Let's Look At Some Political Maps

[g5000]

Here is a list of state legislatures which shows which party controls each chamber:

Here is a map of which states are and are not expanding Medicaid under the ACA:

“It is sad that in New Hampshire, you can stay at home, raise your kids and not work and get food stamps and health care, but then those of us who are actually working and paying taxes and trying to help ourselves can’t get a little bit of insurance for health care,” said Billie Jo Buskey, owner of a Plymouth hair salon.

Buskey, 35, and her husband, a landscaper, both started working at age 14 and make just under $28,000 a year. But that is too much to qualify for Medicaid under New Hampshire’s current income guidelines. Neither can afford health insurance so they go without. Their sons, ages 5 and 13, are covered by Medicaid, which has more generous eligibility criteria for children.

Buskey prides herself on paying her bills – mortgage, phone, electricity, and day care — on time. Last year she needed to have her gall bladder removed, and now owes the hospital more than $8,000, which will take her nearly six years to pay off at $115 a month.

“I’d much rather pay $115 a month for health insurance than $115 a month to pay off one hospital bill,” she said. It is still unclear what private coverage options would be affordable to Buskey and her husband, if any, without Medicaid expansion.

A couple who works their ass off would have qualified for Medicaid under the expansion, but they are being blocked by the Republicans in their state legislature. And this is wrecking them financially.

The people are not going to forget this.

The issue ad writes itself:

“Once again, they’re playing a political game in saying no to all aspects of Obamacare, no matter how common sense and right for us as a state and as a nation,’’ said Kary Jencks of the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance, a social justice advocacy group. “The folks who end up paying a price are the hard-working middle- and low-income people.’’

So while all the right wing pundits are gleefully poking a stick at the snafu'd federal website, the real pain is going to last much longer for those who are being blocked from Medicaid by the GOP.

The website will get fixed. The denial of Medicaid will, too, when the citizens kick the GOP to the curb.

The GOP is playing a very, very dangerous game. If the state legislatures change color because the GOP is perceived as denying healthcare access to hardworking people, those newly blue legislatures are going to redraw congressional districts, and that will change the color of the House of Representatives. For a long, long, long time.

Republicans in the Legislature have blocked the state from participating in a federally funded expansion of the Medicaid program, meaning that up to 58,000 Granite State residents are in line to be denied coverage.

58,000 pissed off voters in a small state.

New Hampshire's state Senate is red. 13 Republicans to 11 Democrats.

58,000 pissed off voters like the hard working couple.


Let's see what color NH Senate is 14 months from now.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Remind us how you are an independent.....

 

[TemplarKormac]

Remind us how you are an independent.....

He's not. Don't believe everything you see.

 

[nodoginnafight]

The GOP is playing a very, very dangerous game. If the state legislatures change color because the GOP is perceived as denying healthcare access to hardworking people, those newly blue legislatures are going to redraw congressional districts, and that will change the color of the House of Representatives. For a long, long, long time.

I'm always amazed lately at how the GOP manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I think they are trying to lose.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

Why didn't she have catastrophic insurance.....?

it would probably have only cost about $100/month...and would have covered her gall bladder operation...

this plus saving some pre-tax dollars in a Health Savings Account for regular checkups would be an effective plan...

 

[TemplarKormac]

Just a quick question, when the healthcare.gov website goes out in all 50 states, how many pissed off voters will there be in 2014?

Thought I'd run that by you.

 

[g5000]

Remind us how you are an independent.....

I am a critically thinking, pragmatic independent. I don't run away from facts just because I don't like what they say.

And it is a fact the GOP is blocking the Medicaid expansion. And it is a fact this is affecting real people who vote.

You can pile on all the moralizing about Medicaid expansion all you like, but these are the facts.

And I just don't buy the fake moralizing I see from the Right. Not when right wingers were whining like welfare queens the other day, demanding their own government tit in the form of tax expenditures. Tax expenditures which are costing us $1.2 trillion a year and higher tax rates.

You can get pissed at me, you can pretend I am a liberal, but it won't take change reality at all. So go right ahead and stuff your head back in the sand. Start topics about how the GOP is going to kick ass in the state elections next year instead.

But when you see that first issue ad, a part of your brain is going to say, "Holy fuck! G5000 totally called it!"

 

[Vox]

More bullshit from pseudorepublican? What else is new

 

[g5000]

Just a quick question, when the healthcare.gov website goes out in all 50 states, how many pissed off voters will there be in 2014?

Thought I'd run that by you.

Healthcare.gov is not for all 50 states. It is for all those red states which refused to set up their own state exchanges.

A lot of blue states have set up their own exchanges and their citizens don't have anything to do with healthcare.gov. They are singing up by the thousands on their state web sites. Every day, more and more people are getting health insurance. ObamaCare membership is growing and growing and growing. This is why I keep saying the GOP better get in front of that really quick.

Just more stupid shit the GOP fucked up on. "Fuck you. We didn't set up a state exchange, so you will just have to use that fucked up federal site. You're welcome!"

 

[rdean]

That's sad. The people who need health care the most are being royally fucked - and loving it.

 

[Black_Label]

Just a quick question, when the healthcare.gov website goes out in all 50 states, how many pissed off voters will there be in 2014?

Thought I'd run that by you.

Few. The call centers and in person sign ups are working just fine.

The people that are pissed off, are at the radical right wing teabaggers for shutting down the government over their temper tantrum.

 

[g5000]

Here are the issue ads we will see from each party:

RIGHT: "Because of ObamaCare, I lost my insurance!" [close-up of letter from insurance company disenrollment letter with key words highlighted]

LEFT: "XX,000 people in our state were blocked from getting Medicaid insurance by Senator Y. Another XX,000 people were unable to receive federal funding to help pay for their ACA health insurance by Senator Y."

