Gentle readers, this is Tennessee's wart-covered face -- via its non-system of health care delivery. This, of course, is also what President Obama's Medicaid expansion funds -- for the states. It would ameliorate Mr. Casteel's hardships -- and with his, those of perhaps hundreds of thousands, very much like him.
The people of Tennessee should demand better of their Governor. He needs to take the expansion -- and end the cruelty of this "lottery". One should not have to gamble, in a lottery, to get basic health care.
Do go read it all, but here is a bit of The New York Times, overnight, on the topic (Mr. Casteel's image above is derived from an image accompanying the story. Non-commercial "fair use" and commentary, as well as transformative work defenses are all claimed.):
. . . .There are other hurdles, too. Applicants have to be elderly, blind, disabled or the “caretaker relative” of a child who qualifies for Medicaid, known here as TennCare. Their medical debt has to be high enough that if they paid it, their income would fall below a certain threshold. Not many people end up qualifying, but that does not stop thousands from trying.
“It’s like the Oklahoma land rush for an hour,” said Russell Overby, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society in Nashville. “We encourage people to use multiple phones and to dial and dial and dial. . . .”
We will keep watching, to see if the Republican Governor of Tennessee, Bill Haslam, will wake-up, and make the right decision, for his people (as Florida's Rick Scott, Arizona's Jan Brewer and New Jersey's Chris Christie have). The world is watching, Governor Haslam. Here is a graphic -- for state by state analysis of where we stand:
Via: The Advisory Board Company
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