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)
I think the Republican in Arkansas is a pig. I don’t believe in giving someone a free pass just because they are, say, conservative.
If David believes there are enough kind heated people out there willing to help so we don’t need insurance, he hasn’t had a child or grandchild need cancer surgery and chemotherapy. Or spinal cord surgery. I am sure his plumber would be happy to take care of his heart or kidney transplant.
I have come to the inevitable conclusion David and his like minded compatriots live in an alternate universe, where reality stands on its head.
annie,
They’d bitch about having single payer. They’d bitch about having a public option. They’d bitch about any health care plan the Democrats came up with–even though it was similar to those once recommended by their own party.
David,
once again, I am not buying it. If you are going to argue a bill is bad, you need to know what is in it. As I said earlier, the comment that they are trying to pay for it responsibly is nonsense. The Medicaid portion would be paid by the Feds for 3 years completely and most of the cost after that. They are looking for a way to stop anything that Obama is for, period. The right is against it so they will lie, as shown above, and misrepresent and lie some more, as in the case of the fake patients on the Koch bought ads.
annie,
Most of us would have preferred a public option or Medicare for all, but there is no way that could have gotten passed.
Exactly, davidm, people forget that Republicans had been shut out of the process. The backlash came with the Tea Party, which threw the Democrats out of the house. Next time you liberals blame the Tea Party for anything, think about what might have been accomplished had not so many pissed into the wind.
davidm,
Do you have proof that I’m posting “lies?”
Monstrosity.
Elaine they wanted the ACA to be unworkable and a monsosity. If it would’ve had a public option they would called those who took it even bigger pigs.
Why Republicans Have No Business Being Upset About Obamacare
October 29, 2013
by Robert Reich
http://billmoyers.com/2013/10/29/why-republicans-have-no-business-being-upset-about-obamacare/
Excerpt:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says Republicans will seek to delay a requirement of the 2010 Affordable Care Act that all Americans obtain health insurance or face a tax penalty. “With so many unanswered questions and the problems arising around this rollout, it doesn’t make any sense to impose this one percent mandate tax on the American people,” Cantor said last week.
While Republicans plot new ways to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, it’s easy to forget that for years they’ve been arguing that any comprehensive health insurance system be designed exactly like the one that officially began October 1st, glitches and all.
For as many years Democrats tried to graft healthcare onto Social Security and Medicare and pay for it through the payroll tax. But Republicans countered that any system must be based on private insurance and paid for with a combination of subsidies for low-income purchasers and a requirement that the younger and healthier sign up.
Not surprisingly, private health insurers cheered on the Republicans while doing whatever they could to block Democrats from creating a public insurance system.
In February 1974, Republican President Richard Nixon proposed, in essence, today’s Affordable Care Act. Under Nixon’s plan all but the smallest employers would provide insurance to their workers or pay a penalty, an expanded Medicaid-type program would insure the poor and subsidies would be provided to low-income individuals and small employers. Sound familiar?
Private insurers were delighted with the Nixon plan but Democrats preferred a system based on Social Security and Medicare and the two sides failed to agree.
Thirty years later a Republican governor, Mitt Romney, made Nixon’s plan the law in Massachusetts. Private insurers couldn’t have been happier although many Democrats in the state had hoped for a public system.
When today’s Republicans rage against the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, it’s useful to recall this was their idea as well.
Jake Tapper: Obama ‘Resentful’ GOP’ers in Congress Refused to Help Craft Obamacare
by Noah Rothman
October 21st, 2013
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jake-tapper-obama-resentful-gopers-in-congress-refused-to-help-craft-obamacare/
Following the conclusion of President Barack Obama’s speech on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the problems some people are experiencing while attempting to navigate the insurance exchanges online, a CNN panel dug into comments Obama made during that speech attacking Republicans. CNN host Jake Tapper said that the president is “resentful” of Republicans who refused to collaborate on the crafting of the ACA, forcing it to be passed with only Democratic votes.
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer asked Tapper if he was “surprised” by Obama’s pivot to a political attack on Republicans in Congress amid his defense of the ACA’s implementation.
“No,” Tapper replied. “Because President Obama, when I was a White House correspondent when they were doing health care, and he really did — there were many efforts on Capitol Hill.”
“It passed as a partisan bill, but there were many efforts on Capitol Hill for it not to be a partisan bill, for Republican ideas to be included,” he continued. “That was a big source of frustration. And I know, in the White House obviously, the president is still resentful of the fact that Republicans were – he attempted to bring them on board to do this bill and then they were not part of it and they have been trying to block it, as we saw with the government shutdown.”
