that have to do with the current government programs, how they are used, how they are run, and a statement that is completely devoid of fact?
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis
Read it, don't just look at the pretty pictures.
www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/us/27medicaid.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=medicaid&st=cse
Medicaid fails to give roughly 60% of America's poor access to medical aid, and it just got more expensive.
Medicaid is funded with tax money, but mostly not from yours if you qualify for it. Anything that is funded with tax money has an impact on inflation. Inflation goes up, money is worth less. If money is worth less, prices go up. Who suffers? The poor.
The purpose of Medicaid is to give the poor access to medical aid. Does it do this? Not in 60% of the cases. My maths isn't what it used to be but a 40% success rate is not that great. -
The government did not give out grants to banks and mortgage companies to issue sub prime mortgages.
More than half the lenders who gave out subprime mortgages were under no federal lending obligations whatsoever, and never received money from the government.
The CRA is not a grant program. Not in the slightest, and, the FHA which is a government lending program (run by the government) gave out NO sub prime mortgages, and has an incredibly small default/foreclosure rate.
Get your facts straight.
Medicaid is taken from payroll taxes, which is not returned to even low income earners. So when you pay your payroll taxes every week, out of your paycheck, you pay for medicaid. So yes, those who qualify for medicaid pay for medicaid.
Currently over 80 million people qualify for, and use medicaid programs. There are still over 40 million people who have no insurance at all, although the medicaid programs have changed their qualifications due to the impending economic crisis, massive layoffs, and uber-expensive cobra programs.
In case you were unaware (and I can see that you are) medicaid has an income requirement - if you make more than the required poverty threshold, you won't qualify for medicaid, although you may qualify for a sliding scale type of state based insurance program.
Medicaid is very successful in offering the poor medical insurance to care for their medical needs. The article you've cited talks about a proposed bill that Bush initiated three years ago.
There has been no increase in premiums (most medicaid recipients do not pay a premium) and/or co pays (most medicaid recipients do not pay a co-pay).
try to keep up, will you? -
@Anok
Thanks for the medicaid update. I was pretty much on top of that myself but it was good to review all the details again.
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Well I'm not surprised. They did a bad job at naming it. It sounds like limeade or lemonade or Kool-aid. -
it always baffles me why people ask stupid questions when a 3 second google search could turn up the answer.
everyone always asks me questions they don't know the answer to - apparently they think I am some sort of genius. What do I do? I just look it up on google! -
He is not my representative. Thank goodness! My state has a surplus and we have extra funding toward that.
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