| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| 40,000 in Oregon lose health insurance |
| 2003-10-30 |
| Roughly 40,000 poor people have been dropped from the Oregon Health Plan this year because of their failure to make monthly premium payments, some as low as $6 a month. Six dollars a month, my god how are they supposed to afford it? Advocates for the poor say the premiums are too expensive for some people and the government may have overestimated the ability of people to mail a check. Say what? "It’s an enormous barrier," said Ellen Pinney, director of the Oregon Health Action Committee. "Let alone the $6, there is the whole issue of writing a check or getting a money order, putting it in an envelope with a stamp and putting it in the mail to this place in Portland that must receive it by the due date." Yup, them po folks be too stupid to write a check. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #27 Love the racist accent Shipman--hope one day you actually have to pay the FULL cost of YOUR health insurance--but I bet you are gov or corp tittie and the actual impact hasn't hit you--my small biz costs--which the GOP always likes to trumpet as the way to go have tripled |
| Posted by: NotMikeMoore 2003-10-30 11:28:40 PM |
| #26 I bet economically it would be a wash. Why waste the time and effort to collect $6. Cost wise I expect you're correct. But all gawwd's chillun need a little buy-in. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-10-30 7:53:18 PM |
| #25 $6? Jeebus. Just fire the check processing types and make it free. I bet economically it would be a wash. Why waste the time and effort to collect $6. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-30 7:38:21 PM |
| #24 When you make it easier to take a free ride, people will do it. It's not just the "welfare" class, either. Talk to anyone that offers 'shareware' about how people take advantage. Think about Napster, and similar groups. Talk to people in the travel industry about the freeloaders and the cheats. We make it almost too easy to get "public assistance", and a certain class of people will not only take advantage, they'll push the limits as far as they can get away with. Some people at the bottom of the income barrel truly cannot help themselves, and need someone to do the hard things for them. That could include everything from paying bills to literally wiping their butts, depending on the severity of their problems. The big problem for all of us is that the people who are paid to take care of these people make more money when they have a 'full' caseload. That means they don't try very hard to weed out the cheats. Having a full caseload also means they can't give the truly needy the help they need, because too much of their time is wasted on people who are just lazy, or are out for a free ride, courtesy of the taxpayer. It's a huge mess, and needs some concentrated effort to resolve, but the backlash would be too much for most politicians to stomach, so nothing gets done. Oregon's problem is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-10-30 6:32:07 PM |
| #23 tu and Steve - well done |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-10-30 6:23:19 PM |
| #22 I'll try to keep that in mind, Steve. I know there's lots of people with real problems who don't deserve the situation they're in and are doing the best they can to deal with it. But I also think there's a lot more lazy bastards around looking for a free ride these days then there used to be. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-30 5:06:19 PM |
| #21 To NMM and others (except for the racist dipwad Tired of It): folks at the bottom are poor for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is a lack of structure and organization in one's life. As a doc I've seen this first-hand and it can wreck havoc on one's health. It's also not very understandable by those who DO manage to keep themselves together enough to get up every day and go to work. Social disintegration and turmoil has an important role in chronic medical problems, and is a significant barrier to compliance with medications, treatments, coming to the clinic, etc. I'm not surprised a bit (tap, tap, nope) that some folks can't get it together long enough to mail a premium check in every month. So some sympathy here, people: the folks at the bottom generally don't want to be there, even if many times they don't understand why they are. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-10-30 3:47:45 PM |
| #20 To Tired of It: weren't you told to take the Klan meeting elsewhere? What you wrote is garbage. Pure racist drivel. Now shut up and get out of here. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-10-30 3:44:18 PM |
| #19 tu--not to belabor the point, but you must work in a higher class area than I did...around here blacks got everything to do with it, the white folks worked and the blacks collected welfare and stayed drunk..twas as it ever was...and forever shall be. It's funny, you dont hear much about race wars anymore do you...seems that this Islam thing has taken precedent over the Man keeping the black man down. I guess now we know who the real enemy is...and it sure isnt the hip hop gangstah anymore. Peace |
