Holy Buck, Fatman!

My libertarian debate buddy, Psychophil chimed in on the SCHIP debate which is still raging here in DC. (well, for all intents and purposes, I am in DC as I type this, soooo Blah.)

Phil’s argument is a poorly formed argument against SCHIP. They live in California where the Governator has propsed UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE!!! *GASP*

However, for the sake of the argument, lets say that this fool profiled on “SAVE ME FROM MYSELF, SAINT OPRAH!” lived in Maryland. The idiot profiled on the Oprah website is just that, and idiot. She(and her husband) were called idiots by guests, friends, etc etc. . not once in the article did she state that she wanted to apply for state sponsored health care for her children. In fact, the price of health care for her entire family is $1,000, and she decided that she wanted to spend it on herself instead. Since her husband pulls in $5000-6000 monthly (is that net or gross?), under current SCHIP guidelines, they would NOT qualify. Under the MD expansion, a Family of 8 would qualify for a portion of assistance, but still be subjected to paying premiums because they fall more then 200% above poverty guidelines. Quoth the MD Expansion:

SCHIP Expansion. The Maryland Health Care Access Act of 2007, a comprehensive health care reform plan sponsored jointly by the governor and members of the legislature, expands Maryland’s SCHIP program to children under the age of 19 in families with incomes below 400 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Families with incomes between 200 and 400 percent of federal poverty guidelines would pay premiums to participate in the program. Dependent on a Medicaid waiver.

That sounds like someone would be paying something our of their bank account.

Secondly, this is not a story about a family struggling to make ends meet. It’s a story of an addiction to shopping, deceit, and unwillingness to let go of the material things that define us as people. This is something we should be addressing separately from the SCHIP debate: The credit crunch. We live in a country where we are told that the only way to express our patriotism is to shop. Financial analysts are betting that already overextended consumers will find a little more Holiday cheer in their pockets and spend some money during the Holiday season.

Easy credit is the way people have been showing off their “wealth”. Assets? Oh, well..The home. Maybe. Except that HELOC. And the ReFi. uhmmm…Housing prices are on a downward trend. I sincerely doubt the idiots on the Oprah show would be granted any kind of loan.

The idiots are so vastly different from the thousands who play by the rules, work decent jobs and just simply get screwed by a screwy system. Contractors who have no benefits through their jobs seek out health insurance just to get denied for a “preexisting condition”. Some cubicle monkey looks at some drs note in a chart and determines that Acne is a preexisting condition. People who live in generally depressed areas and are offered jobs at minimum wage with health care being an expense they simply cannot afford to buy.

It’s true, some of us are victims of our own personal choices. Some are not. Some have played by the rules only to have the factory close down, the IT job offshore or the small shop they once owned get priced out because of the new Wal-Mart. SCHIP programs are designed to be safety nets—a program to help someone while they are in the process of making better choices. I think there are plenty of people out there who are victims of circumstances. I also believe that inflation is worse then people think it is. How can I tell? well…personally, I can tell by how much money I will take out of the cash machine. I used to be able to make a 20 last all week long. Now, the same expenses cost me 40$.