Sunday, December 11, 2011

Big, Blue Button

Here it is:

Recently I went to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Medicaid website in search of a phone number. It should have been easy to find – the 800 number for the processing center that deals with most Medicaid inquiries in the state – but that important number was tricky to track down.

You know what wasn’t hard to find, though? The giant blue button with big, bold “Report Public Assistance Fraud.” 

That button was right there on every page. As I saw it, and saw it, and saw it, I realized something.

That big, blue button was more prominent than any of the links to learn about how to apply for Medicaid, for food stamps, for emergency assistance. It’s easier to find than the information—like that phone number—that would help people currently using public assistance make sure they are communicating clearly with the state.

To me, that blue button is saying that the state of Idaho thinks I’m more likely to commit fraud than seek to use the public programs my family benefits from the way they are intended to be used.

I’m not saying fraud isn’t a problem, or it shouldn’t be reported (though Idaho apparently doesn’t have such a concern about legislators committing tax evasion, but whatevs).

The issue also isn’t whether Medicaid or other forms of public assistance should exist, or whether they’re the most efficient and effective ways to help those in need. The fact is, at this point in time, they’re the best way for families to receive help.

And the issue here is how we treat people who ask for help.




Now, maybe I’m reading too much into that blue button. But the hostility and mistrust is laid right out there in the open when  politicians and talking heads on cable news call low-income people lazy, moochers, parasites.

That language has leaked into the vocabulary of everyday Americans who would have no problem hopping on the comments section of this blog and calling me the same things, even if they don’t know me and would never say it to my face – and even if they do know me, as I learned in a past episode.

I’ve been told before that it’s good for people on public assistance to feel guilty, that it will motivate them get better jobs and earn more money. But I hope most of us realize by now that it’s just not that simple.

I was having a conversation about the economy with a group of other parents earlier this week and one father said that his business had hit such hard times that he was considering applying for food stamps and Medicaid for his daughter, and he turned his face and looked ashamed. Something made this big, burly dude, a good-old-fashioned American small business owner, feel ashamed to ask for help to be sure his little girl had healthy meals, that she could get immunizations or a cast if she breaks her arm

That’s the type of shame that exists in a country where worth is tied to wealth.

There are people for whom that big blue fraud button exists. There are people who choose abusing public assistance above working hard. There are thousands of others who don’t.

So help me out, dear readers—what’s causing these attitudes toward our fellow citizens? How does hostility toward the people asking for help right in front of us affect the way we treat the people in need who are thousands of miles away? Is it guilt good? (Obviously I’m seeing a million possible discussions that could arise from this—so let’s have em! And feel free to dissent, just don't be a meanie face about it.)

1 comment:

  1. After reading this I decided to hit the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s website. You certainly aren't kidding about that button. It's pretty much everywhere on the site. As someone who knows a few people who have played fast and lose with the system, I can see the merit in having an easy link to report welfare abuse. I don't know that the goal is so much to shame those who are using it (although I suspect that's a side effect) as to ease the minds of taxpayers that the state responds to those concerns. Because it is in many ways a communal fund being administered by the state. We pay into it for the purpose of helping those in need and we hope that others aren't going to abuse the system.

    As for the negative attitude I think that tends to come from the fact that we see only stories about those abusers of the system. Depending on the 24 news station you have flipped on you hear demonizing of the poor or boiler plate responses to those demonizations. It's pretty rare that we actually talk about the root causes of poverty in this country.

    Some of them are attempting to be addressed. Medical costs are insane and insurance expansion will help lower the costs over time. (The merits of the health care legislation could be debated at length I choose to see it as a start.)

    We need to have a real conversation in this country as to what a living wage is. How we get people on a fair footing so that they can rise and fall on their own brilliance and merit.

    We need to improve education so that we can stay competitive. We need to do it by asking those who are actively day to day working with students. We need to expand our teaching staffs across the country and provide them with the resources and help they need. We need to be able to have a fair system to identify those teachers who are no longer effective and either find a way to refresh them or to relieve them of their position.

    We need to accept that certain industries are not coming back and we need to help communities hurt by the loss of those industries fill the void by working to bring new industries to those areas.

    When people have access to health, knowledge, and employment at a fair wage, their negative feelings about those in need diminish and the numbers of those in need diminish as well.

    As a country that prides ourselves on being a land of opportunity we need to make sure that opportunity is available to all.

    All that said it would be nice if once in awhile a nation where so many people call themselves Christian could remember Matthew 35 - 40

    35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

    36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

    37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

    38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

    39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

    40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

    ReplyDelete

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