A new survey from a free market-leaning think tank shows South Carolina voters are evenly split on the question of expanding Medicaid under U.S. President Barack Obama’s socialized medicine law. Okay … but what about expanding the program under S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s brand of socialized medicine, a.k.a. “Haleycare?” After all the administration of the “Tea Party” governor is set to add another 130,000 new beneficiaries to the state’s government-funded health care rolls this coming fiscal year – a much faster growth rate than the expansion envisioned under Obama’s plans.
They didn’t ask that question, sadly …
Anyway, according to the poll – released this week by the Palmetto Policy Form (PPF) – Medicaid expansion under “Obamacare’ is currently supported by 44 percent of voters. An identical percentage of voters oppose the plan, though.
Wait … isn’t this supposed to be a “Republican” state? How is this a tie ball game?
Haley has pledged to oppose the Obamacare expansion. However, her administration has already spent more than $60 million on a bid to expand the state’s Medicaid population – and has proposed spending additional money to expand it even further.
The Obamacare expansion would add approximately 545,000 new beneficiaries to the state’s already bloated Medicaid rolls over the next seven years – sixty percent of which would likely go on the taxpayer dole within the first year. Along with the “Haleycare” growth, this expansion would balloon the state’s Medicaid population from its current level of 1.1 million to 1.7 million by 2020.
Partisanship on this issue is fierce – with 81 percent of Democrats backing expansion and 75 percent of Republicans opposing it. Meanwhile 45 percent of independents – a plurality – also oppose the expansion.
“South Carolina voters are sending an unmistakable message to legislators not to rush into expanding Medicaid,” PPF president Ellen Weaver said. “Thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision last summer, South Carolina – not Washington – will now make this critical decision. It must not be done with incomplete facts.”
PPF’s poll surveyed 940 likely voters statewide between April 30 – May 1. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
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51 comments
It’s not the poor who are the problem. It’s the executives. Tuomey.
Truth.
It’s why Tuomey and all hospital Fat Cats are BEGGING to Expand the Failed Government Medicaid Program..
The more the government controls, the more theft and Fraud…It’s a pot of money from people who took it from the Earners, so there is no morality…
So since you are blaming Tuomey, I guess you are Against Expanding the Government Program that allows them to get our money from a just-as-corrupt Obama Administration…right????
Can’t you guys make up your mind? You laugh at how so many people are dropping Medicaid patients because the pay sucks, but then all these hospitals want more dump trucks of Medicaid money?
If you’re going to bitch about fraud in Medicare/Medicaid, then demand more oversight and fix some of the bullshit they allow to go on. Also, while we’re discussing bitching about Medicare/Medicaid being defrauded, maybe you should stop supporting assholes like Rick Scott.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott#Columbia.2FHCA_fraud_case_details
There are doctors refusing to see Medicaid Patients (See Calif.)…but the ones who are FORCED by the Government to take the indigent are figuring out ways to get paid for it, on the Same level EARNING Americans pay them…And the same gov’t Forcing them, in Hitler Lock-Step Style, is now prosecuting then for it…
it’s a GREAT example of a Gov’t Monopoly Single-Payer system that Obama will FORCE, though he has lied about it over and over…
Look, you Stupid Son of a B!^*h…You ain’t Rachael Mad-cow or Chris Matthews, with a bunch of leftwing NAZI clowns on the screen, who all agree w/ the Obama Gestapo.
I’ll talk back..and when that happens…you are easily made to look like the LIAR and Idiot you are…
There is no bigger liar than you. That has been proven over and over on this site. In your defense, you probably don’t do it intentionally, you simply take all your opinions from other liars, like Beck, Rush, Faux News, and the Drudge Report. That said, you have once again proven you are incapable of looking past your racist rants to even understand the issue.
There are only three options for people who cannot afford to pay for health care.
1. Let them Die. (The Ron Paul solution)
2. Let those with health insurance and money pay for them with higher insurance premiums or higher deductibles.
3. Spread the cost out over all the taxpayers.
The system we have now is option 2. That is grossly unfair to small businesses like mine, and people who have private (i.e. not employer provided) health insurance.
Of course the so called conservative politicians really just want to be sure the taxpayers keep paying for their health care. For everyone else its Option 1..
Well said, Jan. Explained in a way that even Big T can understand – I think.
Agreed. Jan takes T’s slow curve and deposits it over the fence. As usual.
