Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Weekend Contributor
Meet Josh Miller. He’s a young Republican state legislator from Heber Springs, Arkansas. He took office in 2013. Miller also manages a rental property business. More than a decade ago, he was paralyzed when he broke his neck in a catastrophic car accident. Fortunately, Miller hasn’t been confined to an unproductive life because of his accident and subsequent paralysis.
More about Miller from the Arkansas Times:
Miller, 33, was on an alcohol-fueled drive with a friend about 11 years ago (he can’t remember who was driving) when their pickup plunged off a ravine near Choctaw. He was rescued, but suffered a broken neck and was paralyzed. Miller was uninsured. What young, fit man needs health insurance, he thought then. (He had some reason to know better. Not long before, he’d broken his hand in a fight and had to refuse the recommended surgery to fix the injuries properly because he was uninsured.)
Months of hospitalization and rehabilitation followed, including a long stretch in intensive care at St. Vincent Infirmary. There was a $1 million bill. Medicaid paid most of it. Miller was placed on disability and checks began. In time, between Medicaid and Medicare, all his health costs were covered by the federal government. For that reason, he need not be among the 82 Arkansas legislators (61 percent of the body) who enjoy heavily subsidized and comprehensive state employee health insurance.
According to the Arkansas Times, health insurance isn’t the only benefit Miller receives from the federal government. A Medicaid program also provides funding for his daily personal care assistance. Miller is able to enjoy a productive life as the manager of a rental property business and as a state legislator because of “his own grit”…and also because the government paid for his trauma care and continues to pays for his ongoing Medicare and Medicaid coverage and personal care assistant.
Yet, this man who owes his own well-being to being a recipient of Medicare and Medicaid benefits is opposed to the expansion of Medicaid coverage in his state of Arkansas. Just last week, Miller “orated against the private option Medicaid expansion. He even invoked FDR’s New Deal — a “hand up,” he said, not a “handout.”
Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times wonders how someone who has received—and continues to receive—so much public assistance could oppose health insurance for “the working poor.”
Brantley:
Miller sees it differently. He said some who qualify for the private option aren’t working hard enough. He claims many want health insurance just so they can get prescription drugs to abuse. He draws distinctions with government help for catastrophic occurrences such as he suffered. He falls back, too, on a developing defense from private option holdouts that they prefer an alternative that wouldn’t end coverage for the 100,000 people currently signed up, at least until next year. This is disingenuous. He and other opponents have made clear that they want to strip Obamacare from government root and branch. Here’s how Miller boiled his opposition down:
“My problem is two things,” Miller said. “One, we are giving it to able-bodied folks who can work … and two, how do we pay for it?”
Lucky for Josh Miller, such thinking didn’t prevail when Congress — over Republican opposition — created the programs that sustain him.
On Thursday evening, Miller was interviewed by Chris Hayes of MSNBC. During the interview, Miller “defended his opposition to Medicaid expansion in the face of his own significant benefit from the program.” Miller said that the government “can’t afford to cover more people.” Miller also claimed, once again, “that he and other opponents don’t want to take coverage away from people already signed up.”
Rep. Josh Miller (R-Heber Springs) talks Health Care in Arkansas with Chris Hayes on MSNBC
Brantley says that Miller’s claim that opponents of Medicaid expansion in Arkansas “don’t want to take away coverage from the 127,000 who’ve already been signed up” is inaccurate. Brantley adds that Miller KNOWS his claim is inaccurate—and that to “knowingly say something inaccurate is, well, a lie. “
David Ramsey (Arkansas Times) said that the opponents of the “private option do not believe there should be a publicly funded safety-net program providing health insurance for low-income Arkansans.” He added that they’re “putting enormous energy into ending the private option, which would take away coverage from 100,000 (and counting) people.” Ramsey noted that for some of the opponents politics is at the root of their opposition. He said there are others who “have sincerely held reasons for that belief.” They think the private option “is bad public policy.” Ramsey said, however, that the “outcome of their preferred policy — ending the private option — is precisely to kick 100,000 people off of the coverage they’ve gained this year through the private option, and to ensure that around 100,000 more eligible people never gain that coverage at all.” Ramsey said that it’s time for the opponents “to own that.”
