If you live in the state of New Jersey and are earning $118 a week, congratulations! According to Gov. Chris Christie, you have escaped the bonds of poverty and no longer are in need of the state’s Medicaid program. Never mind that $118 a week is but a fraction of the poverty line as defined by the United States of America. Pay no attention to the fact that New Jersey battles California for the mantle of having the highest cost of living of any state in the nation.
Chris Christie, everyone’s favorite no-nonsense, “tell it like it is” governor, has decided that you can manage quite nicely on this paltry sum while remaining fully capable of paying for your own medical care.
Sound like a joke?
It’s not. And it is difficult to imagine anything less humorous.
Under the Christie plan, adults with a family of four who earn more than $6,000 a year would no longer qualify for the state’s Medicaid program. Currently, the cut-off to qualify is $30,000.
Think about that for a moment.
A single mother raising three kids on a weekly salary of $118 will no longer be eligible to take advantage of the medical social safety net should she fall ill. Full story in Forbes.
Rick Ungar wrote this piece for Forbes. If you are familiar with his work you will know that he is a far left liberal, who’ll support any diatribe so long as it furthers the left’s agenda. I would ask readers to do their own research before believing what is being ‘reported’ here. This is typical left scar-mongery.
This smacks more like an op-ed than a news item.
I think it’s time to be up front with people and let them know what is in store.
The programs are not going to last. Everyone knows it. And every politician is hoping that the other party will be the one to make the cuts and take the blame.
Christie is the only politician being honest and straightforward. The state is broke.
Does anyone know why the state is broke? It’s because NJ, together with the other very liberal states like NY, CA and IL who are also dead broke, taxes it’s richest citizens so much and gives out the highest benefits, that all this causes three things to happen:
1. The richest, and the middle class, and businesses, are sick of the highest taxes in the nation, and are leaving the state in droves, causing even less tax revenue for the state.
2. The richest, and the middle class, and businesses, are sick of the highest taxes in the nation, and are leaving the state in droves, which means LESS JOBS for those who would have gotten a job from these employers.
3. The people who are getting all these benefits have less and less incentive to work. Everyone knows that so many people are finding it very difficult to get a job today becasue it would mean losing their benefits.
THIS IS UNSUSTAINABLE. Chris Christie is being a man and being honest to the people of NJ. The system will collpase eventually, just like the system is collapsing in Greece.
The difference is that in Greece they waited too long, and they will be having huge riots soon. The Jews in Greece (if there are any) will be scapegoated, and Jews will be in danger, as has been the historic norm during periods of social unrest.
In NJ, Christie is trying to avoid all this by slowly getting the state’s fiscal state back in order. It will hurt, but long term this will be a better solution than waiting for the inevitable social unrest, during which it will become very dangerous.
TLS, please don’t censor this comment.
Quote “A single mother raising three kids”
the in lies the problem a single mother of three children , she would be getting support financially from her former husbandand if if she was never married and has three children shame on her for thinking the government should foot the bill for her choice of lifestyle that she cannot support
Completely insane!
u are a sick person. my mother who is single and has 3 children living home with her makes peanuts at her job and gets paid 0 dollars from her dead beat ex-husband. ur post is disgusting
Unfortunately, this slicing away poor people’s safety net and leaving them exposed and uninsured is not the only gash he’s inflicting.. He’s also chasing down the sickly and disabled folks too with draconian changes to the healthcare they so vitally depend on!!
First of all this does not impact children only adults.
Second of all there is no alternative. If christie doesnt make these drastic cuts than the whole system will collapse and no one will be getting insurance.
Also this does not impact those that are currently on jersey care its only for new aplicants.
From your silly comment it’s quite obvious you didn’t read the rest of the article..
but illegals are still getting a free ride regardless of how much they make.
What point were you trying to make??
The article is superbly written and beautifully articulates the cold facts. I realize you may also be “bullish” about the forecasted results.. but the facts speak for themselves.
The poorest people who have no means to afford insurance with their meager salaries will be denied healthcare, period.
The only advice Christie is essentially offering these poor working folks is that they should postpone getting sick until such time that they are earning enough of an income to afford health insurance.
But as everyone on this planet is aware.. Cancer and other dreadful illnesses aren’t calling you first to accommodate your earnings schedule..
#3 I was a single mom raising 3 children! how dare you make such an assumption of a single mom, you have no clue about the life of a person unless you live it. Not all fathers who are not in the “picture” pay child support, mine did not! And what if a woman has three children by two or three different men, who said she expected the state to pay for anything My children had the same father, but he was a worthless (moderated) and just like in my situation some families are better off with otu the father in the picture.
