[Nfbmo] KC Star Weighs in

[Debbie Wunder]

Yes, I think you are right, it was very good! The only real thing I saw 
wrong was that the blind person could not have a sighted working spouse.

Debbie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gene Coulter" <escoulter at centurytel.net>
To: "NFB of Missouri Mailing List" <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] KC Star Weighs in


>I really like this article = we need more like it.
>
>
> From: Gary Wunder
> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 6:52 PM
> To: nfbmo list
> Subject: [Nfbmo] KC Star Weighs in
>
> I was interviewed briefly this morning. I think this reporter understands
> that the House leadership has not fully disclosed both what they know and
> what they don't care to know.
>
> Gary
>
> s ago Missouri House budget is cruel and deceptive
> Barb Shelly Barb Shelly
> The Kansas City Star
> Republicans in the Missouri House should be utterly ashamed of the budget
> they passed late Tuesday, and the process they used to get there.
> The $24 billion spending plan, which requires a final House vote before
> going to the Senate, strips $28 million from a health care program used by
> 2,800 blind Missourians whose income is too high to meet the state's very
> low threshold for Medicaid coverage.
> The House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Republican Ryan Silvey of
> Kansas City, North, ended the decades-long health care program without
> giving recipients the courtesy of a hearing, or bothering to find out who
> these people are and why they need health care. Instead, defenders of the
> atrocious move throw out red herrings.
> In theory, someone could have a job with a high salary and still qualify 
> for
> the health care program, they say. In theory, that's sort of right. All 
> the
> state requires is that recipients' assets don't exceed $20,000, and that
> they don't have spouses who are sighted and work.
> In reality, though, a blind person with a good-paying job and health
> benefits almost certainly isn't drawing from the state health-care 
> program.
> The state requires that private insurance be used as the primary source of
> care.
> And most of the 2,800 recipients aren't so lucky. Missouri's blind
> population has a 70 percent unemployment rate. Its health care needs are
> expensive and acute. Many of the people on the state's health care plan 
> for
> the blind have diabetes. Some need dialysis or expensive organ
> anti-rejection medication. Many need medication for glaucoma.
> They are in dire need of regular medical care and their chances of being
> ensured on the individual market with these expensive pre-existing
> conditions are just about zero. Ironically, the same GOP lawmakers who 
> want
> to throw blind Missourians over the cliff are the same ones who 
> ceaselessly
> oppose "Obamacare," which is the best hope for people with low incomes
> and/or pre-existing conditions to gain affordable, market-based health 
> care.
> Should the unbelievable occur and the 2,800 blind recipients actually lose
> their health care, many would likely find their way to Missouri's 
> high-risk
> insurance pool, meaning the state would continue to fund their health 
> care,
> but through another channel.
> Here's another red herring the Republicans are using: It's unfair to give
> the blind a health-care benefit that people with other disabilities don't
> get.
> People with disabilities would be the first to tell you that they are a
> diverse community, and cannot be lumped into one basket. And the state
> responds to their needs in different ways. The developmentally disabled 
> and
> severely physically disabled are eligible for Medicaid waivers and 
> services,
> for instance.
> I would challenge Silvey, or House Speaker Steve Tilley or any Republican 
> to
> tell us who exactly are "the disabled," and explain why it's OK to cut off
> aid for people with one incapacitating disability because everyone with
> disabilities isn't receiving the same thing.
> Silvey says it's necessary to cut aid to the blind because he refuses to 
> cut
> any more money from the state's colleges and universities, as Gov. Jay
> Nixon's budget recommends. But neither he nor any of the House GOP leaders
> have mentioned the obvious: That if you're taking health care from the 
> blind
> to fund universities, it's time to look for new sources of revenue.
> GOP leaders have in common with the Missourians they would cast into the
> cold a lack of vision. The difference is that theirs stems from the head 
> and
> heart.
>
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