That is, if you’re an isolated, insulated F*$in’ Yuppie, elitist Dumb@$$….which your are…
Blah, blah, blah…
What I thought (and expect.) It’s what all you dumb@$$, mythology liberals say when you get slapped upside the head w/ Reality…
Thanks for the good night’s sleep, you boring, trite shithead. :)
WE (by government force) ALREADY pay for all of them, you F$@*in; Dolt. It’s just run so Ignorantly, the COST is astronomical.
What Obama-Care does is Balloon the costs, and it dictates ALL people will get the same bad healthcare that you’d expect from a government-run system.
Look at it like: Owning your own car, or riding a public bus, with the Child-molesters, psychotics that should be institutionalized, AIDS-infected, Beggars, Drunks, Drug-addicts and all the people who choose to shirk responsibility, but want the things YOU actually earn, but Obama takes to give to them…
Obama hates good people, and thinks REVENGE is fair, by taking their car and access to good healthcare. You Dumb@$$…
It’s not the poor who are the problem. It’s the executives. Tuomey.
Truth.
Why did PPF only poll “likely voters”?
Why did PPF only poll “likely voters”?
LMAO: FITS using a PPF (Partisan Propaganda for Fools) Push Poll to try to convince us to accept Obama’s Socialized medicine scheme…
One thing Dumb@$$#$ like FITS never tell you…accepting the temporary hand-out from a broke federal government will double the number of Medicaid Patients in SC. It means expanding an already failed, UNDER-FUNDED government program..
If the money was taken and given w/ no Mandate to put more irresponsible (Go to the ER for a cold) patients on it…then there is a case for FITS and the Stupid $#!*$ like him…
But being forced to Serve hundreds of thousands more EXPENSIVE (because they are not paying for it) participants, Is a GIANT loss for Taxpayers…
So you really need to Laugh Your @$$ off the next time FITS begs you to believe he is a Fiscal Conservative. He is either a liar or Stupid (or both) but he nothing NEAR Conservative….
If the money was taken and given w/ no Mandate to put more irresponsible (Go to the ER for a cold) patients on it…then there is a case for FITS and the Stupid $#!*$ like him…
But being forced to Serve hundreds of thousands of more EXPENSIVE (because they are not paying for it) participants
You really don’t get it, do you? People who show up to the ER because they have no other option rack up tons of medical costs, and when they can’t pay (because they couldn’t even afford to do it the right way, how the hell can they afford the wrong way?), the cost gets passed onto the rest of us anyways.
Now, who passed the law that made hospitals cover people like that? Hmm? I’ll give you a hint, he asked someone to tear down a wall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act
Your bigoted ass is paying for it whether you like it or not. The question is, which is more expensive, unpaid ER visits, or unpaid doctor visits?
The Government BEGS these people to sign on w/ a doctor, before they end up in the ER. There are recruitment programs all over the place for them. They are encouraged to plan, like the us PAYING families HAVE TO…
So: Don’t pull your B*!!-Shit. I’ve worked in the field, and I know the deal…
These people Won’t Go to the Dr. because they run their healthcare like they run their lives….There is no planning or investment…and WE (who have to abide by rules) pay for it..
So get your Lying $#!* out my face…With all due respect: You make be the biggest F*$*in’ Liar on here. I’m just not as Stupid like most of the dumb@$$#$ who buy your Bu!!-$#!*……..
Goddamn, T…where haven’t you worked?
For information from the other side on why Medicaid expansion is good for the state, please go to the SC Hospital Association website and sign the petition if you are of a mind to support it:
http://www.scha.org/medicaidexpansion
It would be good for our state in the short run, that’s for sure, but what SC really needs is economic development so that fewer people have to rely on the expansion. Good luck getting that, though, especially if Haley wins another 4 years.
For information from the other side on why Medicaid expansion is good for the state, please go to the SC Hospital Association website and sign the petition if you are of a mind to support it:
http://www.scha.org/medicaidexpansion
It would be good for our state in the short run, that’s for sure, but what SC really needs is economic development so that fewer people have to rely on the expansion. Good luck getting that, though, especially if Haley wins another 4 years.
I don’t believe that the Medicaid expansion is the best way to go about giving affordable access to health care to the lower-middle class, or some of the lower class. It really should be something left to covering the very poor, especially children and old people who otherwise may not be able to help the position they are in. That being said, if it is the only option we are being given, and there are no better solutions being seriously offered, then it is better than nothing. From the standpoint that the most our state will have to pay into the expansion is 10%, that isn’t horrendous for the kind of help it would bring to our state and its citizens.
