Rand Paul Calls Medicaid 'Intergenerational Welfare'

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul says Medicaid has turned into "intergenerational welfare," saying coverage has spread beyond those truly in need.

The tea party favorite, who is running against Democrat Jack Conway, spoke to a Kentucky business group Monday.

When asked about Medicaid, Paul said the health coverage should be temporary until people can help themselves. But he acknowledged some need long-term assistance.

Paul says too many people are receiving the insurance who don't really need it, noting half the state's births are covered by it.

Kentucky has about 57,000 births per year, and Medicaid covers about half of them, according to Gwenda Bond, a spokeswoman for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

About 800,000 people are covered under Medicaid in the state.

The Associated Press reported in June that Paul, an eye doctor from Bowling Green, had since 2005 received slightly more than $130,000 in Medicaid funds. That's about one-third of the amount he billed the program, according to the Kentucky cabinet that administers the program.

Paul's campaign has said that about half of Paul's medical income has come from Medicare and Medicaid payments – which it says is in line with the average for eye doctors around the country.

Comments

[Pandoras Folly]

10:58 PM on 10/11/2010

there are no old, no young. No buddhists, no hindus, no christians no muslims, no blacks whites reds, browns. no democrats, no republicans, no tea baggers, no mormons, no canadians, no americans, no mexicans, eurpeans, nor communists, nor fascists, nor capitalists. there are only the Haves and the Have Nots and the labels the Haves use to control the Have Nots. the sooner you learn this the sooner we can pull ourselves out of this mess we worked ourselves into.

[Sean777]

01:55 PM on 10/06/2010

Rand Paul can be compared to Fidel Castro, like most Tea Baggers, Paul just wants to be in Power for his own personal benefit. Tea Baggers want the government to work for them but they don’t a government working for anybody else.

[MARYHOBE]

09:52 AM on 10/06/2010

Mr. Paul must not have a family or grandparents, because then he would know that when you deprive me of my health you affect my grandchildren, irretrievably! When it was time for the eldest son in my parent's family to go to college, the family home was used as collateral for the loan. This was the home my grandfather had bought. And he was healthy his entire working life, but what if he had fallen sick and through lack of Health Care, he dies! No home, no loan, no college! The health care that I am denied is equally denied to my offspring, and I have trouble believing Mr. Rand Paul does not understand this or account for it in his attack on government.

[RedPlebiscite]

09:30 AM on 10/06/2010

"Individualism" is the enemy of anyone who wants to live in social harmony with others The individualist "freedom" that Libertarians seek for Corporations is merely the "Liberty" for Companies to make slaves of other people
http://sherrytalksback.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/the-rights-new-tough-love/

[msblynne]

06:59 AM on 10/06/2010

The Statue of Liberty: Reinterpreted by Randy Paul: "Give us your people with jet lag, who may not yet have received their full inheritances, those who were forced to ride in coach though they had first class tickets; send these of Anglo-European descent, who have the means to buy McMansions at least; there are rooms available at Disneyworld tonight."

[ZeraLee]

05:23 AM on 10/06/2010

"Paul says too many people are receiving the insurance who don't really need it, noting half the state's births are covered by it."

Last year, Kentucky had 18.6% of it's population below the poverty threshold. An addition of 59,203 from the year before - more than the number of births.

Maybe if Kentucky was not the third most impoverished state in the country, they could get some people off welfare. Just don't drag the rest of the country down to their level. That would be the opposite of recovery, but decidedly conservative.

[SisterAnn]

11:01 AM on 10/06/2010

And the way they measure poverty is too low. Things have went up but to hear them tell it, there is no inflation.

[cindyw]

02:01 PM on 10/06/2010

it's the seventh poorest, not the third.

[ZeraLee]

04:54 PM on 10/06/2010

The HuffPost article said 3rd. The slide show was set up as a countdown, so it was the 9th slide. I've seen some articles agree, and I've seen other articles use different criteria and get different results. ("impoverished" may have been overdoing it)

Either way, it's still bad. :-(

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/11-poorest-states-in-the-_n_742967.html#s146813

[nubret2008]

03:12 AM on 10/06/2010

The costs of healtcare and welfare are peanuts compared to the corporational welfare measures like the wars in Iraq and Iran. Killing people and wasting tax payers money just for Halliburton & Co to make big wins is obscene

[Mike Calvert]

