House prevents Bush from sticking it to the poor (again)
By a lopsided vote of 349-62, the House of Representatives voted today to impose a moratorium on seven regulations promulgated by the Bush White House which would have eliminated $13 billion in Medicaid funding for health care for the poor. Every House Democrat and two-thirds of House Republicans voted to stop the enactment of the regulations, which would have simply palmed off that $13 billion onto already cash-strapped states.
The outcome of Bush's latest slam against the poor would have been all too predictable:
"Some of these regulations already have become effective and current state estimates of the impact could be as high as four times the administration's $13 billion estimate," National Governors Association chairman Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., and other governors wrote lawmakers this month. Timely action to impose the one-year moratorium was "critical to avert significant disruptions in coverage for vulnerable populations," they wrote.
All 50 governors oppose the new rules.
The last paragraph of the article notes that 48 million people received Medicaid assistance in 2007. When added to the 47 million people in this country with no health insurance at all, that's 95 million Americans who either have no health insurance or must rely on federal anti-poverty assistance for health care.
That means 31 percent of the US population lives without standard health insurance. Until we adopt a single-payer system, this country will continue its decline toward Third World status.