Opinion | The poor people are our problem

Arthur Orr has searched, legislative session after legislative session, for the biggest problems plaguing Alabama, and he has found the culprits. 

Poor people trying to eat and stay alive. 

Yes, the scourge of the state, at least in the eyes of the state senator from Decatur, are these swindling, no-good poors and their tricky ways of getting food and health care. And he plans to do something about it. 

This week, with the session winding down, Orr got his Republican pals in the Senate’s Finance and Taxation Committee to shove through two of his bills that would place burdensome restrictions on poor people (including pregnant women and children) attempting to obtain initial Medicaid coverage in the state and also impose a worthless means test on poor families seeking to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. 

The bills are utterly pointless. 

They will save the state almost nothing and likely would, particularly in the case of the SNAP means test, end up costing taxpayers more money. Instead, they are just another way of stepping on the heads of drowning Alabamians. 

Orr’s Medicaid bill would end a process known as presumptive eligibility – which is used by hospitals and doctors to quickly sign up impoverished patients for Medicaid coverage, particularly when they are in need of immediate or emergency care. The process has been a saving grace for many rural hospitals in Alabama, where we have stupidly refused to expand Medicaid coverage, by getting federal dollars flowing into the facilities. 

The process provides temporary coverage – up to 60 days – for patients deemed “likely to receive permanent coverage” by an authorized facility, such as a hospital or health clinic. Earlier this legislative session Alabama lawmakers passed a bill that gave presumptive eligibility to pregnant women, ensuring that impoverished mothers-to-be received necessary prenatal care. 

That legislation passed unanimously. Lawmakers literally cheered when it passed. 

Orr’s bill would kill it before it even takes effect. Because, you know, one of our biggest problems around here are these greedy, poor pregnant women trying to con us into paying for those pregnancies we’re requiring them by law to carry to term. 

Do y’all know how little you have to earn to qualify for Medicaid in Alabama? It’s essentially impossible for an able-bodied adult to qualify, given the restrictions. In addition, a pregnant woman seeking coverage must earn less than $1,800 per month. 

THIS is the big concern? Whether or not we’re providing health care to a pregnant woman who might be rolling in a whole $2k every month and trying to get one past us? 

And, hey, while you’re waiting to see if that ultrasound is covered, don’t even try to get up to $2 per meal through SNAP!

Because in a separate bill Orr wants to ban the use of broad based categorical eligibility to qualify people for food stamps. Because that, too, he claims is being abused by these tricky poors to get food. 

If you’re unfamiliar with federal government jargon, broad based categorical eligibility is a fancy way of saying that instead of going through a complicated means test process, the federal government allows states to base eligibility on whether or not a person is currently eligible for other benefit programs, specifically a qualifying, non-cash Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. If you meet the criteria for that program, they figure, you’re probably good for food stamps too. 

But see, Arthur Orr is on to your wily ways, poor people. Trying to backdoor your way into … (let me check) … nearly 300 whole dollars worth of food stamps when you might actually make more than the $1,255 per month cap – y’all should be ashamed. 

Or, well, someone should definitely be ashamed here. And it’s probably the guy who has rarely missed an opportunity in his nearly 20 years in office to attack welfare programs. 

Over the past few years, Orr has repeatedly proposed legislation that imposes some burden on the people seeking Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment or various other assistance programs. He’s also strongly opposed Medicaid expansion, going so far as to criticize the Business Council of Alabama and its members for having the integrity a few years ago to point out that expansion would greatly benefit the entire state and save dozens of rural hospitals. 

At the same time, Orr has been far, far less concerned about the scrutiny of tax dollars heading out the door to rich people or businesses. Or to his pet projects in the Decatur area. 

Just last session Orr helped shove through one of the biggest tax breaks in history to Alabama’s wealthiest families, with his support of the CHOOSE Act. When fully implemented in a couple of years, it will hand out hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to private schools that are not held to the same standards as public schools and that do not have to adhere to the same accounting and auditing practices as public schools. In other states where similar programs have been implemented, there has been widespread fraud and abuse far exceeding anything seen within SNAP or Medicaid. 

But see, that’s different. Because, well, it just is.