The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently ran a story that left me banging my head on my desk.
“Let me tell you what we’re doing (about ObamaCare),” Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens bragged to a crowd of fellow Republicans in Floyd County earlier this month: “Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”
After pausing to let applause roll over him, a grinning Hudgens went on to give an example of that obstructionist behavior, this one involving so-called “navigators” who are being hired to guide customers through the process of buying health insurance on marketplaces, or exchanges, set up under the federal program.
“We have passed a law that says that a navigator, which is a position in that exchange, has to be licensed by our Department of Insurance,” Hudgens said. “The ObamaCare law says that we cannot require them to be an insurance agent, so we said fine, we’ll just require them to be a licensed navigator. So we’re going to make up the test, and basically you take the insurance agent test, you erase the name, you write ‘navigator test’ on it.”
As the article points out, Georgia is not the only state where Republicans are in charge and are doing everything in their power to insure that people don’t get healthcare.
Think about that. No matter what your policy differences with the President, no matter what concerns you might have about the ACA’s approach, what sort of human being deliberately–indeed, gleefully–takes steps to insure that other people will continue to suffer?
How much do you have to hate the President that you are willing to let thousands of people go bankrupt and/or die if that’s what it takes to deny him a policy victory?
The Atlanta reporter asked the obvious questions:
Why would you take pride in making it harder for Georgians with pre-existing conditions to get the insurance coverage that had previously been denied to them, and that might save them from potential bankruptcy or even death? Why would you block the federal government from offering Medicaid coverage to more than 600,000 lower-income Georgia citizens, coverage that would allow them to compensate hospitals and doctors now forced to treat them for free? Why refuse to educate uninsured Georgians on the fact that they will soon be eligible for subsidies to help them pay for health insurance, as other states are doing?
I’d ask how low these people can go, but I’m afraid I’ll find out.
I guess they are not done being the “Stupid Party” as one of their leaders said.
Or maybe God told them to mess with the black guy
Stupid is as stupid does.
It is inexplicable to say the least. As a health insurance agent that has had to look parents in the eye to tell they do not qualify for insurance or that the premium is so high that it is beyond their ability to afford it, I have not use for those that so vehemently defend the status-quo. To actively try and undermine a federal law is immoral but also, at some point has to be flirting with criminality. What if these same people were trying to complicate or block seniors from applying for Medicare? Would anyone put up with that?
My sister actually said “I don’t want everyone to get health care! It takes forever to get to see the doctor as it is now! If everyone has access to health care, then we’ll have to wait even longer to see the doctor!
I can’t believe we came from the same womb.
The same questions should be asked of Mike Pence, who is denying the same expansion of healthcare for Hoosiers.
Below, I have copied and pasted a Star article from Facebook regarding the ultimate in Insurance care obstructionism – and this is not in Georgia. My son and daughter-in-law have the Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield family plan through her employment. They pay $450 per month for this “coverage”; sounds pretty good till you know there is a $9,000 annual deductible. We are at the mercy of insurance companies and have been for decades; it is getting worse due to the scare tactics of the GOP and Congress wasting time making 40 attemts to repleal the Affordable Care Act. We are required to have homeowner’s insurance before buying a home, vehicle insurance before registering and plating our cars; why is it beyond reason to expect people who can afford it to pay for health insurance? What is your answer to the question below?
The Indianapolis Star
Kenneth Dale Low’s heart condition was bad enough that his doctor decided he needed a pacemaker to correct it. But it took his insurance company, Indianapolis-based Anthem, five months to agree to pay for it. He died three days before his surgery. Now, his widow is suing Anthem.
Should Anthem be held accountable for his death?
JoAnn – YES Sue the pants off Anthem!!! 5 months? That’s obscene.
I’d be happy to listen to obstructionists like Commissioner Hudgens or even my very own representative Marlin Stutzman (Idiot-IN, 3rd District) if they had an alternative to offer.