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February 1, 2008

What's "Financial Aid" in Spanish?

Justin Katz

Consider this vignette from Katherine Gregg's Projo story on Rhode Island's misuse of federal healthcare funds:

Emma Villa told the lawmakers what would happen to her, as the operator of a small day-care business in her Laban Street, Providence, home, where she looks after two children in addition to her own.

With the help of a translator, the Spanish-speaking Villa, 40, said: "It is very important that we have health care," she said, "because we are the ones that hold the entire welfare-to-work system up. If parents, children and those of us who care for them lose our health care, we could face the spread of disease without treatment — maybe even an epidemic...Is that what we really want?"

Without health insurance, Villa said she will have to look for another job and if she is unable to find one with health insurance, she will be forced to seek financial aid from the state for the first time in her 20 years in this country.

The tale of Rhode Island's woes couldn't be told with much more concision. Here's a woman who watches two children as a job (the minimum she can take and receive healthcare), who apparently can't speak English well enough to be much help to those kids in that regard, and who sees the substantial money that the state pays toward her health insurance as something other than financial aid.

Online details of state financed health insurance are spotty, as far as I've been able to see, but assuming that she's married (which perhaps can't be assumed), Villa's entire family could be eligible for RIte Care at a cost to her of $61 per month if their income is up to around $39,000 per year, or free if it is less than around $32,000. At the high end, her family could make over $70,000 per year, and she and her children would still be eligible for the Child Care Provider Rite Care (CCPRC) Program for a monthly cost of $130.

I don't know what's standard, out there, but based on the little bit of information I've found online (PDF, PDF2, and this), I wouldn't be surprised if there are Rhode Island taxpayers who make nowhere near that amount and pay $130 per week for a comparable plan.

Villa throws up the specter of an "epidemic" if the healthcare gravy train were to stop, but the real epidemic lies down the path of continued state overspending, increasing taxes, and exodus of its victims.

Comments

"Villa throws up the specter of an "epidemic" if the healthcare gravy train were to stop, but the real epidemic lies down the path of continued state overspending, increasing taxes, and exodus of its victims."
XXX
True enough. Somewhere on a remote mountain in Guatamala, a group of villagers is being regaled about a tribe of stupid white fools called "progressives". They will let you sneak into their country and get free food, housing, medical, cash payments for any babies you breed. They will protest if you commit a crime and the state dares to deport you or if you refuse to pay your utility bill and someone dares to try to turn them off. Your children will be made US citizens even though you are illegal and will be put on "child only" benefits for 18 years. If you want to babysit a couple of kids you will be paid more than most who have real jobs.
Upon hearing these stories, the villagers laugh in disbelief. But when you tell them there are many male members of this "progressive" tribe who find sexual gratification in other men's rectums, they will fall down on the ground in mirth and total disbelief.

Posted by: Mike at February 1, 2008 9:21 AM

"Here's a woman who watches two children as a job (the minimum she can take and receive healthcare)"

Wwwwhhhat??? No wonder this state is in so much fiscal trouble.

In the meantime, until someone figures out how stupid, expensive and unnecessary this is, I see a career change in my future. To something - not sure what - I can do at home. While I'm watching two children to obtain 100% state paid health care coverage.

Posted by: Monique at February 1, 2008 8:50 PM