Then lots of "liar, liar, pants on fire" ad deconstruction.

 

[Mustang]

Just a quick question, when the healthcare.gov website goes out in all 50 states, how many pissed off voters will there be in 2014?

Thought I'd run that by you.

Healthcare.gov is not for all 50 states. It is for all those red states which refused to set up their own state exchanges.

A lot of blue states have set up their own exchanges and their citizens don't have anything to do with healthcare.gov. They are singing up by the thousands on their state web sites. Every day, more and more people are getting health insurance. ObamaCare membership is growing and growing and growing. This is why I keep saying the GOP better get in front of that really quick.

Just more stupid shit the GOP fucked up on. "Fuck you. We didn't set up a state exchange, so you will just have to use that fucked up federal site. You're welcome!"

In case TemplarKormac needs some evidence (not that it would matter one way or the other as far as he's concerned), here's the website set up by Colorado for Coloradans:

Connect for Health Colorado | Colorado's Health Insurance Marketplace

 

[ScreamingEagle]

Just a quick question, when the healthcare.gov website goes out in all 50 states, how many pissed off voters will there be in 2014?

Thought I'd run that by you.

Healthcare.gov is not for all 50 states. It is for all those red states which refused to set up their own state exchanges.

A lot of blue states have set up their own exchanges and their citizens don't have anything to do with healthcare.gov. They are singing up by the thousands on their state web sites. Every day, more and more people are getting health insurance. ObamaCare membership is growing and growing and growing. This is why I keep saying the GOP better get in front of that really quick.

Just more stupid shit the GOP fucked up on. "Fuck you. We didn't set up a state exchange, so you will just have to use that fucked up federal site. You're welcome!"

why should states let the Feds increase their Medicaid programs when they are going broke to begin with....?

instead of whining about it.....why not promote and try some GOP plans like allowing cross-state plans and limiting malpractice costs and giving individuals the same tax bennies that companies get....etc.

 

[g5000]

Just a quick question, when the healthcare.gov website goes out in all 50 states, how many pissed off voters will there be in 2014?

Thought I'd run that by you.

Healthcare.gov is not for all 50 states. It is for all those red states which refused to set up their own state exchanges.

A lot of blue states have set up their own exchanges and their citizens don't have anything to do with healthcare.gov. They are singing up by the thousands on their state web sites. Every day, more and more people are getting health insurance. ObamaCare membership is growing and growing and growing. This is why I keep saying the GOP better get in front of that really quick.

Just more stupid shit the GOP fucked up on. "Fuck you. We didn't set up a state exchange, so you will just have to use that fucked up federal site. You're welcome!"

why should states let the Feds increase their Medicaid programs when they are going broke to begin with....?

The federal government is paying 100 percent of the cost of the expansion. Then it will be scaled back to 90 percent in 2019 and stay at that level from that point on. This is far higher than the current 50 percent federal funding for Medicaid.

instead.....why not try some GOP plans like allowing cross-state plans and limiting malpractice costs and giving individuals the same tax bennies that companies get....etc.

Tax bennies. More government tit. More tax expenditures.

The GOP has done fuck-all to inform the public what it would do to reform health care. The only thing the public hears from the GOP is obstruction and whining and pessimism about the ACA. Not a word about an alternative plan.

It had all the power under Bush and did nothing to help the general public.

The GOP is known for one thing: Blockage.

 

[g5000]

I have outlined the kinds of reforms we really need to bring down the costs of healthcare in America many times on this forum. Anyone who read them would laugh at the preposterous supposition I am liberal.

It is just that the GOP has been completely and utterly outgamed. Outgamed by Democrats, for fuck's sake! It does not get more pathetic than that. The GOP is a bag of hammers. Tripping over its shoelaces. Incompetent. Retards.

 

[g5000]

The GOP fucked up, big time. They fucked up ten years ago when they had all the power and did not get out in front of the issue of rising healthcare costs outpacing inflation. They handed the issue to the Democrats on a silver platter.

And now we are on our way to single payer healthcare.

Thanks a lot, assholes.

 

[nodoginnafight]

I have outlined the kinds of reforms we really need to bring down the costs of healthcare in America many times on this forum. Anyone who read them would laugh at the preposterous supposition I am liberal.

It is just that the GOP has been completely and utterly outgamed. Outgamed by Democrats, for fuck's sake! It does not get more pathetic than that. The GOP is a bag of hammers. Tripping over its shoelaces. Incompetent. Retards.

It's easier to blow off an honest, critical assessment, if you can just imagine it's coming from a fanatic.

 

[g5000]

When I look at the feebleness with which the GOP fought the obvious coming storm of Democratic soclialization of our healthcare system, it is difficult for me not to believe that, deep down inside, the GOP had already surrendered to the idea of single payer healthcare, and that everything else they do is just theater for the rubes.

If they are insincere, that would certainly go a long way toward explaining their catastrophic strategic blunders they are making.

 

[Mustang]

I have outlined the kinds of reforms we really need to bring down the costs of healthcare in America many times on this forum. Anyone who read them would laugh at the preposterous supposition I am liberal.

It is just that the GOP has been completely and utterly outgamed. Outgamed by Democrats, for fuck's sake! It does not get more pathetic than that. The GOP is a bag of hammers. Tripping over its shoelaces. Incompetent. Retards.

You may get something out of the following site. The Dartmouth Studies attempted to find ways to bring down the costs of healthcare by showing that very often the end results (outcomes) were not dictated by the amount of money spent. In other words, some counties spent large sums of money on certain treatments yet they had comparable outcomes to other counties which spent far less money pursuing different types of treatments which were more cost-effective.

Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care