Again, today's deadline day to get insurance, if you don't already have it … Longtime commenter Cos holds forth on his experience with the new health care “products”, and makes an important clarification:
Actually, for truly “lower income” folks, the plans we have under Commonwealth Care are excellent. It's the best health insurance I've ever had, the easiest to use, and I dread my upcoming switch back to an employer-sponsored or similar other plan.
It's only when you get above 300% of poverty that the insurance available starts to be a problem. For a single person, that's about $31,000/year. So it's the lower-middle income people that will have a problem getting health insurance.
Note, however, that the Connector can designate a window where based on your income, no “afforable” plan is available, and so you don't get penalized for not buying one. I believe the window for single people is currently from the Commonwealth Care cutoff up to about $40,000/year (and there's a proportionally equivalent window for people in other status, like couples or parents, above whatever their 300% of poverty is).
The great success of the new health care law is the great health insurance we now offer to the poor, the broke, and the low-income residents of the state.
One of the failures, so far, is that it does nothing for people in that window. But at least it doesn't penalize them, and a lot of people don't seem to realize that.
Above the window, you can theoretically afford one of the plans available. Is that really true for people just barely above the window? That I don't know. Anyone here in that situation? (for example, a single person living alone earning about $41,000/year)
Again, again, again, the easy, popular part is just subsidizing people's insurance. (The SCHIP battle has illustrated the same thing.) It's quite palatable, politically; more so than enforcing the mandate, which, let's remember, was Mitt's “conservative” idea.
By the way, Globe writer Alice Dembner wants your stories:
HEALTH INSURANCE?How is your boss responding to the new health insurance law? Is he giving you coverage for the first time? Did she cut your hours to avoid providing coverage? Please share your story with reporter Alice Dembner at Dembner@globe.com.
Illegal aliens have a better lobby than U.S. military veterans
Found in Athens Banner-Herald
Posted on 2007-11-12
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By D.A. King
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“The character of a nation can be measured by the way that nation treats its veterans.” – Author unknown.
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Another Veterans Day has come and gone, and the far-too-sparsely attended parades and ceremonies are over until next year. As a former Marine and someone who studies illegal immigration and the fact that the president of the United States has refused to secure American borders more than six years after the horror of 9/11, Veterans Day always brings to mind the puzzling system of priorities we have as a nation.
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One example: Since 2003, the Veterans Administration has had a medical care eligibility means test for American military veterans. The American Journal of Public Health reported last month that more than one million vets have no insurance or access to VA medical care.
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But, because of a federal mandate, American taxpayers – including veterans – routinely pay for no-cost medical care for people who reside in the United States illegally.
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At age 55, like most vets my age I can clearly remember the promise of “free medical care for the rest of your life” from my government as a 17-year-old recruit.
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As it has on the promise to secure American borders, the Bush administration has gone back on the promise to many vets.
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On Jan. 17, 2003, the Veterans Administration changed its enrollment guidelines and began to ask detailed questions of the U.S. military veterans who apply for their promised medical benefits after that date. Questions like, “What was your income last year?”, “How many dependents do you have?” and “Is your need for treatment related to your past military service?”
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Vets who earn more than about $34,000 a year without a military-related medical problem are put into “Category 8g” … and denied the promised free routine health care.
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According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, emergency medical care for those formerly in the service of their nation in Category 8g is granted “on a humanitarian emergency basis and (they) are charged the applicable tortuously liable billing rate for services provided.”
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The illegal aliens who are demanding immunity from the equal application of American border, immigration and employment laws have no problem qualifying for free medical treatment.
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No means test, no questions asked. No bills.
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In 1986, the year the federal government rewarded about three million illegal aliens with a “one-time” amnesty, it also passed into law the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which guarantees no-cost medical treatment in American emergency rooms to anyone, regardless of ability to pay or immigration status. Or both.
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The fact that the 1986 amnesty was a miserable failure at its promised goal – stopping illegal immigration and illegal employment – is undeniable. EMTALA, however, is enforced and works quite well. Millions of illegal aliens receive taxpayer-funded health care – emergency or not – in America’s emergency rooms at the lowest possible charge: Zero.
