What is making my job so difficult.
If your state was doing this to its citizens what would you do.
Medicaid is being disolved in Missouri. Nursing homes and hospitals are already being packed full of people who can no longer live by themselves due to these cuts.
I am watching as 30 consumers have been forced to leave their homes because they have to "purchase" their own medicaid ($400-$900 a month). Kinda hard to do when Social Security and Social Security Disability give you $750 or less to live on a month.
People here at my work are considering this genocide.
Via today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Suit challenges Missouri's medical equipment cuts
By Betsy Taylor
Associated Press
08/29/2005
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Seven disabled Missourians filed a federal lawsuit Monday, saying the state's decision to stop paying for certain medical equipment through the Medicaid program is illegal.
Ten public interest law organizations are supporting the suit, announced at a news conference at the Saint Louis University Legal Clinic. None of the plaintiffs attended.
"Without the machines, I know I could die," Susan Lankford, 48, of Sullivan, said in a telephone interview. She suffers from several breathing and digestive illnesses.
The federal lawsuit against Missouri social services director Gary Sherman, filed in Jefferson City, seeks a temporary restraining order to block cuts that will eliminate payment for equipment like wheelchair batteries and accessories, hydraulic patient lifts, devices that help people communicate and those that help prevent bed sores. The cuts are scheduled to become effective Thursday.
"The only exceptions are children, pregnant women and the blind. Everyone else gets cut out," said plaintiffs' attorney Thomas Kennedy. "There is not any other state experiencing cuts like this."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services declined comment on the lawsuit, saying officials had not seen it.
Under state budget cuts, Medicaid coverage was eliminated for more than 90,000 of the 1 million recipients. Hundreds of thousands of adults remaining on the state-federal insurance program for the elderly, poor and disabled will receive fewer benefits while paying more out of pocket through premiums, co-payments and personal medical expenses.
Federal law mandates that certain medical equipment must be provided to all those eligible for Medicaid, the lawsuit contends.
Saint Louis University law professor Sidney Watson said the cuts to some recipients but not others was discriminatory. She said it was unreasonable not to cover items that doctors said were necessary for their patients, and that cuts would cost more money in the long-run if sick people had to go to hospitals and nursing homes for care after they couldn't get medical equipment.
"It's penny-wise and pound foolish," she said.
The disability advocates said about 370,000 Missourians stand to lose medical equipment. However, the Department of Social Services said there are only about 339,000 people in Missouri who could possibly use the medical equipment, spokeswoman Deborah Scott said.
Gov. Matt Blunt has said Medicaid cuts were necessary as he worked to provide more money for schools without raising taxes. Blunt included medical equipment as part of the cuts, based on an understanding of the law that the items were considered optional for coverage under Medicaid.
Lankford said that for her, the equipment is a lifeline, and one she cannot afford to pay for on her own. She has lung problems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema.
She uses an oxygen machine at times throughout the day, and at night while she sleeps. While it appears that the state will continue to provide the machine that assists with her sleep apnea, the cuts will not pay for filters and oxygen hoses needed to keep the machine running.
"It doesn't make sense, does it? They give you one thing, but not the parts you need to run it," she said.
Some of the lawyers involved in the medical equipment lawsuit sued Blunt and Sherman earlier this month to halt adoption subsidy cuts for former foster children.
posted by FantasticAlice @ 2:00 PM
16 Comments:
We're way overpopulated anyway. I continuously wish a great earthquake would kill more than a million Angelinos - if it's me, that's fine. There are too many people, and not enough of us educated well paid ones to support thee slackers any longer.
Time for Social Darwinism. No more wellfare of any sort.
The ones least able to get good jobs or support their kids are the ones that churn out the most.
This will affect my mom who has COPD and uses an oxygen machine at night while she sleeps.My mom is very well educated and was a teacher for 30 years prior to retiring due to her health. I do not consider my mother a slacker and anyone that does is an idiot. She worked her ass off for 30 years educating children, a job that historically underpays its employees.
Rat - Do you draw a distinction between those who won't support themselves like welfare moms having more babies just to collect a fatter check, those who can't support themselves like someone completely paralyzed from the top of his head to the tip of his toes, and those who want to but need help like someone in a wheelchair with Cerebral Palsy who has a good job and pays the rent and feeds themselves but can't be insured through the company they work for because of their condition and would have to make over 100,000 a year to pay for their medical expenses out of pocket and thus are on medicaid?
(that's the longest sentence ever)
I myself believe heartily in the survival of the fittest but my human nature makes it difficult.
When I found out that, in Missouri, part of the welfare program includes cash benefits that you can use to buy ANYTHING...I was furious. I'm still furious.
Yes, Zan I do.
However, I am prone to be an idiot as you can see. Or maybe some people have thin skin & cannot face the reality of their situation.
I just like to stir things up and watch all the uptights unravel.
Of course we should help those with legitamite needs.
Some people need oxygen because they refuse to stop smoking. Then their families smoke & bring upon the same effects on themselves & then wonder how did it happen. Then of course we all have to help them too. Some poeple use drugs, some people do all sorts of stupid shit to themselves & then want the rest of us to bail them out. You know there are plenty of people who just suck the system dry on purpose with no effort ever at making a legitamite go at life.
Cops shouldn't have to risk their lives to rescue people of the roofs of their houses when they had several days' warning & were told a MANDATORY evacuation was in effect. A cop got shot in the head Monday trying to stop a looter in New Orleans. All those looters should just be shot on site. Martial law.
