Donald Trump and Paul Ryan have done Paul LePage one better: In Maine, Governor LePage has been obsessed about people using food stamps to buy cigarettes, but the new Trumpcare bill has four pages devoted to excluding winners of lotteries from getting healthcare insurance.
I have not yet got the bill to read it and I'm relying on a comment from a reader on today's Paul Krugman's analysis of Trumpcare. But who could make this thing up?
Well, the Republican authors of this law certainly have a keen eye toward denying freeloaders and welfare queens any government largesse. You got to go after those Powerball winners and be sure if they are already getting one government pay out, they do not get another. There must be at least a couple of dozen Powerball winners out there, maybe scores.
In the same comment, the author, who apparently has actually read at least some parts of the bill, mentions that Planned Parenthood has been specifically and uniquely excluded from receiving any sort of Medicaid payments for any service whatsoever, screening for sexually transmitted diseases, etc. No other health care facility is so named.
So, what this means is the Republicans are willing to allow Planned Parenthood treat women who are wealthy enough to pay for care or who are wealthy enough to have insurance but no Medicaid dollars will be spent on that evil organization. Which means poor women will not be able to get their breast cancer screenings or their cervical cancer screenings or their contraception from Planned Parenthood.
This is like one of those Boco Haram tactics: Get at the parents by holding a knife to the throat of their children. Hold those poor women hostage to your insistence Planned Parenthood stop performing abortions.
I don't know if I can get hold of this bill, but it sounds like it provides some entertaining reading.
I wonder if there's a few pages on criminalizing contraceptive counseling, denying lung cancer screening to smokers, cancelling food stamps for the obese, forbidding Medicare payments for emergency room fees for Democrats.
I have not yet got the bill to read it and I'm relying on a comment from a reader on today's Paul Krugman's analysis of Trumpcare. But who could make this thing up?
Well, the Republican authors of this law certainly have a keen eye toward denying freeloaders and welfare queens any government largesse. You got to go after those Powerball winners and be sure if they are already getting one government pay out, they do not get another. There must be at least a couple of dozen Powerball winners out there, maybe scores.
In the same comment, the author, who apparently has actually read at least some parts of the bill, mentions that Planned Parenthood has been specifically and uniquely excluded from receiving any sort of Medicaid payments for any service whatsoever, screening for sexually transmitted diseases, etc. No other health care facility is so named.
So, what this means is the Republicans are willing to allow Planned Parenthood treat women who are wealthy enough to pay for care or who are wealthy enough to have insurance but no Medicaid dollars will be spent on that evil organization. Which means poor women will not be able to get their breast cancer screenings or their cervical cancer screenings or their contraception from Planned Parenthood.
This is like one of those Boco Haram tactics: Get at the parents by holding a knife to the throat of their children. Hold those poor women hostage to your insistence Planned Parenthood stop performing abortions.
I don't know if I can get hold of this bill, but it sounds like it provides some entertaining reading.
I wonder if there's a few pages on criminalizing contraceptive counseling, denying lung cancer screening to smokers, cancelling food stamps for the obese, forbidding Medicare payments for emergency room fees for Democrats.
Mad Dog,
ReplyDeleteWhat??? Deny lottery winners state health insurance??! I thought Donald loved winners and winning?
Maud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteApparently, this depends on who the winners are.
Mad Dog