Let’s blame the poor people for being poor!!!! Let them starve to death in the streets or die untreated at the doorstep of the hospital!!! They deserve it!!!
Cut taxes for the rich because they’re being victimized by the evil poor people!!!!
And btw, I’m being facetious
you have problems my friend.pray that you dont need any help when you fall on bad times…….therein lies the problem…. you
Its quite evident that this cut by christe is a necessary step to get nj out of the red. No politican wants to be cutting medcaid benefits and losing support from the lower class citizens, obviously this dire cut must be implemented to bail out the state. If christe dosent get it done the next politican will, its only a matter of time. Wake up friends the time of living off the state is coming to an end. We can be thankful it lasted this long but unfortunately those days are history !wake up all and don’t be caught left out in the dark!
I recently had this argument with a liberal proffesor of mine and I told him that I would love to help out and give everyone everything , but let’s call it like it is , the state is bankrupt so what should we do . If anyone has any better ideas I’m sure you can send it to the gov… BTW I was just denied familycare because I make about a hundred bucks a month over the limit… So now all of a sudden I can afford health care?! Personally I think there should some sort of gradual program based on how much you can afford for all gov programs,
I.e. Medicaid, foodstamps, sec 8…
I think we are all going to have to live with less free money from the government. Margaret Thatcher said it best: “The problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people’s money.”
its time for ALL jews to move to israel where
1)the economy is much better & one of the best in the world
2)mashiach can then be on his way, by everyone moving there showing a sign to hashem that we are yearning & waiting for mashiach to come OR WE CAN BE FORCED & SHIPPED BY HASHEM to israel in preparation for mashiach-just like many other countries that have no jews left & the last ones made their way to israel-BETTER TO DO IT BEFORE IT IS DONE BY FORCE BY HASHEM & leaving all your belongings behind.
I agree with 17 however we would not be forced to leave and leave all our belongings behind come on this is the USA.
Why not learn from the federal Gov? Just continue borrowing and spending.
Both me and my wife work and we can’t afford real health insurance (BECAUSE we work…)Why should people who don’t work be better off?And why should I pay for it?.
That said Christie shouldn’t cut programs right away.People need time to ween themselves off.Also christie has to deal with the fact that insurance is unaffordable.When he was running he claimed he would. His failure to do so is why I will not vote for him (or his opponent) next election.
the problem is not that Christie is cutting, it’s that Medicaid and all these programs were there to begin with. People got used to recieving thousands of dollars a year and now they feel helpless. We live in a society where people in diamonds are going paying medicaid. Or driving nice cars. The government doesn’t OWE you anything. As Thomas Jeffereson said “The best way to help the poor is to make them uncomfortable in their poverty” Living a comfortable life at the expense of others is not a normal mindset. I hope no one falls on any bad times, but if you are so worried about them, go out and create an organization to help! Don’t force others to pay for them! And for all those that really need it (I do, and I don’t get it, cuz I work!!) there are many more that are taking advantage of the system and we all know it. I think it’s wrong when TLS keeps these arguments one sided b/c there are valid opinions on both. I feel badly but this can only boost the economy and everyone will gain. It’s a crazy society where it’s NOT WORTH IT TO WORK HARD!!!!
I work and make a “good” salary, but am going into debt because my “work sponsored” insurance is costing me upwards of eight thousand dollars a year, plus co-pays (ex 500 for any hospital stay.) Meanwhile, my taxes are paying for all those on jersey care to get free tylenol!
$6,000- that’s double the amount that’s typical. Currently you can’t have $3,000 TOTAL in your name to get Medicaid- they make you sell your house.
This artticle is a SHAM!
Almost everyone agrees spending and taxes are too high. But almost everyone is up in arms and screaming, “Don’t cut MY services.” Not child care vouchers. Not special needs therapies. Not Food Stamps. Not WIC. Not HUD.
Of course they’re very necessary to those who need them (or to those who feel it’s not even worth trying to find work because they would lose so much in programs!), but nobody can afford all the taxes required to fund all the unbridled spending that has been put into place by the kind, socialist-leaning Democrats!
Yes, every cut is painful for someone, but the cuts have to happen.
Stop faking. You’re no nursing home administrator!! And if you are, they should fire you for being so illiterate!
Can’t you read? The article never discussed the limited ASSETS an applicant is allowed to have. The article only discussed the very limited INCOME level allowed for eligibility.
