Tag Archives: Medicaid

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the 2006 essay from Ron Paul … just a reminder


Rethinking Birthright Citizenship


by Ron Paul

first posted 11/2011

A recent article in the Houston Chronicle discusses the problem of so-called anchor babies, children born in U.S. hospitals to illegal immigrant parents. These children automatically become citizens, and thus serve as an anchor for their parents to remain in the country. Our immigration authorities understandably are reluctant to break up families by deporting parents of young babies. But birthright citizenship, originating in the 14th amendment, has become a serious cultural and economic dilemma for our nation.

In some Houston hospitals, administrators estimate that 70 or 80% of the babies born have parents who are in the country illegally. As an obstetrician in south Texas for several decades, I can attest to the severity of the problem. It’s the same story in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. And the truth is most illegal immigrants who have babies in U.S. hospitals do not have health insurance and do not pay their hospital bills.

This obviously cannot be sustained, either by the hospitals involved or the taxpayers who end up paying the bills.

No other wealthy, western nations grant automatic citizenship to those who simply happen to be born within their borders to non-citizens. These nations recognize that citizenship involves more than the physical location of one’s birth; it also involves some measure of cultural connection and allegiance. In most cases this means the parents must be citizens of a nation in order for their newborn children to receive automatic citizenship.

Make no mistake, Americans are happy to welcome immigrants who follow our immigration laws and seek a better life here. America is far more welcoming and tolerant of newcomers than virtually any nation on earth. But our modern welfare state creates perverse incentives for immigrants, incentives that cloud the issue of why people choose to come here. The real problem is not immigration, but rather the welfare state magnet.

Hospitals bear the costs when illegal immigrants enter the country for the express purpose of giving birth. But illegal immigrants also use emergency rooms, public roads, and public schools. In many cases they are able to obtain Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, and even unemployment benefits. Some have fraudulently collected Social Security benefits.

Of course many American citizens also use or abuse the welfare system. But we cannot afford to open our pocketbooks to the rest of the world. We must end the perverse incentives that encourage immigrants to come here illegally, including the anchor baby incentive.

I’ve introduced legislation that would amend the Constitution and end automatic birthright citizenship. The 14th amendment was ratified in 1868, on the heels of the Civil War. The country, especially the western territories, was wide open and ripe for homesteading. There was no welfare state to exploit, and the modern problems associated with immigration could not have been imagined.

Our founders knew that unforeseen problems with our system of government would arise, and that’s precisely why they gave us a method for amending the Constitution. It’s time to rethink birthright citizenship by amending the 14th amendment.

October 3, 2006

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

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a message from Gov.Jay Inslee


This year, we saw the JayInslee.com community play a critical role in some of our biggest successes.

As the year winds down, my team and I are gearing up. The next legislative session is a little more than a month away, so we don’t have much down time as we prepare for another round of budget negotiations and fight for our key priorities: good jobs, excellent schools, and quality health care.

And that means we need you to gear up, too.

This Friday at midnight, we have to close down fundraising for our ongoing political operations — the same operations that helped us fight and win our key budget priorities this year — until the legislative session ends next spring.

So I’m asking for your help to raise the additional $25,000 we need to keep going strong and send the message that we’re ready for anything as we head into the legislative session.

Will you contribute $5 now to help us raise an urgent $25,000 before Friday’s midnight deadline?

This year, we saw just how difficult our job can be. But we also saw the JayInslee.com community play a critical role in some of our biggest successes.

With your help, we made an unprecedented investment in the future of our education system. We protected vital services for our seniors. We expanded Medicaid and changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians. We put in place Results Washington, a data-driven effort to measure and constantly improve the performance of state government every day. And our work getting the Washington Health Plan Finder up, running, and helping Washingtonians find excellent health care coverage has been the envy of the nation.

I’m proud that we’ve had such success in just our first year. But none of that came easy, and our work will only get tougher as we strive to protect what we’ve accomplished while continuing to move Washington forward.

That’s why your support now is so important. Just like when I ran for governor — just like when we fought for the successes of this last year — the grassroots community we’ve built is a powerful force that can carry us forward and help build a working Washington.

We need your help today — before our early end-of-year deadline — to keep our community strong and make sure we can keep working together for the future we all want for the state of Washington.

Will you contribute $5 now to reach our $25,000 goal and help support our work throughout the legislative session?

I can’t tell you how helpful it is to know that, when I’m working hard in Olympia, I have you and tens of thousands of activists like you standing with me across the state.

We’ve already accomplished so much. With your support today, we can keep our momentum going and build a working Washington.

Let’s go get ’em!

