Still wondering why Palin suddenly bailed 2 1/2 years (remember that number) into her term as governor of Alaska? You may not have to wonder anymore. (Hat tip to Scarecrow!)
Alaskan Medicaid Scandal:
State programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life -- taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom -- are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve, a new federal review found.
The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements.
No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
. . .
A particularly alarming finding concerns deaths of adults in the programs. In one 2 1/2 year (did you remember that number?) stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment, to see if they qualified for help.
So, it's entirely possible that while Palin was setting herself up for a 2012 run at President, 254 Alaskans died for no good reason. You know, Palin's starting to make me wish I did believe in hell.
Not to defend Palin (whose lunacy is second only to Michele Bachmann's in my book), but what does this story, horribly as it may be, have to do with her directly? Shouldn't the whole government (or whichever branch is in charge of those things) be to blame?
ReplyDeletewell, of course, the entire system should be held accountable, however, in alaska, the buck stopped with Palin.
ReplyDeleteSince this report is coming out now it's almost certain that the 2 sets of "2 1/2 years" aren't the period of time being referred to. They could overlap sure, but the article does point out the system has been in disarray for years.
ReplyDeleteCertainly not the sort of thing to help her on a national stage though. She couldn't fix her local health care system, why should you trust her with a national one?
"aren't the same"
ReplyDeleteG'ah!
Don't worry, I do it all the time!
ReplyDeleteNo, I think she quit because the world just couldn't see how brilliant she really was. I mean, she had all these ideas, and they were so clear and obvious and right that anyone should have agreed with them. Instead, when she tried to tell people, they looked at her like she was crazy, or they didn't understand, or they made fun of her. Who needs that?
ReplyDelete...The simple fact that they were bad ideas, poorly connected thoughts, and really didn't make sense is, I think, completely lost on her.
I'm not actually joking, or mocking the former Governor... Yeah, I know - surprises me, too.I just think that if there was a major scandal, we'd have heard about it by now. That leads me to believe that the problem (or motivation) which led her to quit was entirely internal to her. And having watched the whole trainwreck, I can't help but think that she's the sort of person who's incompetent precisely because she doesn't have the capacity to accurately evaluate her own abilities.
It would be sad, if she hadn't been - and wasn't still - in a position to do so much damage.
I don't so much think it was entirely internal to her. Just earlier tonight I had a long phone convo with my big sister, who is a conservative and, like mom, a big Palin fan. She was saying that so many people were suing the state of Alaska for various things, some related to Palin's governorship but many not, that the legislature was having a hard time keeping up.
ReplyDeleteSeems that the lady has generated such a buzz that those who oppose her are willing to resort to shady tactics to defeat her. I'm not a proponent or anything--Palin kind of scares me, as a conservative zealot. And it kind of amuses me how male conservative bloggers who support her are forever posting pics of her and saying, "but look, she's so hot! how can the GOP miss out on her awesome hotness?"
The fact that Alaskan healthcare is woefully inadequate speaks to me, at least, about the fact that American healthcare in general is woefully inadequate. It isn't a choice between capitalist medicine and socialized medicine. For me and lots of other poor and/or unemployed people, it's a choice between socialized healthcare and none at all. Dammit.
hey, this prompts me, because of similiar situation, though not as bad state-wide - i recently aquired a new LJ friend who is going through *HELL*. he and his family live in Washington State, have 3 kids, the youngest (8 years old, i think?) has a disorder on the Autism spectrum - and it makes her scarily violent at times, hyper at others, dissasociated at others... this guy and his wife literally (no, really, this is a real *literally*) cannot care for her anymore, and have been trying for years to get help - money for meds and physical accomadations the child needs, for doctors - respite time, because they are both going through nervous breakdowns from dealing with the kids, etc, etc.
ReplyDeletei write this here because i am trying to spread it everywhere, in the hopes that *someone* who has helpful ideas will share - NO ONE will help them. child protection has said that since the parents don't abuse the kids, they can't help, DDD (not sure what that is specifically, but they are supposed to help disabled people) says that she's a child, so not *their* jurisdiction, go to CPS, etc, etc - every single fucking agency in Wash State has been petitioned multiple times for help, and there is no help being given. this father is afraid that his wife is going to suicide, or at least die or go completely mad from the strain and stress (she was just hospitalized for days because of exhaustion. how does one get so exhausted that they need to be hospitalized to fix it? i just cannot imagine how hellish her life must be for that to happen). he's afraid HE is going to have a mental breakdown, and lose his job, and then they will all be on the streets. they are both terrified of their youngest daughter (violent) and terrified for her future, and terrified for their *other* children, to whom they can give almost no attention... to the point where they have been actively petitioning the State to take their youngest child, because with the situation as it is, as long as the youngest is in the house, they are unable to take care of *anyone*
and NO. HELP. AT. ALL. every agency says "not our job, go to this other agency", who says the exact same thing, ad infintum...
so if anyone has anything that might be useful, or know of someplace they might look for something useful, or anything, please email me at: denelian at yahoo dot com
thanx
forgot:
ReplyDeletethis guy's LJ is http://vaxjedi.livejournal.com/profile - i know that kind words are welcome (although he may not reply, cuz he tends to get a lot) and it is ok to go and look - i ended up finding him through a request pretty much like this one on the Callahan's LJ
an LJ that is supposed to help his wife by being a place for people to gather and tell her that she *is* a cool person: http://community.livejournal.com/eleriaddiction/profile - most of that seems to be FriendLocked, but there is some that isn't...
anyway, thanx again