Rick Perry: His Life, Your Death
Rick Perry ain’t having none of that socialized medicine stuff bringing its butt to Texas. No, sireee, everybody knows that a funeral is cheaper than health care. You gotta look at money and reputation here.
A defiant Rick Perry defended his decision to reject the expansion of Medicaid on Monday, saying on Fox News Channel that the federal government couldn’t be trusted and that “we’re just not going to be part of socializing healthcare in the state of Texas.”
Rick, what am I supposed to do with my socialized medicine Medicare? And how about your government health care plan, Rick? I’ll meet you out back with a shotgun, Rick, and we can kill both of them.
Perry offered block granting money to the states as an alternative, so healthcare decisions could be made at the state and local level. He said that “every Texan has healthcare in this state from the standpoint of being able to have access to it” and that state officials are better positioned to make policy decisions than “some bureaucrat in Washington”
Rick Perry doesn’t want socialized medicine. Rick Perry wants Pay to Play Healthcare in Texas so his friends can make money off the deal.
If you will recall, Texas is 51st out of 50 states (we’re even behind DeeCee) in delivery of health care.
So, how does throwing money at Rick Perry and his high dollar rollin’ friends make the system work better? Perry wants to administer the money so big ole kickbacks can go to his friends.
Look, we’ve tried administering it at the state and local level and we’re in last place.
Texas has 6.1 million uninsured folks living here. If we reject $112 billion in federal money, that means the health care of these people will be picked up by people who have insurance and by local taxing entities. My county will have to raise taxes to pay for the money we turn down from Washington.
Look, I think the solution is simple. We’re talking $112 billion. Give Rick Perry one billion dollars upfront to distribute as kickbacks to his friends, then use the other $111 billion for health care. Rick would be perfectly willing to do that.
Thanks to David for the heads-up.
Rick Perry said the federal government couldn’t be trusted and that “we’re just not going to be part of socializing healthcare in the state of Texas.”
By refusing to set up the state exchanges, he’s leaving it to the federal government to set them up and administer them. The state exchanges are simply a free-market place where individuals and small businesses can go to purchase health care. But the federal government can’t be trusted?
Medicare – socialized medicine
Medicaid – socialized medicine
Gov’t employee health insurance – socialized medicine
Employer-provided health insurance – socialized medicine
I don’t think Rick Perry understands the concept of socialized medicine.
Many people don’t realize that they are already participating in a form of socialized medicine via their employer-provided health plan. The premiums we pay are used to pay the claims for everyone participating in that health plan, not just your own claims. So you’re very likely already helping to subsidize the costs of a co-worker’s chronically ill child, or a co-worker who was just diagnosed with cancer.
1meanwhile, back at stately Hacienda Mike…
On thing about Gov Rick is clear: Texas desperately needs term limits for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and possibly other offices, the holders of which that have yet to offend me.
2Whatever the feds are going to bring in here, because Texas won’t do what it should do… is much better than “wealth-care”…
Good Grief………
3meanwhile, back at stately Hacienda Mike…
AZfan is absolutely right about a broader definition of socialized medicine. And may I add that the health care enjoyed by present and retired members of Congress as well as former Presidents and retired service members is also socialized medicine.
4I live in Dallas. When I hear that more and more doctors in Texas won’t take new Medicaid patients because the doctor never receives from Medicaid the full amount charged, or I hear pols like Perry decry “socialized medicine”, I like to point out this handy pricing device:
http://newchoicehealth.com/Directory/CityProcedure/Texas/Dallas/77/Chest%20X-Ray
The xray in question is coded 71020; the procedure ranges in charged cost from $220 to $5,800.
5$5,800 to take a picture! The price DOES NOT include “reading” the picture.
There is simply too much money at stake to see any change to Texas’s system.
My son—who leans somewhat farther to the right than I do but hasn’t gone over the brink yet—went from being an Army reservist to full-time Army about a year and a half ago, pointing out that one of the nicest perks to Army life is its socialized medicine—and he never hesitates to use that term for it!
651st in health care, and they keep voting for him. Texans are stupid people.
7The Texas Hospitals will be putting some pressure on Perry to change his mind. According to Ezra Klein, the Affordable Care Act has a phase out of $11 billion of reimbursements to hospitals for uninsured care that will be phased out because such payments are not necessary if the state participates in the Medicaid expansion http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/08/the-super-wonky-reason-states-may-join-the-medicaid-expansion/
__________
It all centers on something called DSH payments (pronounced “dish” payments, in health-wonk parlance). That stands for Disproportionate Share Payments, extra money that Medicaid sends to hospitals that provide a higher level of uncompensated care. Those payments, which totaled $11.3 billion in 2011, are meant to offset the bills of the uninsured.
The Affordable Care Act phases out these payments. If most Americans are covered under the Affordable Care Act, after all, hospitals would presumably see a reduction in unpaid bills. They wouldn’t need the supplemental payments anymore.
That was the thinking before the Supreme Court decision, at least. If a state opts out of the Medicaid expansion and does not extend coverage to those living below the poverty line, the math changes. The unpaid bills do not disappear, but the DSH dollars do. Barring an act of Congress, those supplemental funds will be largely phased out by 2020.
That’s a big deal for hospitals, who already spend about $39.3 billion a year on uncompensated care, which makes up 5.8 percent of all expenses. Add on another $11 billion and hospitals would find themselves spending 27 percent more covering unpaid bills. It especially matters in states with more uninsured residents. In Texas, for example, the hospitals received $957 million in DSH payments last year.
8From a dictionary
socialism:
a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
socialized medicine:
the provision of medical and hospital care for all by means of public funds.
Appears to be contrary definitions or concepts. IMO, the closest organization that meets both of the above is the VA hospital system wherein the medical personnel are all employees on salary and under the direction of the VA administration. All VA hospitals are tied in with a teaching med school, here in Houston the Baylor College of Med. wherein grad students get some practice under the guidance of Baylor profs.
So, when I’m around someone throwing out “socialized med”, I ask them to define what they mean. Any response now gives me something to deal with including determining quickly to cut off an fox acolyte regurgitator.
9Courtesy of the frank luntz grad school of obfuscation.
England has “socialized medicine”; the government builds hospitals and hires doctors and nurses that are paid like employees.
Canada has “socialized medicine”; it looks like our Medicare but everyone has coverage. All care comes from private practices and private hospitals that are reimbursed by the government.
All countries with “socialized medicine” also have private providers that serve the wealthy and don’t participate in public medicine.
10It’s time to call BS on this socialized medicine meme.
If I can go into an emergency room tonite, and they are required to help me, regardless of whether of not I can pay, and regardless of whether or not I’m a US citizen – the two memes I hear from the right, then WE”VE GOT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE NOW. If every one has to pay for it, that’s personal responsibility. Isn’t that what the libderty seekers seek?
The world is nuts . . .
11Was this Rick Perry elected by the people? or
12Was he appointed? or maybe the position was bought.
If he was elected by the people of Texas then you are doomed because the people that are allowed to vote there have elected an idiot which doesn’t say much for them.
Perry really makes me sick. Fortunately I don’t live in Texas.
13LynnN, me too. I went to the governor’s site again, just to remind him of the mess that he’s made of health care and education, and ya’ know what? I got an auto reply that my email will be forwarded to someone for a reply. Yeah, right. I live in Washington (state), so I imagine someone on his staff actually cares about what I think. For God’s sake, they don’t even care about what Texans think! And yet, people in Texas vote for this humiliation to their state. Go figure. Term limits!
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