Jay Inslee. Governor
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ThinkProgress ~~ the GOP


By 

Today’s GOP, In Two Numbers

Last week, President Obama laid out a sweeping agenda to combat income inequality, strengthen the middle class, and extend ladders of opportunity to those striving to enter it. He also challenged the GOP to put forward their own ideas instead of just rejecting whatever he proposes. We have yet to see any new ideas from the Republicans but their opposition to the president’s agenda of economic empowerment is still going strong.

Two numbers perfectly illustrate the almost cruel indifference shown by today’s GOP toward the concerns of the millions of Americans who are struggling to get by:

  • 4,831,590: That is the number of low-income Americans who will not receive health coverage through Medicaid simply because Republican governors and legislatures are refusing to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act. Because the expansion is almost entirely paid for by the federal government, states refusing to expand the program will forego billions in tax dollars, even as providers remain on the hook for uncompensated care provided to the uninsured. Texas will lose out on more than $9 BILLION, while Florida is leaving more than $5 BILLION on the table.

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  • 1,300,000: That is the number of unemployed Americans who will immediately lose their benefits come January if Republicans in Congress refuse to extend long-term unemployment benefits, which would be an unprecedented move during a period of persistently high unemployment.  The number who stand to lose their benefits would climb to 3.6 MILLION by the end of 2014. In addition to unnecessarily causing added misery for millions of struggling families, letting the extended benefits lapse would also deal a blow to the economy to the tune of 240,000 lost jobs as well as reduced growth. Over the weekend, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tried to justify the GOP’s intransigence by making the bizarre argument that extended benefits are somehow harmful to the unemployed and do them a “disservice.”

BOTTOM LINE: If Republicans want to appeal to a broader group of Americans, they should stop putting politics ahead of people. The policies Republicans are pursuing will needlessly punish millions of Americans who can least afford it.

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Back on Offense


After a trying two months, the new and improved HealthCare.gov had more than a million visitors yesterday and is functioning well for most people, enrollment is surging, nearly 1.5 MILLION Americans have been newly found eligible for Medicaid, and the GOP plan still consists of repeal and “we’ll see.”

Here’s today’s top health care stories:

  • 18,000 Enroll Through HealthCare.gov on Monday: Just under 27,000 people signed up for plans through HealthCare.gov during the entire month of October, but some 18,000 people enrolled through the revamped website in just 24 hours on Monday.
  • California Republicans Use Taxpayer Funds on Fake Obamacare Website: In attempt to sabotage the law and convince individuals not to enroll in coverage, California Republicans have rolled out an anti-Obamacare website designed to mimic the state’s exchange website. California Assembly Republicans built the site with taxpayer funds and bill it as a “public service.”
  • GOP Health Care Plan Is Repeal and ‘We’ll See’: When asked today whether Republicans would finally,  after 4.5 years of attacking Obamacare, offer their own alternative, Speaker Boehner’s response was merely, “we’ll see.” Republicans continue to call for repealing the law, which would now take away health coverage from the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have enrolled in the past two months and eliminate benefits that millions of other Americans have enjoyed for years.
  • Nearly 1.5 MILLION Americans Found Eligible for Medicaid: A new report out today from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that nearly 2.5 MILLION applications for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) were submitted in October and nearly 1.5 MILLION low-income Americans were found to be eligible for coverage.

BOTTOM LINE: Obamacare is working and it’s here to stay.

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4.8 Million Denied Coverage


By 

The Republican Coverage Gap

The frenzy of attention surrounding insurance companies dropping substandard policies peaked last week when the House of Representatives voted on the GOP’s 46th attempt to repeal Obamacare.

Republicans, however, don’t seem to much care about the nearly 5 MILLION poor Americans who won’t receive any coverage at all because Republican governors and state legislators in 25 states are refusing to expand Medicaid. Indeed, the very same politicians and conservative groups expressing the most outrage about insurers dropping substandard insurance plans are also actively campaigning against the Medicaid expansion.

This means that families making just a few thousand dollars a year are still not considered poor enough to qualify for Medicaid in Texas and many other states refusing to expand eligibility.

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Here’s a ThinkProgress infographic showing how those being denied coverage by Republicans for political reasons compares to those who have received cancellation notices.

real_victims-53

You can find out more on the coverage gap HERE.

BOTTOM LINE: The number of Americans who Republicans want to gain coverage under Obamacare is ZERO, which they’ve demonstrated by voting almost 50 times to repeal the law. While Democrats want to make Obamacare work, Republicans only want it to go away and are working to deny millions of the neediest Americans health coverage in the meantime.