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There are about 25 million living vets in today’s America. Most who study illegal immigration understand that we have at least the same number of illegal aliens, notwithstanding the ridiculous estimates from the federal government.
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As someone who has thought a lot about the “why” in this sad but true conflict in priorities, the answer is shamefully clear.
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The illegal aliens and their employers have a far more well-funded and effective lobby in Congress than the American veterans.
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We should all be asking a lot of questions here. This cannot be who we are as a nation. Can it?
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? D.A. King is a former U.S. Marine and president of the Dustin Inman Society, a Marietta-based nonprofit coalition dedicated to educating the public on the consequences of illegal immigration. In 2004, he applied for VA medical benefits and was assigned to Category 8g.
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Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 111307
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http://onlineathens….
brother, if any executive in the insurance cartel bothered to read bmg, they would be laughing at you right now.
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yeah, everybody’s problem with our broken healthcare delivery system is because of the tiny fraction of people in this country who are living on the absolute bottom rung of society. it can’t be from above can it?
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just like the lazy blacks stealing jobs from us good hardworking, church-going providers. it certainly wasn’t corporations pitting blue-collar worker against blue-collar worker, was it?
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or the gays ripping apart the fabric of our society. it was really them that turned american culture into a crass, vulgar cesspool, wasn’t it? it certainly couldn’t have anything to do with the media corporations who profit billions from it.
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and just like their fellow travelers on the fringes of society, it’s these lazy, conniving, lying, scheming, hustling, (and according to you; lobbying) immigrants that are ruining it all for the rest of us.
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and what about those poor hmo’s? good folks mowing their lawns. taking cookies to the scouts bake sale. have respectable forms of sex with only their spouses.
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it’s just a tragedy that josé and maria have conspired to wreck the paradise that the hmo’s and the insurance cartel has made for us, isn’t it?
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well, you go git ’em man! all of us good folks are counting on you to save america.
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brother, by those who have convinced you that the big bad boogie man “corporations” are the root of all evil. In the liberal world , they are the Satan of America even though they provide the highest standard of living in the world for millions of American families.
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As a veteran (12 years), I was denied Veterans health benefits being just over the $32k means test. MCRD also didn’t mention that they also count any IRA you might have as part of the means test. Meanwhile the emergency room at Framingham hospital looks like Rio de Janeiro. Been in an emergency room lately “brother”?
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MCRD’s point is that how can the richest Nation on earth treat its veterans like crap by denying them benefits based on a means test and yet illegal aliens get free health care? That’s the issue and has nothing to do with HMOs or the big insurance Co cabal that you want to blame for the problem
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As far as Jose and Maria are concerned….if they’re here illegally -screw them.
and maria that are screwing veterans?
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here’s a quickie quiz;
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approximately 30% of all american healthcare dollars go to:
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a. the administrative and marketing functions of the private insurance industry.
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b. undocumented immigrants who have medical emergencies.
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(answer provided in a later post.)
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I don’t care where/how the money is spent although I’m looking forward to your links and supporting facts regarding your 30% figure.
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The point is that Veterans are not getting the health care they were promised by the government when they enlisted and illegal aliens get free health care. HMOs and insurance Co have NOTHING to do with this FACT. What is it about this that you don’t understand?
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And by the way, just so you understand the cause of how pitiful the treatment veterans receive really is ,the reason is that the funding for Veterans is NOT a mandatory Federal line item budget item. Rather it is a “discretionary spending item” and is notoriously underfunded by our piggish politicians who have the best health care benefits of anyone in the Country, right Ted K? Kerry? The VA is always underfunded hence the move to implement a means test in Jan 2003 which established the so called “low priority Veteran” category. What a friggin disgrace. In any case NOTHING to do with HMOs or the insurance Cos you seek to demonize.
veterans are getting screwed. it is a disgrace. and it’s this republican administration who is doing the screwing, not the poor souls in the framingham emergency room.
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and this is the same republican administration that consistently protects their corporate benefactors against the interests of regular folks, like veterans such as yourself. and moms who are panicking because they have to go to an emergency room with a kid who’s coughing up blood.
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and if you believe that it’s the corporate profit machines (not doctors and nurses and true healthcare providers) who are protecting you against some horde of freeloaders, you’re letting yourself get taken for a ride.
