I had just put down the morning Trib, reading about this very topic of Medicaid, when I opened my Facebook to find a post about an emergency room worker having worked on a Medicaid patient he surmised to be living off the system.
The emergency room worker wrote President Obama, saying we have a "culture crisis" rather than a "healthcare crisis."
As a candidate for office, having people work for welfare is one of my stands. It is the issue, in fact, that got me to run. I wrote Sen. Orrin Hatch about work being provided for receiving benefits (don't remember if I mentioned a particular program, but it might have been unemployment insurance) and he wrote back saying it is a state issue. Much of the time, with these programs, who qualifies is the determination of the individual state. Well, shortly after the reply from Hatch, I heard it was filing deadline for running for the legislature, and decided to run and help change our state qualification process to get more people working for what they receive.
Judging from today's Trib article, maybe the issue will be taken care of quite well without me. (Thank you, I can hear them say.) It might even get taken care of without legislation. A week ago, Utah State Rep. Ronda Menlove, of Garland, said she plans to introduce legislation calling for a trial program in which some Medicaid workers do volunteer work in exchange for the Medicaid.
Well, state administrators are making a move without waiting for that. The Trib article says they have identified unemployed adults on Medicaid and are going to encourage them to get jobs.
While one legislator is quoted as saying he senses a hidden agenda of moving people off Medicaid, I don't know that this is being hidden, nor that it needs to be. From my read, the state administrators acknowledge the need of getting people off Medicaid and into jobs providing health insurance. It seems these are all positives, not negatives that need to be hid.
I also imagine somewhere, someone might be upset that state administrators are looking into personal files of Medicaid recipients and passing judgement as to who should be working.
But, it seems to me that is their job. If you are responsible for determining who gets benefits, having those who can work, do work can be a requirement you make, and looking in their files to see if they meet that then is part of the job.
Well, hats off to Utah Health Department Director David Sundwall and Department of Workforce Services Kristen Cox for moving us toward putting people to work. People, all of us, can easily slide into the entitlement mentality.
How dangerous that mentality is may never be much noticed, but it should be a grave concern to those watching our economy. First, if everyone qualifying for some kind of public assistance decided to take it, we would be in big trouble. Our public assistance rolls would have most of us on them. Thus, this entitlement culture is a danger.
Second, when you teach people to work, give them a work ethic, you end up with just that -- more people agreeing to go back to work. Ever notice how our unemployment rate is holding at 9-10 percent even when the rest of the economy at times has perked up just a little? Well, lag time may have something to do with it, but remember, also, this: We extended benefits and made it easier for others to get benefits. Blame it on Obama, if you will, but top economists nationwide said that should be part of the solution. Obama simply listened to the experts.
But, while taking care of people is good, encouraging them to get on welfare is not the answer. The real answer is to place them in jobs. I've blogged elsewhere on that, and will likely post something just below on it. There is no reason we cannot provide a job to every willing, able-bodied person.
Well, to end this post, here's the letter sent by the emergency room worker, Roger Starner Jones, to President Obama.
Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD
The letter from Jones to the President was provided on the Internet by Richard Meckstroth, who encouraged that it be passed along.
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