Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

It’s always something.
Right now, it’s a tooth infection. I know – there are people out there dying of brain cancer at this very moment. I’m well aware. I have perspective.
But just fyi, I was in a great deal of pain at the end of last week and particularly on Saturday until I saw two dentists and made two trips to Walgreen’s before finally getting my hands on some painkillers.


I will tell that story some other time – like after Wednesday, when I go back to the dentist and find out if we’ve knocked out the infection (with amoxicillin) and need to then “extract” the tooth or do a root canal.
Meanwhile, painkillers work – even if I didn’t get any hydrocodone, which is the best.
Now, to the news . . .
Medicaid Mess Mitigated
“A new Illinois law aims to eliminate the giant headache of applying for and keeping Medicaid health insurance,” WBEZ reports.
Well, this one strikes close to my heart. My heart, actually. Longtime readers (and Twitter followers) may recall my travails with Medicaid. My low income has (just barely) qualified me for Medicaid since Obamacare allowed states to expand coverage.
I’m also in the awful position of losing my Medicaid if I make just a little bit more money – or cut my expenses by just a little bit. For example, adding a third roommate due to significantly rising rent almost screwed me out of my health insurance last year. Unfortunately, making or saving just a little more money will actually cost me a lot of money if I have to buy a plan on the Obama marketplace – in fact, so much more that I won’t be able to have health insurance at all. That would be a disaster not only for the obvious reasons, but for the immediate reasons of not being able to otherwise afford a monthly prescription I need, much less something like, say, taking care of a painful tooth infection. Something more serious like so many suffer every day? Forget it. So, yeah, Medicare for All sounds like a fantastic idea to me.
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“More than 3 million people who are low-income or disabled in Illinois have medical coverage through Medicaid – about one in four people statewide.”
So Medicaid is a program that touches a lot of people in Illinois. Seems like it should be covered as such! But I digress . . .
“But Illinois has struggled with a backlog of applications that reached more than 120,000 under former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. That caused people who were enrolled to get dropped from Medicaid, and made it harder for new people to get on the rolls.”
My experience with Medicaid has been that, bureaucratically speaking, it’s a mess. (But you want all Americans to be put into such a program, huh? Yes! First, Medicare is one of the best-run government programs we have. It’s not the same as Medicaid. Perhaps the difference is that everyone gets Medicare, while Medicaid is for society’s undesirables, and treated as such. Second, be it Medicare for All or some other version of a universal, single-payer system, the evidence around the world is in as starkly as our nation’s lax gun laws. Are you telling me we are not capable of running a health care system as well as the rest of the world? Well, I, for one, will not sit here while you tear down the United States of America!)
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The backlog under Rauner was at least partly intentional, by the way, as his administration contracted with third parties to essentially kick people off the Medicaid rolls in the name of waste, fraud and abuse. Let me tell you something: Anyone who is able to scam Medicaid to get benefits should be hired to run the whole damn system, or run for governor, because it’s incredibly difficult to navigate honestly, much less swindle it.
Also, and this doesn’t get talked about much, it’s not just about the insurance, it’s about access to health care providers. Finding a Medicaid doctor (or dentist) is not easy, and they don’t tend to be top-of-the-line (nor do their affiliated hospitals), no offense intended. As far as I understand it, Medicare for All would ameliorate that.
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“The backlog is down to about 95,000 applications, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said during a news conference on Monday to discuss the new law.”
And Bruce Rauner was supposed to be the one who could run government like a business. As I’ve always said, that’s all fine and good, but what business? Arby’s?
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“The new Illinois law aims to make it easier for people to get and keep their Medicaid insurance by renewing more applications automatically, instead of having people apply every year. And Medicaid enrollees will have to submit just one pay stub to prove they qualify.”
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Also, this from RiverBender.com, though it looks like it could be a press release, and I’m saying that for real, not snarkily:

“In the past few years, Illinois has seen too many people who qualify for health care coverage needlessly knocked off the system and unable to get medical care,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Health care is a right for all, not a privilege. Today we are making sure taxpayers are getting more of what they’re paying for, and we are advancing health care for vulnerable people who need it most.”
Crafted by the bipartisan, bicameral Medicaid Legislative Working Group, SB 1321 enables key state agencies – the Dept. on Aging, Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services, Dept. of Human Services and Dept. of Innovation and Technology – to lead one of the most aggressive cross-agency efforts in Illinois history to expand access to health care for low-income Illinoisans and eliminate the application backlog that had grown to more than 120,000 people under the previous administration. Since taking office, the Pritzker administration has already reduced the backlog to 95,000 applications – a 20 percent reduction.

I’ll believe it when I see it, but if true, thanks and keep going!
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Portillo’s Plays Match Game
“More than 600 workers at popular restaurant chain Portillo Restaurant Group organized to counter management firings and calls to quit, after the business received a flurry of letters saying workers’ names and Social Security numbers didn’t match,” Crain’s reports.

These so-called “no match” letters are mailed by the Social Security Administration. By themselves, they say nothing about a worker’s immigration status, and a mismatch can be caused by simple errors like a misspelled name. However, employers sometimes interpret them to mean a worker cannot legally work in the United States.
Portillo’s “did the right thing” after workers organized themselves, according to an e-mail from workers’ rights organization Arise Chicago. The business backed away from calls for voluntary termination, rehired workers who were fired or left involuntarily, and paid back wages for time lost.

See also: No More “No Match” Letters.
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
Highlights | Lolla 2019
Shaq!
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The Long-Term Costs Of Trump’s Racism
There will be those who will no longer say the quiet parts out loud but aim for the same ends.
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Superstar Athletes Popularize Unproven Stem Cell Procedures
“These are the richest, most highly paid athletes around. So anything you can think of, they’re getting. But I wouldn’t use them as a role model for how to treat injuries.”
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Shakespeare Mourns Bevington
Remembering the U of C’s beloved English professor.
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Manet And Modern Beauty
“”Regarded as the father of modern art, Édouard Manet had eight years on his friend Claude Monet and was key to the transition from Realism to Impressionism.”
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ChicagoReddit

Any dog for a day programs in Chicago? from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
Barry Manilow’s “Showstoppers” Comes to Chicago (1991).

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BeachBook
The Invention Of Twang.

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The Endless, Invisible Persuasion Tactics Of The Internet.

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TweetWood
A sampling.


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The Beachwood McRibTipLine: Mmm, TwinBerry . . .

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Posted on August 6, 2019