| Posted by: Tired of it 2003-10-30 3:03:18 PM |
| #18 Lazy's lazy. Black's got nothing to do with it. All the bums I gotta trip over every morning going to work all seem to be of the Caucasian persuasion. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-30 2:49:28 PM |
| #17 Hypocrisy rules....make your innuendos about crack, and welfare and cable Tv and bookies and monthly support checks and tell me you all arent thinking about blacks....Ha....friggin hypocrits. You're just afraid to say it....I'm not and I am sick of this kind of crap from the "welfare" class....just telling it like it is. At least I'm not advocating killing Muslims...Not that theres anything wrong with that.... |
| Posted by: Tired of it 2003-10-30 2:16:43 PM |
| #16 Oregon better talk to the turkish family that lives on L12 per week and see how it's done. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-10-30 1:51:31 PM |
| #15 Tired of it: Take the Klan meeting somewhere else. We don't need it here. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-30 1:45:44 PM |
| #14 Hmmm, I had heard there werent any blacks in Oregon...now we know. |
| Posted by: Tired of it 2003-10-30 1:38:27 PM |
| #13 Check to pay premium - six dollars. Envelope for check - ten cents. Stamp on envelope - thirty-seven cents. Losing your health care for being too f*ckin' lazy and stupid to mail your check in on time - priceless. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2003-10-30 1:29:30 PM |
| #12 Well, Mike, then can the program, save the money on the beauraucracy that runs it, and let them go to the emergency room anyway, because that's the way they probably did it in the past. They can use the extra six bucks to buy an extra pack of smokes every month. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-30 12:57:36 PM |
| #11 tu3031 I do happen to think they/everyone should pay--my point was--there ARE NO consequences for not paying the health insurance bill for these people!! They get sick--go to the ER--state/city/gov pays. It ain't like owning a car--where they're gonna come repossess it! |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-10-30 12:37:46 PM |
| #10 Well then, Mike, tell them to put down the crack pipe, get off their fat asses, put a stamp on an envelope, and send in the six freakin' bucks. It's not like we're asking them to go to work or something horrible like that! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-30 12:24:54 PM |
| #9 Charge them $20.00 per month if their payment is more than one day past due. Allow their bookies and drug dealers to collect past due payments and keep half the difference. That should work just fine. |
| Posted by: B 2003-10-30 12:15:45 PM |
| #8 REALITY CHECK If these people are disenrolled--where will they go for care? They will go to the Emergency Room--and Guess Who is gonna pay for that? Anyone paying health insurance himself (self-employed and not on the corporate tit) knows something's gotta give with this system. And before y'all pile on I didn't say socialized medicine! |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-10-30 12:08:01 PM |
| #7 All Oregon has to do is take it out of their monthly support checks. Just like FICA. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-30 12:06:33 PM |
| #6 This has got to be the stupidist thing I have ever heard (And I live in Seattle...). Mailing a $6 check is too much? Do they want someone to wipe their ass for them too? Like seafarious said - I bet they dont have a problem paying their cable bill so they can watch 'Bachelor' or 'Charmed'..... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2003-10-30 12:02:47 PM |
| #5 Oregon is kind of funky. A nice place though but remember, if you ever go, that you can't pump your own gas there, even if your poor. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2003-10-30 11:52:47 AM |
| #4 "It’s an enormous barrier, ...there is the whole issue of writing a check or getting a money order, putting it in an envelope with a stamp and putting it in the mail to this place in Portland that must receive it by the due date." Oh the Freakin' Humanity!!! Then I think the state should hire more people to assist these folks with this incredibly difficult task. And have Oregon chnage it's name to France while they're at it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-30 11:48:01 AM |
| #3 So screw 'em. Thay can't pay six bucks a month? They can drop dead for all I care. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-10-30 11:47:08 AM |
| #2 She was joking, right? Will Sally Struthers be calling out to us from Oregon? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-10-30 11:42:53 AM |
| #1 Not trying to be snarky, but I bet most of those people manage to pay their cable bill every month... |
| Posted by: seafarious 2003-10-30 11:39:54 AM |