Sen. Lamar Alexander Repeatedly Calls Medicaid A ‘Medical Ghetto’
Sen. Lamar Alexander Repeatedly Calls Medicaid A ‘Medical Ghetto’
Today on the Senate floor, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) railed against Medicaid, the health insurance program funded by both the federal and state governments for low-income Americans, by calling it a “medical ghetto” and blasting Democrats for proposing to expand the program:
– “We’ve heard eloquent statements about how moving 15 million low-income Americans into a program called Medicaid, which is a medical ghetto, is not health care reform.”
– “The governor of Tennessee, who is a Democratic governor, has estimated that the cost to our state of this bill — of moving 15 million Americans into this medical ghetto — is about $800 million over five years.”
– “Or arrogant in its dumping of 15 million low-income Americans into a medical ghetto called Medicaid that none of us, or any of our families, would ever want to be a part of for our health care.”
Watch it:
Conservatives frequently rail against this program, which currently covers around 60 million Americans, including people who are often rejected by private plans. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) has suggested that people are better off uninsured than insured under Medicaid.
While Alexander may think he is too good for Medicaid coverage, a 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 74 percent of Americans consider Medicaid very important and most would oppose cuts to the program. Families USA has pointed out that, despite its flaws, Medicaid is cost-effective and provides a solid foundation on which to expand coverage:
Medicaid is cost-effective compared to private health insurance. After controlling for health status (since Medicaid enrollees tend to have greater health care needs), it costs more than 20 percent less to cover low-income people in Medicaid than it does to cover them in private health insurance.
The program protects low-income Americans from uncontrollable out-of-pocket costs charged by private insurers and also “covers services not usually covered in private health insurance.” Under the Senate health bill, “most nonelderly people with income below 133 percent of the [federal poverty line] would be made eligible for Medicaid” starting in 2014. Additionally, the legislation would “increase federal Medicaid funding for states that cover recommended preventive services and immunizations at no extra cost.”
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
i would much rather be covered by the “medical ghetto” than die uninsured and untreated as i am sure lamar alexander would prefer to happen to the poor.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:01 pmRacist phuck!
November 21st, 2009 at 7:02 pmDear Lord! This guy will go down in history as a racist! To say this on the floor of the Senate is a friggin disgrace. Hang your head in shame Senator Lamar Alexander!
November 21st, 2009 at 7:04 pmI think Alexander, Foxx and the rest of them would just as soon see the poor (the majority of which are brown or black) just die and go away.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:08 pmLet me tell you libs something about conservatism. Conservatism is when the typical old fart in my party conserves their own government bennies and refuses to share with the common folk.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:10 pmLamar Alexander besides being a racist is an intellectual plague rat
November 21st, 2009 at 7:10 pmAnd since Medicaid is an insurance program, not a doctor’s office scrawled with grafitti, Sen. Alexander just called private doctors’ offices that accept Medicaid in addition to accepting American Express and various other payment methods “ghettos”.
How dare you insult the free market, senator.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:13 pmGot a better idea, Lamar?
Lamar?
Lamar?
November 21st, 2009 at 7:13 pmCan I hear some more of that Louie Gohmert? That man has the nastiest deep-fried mouth on him. It makes me ooze.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:15 pmif memory serves me correctly receivers of medicaid receive the same treatment of medicare. does this mean lamar and that hot little sex kitten ginny foxx will give up their medicare since “being uninsured is better?”
November 21st, 2009 at 7:17 pmThe Republicans are coming out with all guns a blazing. Saying that they want health reform, but are still going to vote against it. Now they are trying to tie this reform to the economic debate and are already calling the CBO scoring of the bill as false. One Republican just recently on CNN quickly launched into the Rep talking points even though there is no such things in the bill.
Also, be prepared to hear them tie these recent breast cancer advisement being tied to the bill.
Those that are trying to stop health reform and their republican/conservative stoogies are trying as hard as they can to stop this now.
We need to fight back, we need to call our senators and tell them we want reform, we want the public option, and we want the rich and the wealthy to stop making decisions for us and our health care while sticking us with the bill.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:25 pmhot little sex kitten ginny foxx
Bozo, if I were a rational person I would say the rest of your post was spot on; however, as a stupid republican, I will pluck only the above to say you werespot on.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:26 pmHey, at least he stopped short of saying “darkies”.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:31 pmI am so confident health reform won’t pass that I am willing to seduce virginia foxx if you can somehow get the bill to the president’s desk.
