Medicaid Expansion in the News

I case you missed those articles. Carol Gentry's great article titled Medicaid expansion could save over 5,000 lives was published in yesterdays Miami Herald " Other Views" section. In the article she referred to a recent New England Journal article titled Mortality and Access to Care among Adults after State Medicaid Expansions which concludes that State Medicaid expansions to cover low-income adults were significantly associated with reduced mortality as well as improved coverage, access to care, and self-reported health. Carol Gentry correctly argues that " If Medicaid expansion prevents 2,840 deaths/year for every 500,000, then Florida’s looking at 2,840 times 2, or about 5,680 a year. These are early deaths that are preventable. So when the debate begins about Medicaid expansion, remind those who control the state that they aren’t just talking about money. They’re talking about lives." She provided a factual contrast to Rick Scott's position whose "arguments" can be boiled down to a simple dogma: We need to help people get the skills and education they need to get a job, and help the private sector succeed so they have jobs to offer. Then you’ll have fewer people dependent on government programs because they’ll be pulling themselves out of poverty and financial distress. There is ONLY one problem! Even higher education and more skills won't get you better paid jobs anymore and no more unions are available to fight for workers rights, benefits and fair pay! Therefore, people need to work in two or three jobs to make ends meet which almost always is not enough to pay for expensive health insurance premiums. Rick Scott's line of argument reminds me of the statements made by communist party officials I encountered many years ago when I spent some time in communist East Germany and had to endure the ideological communism babble. Its almost the same tune: we need more .... ism to make people happy. Well, extreme right and left do meet each other at the fringes of extreme "thinking." But as of today at least I know that our rights come from nature and God, not from government. Guess, I have to do a bit more praying to get access to those rights fast because my health insurance premiums keep on rising. Yours Bernd