Obama-care and Perdue-care
2010-08-16 - by
Seven hundred fire breathing Democrats gathered in Fayetteville for their convention and just about came to blows over reading the riot act to three Democratic Congressmen who had the sheer audacity to vote against Obama-care.
What saved the poor Congressmen from humiliation (or perhaps mutilation) was one of their more adroit supporters standing up and telling his fellow Democrats: Look. Wait a minute. We ought not to have litmus tests for ideological purity. That’s what the Tea Party does.
As angry as the Democrats were at the Congressmen apparently they liked being compared to the Tea Party even less so they dropped the whole idea.
But here’s an odd anomaly: Not one of the up-in-arms-over-Obama-care Democrats paid the least bit of attention to what’s going on with Perdue-care right here in North Carolina.
Up in Washington President Obama just provided healthcare to some 30 odd million Americans – but here in North Carolina Governor Perdue is cutting care to the old and infirm and poor left and right.
The state’s so-called mental hospitals – if you read the newspapers – are 21st century throwbacks to Bedlam (the notorious 19th century London insane asylum). In North Carolina’s 21st century mental hospitals patients have been killed by other patients, beaten by orderlies, and raped.
Of course (and maybe this is a blessing in disguise) for the poor getting into one of the state’s ‘mental hospitals’ is just about impossible – because there are too few beds. As a result, the newspapers report, under Perdue-care psychotics (if they are violent) spend days handcuffed to beds in Emergency Rooms or being ‘warehoused’ in rest homes that were meant to treat the elderly.
And the problems aren’t limited to mental hospitals.
In May, an 88-year-old woman – a severe diabetic and double amputee – applied to the state for in-home care so she could stay out of a nursing home. Three months later she’s still waiting to hear from the state.
Another woman applied for care in April. It took the state two months to respond. By then she was in the hospital.
Another elderly woman applied for care in April. Her care was approved in July. Unfortunately, she died in June.
A patient’s rights group got so upset about how the state’s treating mental patients it sued and after the Obama Administration found out what the state is doing it joined in the suit – against Governor Perdue.
In another lawsuit a judge ruled Perdue’s Department of Health and Human Services was trying to cut care to elderly patients on Medicaid without bothering to physically examine the patients first to determine if they needed care.
Meantime, at the same time she’s cutting medical care to the poor Governor Perdue is proposing to give a new tax break to movie stars who earn over $1 million – so they’ll make movies in North Carolina.
No wonder the latest Civitas Institute poll shows Governor Perdue’s popularity, which had already plummeted among Republicans and Independents, just plummeted among Democrats too – by 15 points.
Obama-care and Perdue-care
2010-08-16/
Seven hundred fire breathing Democrats gathered in Fayetteville for their convention and just about came to blows over reading the riot act to three Democratic Congressmen who had the sheer audacity to vote against Obama-care.
What saved the poor Congressmen from humiliation (or perhaps mutilation) was one of their more adroit supporters standing up and telling his fellow Democrats: Look. Wait a minute. We ought not to have litmus tests for ideological purity. That’s what the Tea Party does.
As angry as the Democrats were at the Congressmen apparently they liked being compared to the Tea Party even less so they dropped the whole idea.
But here’s an odd anomaly: Not one of the up-in-arms-over-Obama-care Democrats paid the least bit of attention to what’s going on with Perdue-care right here in North Carolina.
Up in Washington President Obama just provided healthcare to some 30 odd million Americans – but here in North Carolina Governor Perdue is cutting care to the old and infirm and poor left and right.
The state’s so-called mental hospitals – if you read the newspapers – are 21st century throwbacks to Bedlam (the notorious 19th century London insane asylum). In North Carolina’s 21st century mental hospitals patients have been killed by other patients, beaten by orderlies, and raped.
Of course (and maybe this is a blessing in disguise) for the poor getting into one of the state’s ‘mental hospitals’ is just about impossible – because there are too few beds. As a result, the newspapers report, under Perdue-care psychotics (if they are violent) spend days handcuffed to beds in Emergency Rooms or being ‘warehoused’ in rest homes that were meant to treat the elderly.
And the problems aren’t limited to mental hospitals.
In May, an 88-year-old woman – a severe diabetic and double amputee – applied to the state for in-home care so she could stay out of a nursing home. Three months later she’s still waiting to hear from the state.
Another woman applied for care in April. It took the state two months to respond. By then she was in the hospital.
Another elderly woman applied for care in April. Her care was approved in July. Unfortunately, she died in June.
A patient’s rights group got so upset about how the state’s treating mental patients it sued and after the Obama Administration found out what the state is doing it joined in the suit – against Governor Perdue.
In another lawsuit a judge ruled Perdue’s Department of Health and Human Services was trying to cut care to elderly patients on Medicaid without bothering to physically examine the patients first to determine if they needed care.
Meantime, at the same time she’s cutting medical care to the poor Governor Perdue is proposing to give a new tax break to movie stars who earn over $1 million – so they’ll make movies in North Carolina.
No wonder the latest Civitas Institute poll shows Governor Perdue’s popularity, which had already plummeted among Republicans and Independents, just plummeted among Democrats too – by 15 points.