Posted on 08/08/2025 9:05:04 AM PDT by Angelino97
I have heard a lot of discussion about the potential ramifications of the One Big Beautiful Bill over the last few weeks. I bet you have, too.
Here’s something I’d wager you haven’t heard much about: of about 340 million Americans, 83 million are on Medicaid.
That’s one-fourth of us.
Forty percent of American children are on Medicaid. Forty percent!
Try to wrap your head around those figures. One in four of us has his healthcare paid for by the other three, who are also paying for their own healthcare. Two of every five children in the country have been brought into the world by people who are not in a condition to provide them healthcare, so the rest of us pick up the tab, in addition to paying for the healthcare of our own children.
If one adheres to broadly Christian principles, he should not object to helping people in demonstrable need—that is, those who, for reasons completely out of their control, genuinely cannot do for themselves or those close to them. But if we truly live in a society in which a quarter of us are incapable of providing for our most basic needs—something would seem to be dreadfully wrong. Something must be wrong with us.
In other words, something is wrong with some portion of that quarter of Americans who are perfectly able-bodied but cannot get themselves together sufficiently to handle even this basic aspect of adult life. And something must be wrong with those of us outside that quarter who think so little of that portion of able-bodied recipients that we consider them incapable and prefer, instead, to subsidize and infantilize them.
A closer look at usage of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is informative. The dependence on Medicaid is disproportionately high among blacks and Latinos, although white rates of dependence are also unacceptably high. Non-Hispanic whites are around 60 percent of the American population, and 43 percent of Medicaid/CHIP users. Latinos are 19 percent of the population, and 28 percent of Medicaid/CHIP users. Blacks are 12 percent of the population and 21 percent of the Medicaid/CHIP users.
Any society with even the slightest interest in cultivating self-reliance and responsibility in its population would wonder about these figures and endeavor to lower them. In the United States today, however, our media seldom mentions any of these facts.
Indeed, whenever someone raises the questions I am addressing here, you can reliably count on the standard narratives of victimhood, structural inequality, and white supremacy being trotted out, and you know at that point what you will be called if you even dare to ask for the evidence supporting those interpretations of the situation.
Fearmongering about the One Big Beautiful Bill from the left typically centers on those currently receiving Medicaid who, leftists insist, “will not be able to navigate the red tape” required to show they meet new work requirements. But why won’t they be able to navigate this? Why shouldn’t they have to prove their eligibility? In advancing these arguments, aren’t they admitting these people are not competent to function in the adult world?
The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid to everyone up to 138 percent of the poverty rate. What this means is that, if you are by definition not poor, but insufficiently far away from poor to satisfy the desires of progressive elites, you can get still Medicaid. Why are people who are not at poverty level getting taxpayer-supported healthcare that was meant for the poor? And why is the Trump administration’s attempt to undo this error viewed as some kind of moral monstrosity? Since when do we not require non-poor people to provide these basics for themselves?
The fact that there are this many Americans on the healthcare dole, frankly, should embarrass and shame the whole country. It is an indication that we have given up on the project of morally training our citizens to avoid relying on the state for their basic needs.
Walking around my middle-class neighborhood, I see yard signs reading “Hands off Medicaid.” I have perfect confidence that none of the solidly middle-class households that put those signs up on their lawns are receiving Medicaid. I have nearly as much confidence that none of them even know anyone who is receiving Medicaid, nor do they know how many Americans are on Medicaid. They have drunk the Kool-Aid our leftist political elites have mixed up for them on this issue. They believe the plain falsehood that the One Big Beautiful Bill is somehow relegating helpless people to the poor house merely by requiring Medicaid recipients to justify their presence on the rolls.
By contrast, I grew up poor, and I have known other poor people. The single thought that most dominated my consciousness for much of my youth was, “Being poor is a drag, I do not like it, so I am going to do everything I can to get myself out of this, and I am confident that if I commit myself to that goal, it can be reached.” I applied myself consistently to hard work in school and in all the various jobs I could get to help me accomplish that goal. I do not believe my story is anything particularly special or unique.
Unlike the patronizing left, which thinks of those at the bottom of the social hierarchy as grown-up children who are too incompetent to handle life, I give others enough credit as human beings to believe they are capable of rising out of poverty. I refuse to believe that we must bail them out and make excuses for them when they do not do what is necessary to make themselves independent.
