The ‘deadbeat card’
Dear editor:
Our great state earlier this month got national attention, though questionable, for starting to kick poor people off Medicaid for not getting on theirs iPads regularly and proving that they are either keeping a steady job or else meeting some other bureaucratic formula to demonstrate they are not lazy. Problem: Thousands do not have iPads. Many who do may have missed the deadline by forgetting or by having their attention drawn to other important matters. Now, tens of thousands will lose their health care coverage, joining tens of thousands who have already lost coverage, due to failure to get and/or answer bureaucratic mail or electronic inquiries about their status.
As usual, this administration is playing the old “deadbeat card,” assuming that tens of thousands out there in the hinterland are no-good, lazy bums. Our governor assures us that the purpose of this new rule is not to punish anyone for his poverty or indolence, but to urge them to become productive citizens.
While this negative-working policy was churned into place, a scheme to bilk the government (our tax money including Medicaid money) out of millions to send to a “nonprofit” supposedly designed to help the needy. This scheme has in recent weeks made headlines in many newspapers, $43 million of our tax monies were sent to Preferred Family Healthcare of Springfield, Mo. The governor’s nephew, attorney Jeremy Hutchinson — now under fire for the move — was paid $500,000 to help steer the money. It was a complicated scheme, involving Ecclesia College and several thieves doing paper work.
How does such a scheme — proposed as a plan to help the needy — become possible? Answer: Through our state budgeting design. Every year, the legislature and the governor budgets state spending, mainly holding down school spending, leaving a large surplus each July 1. The money is divided among the 135 legislators designated the beneficiaries of his or her pot. The lobbyist (in this case Rusty Cranford) can bribe or cajole legislators into earmarking his pot for his clients (in this case Preferred Family Healthcare). Legislators can introduce bills to alter state human services rules (as was done in this case) to favor a certain group (in this case PFH). The governor is allowed to choose among a variety of capital appropriations where his share of the pot will go.
In the meantime, schools are neglected and Medicaid patients suffer in many ways, added to the burden of having to reply to electronic messages they may never get. The plan of attacking government-subsidy programs like Medicaid is always based on false statistics about free-loaders and lazy folk. Like the fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, the overwhelming portion of fraud can be laid to medical doctors and health groups like PFH; the statistics show that little fraud is perpetuated by individuals receiving the aid. Once more, good old comic strip Pogo’s comment is applicable: Question: Have we met the enemy again and it is us? John W. “Doc” Crawford Hot Springs