Ryan Unsuited to Lead ‘Adult Conversation’ About Poverty
Greg Kaufmann skillfully filets Paul Ryan's hatchet-job on anti-poverty programs ...
http://billmoyers.com/2014/03/29/ryan-unsuited-to-lead-%E2%80%98adult-conversation%E2%80%99-about-poverty/
These days, a favorite talking point of Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s is calling for an “adult conversation” about poverty. “It’s time for an adult conversation,” he told The Washington Post. “If we actually have an adult conversation,” he said in remarks at the Brookings Institution, “I think we can make a difference.”
The problem is that a prerequisite for any adult conversation is telling the truth and it is there the congressman falls monumentally short.
...
Ryan also argues that Medicaid coverage has little positive effect on enrollees’ health. But as Lee points out, Ryan conveniently overlooks studies showing an association between Medicaid and lower mortality rates; reduced low-weight births and infant and child mortality; and lower mortality for HIV-positive patients, among other heath benefits.
...
Rep. Ryan also plays on fears of low-income people abusing the welfare system when he asserts that Medicaid coverage improperly increases enrollees’ use of health care services, including preventive care and emergency department services. Ryan makes this case too by comparing Medicaid enrollees to uninsured people, who, as Lee writes, “are less likely to use health care services due to significant financial barriers.”
Really? Ryan argued that because Medicaid patients use more services than the uninsured that they are over-utilizing? What a hollow, disingenious argument.
= new reply since forum marked as read
out of me.
