Georgia Medicaid Expansion: What Does It Mean for Columbus Residents?

It Takes More Than That to Kill a Bullmoose

"Friends, every good citizen ought to do everything in his or her power to prevent the coming of the day when we shall see in this country two recognized creeds fighting one another, when we shall see the creed of the "Havenots" arraigned against the creed of the "Haves." When that day comes then such incidents as this to-night will be commonplace in our history. When you make poor men - when you permit the conditions to grow such that the poor man as such will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they improperly have won, when that day comes, the most awful passions will be let loose and it will be an ill day for our country."
- Teddy Roosevelt, on the eve of an attempted assassination by John Schrank

Strange are the birds that fly in repetitive motion and say they are a "new breed" every time they circle around.

"Medical Care for All" isn't new. 

In fact, it's been floating around in the air since Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt, a Republican turned Progressive, and 26th President of the United States, first came up with the idea between 1901 and 1909. Back in his day, however, his constituents came close enough to calling him a "rogue" (Bullmoose) Republican for even coming up with the gallish idea that all American citizens should have healthcare coverage, no matter their income or life circumstances.

Well, honestly, it was the mainstream socialist "Jesus Christ" who thought it up first, but He did more hands-on healing than legislating, without asking for so much as a Caesarean gold coin from the mouth of a fish in return.

That said, it also isn't a novel idea in this day and age. When President Barack Obama came through one hundred years after RooseveltT left office, he wasn't the first to "poke the bear" on Medicaid/Medicare expansion - but we don't need to discuss what Ronald Reagan did with the thought in the 1980s, or what the Clintons did with it in the 1990s.

Obama was one of the first to push the needle and poke the bear so hard during his term -strictly remembering that his mother, Stanley Ann, died early from not being able to access treatments due to her income status- that the "Obamacare Act" was the first of its kind to make the headway that it did.

His administration's initiatives were met with the same, or worse, opposition, but he nearly single-handedly got it done, just as he'd promised.

Now comes, the State of Georgia, one of the last of 10 states to finally roll into the rest of the nation with a "carefully watched" initiative to roll out LIMITED Medicare Expansion, with the rule of thumb being "get a job" or "go to school."

Odd, isn't it, how it's all about who gets credit for an idea that has been rolling more than 120 years and isn't new at all.

It was working people and college students who couldn't afford medical coverage when Obama -once again- introduced the Healthcare Act, which is why Obama pushed the idea that college students can stay on their PARENT's coverage until age 26. Prior to then, they were uncovered by insurance companies at the age of 21...barely out of college and definitely not having job offers with wonderful benefits spilling out on their doorsteps.

The rich were already being taken care of on the taxpayer's dime, along with the extremely poor who had little to no money at all and couldn't work.

It just made good common sense and Christ-like decency to help the people "in between the cracks" who weren't poor enough to be written off as indigent and weren't rich enough to pay $1,500/per Epipen every time they had an allergic reaction.

Now if only "getting a job" and "going to school" was as easy as the solution to our healthcare woes has been for decades...they might actually discover that the people who qualify for this "test run Medicaid expansion" were already working, and/or are already IN school.

For Columbus, the Unemployment Rate is currently at 4.1-percent, slightly higher than the rate for the State of Georgia at 3.20-percent.

The most beautiful thing about living in Colorado, California, and Arizona? These states were already covering their 'uncovered' residents for years and are light years ahead of the rest of the nation.

NOTE: Columbus, GA-AL/GA Unemployment Rate is currently at 4.10%, compared to 3.40% last month and 3.60% last year. This is lower than the long term average of 6.17%.