Are we on?
November 21st, 2009 at 7:32 pmseducing that hot little minx ginny foxx should be reward enough in itself, What the gop really means. i’m still pissed off that she wasn’t chosen to be on the “conservative women of 2010 calendar:
November 21st, 2009 at 7:35 pmGinny_got-ROBBED
http://www.cblpi.org/calendar/
November 21st, 2009 at 7:35 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
@17, ‘And leave the rest of us alone.’ What, all 23% of you?
November 21st, 2009 at 7:43 pmAnother white entitled I-gots-mine GOP’er Rails Against One Healthcare Program and Enjoys His Own SOCIALIST Health Ins.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:43 pmThe blue states are sharing theirs with the John McCains and Lamar Alexanders of the world. They want the “freedom” to manipulate their government dough and the “liberty” to tell the payers (again, blue states) to shove it.
The constant vision from my party is a smaller government for everyone else and a 365-day-a-year Christmas party for themselves.
Well, the latter has been in place for decades. Mission Accomplished.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:44 pmhey cancervative guy,
you gonna say, “thanks but no thanks” when the medicare man comes a’knockin’?
afterall, the other night you were claiming to be 55, and you should start thinking about these issues.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:46 pmAnother thing, conservative guy, the bloated insurance companies who don’t want to compete aren’t leaving you or me alone, that’s for sure.
If it’s an elective body it’s tyranny. If it’s a anti-trust-exempt private death house it’s “liberty” and “freedom.”
November 21st, 2009 at 7:47 pmI am watching C-span. McConnell is railing against the bill, and his argument is full of untruths, non-facts and other scare-mongering. Reid just took the floor and called him out on that, which was a pleasant surprise.
It appears they have the 60 votes (vote coming up soon) to block filibuster, but then the real fighting begins.
Repugs are so “defensive” of Medicare and want to “protect” it. Their hypocrisy is laughable and would be ignored if it were not that too many people believe them, despite their decades long fight to eliminate Medicare.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:48 pmWhat the GOP REALLY means,
November 21st, 2009 at 7:49 pmi am sure cancervative guy live is one of those welfare receiving red states which suck on the federal funding teat so hard uncle sam’s tittie is protruding. all the while screaming how invasive is “big government”
Marie@23, I don’t understand why the Dems don’t call them out on this crap more. They should take footage of all the Repugs blasting ‘Medicare’ and ‘Social Security’ and play it in all these guys districts. Let’s see how many geezers vote for the guys who are willing to cast them out in the street.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:53 pmYou got my party down on that one, Bozo.
“Small government” means minimizing liberal ideas and control, leaving in place only a $700 billion “defense” budget, subsidies for oil companies & trillion $ giveaways, the largest welfare dole-out in history, to big banks. Now that’s a small government. Don’t forget, legislating morality is small government, too.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:00 pmConservaTROLL
Why dont YOU kill yourself and make the world a better place?
November 21st, 2009 at 8:06 pmWhat the GOP REALLY means,
November 21st, 2009 at 8:07 pmyou forgot the part about always, always making others pick up the tab
The voting just ended to move the bill forward – 39 repugs voted nay as expected – dems have 60 votes
November 21st, 2009 at 8:08 pmThe vote was 60-39 who did not vote?
November 21st, 2009 at 8:10 pmWhat Senator did not vote?
November 21st, 2009 at 8:10 pmBozo The Neoclown says:
What the GOP REALLY means,
you forgot the part about always, always making others pick up the tab
Absolutely. You pay. We decide. We benefit. Get government out of my life and leave a severance check at my doorstep.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:11 pmI odn’t know which repug was not present. Can’t always hear their voices. Don’t know who was missing when the list was read at the end.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:13 pmLieberman voted yes on proceeding.. surprise.
