So Bobby Jindal thinks he’s going to fix his budget in Louisiana by removing hospice care from those on Medicaid. Hallelujah. That 0.9% of his budget shortfall will surely cure all of Louisiana’s ills (as long as they aren’t terminal, of course).
Aside from the sheer assholic (™ me) component, it doesn’t make good fiscal sense. Those people who were getting home health services to meet their needs are now going to be visiting emergency rooms when something goes wrong, or when they need their pain medication adjusted, or when their families can't cope – at a much higher cost to the state. When the measly $140 a day in benefits they receive is a more inexpensive, prudent, and socially & morally responsible thing to do.
We have a problem in this country. We do everything in our power to preserve life and extend it to the fullest whether we're right or wrong to do so, and even though we’re failing miserably and yet once our elderly and infirm have managed to live their lives, we abandon them. We deny them the right to die with dignity, whether by choice or simply at home surrounded by their loving families.
I admit, this is a subject that hits very close to home for me. My sister-in-law has ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's disease. It's a terminal illness. She long ago hit her cap on insurance and is now on Medicaid. My brother takes care of her at home, with the help of home health, though she is not on hospice. They are fighting this with every fiber of their beings. And while I pray every single day for advances, treatment, and a cure, as much as it pains me to say it - someday? She will likely be on hospice care. What Bobby Jindal is saying is that my beautiful sister-in-law, who spent her career taking care of others as a nurse, is not worth taking care of. That society owes her nothing for all she's done for society. And to that, I say FUCK YOU, BOBBY JINDAL.
So how does Jindal propose to make up all the rest of his deficit? Why, by raising taxes of course. Sales taxes. On the people who can least afford it – the poor and infirm. Those whose every dollar goes toward food, shelter, and clothing.
Don’t get me wrong. I live in California where we just voted to up the sales tax. But that was a choice BY THE PEOPLE, not by a single asshole who chooses his rich buddies and political aspirations in an ever-increasingly crazy and uncaring party over his most needy constituents. Who , I might add, for some bizarre reason, have already voted him into office.
Medicare? Cut it. Medicaid? Cut it. Social Security? SOCIALISM! Health care for all? GASP! FASCISM!
I'm so thankful that we live in California. Where the people and the government put real values above other things - in California we value life, we value education, we take care of each other. Yeah, we may go broke doing it, but we do it anyway. And by no means is California perfect - we do so much that is wrong, too. But in this? We are miles... no... we are leagues ahead of Louisiana. My heart breaks for all those people who will lose their chance to die with dignity in Louisiana. To have control over how the end of their life is handled.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Underserved does not mean undeserved.
The right loves to claim that all our troubles are brought onto us by our increasing “secularization” of society. That God is punishing us because we haven’t “been true” to Him. Perhaps it’s the other way around. Perhaps God is pissed as hell at YOU for your un-Christian actions and your greed. Perhaps all this time, all these hurricanes and fires and drought and floods are God’s way of telling you that you’re an asshole and you need to be more charitable, more kind, more understanding, more tolerant.
Ok, obviously all the crazy weather is a sign of man-made climate change, but why would we believe what? SCIENCE? Fuggedaboudit.
The right (incorrectly) made a huge deal in their arguments against the Affordable Care Act that it would establish death panels. I’m pretty sure that Bobby Jindal has accomplished that all on his own, with no help from President Obama’s health care reforms whatsoever. He is his own one-man death panel. So Bobby Jindal, you get the second You’ve Got Balls award of 2013.
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