Wash Exam- Amid discussion of whether healthcare is a human right, it should be noted that no one ever has an absolute right to get it free from anyone else.
Yet with healthcare, as with food, the state often has a duty to provide it to those who, despite their best efforts, would be incapable of providing it for themselves.
This is why President Trump has the right idea this week with his administration’s new guidelines for Medicaid. The Department of Health and Human Services says it is inclined to let states impose work requirements for childless, able-bodied adults in the Medicaid program. Trump is right to approve the necessary waivers, and we hope more states will apply for them.
A work requirement makes plain that the welfare state is a helping hand for people in need, even long-term, but that it should never become a way out of a regular adult life for those who can and should support themselves but prefer not to.
For most Medicaid recipients, this won’t change anything. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that three in every five nonelderly Medicaid adults, both parents and the childless, already work anyway, and four in five are in families where someone works. The disabled comprise many of the remaining cases, and they won’t be affected either.
The number of childless, able-bodied adults on Medicaid who are not working is thus not a very large share of the 25 million nonelderly adults on Medicaid. But they are a large body numerically, and they should not be left free to burden the rest of us when they are capable of fending for themselves.
No audio, that I’ve seen, to the racist comment report. Only unnamed sources. Ignore it, it’s just the first distraction from the Fusion break.
Yep – people who are able to work should be required to do so if receiving public assistance of any type even if this means cleaning cigarette butts off the street or picking up trash or the like.
Our country was founded on the principles of “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
Just as our founding fathers did not want a ruling class they did not want a system of entitlements either. They expected people to work for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
It is a great idea, however, the system is already set up for failure: The disability scam has reached ridiculous proportions. As soon as this hits there will be shady MDs certifying thousands as disabled to continue the free flow of care. Look at the ADA ‘service animal’ debacle and how now everyone with a pet flies with the pet in the cabin of the plane. They pay $50 online and get their paperwork.
There is nothing the government can to which cannot be subverted and misused by the less-than-moral among us.
Edit – ‘government can do’….
In today’s electronic workplace there are very few who can’t do some kind of job. No longer is work limited to jobs that require physical labor.
The entire “able-bodied” and “disabled” definition needs examination with periodic re-examinations of the disabled.
@Southern Reality – Amen! The “Service Animal” thing is a debacle. Last year my wife went on a business trip to Orlando and a person in her row had a pit bull as a service animal. She said the dog laid itself out on the floor she had to keep her legs out in the aisle or folded up in her seat she was afraid of accidentally stepping on the dog.
I also work in the transportation industry and have heard stories about people showing up with small pigs, chickens and one person who tried to bring a young Great Dane on board a flight to the West Coast. Then when somebody finally got to see the passengers paperwork, his service animal was supposed to be a schnauzer type dog.
Good idea. Germany used to have this, it was called “workfare”. PhD or illiterate dropout, if you wanted the state’s dime, you did the state’s work, be it sweeping streets or stuffing envelopes.
Trump dusts of an old tried and proven concept. It has been proven effective in the past and even more importantly, it really sends the left into a blind rage. Sweet revenge.
Welfare scams are a way of life here in
the Hood.The young are taught early in
life how fill out the paperwork.Many men
divorce their wife “on paper” and then she
can collect…
I remember when the ONLY free hand out you could get was from a church, period.
What we have today is sickening to say the very least and the amount of freeloaders that tax payers support is staggering when you factor in ALL the freebies out there from the city, state, and government levels as well as the churches, non-profits, and other private organizations that focus on helping the needy.
Yes there are those out there that have paid into the system and deserve the benefits agreed upon by both parties and THEY are the ones getting screwed by all the freeloaders in form of reduced benefits, copays, co-insurances, donut-holes, and every other conceivable wording which boils down to out of pocket expenses for a handicapped person living on a fixed income.
It works in Main:
http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/maine-required-able-bodied-welfare-recipients-to-work-for-the-help-heres-what-happened-next