and Snowe voted no.. not such a surprise
The Republicans stood together in their do nothing philosophy once again.. repeating rhetoric about ’starting over’… yeah, that’s a brilliant idea – after nearly a year of debate and committees and several bills being brought forward.. let’s start over.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:13 pmTPM is reporting that Voinovich was the absent repug.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:17 pmi am not surprised lieberman voted to proceed. i know my senator quite well, all he was looking for was to be the center of attention and to get his fragile ego stroked. plus, i know i wrote him a letter expressing my disapproval of his antics as i am sure did others of my fellow yankees
November 21st, 2009 at 8:18 pmFrom TPM:
Sen. Voinovich did not vote and was not present in the chamber, AFP’s Olivier Knox reports.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:19 pm“The voting just ended to move the bill forward – 39 repugs voted nay as expected – dems have 60 votes”
and tonight boo hoo glenda becky is hitting the sauce once again and tub-o-lard rush sent his maid out looking for oxy
November 21st, 2009 at 8:19 pmSo if 60 million people in Medicaid are in a “Medical Ghetto”, instead of moving 15 million more into Medicaid, why not move everyone into Medicare, Senator Alexander? Or is that a ghetto too?
November 21st, 2009 at 8:22 pmWell, Now the fun will start. Expect to be bombarded with every negative ad the Front Groups will throw at us. It will be just like an election year. Big Business will pull out all the stops.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:23 pmNow the time for the last ditch effort.
Health care reform will kill your dog.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:23 pmMedicare is a ghet– wait, I’m reading from the list of Bush talking points.
Idiot parody troll goes through his papers.
Got it! The democrats are cutting $500 billion from Medicare
Advantage. Vote for Republicans, they (Medi)care about you.Offer valid through Nov. 2010, Nos apply.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:29 pmThe bottom line here is that tonight is a big win for the Dems and an even bigger win for President Obama, no matter how hard the press tried to spin this into a defeat.
Hard work remains, but how many people said reform wouldn’t get this far. The GOP is impotent on Capitol Hill.
http://www.political-buzz.com/
November 21st, 2009 at 8:33 pmI sincerely hope that *somebody* put Lieberman’s pathetic little peanuts in a vise and tightened that sucker until he agreed to vote yes on cloture…
November 21st, 2009 at 8:42 pmthough repetitive.. I feel it needs repeating -
support the public option (AmericaCantWait.com)
support the public option (CountdownToHealthCare.com)
Plus.. why not get your name on the original Howard Dean site while you are at it StandWithDrDean.com
and also get your vote in on the bill – online
and while I’m at it… please make your opinion known on this horrible Democrat introduced bill
—————————
Berkley Estate Tax Bill Would Add Billions to Deficit While Benefiting Only Wealthiest 1 in 500 Estates
A new estate tax bill introduced by Representative Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and others would cost $91 billion more over the first decade (2012-2021) than extending the tax under its current rules as the President has proposed, yet would benefit only the nation’s wealthiest 0.2 percent
and you are a Democrat?
November 21st, 2009 at 8:42 pm———————-
Alexander’s arguments are disingenuous at best. Any health care is better than none. This just makes me wonder how people can vote for these idiots who spout nonsense.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:48 pmThis Historic vote would have gone the other way, were it not for the Democratic Sweep of the 2008 Election.
Remember the old canard that “there’s not a dimes worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans??”
Well… It ain’t True.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:55 pmBadger, your party is too humane. My party could only give a damn about its inner circle.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:02 pm“Or arrogant in its dumping of 15 million low-income Americans into a medical ghetto called Medicaid that none of us, or any of our families, would ever want to be a part of for our health care.”
what a selfish ignorant inconsiderate jerk…
i was very glad to have been on medicaid when i was pregnant and then raising my son, 1980 on…
it’s a long story, but i’m just thankful it was available…
and that info sheds some light on my renegade standing in my family, huh…
but, someday that boy will win a nobel, or a macarthur fellowship!
November 21st, 2009 at 9:26 pmi’m sure of it!
This man(?) is raw sewage.
Whatever his opinion of the program – it is all the poor have.
Is he suggesting they would rather have nothing at all?
Or is he planning to put them on the congressional “Cadillac plan” that his lucky ass has?
November 21st, 2009 at 10:10 pm*
conservative guy…why do you call yourself pro-life yet oppose putting life over profit? Why do you call the suffering of others a sob story? Do you really get off on their suffering and pain? Is it conservative to jeer at others’ pain?
