Originally published at: MAGA woman at Trump rally: "I'm coming here hoping I can get my surgery done" (video) | Boing Boing
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These rallies being what they are, I’m sure there are plenty of snake-oil salesmen in attendance who’ll offer her “cures” for her back problem.
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From the headline I assumed the cult had moved on from ‘speaking in tongues’ to the whole ‘laying on of hands’ grift.
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I’m sorry I don’t speak American Healthcare - can someone explain what’s going on here?
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What actually happened to this woman is somewhat opaque. But she seems to think that [expletive deleted] still has the power to do something about it.
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The answer to your question is that (unsurprisingly) she herself is very confused about how the American healthcare system works.
For U.S.-specific terminology, here are some definitions from the HHS.gov site:
Medicare is federal health insurance for anyone age 65 and older, and some people under 65 with certain disabilities or conditions. Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that gives health coverage to some people with limited income and resources.
My guess is that the specialist asked for her credentials for one or the other as a matter of course (esp. If she didn’t have private insurance), and for whatever nutty reason she didn’t know or didn’t accept she was already was eligible for or enrolled in one of the programmes.
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She didn’t sufficiently jump through all the hoops Republicans put in front of her in order for her to retain the Federal health insurance program for the poor. Most likely, Republicans in her state lowered the maximum income one can earn before losing these benefits. It’s already an absurdly low dollar amount in most states, like less than $20k a year.
Another strong possibility is she missed the registration window that year, perhaps because she doesn’t understand that the application must be made yearly or doesn’t understand how to apply now that paper applications are not being sent out in most places.
tl;dr - healthcare is a chaotic nightmare in the US. And expensive.
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It is part of thew QAnon lore…
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Maybe, but also, during COVID, a lot of people on Medicaid didn’t have to reapply or worry about losing their coverage over paperwork because a lot of those requirements were suspended during COVID. When Biden officially declared the pandemic over earlier in the year, some states (mostly red states) started dropping people off Medicaid as fast as they possibly could. My guess is this woman is one of those people, and she’s probably been convinced that it’s all Biden’s fault because he was President when it happened. And she’s probably been simultaneously convinced that Trump is secretly still President and running things, and hopes she can talk to someone at this rally who can help her. I feel bad for her. Propaganda is a hell of a drug.
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Maybe she could get one of the doctors who swore that Trump was the healthiest human being who ever lived just to declare her condition cured? Problem solved!
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Don’t know what her timeline or details are like, but there are lots of states very busily throwing people off Medicaid rolls for piddly reasons. Medicare is a federal program and not as easily messed with, but I suspect there is a movement there as well. It’s all incredibly baroque and difficult to navigate, by design of course. But the idea that Il Douche could or, even if he were still in power, would, do anything for a person who couldn’t grease his palm just speaks to the messianic view of TFG held by his disciples.
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Iowa went one better and just wholesale rolled back Medicaid COVID protections. Because they’re very pro-life in Iowa.
But you’re also right that the state-level process is so Byzantine and impossible to navigate in most states that it is effectively designed to prevent access. States like NY treat Medicaid just like any other private insurance on the marketplace. I actually currently have Medicaid because when I called in to get regular coverage during the pandemic, I qualified because I was temporarily laid off from a part-time job I took to get out of the house more. I kept asking the agent to double-check my income, marital status, tax filing etc just to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. When I called in this year to inform they I began a new job that definitely put me outside even the COVID allowances I was told that, yes, I would be losing coverage… in a year. Best insurance you can get. I do not live in Iowa (and have been getting every lingering medical and dental issue taken care of while I can).
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I wonder if it’s because sovereign citizens are ineligible for US Medicaid?
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Ooohhh, maybe somebody selling “bootstraps”?
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You never know at these rallies, but @danimagoo’s explanation (supported by @IronEdithKidd and others) seems the most probable explanation for her weird statement.
There’s a good chance she also believes that COVID was a hoax, but how she’d square that with the Medicaid paperwork requirements being suspended under her hero because of the pandemic would make our brains hurt.
In any case I doubt that a “reporter” from this “news outlet” would have been inclined to ask follow-up questions to clarify.
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I enjoyed the expression on the interviewer’s face as the clip ends, as he realizes he’s not going to get anything coherent from this unfortunate, ignorant, possibly delusional, woman.
I do feel some level of compassion for her though. As demonstrated upthread, American “healthcare” in this country sucks, and navigating it also sucks.
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I’ve told this story on BB before, but I’ll never forget years ago, my right wing barber saying he couldn’t wait till he was old enough for Medicare (he was in his late 50s then), so he could take better care of his diabetes … then several minutes later saying, and I quote, “But we don’t need none of that SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. No sir!” If he hadn’t been cutting my hair, I’d have tried to explain a thing or two to him.
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Out of curiosity, and for some crap icing for this shit cake, was this barber also a veteran of the US military? If so, I’m going to need more than 2 hands for my resulting facepalm.
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My wife got her mother on Medicaid recently. She had help from a guy who worked for an organization which helped people navigate the labyrinth.
And it was a hell of a labyrinth. I was briefly concerned that she was getting scammed, but the nursing home people had connected her with this guy and that checked out. She herself said it felt like she was doing a drug deal with the IRS.
It was still better than dealing with the VA.
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