Response to "Report: GOP budget plan would leave 44 million more uninsured" from AP
How would this occur?
1) The Republican program would cut states' Medicaid funding by about one-third over the next 10 years.
According to the study, "Under the GOP plan, Medicaid would be converted from an open-ended program in which the federal government pays about 60 percent of the cost of services, into a block grant that would give each state a fixed sum of money. "
"Under current laws, Medicaid is expected to cover 76 million people in 2021, the end of the ten-year estimating window used in federal budgeting. Of those, some 17 million would gain coverage under Obama's expansion."
The more insurance and subsidies are made available, the more people will want to take advantage of government hand-outs. Free money has that strange, hypnotic effect of transforming people into leeches who croak "Give!" and "Give!!"
If the United States Government cannot take the bold action to cut insurance subsidies altogether, at least Paul Ryan and the Republican majority in the House of Representatives are willing to make cuts. A block-grants approach ensures that any money appropriated by the government is well-spent, tailored by state officials to meet state needs. With all the time and energy saved, not to mention to cut in bureaucratic waste, more people will receive better care with less money.
Besides, states are better positioned to take dependents slowly off the system.
Since when was it acceptable for any number of people in this country to be "expected" to live off the government dole? Good government, imbuing students with the skills and capacity to be independent, would not look proudly at the expansion of government welfare rolls.
The Republicans' plan, though not going far enough, begins limiting citizen-dependency on the federal dysfunctional bureaucracy, which is bankrupting the United States and impoverishing future generations.
Let's not forget that this nation is already broke. Since when should anyone project increasing enrollment in government largesse, when there isn't anything left to hand out?