Elaine, it is very difficult for me to understand how an intelligent woman believes all these lies you keep posting. Doesn’t the fact that they did not allow the bill to be read, and the fact that they took an unusual vote late Christmas Eve in order to pass it, mean anything to you? I remember very vividly when all this was going on, and I thought it was deplorable how they would use their majority in such a partisan way.
And perhaps I should add that nobody even had time to read the bill? Nancy Pelosi said the Democrats should pass it so they could find out what it was. It was Democratic politics climaxing.
davidm,
I’m sick and tired of Republicans/conservatives bitching and moaning about the ACA. I put much of the fault for not having a better health care law at their feet. Why didn’tt hey work diligently with Democrats to craft a better law? BTW, the ACA, which is similar to a health care law instituted in my state, was brought in by a Republican governor–Mitt Romney.
*****
Conservatives Sowed Idea of Health Care Mandate, Only to Spurn It Later
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: February 14, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/health/policy/health-care-mandate-was-first-backed-by-conservatives.html
Excerpt:
It can be difficult to remember now, given the ferocity with which many Republicans assail it as an attack on freedom, but the provision in President Obama’s health care law requiring all Americans to buy health insurance has its roots in conservative thinking.
The concept that people should be required to buy health coverage was fleshed out more than two decades ago by a number of conservative economists, embraced by scholars at conservative research groups, including the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, and championed, for a time, by Republicans in the Senate.
The individual mandate, as it is known, was seen then as a conservative alternative to some of the health care approaches favored by liberals — like creating a national health service or requiring employers to provide health coverage.
Elaine M wrote: “Why didn’t they work diligently with Democrats to craft a better law?”
They were trying to do that, but the Democrats decided that having control of both Senate and House that they would sneak the bill through without Republican support by promising backroom money deals to Democrats who would vote for it. In the Senate they forced it through on Christmas Eve without a single Republican vote and without a single vote to spare. If you are tired of the complaining, your party should have thought about this before they forced a bill through without a single person from the other party voting for it.
It’s not too late to stop all this. Just get your party and your President to agree with the Tea Party to repeal the ACA and let’s start over where we all work on the problem.
Samantha you implied users of healthcare were piggish, or are you trying to back away from that assertion? I think she’s addressing me, Elaine.
“You put free stuff on the table and people make pigs of themselves”.
samantha,
To whom are you addressing that comment?
If you charge me $700 for an aspirin, you are, well, piggish!!!
Why do you sling so much mud at Christians and conservatives? Don’t you consider yourself intelligent?
davidm said: “Personally, I think there are enough kindhearted individuals that we don’t need government doing this stuff.”
If that were true, all people in need would have medical coverage. Unfortunately, they don’t.
david,
I don’t believe what he said on the video. His actions speak louder than his words on camera. Secondly, he does not need to find a way to pay for it. That is a dodge. That is already taken care of and the CBO has chimed in on how it actually helps the deficit. He has to “own” the fact that his injuries were caused by his and his friends drunken driving and he took advantage of programs to help the needy, but claims the needy no longer are needy enough to use the program because “he” doesn’t know how it will be paid for. All he has to do is read the ACA. He can probably get a Cliff Notes version to help him. Finally, this is the mentality of the “entitled” like the Georgia governor who wants to stop the poor from going to emergency rooms for care, even though he refused the Medicare expansion funds for his state and his people. Disgusting.
rafflaw – the ACA had a problem when the Supreme Court found part of it unconstitutional. The States have an option to opt out, but Arkansas has been trying to forge a third way to work this out. This is all just messy politics with people spinning stories left and right to rile up their political party. The liberals are stirring up people to hate the Republicans, and the Republicans are trying to find a way to reform health care in Arkansas and pay for it responsibly.
Actually, Ayn Rand thought that being piggish was just grand. So in her world the Health insurance Industry are doing the “lord’s” work.
Seriously? Adults who are seemingly intelligent would call others Healthcare Pigs? This must come straight from the Ayn Rand edition of the Bible.
davidm,
Did you miss what I wrote after the video?
Here’s an excerpt:
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.”
Elaine wrote: “Did you miss what I wrote after the video?”
No, I read it, but these are the reporters who hate the Republicans. Just read everything they write and you can see it. They falsely portray us Republicans as arms crossed naysayers who won’t cooperate with anything good. They are like children yelling to mommy and daddy about all the candy their friends are offering them and don’t understand why their parents don’t just take it.
The Arkansas Republicans have attempted to draft their own health care reform and the Democrats are running to Obamacare and trying to mix it in with it under the cry of, “look at all the free matching money being offered.” The system is a bit more complex that what is being presented here.