If an individual works and earns the the measly amount of $6000 in a 12 month period, then Christie considers him rich enough to purchase his own insurance policy..
It’s very surprising that an “Administrator” can’t understand the difference between a bupkes income and assets.. unless of course you are a SHAM!!!
#22, for a family of however many there is a wage limit for them to make, you are talking about the needs for medicaid to cover long term care which s completley different.
IF a family owns their home they are not going to require they sell it to get medicaid or family care, but yes for a nurssing home patient it is required they have less then some odd dollars in their possession, which is why so many get attorneys and transfer all real property to family members and also obtain a proxy. What chrisite is doing is wrong, I do understand that there are alot of people on medicaid/family care that more then likely are takign advantage of the system, but statistics prove the average person who accepts welfare/food stamps/med insurance is a single person with 2.2 children. It is not the childs fault an doften times not the adults fault they are in the situation they are in, due to the economy/losing a job/death in family and so many other things. I know the state is broke, but why is Christie punishing people who are already suffering. The real victims of this horrible economy, he needs to stop helping the richand help the ones who really need it. There has to be other answers, this is going to be so detrimental to all who it affects.
You now what else would save this state and the federal government, a return to taxing the wealthy at a 80-90% rate like this country did in it’s golden age post WW2. For many years we taxed the wealthy at 80-90% rate and it built the infrastructure (schools, roads, utilities, etc.) that made us all prosperous and a world power. We taxed the wealthy then and they still had more money then anyone could ever need, no reason not to do it again.
Why should people that work for a living and therefore pay a portion of their income to taxes have to pay for the living expenses of all the non tax paying individuals? How is it fair to make a blanket requirement on one class of people in this country to support the other class? forget constitutionality issues, it’s just plain immoral.
Also it’s a grave disservice to people to spoil them to government programs. In effect they are being paid to be unemployed and paid to have little to no income. Why should the government invest money directly into poverty? People that get used to government programs train themselves to never make more money than the threshold provided to keep getting the free government handouts and services. It destroys their normal and natural ambition and self confidence. In most cases, the people on the take from government money are just as capable to earn money as everyone else but they developed psychological problems and fears to ever making enough money that would describe them as non poverty level and lose their government handouts (which is really handouts from all the wealthier, more successful people in the country paying there bills for them) Sonay matonos yichye.
What I’m preaching isn’t achzorios. It’s rachmonos. What’s achzorios is to keep killing people by taking away their core beliefs that they could survive without constantly taking from everyone else. as far as the truly handicapped, there is more than enough private charity money going around to help the truly unfortunate of the world IF all the charity’s would only help the truly handicapped.
quote “I think we are all going to have to live with less free money from the government. Margaret Thatcher said it best: “The problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people’s money.”
I AGREE 100%
I guess some did not understand my comments ,I have nothing against those who unfortunately fall on hard times ,what i do have a problem with is expecting the government to foot the bill forever
where is your information from? Yes, you can own a home, have savings AND get Jersey care until now. Drive a lexus for all they care!
i actually have copies of all the proposed medicaid changes. and this is not true
Huh?
if health insurance costs about 500.00 a month for 2 ppl for a normal plan,how can someone afford to pay for the rest of his expenses i.e. food, rent etc. if it is all going to healthcare?
let’s go back to what Gary Schaer said back in May: Christie is cutting the budget by taking from the poor. Children or adults, single mother or two working spouses, regardless of ethnicity, HEALTH INSURANCE IS NOT AFFORDABLE IN 2011 (and thanks to our president will never be affordable again). Six thousand a year is a joke. Even $20k would be a push (5.65% goes to Medicare and Social Security which we also will never live to benefit from), so at best that brings take home pay to $18.5k. Any honest insurance broker will tell you that a decent (not premium) insurance plan for husband/wife will run a minimum of $9,000 a year. And then there are copays (doctors office, prescriptions) and deductibles (out-of network, hospital) that can run up medical expenses. Where do food, housing (including utilities) and bare essentials (shoes? toiletries) fit in?
99% of New Jersey will agree that cuts need to be made, but at whose expense? Since the governor can spend public funds as he desires, i assume he is not suggesting to decrease the expense of funding health insurance for State employees (cost to taxpayer of approximately $20k annually per employee), is he? What about only providing health coverage to those who are working or (for the short term) getting an education that leads to work like Food Stamps requires?
Maybe those who didnt like what Schaer had to say should read it again……
https://thelakewoodscoop.com/2011/05/schaer-christie%e2%80%99s-budget-philosophy-born-out-of-a-moral-vacuum.html