DUmmy suggests obtaining blood from turnip

[BannedFromDU]

Bozita  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat May-02-09 01:50 AM
Original message
Granholm to order deep cuts in Medicaid
   
Source: Detroit Free Press

Granholm to order deep cuts in Medicaid
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT • FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER • MAY 1, 2009


Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to order significant Medicaid cuts Tuesday that could force layoffs, program closings and postpone projects and improvements at Michigan hospitals, doctors' offices, nursing homes and community mental health facilities, according to the state's largest hospital association.

Spencer Johnson, president and CEO of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, said the association learned Friday from key legislative leaders, including several appropriations committee members, "there definitely will be cuts" in the Medicaid budget and he expects a 4% across the board cut in provider payments.

The cuts could grow from $10 million to $33 million because Michigan would lose federal matching funds if the state cuts its contribution to the program.

It's unclear whether the governor will order cuts in Medicaid reimbursement rates to HMOs, Johnson said.

If there's no money to give people, just...um...take more from them


Shocking as it is, there are some Michiganders who aren't juiced in to carmaker benefits-for-life (which killed not only the carmakers, but Michigan, too, by the way), but those on the dole are facing cutbacks in this terrible economy.

So what do you do? Well...

bluestateguy  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Sat May-02-09 02:03 AM
Response to Original message

1. She should raise taxes
   
Income taxes, car tag fees, sales taxes, and property taxes.

I'm all for cutting spending, but at a certain point, you have to draw the line.

     "Hey, Michiganders, we know this is the toughest environment since the late 70's, but there are poor people with HANGNAILS. They need HEALTHCARE."

Psephos      Sat May-02-09 02:07 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. So that more people and businesses who pay taxes will leave?
   
That hasn't worked out so well here.



blue_onyx  (1000+ posts) 
   Sat May-02-09 03:27 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. She did in 2007
   
and that took shutting the government down (although only for a few hours) in order to get the tax increase passed. The chances of her getting the congress to go along with another tax increase is very slim.
 
 
notadmblnd
Sat May-02-09 01:56 PM
Response to Reply #1

16. all that has already been done.
   
perhaps you don't understand? We have no jobs here. People who have no jobs, pay no taxes.

     Wait. Hold on. Are three 1000+ post DUmmies saying that taxes have already been raised, to little effect?

     Do they mean to say that taxing the balls off of people ISN'T a panacea during bad times?

     Tax increases in Michigan HAVEN'T perfectly shored up the welfare system there?


     I wonder if there's a larger lesson to be learned. Hmmmmmm. I wonder.

Vinca   Sat May-02-09 12:12 PM
Response to Original message

15. One more reason for single payer, universal healthcare.
   
Medical services wouldn't be affected to a state having economic problems.

     I guess not. Why, if Michigan is having problems, then they just need to suck on the teat of OTHER people who are having the SAME problems!

     One day they'll connect the dots. Free healthcare is not free.


Healthcare isn't free
It costs folks like you and me
And if we don't all chip in
We'll never pay that bill
Healthcare isn't free
There's a hefty ****in' fee
And if you don't throw in your buck 'o five
Who will?


     

[Mr Mannn]

Universal health care only works if you are young and don't need it.
If you are old and need care...UHC won't be there for you. So in the long run, no one gets care.

[Celtic Rose]

HiFive for the Team America reference.

DUmmies don't seem to understand that somebody has to pay for health care whether it is so-called "single payer" healthcare, or insurance covered healthcare, doctors need to be paid, medication needs to be paid for, and all sorts of other costs need to be covered.  If there is no money coming in (as in Michigan) then how will it work?  Will we take money from schools to pay for x-rays? 

Seriously, tell me one thing that the government does more effectively than a private organization?  Why on earth would we want the government to be responsible for something as important as healthcare?

[The Village Idiot]

Government healthcare works great until you need .. um.. healthcare

[ScubaGuy]

Seriously, tell me one thing that the government does more effectively than a private organization?  Why on earth would we want the government to be responsible for something as important as healthcare?

