Expanding Health Care Access
By: Lowell
Published On: 12/13/2007 9:04:13 AM
This is a smart move by Gov. Kaine:
Governor Tim Kaine announced a plan to expand health care access across the commonwealth for the un-insured.
It's part of the governor's two year budget plan.
The proposal will include funding to increase women's access to critical preventive care, expand the health care safety net for the uninsured and launch a pilot initiative to provide insurance to more working families.
Kaine says that as more citizens rely on the health care system for their most basic health needs, the system needs to be strengthened.
How to pay for it in an era of fiscal austerity? There are lots of ways, but for this plan's opponents, I'd just like to point out that we're all paying in a myriad of ways for people not having access to health care. The deal here is you can pay the current way (much more expensive) or you can pay the smart way (much less expensive). Which will it be?
Comments
Kaine is helping with foster care too (PM - 12/13/2007 9:25:54 AM)
He is a great man.
Foster care payment schedules had fallen behind inflation big time. It is so important for these neglected children to have stable homes. Republicans bitch and moan about family values, but other than bleating and bellowing, what does the GOP ever do about it? (Other than implement destructive programs like abstinence-only sex ed.)
In case anyone missed it, here's the Washington Post story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Here's the shocking statistic Kaine is trying to correct:
The study found that more than 43 percent of Virginia's roughly 900 foster children age 12 and over find a permanent home, well below the national average of 72 percent. In addition, 23 percent of Virginia's 8,100 total foster children are discharged without any significant connections to family or friends that could ease their transition, the highest rate in the country.
Era of fiscal austerity? (RoCoDemsPrez - 12/13/2007 6:37:41 PM)
I wouldn't exactly call it that...
But I do agree with the bill. Good move.
What do you call (Lowell - 12/13/2007 6:48:22 PM)
a $1.2 billion deficit statewide and major budget problems in Fairfax County, Prince William County, etc? An era of fiscal plenitude?
No... (RoCoDemsPrez - 12/13/2007 6:59:06 PM)
I just call it out-of-control defecit spending
?? (cerulean08 - 12/13/2007 7:47:00 PM)
I think that "era of fiscal austerity" describes this time in Virginia perfectly. We have to watch our spending in this state. However, I do believe that Governor Kaine's plan is a good plan. I think that RoCoDemsPrez needs to know what he is talking about before he runs his mouth. A person from Texas shouldn't be going on about a state he obviously doesn't know much about.
I Agree (roy for sam - 12/13/2007 8:06:54 PM)
"Fiscal Austerity" describes it perfectly. However, cerulean08 tone down the rhetoric; we're all friends here.
Huh? (Lowell - 12/14/2007 9:36:23 AM)
That's ridiculous. Gov. Kaine just announced across-the-board spending cuts. There haven't been any significant increases in spending, except for transportation which is being paid for by regional authorities and the (ugh) abuser fees. That's about it on the spending side. On the revenues side, we've got big problems due to the economic slowdown and particularly problems in the housing market (e.g., declining real estate values). That's the issue right now, not "out-of-control deficit spending."
PS How could there be "out-of-control deficit spending" with the absolutist, anti-tax, flat-earth Republicans controlling the House of Delegates? Obviously, there couldn't be.
Of course, on the national level (Lowell - 12/14/2007 9:37:40 AM)
...the Republican demonstrated over the past 7 years that they are quite capable of blowing huge holes in the budget by slashing taxes on rich people and corporations (and showering them with massive corporate welfare) while spending $1 trillion on the Iraq war. Heckuva job!