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veterans are getting screwed
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…those veteratns neglected to read the fine print (and the various “incorporations by reference”) when they signed on the dotted line. They only have themselves to blame. Of course, they didn’t have access to the provisions that were “incorporated by reference.”
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Things will get interesting when the US gov’t institutes a back door draft. And, mark my words, it’s coming. It’s only a matter of time, and I know exactly how they’re going to do it.
What in hell could you possibly know about being a Veteran?
Someone who never served a day in his life. You should thank God that there are people with the courage to serve so people like you can be free to belittle them anonymously on the internet from behind the safety of their keyboard while enjoying the freedoms provided to them by somebody else. You give a new meaning to the word obnoxious.
…you are too dumb to understand that I was referring to the government’s actions that are effectively “bait and switch.” I’ve done government contracting. It is highly complex, what with the “incorporation by reference” to DOD provisions that are can only be obtained with great effort. The fraudulent oral assurances provided by the recruiters to those being recruited mean nothing.
” apparently , you are too dumb” etc. Do you have any idea how obnoxious you are?
That USA has millions of veterans who have zero healthcare and others who are homeless (for whatever reason) We who enjoy the greatest privilege in the world, treat those who have sacrificed life and limb for all of us with callous disdain, yet in the liberals/progressive/democratic political party mind set, we have to ensure that illegal alien parasites are well taken care of. Am I only one of a few who see the insanity of this?
i know a few people who are in the country without papers. and none of them (that i see any indication of) are glomming onto the system. and none of them (that i’m aware of) are looking to our government to be “well taken care of.” rather, it’s quite the opposite.
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they all work more hours than i do. and spend more time worrying about the health and happiness of their families than i do. and most seem to say that they live a life on the fringes and in the shadows. no one (that i’m aware of) expects our government (ie taxpayers) to do anything to make their lives more humane.
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who exactly are these clients of a liberal welfare state that you are referring to? have you ever even met any of these folks? or had so much as a basic conversation with anyone in their situation?
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do you really think that you have any sense of what their true lives are like?
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and i don’t mean euphemistically ‘do you care?’. that, i think is clear. what i’m asking is whether you, or people of your ilk, even know what you are talking about.
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…Athens Georgia (the source of your diatribe) is a huge federal welfare recipient. In the form of Pentagon spending, of course.
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And it has been since time immemorial. My father was mustered out of the Army Air Corps in Athens at the end of WWII.
…my mother sat on her “fat ass” at the Athens GA Army Air Corps facility for several years.
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Actually, her ass wasn’t particularly fat. But she sat on it. AND she collected a pay check. How she got to Athens is not clear; she was actually from Miami.
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Now, those of us who are paying attention know that the federal government has been subsidizing the Southern states for a number of decades via the Pentagon. It isn’t a mystery.
I’m confused by this. What healthcare do illegal immigrants have access to that veterans are denied access to? Do they check to ensure that you are an illegal immigrant before giving you free care in emergency rooms? Do they check to make sure you aren’t a veteran? Are veterans really this upset that they can’t figure out how to walk into an emergency room? Those dumb, freeloading illegal immigrants always find the emergency room, why can’t the veterans? Or is it just that emergency room care isn’t actually all that desireable?
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Are you actually stupid enough to believe that illegal immigrants have better access to medical care than anyone else in this country?
that an illegal alien doesn’t give a s–t if he gets a ‘bill” ? for medical services?..a bill that he has absolutely no intention of paying? A simple name change from Rivera to Gomez, a false address given at the time of care given… whatever, solves that problem nicely. Meanwhile, Joe Veteran, if he trys to pull this dodge, is tracked down by his SS # ( a real one) and/ or his service # ( something you wouldn’t have a clue about as a non veteran)or any other number of ways that a legitimate US citizen can be identified and presto! a wage garnishment or lien on his house ( assuming he’s not living in the street as many now are).
Again ( for the umptinth time)the POINT is that illegal aliens more often than not, get better FREE treatment than US veterans. Get it?
The Rivera/Gomez story is very nice. How do you know it’s significant? How do you know it at all as you admitted to Laurel you don’t speak Spanish?
