My mother grew up in a small row house with four sisters, two parents, and two grandmothers. One of the grandmothers was dying from stomach cancer, and because there was nowhere else to put her, she stayed on the living room couch.
In case you didn’t know, stomach cancer is a particularly vicious and painful way to die. Although it was more than 70 years since her grandmother died, my mother was still haunted by the memory of her screams.
Families do what families have to do, and my great-grandmother died on the couch because there was no other option. Until Medicaid.
In 1965, in the spirit of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, Medicaid was created as part of a group of amendments to the Social Security Act. The objective was simple, and humane: to help states take care of residents whose incomes and resources are insufficient to meet the costs of necessary medical services. So Medicaid is the nation’s primary source of health insurance coverage for low-income people.
Republicans just love poverty programs, because they’re a ready source of revenue — if you cut them. Cutting them means more tax cuts for the wealthy, and who doesn’t want that? The beauty of it is, you can usually cut them without political consequences, because, well, poor people. Poor people aren’t a well-organized coalition the way senior citizens are (as we will see as soon as the new Congress also goes after Social Security and Medicare). So they are very good at manufacturing pressing reasons to get rid of anything that actually helps people who need it.
But here’s the thing. Everyone needs Medicaid.
If you haven’t yet taken care of a dying parent, you probably don’t understand that Medicaid is the program that prevents Granny (yes, your granny) from dying on your couch. “We’re not poor, we always paid our own way. What on earth are you talking about?” I’m talking about (again) Granny dying on your couch.
“About 60 percent of the costs of traditional Medicaid come from providing nursing home care and other types of care for the elderly and those with disabilities,” wrote Gene Sperling in a recent op-ed for the New York Times. (He was director of the National Economic Council under Obama.)
Yes, Medicaid is the insurer of last resort when Granny outlives her savings, her investments, and the equity in her home. It is the program that allows her to live out her final days with some modicum of dignity — and painkillers, if she has a vicious cancer that leaves her in agony.
It is a blessing to those who need it. Most middle-class families simply do not have the financial resources to pay for extended nursing home care.
Naturally, Republicans want to kill it. But being Republicans, they can’t come out and tell you what they’re doing. So they want to replace Medicaid with block grants, grants that will be announced as slightly more than current costs! And it will allow innovation! And efficiencies! Isn’t that great? Aren’t Republicans swell?
Really, you bought that? I assumed you would know better by now, but apparently not. Here’s the catch: The Baby Boomers are starting to die off. (Just look at 2016!) Block grants are a shell game used by Republican con men, a way of pretending to fund something that will never keep up with the necessary demand. Block grants are like concert tickets. If you don’t snag a place in line by the time the annual funding runs out, you’re out of luck.
Under the current system, anyone who’s eligible gets in. Under a block grant system, if your elderly parent gets a terminal illness and goes downhill after your state runs out of money, oh well. At least you have still that comfy sectional in the family rec room.
You can always turn up the TV if she starts to scream.
To people like Paul Ryan, it’s important that you don’t realize these things. They want you to think of Medicaid as a program that’s only for “those” people, the ones who don’t work hard and put money away, the way you do. Setting us against each other is always a winner for Republicans, and that’s why I want you to understand that almost anyone could end up in a position where you need Medicaid. A spouse with early-onset Alzheimer’s. A teenage son who becomes a quadraplegic as the result of a football tackle, or a child born with Down syndrome.
Very few families are prepared handle that kind of long-term financial stress. That’s why Medicaid is so important.
Republicans hate programs like Medicaid with the passion of a thousand burning suns. That’s because billionaire patrons like the Kochs and the Mercers see your family’s dignity as a drain on “their” money! (This attitude isn’t new, by the way; before my mom was married, she worked in a bank. She told me that FDR was in a parade in downtown Philadelphia during her lunch hour , and the workers were threatened with losing their jobs if they attended — on their own time. “We went anyway,” she said. “He cared about people like us. We loved him!”)
Yes, the reason Republicans hate the safety net programs is that they prevent them from showering even more tax cuts on the deserving rich. That’s why they called Roosevelt a “socialist” who “destroyed” the country with Social Security. How dare he take our money?
And creating financial crises that justify deep cuts is their stock in trade. Trust me on this: If there’s a funding crisis, it’s because the Republicans created it. I’m not exaggerating; polling consistently shows that the only way voters will ever support cuts to these vital programs is if you can convince them it’s necessary to save them.
So Republicans gear up that think-tank propaganda machine, again and again. People: Don’t buy it. There is no crisis with Medicaid, Social Security, or Medicare. There are problems, which can be easily fixed — except Republicans keep refusing to fix them, because they really, really need a crisis to justify cuts, fund even more tax cuts, and get bigger contributions. (The same attitude that lead to the 2008 crash, which will repeat itself shortly if we let them have their way.)
You see, kids, the real problem is Republicans. Don’t vote for them. They don’t like you unless you’re wealthy, they don’t like your kids, and they don’t care if Granny has to die on your couch. Don’t listen to what they say, watch the hands.
And call your Congress member. Tell them you are 100% against cutting Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. They can only get away with this if you let them.