Carolyn Engelhard
Sunday Morning Wake-up Call host Rick Moore talks with UVa Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences and Public Policy, Carolyn Engelhard, about Medicaid expansion in Virginia. Topics include: Why it’s hard to kill the Affordable Care Act and Medicare for all.
The Sunday Morning Wake-up Call is heard on 94.7 WPVC the Progressive Voice of Charlottesville, Sundays from 11 a.m. to noon.
If you want to be taxed into oblivion Virginia (in time, and probably not too much time at that), then just go ahead and expand Medicaid in Virginia. And once you make that fateful expansion decision, thereafter just see how legally impossible it will be to repeal your action once you finally come to understand the financial unreality of your decision. But at that point it will be too late, you will have no one to blame but yourself.
Mr. Bumpus calls attention to b a local, state of Virginia, issue that applies nationally to every state and municipality in our country. We Americans, in our desire to generously support most every human need, too often just vote to use public tax payer funds to pay the expenses. We don’t check to see if these are real needs that can’t be met by other actions than throwing money at them. Or, we seem to continue expanding what is a “right” under our constitution to all our people, sometimes to those who are not yet citizens.
Let’s give all this a lot of thought and count the cost as well. We can’t keep on looking for golden eggs laid by whatever goose we can lay hold of to pay the bills.
Civilized Western democracies manage to provide their citizens with healthcare. If you really want to understand how it is done and particularly if you want to appreciate how it benefits all citizens rich, middle class and poor, I urge you to travel and see for yourself.
We live in the wealthiest country in the world. There is no need for anyone to go without healthcare or food or shelter.
Having those basic necessities frees us to have jobs and careers we want, not to mention the pursuit of happiness and healthy longevity. We end up paying less, not more when we direct resources to vital health and wellness for all.