Some people will fall into unfortunate circumstances beyond their control, and we have a moral obligation as a society to help them get back on their feet. But when 25 percent of us are on Medicaid and many, if not most, of them are perfectly able-bodied and capable of supporting themselves, we have to begin to wonder whether our elite class simply finds it desirable to infantilize people in this way. If we can’t even ask people receiving public funds to prove their indigent status, we have a problem.
Slippery slope arguments are hateful—especially when they are true.
Lol.
Slippery slope arguments are hateful—especially when they are true.
Lol.
And they use it.
The old libertarian principle was that if you make something “free” you will generate more demand for it.
This is an excellent example.
San Joaquin County CA proudly displays a billboard along the freeway stating that OVER HALF of county residents are on Medicaid.
Over half.
Things were much better before Obama “fixed” it.
I know that it was “paid into”, but 20% are on Medicare. The medical payment system is more than half socialist now.
Any society with even the slightest interest in cultivating self-reliance and responsibility in its population would wonder about these figures and endeavor to lower them.
Medicaid become version of the socialized medicine, pretty much the same as in Canada or Europe.
With all their problems too!
Long waits, swamped offices, money drain!
Add in the number on Medicare.
America has an ever expanding welfare population.
And an even higher percentage are on Food Stamps. The goal of the Dem party is to get the middle class on public assistance to make everyone a ward of the state.
And thus, a Democrat voter.
20% on medicare ... paid into ... what percentage of 20% is so called ‘disabled’ benefitors
Disabled did not pay into in the same context as seniors on medicare.
I read that as: the 2nd Amendment protects us from violent grabbers.
Nothing’s wrong with those Americans. What we did is cut the real compensation for regular working-class employees by a half over the past few decades. Then we jacked healthcare (and housing) costs out of control.
The gap is unsustainable and can only be realistically fixed by expelling the 50 million-plus illegals in the country.
Unfortunately, the president who ran on doing just that pulled the rug out from all those working-class Americans by shifting to amnesty.
NO....a Quarter of people LIVING in the US are on Medicaid....BIG DIFFERENCE!
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47318
Federal Public Benefits
Under PRWORA, unauthorized noncitizens are not qualified aliens (see the Appendix) and thus are not eligible for most federal benefits. PRWORA defines federal public benefits as
(A) any grant, contract, loan, professional license, or commercial license provided by an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States; and
(B) any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit for which payments or assistance are provided to an individual, household, or family eligibility unit by an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States.12
The federal public benefits that meet this definition includes programs such as non-emergency Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),13 Supplemental Security Income (SSI),14 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),15 and most housing assistance programs,16 among many others. Unauthorized noncitizens are also ineligible for Federal Pell Grants for student financial aid as well as Affordable Care Act (ACA) health care subsidies, and they may not purchase unsubsidized health care on ACA exchanges. Additionally, PRWORA prevents unauthorized noncitizens from receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by requiring that the Social Security numbers of recipients (and spouses) be valid for employment in the United States.17
PRWORA Exceptions
PRWORA includes specified exceptions to its general ineligibility rule, which allow unauthorized noncitizens to receive some specific types of federal benefits, including the following:
treatment under Medicaid for emergency medical conditions (other than those related to an organ transplant);
short-term, in-kind emergency disaster relief;
immunizations against immunizable diseases and testing for and treatment of symptoms of communicable diseases;
services or assistance (such as soup kitchens, crisis counseling and intervention, and short-term shelters) designated by the Attorney General as (1) delivering in-kind services at the community level, (2) providing assistance without individual determinations of each recipient’s needs, and (3) being necessary for the protection of life and safety;18 and
programs for housing or community development assistance or financial assistance administered by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, programs under Title V of the Housing Act of 1949, and assistance under Section 306C of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, to the extent that the noncitizen was receiving this assistance on PRWORA’s date of enactment.19
Additionally, PRWORA states that individuals who are eligible for public education benefits under state and local law shall remain eligible to receive benefits under the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.20 Beyond these nutrition programs, Section 742 of the act neither prohibits a state from providing nor requires a state to provide food assistance to unauthorized immigrants through certain laws. This applies to programs such as the Child and Adult Care Food Program; the Summer Food Service Program; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the Emergency Food Assistance Program; the Commodity Supplemental Food Program; and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.
Medicine for the poor used to be handled by charitable hospitals before the gr. depression. They handled it fine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.