Being buried under thousands upon thousands of dollars in medical debt is not acceptable, the number one reason for declaring bankruptcy in this country is due to medical debt. Being refused treatment due to inability to pay is barbaric.
ObamaCare doesn’t fix our health care system, it merely patches some abuses the for-profit health insurance industry has used against the people and attempts to increase affordable access. We don’t need stitches and band-aids, we need a complete transplant. Our system is fundamentally flawed and a lot of entities in health care are more interested in their bottom line than making sure people are healthy.
The notion of a “public option” was at least something that sought to offer something new to the system, unfortunately it was killed off.
I agree with this, and i support the public option. Our current system is just completely broken, and it’s time to try something totally new – not just put a band aid on the problem.
I don’t believe that the Medicaid expansion is the best way to go about giving affordable access to health care to the lower-middle class, or some of the lower class. It really should be something left to covering the very poor, especially children and old people who otherwise may not be able to help the position they are in. That being said, if it is the only option we are being given, and there are no better solutions being seriously offered, then it is better than nothing. From the standpoint that the most our state will have to pay into the expansion is 10%, that isn’t horrendous for the kind of help it would bring to our state and its citizens.
Being buried under thousands upon thousands of dollars in medical debt is not acceptable, the number one reason for declaring bankruptcy in this country is due to medical debt. Being refused treatment due to inability to pay is barbaric.
ObamaCare doesn’t fix our health care system, it merely patches some abuses the for-profit health insurance industry has used against the people and attempts to increase affordable access. We don’t need stitches and band-aids, we need a complete transplant. Our system is fundamentally flawed and a lot of entities in health care are more interested in their bottom line than making sure people are healthy.
The notion of a “public option” was at least something that sought to offer something new to the system, unfortunately it was killed off.
I agree with this, and i support the public option. Our current system is just completely broken, and it’s time to try something totally new – not just put a band aid on the problem.
Why expand a program that has been shown to have no statistically significant improvement in health outcomes and is bankrupting our country? We have long known Medicaid is not fiscally sustainable in the long term on its current path, but now there is now empirical evidence that it does not even accomplish its intended purpose. We could do better with market based reforms, or just directly subsidizing enrollees’ health care and cutting out the middle man. So why keep going further down the wrong road? Obama has repeatedly acknowledged that Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupting our country, and then proposes as the solution is to … expand Medicaid. Brilliant!
Why expand a program that has been shown to have no statistically significant improvement in health outcomes and is bankrupting our country? We have long known Medicaid is not fiscally sustainable in the long term on its current path, but now there is now empirical evidence that it does not even accomplish its intended purpose. We could do better with market based reforms, or just directly subsidizing enrollees’ health care and cutting out the middle man. So why keep going further down the wrong road? Obama has repeatedly acknowledged that Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupting our country, and then proposes as the solution is to … expand Medicaid. Brilliant!
Actually, the only real way to fix healthcare in general is education, which is sorely lacking in this state. If kids are educated at an early age on how to live healthy lives, both mentally and physically, there would be less obesity and less ignorance. It’s just logical, but, then, when has logic ever played a part in politics?
Actually, the only real way to fix healthcare in general is education, which is sorely lacking in this state. If kids are educated at an early age on how to live healthy lives, both mentally and physically, there would be less obesity and less ignorance. It’s just logical, but, then, when has logic ever played a part in politics?
too many RINOs in SC, trust me, we’ve got the same problem up north here in Ohio
Wow! I didn’t realize there are any OH10s left in Ohio; I thought they all flew to Hilton Head sharing space with our native GU11s.
yeah, it’s those carpetbaggers that put that inept carpetbagger Mark Sanford back in the House.
too many RINOs in SC, trust me, we’ve got the same problem up north here in Ohio
Wow! I didn’t realize there are any OH10s left in Ohio; I thought they all flew to Hilton Head sharing space with our native GU11s.
yeah, it’s those carpetbaggers that put that inept carpetbagger Mark Sanford back in the House.
by 2014, Graham gone, Haley gone, and BTW where in the hell has tiny Tim P. gone?
by 2014, Graham gone, Haley gone, and BTW where in the hell has tiny Tim P. gone?
Could the rat I smell be Raj Mantena?
Could the rat I smell be Raj Mantena?