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DEL.ICIO.USShould we save Peachcare?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congress is playing games with Georgia’s PeachCare for Kids program and children’s health insurance programs that are running out of money in about a dozen other states. Last week Democrats in Congress tied emergency funding for the programs to a military spending bill that calls for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq by the end of the year. And the Republicans in the state Legislature seem intent on slashing enrollment in the highly-successful program rather than spending more state money — even on a temporary basis — to keep it going under the current eligibility and benefit rules.
PeachCare covers 278,000 Georgia children in working-class families where parents make too much money to be on Medicaid but not enough to be able to afford private insurance coverage. The families pay low monthly premiums for coverage of children 18 and under.
Read today’s editorial on the subject and tell us where to go from here. Should the state increase the premiums for the highest-earning families? Switch more of the lowest-income families to Medicaid? Institute co-payments and deductibles for the first time? Or should we try a totally different approach?
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Comments
By One
March 12, 2007 9:27 AM | Link to this
Bush is an ignorant ba$tard!!!! Of course we should save Peachcare!! What’s the purpose of his No Child Left Behind bullshyt, if the kids are too sick to go to school?!! Where is a “John Hinckley” when you need him!!!
By One
March 12, 2007 9:36 AM | Link to this
This blog is a joke!!!! I have posted two comments that were deleted!! Why? Because I said Bush is an ignorant a*******hole!! Or that he should be “John Hinckley’d”!!! Save Peachcare and get rid of Bush!!!!!
By JustMe
March 12, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this
First, let me say that I am not republican and I don’t like Bush.
However, I do think that we should stop Peach Care. Why?
Peach Care has been a major contributor to the extraordinarily large number of illegal immigrants in to Georgia. Peach Care provides health care for those children for free.
Peach Care allows for employers that hire minimum wage folks to not provide adequate health insurance to their employees and their families. For example, look at the carpet industry in Dalton, GA. They hire many illegal workers for minimum wage without any health care insurance - the employers simply tell the workers that they get Peach Care. Peach Care is supplementing the cost of business! That is not what it was intended to do!!!!!
We need to scrap Peach Care and come up with another way to do this….
By Michael Smith
March 13, 2007 6:15 AM | Link to this
Peach Care, like all government welfare programs, simply gives some individuals a product or service — health care, in this case — at the expense of other individuals. But nothing on earth justifies the notion that I should be responsible for anyone’s doctor bills other than my own and my family’s.
Nothing justifies the idea that some of us should be forced, under threat of jail, to work for the benefit of others. That is called involuntary servitude — and it is thoroughly immoral.
Yes, there are many such government programs. And they are all evil. We fought a huge war to eliminate involuntary servitude, but now we are gradually reinstating it through the creation of programs like Peach Care.
By Tom S
March 15, 2007 3:29 PM | Link to this
There should be no question about providing healthcare for children - in any state and/or at any rate. However, questions remain from M. King’s editorial - at least here:
If the threshold for qualifying is 400% of the poverty level - w/ or w/out 4 children - then what does the lower threshold really tell us ? Is it out of date/obsolete ?
Mr. Perdue speaks of “Time Mgt.” in his negative remarks involving Sunday alcohol sales. So, how did this crisis slip past so many so quickly when budgets and shortfalls are predictable ?
Who and how would decide if Medicare should apply and is it just one way to get the state of GA off the hook ? Taxpayers will pay, one way or the other, so let’s be up front about real costs/real savings, and the common sense to do the right thing(s).
For any of us that may give to charity, this is one that may be more easily done/accomplished to protect young children than any other means. We just need to be sure that the ensuing legislation - at state or federal level - does not earmark anything else or add inefficiencies in the spending of those tax dollars.
That, of course, should apply to any government funding/spending.
Tom S
By lopro
March 16, 2007 1:40 PM | Link to this
Look at Peachcare, a government-funded health care program. The state of Georgia can’t even keep it running so think about what national socialized healthcare (aka hillaryscare) would be like. Oh but I forget, the federal government would just keep running deficits and increase taxes to pay for it. Enjoy!!!
By Islandwish
March 19, 2007 9:41 AM | Link to this
PeachCare should NOT cover Illegal immigrants! I am sick and tired of our American countrymen and women lacking in healthcare while the illegal immigrants come in here having baby after baby (one a year it seems) and getting my taxpayer dollar to do it! You should be a legal citizen before you receive government hand-outs!
By Guy Pinestra
March 19, 2007 11:51 AM | Link to this
Charity is the job of the religious community, not the government, State or Federal. There is no provision in the Constitution for government to provide health care or welfare to ANYONE, and for that reason I think it should be abolished.