According to Kris Giuliani (UPI), lawmakers in Arkansas “must re-approve funding for the expansion, with a 75 percent supermajority, to keep the program intact. Approval of the bill is still a few votes short, including Miller’s.”
Brantley:
A coldly rational person might say a cook in a fast-food restaurant, working long hours at low pay to feed a family, looks more deserving than an uninsured person injured on a drunken joy ride. I would not. No one should be pre-judged on a subjective merit test for health care. We are all God’s children — all residents of a country Republicans like to call exceptional, despite its lack of universal health care.
Apart from the core philosophical difference — Miller opposes an expansion of government expenditures; I don’t — Miller’s position seems to boil down to the belief that some needy people are more deserving than others.
~ Submitted by Elaine Magliaro
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
SOURCES
Paralyzed GOP Lawmaker On Medicaid Opposes Medicaid Expansion (Talking Points Memo)
Rep. Josh Miller, recipient of significant government assistance, opposes Medicaid expansion in Arkansas (Arkansas Times)
Rep. Josh Miller gets national exposure on MSNBC as Medicaid expansion opponent (Arkansas Times)
Ending private option would take away coverage from 100,000 Arkansans, whether opponents like to admit that or not (Arkansas Times)
rafflaw,
WWJD?
The Jesus Budget
President Eisenhauer warned of a military industrial complex. Had he lived a little longer, he would have soon warned of a healthcare industrial complex. This is really the larger issue here. You put free stuff on the table, and people make pigs out of themselves. But the bigger pigs, really, are in the healthcare industry. Poor people never lobbied for Medicare. Healthcare pigs did. This larger picture is lost on massive health care expansion today, by industry to sustain revenues otherwise impossible. And I might as well as add, as long as politicians are whores to industry, wars will always be with us from now on.
I am not buying it david. Let’s look at facts. He wants to keep the needy off the same program that helped him and is helping him. Josh Miller and his apologists are looking for a way to get their money while arguing others in similar situations will just have to go to the emergency room which actually cost us all even more money. And now there are states looking at outlawing poor people from being able to go to emergency rooms. WWJD?
rafflaw wrote: “I am not buying it david. Let’s look at facts. He wants to keep the needy off the same program that helped him and is helping him.”
Did you watch the same video that I did? He said that nobody currently on Medicaid would lose it. He wanted to scale back new enrollments until they figure out how to pay for it.
Why is it so hard to understand that these programs need to be paid for. Do you run your personal finances this way, just run up the credit cards without any idea how you are going to pay them off?
I learned very early in life that I can only help people with what I have. Otherwise, I would run myself into bankruptcy trying to help everybody. I knew a liberal guy like that once. He took his girlfriend’s American Express card and rented every room in a hotel for a few months to give homeless guys a place to sleep. After two months, the card wouldn’t work anymore and everybody got kicked out. I don’t see how that strategy is very helpful at all. I didn’t agree with it then, and I still don’t agree with it. We need programs that are sustainable.
Personally, I think there are enough kindhearted individuals that we don’t need government doing this stuff.
Reminds me of the CEO of Oil-Qaeda (a.k.a. ExxonMobil) who is suing to prevent a water-tank-tower from being built near his ranch.
It will be used for fraking, which he supports, but would impair his pristine view of the nature his company is destroying.
rafflaw wrote: “… when a Republican state legislator gets government entitlements while earning a paycheck from the State, it is somehow a good thing to them.”
I don’t think it is good. I don’t think we need a big federal Medicaid program. But this Republican, Josh Miller, is more liberal than me. He does not want to take anyone off of Medicaid, despite all the misinformation being spread here about what he is saying. I don’t agree with him, but he is entitled to his opinion. Most of my comments are simply about keeping the facts straight.
From my perspective, people like Josh Miller were helped before there was Medicaid. If Medicaid did not exist, Josh Miller would have still gotten the help he needed. It is quite obvious to me that Medicaid makes health care expenses go up for everybody. That’s what I don’t like about insurance.
If you look up Hypocrisy in the dictionary, you will find Mr. Miller’s picture. I guess Mr. Miller and others here think he is more deserving than the thousands locally and millions nationwide who are being harmed by the refusal of states to expand Medicaid, even though it would be 100% covered by the Feds for 3 years, I believe and a significant percentage thereafter. The only possible answers are the I have mine mentality and screw everyone else, or politics. I find it amazing that those on this site that argue constantly on the abuse of food stamps and other government programs by double dippers and those that have sufficient funds, but when a Republican state legislator gets government entitlements while earning a paycheck from the State, it is somehow a good thing to them!?? Hypocrisy has a name and it is spelled MILLER.
