TENN: 200,000 are off TennCare — again (socialized medicine)

The Tennessean ^ | 1/03/03 | Bill Lewis

[GailA]

Nearly 200,000 TennCare enrollees who were removed from the program by the state, only to be ordered back in by a federal judge, are out again.

A federal appeals court yesterday said the state does not have to return benefits to the ousted enrollees before a hearing on Wednesday.

[GailA]

Spendquist keeps saying that removing these folks who are ILLEGALLY on TennCare will only save $100M. Gee we are now told it would cost $300M to put them back on..for just SIX MONTHS.

[tdadams]

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said the state does not have to comply immediately with that order by U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes Jr., who ruled that enrollees were illegally removed from the managed-care program for the poor lazy, disabled criminal, and uninsured unqualified.

It's reassuring to see a court issue a sensible opinion that respects the law. Haynes' order was simply legislation from the bench. It was his opinion that paring the TennCare rolls would create an "undue hardship" notwithstanding that his opinion was in direct contradiction with what a duly elected legislature authorized as a matter of state law.

[hoot2]

"Nearly 200,000 TennCare enrollees who were removed from the program by the state, only to be ordered back in by a federal judge, are out again. "

c'mon; just do what the demonRATS in kalifornica do...
RAISE TAXES... problem solved, next?

[usmom]

Here in Wisconsin we have 'BadgerCare' which is another socialist farce. People come in for prescriptions and flash that card like it was a Platinum Visa and announce 'that should all be paid for'! Meanwhile, they drive up in their new Tahoes and chat on their new cell phones. I have had a mother refuse to pay $1 for a $100 antibiotic (while talking on her new cell phone) because she would rather just have her daughter end up in the hospital and have the state pay for the whole thing. We are also supposed to waive the $1 fee if the person claims they don't have enough money. Lo and behold, they go shopping for trinkets, come back to the pharmacy with their bag and tell you they don't have a dollar to pay for their medication. Sorry bunch of lazy, irresponsible, shameless losers every last one of 'em!

[mg39]

So according to you, the poor are "lazy," the disabled are "criminal," and the uninsured are "unqualified." What don't you finish your thought and suggest that we put all these lazy, criminal, unqualified people in concentration camps and be done with it?

If Charles Dickens were alive, he's have a field day with you.

[Grammy]

One of the problems here is that they are dropping people who should be on Tenncare, and leaving many of the illegal ones. It's the shell game they played before, to try to get an income tax passed. You know, close the state parks, and don't really cut out any of the waste. When people scream about it they will say "Income tax"!

[tnlibertarian]

200,000 down, 1.23 million to go. For anyone wondering, 1.43 million is about 25% of the population of the State.

[tdadams]

Do you live in Tennessee? Have you been involved in fighting the corrupt TN government for the last 4 years? Do you know one iota about the TennCare program? Do you know that TennCare has had 9 directors in 8 years, all of them quitting in contempt of the program?

If not, I'll ask you to keep your uninformed and sanctimonious opinion to yourself.

[mg39]

If you don't want to come across as a know-nothing Social Darwinist, then perhaps you should choose your words better. I'm sure there are people in Tennessee who wake up at 5 a.m. and get on a bus to go to some crappy job, like cleaning toilets for the likes of you, and break their backs all day and are STILL poor. To people like you, they're lazy (and the people who, by birth, disease, or accident become disabled have committed a crime in your eyes; what kind of crime would that be -- being unfit for the master race?).

[tdadams]

Don't impart meaning into words I didn't say. I did not say the disabled are criminals. I didn't say hard-working manual laborors are lazy.

But I won't back down from a word I said because I know the TennCare program well and I know who populates it, unlike you who I suspect is not from TN due to your evasion of the question.

Nearly all TennCare recipients are lazy, criminal, and unqualified so save your sanctimony. Do yourself a favor and read up on it before you spout off to me. If you want to discuss the particulars of TennCare, I guarantee that's one argument you'll lose badly.

[JDGreen123]

Interesting bit from Teddy Bart show this morning. Guest was attorney Larry Woods, a Bredesen advisor.

Woods said that we are about $500 million in the hole that must be closed by June 2003. He said Bredesen is determined to balance the budget for this year without any tax increases and if that means employee furloughs or massive program cuts, so be it. Woods said the $300 million for TennCare could be 1/3 State and 2/3 Federal as the program is setup. He thought there was little chance that Washington would be willing to kick in $200 million. Either way, we pay the bill.

I think Woods gave away their strategy later by saying that in politics you do not try to help the ox until he is completely in the ditch and nearly dead. Meaning: Let the problem get so bad that people will demand higher taxes or policy changes to fix the problem.

This strategy may backfire on them however. If massive cuts are made, the people may be quite happy with less government. The media though will be out there with sob stories every day of how these massive cuts are "hurting" Tennessee.

I think this is the strategy that Bredesen is going to follow.

Tom Humphrey was also a guest. He feels there will be a constitutional conference in 2 years with an income tax placed on the ballot for voters to decide in 2006.

We also have the Frist factor. Bush's new Medicare plan to be unveiled next week is supposedly what Frist designed. Whether it helps or hurts our situation remains to be seen.

[JDGreen123]

TennCare is basically a version of the package that Hillery Clinton was pushing. We had VP Al Gore and a Democrat Governor at the time so they all decided to make Tennessee the test case. It has failed miserably.

[mg39]

I'm not disputing that TennCare may have failed; I'm disputing some peoples' notions that poor=lazy. That's nazism.

[JDGreen123]

Did Tommy Thompson have anything to do with that program? If so, we better watch out on the national level now that he is in DC.

[freepy smurf]

If they'll settle for a career of scrubbing toilets they're either lazy or functionally incompetent. The incompetent, of course, deserve our compassion but there cannot be as many of them as our welfare rolls suggest or other statistics would surely corroborate.

[mg39]

another nazi.

[tdadams]

Please don't pull that Nazi crap with me. You only cheapen the suffering of those who were actually terrorized by the Nazis in WWII (like my mother!). No one said poor=lazy. Maybe you're projecting.

[tdadams]

Need I remind (or inform you maybe) you that Nazi is a contraction for 'National Socialist', and as such, the Nazis would have loved a socialist program like TennCare.

[mg39]

My God. Yes, Nazi is a contraction for National Socialism, but this did not make the Nazis socialist (leftists were their first targets, remember?) any more than it makes Japan's Liberal Party, which is the conservative party of Japan, liberal. So, you're a Social Darwinist AND an idiot. Care to go for a trifecta?

[tdadams]

Sorry to burst your bubble, Nazis were socialists. You say leftists were their first target? Care to share more of this with us, because history seems to have recorded it wrong. Someone has fabricated Hitler's populist/socialist speeches and genocide against Jews.

Name-calling always makes you seem more intelligent, keep it up.