Rand Paul. Photo: Gage Skidmore (CC)
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
Yesterday, Tea Party darling and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul told Kentucky voters that Medicaid is “intergenerational welfare.” In an interview with local chamber of commerce leaders, Paul implied the program reaches out far beyond the truly needy and has loose eligibility standards. Medicaid assists nearly 20% of Kentuckians.
I would be interested to see exactly how a man who nets over $200,000 in income and has a robust stock portfolio goes about identifying the “truly needy.” Are pregnant women without health insurance needy? How about dependent children under 19 or the disabled? For example, a single mother in Kentucky with one child cannot earn more than $851 a month to qualify. In other words, if she’s working part time for minimum wage, she can’t work for more than 29 hours for fear of losing her health benefits. When many employers don’t offer health benefits for part time work or keep their employees at part time levels in order to avoid providing health insurance options, staying on Medicaid becomes the only option. Unless one is willing to gamble on one’s health.