I’m sorry, but it has to be said….He has a big R behind his name. That means in his world he has his protections, screw everybody else.
Lobster would qualify as food. If he runs out of benefits before the end of the month, then he’ll be SOL. That’s freedom of choice.
Fox Lies doesn’t know if he owns the car or if it was leased, loaned, or borrowed. Or if he purchased it before falling on hard times.
Real scholars watch Fox. Not; it’s a phony propaganda tool and a waste of time. As are you.
RTC wrote: “If he runs out of benefits before the end of the month, then he’ll be SOL.”
He’s been doing the food stamp thing for several years. This was a follow up interview. They didn’t make a big deal about the car, but I noticed it when he got out of it. But things are looking up for him. He is playing with a band now and he hopes to get off food stamps in a few months from the gigs. He was thankful and appreciative for a system that allows him to pursue his dream of surfing and becoming a rock band star. Fox did not spin the story the way this interviewer tried to spin the story with Josh Miller.
An Open Letter to Rep. Josh Miller from a Constituent
February 28, 2014
By Matt Campbell
http://www.bluehogreport.com/2014/02/28/an-open-letter-to-rep-josh-miller-from-a-constituent/
Excerpt:
[The following letter was written to Rep. Josh Miller from one of his constituents, Ms. Carol Balderree. It is reprinted here with her permission. -Ed.]
Mr. Miller,
When you were running for office, you attended a number of the Democratic Party meetings, where you portrayed yourself as a representative of ALL the people of District 66. Because of your own experience as a recipient of Medicaid, you portrayed yourself as someone who was sympathetic to the benefits of the Affordable Care Act and as someone who would not be the lackey of the “Tea Party” wing of the Republican Party. What a surprise and disappointment you have been! Obviously, your own career and the support of the Tea Party elements in your own Republican Party are more important to you than is doing what’s best for the people of Arkansas.
I found your arguments in your interview with Chris Hayes to be weak and disingenuous:
1) You argued the “possibility” that fully implementing the private option would somehow take much needed funds from Medicaid or other government services (though the federal government is paying 100% of the cost for the next 3 years) and 90-95% of the cost after that. Taxpayers in this state are paying taxes to the federal government, whether Arkansas takes back its share or not (and as a poor state, Arkansas stands to get back much MORE than our share). Are we going to refuse to help our own citizens just because Republicans hate President Obama and want to see him fail?
2) Prior to passage of the ACA, this was the only developed country in the WORLD that did not provide basic health care to all its citizens. Different countries use different means to provide coverage–our system of employer based coverage was (and is) the most costly and least effective. The ACA is certainly NOT ideal, but it is a start. You and your fellow legislators should be doing everything in your power to build on and improve, rather than to tear down and destroy, this Act. Prior to passage of this law, the United States spent more (nearly twice as much more) per capita on health care than the people of any other nation, and yet we still had 50 million uninsured or underinsured people. Healthcare costs were rising astronomically, contributing to a broken and unsustainable healthcare system.
Josh Miller gets constituent mail; good arguments for all legislative holdouts on Medicaid expansion
Posted by Max Brantley
Mar 1, 2014
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/03/01/josh-miller-gets-constituent-mail-good-arguments-for-all-legislative-holdouts-on-medicaid-expansion
Excerpt;
Carol Balderree of Heber Springs thought she heard a different sort of representative when now-Rep. Josh Miller was campaigning for the legislature. But his words and deeds on implementation of the Affordable Care Act have made her think otherwise. Her letter to Miller, published by Blue Hog Report, is worth a read.
It’s a good letter for any of the holdouts, though she also emphasizes Miller’s personal situation, a recipe t of Medicaid benefits who opposes expanding coverage to others. Condensed version of her letter:
1) Arkansas taxpayers are paying to the feds whether it takes the Medicaid expansion money or not. If we don’t take it, our money goes to others.
2) We are the only developed country that doesn’t provide health care as a birthright.
3) Who’s deserving?
