As I listen to today's Florida House debate on abortion and how their oppression against women is all about saving lives, I want this story hammered on the backs of every spiteful, nasty, hateful "pro-life" GOP politician.
Every American needs to know this story. You won't hear about Charlene Dill much. We don't have billionaires interested in telling a real tragic story.
But you need to know it. We need to tell it. It's a story of how far the GOP will go to deny healthcare...
Charlene Dill didn't have to die...
Dill, who was estranged from her husband and raising three children aged 3, 7 and 9 by herself, had picked up yet another odd job. She was selling vacuums on a commission basis for Rainbow Vacuums. On that day, in order to make enough money to survive, she made two last-minute appointments. At one of those appointments, in Kissimmee, she collapsed and died on a stranger’s floor...
Dill’s death was not unpredictable, nor was it unpreventable. She had a documented heart condition for which she took medication. But she also happened to be one of the people who fall within the gap created by the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court
ruling that allowed states to opt out of Medicaid expansion, which was a key part of the Affordable Care Act’s intention to make health care available to everyone. In the ensuing two years, 23 states have refused to expand Medicaid, including Florida, which rejected $51 billion from the federal government over the period of a decade to overhaul its Medicaid program to include people like Dill and Woolrich – people who work, but do not make enough money to qualify for the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies. They, like many, are victims of a political war – one that puts the lives and health of up to 17,000 U.S. residents and 2,000 Floridians annually in jeopardy, all in the name of rebelling against President Barack Obama’s health care plan.
It was preventable. She would be alive today if Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature accepted the Medicaid funding. Because they didn't, Charlene died.
What grates at me is that Charlene, with her three small kids and no help, made "too much money":
Dill had been bumped off Medicaid because she was making too much money – an estimated $9,000 a year
Wow.
To be clear, there is no good reason... NOT ONE FREAKING GOOD REASON... to turn down $51 billion from the federal government to extend Medicaid coverage. The federal government pays all of it for three years, and 90% for years afterwards. Medicaid is flexible, and highly efficient. It would also be an absolute BOON to our economy and create thousands of jobs, keep hospitals open, and God-forbid, help a few people from dying.
Even our right-wing Senate was willing to accept the money.
It was the teabagger-led Florida House, headed by an impetuous child named Will Wetherford, that said NO WAY. He said that it "crosses the line of the proper role of government" despite the fact that it would help 1.3 million floridians.
Ironic, since Will Weatherford once admitted that his OWN FAMILY survived because of Medicaid!!
Will, I hope there's a hell, because that's where you're going. You spiteful creep.
Rick Scott initially said he would accept the money last year. Then his teabag supporters yelled at him and within literally a few hours he reversed his position. (I thought to myself, "Can you not be an asshole for just a few hours? Have we not suffered enough?")
So he and Will would turn down the Medicaid expansion, completely paid for, and let people die. Six people a day, if you are counting.
Alan Grayson, who was attacked for saying the GOP just wanted people to "die quickly", doubled-down:
“Charlene’s sad and unnecessary death illustrates what I have said all along: For the 1 million of Floridians who cannot afford health care coverage, the Republican health care plan is simply this: ‘Don’t get sick,’” Grayson says. “If you do get sick, and if you cannot afford coverage, the GOP has nothing for you but prayer. The Republicans have no answers, no alternatives, no ideas, no safety nets, no sympathy, no empathy and no compassion. Just these three words: ‘Don’t get sick.’
The GOP’s refusal to expand Medicaid, at no cost to Florida, has put the GOP’s appalling disregard for human life on full display. As far as they’re concerned, if you’re not a fetus, you’re on your own. The Republicans would literally rather watch people like Charlene die than give them the care that they need to stay healthy and alive. It’s disgusting and sadistic.”
Let's call it what it is. Evil. Pure evil.
You sons of bitches took a mother from her kids out of plain spite. She would be alive today. Her poor children would have a mother.
You aren't pro-life. You are monsters. And you can fucking rot in hell.