Willie Sutton Wept
By PAUL KRUGMAN
About the fraudulence: Last month, Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center described the president as the “anti-Willie Sutton,” after the holdup artist who reputedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money is. Indeed, Mr. Obama has lately been going where the money isn’t, making a big deal out of a freeze on nonsecurity discretionary spending, which accounts for only 12 percent of the budget.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/opinion/18krugman.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB&pagewanted=print
Patrick Unveils Plan To Curb Health Care Costs
The health care bill Governor Deval Patrick unveiled yesterday leaves many key questions unanswered, said business leaders, industry executives, and legislators, and how those issues are worked out will determine whether the proposal reins in rising costs as it promises.
The milestone legislation, which Patrick announced before a standing-room-only breakfast meeting of executives at a downtown Boston hotel, is the most comprehensive attempt by a state to transform how providers are paid and curb costs while improving care for patients. The governor said he wanted it to be a national model.
Wrong Patient Got Kidney At USC
USC University Hospital halted kidney transplants last month after a kidney was accidentally transplanted into the wrong patient, according to a spokesman for the program that coordinates organ transplants in Los Angeles.
Healthcare: Two-Thirds Of Uninsured Californians Could Gain Health Insurance In 2014, UCLA Report Says
Nearly 5 million uninsured Californians could gain access to health coverage in 2014 when the nation's healthcare law expands eligibility for subsidized insurance programs for the poor, according to a new report.
At that time, more than two-thirds of the state's 7 million uninsured residents will be eligible for California's Medi-Cal insurance program, which serves the state's poorest people, or for federal subsidies aimed at those who earn more but have no coverage through their jobs.
State Keeps Pressing For Waiver To Change Medicaid, But Success Is Unlikely
Just a few months ago, Gov. Rick Perry led a group of Texas lawmakers who were threatening to drop out of Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. A state analysis showing that Texas would lose billions of dollars in financing put an end to talk of opting out.
Now, the debate has shifted, as Texas and other struggling states ask Washington for permission to operate the program as they see fit. Their approach — finding savings by curbing mandatory benefits or limiting eligibility among Medicaid populations — is unlikely to be approved by the Obama administration, which is intent on expanding Medicaid, not shrinking it. And while pressing for a waiver is a far cry from threatening to drop out, it may have the same result: fueling the fire behind Texas’ anti-Washington, state-sovereignty rhetoric.
Who Are ‘Truly Needy’? — Maine Opinion — Bangor Daily News
The principle guiding Gov. Paul LePage’s efforts to transform state assistance programs seems to be separating the “truly needy” from those drawing benefits as a cushy way of life. In fact, he ended his speech to a joint session of the Legislature last week by bluntly telling those who are able to work to “get a job.”
On the matter of principle — that only those who really need help should get it — the governor will find broad agreement. But his administration’s approach to defining those in need may rely more on stereotypes and anecdotes than on facts. On the savings the governor hopes to book in his budget by cranking down the assistance spigot, he will not find agreement. The waste and fraud are just not there. And a life on assistance is hardly a life to be envied.
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