|
Uninsured Flocking to O'care in Rural Kentucky
Enough personal 'helping the poor stories' to warm the heart of any liberal. But to save you the time, many have been on the gubbamint dole for a long, long time and some used to work in the coal mines. No one observed that more could be working in the coal mines, were it not for the war on coal. Most in the article on going on Medicaid; I missed any strong, young folks signing on in case they were to be struck by lighting."Yeah, we live on this side of the hill," said Woodrow Wilson Noble, whose family farm had gone under, who lived on food stamps and what his mother could spare, and who was about to hear whether he would have health insurance for the first time in his 60-year-old life. This is how things are going in Kentucky: Where the computer system works, it seems As conservatives argued that the new health-care law will wreck the economy, as liberals argued it will save billions, as many Americans raged at losing old health plans and some analysts warned that a disproportionate influx of the sick and the poor could wreck the new health-care model, Lively was telling Noble something he did not expect to hear. "All right," she said. "We've got you eligible for Medicaid." I am SO glad SOMEBODY is coming out ahead on this deal! Places such as Breathitt County, in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky, are driving the state's relatively high enrollment figures, which are helping to drive national enrollment figures as the federal health exchange has floundered. So most of the enrolment that Champ's supporters are taking credit for are signing up in the functioning state exchanges. In a state where 15 percent of the population, about 640,000 people, are uninsured, 56,422 have signed up for new health-care coverage, with 45,622 of them enrolled in Medicaid and the rest in private health plans, according to figures released by the governor's office Friday. You don't need a calculator to do that math. If the health-care law is having a troubled rollout across the country, Kentucky -- and Breathitt County in particular -- shows what can happen in a place where things are working as the law's supporters envisioned. How's that? Bankrupting the middle class? Or my grandchildren? One reason is that the state set up its own health-insurance exchange, sidestepping the troubled federal one. Also, Gov. Steve Beshear (D) is the only Southern governor to sign on to expanded eligibility parameters for Medicaid, the federal health-insurance program for the poor. Somebody remind me who's paying for this. Kentuckians? Or all US taxpayers? "Okay, Woodrow, now you get to shop a little bit," she said, explaining options he'd never had before. "If you go to the doctor, all you're going to pay is $1," she began. "If you're in the hospital for an extended period, you should only be billed $5. . . . If you get medicine, generics are $1 and brand is $4. . . . You can go to the dentist once a month -- exams, X-rays and cleanings are covered. . . . Now for your teeth, the plan does take care of having them pulled and does take care of fillings, but not bridges, because that's considered cosmetic." "I got some warts on me I got to take off, some moles," said Woodrow. "I might have that colonoscopy done. My mom had colon cancer twice. I never had money to do it." He said he was told it could cost at least $2,000. "I got this pain in my left shoulder," he said, lifting his arm and rotating it. "Might be arthritis, I guess. I don't know." The per-capita income in Breathitt is about $15,000, and the rates of diabetes, hypertension and other health problems earned this part of Kentucky the nickname "Coronary Valley." I thought The War On Poverty was supposed to help those folks. Posted by: Bobby 2013-11-25 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=380361 |