Monday, February 12, 2007
News PeachCare nightmare
Posted by Max Pizarro on Mon, Feb 12, 2007 at 11:14 PM
Georgia was one of the only states in the country where George W. Bush could show his mug in the last election. How does Bush repay the gracious, welcoming Peach State? By refusing to provide federal dollars to keep 270,000 low- and moderate-income children covered with health insurance through PeachCare.
In fairness, Georgia shouldn't have expected much from Bush, grand patrician cultivator of America's entrepreneurial spirit -- and by extension, it shouldn't expect much from itself, where that spirit has taken root.
But as soon as the president said he didn't want to use money in the federal emergency budget for PeachCare, "Our state representatives should have provided the funding," says Lauren Waits, policy director of the advocacy group Voices for Georgia's Children.
Georgia needs $131 million to keep all of the children enrolled.
How naïve of Waits.
Instead of changing the rules so the Legislature could use state funds to make up for the federal funding shortfall aggravated by the inattention of Georgia lawmakers, the Republican majority has proposed cutting kids from PeachCare.
That's a good move, because the real problem here, of course, is those kids. Those dirty, good-for-nothing, ungrateful kids. How dare they presume the government should cover their health care costs?
The whelps.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson, R-Hiram, wants to raise the threshold income amount for PeachCare eligibility, so that roughly 13,600 moderate-income children would lose their coverage.
Good.
Get rid of 'em.
Saw 'em off.
Families reporting an annual income of more than $40,000 would no longer qualify for PeachCare if Richardson's legislation passes. What happens to these 13,600 children, the so-called "moderates," remains an unknown. The obvious question is: Why should they know? Life at essence is not a known quantity. By definition "we see through a glass darkly," to paraphrase Augustine. The sooner these kids realize that the better. Bush doesn't know what's going to happen in Iraq, after all, and neither do we. Why should these spoiled children be afforded the comforting knowledge that we ourselves as adults forfeited years ago?
What is also a big mystery, incidentally, is how the children who technically remain on the rolls -- the other 256,400 -- would be covered.
It does not bear examination, but presumably the state Republicans are working a deal with Congress.
Congressional leaders and the feds tell Georgia to cut the high end of moderate-income children from the rolls, in exchange for allowing Georgia to qualify for the federal money the state is seeking to cover the lower-end-moderate- and low-income children.
The state's Democrats have an alternative bill, which would enable Georgia to step up and pay for the health insurance of all of those children in jeopardy.
But that's a bad message to send those kids.
Make 'em sweat a little.
This is the real world, by God.
Short of the feds caving in and simply delivering the money and doing a disservice to everything we've worked for over these last six years, what will happen given the recent introduction of the two Statehouse bills is that the Republicans will pass their bill, and the feds will deliver the lion's share of the money to cover the lower-income children. Simultaneously the Legislature will pass the Democrats' bill, freeing up the constitutional constraints on funding to cover with state funds the 13,600 children displaced by Richardson's bill.
But it's shameful that it's come to this.
Those kids should have covered themselves a long time ago.
-- Max Pizarro
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
5 things today: Kinky Friedman, Jim Norton 1
A Texas songwriter, a New Jersey comic, and a conductor walk into Atlanta...
-
Most popular damn posts o' the week
It's a rainy circus of elephants and occupiers out there
-
5 things today: Van Dyke Parks, Night Sun
Iconic composer Parks, new soul project Night Sun, and more
- More »
Comments (0)