You implied that basic health care coverage should only go to the “deserving” in your comment regarding the lady with Parkinson’s. When you were injured in a drunk driving car accident, were you “deserving” of care? Should you have been refused care and allowed to perish because your injuries were of your own making? Of course not! If we are a nation that judges and refuses to care for those we deem not worthy, then we are not a Christian nation!
4) The mandate:
The one aspect of the ACA that Republicans seem to hate the most is the individual mandate–the requirement that uninsured individuals buy health insurance–yet you don’t seem to object to laws requiring individuals to buy liability insurance when they drive a car. Why is that? Why should taxpayers like myself pick up the tab for young, healthy individuals who drive drunk and are severely injured as a result? Does not that young, healthy individual have a responsibility–not only to himself, but to his fellow citizens–to prevent that from happening?
I wonder if anybody ever asked Carol Balderree if she voted for Josh Miller. She sounds far too liberal to vote for anyone in his party.
L99: All teabaggers want is fiscal responsibilty. Welfare has doubled under Obummer, are you still happy you voted for this goof.
I guess I could wax eloquently, but when I used to work physically for a living, we had a phrase that applied to people like this guy: M***** F*****, which summed it up for all of us.
Payment for taking care of needy Americans is easy. There is already plenty of money in the system even if the 1% are not asked to return some of the money they have scammed off of the public. Simply move money from the Department of Offence and from corporate welfare to taking care of those who are truly needy.
davidm,
The criticisms of Miller are well-founded. It’s hypocritical of him to say that others shouldn’t receive Medicaid expansion benefits when he is a beneficiary of Medicaid. If Miller feels there isn’t enough money to fund the benefits, he should be brave enough to say that he is willing to stop receiving them. Otherwise, it speaks to a “some of us are more equal/deserving than others” attitude.
Elaine M wrote: “It’s hypocritical of him to say that others shouldn’t receive Medicaid expansion benefits when he is a beneficiary of Medicaid.”
I read other people claiming that he is saying others should not receive Medicaid. That is not what I heard him saying. He said they need to study it to figure out how to pay for it. I heard him express thanks that he was helped by Medicaid. He sounded to me like he wanted others like him to be helped by Medicaid. I didn’t hear him saying anything like you claim he was saying. He certainly did not want to abolish Medicaid.
david The problem is that this crook does NOT need Medicare or Medicaid, or SS payments since he has such health coverage available to him by other programs. So he is simply a LEECH that is taking money away from others who are truly needy and prohibiting others from getting the same assistance that he is getting and does not need! That is like a rich man taking food away from the hungry just because he can. This guy is simply corrupt and evil and is unfit to represent anybody.
Randy, I find it somewhat of a shock that you would support creating a program like Medicare and then call someone a leech if they take it according to the rules setup for the program. Fox News a few days back profiled this surfer dude in California, driving a nice shiny escalade and buying lobster with the food stamps he qualified for. His position was that he wasn’t doing anything wrong. If the system allows him to do it, then why not take advantage of it.
I don’t know much about this Josh Miller guy, but if we are going to have programs like Medicaid, I would rather someone like him look over how it is going to work and how to pay for it since he has first hand experience with its need and benefits. My biggest concern is that he might have a tendency to favor it too much because he has benefited from it.
Watching the video, it is clear that Josh Miller is interested in the question of how to pay for the Medicaid coverage instead of gambling that they will be able to pay for it. That sounds like responsible stewardship to me. Most criticisms of him seem to be unfounded.
I hope that Miller’s condition gets much worse and that his medicaid funding ends. Suffer you miserable fool
randyjet:
I agree, if he is working he can afford his own attendent.
I AM for ending this guys Medicaid and Medicare and SS payments. Most insurance policies DO have clauses that deny coverage when engaged in illegal activities such as drunken driving. He IS one of the undeserving under any insurance policy for health or accidents. He needs to be kicked off now and make room for hard working honest folks who ARE deserving.
To put forward the twisted logic of the TEAGop, it requires many twisted people with twisted visions of right and wrong, but who will always side with tax cuts over anything else.
This is just gut wrenching…. In some parts of Arkansas…. They are not much better off than WV…..
The guy sounds like an entitled loser…..
Maybe we could have a reality show called the biggest loser…. Based upon the number of bad legislators losing their elections…..