I understand how hard it is to be paralyzed and function in America so I don't want to be too harsh, but Rep. Josh Miller makes the most hypocritical argument against expanding Medicaid I've ever seen.
More than a decade ago, Arkansas Rep. Josh Miller (R) was in a catastrophic car accident that broke his neck and left him paralyzed. Medicare and Medicaid paid the $1 million bill for his hospitalization and rehabilitation.
But this week, as the Arkansas legislature has debated continuing its privatized Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, Miller has remained steadfast in his opposition.
The Arkansas Times highlighted the contrast in a Thursday report. The alternative newspaper reported that Miller receives ongoing coverage through the government programs, including Medicaid-covered personal care assistance.
The Times asked Miller, 33, about this apparent contradiction: Shouldn't someone who has experienced the benefits of health insurance, including insurance paid for by the government, understand the importance of expanding those benefits to others?
The difference, he said, is that some of the 100,000 people who have gained coverage through Arkansas's Medicaid expansion don't work hard enough or just want access to the program so they can purchase and abuse prescription drugs.
"My problem is two things," Miller said. "One, we are giving it to able-bodied folks who can work ... and two, how do we pay for it?"
Say what? How hard was Miller working when he broke his neck in a drunken car accident?
The accident that paralyzed Miller occurred about 11 years ago, the Times reported. He was driving with a friend, alcohol was involved, but Miller said he couldn’t remember who was driving. When he arrived at the hospital with his life-changing injuries, he was uninsured.
If he's so into being a Republican, why didn't he refuse the government healthcare -- since he had no insurance of his own. If the government hadn't come to his rescue, I imagine he wouldn't have any kind of a life right now, but I guess he always knew how very exceptional he was.
Okay, the safety net caught him. It worked as intended and evidently, Mr. Miller has been able to do something with his life. This sounds like a win.
Under Obamacare in he would be required to have insurance so the safety net would not be needed to catch him when he and his buddy were young, healthy and invincible until they weren’t. In a pre-PPACA world, Mr. Miller is uninsurable on the private market. If he was too poor to buy a plan on the Exchange, he would qualify for Medicaid in roughly half the country. The other half are governed by sadists.
Okay, this makes perfect sense — Mr. Miller was the deserving poor. Everyone else who is uninsured and either drunk driving or getting into a car with a drunk driver is a lazy shiftless moocher who probably wants to get into prescription drug fraud.
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