11:48 PM on 10/05/2010

They have signs in the parks that say do not feed the animals. Why? Because it causes dependency on the handouts. No matter how pitiful the animals look at you, you know that if you feed them they may starve in the long run. If someone is able-bodied and can go to work, they should. I scrimped and saved for 5 years, no movies, no dining out. In fact To this day I hate ramen noodles with a passion. With that sacrifice i was able to start a business, buy a home and get married.
I have now lost all the equity and then some in my house. 60% of my 401k is gone. I can no longer afford the $1400 a month payment to keep my family health plan.
The business that has supported me is barely alive. Yet I am expected to pay for generations of people, some here illegally to have food shelter and healthcare while they sit on theyre buts makin babies. It makes me want to vomit.

[SisterAnn]

11:03 AM on 10/06/2010

If you are in that bad of financial shape you probably don't pay many taxes.

[daddyG56]

04:57 PM on 10/06/2010

Sounds like you made some bad decisions. Don't compound them by NOT going on Medicaid when your business fails.

[Brett Holmes]

11:30 PM on 10/05/2010

Rand Paul, PFFFT!

[MsDee]

11:19 PM on 10/05/2010

What a rich, arrogant, brat. A spoiled, intergenerational narcissist. Sheer garbage ingrained in his brain, passed down from his father, but with a bigger mouth.

These right winged fools want to force women to have their babies, no abortions, but apparently don't want to help with the births of those babies. Just have them give birth in the back alley behind his uppity eye clinic.

What is really providing something to a group who truly don't need it...hmmm...
tax cuts for the rich! Dear God Kentucky...please, please don't do this to us.

[LinAus]

10:38 PM on 10/05/2010

We're over 64. My husband has received Medicare since we married 17 years ago.

Medicare is always very very simple. You go to the same doctor you always go to, or chose one you want. (Very few of them tell you they don't take Medicare).

You just go to the doctor or x-ray tech or whatever, and give them your Medicare card.
That's it.
Period.

It couldn't be simpler. I've heard that the overhead for Medicare is very simple and realistic.
I believe it.

I can't imagine a man in his 80s being expected to pay for his own healthcare, tests, etc. like my grandparents did back in the 1940s. Even trying to pay for one health-insurance policy for him at his age, would be cost prohibitive. Retired people just don't have that kind of money.

I'm one elderly, or over 64 person who likes Medicare.
It's great. No complaints.

[DLCA]

10:32 PM on 10/05/2010

Paul's campaign has said that about half of Paul's medical income has come from Medicare and Medicaid payments

Yet he calls it "intergenerational welfare" -

this guy is unbelievable.... what does he want? to cut Medicare and Medicaid out except for him because he makes 50% of his earnings from it?

words fail

[RED BONE]

10:31 PM on 10/05/2010

Rand Paul is proof his parents did not have any children that lived.

[SWalkerTTU]

03:56 AM on 10/12/2010

Check that; it should be "children that SHOULD HAVE lived."

[RED BONE]

07:40 AM on 10/12/2010

Checked and amended

[LinAus]

10:25 PM on 10/05/2010

Look.

I have a friend who is 64 and one year away from Medicare.

Her husband died and she is retired early. She is awaiting his Pension to arrive in a few months.
However, in the interim she found out she has Lupus.

She called to see about MediCAID. The person talked to her for just a few minutes and told her that her own Social Security (I think about 850.per month) was waaaay too much money for her to qualify for Medicaid.

She has to pay mortgage/rent, utilities and buy groceries and everything nowadays on that same $850.00 month and thats not enough to pay for a health insurance policy.

She was told by the government lady that Medicaid was for people who are really indigent. When my friend asked her, like how indigent? The lady told her the average Medicaid client in her state only has about $250./month total income.

Yep thats indigent alright.
Makes the rest of us look wealthy.

I don't see anything wrong with Medicaid. Rand Paul needs to stuff a sock in it.

[Hillbilly49]

10:18 PM on 10/05/2010

July 30, 1965 Medicare and its companion program Medicaid, (which insures indigent recipients), are signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson as part of his "Great Society." Ex-president Truman is the first to enroll in Medicare. Medicare Part B premium is $3 per month.

Medicare has been around for 45 years.  It is constitutional. 

[Eyeful]

09:10 PM on 10/11/2010

And it SHOULD have been expanded upon instead of this lousy excuse for a Health Care Plan that won't take effect for another 4 years - and when it does will only embolden the insurance pirates, not the insured patients.