l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 谁支持, 谁付钱． 但是你们支持让纳税人付钱. 尼玛这个是什么逻辑？
Published on CNS News http://www.cnsnews.com
Backers fight for children's health insurance in Arizona
PHOENIX (AP) — A fight is intensifying in the Arizona Legislature over the
Senate leader's refusal to restore a program providing health insurance to
poor children, a stance that would maintain the state's position as the only
one in the nation that doesn't participate in the plan.
Advocates who want the program restarted rallied at the Capitol on Monday in
a last-ditch effort. Arizona froze its KidsCare program in 2010 to save
money during a state budget crunch. It once covered more than 63,000
children, but fewer than 1,000 now have the insurance.
Senate President Andy Biggs has blocked the proposal despite it passing
overwhelmingly in the House because he's opposed to the Affordable Care Act
and is worried the federal government will cut payments and force Arizona to
pick up more of the tab.
Backers note the federal government is paying for 100 percent of the plan
through 2017, and the proposal allows the state to stop the program if
federal funding drops.
"What we're talking about is a population that Obamacare is already supposed
to cover," Biggs said Monday. "And when people say it's free, it really isn
't free, is it, because it's a taxpayer-funded program. So when we start
talking about taxpayer-funded program, the question is it state taxes or is
it federal taxes, but they're all coming from our taxpayers any way you look
at it."
Biggs said in interviews with The Associated Press and on Arizona PBS'
Horizon public affairs show last week that he has no intention of allowing
House Bill 2309 to move forward. It passed the House on a 47-12 vote on
March 2.
Biggs previously said it isn't that easy to cut off insurance if federal
funding drops once 30,000 or so children are insured.
"What you do is you create a constituency of 30,000 to 50,000, could be as
many as 50,000 people," Biggs said last week. "And now you pull the trigger
and take them off? The answer is that's not going to happen. Nobody will
pull that trigger."
The bill is sponsored by an Arizona House Republican who says the parents of
eligible children are the working poor, people making $11 or $12 an hour
who make too much to qualify for the state's Medicaid program but who do not
qualify or can't afford for subsidized health insurance on the federal
marketplace.
"Those children, this is what we're here for, is to help the working poor,"
Rep. Regina Cobb, a Kingman Republican, said at Monday's rally. "These are
families, of a mom and a dad where the dad's the only worker and doesn't
make but $9 or $10 an hour and can't afford health insurance. Or this is a
mom, a single mom, with a child or two, who is making a decision on whether
or not to have heat, whether or not to pay rent, or whether to have health
insurance."
Children whose families earn between 138 and 200 percent of the federal
poverty line would gain insurance under the plan.
At a media availability Monday, Gov. Doug Ducey said his budget priorities
are K-12 education and the state child welfare agency. He would not say if
he would support the restoration.
KidsCare, he said, "would be or may be part of the ongoing budget
negotiations," with lawmakers in the House and Senate.
Participants at Monday's rally included parents, pediatricians, nurses,
faith and women's groups and the Children's Action Alliance, a nonprofit
group focused on children's health.
Source URL: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/backers-fight-childrens-health-insurance-arizona |
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