#ncpol: The party of Medicaid Expansion ????
Yep. The crew that convinced all those elected Republicans in Raleigh to become WHORES for subsidized solar shysters is now working to convince the NCGOP to include Medicaid expansion in that embrace. SO sayeth ‘Toilet boy’ at the NC Insider:
You may remember that Shumaker and Stewart were the duo that saddled the NCGOP (and the rest of us taxpayers / ratepayers) with that abysmal boondoggle of solar subsidies and The Renewable Energy Portfolio.
Medicaid often gets confused with Medicare, which does so much good in taking care of our senior citizens. Medicaid targets poor people, and is loaded with fraud, waste and abuse. I know of cases where alleged providers took patients on day trips to see movie matinees and get away with billing the government for “providing therapy.”)
North Carolina already has some of the most generous Medicaid benefits in the country. I am told by folks in the health care field that providers in South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia regularly export Medicaid patients to North Carolina because the benefits are so plentiful and generous as compared to what their states offer.
I am sure there is little ideological about this. There has to be a money-making scheme built in here somewhere. Perhaps, the Hospital Association and its membership? You know, the same folks who are funding the ongoing political attacks on treasurer Dale Folwell for trying to establish some sanity in the management of the state health plan?
Republicans in the legislature are going to be down to the same and only argument to vote for them that Republicans in Congress are down to – vote for us because the other side will be even worse. How long can voters keep voting Republican only because the Democrats are worse?
Medicaid expansion is part of Obamacare. These are Obama Republicans. Shumaker and Stewart are political whores who will work for any left wing cause that pays them money. First it was the far left environmentalists, which Civitas outed them for taking money from some real radical lefties to promote solar and wind. Now, it is the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, which is a major goal nationwide of the left. What next? “Conservatives for the Green New Deal”? “Conservatives for Open Borders”? Neither would surprise me with that pair.
There was a poll / fundraiser mailing sent out by the Speaker not long ago that had a question worded in a way to imply that he might be pushing Medicaid expansion lite. Any Republican legislator who supports that nonsense needs to be primaried out of office.
One of the biggest complaints if you want to call it that from Republican legislative candidates was that when they put out in mailers, etc etc that the Dems wanted a 72 billion dollar gov’t controlled health care program that the folks out there shrugged and said cool! Others who had voted Republican in the past disbelieved . The upshot from their effort was it didn’t move the needle a bit. In fact I think it was believed by many to be a positive… for the Democrats. The Republicans up there in Raleigh aren’t going for full medicaid expansion but will provide insurance to a small segment of society that the rules of medicaid exempt. It will also have work requirements to be eligible for that group. Maintaining the majority in 2020 will be a huge undertaking especially if the Dems get maps rewritten on their own behalf. We will need many swing voters to come with us, and if 72 billion dollars in 2018 didn’t move them, then what is the argument? In the 2021 the new maps regardless will provide 11 new seats in Wake and Mecklenberg which moves many voters into more purple and blue districts. Republicans better put their differences aside. Perfection is indeed the enemy of good and warring on each other is a loser.
Yes, but leadership starts at the top and the leaders in the general assembly don’t care enough about the opinions of the base who feel they’ve been burned by those very same leaders so many times. It’s kind of hard to achieve unity under those circumstances.
Medicaid expansion is expensive. The federal obligation to shoulder most of the burden expires in 2020, which is just around the corner. An analysis for the state of Wisconsin, where a Democrat governor is proposing expansion and a Republican legislature opposes it, shows that half of those who would take advantage of the Medicaid expansion already have health insurance of some form, and that Medicaid expansion would have an ripple effect on other citizens with private health insurance, causing a $700 per year increase in their medical insurance premiums. This socialistic giveaway program will cost both the taxpayers and the insurance premium payers money. Beyond 2020, it will hit state and county taxpayers hard.
With Shumaker involved, there will probably be some of his flaky polls to try to seduce legislators to this left wing viewpoint.
We need legislative leadership like that in Wisconsin, as well as rank and file legislators, who will stand up to this socialist Obama program. We do not need fake Republican surrender monkeys.