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As the Republican Party of Virginia fights tooth and claw to block Medicaid expansion - even as hypocritically wrapping itself in supposed "Christian values" - the Richmond Times Dispatch reports that close to 1 million Virginians have no health coverage. The GOP response is "so what, and who cares." The poor and less fortunate are increasingly treated as disposable trash by today's GOP even thought here in Virginia the rural areas where the GOP holds most sway has some of the highest receipts of social safety net payments. The blithering idiots in these rural areas again and again are duped by the GOP into supporting the GOP based on GOP plays on racism and religion. Meanwhile, the party doesn't give a damn about these people other than getting their votes. Here are highlights from the Richmond Times Dispatch article:
Miller is one of about 1 million Virginians under the age of 65 without health insurance. And she is one of an estimated 400,000 uninsured Virginians who could be eligible for coverage if the state expands its federal Medicaid program.
The state legislature, which returns Monday for a special session, is deadlocked over a feature in the Senate budget that would expand coverage to include hundreds of thousands of uninsured Virginians.
Working a few odd jobs as a debt collector, Miller hardly gets by as her health deteriorates further. Now also suffering from glaucoma and diabetes, and with no steady job, Miller says she has given up hope for a better life and for regaining her health.
“I don’t have $200 to pay for a glaucoma doctor every time I visit, and I don’t have $120 to pay for my eyedrops,” Miller said. “Where am I going to get help? I don’t own property. How do you want me to pay for it?”
House Republicans stand firm against Medicaid expansion and are blocking the Senate plan, sponsored by Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, that would cover at least 250,000 uninsured Virginians through a private option health plan by tapping into $1.7 billion in expansion funds available under the Affordable Care Act.
Miller and many other uninsured Virginians will be watching anxiously. “This makes me angry and disgusted,” she said. “How can they be so heartless? We don’t want a handout. I have worked for 30 years. I don’t get that they will deny people coverage that genuinely need it. But they do it because they don’t have to worry about it; they’ve got health insurance.”
The uninsured represent every population in Virginia: 45.8 percent are white, 23.8 percent are black, 20.4 percent are Hispanic (of any race), 7.1 percent are Asian/Pacific Islander and 2.9 percent are from other groups. More than 79 percent of uninsured Virginians are U.S. citizens, the report says.
“It’s hard to imagine what life is like without health insurance — until you don’t have it,” said Deborah Oswalt, executive director of the Virginia Health Care Foundation. “There is such an important link between health insurance as the access to the medical care that it brings and a person’s ability to keep working and taking care of themselves and their families. Many people don’t understand that,” Oswalt said.
According to the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, a left-leaning think tank, among Virginia’s uninsured are nearly 34,000 veterans, who — along with their spouses — could benefit from the expansion of Medicaid called for in the Affordable Care Act.
[A]bout half of all uninsured veterans in Virginia and more than half of all veterans insured under the Veterans Affairs program could qualify for coverage under Medicaid expansion, meaning they had incomes below 138 percent of the federal poverty level in 2010, which is $22,050 for a family of four, according to federal guidelines.
My contempt for the GOP base, especially the self-centered, hate-filled Christofascist element grows with every passing day. These are not nice and decent people and, if they represent what Christian values are all about, then we'd be a better nation if Christianity disappeared completely.
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