Brian wants to know "How would expanding Medicaid save money?"

Hundreds gathered at the Alabama State Capitol on May 31, 2014 to ask Gov. Robert Bentley to save lives and expand Medicaid in the state. They chanted, sang and told their stories. (Erin Edgemon/eedgemon@al.com)

Brian said:

How would expanding Medicaid save money? The Federal Government says it would pay for 100% of the expansion for the first three years of the expansion. Yes, Medicare has been expanded, but only the expansion is being paid for. After three years, the amount the federal government will pay for drops to 90%. 

How would expanding Medicaid save money?

EYE am glad you asked how Governor Bentley's refusal to expand Medicaid will cost the state of Alabama BILLIONS of dollars.

Alabama is one of fourteen states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides health insurance to low-income families. The Affordable Care Act provides support to expand Medicaid to include families that earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level. The federal government will pay 100% of the costs for expanding Medicaid beginning in 2014 through 2016, and then gradually decrease support to 90% beginning in 2020.
A new study by the nonprofit research group, the RAND Corporation, shows the decision rejecting the expansion will cost these 14 states $1 billion more in spending on uncompensated care in 2016 alone, plus $8.4 billion annually in federal payments, and leave 3.6 million people without health insurance. The study's authors found that expanding Medicaid is "in the best economic interests of states."

Of course EYE don't expect you to believe expanding Medicaid is in the the best econominic interest of Alabama, but it's true.

In Alabama, Medicaid expansion would mean health care for about 300,000 additional people, most of whom will otherwise remain uninsured. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health estimate the expansion would generate nearly $20 billion in new income, which would mean $1.7 billion in additional tax revenue in state and local governments across the state.

EYE don't know what part of not expanding Medicaid is killing people you and our Doctor/Governor don't understand.

Experts estimate that expanding Medicaid in Alabama would save 550 lives each year. 

Alabama's governor, a doctor, rejected the Medicaid expansion option after the United States Supreme Court ruled that states can refuse to participate in that part of the new health care law. A recent poll shows that 64% of Alabama residents support expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income adults.

EYE thought Republicans were pro-life?

Oh, and if you don't believe the Equal Justice Initiative report, maybe you will believe this report by the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

In short, their analysis points to a win-win scenario for the state and Medicaid-eligible patients.
“Across the first seven years of Medicaid expansion, the net budgetary effect is positive throughout,” Becker said. “In a very real sense, the state makes money while expanding coverage to nearly 300,000 Alabamians.”
Under the PPACA, the federal government will cover 100 percent of health care expenditures from 2014 through 2016. During these first years of the program, Alabama would be responsible for a share of the administrative costs of the expansion. The federal matching rate declines after 2016, falling to 95 percent in 2017, 94 percent in 2018, 93 in 2019 and 90 percent in 2020. As a result, the annual costs to the state increase from $39 million in 2014 to $222 million in 2020 for a total of about $771 million.
However, during those same years, the federal government will spend an additional $11.7 billion more on Medicaid in Alabama.
“While this is a substantial increase in federal spending, it is new income flowing into Alabama,” Becker said. “Moreover, when physicians, hospital employees, pharmacists and other employees in the health care sector receive these new dollars, they spend them on gasoline and groceries and clothes. This second-round spending generates additional economic activity.”

Yes, Brian, Red States, not  expanding medicare  is actually killing people,  and costing the state  billions, but you already knew  that.

In an interview with AL.com, Greer asked "How important is a human life?"
"We have to fight back," she said. "It is not like we are asking for something unrealistic. (Health care) is a human right."

EYE hope this answers your question. 

Inflammatory Rhetoric Begets Inflammatory Rhetoric~ Update

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery

Newsflash!!  Alabama House Republicans pass the keep poor/black WOMEN from having access to a safe legal abortion bill while the Alabama Senate passes bill allowing free, lifetime permit to carry pistols in vehicles.

Fresh after giving conservatives/ republicans a Wedgie because he dared call  out United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,  Alabama State Rep. Alvin Holmes strikes again!

A debate Tuesday over a bill to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected turned to race after Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, R-Indian Springs, compared her bill to Brown vs. the Board of Education.

But during the debate, Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, said that his Republican colleagues would support abortion if their daughters were impregnated by black men.

Media enabled weapon of mass distraction from the real issue here we come! Yee Haw!
It's easier to talk about what Alvin Holmes said instead of what Alvin Holmes was talking about which is Alabama State Rep. Mary (Fetus are Organs) McClurkin's bill to end access to safe legal abortions for poor women in Alabama.

On Tuesday, a panel of Alabama lawmakers advanced four stringent anti-abortion bills that would prevent women in the state from exercising their reproductive rights. The proposed legislation would ban abortions after just six weeks; force women to wait 48 hours before getting an abortion; make it more difficult for minors to end an unwanted pregnancy; and impose more emotional trauma on women who choose to have an abortion after discovering lethal fetal abnormalities.

Note I said the bill to end access to safe, legal  abortions for poor women in Alabama.  Women like Mary Sue, not so much.

If Alabama chooses to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, the state could gain about $1 billion in new tax revenue, according to a pair of University of Alabama at Birmingham health care economists in a study released today.
In the most likely scenario, some 300,000 more state residents would be covered under an expansion, according to David Becker and Michael Morrisey at the UAB School of Public Health.
UAB, which has the largest hospital in the state and one of the largest public hospitals in the country, released the report this morning saying the research was a "win-win" for the state and Medicaid-eligible patients.
"Across the first seven years of Medicaid expansion, the net budgetary effect is positive throughout," Becker said in a UAB press release. "In a very real sense, the state makes money while expanding coverage to nearly 300,000 Alabamians."

