Friday, February 06, 2015
Remember when Bobby Jindal claimed to be the non-stupid Republican?
Baton Rouge Hospital will be closing its Emergency Department. The linked story doesn't entirely explain why this is happening. It says that Jindal didn't come up with money he had promised to keep it open, which I presume is true. But why did it need state money in the first place?
Here's why. Because Louisiana refused the Medicaid expansion. Prior to the ACA, hospitals that served large numbers of uninsured people, who otherwise would have had to eat the cost, got extra federal money. (Called Disprportionate Share, or DISH payments.) But with the ACA, all those poor people were supposed to have Medicaid, so DISH wouldn't be needed after all, hence it was greatly reduced.
But in Louisiana, they don't have Medicaid after all. So the hospitals are in the doo doo. And this is all because Bobby Jindal is so smart.
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Well, one can actually be smart and be Republican. What one seemingly can't be, however, is an integrated human being and be a Republican. Some aspect of being human--humor, or tolerance, or sincerity, to name a few characteristics of self-actualized humans--has to be missing. Otherwise, the Republican organism would die of self-rejection when the bullshit starts to come out of the mouth. But humans have been blessed with the coping mechanism of denial, and Republicans of course don't have the market cornered on denial. We all deny. I'm merely suggesting that Republicans are "missing" some basic aspect(s) of being human because compassion has to be lacking on some level to believe or endorse typical tenets of the party. This, I believe, is why people like Reagan, Bush Sr., Kissinger, etc. live so long. Conscience can shorten lifespan.
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