Banning internet access, this has to be about keeping people in the dark more than anything. Absolutely horrifying.

This explains well the different ways the new rules will kick people off medicaid even though they qualify. I got an idea about one of them-- see last part of post

But whether because of language barriers, physical or cognitive disability, lack of internet or phone, or job instability, for all of these patients, overcoming additional bureaucratic barriers would be burdensome at best. For many of them, it would be nearly impossible.

The author describes the situation of one patient and that there are many like him:

But he told our team that he lives in shelters, so he lacks a fixed address. He doesn’t have a cellphone. He could access government websites at a public library, except that his request for a power wheelchair, which Medicaid will cover, hasn’t been approved yet, and navigating the city in a standard one exhausts him. Plus, every time he leaves his stuff behind at the shelter to go somewhere, he told me, it’s stolen. At present, he doesn’t even own an official ID card.

An idea for at least the internet access issue: What if people/organizations with unlimited mobile data plan(s) could periodically take some laptops and make a wifi hotspot at shelters, so people could log on to the govt websites they need to fill out whatever red tape they need so they can get the benefits they qualify for? The people who go would need to understand the rules and how to navigate the websites and answer questions/help, but they could be trained on that. That seems like a practical idea. You’d think there would already be volunteer orgs that do this, but apparently not!

Pay, Work or Die, the new American way of healthcare.

I wonder when they’ll have work requirements for Social Security.

deleted by creator