So here's the deal, a bunch of people, who if they choose, have access to a safe legal abortion are trying to keep black/ poor WOMEN from having access to a safe legal abortion.  These same people are anti access to affordable health care because Obama,  anti access to quality public schools because Obama,  and anti welfare just because.

But let's talk about what Alvin Holmes said out of context so we won't have to talk about the substance of what Alvin Holmes said.

Mission Accomplished.

And we wonder why the Alabama Democratic Party is dysfunctional?

The Alabama Democratic Majority, a grassroots organizing group (aka the Artur Davis wing of the Alabama Democratic Party), started by former ADP Chair Judge Mark Kennedy  "is only a few months old, but according to countrycat,   it's already making progress on its goals of registering, organizing, and informing voters  "

Oh, really?

 Left in Alabama  (links inserted for emphasis are  mine and mine alone):

 Judging by the response to its first Grassroots Convention, it appears that many Alabamians have responded to the ADM's message - so much so that the conference is being moved to a larger venue, and,  ADM Executive Director Bradley Davidson is expecting "a packed house."

The Locust Fork Journal's Glynn Wilson says;  If this doesn't wake some  people up I don't know what will.

It has now become obvious that Kennedy, the paid party executive director Bradley Davidson and former state campaign chair for Obama’s campaign, Leanne Townsend, had been planning to walk away from the party to start something new for some time before the budget meeting where Kennedy and Joe Reed got into it.
According to key sources, the state party’s fund raising Website had already been disabled months before the April meeting when the visible split occurred. Members of the Over the Mountain Democrats had tried to make donations, but got nothing but error messages. When they tried to report it, they were given the cold shoulder.

 I said it once, and I will say it again, a party divided will not stand.

(Emphasis mine)

 My advice to them at the time? The real progressive Democrats in Alabama — and there are many, in spite of the false picture painted by the corporate media institutions here — should unite and figure out a way to take over the Democratic Party and rewrite the platform, like the conservative, religious wing of the Republican Party took it over in the 1980s.~ Glynn Wilson

Amen and Amen.

It's not wise to blog about The Huntsville City School System

Strike that.

It's not wise for Geek Pavaler to blog about the Huntsville City School System.

Here we go again.

You know the drill.

Blogger gets hacked after skewering the Status Quo.

It can happen to you.

I thought I was secure.  I was careful about how I set up my blog, my e-mail, and my Twitter.  I used unique, complex passwords.  But it didn’t matter.  I was hacked.  It happened to me, and it can happen to you.I was hacked because I am criticizing the Birmingham News.  I was hacked because of what I have said.  But it’s not just me and my blog that were attacked, it was free speech.The people or organization behind this attack committed a crime.  They hired skilled hackers to attack me and hack my accounts.  They used resource that a regular person like me does not have access to in an attempt to shut me down.It happened to me because of what I have written.  And if you write something these people or this organization doesn’t like, it will happen to you.  These people do not believe in free speech.  They do not think that you or I have a right to criticize or express our opinions about issues.

It has happened to me.

Freedom of Speech isn't Free.

I thought we were fighting them over there so we wouldn't have to fight them over here?

God bless America?

Today's Must Reads
Blog about Siegelman, Lose your Job
Hacked?  Riiiight......

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray for my city, my county, my state, my country, and the world.

Blogging Interupted

RedEye's Front Page is alive and well! No, I haven't been permanently detained, shipped off to Gitmo for some Water Boarding or worse, and no, this blog wasn't hijacked by the right wing terrorist(fingers crossed), this is one of those occasions when real life interrupts blogging life. I'm in the process of catching up on ahem current events and other ahem happenings that make you go hmmmm.

Here are some some quotes to chew on while I catch up.

"Truly, it is amazing how our political landscape continues to be dominated by people who have been wrong about everything for years."

And

“And I issued a challenge to Tea Party members. … [Gingrich] is a progressive. … If you have a big government progressive, or a big government progressive in Obama, one in Newt Gingrich, one in Obama, ask yourself this, Tea Party: is it about Obama’s race? Because that’s what it appears to be to me. If you’re against him but you’re for this guy, it must be about race.” Glenn Beck

RedEye

Redeye's Reading List

POTUS has some splainning to do tonight. Not just to the TeaPublican Haters, but to those who thought he was the anti war President.

In the case of Libya, Farrakhan openly asks President Barack Obama why he and his administration are suddenly concerned with alleged atrocities in this country while the U.S. government looked the other way a few years ago, when the Israelis were engaged in relentless bombing of Palestinians, many of them women and children.

Farrakhan also noted that the U.S. government showed no interest in becoming involved when numerous human rights violations were occurring in Rwanda and the Congo. He argued that the U.S. government's goal has been to spend funds arming dissidents in Libya who do not want to see Gadhafi in power.

In an even more telling fashion, Farrakhan noted similarities between Gadhafi and President Obama: He mentioned that similar to Gadhafi, there are millions of Americans who don't want to see Obama in power, and that intervening with internal dissent in Libya would be no different from someone doing the same here in the United States.

Farrakhan asks the president, "Who in the hell do you think you are that you can talk to a man that built a country over 42 years and ask him to step down and get out? Can anybody ask you ... to step out of the White House 'cause they don't want no black face in the White House?"

I'm just saying....


Meet the TeaPublicans' version of Barack Obama. Try not to laugh out loud if you are at work or church.

I wonder how close to zero percent of the Muslim vote the eventual TeaPublican nominee will get in 2012 too. Snicker

TeaPublican motto: If you can't beat em at the ballot box, supress em at the ballot box. And we know who "em" IS. Nod, nod, wink, wink.

It's not wise for University Professors to tell the truth about the gop gooberners. Ask Legal Schnauzer.

Read On. Read Often.