Medicaid and the problems of law enforcement
Last March, I sent a link to Tod Kelly, and told him in the email, “Essentially, it’s an argument that extending medicaid is essential to decreasing prison populations. Given how many inmates deal with substance abuse and mental health issues, it makes a lot of sense.” He wrote this post, Real prison reform can’t happen without Medicaid expansion because of the tip, and we had a very good discussion.
So I thought you might find the Salt Lake Tribune’s story, on the Utah Police saying the Medicaid expansion was necessary to help fight crime interesting. Apparently, there’s a pamphlet for that. Ann Landers would be proud.
Medicaid expansion is one the issues which our legislature is fighting over while we careen towards a potential gov shutdown on July 1. Our new governor campaigned on expanding it, but the R dominated legislature is against it.Report
Meh,
It’ll be a lot worse when the Federal version crashes and burns, or taxes are raised to cover the true cost of covering folks.Report
maybe there other costs to consider.Report
Never has the american public actually wanted to be taxed for all the free stuff they demand they gov’t provide them.Report
I think you miss the point, @damon
Just because you don’t want to pay for mental health care doesn’t mean you’re not paying for mental health care. The question is which method of paying for it is most cost effective and maximizes liberty.Report
I’m not disagreeing with that Zic, but most folks don’t consider hidden costs when they think about their taxes.Report
You are not debating most people, you’re debating me, on a topic that I’ve brought to the League’s attention twice now because the hidden costs are extremely high, both in dollars and freedom. There have been numbers of instances of police murdering mentally ill people, and there are astonishing numbers of mentally ill people in prison. Police are not trained to deal with mental illness.
So I’m not sure what the whole point of your comments have been except knee-jerk, don’t-tax-me reactions. If I’ve actually missed a salient point, please feel free to reiterate it.Report
Actually, I’m not debating you. My point was, and is, that people don’t see a lot of the negative impacts to their decisions about taxes and gov’t polices because the impact hit them very little, the negative consequences are widely diffused into the population, or they hit marginalized folks that aren’t very noticeable to the rest of society in the first place. Hell, politicians make a career out of giving people free stuff and hiding the consequences. This has nothing to do with “don’t tax me bro”. Can you hear me now?Report
Just another tidbit on the mental health care from today’s NYT; google searches for therapists suggest that red states are bluer.
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Off topic, but I’m tickled to finally see you front-paging here, @zic.
For whatever reasons, OT has been remarkably good at keeping me lurking for many years. This will do for a good while more.Report
Thank you, @ktward
And if you ever want to do a guest post. . .Report
As a bona fide OT contributor, you’re now contractually obligated to recruit. (I keed! … mostly.)
Meanwhile, masthead needs an update. Is that CK these days?Report
This issue touches on other irons in the fire. Stand by, please.Report
I think that even libertarians could agree that fighting crime with socialized medicine is better than fighting it with police bullets.Report
From your lips to god’s ears, as it were.
I’m curious: are there a number of prominent libertarians who think similarly? How about just one or two? I’m unaware of any, but I could easily have missed a memo or two.Report
As I understand it, no less than Ron Paul himself is, in fact, a physician.
Like most other physicians, I am sure he cares very little with which hand he is paid.
At the very least, I have heard not a single anecdotal tale of him having refused payment due to governmental origins.
How’s that?Report
Actually, I think he says he did decline Medicaid. Says he would (and did) work for free, first.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/ron-pauls-claims-about-life-without-medicare-and-medicaid/2012/01/31/gIQAedy5hQ_blog.htmlReport
I do believe I’m on record (more than once) with my agreement on this. Hospital beds might be more expensive than prison cells, but they are without question more humane, they need not be nearly as long term, and if caught early, result in less harm to the ill, and society in general.Report