A Tale of Two States: Caring About Its Citizens

In Arizona, the Senate Appropriations Committee examined a proposal from Gov. Jan Brewer to cut $170 million from the state university system, as well as a plan to save $1 billion next year by eliminating health-care coverage for 280,000 people, mostly childless adults.  The Arizona Republic reported: The bottom line, said Sen. Rick Murphy, R-Peoria, is people have to shoulder more responsibility for themselves.  Other Republicans on the budget-writing committee agreed, saying the state's ongoing deficit makes cuts imperative.  "This isn't the only time in our history when people had to choose between food and medicine," said Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake.  Her parents had to make such tough choices, she said, and others will have to as well.  She said that "well people," which means people who have generally good health, can do more to keep themselves healthy and avoid the need for government support for medical coverage.
In related news, The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation, issued its Securing a Healthy Future: The Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard on Child Health System Performance, 2011.  Arizona ranked 49th overall (out of 51) with only Nevada and Mississippi ranking worse, while ranking 47th in Access & Affordability, 45th in Prevention &Treatment, 38th in Potential to Lead Healthy Loves, and 49th in equity.  On the other side of the ledger is Massachusetts, AND ITS UNIVERSAL COVERAGE, which ranked #1 overall, while ranking 1st in Access & Affordability, 4th in Prevention &Treatment, 7th in Potential to Lead Healthy Loves, and 4th in equity. 
Number 49 Arizona says suck it up
Number 1 Massachusetts says we’re in it together. 

Number 49 Arizona GDP=$256.36 Billion and population=6.30Million
Number 1 Massachusetts GDP=$365.18Billion and population=6.55million

Arizona: State of Denial
Massachusetts: State of Prosperity

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Secular American Jew and a Love for Israel

As many of you know, I have dedicated many postings to the State of Israel on a range of topics including: it’s history, the present day government, the Jewish-Palestinian question, and the region in general.   Growing up in a liberal conservative Jewish household (the oxymoron is quite common as American Jews were almost exclusively political liberals and the conservative branch of Judaism the most common) and attending Hebrew school as a kid you obviously build an affinity for the State of Israel.   I do not remember the Six-Day War of 1967, but I have vivid memories of celebrating Israel’s 25 th anniversary in 1973 and the Yom Kippur War later that year.   As a ten year old attending Yom Kippur services I saw the worried looks on my parents and the other adults at the shul as members of the congregation would periodically step outside to get news reports from car radios and transistor radios (We still drove and used electrical appliances during the high holidays, though several fam
Read more

September 10, 2001 was a Monday

Where were you on September 10, 2001?   What were you worried about?   What occupied your thoughts, worries, hopes, and dreams?   What were you excited about?   What were you interested in? September 10, 2001 was a Monday. Cindy and I were still laughing about the recent visit from the Three Amigas: Leah, Roseanne, and Valerie, and the adventures of Sedona, a certain screen door, a forgotten carrot cake, and breakfast for champions.   We were also dealing with a 1995 Chevy Blazer that seemed to be on its last legs, surviving our first Arizona summer, thinking about what to remodel in the house, dealing with the concept of a Home Owners Association, thinking that my best shot at a World Series game maybe with the fledgling Arizona Diamondbacks, and looking forward to a visit from Scott, Lori, and the boys. But what about America?   We knew nothing about a tiny town in Pennsylvania called Shanksville; Guantanamo Bay was the setting for A Few Good Men, and we still taped shows and listene
Read more

Sunni and Shia: So who are the bad guys again?

Baby faces vs. heals?   Cowboys vs Indians?   Good guy always where the white hat.   “Dig is he a good guy or bad guy?”   Bad guys always, looked, well, bad. You’re either with us or you’re against us.   Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are the axis of evil. Americans, for the most part, have a pretty simple outlook on conflict: just tell us who the bad guys are and we’ll know who to root against.   We tend to lump similar races and peoples into larger buckets, mostly due to the media’s inclination to treat us like potential Jeff Foxworthy competitors.   But the world is anything but simple and as I have written previously, the Middle East is as confusing and confounding place as you can find.   During the Iran and Iraq war of the 1980’s most Americans took the position that “…as long as they kill each other, I’m good.”   When civil war ravaged Afghanistan, we joined the side of the Mujahedeen because they were fighting the Soviets and the Soviets were our archenemy, a position they occupie
Read more