Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Weekend Contributor
Last week, I wrote a post about Josh Miller (Not All Needy People Are As Deserving As Others), a young Republican state legislator from Heber Springs, Arkansas. Miller, who was paralyzed more than a decade ago in a catastrophic car accident, has been able to live a productive life due to the medical benefits he has received from both Medicare and Medicaid. Yet, this young state senator has spoken out against Medicaid expansion in Arkansas. Some of us find his stance on this issue to be hypocritical.
This past Tuesday, lawmakers in Arkansas voted to continue allowing the state “to use Medicaid dollars to buy private health-care insurance for poorer residents, overcoming resistance from some Republicans who said the program amounted to an endorsement of the Affordable Care Act.” According to the Wall Street Journal, Arkansas became the first state “to offer a ‘private option’ to extend coverage to lower-income residents…” Supporters of the program saw the private option “as a way to accept federal dollars and cut the number of uninsured residents without enlarging Medicaid.”
Matt Campbell of Blue Hog Report said that when he heard about the legislature’s vote to fund the private option for another fiscal year he “halfheartedly hoped that the extra ‘yes’ vote might have been Rep. Josh Miller.” Such was not the case however. What Campbell said he finds most hypocritical and troubling about Miller’s “no” vote on the private option is that the young lawmaker actually used his position as a legislator “to make blatantly self-serving changes to the Medicaid law” which would make it easier for him to get the same coverage that he “would deny to others.” Campbell says that Miller was a main sponsor in 2013 of Act 1048. That Act changes how Arkansas law defines a person’s eligibility for receiving Medicaid.
Eligibility prior to ACT 1048:
an individual who meets the disability assets and unearned income standards to receive supplemental security income, who would be considered to be receiving supplemental security income benefits but for his or her earned income, and whose net combined family income is less than two hundred fifty percent (250%) of the federal poverty guideline. Miller’s bill eligibility change:
How Miller’s bill would change eligibility:
an individual who meets the disability assets and unearned income standards to receive supplemental security income, who would be considered to be receiving supplemental security income benefits but for his or her earned income, and whose net combined family income is less than two hundred fifty percent (250%) of the federal poverty guideline.
Campbell claimed that “while lawmakers and policy wonks were arguing over the propriety of expanding Medicaid in general to include non-disabled adults making up to 138% of the federal poverty line, Rep. Miller was working to ensure that, no matter how much money he might make, he could never lose his sweet, sweet government-funded insurance.” Campbell said that Miller didn’t stop at that, though. He said that Act 1048 also changes “Arkansas Code Annotated 20-77-1204 regarding the administration of Medicaid for ‘Low-Income Disabled Working Persons.’” He said Miller’s bill also added 1204(c), which states:
A rule adopted under this section shall not include a test for income, assets, or resources.
Campbell added that while 1204(b)(2) “explicitly requires DHS to adopt rules that establish ‘premium and cost-sharing charges on a sliding scale based on income’… thanks to Rep. Miller, DHS cannot actually include any kind of means testing in those rules…”
It certainly does appear that Josh Miller thinks that not all needy people in Arkansas are as deserving of Medicaid benefits as is he. It appears that he truly is a hypocrite too.
~ 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
The Disgustingly Self-Serving Hypocrisy of Rep. Josh Miller (Blue Hog Report)
Arkansas Lawmakers Pass ‘Private Option’ Health-Care Law: Program Allows State to Use Medicaid Dollars to Buy Private Health-care Insurance for Some (Wall Street Journal)
Not All Needy People Are As Deserving As Others: Paralyzed Arkansas Lawmaker Who Receives Medicaid Benefits Opposes Medicaid Expansion in His State (Res Ipsa Loquitor)
Giovanni, Complaining about compulsive liberal links is fruitless, the woman just doubles down, as you’ve just seen!
Giovanna,
I suggest you write to Rep. Miller and tell him you disapprove of socialist programs like Medicaid of which he has been/is a beneficiary. BTW, I wrote a post about Miller last week. The post included a video of him providing his position on Medicaid expansion in Arkansas. I’ll post it for you here:
Rep. Josh Miller (R-Heber Springs) talks Health Care in Arkansas on MSNBC
“I work with the needy…..”
Cold comfort.
New Hampshire Advances Medicaid Expansion Under Obamacare
DYLAN SCOTT
MARCH 6, 2014
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/new-hampshire-senate-medicaid-expansion
Excerpt:
The GOP-controlled New Hampshire Senate approved a privatized plan for expanding Medicaid under Obamacare Thursday, opening the door for the state to become the latest to adopt the expansion.
WMUR reported that the bill passed 18 to 5. Five of the 13 Republicans opposed the plan, and another abstained. The proposal would use Medicaid dollars to help low-income residents purchase private health coverage, as Arkansas has done.
Groups plead with legislators to expand Medicaid to Florida’s poor
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/health/2014/03/groups-plead-with-legislators-to-expand-medicaid-to-floridas-poor.html
Excerpt:
A Republican lawmaker today called on members of the Florida Legislature to accept $51 billion in federal money to extend healthcare coverage to nearly 1 million uninsured and provide the state with a huge economic stimulus.
Sen. Rene Garcia of Hialeah spoke at a news conference along with Rep. Amanda Murphy (D-New Port Richey), local business owners, members of the medical community and the President of the League of Women Voters of Florida to advocate for expanding the state-federal healthcare program for the poor
Garcia said it doesn’t make sense that the state of Florida accepts federal funding for things like transportation and education, but refuses to take federal dollars for healthcare expansion. “This is not about politics — its about policy and being consistent and taking care of our own,” Garcia said.
