Republican vs. Republican on covering uninsured

[Tony_FLADEM]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's Republican versus Republican in the latest round of political battles over health care.

Conservative Republican legislators in major states are trying to block efforts by more pragmatic governors of their own party to accept health insurance for more low-income residents under President Barack Obama's health care law.

Unlike their congressional counterparts, who've misfired in repeated attempts to torpedo the law, state Republicans may well sink the expansion of Medicaid in populous states such as Florida and Michigan.

That would mean leaving billions of dollars in federal matching funds on the table and hundreds of thousands of the poor uninsured. Expansion opponents say it's an issue that goes to their core beliefs.

"It's an ideological principle piece to us on the conservative side," said state Rep. David Gowan, majority leader in the Arizona House of Representatives. "We don't believe in the expansion of Medicaid itself - it's within the process of mandating health care. We don't believe it's the government's duty to do that. It should be open for people to go get their health care."

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In Washington, the head of the Catholic Health Association tells the story of a fellow nun who tried to persuade an Ohio GOP legislator to support Kasich's proposal, only to be rebuffed. Sister Carol Keehan, who backs the Medicaid expansion, says the lawmaker told the nun the uninsured could go to community health fairs for basic preventive care.

"He said, `Sister, they can get their blood pressures taken at the fire station,'" said Keehan, whose organization represents Catholic hospitals. "Would you want your blood pressure taken at the fire station?"

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_CARE_POLITICS?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[still_one]

1. Any person against healthcare for everyone that calls themselves moral or religious is a

Liar, hypocrite, and immoral

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. "They can get their blood pressures taken at the fire station."

Right. So you go to the fire station and they take your blood pressure and it turns out to be too high. Now what? Does the fire department treat high blood pressure?

GOPers aren't just mean, they're stupid.

[Volaris]

3. I say if a State Legislature

decides not to take federal matching funds, that cash should go to a State that DOES decide to take it. Helps those who are willing to help themselves, so to speak, and the Red States can watch how much better it becomes "on the other side of the line", and wonder why THEY can't have nice things, too.

Yes, the GOP Base is composed almost entirely of idiot rubes.