Comrades,

A carefully disguised “loophole” in the Affordable Care Act is attracting the interest of many State Governments. Why pay for your prison inmate's medical care when Obamacare will do it for you? Congratulations Chicago! Will the good news ever stop?

“While analysts couldn't estimate what states and counties could save by getting inmates covered, state and local spending on corrections in 2011 was $73.2 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Prison health-care expenses in 44 states studied by the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts increased to $6.5 billion in 2008 from $4.3 billion in 2001, and grew 90 percent or more in 11 states, according to an October report.”

“The still-small programs could reach a vast population: At the end of 2012, almost 7 million people in the U.S. were on parole, probation, in prison or locked up in jail, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. About 13 million people are booked into county jails each year, according to the Washington-based National Association of Counties.”

Even our loyal comrades in the US Senate didn't see this one coming!

“Former U.S. Senator Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota who was on the Senate Finance Committee when the Affordable Care Act passed, said he doesn't recall discussions about the law's being used to cover inmates.”

Life is good. Yes?

Thank you, Comrade, for posting this. It is comforting to know that if I should, Marx forbid, mistakenly commit a thoughtcrime someday, Dear Leader will still take care of my healthcare even while I'm in the Gulag!

How can anyone not love Big Brother? He certainly loves and cares for us, even when we're bad! Like a father <sniff>. I must stop now. I'm getting all choked up.

Mikhail Lysenkomann wrote:Thank you, Comrade, for posting this. It is comforting to know that if I should, Marx forbid, mistakenly commit a thoughtcrime someday, Dear Leader will still take care of my healthcare even while I'm in the Gulag!

How can anyone not love Big Brother? He certainly loves and cares for us, even when we're bad! Like a father <sniff>. I must stop now. I'm getting all choked up.

Comrade, there is no such thing as mistaken Thoughtcrime. I suggest am immediate course intense Crimestop therapy....."Crimestopmeans the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction."Tread lightly comrade, your thoughts have been noted and catalogued.

PolPotLuckSupper wrote:

Mikhail Lysenkomann wrote:Thank you, Comrade, for posting this. It is comforting to know that if I should, Marx forbid, mistakenly commit a thoughtcrime someday, Dear Leader will still take care of my healthcare even while I'm in the Gulag!

How can anyone not love Big Brother? He certainly loves and cares for us, even when we're bad! Like a father <sniff>. I must stop now. I'm getting all choked up.

Comrade, there is no such thing as mistaken Thoughtcrime. I suggest am immediate course intense Crimestop therapy....."[highlight=#ffff99]Crimestop [/highlight][highlight=#ffff99]means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought.[/highlight] It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction."Tread lightly comrade, your thoughts have been noted and catalogued.

I would add a "behavioral affect" to this sentence: "...and smiling broadly as you stare blankly at the source of conflict."

Comrade Squirrel, is this you?!?

R.O.C.K. in the USSA wrote:Comrade Squirrel, is this you?!?

No, comrade. That's one of my dim witted cousins. I'm sure he'd stick his head into the muzzle of a 12 gauge if one was pointed his way. He's curious, but too trusting - although he seems quite content. Sort of a furry LIV, if you know what I mean.