Sen. Al Melvin’s crusade against the poor and sick took a new turn yesterday. He voted in support of Sen. Andy Biggs’ proposal to end the entire AHCCCS program in Arizona.
We’re not talking about just scaling back the expansion of health-care to 100 percent of federal poverty level that Gov. Jan Brewer supports. We’re talking about the entire health-care support system for the indigent in the state.
From the Arizona Republic:
Biggs, R-Gilbert, said the state can’t afford the program and the taxpayer-funded program makes people dependent on “socialized medicine.”
Sen. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa, said the reality is that if the state ended the program as of Oct. 1, “by Christmas, there won’t be any rural hospitals.”
He urged a more deliberate study if the state is serious about such a move. “You don’t replace your entire health-care system with a couple of urgent care centers inside a Wal-Mart.” However, in a 1:30 a.m. vote, the committe voted 8-5 to move the bill to the full 30-member Senate.
Read the whole thing here.
As the Republic noted earlier this year, dumping AHCCCS entirely would mean the loss of $7.5 billion in federal matching funds for the state, which would pretty much cripple the hospitals that we all depend on.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2011.
As a person who is AHCCCS and Medicaid dependent, and living in the middle of nowhere because I lost everything because of my health, I can only see such moves as a death sentence. And yet they persist in dismantling all of the healthcare options for those of us in the state who have chronic illness and no money. We are not this way just to take advantage of the free care we get. We are sick and need ongoing medical care. We have no energy to deal with all of this but do the best we can. Thanks to the folks who stand up and help us. It surely isn’t the Arizona Legislature or the folks who voted them in!
We need to march like the people in Minnessota
Exterminating the poor, what’s next for Arizona? Seems like they are bent on creating a elitist all white society. Hard to believe this is happening in the twenty first century.
svivar9087