Guest views are now limited to 12 pages. If you get an "Error" message, just sign in! If you need to create an account, click here.

Jump to content
  • CRYPTO REWARDS!

    Full endorsement on this opportunity - but it's limited, so get in while you can!

Paul Ryan is unsuited to lead ‘adult conversation’ about poverty


Recommended Posts

Paul Ryan is unsuited to lead ‘adult conversation’ about poverty

 

 

 

These days, a favorite talking point of Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s is calling for an “adult conversation” about poverty.

 

 

“It’s time for an adult conversation,” he told The Washington Post.

 

 

“If we actually have an adult conversation,” he said in remarks at the Brookings Institution, “I think we can make a difference.”

 

 

The problem is that a prerequisite for any adult conversation is telling the truth and it is there the congressman falls monumentally short.

 

 

In addition to Rep. Ryan’s recent, racially-coded comments about “our inner cities” where “generations of men [are] not even thinking about working,” his rhetoric around policy should raise red flags for anyone — including the media — assessing his credibility.

 

 

In addition to Rep. Ryan’s recent, racially-coded comments about “our inner cities” where “generations of men [are] not even thinking about working,” his rhetoric around policy should raise red flags for anyone — including the media — assessing his credibility.

 

 

report from Emily Oshima Lee, policy analyst at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, examines the hatchet job Rep. Ryan did on Medicaid in his 204-page account of antipoverty programs that The Washington Post generously described as a “critique.” Indeed, Ryan’s report — which would have been flagged by my excellent 10th grade English teacher for misrepresenting and cherry-picking data — is a dangerous disservice to a public which has neither the time nor the staff that Ryan has at his disposal to delve into literature assessing antipoverty programs.

 

 

Lee notes that Ryan misuses research to imply that Medicaid coverage leads to poorer health — that people enrolled in Medicaid will have worse health than those with private insurance and the uninsured.

 

 

“The privately insured comparison is patently unfair because these people tend to be higher income and that comes with a whole host of health privileges,” said Lee.

 

 

She notes that Medicaid enrollees tend to struggle a lot more with chronic conditions and illnesses than other populations.

 

 

“A large body of literature identifies various social determinants of health, including socioeconomic status and living and work environments, as risk factors for poor health outcomes,” writes Lee, in my opinion admirably resisting the temptation to add, “duh.”

 

 

As for the uninsured being healthier — it would be one thing if Ryan were making an “apples to apples” comparison, but he’s not.

 

 

“The uninsured is a diverse group and doesn’t only include low-income individuals. It may include people who are high-income and don’t really want insurance but can afford health services, and lower-income people who may not have previously enrolled in insurance for a number of reasons — including cost and not having any real health issues,” Lee says. “But again, to imply that Medicaid is somehow making people worse off is absurd.”

 

 

Ryan also argues that Medicaid coverage has little positive effect on enrollees’ health. But as Lee points out, Ryan conveniently overlooks studies showing an association between Medicaid and lower mortality rates; reduced low-weight births and infant and child mortality; and lower mortality for HIV-positive patients, among other heath benefits.

 

 

“In general, we need more data to accurately assess the effect of Medicaid coverage on people’s health,” Lee continues. “But several studies do indicate positive health and non-health effects of coverage — such as increased use of preventive care and greater financial security.”

 

 

Despite Ryan’s shabby work when it comes to antipoverty policy, the media repeatedly seems willing to overlook it.

 

 

Rep. Ryan also plays on fears of low-income people abusing the welfare system when he asserts that Medicaid coverage improperly increases enrollees’ use of health care services, including preventive care and emergency department services. Ryan makes this case too by comparing Medicaid enrollees to uninsured people, who, as Lee writes, “are less likely to use health care services due to significant financial barriers.”

 

 

“Presenting data that Medicaid enrollees use more health services than the uninsured affirms that insurance coverage allows people who need care to seek it out,” writes Lee, “and that being uninsured is a major barrier to receiving important medical care.”

 

 

Further, one of the two studies Ryan references explicitly states that “neither theory nor existing evidence provides a definitive answer to… whether we should expect increases or decreases in emergency-department use when Medicaid expands.”

 

 

Despite Ryan’s shabby work when it comes to antipoverty policy, the media repeatedly seems willing to overlook it. That’s another strike against the prospects of a truly adult conversation about poverty — in addition to honesty, it requires accountability.

  • Upvote 2
  • Downvote 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I see it, the real problem is the "cost" of health care. Not one democrat and not one republican wishes to address the source of the problem. Hmmmmmmmmm; wonder why that is?

We're being SOLD OUT by so many people from every direction it would make your head spin like LInda Blairs' in the Excorsist.

 

They're bending us over in the fashion of the "Fast & the Furious".

 

BOHICA, folks - Bend Over Here It Comes Again  :mad:

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're being SOLD OUT by so many people from every direction it would make your head spin like LInda Blairs' in the Excorsist.

 

They're bending us over in the fashion of the "Fast & the Furious".

 

BOHICA, folks - Bend Over Here It Comes Again  :mad:

 

No doubt, and not so much as even a complimentary jar of vaseline!!  :angry:  :angry:

 

Nice try Stud Muffins, but another opinion piece by another Obama lover, funny how you liberals get all bent out of shape when somebody calls a spade a spade!  :rolleyes: You libtards look for every little word of every sentence to find a way to scream racism, but when your side does it, "Oh, well that's not what he/she meant to say" Perpetual liars!

  • Upvote 4
  • Downvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I see it, the real problem is the "cost" of health care. Not one democrat and not one republican wishes to address the source of the problem. Hmmmmmmmmm; wonder why that is?

Have you heard of tort reform?

 

I have a friend who is a neurosurgeon and he pays nearly $250k/yr in medical malpractice. Moreover, when he stops practicing he will be required to pay for 2 yrs after he retires. We can thank the ambulance chaser lawyers and ignorant juries who hand down ridiculous judgments against doctors for this. Now tell me who pays for this? The patients do through higher fees. I can name multiple people who brought this up during the Obammacare legislative sessions.

 

Indy

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you heard of tort reform?

 

I have a friend who is a neurosurgeon and he pays nearly $250k/yr in medical malpractice. Moreover, when he stops practicing he will be required to pay for 2 yrs after he retires. We can thank the ambulance chaser lawyers and ignorant juries who hand down ridiculous judgments against doctors for this. Now tell me who pays for this? The patients do through higher fees. I can name multiple people who brought this up during the Obammacare legislative sessions.

 

Indy

 

Exactly right!!  :twothumbs: It's the no personal responsibility society that has been bred by the liberals to feel they have the right to take things that don't belong to them, like everyone elses money!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


  • Testing the Rocker Badge!

  • Live Exchange Rate

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.