Baby Doc Paul’s War On Mothers, Children and Old People
by digby
Here’s the latest in the “Rand Paul doesn’t know what he’s talking about” series:
Rand Paul, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky, caused a stir last week when he argued that too many births in Kentucky are paid for by Medicaid, the joint federal-state insurance program for low-income Americans. According to Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Medicaid pays for about half of the state’s 57,000 annual births. Paul is quoted by the Associated Press as saying that “Half of the people in Kentucky are not poor. We’ve made it too easy.” In reality, paying for a pregnancy can be anything but easy. According to the March of Dimes, maternity care costs more than $8,800, on average, and these costs can quickly escalate into the tens of thousands of dollars if complications arise (for instance, in the case of a premature birth). That’s why having insurance coverage is so critical. Employer-based group plans usually have good maternity care coverage, but most low-income women don’t get insurance through the workplace. And the National Women’s Law Center has documented that in the individual insurance market, few plans include maternity care coverage at all.
Rand is against the health care bill, of course, which would have mandated that insurance policies cover maternity care in a basic plan. Paul’s teabagging sister in arms, Sharron Angle, has a problem with that too.
No word on whether insurance should cover the maternity care for the pregnant rape and incest victims Angle and Paul insist should be forced to give birth.
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