Arnie to terminate health care benefitsn (YEAH! NO MORE FREE LUNCH LOSERS!)

San Francisco Examiner ^ | 12/19/03 | Alison Soltau

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Arnie to terminate health care benefits

Young moms and concerned doctors on Thursday attacked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's mooted health cuts, saying they could devastate local services for low income, immigrant groups.

The activists accused Schwarzenegger of hypocrisy for running on a campaign of expanding health care coverage for children, then promptly announcing $2 billion in health cuts over two years to help compensate for revenue lost after he repealed the vehicle license fee.

The cuts would hack 10 percent from Medi-Cal and freeze enrollment for all children in the Healthy Families program with separate caps for citizen and undocumented children.

Healthy Families is a scheme providing insurance for 677,000 children from low-income families throughout the state, and the proposed cuts could leave 130,000 children on an insurance waiting list in the first year, according to figures obtained from the state Department of Finance.

Women without legal immigrant standing will lose access to prenatal care, long-term care and treatment for breast and cervical cancer, health groups at a Mission district press conference said. This group is most vulnerable to the cuts, said Gladys Sandlin, executive director of the Mission Health Center. Many illegal women are working multiple jobs to keep their heads above water, she said, and would be most hit by the cuts.

"I'm not asking for charity, Medi-Cal isn't charity," she said."It's a right."

Activists argue that barring low-income immigrants access to the programs won't save the state much cash and will end up costing California more when sick families are forced to resort to the hospital emergency room.

Young single mom Raquel Cardenas is stressed at the thought of her 11-month-old daughter Erely catching this season's virulent strain of flu because the San Francisco Health Plan they rely on may become a casualty of funding cuts.

"It would be devastating for us to have to find our own doctor because I only work part time and I couldn't afford $1,000 bills," she said. "If he cuts us, we'll only be spending more time in the [hospital] emergency room."

[bonesmccoy]

This plan is right out of RINO central. He's doing something that damages the ability of working people to get care and solidifies state control over healthcare.

[bonesmccoy]

If this gov. wants to do something about healthcare, he should investigate where the Medi-Cal hospital risk pools are sent (as in filtered through hospital accounts and ending up in Bermuda!).

Instead of permitting the Healthy Families program's efficiency, this gov. would rather sentence the state to using Medi-Cal only and ignore the federal funds flowing into the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

[bonesmccoy]

You don't know the differences between the two programs and I encourage you to do some research before jumping on the Ahso express.

[Amerigomag]

then promptly announcing $2 billion in health cuts over two years to help compensate for revenue lost after he repealed the vehicle license fee.

Wrong Ms. Soltau. If you expect us to believe you, you need to do your homework and get your facts straight.

1) Schwarzenegger didn't repeal the VLF. It remains fixed at 2% as it has since 1948. Schwarzenegger simply reinstated a general fund subsidy to help small businesses with their VLFs.

2) Schwarzenneger didn't reduce subsidies in the health care system so he could increase them for motor vehicle owners. He is proposing long term inadequateness to sustain the subsidy of VLF payments.

3)Schwarzenegger reduced the subsidies in the health care systems to reimburse cities for their legal share of the VLF which the state now collects on their behalf. Had he not done so promptly the state would have been sued and lost.

Last but not least. To date Schwarzenegger has neither repealed taxes, nor reduced tax rates nor made any cuts in state spending. California today has the same tax rates and the same spending levels that it did the day Schwarzenegger took office.

[Carry_Okie]

See 74.

[jetson]

You are right on. I pay up the rear being a 53 year old healthy American for health care. I go to the doctor or dentist and am sitting in waiting rooms full of Mexicans. I would make bet 99 % of them are illegal and barely speak english. This is equivalent to letting bums off the street go in and use a restaurant bathroom before they let the paying customers use it.

[Caipirabob]

"I'm not asking for charity, Medi-Cal isn't charity," she said."It's a right."

I saw the same thing in the constitution right next to the section about the free Lexus and Nintendo games for the kiddies. Whadda bunch a guys those founding fathers were...

[RabidBartender]

http://www.sfmission.com/MNC/boardmembers.html

Gladys Sandlin has an email address: gladyssandlin@aol.com

Perhaps she needs a copy of the Constitution mailed to her?

[SCalGal]

I grumble and can barely afford the coverage but at least I'm not a loser taking it from the taxpayers.

I am in exactly the same boat. I've been told that I qualify for medi-cal, but I couldn't ever take it.

[FierceDraka]

You don't know the differences between the two programs and I encourage you to do some research before jumping on the Ahso express.

Whoa there, Bones. I was only referring to ONE program. What I meant were a few words of encouragement towards at least a partial dismantling of the cursed, thrice-damned welfare state.

Then again, you may have clicked on the wrong comment, in which case my response is in error and I apologize for lashing out at you.

[ReagansShinyHair]

Somebody should put the word out that Canada is supposed to have an excellent socialist health care system for everyone. ;)

[Old Professer]

It was unchecked vector motility that got them in this fix in the first place.

[4CJ]

Activists argue that barring low-income immigrants access to the programs won't save the state much cash and will end up costing California more when sick families are forced to resort to the hospital emergency room.

And if those ILLEGAL immigrants get the same crappy service we do, and the bill to go along with it, maybe they will think twice before entering ILLEGALLY.

[Nea Wood]

Thank you for posting the email address. I feel much better now that I have educated Ms. Sandlin as to what a "right" is! I hope others do the same. Sending her a copy of the Constitution is also a great idea.

[flamefront]

"If he cuts us, we'll only be spending more time in the [hospital] emergency room."

EMERGENCY ROOM
Get Your Free Lunches HERE

(One way to create an emergency where one did not need to exist.)

[douglas1]

OH this is wonderful if we dont give mexicans free health care they will start backing up our emergency rooms and AMERICAN citizens will suffer ,THIS IS BLACKMAIL THIS IS EXTORTION ,it is the same as putting a gun to an AMERICANS HEAD.

[flamefront]

You said it - this broadcasts their direct intentions.

[DLfromthedesert]

In fact, everyone's premiums would be a lot lower if there weren't so many mandates.

[bonesmccoy]

Cutting Healthy Families is fricking idiotic.

The moron advising the Schwarzie people in health care needs to ID'd and MO'd! Honestly, I'm fighting mad about this one.

Here's a story from LA Times that should make the story clear. LA Times may be a liberal bird cage liner but when the LA Times prints a story about fraud in Medi-Cal... we should pay heed!

__________________
Los Angeles Times, Reiterman
Fraud Fight Found Weak
Although Medi-Cal has tried to attack fraud by adding 250 staff members in four years, the program's efforts are fragmented and hampered by weak management and an incoherent strategy, a state audit concluded Monday. Auditors found that three divisions and several branches within the state's health program for the needy had varying responsibilities for stopping fraud, but they sometimes duplicated efforts or applied different standards when screening health-care providers. The examination of the $29-billion program also faulted Medi-Cal's coordination with the state attorney general's office and state health-care licensing agencies.

[bonesmccoy]

see above post