November 21st, 2009 at 10:19 pmGo to hell Lamar…now!
November 21st, 2009 at 10:49 pmI agree that Medicaid is useful and helpful, the abuse of it is what has been bankrupting it. Although there are also a few on it that due to time it takes for approval end up dieing waiting for treatment.
I am curious though, what about this makes him a racist?
November 21st, 2009 at 10:53 pmFunny how I don’t see this lowlife scumbag Neo Confederate giving up his Federal Government health insurance and I wouldn’t be surprised if the insurance industry is lining his pocket also.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:10 pmHow can people be so stupid as to fall for these lying two faced scam artists.
mastershinken says:
what about this makes him a racist?
Referring to Government Health Care as ‘Ghetto‘ — an obviously racially charged word, that’s what.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:23 pm@lux
I agree, bad choice of words due to the connotation some put on it. however I believe he meant it in this context:(from wikipedia)
which would make since as most on medicaid are in this grouping.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:29 pmMaster
The biggest thing bankrupting Medicare is the graying of America. The demographics have changed. We are living longer and a larger percentage of Americans are older. This will require an adjustment of the medicare tax like we have made periodic adjustments of SS. I have never HEARD of people having to WAIT for necessary medical treatment becaue of medicare. Perhaps you can show some evidence this is true. Right NOW in America 44,000 Americans DIE from lack of access to healthcare according to the recent Harvard study on the subject. THAT is one of the problems healthcare reform needs to address
November 21st, 2009 at 11:34 pmI have traveled through Tennessee extensively. If a ghetto is defined as a run down area where people live in isolation then the much of Tennessee would qualify. Not having affordable healthcare helps perpetuate these conditions. I would think a former governor should know that.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:37 pm@EugeneDebs
Agreed, this is a huge part of what healthcare reform needs to address, as well as the availability of health care to minors who need it. Also I agree the length of life people are enjoying today also provides issues to how it was originally set up.
I know of one person who’s family member (cant remember which member) had such an experience with medicaid, and I will ask her for the details (and any supporting write-ups) and post them when I get them.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:48 pmLamar’s insider get rich quick schemes:
http://www.realchange.org/alexandr.htm
says that Lamar’s biggest patron is Jack Massey, a founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken and the massively profitable Hospital Corporation of America.
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:35 amconservative guy says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
#5, why don’t you share yours with the common folk and leave the rest of us alone.
He is sharing some pearls of wisdom with “us” common folk. If you 23%”er fringe nuts can’t comprehend truth, don’t worry. You never will. You lizard brains are on your way to extinction anyway. Just get on the ride and enjoy it. There’s nothing left here for you to see!
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:15 amWhat do you suppose a fraud like Alexander would call the free health clinic held yesterday in Little Rock, Arkansas, as his daily spoonful of “teh stoopid” medicine for his minions?
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:36 amTurn in your Medicare card, Lamer (spelling intended). And your citizen provided health care. I wish you multiple malignancies, and no coverage.
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:07 amEither this man is a liar or he is ignorant. Medicaid is not just for the poor. I covers seniors who are in the nursing homes and that is Medicaid’s biggest expendature. Also covered are disabled children and poor seniors who are also on Medicare. And finally it covers poor families and children. A Ghetto? Hey people is your grandma in a nursing home?
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:29 pmSenator Alexander is a sad product of the Racist South of the pass. He grew up with full knowledge and understanding of such horror as Riot during Chattanooga luch county sit-in during the fight for equal rights. Many Law Makers today supported and worked hard to keep the Civil Rights from being Law. Holding on to the hope of the reture of Racism is sad as not only it want happen but the World has even changed from the days of racism. Now as more Whites and Rich Whites use Medicaid one might think they are insulted by the comment made saying medical ghetto. I haven’t heard the word Ghetto since the 70’s and expect Senator Alexander to apologized to the seniors. What’s really funny is most of the GOP Law Makers are receiving both Medicaid and Social Security along with free taxpayers Health Care.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:10 pmHe spouts these new buzzwords while ignoring the intellectual ghetto the tea baggers have existed in for most of their lives.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 pmThe medical ghetto exists in the hearts and minds of the republicans in Congress and their supporters.
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:16 pm