I tried several times to argue this point, and it fell on deaf ears, to be argued into oblivion by ##SNIPPED##, that I was mistaken, wrong, racist.
They were always insured. Always. I even made a perfect example of this during the Aurora, Co. Shootings when the sad-sob story came out about the
young man who was shot in the theater that was paralyzed and deemed never able to work again. He was "uninsured", and the "taxpayer would be required
to foot the bill" as his desperate family raked in hundreds of thousands in donations for this poor fellow.
I pointed out that any person facing an emergency that went to the emergency room would immediately be placed into the Emergency Medicaid coverage.
This is done by Social Services as soon as the person arrives at the hospital. It is their JOB.
The hospital wants to get paid something, and their goal is to assure that. Anyone that fits into any form of emergency healthcare is placed into the
program immediately. This follows them home and into their life and healthcare afterwards if deemed necessary. This is the whole point behind Case
Management and Social Services in hospital networks.
In fact, after the sad-sob story came out in the media, the next story within a day or two was about how the young man got placed into the Colorado
Medicaid system, and his financial demise was greatly exagerrated. But, like anything else, once the story is out there, it is sensational, and no one
cares about the follow up story where the tragedy is .. well.. not so much.
Fact is, all of these "uninsured" poor were insured the moment they walked into any emergency room. Emergency Medicaid, or if elderly, Medicare,
kicked in, and the taxpayer footed the bill, ANYWAY..
It makes no difference if you apply today, or the day you get hit by, or become, the drunk driver. The coverage, and the cost to the taxpayer is the
same. No one is turned away for healthcare in our emergency rooms, ever.
It was all hokum, and to this day, remains hokum. In fact, the largest healthcare enrollment numbers are those that always had availability to enroll
in Medicaid. It was always there. It didn't magically just become available to them, they are just enrolling now, as opposed to before they get to the
Emergency Room, out of fear of penalty.
Now, the question to ask, honestly, is this going to affect the cost of healthcare? Likely only slightly. The typical Medicaid enrollee is
unfortunately part of a large, stereotypical group.
They will have a tendency to be non-compliant with their health disorders. They will still likely over-use emergency rooms as health clinics, as this
is how their lifestyle is. They don't take time to make appointments, to see physicians, and to tend to illnesses before they become serious, or,
abuse the system by using emergency rooms as clinics because it is easier. Few, and only few, have trouble finding a doctor that accepts Medicaid.
Thanks to Obamacare, that just got worse. Thanks to Obamacare, the load on emergency rooms will likely WORSEN as a result of unavailability of
Medicaid physicians.
The big lie was always the uninsured poor. The big lie was always taxpayers having to foot the bill. None if that changed. None of it.
Now, with enrollment numbers for Medicaid nearing 50 million, are you beginning to see the real truth, that you and I have been paying for this all
along.
They are just trying to force healthy young people to enroll into the exchanges to recoup the losses for this burden, because the Medicaid and
Medicare support by taxpayers has become unsustainable.
Simples.
edit on 16-11-2013 by Libertygal because: (no reason given)