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From what I read of the liberal press, you can be sure that liberals are outraged by the country’s mistreatment of veterans. The right wants to wave the flag and all; liberals want to make sure actual people are actually taken care of.
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The Bush Administration has been stiffing the Veteran’s Administration for at least two reasons, as far as I can tell:
before you start pontificating about how much liberals care about people ( in this case, our own troops).
Your hypocrisy is astounding.
Let’s just take one liberal publication, The Nation. Here’s a random assortment of articles:
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April 9, 2007
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June 26, 2007
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October 10, 2007
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June 28, 2005
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Your lack of substantiating anything you say here and elsewhere makes your opinions easy to discount.
Pleeeze, yesterdays action in the People’s Republik of Cambridge sent a cyrstal clear message that these radical left wing people DO NOT support our own people (troops).
Be assured , if those “collection boxes ” were for clean needles for drug addicts or some other politically correct movement, not a word would have been said. Sorry, but the radical liberals have clearly made a statement on this one. America is watching ( this one has made the National news)and America is outraged and America is disgusted.
Where it really matters is U.S. government funding and not Boy Scout collection boxes. Here enjoy this:
You are barking up the wrong tree. You want to get outraged at the Cambridge election commission. Were the Boy Scouts going to raise $1 billion?
Be assured , if those “collection boxes ” were for clean needles for drug addicts or some other politically correct movement, not a word would have been said.
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…horse manure as to what would or would not have been said in a given situation. You do not have the slightest idea as to what would or would not have been said, and your faux harrumphing is becoming comical.
to sign up for Satan’s insurance company strikes me as not progressive.
http://www.zwire.com…
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It does however strike me as a way to subsidize one of the most corrupt remaining “industries” we have left in this country.
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There are no real “products” worthy of debate or any further consideration of than “you will pay”. I respond with, well if I can’t pay then I don’t go.
I have no desire for a 60 inch TV cause TV all sucks. Why should I not have the same option with health insurance.
Or with car insurance if you drive?
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Or social security?
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Or “crime insurance” in the form of municipal and state police departments?
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Or “fire rapid response” insurance, in the form of there being a fire department near you?
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Yeah, there’s no reason you should be required to pay for or partake of any of that. Except for this thing we call “civilization”.
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It’d be great if we could all be on government health insurance, and if you’re saying “let’s not subsidize the for-profit insurance companies, let’s replace them with national health insurance”, sure, you’ve got a great argument.
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But don’t push the “it’s wrong to require that everyone be on it” idea. It’s not wrong. We can debate whether it’s practical, whether we’ve implemented it well, etc. But the core concept, that health insurance should be for everyone and that everyone has to pay for it, is perfectly sensible.
but at one time we had a choice between four good HMO insurance companies, look at what happened to that. Government has not been able to solve or even slow down America’s decent into third world status and health care is a part of that.
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I refuse still to be mandated to support a totally corrupt organization.
because the State ( the rest of us) will need that money to cover your health care next time you go to the emergency room looking for free care.
at the terminus of the healthcare system. The cost of administrating our healthcare system has skyrocketed as well due to the need for protection against tort litigationand federal requirements. Every aspect of healthcare is now fraught with liability requirements due to the John Edwards and James Sokoloves and the rest of the ambulance chasers. The costs are astronomical. And as an aside. The new ploy in S. Calif for illegal aliens. Workmans Comp. fake an injury. Calif is now getting hammered. We reap what we have sown.
Yeah, rising costs have nothing to do with the fact that BC/BS Massachusetts just gave Bill Van Faasen a big, wet, sloppy goodbye kiss of almost $20 million. Story here.
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On a total aside, it would be nice for once, that when GOPers talk about lawsuit reform, they actually talk about the huge number of lawsuits that consist of corporations suing other corporations.
William McGuire got 1.78 Billion, yup, United Health Care CEO.
Retired on SS income ( below 300% poverty level)- enrolled in Commonwealth Care Direct ( $91 a month)- best insurance I’ve ever had. You get to chose from several different programs depending on how much or how little you want to pay.
This program has its flaws ( no dental available) but it is an outstanding health care solution that lets people depending on the means test, determine their own individual program and PCP without all the bureaucratic government BS that comes with any Nanny State program. Mass Health is brilliant!
http://www6.comcast….