When can I start saying.."Thats enough of this already"

[Peacetrain]

Is anyone as sick and tired of the I do not understand Obamacare meme as I am? They keep talking about how the Administration has had a year to roll this out.. but likewise..they the media and pundits of all shapes and sizes and just plain folks have had a year to look at it.

I have a brother in SD.. who will not be getting insurance because of the Supreme Court action to let states decide if they were going to expand Medicaid for those under the poverty level. Again that is what the Supreme Court did.. they said Obamacare could stand but the states got to decide if they would expand the Medicaid part or not. In 13 states including SD poor people are up a creek.. There is work still to be done for those 13 states

My brother has disabilities.. and he understands what happened. I am so upset because he has never had insurance.. and his Governor refused to expand Medicaid (which by the way, the federal government was going to cover 100% of the costs for the first 5 years, and 90% after that).. so he is SOL on insurance..
___________________________________________________________________
He calls me up and the conversation went basically like this

Sissy.. other people are getting insurance and I am not because I make so little money

yeah sweety that is about it.. its not fair..

Sissy, if we call in SD and vote out our Governor will we get medicaid and I can get insurance like Minnesota..

yep that is what you will have to do..

well I am going to call Sissy.. I am going to call.
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If you do not have insurance.. you can go and look at the exchanges set up by the goverment to find what is cheapest and fits your state best.. If you are above the poverty line everywhere you can qualify for subsidies. In 26 states they have already expanded the Medicaid act.. and those under the poverty level will get their insurance free..

If you have insurance nothing has changed.. you do not have to look up diddly squat.

But 13 states have decided not to participate in the medicaid expansion and the people in those states will not get the medicaid benefit.

There is NO EXCUSE for this level of uniformed silliness at this point. No excuse.. none. and when can we start saying that?

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Texas is another of those states...

...with the largest population of uninsured.

There is lots of work to be done.

[Peacetrain]

3. 13 states.. 13 states

We can get those guys voted out.. even my kid brother (if you call 49 a kid figured this one out..

[bunnies]

2. Im in the same bracket as your brother.

The Supreme Court really screwed us.

[Peacetrain]

5. bunnies.. time to fire up across the net

call, vote, go to those town halls and demand, and I mean demand .. that those 13 states start joining the rest of the union.

My Mom and I cried ourselves sick over my brother.. but he cut through it quicker than we did.. Got to vote that guy out.

[bunnies]

6. Ive been calling and writing my ass off.

And Im not going to stop. Its an absolute travesty that the neediest still suffer. We have a Dem Gov and a Dem House and the state is dragging its feet because the pukes in the Senate demanded a "committee" study the situation first.

[Peacetrain]

7. We are in your corner 100%

I was going to back off any political involvement except on the state level... I am getting older and burning out.. but this has me fired up. I am jumping in with both feet to get those 13 states to help those below the poverty level. If my brother made 4000 more even SD he would qualify for enough of a subsidy that he could actually afford insurance. That is the craziness of all this and what the supreme court did.

[bunnies]

8. And I yours.

Something should have been done at a federal level immediately after the SC decision. Washington had to know what this meant to poor people in states that refused to expand Medicaid. They had to know.

Messed up thing for me personally is that the reason Im out of work is that I need my elbow joint replaced. If I HAD medical care I wouldnt have to be fighting for SSDI and state assistance right now because Id be able to go back to work. Idiots.

Another issue we discovered is that you have to take your employers insurance, even if its shitty, if its cheap enough. My bf's employer offers a cheap catastrophic plan thats absolutely useless. But as long as its not over the certain percentage of his income, he has no choice. That sucks.

So for we're 0 for 2 with Obamacare in this house. *sigh*

[Waiting For Everyman]

9. I'm wondering if this could be a Civil Rights suit of some kind...

an "equal protection under the law" kind of thing? Maybe the Justice Dept. could sue the states that are doing this.

I hope some way can be found to work, because I agree with you. This is really sad and serious, and needs fixing somehow right away. Of course in normal times, the law could just be amended, but not anymore.

I applaud your brother's approach, of course, and I hope a whole lot of people have the same thought -- that would solve all of the problems the idiot Repubs cause. But I just hope he doesn't have to be without coverage for as long as that would take.

[Peacetrain]

10. My brother is an inspiring guy

People will start to rise up and vote out those that blocked access to health care not only for themselves... but like me for family members.. friends.. family members of friends. The Republicans did not think this one out.. that is for sure.

[Waiting For Everyman]

11. Yup, this could be their undoing, at last.

In addition to being incredibly spiteful and vicious, it wasn't a very smart move on their part.

I hope the Dems and some like-minded advocacy groups launch a national campaign about this, it would be a great issue to do it with. I'd like to see some ads about the specific officials who blocked the Medicaid expansion, in contrast to some of the folks they're screwing over. I'll bet there isn't one of those officials who isn't corrupt as hell, and raking in government advantages for themselves.

Kudos to your bro, Peacetrain, and I'm certainly one who will stay interested in what's going on with this until something gets done about it.

[Peacetrain]

12. Thank you for kind words for my brother

and I will most assuredly keep everyone posted as this proceeds. They (the right wing tea people) really did a number on themselves. Being redundant.. when people in SD see the state right above them giving "free" yep free coverage to those below the poverty line. People will be up in arms for those who they know need help.

That and the fact that it is so much cheaper.. it will help the state budgets

And those states with full health care.. can look for businesses to move to their states. It is a win win win proposition for them