State Rep. Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City, representative of each person in his legislative district, told the poorest of them, hey, if you can't afford medical care, you don't deserve it.
Stevenson was quoted in an article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch as saying,"People have come to think there's an entitlement to medicine. If I don't pay my electric bill, they cut it off. If I don't pay my water bill, they cut it off. Yet as a society, we expect medical care."
Stevenson, of course, has plenty of money to cover his medical needs, including taxpayer-financed health insurance for legislators, which he voted to continue at the same time he was happily going along with cuts to Medicaid.
Randy, just a note, did you know that Stevenson has the same health plan as all members of state government and had he voted to refuse or defund or otherwise cut his care, he would of simultaniously altered the health plan of every state employee, including mine.
ReplyDeleteI am aware of that. But the amendment that Stevenson, Marilyn Ruestman, Ron Richard, and Steve Hunter voted against would only have cut benefits for elected state officials. Other state employees would not have been affected. The only two area legislators who voted in favor of the amendment were Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, and Ed Emery, R-Lamar.
ReplyDeleteStevenson has made possibly the least compasionate comment I have ever heard in my life. Gee, I hope he never falls on hard times.
ReplyDeleteRandy, those officials cannot be carved out of the overall health plan without completely rebidding the state's health coverage, which if they left, might increase the cost of the overall plan to those who remain in it.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that the officials would have had to pay $115 a month for their health insurance if that amendment had passed, which is about what many of their constituents with partially-covered health insurance benefits have to pay. It should not have made a difference as far as the policy was concerned.
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