Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched. Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration cited budget shortfalls and other available health care options for eliminating funding for the program.
Universal Health Care expensive? Who could have forseen that? I mean, insurance costs were vastly different way back in -uhm- January when this program was setup… Officials were also shocked to learn that people were chosing free insurance over paying for it themselves:
A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan. “People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free,” said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. “I don’t believe that was the intent of the program.”
Now the best part is this: Even with the “cheating” going on by the people supporting the program with their tax dollars, only 2000 children were actually being covered by the state – and more half of the cost was actually being covered by the insurance company. Meanwhile “experts” still estimate that 3-16,000 kids lacked health care amist a FREE universal program. (i want a job where i get to just make up unverifiable numbers too!). Now if the experts are wrong, we don’t actually have a problem – however – if they’re right, apparently U.H.C. did little to solve the problem while maxing out the budget.
Oblivious of the results of the program, Democratic Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland spouted the following platitude: “Children are a lot more vulnerable in terms of needing care”. I think the Senator should also mention that “dumb people struggle more in school” and that “punching puppies is down right mean”.