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" You may have thought that zombie-eyed granny starving took a break after America decided that zombie-eyed granny-starver Paul Ryan should not be vice-president of anything like America, and sent him back to Janesville, where he is also cordially despised at the ballot box. Ah, no. His &amp;quot;bold ideas&amp;quot; are marching on, specifically across the border into Minnesota, where voucherized health-care got a tryout and lies motionless now, a steaming, bleeding hunk of barely discernible meat by the side of the road. Judie Nyholm has not had health insurance since July, when the 61-year-old Brooklyn Center resident was dropped from MinnesotaCare. &amp;quot;One month came up, and I had $52 a month too much for one month, so they dropped me and told me that I could go on the Healthy Minnesota Contribution Program,&amp;quot; Nyholm said. She is the subject of an experiment being discussed on both the state and federal level. Instead of relying on state-subsidized, government-based health insurance, Nyholm became eligible to receive a state voucher of $395 monthly to buy health insurance on the private market. Nyholm, who gets Social Security benefits and has a part-time job, said the health insurance available to her is either too expensive or inadequate. She said one option that mirrored her $30 monthly premium for MinnesotaCare would have required her to pay a $10,000 deductible before insurance kicked in. Repeat after me. It...doesn&amp;#039;t...work. &amp;quot;We are seeing fewer people who were previously enrolled in MinnesotaCare who are purchasing coverage through the Healthy Minnesota Coverage Program,&amp;quot; said Minnesota Human Services Assistant Commissioner Scott Leitz. &amp;quot;As people transition from programs, there&amp;#039;s a possibility that you&amp;#039;ll see fewer people taking up a newer program then as they transition out of an older one,&amp;quot; Leitz said. &amp;quot;For some individuals, it may be that the up-front cost sharing is something they aren&amp;#039;t interested in.&amp;quot; Repeat after me. It...doesn&amp;#039;t...work. The Healthy Minnesota Contribution Program was a top priority for GOP legislative leaders when they took control of the Legislature in January 2011. They initially pushed to give vouchers to nearly everyone enrolled in MinnesotaCare. Their efforts were scaled back when Republicans reached a budget deal with Gov. Mark Dayton in 2011. The move is expected to save taxpayers $36 million over the next three years. Republican state Sen. David Hann of Eden Prairie is chief author of the Senate bill that created the new program and also sits on the board for the Minnesota Association of Health Underwriters, which lobbied for the bill. Repeat after me. It...doesn&amp;#039;t...work...because...it&amp;#039;s...not...supposed...to...work. This is health-care &amp;quot;reform&amp;quot; that is designed to deliver as little health care to as few sick people as possible. It is health-care &amp;quot;reform&amp;quot; as budgetary gimmick, and as sweetheart deal for insurance companies whose primary loyalties are to their stockholders, and not to their customers. And they&amp;#039;re not done, yet. Hann said the state should share more information with insurance companies about the people who need coverage. &amp;quot;What some of the insurance folks are saying is that you should allow us to know who those people are who are eligible so we can go and invite them or reach out to them and say, &amp;#039;here&amp;#039;s some things you can look at,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Hann said. State privacy laws don&amp;#039;t allow the Department of Human Services to share personal information about clients. There&amp;#039;s a reason for that. Health-insurance companies are some of the greediest and most heartless bastards into whom god ever breathed life. You&amp;#039;d have to be insane \u2014 or completely in the tank \u2014 to argue that the best way to get people to buy health insurance in a program designed to make it impossible for them to afford it is to make sure that all their personal data is available to the people who are presently gouging them. But, then, on the other hand, you know, FREEEEDOMMMMMMMM!!! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a16940/minnesota-health-care-voucher-fails-121212/>