One suspects that’s the point.
It’s constitutional – deal with it
Texans, and in particular the state’s Hispanic population, might remain in the dark on the benefits of the new federal health care law because outreach efforts are largely focusing on the 24 states participating in the Medicaid expansion and state-based insurance exchanges, officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said [last] Monday.
Texas is not among those states; Gov. Rick Perry and Republican leaders have argued federal health reform would eventually bankrupt the state. But Dr. Olveen Carrasquillo, a member of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Advisory Committee on Minority Health, said at a Monday meeting that just because a state like Texas isn’t expanding Medicaid or implementing a state-based health insurance exchange doesn’t mean it should be excluded from federal marketing aimed at Hispanics.
“We can’t pretend all is rosy,” he said. “I don’t think this communication plan is working.”
Two-thirds of Hispanics in the U.S. say they do not have enough information about the health reform law to understand how it will affect them, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Health Tracking Poll. Texas has more Hispanic residents than any state but California, and without the Medicaid expansion, 22 percent of them will remain uninsured, according to the Urban Institute’s American Community Survey.
[…]
Special federal funding known as navigator grants, which require at least one community-based nonprofit to operate as a health reform outreach provider, will become operational in Texas around September or October, according to Kelly Dinicolo, technical adviser at CMS. These nonprofits will provide in-person enrollment assistance to help people buy insurance — in Texas, it will be via a federal health insurance exchange — or direct them to Medicaid, if they qualify.
Dinicolo and other government officials said they have launched some limited advertising in Texas, but mainly through online marketing because it is easier to target a younger demographic. For those who do not have access to online information, CMS has announced a partnership with libraries to help people navigate the health reform changes.
The newly launched informational website about health care reform, Healthcare.gov, has also launched a Spanish version, CuidadoDeSalud.gov.
There’s also Be Covered Texas, in English and Spanish, which is a statewide campaign launched in March by Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas to help enroll Texans in the exchange, and Get Covered America, launched in June, aimed at informing people about the October 1 enrollment period opening. Hopefully, they can help to fill the gaps. But let’s be clear here: The reason we’re in this position is because 1) Rick Perry and most of the Republicans in the Legislature refused to expand Medicaid; 2) Perry and the Lege refused to do a Texas insurance exchange and have not lifted a finger to abet the federal effort; and 3) the Republican-controlled Congress has refused to appropriate any more money for the federal information program about exchanges. If people remain uncovered or uninformed despite the hard work of the people and groups heroically trying to overcome these obstacles, it’s not their fault.
What in hell ever happened to being responsible public servants, carrying out duly-constituted laws whether you agree with them or not?
These bastards are nihilists.
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