Every day it is more and more obvious that the idiots are multiplying faster than the rest of us.
There are enough social programs out there; i.e. men. How many women stay with the men they do not love just to make their own lives easier. They like being in a house, having someone help support them and / or their kids so they can work less and fuck off more. If guys (and women) want to support lame as slakcers, that is fine. IT IS THEIR MONEY! When the tax payers have to support the fucktards, slackers, and junkies I think we voters should have a say SINCE IT IS OUR MONEY!
Where's Alice? We may need a referee.
Okay kiddies, place nice!
I am agreeing with Zan and Rat. Both for different reasons.
I HATE welfare monkeys. People who manipulate the system for their own gain. A pca actually told me that she was having her seventh kid just to get more money from the state. Napalm those mother fuckers.
I believe in survival of the fittest. Zan and I work with two woman with signifigant disabilities. They both have worked here for more than a decade, one has a masters, they both own their home, tax payers and contribute to society. Their medicaid is being taken away so now they are possibly having to sell their homes and loose their pcas just to pay all their medical bills and durable medical equipment.
Also, I do see people milking the system. Like a couple that has two incomes (which equals more than Jon and I get in a month) that only report the wife's income of a part time job and they receive $250 in food stamps a month, medicaid for their kids, and even the 13 year old is receivieng $550. in social security.
I hate people.
When I was young and married I was offered WIC in california(food stamps for pregnant and lactating mothers, milk, formula, peanut butter, cheese, ect) Being raised the way I was, I refused. No one told me to have a kid at 20, and if I couldn't afford it myself, then I figured I shouldn't be having it. My x's sisters all got WIC and couldn't understand why I wouldn't. I gave my x the booklet and told him if HE wanted it, he could go stand in the fucking line and pay with those stamps himself. Of course they were thrown away.
I think all of those women who sit on their asses and spit out kids ought to be the ones cleaning the park bathrooms that are now closed because the county "doesn't have the funds" to keep them open.
The Welfare system sux, and there won't be any social security left by the time any of US need it, but we still have to pay into it. Some serious changes need to be made to stop those that take a system that was meant to "help people" and use it for their own advantage. Cutting off the medical care for those in need isn't a solution to the problem. It is a quick fix to save money.
The problem lies with the fuckers who take advantage, and a government who lets them!
taking advantage of the system is one thing that overloads it financially.Thats an intelligent remark unlike the one stating there are "not enough of us educated well paid ones to support thee slackers any longer." That individual seems to think there are two classes the haves and have nots, and since he is one of the have's there is no room for the havenots in any form or fashion. It must be nice to be able to rationalize shit that easily. Fireman shouldn't have to rescue stupid people that leave a pot on the stove and set their house on fire either or hospitals shouldnt have to treat those fucktards that were speeding down the highway and caused a huge accident using rat's logic. It must be nice to be so smug and perfect but its not realistic.
I love arguments.
ha ha
me too.
I live under the theory of "Stupid people make my head hurt, which would explain why I always have a headache"
Nothing is that cut and dry. Many people struggle working and supporting their families their entire lives only to hit hard luck when they are older. Some people are laid off as they approach their 50's only to be replaced with the newer "Yuppie" generation of workers. That doesn't mean that these people are "unworthy" of medicaid. They have paid their dues in a society that shuns them when they are past a certain age. It happened to my father. Who is going to hire a man in his 60's over some new college grad? Fortunatly for me, my dad is a go getter and practices what he preaches. He would work shoveling burgers rather than take a hand out from welfare. Luckily it didn't go that far and he is currently working(not shoving burgers)but in a lesser environment than he is used to.
We all do what we can to survive. Taking the only medical insurance that most of these elderly people have, is just plain wrong. Bring back some of our forces that are being sent in droves to Iraq...use some of that money here on American Soil so that our elderly don't suffer.
It is nice to be so much smarter & better off. Since I have to support myself, I guess I applied myself. Maybe if I thought I could just suck off of one person after another I would be a slaker.
The lesson here kids is (1) stay in school, (2) it is better to not open your mouth and let people think you a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt, and (3) don't waste your time having a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
Since all parties agree I am the superior one here, I'll leave it at that.
I responded to this retardedness since you said you like arguments, Alice. Luckily I spent a year teaching elementary school so I am somewhat experienced in the juevinile arguments put forth against me.
don't break your arm patting yourself on the back there rat. If you need to feel superior by all means go for it..it fits you so well.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Makes me feel kind of sad that someone with the narrowmindedness of "Rat" spent any time whatsoever teaching our kids.
I too support myself, AND my kids, but choose to think of myself as one of the Rats in this Ratrace we call life...not THE Superior One.
The "Smarter, better off" theory only floats ya so far Rat, especially since u seem to be the only one with THAT particular viewpoint of yrself.
Hey jackass, ever think it could be tongue in cheek?
usually its obvious when its tongue in cheek..its also how some people cover their ass when they open mouth and insert foot..or in some cases the whole leg.
Okay, Okay.
I see rats points completely. I also kinda gathered that he was just being his sarcastic usual trying to ruffle peoples feathers self. I appreciate a person that does not back down from what he was saying although what was said may not have been popular.
Sammie and Dusty, I believe right now that the way things are going here in Missouri, everyone will be in the have not boat except for a very small percentage of (eck) republicans who are getting all the glory.
Either way I feel as though all the people who do and don't deserve to have their medicaid cut it will be devestating to so many people.
Either way Blunt has sunk my battleship.
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