http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/28/medicaid-deaths-va-woes-and-fox-news-hypocrisy/199478
Twisting itself in partisan knots, Fox News can't keep track of when denying health benefits to Americans is a good thing and when it's a bad thing. Here's a helpful crib sheet: Denying health care by expanding Medicaid is cheered by Fox News. Denying health care through Veterans Affairs backlogs is not.
The current VA controversy has unleashed waves of right-wing media attacks on the organization, which conservative commentators now depict as a failed government-run health care agency. (It's not.)
Fueling their five-year obsession with trying to undermine and obstruct The Affordable Care Act at every turn, right-wing pundits have denounced the backlog that veterans face, the allegations of secret waiting lists at a Veterans Administration hospital in Phoenix, and claims that dozens of vets reportedly died while on a waiting list to see a VA doctor. Looking to score points politically, Fox News talkers have proclaimed the VA mess to be a preview of some sort of Obamacare debacle for the general public.
Fox's Kimberly Guilfoyle recently labeled Obamacare "one big fat VA system." (False.) Colleague Ben Carsontactlessly called the veterans health care failure "a God send" because it highlighted how awful Obamacare is going to be. And Fox's Eric Bolling claimed delays that took place at the VA in Phoenix would repeat themselves nationwide under Obamacare, and 500 people "are going to die waiting" every year for treatment because of the president's health care reform law.
The larger Fox message machine has been focused: There's nothing worse, nothing more callous and unimaginable, than vets being denied the government health care they're entitled to, and some dying as a consequence.
Left unmentioned from Fox and friends? In the case of the recent implementation of Obamacare and the federal government's effort to expand Medicaid benefits, Republican governors and lawmakers in 24 stateshave refused, for partisan reasons, to accept the federal funds to insure more of their citizens. The result? Citizens are being denied government health care they're entitled to, and thousands may die as a consequence.
The Affordable Care Act was passed into law with the assumption that all states would expand Medicaid. But a Supreme Court decision ruled that states could opt out. Twenty-four did (five of which are either seeking waivers for alternate plans or currently debating adopting the expansion), immediately creating a coverage gap that engulfed millions Americans who are denied the benefits of expanded Medicaid and who don't qualify for premiums subsidies under Obamacare.
which is the greater evil or are they equally as egregious? are we now putting labels on humans to indicate which is more deserving of health care and life. i'm a Vietnam Vet in the VA system thank GOD, i have a brain tumor, lung cancer, degenerative disc asthma, cataract forming on my good eye if not for VA i'd probably not be here thank the LORD .
but do we send others off to war claiming to have their backs and turn that back when they return victims of a war of choice, and do we just disregard Americans the same Americans republican audience at 2012 primary cheered to die on a gurney for lack of insurance that those on the stage were fighting to keep from them, are you hugging the toilet yet? if this were a republican controlled gov't this would not be an issue you could only hope to die quickly to avoid the pain of health care denied. hear the republicans cheering?
but do we send others off to war claiming to have their backs and turn that back when they return victims of a war of choice, and do we just disregard Americans the same Americans republican audience at 2012 primary cheered to die on a gurney for lack of insurance that those on the stage were fighting to keep from them, are you hugging the toilet yet? if this were a republican controlled gov't this would not be an issue you could only hope to die quickly to avoid the pain of health care denied. hear the republicans cheering?
Florida: Obamacare's Medicaid expansion would provide 1,212,000 poor Floridians with comprehensive health insurance, including 41,200 veterans. But the state has refused to let the expansion go forward.
Georgia: Obamacare's Medicaid expansion would provide 599,000 poor Georgians with comprehensive health insurance, including 24,900 veterans. But the state has refused to let the expansion go forward.
despicable them!!!!