Waste money?

[jukin]

I've got an idea.  Tax the people that use health care so they don't get sick anymore.  Right?  Taxing an activity will stop that activity.  That is the liberal mantra, let's see how it does in the medical field.

[BannedFromDU]

I've got an idea.  Tax the people that use health care so they don't get sick anymore.  Right?  Taxing an activity will stop that activity.  That is the liberal mantra, let's see how it does in the medical field.

     H5

[franksolich]

I've got an idea.  Tax the people that use health care so they don't get sick anymore.  Right?  Taxing an activity will stop that activity.  That is the liberal mantra, let's see how it does in the medical field.

Damn.

You're good, sir.

[Texacon]

Every state needs to be sovereign.  Every one.  If you can't bring your spending under control then the federal gov't comes in and .... Oh hell, that won't work.

Every state needs to stand on it's own.  Period.  That is all.

KC

[AllosaursRus]

Every state needs to be sovereign.  Every one.  If you can't bring your spending under control then the federal gov't comes in and .... Oh hell, that won't work.

Every state needs to stand on it's own.  Period.  That is all.

KC

Actually, every individual needs to stand on his/her own. That's how I was brought up anyway. Heaven forbid you have to take care of yourself!

[MrsSmith]

I've got an idea.  Tax the people that use health care so they don't get sick anymore.  Right?  Taxing an activity will stop that activity.  That is the liberal mantra, let's see how it does in the medical field.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Seriously, tell me one thing that the government does more effectively than a private organization?  Why on earth would we want the government to be responsible for something as important as healthcare?

National defense, space exploration, and conservation.

[NHSparky]

Just one question--where are all those poor bastards in Canada going to go when our healthcare system sucks as bad as theirs?

[The Village Idiot]

National defense, space exploration, and conservation.

space exploration??

I could probably get to Mars at a quarter of the cost of what NASA would spend. NASA is about to get left behind, we will be paying Russia to get our astronauts to the space station because we won't even have a down-sized ship for a few years after the shuttles are retired.

[DumbAss Tanker]

space exploration??

I could probably get to Mars at a quarter of the cost of what NASA would spend. NASA is about to get left behind, we will be paying Russia to get our astronauts to the space station because we won't even have a down-sized ship for a few years after the shuttles are retired.

Bullshit.  Private sector money goes where it will get a mix of the quickest and highest return (The mix of the two is a strategy decision) and space exploration offers neither one, it's more like the lottery model - pour money into it forever and eventually somebody wins.  Investment bankers and venture capitalists who can put together the kind of cash that takes don't do lottery.  As investments go, it's like building a giant money shredder and then paying to have a rathole built over it so you can throw truckloads of more money down it into the shredder, much like national defense.  Both of them produce a lot of valuable spin-offs and products that advance the state of the art in science and engineering, most of which are entirely incidental to their goals and could have been developed separately if they had been able to make it in the risk/return calculation in the first place.  Rutan's X-Prize winner is the farthest and best the private sector has done as far as innovation is concerned in 70-odd years since the days of Goddard and the German Rocket Society, and it's basically a toy.   

[Rebel]

National defense, space exploration, and conservation.

...and aside from National Defense, the other two can be better ran by the private sector. As for national defense, it's not exactly the smoothest operation either. There's a reason we have a Fraud, Waste, and Abuse hotline.

[DumbAss Tanker]

...and aside from National Defense, the other two can be better ran by the private sector. As for national defense, it's not exactly the smoothest operation either. There's a reason we have a Fraud, Waste, and Abuse hotline.

I'm not sure I can think of any great success stories on the private sector in conservation, the fundamental problem with that is the private sector is inherently incapable of making a permanent commitment to anything, but can only support it as long as it generates a return...and what's regarded as fraud, waste, and abuse in the Executive Branch doesn't hold a candle to the party in the US private financial sector, or the brilliant strategic thinking by the auto industry.   

[Lord Undies]

Michigan is sick with Liberalism and needs surgery.  Ironically, the Little Goons don't want to socialize this necessary procedure.