Garcia is sponsoring a bill (SB 710) that would allow Florida to accept $51 billion in federal funding available for expanding healthcare coverage, and mirrors a bill that received unanimous support in the Senate last year. Murphy is sponsoring the House version (HB 869).
The bipartisan initiative would “positively impact working families and those that have fallen on hard times by ensuring access to affordable healthcare through the free market,” Murphy said.
I’m hearing a lot of ignorant Democrat/Socialist comments here. You’re not speaking with balanced integrity, but with political malice and bias.
Consider the fact that Arkansas is a one of the highest welfare states in the nation, perhaps Mr. Miller sees something the rest of you socialist don’t want to see. You think that you are pure because you want to give to the poor, but instead you’re speaking unrealistically without anything to substantiate your argument. You’re ready to condemn the Arkansas Rep without hearing his side of the argument. Ms Magliaro takes most of her comments from websites, who are also bias.
Having visited several socialist countries, I see their agenda being pushed in our country and believe me you don’t want to go there. These countries are now being over run by facists and many are sending warning messages to our country to NOT become a socialist country.
Too much welfare and Medicaid is harming our country and turning it into a socialist system. I have seen this happening as I work with the needy–many abuses and cost over runs are going to ruin our country.
Darren, “Haters gotta hate.”
Darren,
I have to question why someone who has gone through what Josh Miller has gone through would vote against expansion of a social safety net program that has helped him to lead a better and more productive life than he would have if he had not been a beneficiary of Medicaid. Has he no empathy for other needy people?
**********
By Charles P. Pierce
February 28, 2014
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/arkansas-josh-miller-medicaid-expansion-022814?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_pol_non_030314_josh-miller
If you want a perfect example of the prion disease currently affecting the brain of one of our two major political parties, then gaze in awe at State Representative Josh Miller of Arkansas who, as we learn over at Josh’s joint today, may be the single most revolting person in American politics.
Miller was paralyzed in an auto accident in which either he was driving drunk, or the guy behind the wheel was. He was uninsured at the time. In his recovery, he was aided by personal assistance coverage paid for by Medicaid. (Glad to have been of service, Josh. Think nothing of it.) Now, Josh is one of the votes in the Arkansas legislature against the state’s privatized Medicaid option. And this is what he told the Arkansas Times as to why:
“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?”
He also told Chris Hayes that he was grateful for all the help he got from Medicaid, but that “this isn’t what’s being debated here,” which, of course, is billroar because the system in Arkansas was devised so the governor down there would not face the horrible choice of taking the FREE MONEY (!) from the treasure trove of the Kenyan Usurper.
There’s a lot of this in Republican politics, from Paul Ryan’s Social Security-financed higher education on down. Somehow, though, it never seems to bite them politically. I’ve Got Mine, Jack is a pretty universal construct, I guess.
I really don’t believe the criticism of Josh being drunk and somehow deserving to be paralized or undeserving of medical attention is warranted. People do dumb things. All of us have at one or more points in our lives but it is often luck or circumstances that dictate if a person suffers a catastrophic injury or not.
Josh’s politics aside, and I encourage everyone to criticize or support his political positions however they choose, if anyone feels that he or someone like him wasn’t adequately punished for the DUI crash well, look what he has to go through every day for the rest of his life if there is a need to be satisfied in the minds of those having such convictions against him. I would say it was quite damaging to him.
If you read the fired og lake article this leech hurt himself driving drunk!!
so it wasn’t an accident, it was a drunk driving crash, and then he takes millions of our tax dollars to heal himself, disgusting individual
Thanks for the link. There’s a better-than-average chance that this isn’t the last you’ve heard about the self-serving ways of Josh Miller.
Justice Holmes,
Some of us just slap ourselves upside the head when we hear people sing the praises of Faux News and folks like Hannity who work for Roger Ailes.
Sometimes I wonder whether the satire meter has died. Sean Hannity a voice in the wilderness? That about the same as saying Josh Miller is a nice guy.
I write to Josh Miller when I read the story of his grasping hypocrisy. No answer from the “nice” young man.
Now to the republicans that like the former KGB dictator. Maybe Rudi should move to Russia. Putin would not put up with him for 5 minutes.
Max-1,
🙂
on 1, March 8, 2014 at 5:29 pm
Justin L. Petaccio
We can build bridges over there so we don’t have to build them over here…
Or we can build schools over there so we don’t have to build them over here…
Or, we can hand out health care over there so that we don’t have to over here…
See how that goes?
Shorter Josh Miller,
“Screw you guys, I got mine already.”
Actually, Bush had the highest recorded approval rating after 9/11. It topped out @ 90%. It slowly decreased w/ the onset of the Iraq war. So, there’s that.
Yes, Bush’s approval rating dropped to about 23% in 2008. By that time most people realized how we had been duped into the Iraq War.
Have a good night, Elaine M.
gots to go, guys. Thanks for an excellent discussion. Ok, you forced one more comment, Wayne.
It frightens me to think what the condition of our country would be in without Fox News, and in particular Sean Hannity. While the world worshiped at the alter of Obama, Sean Hannity, the lone voice in the wilderness, was exposing Barack Obama for the fraud that we now know him to be. Good Night All. Don’t forget to turn your clocks AHEAD. Thanks again.
Justin,
I don’t perceive the comment I wrote in responding to Wayne as hatred. I think many people would infer Miller was a Republican because of what the GOP has been advocating with regard to Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and other social safety net programs. I’m not trying to change the subject. Miller IS the subject of this post–as is the legislation he sponsored.