Confusion: Kill the Patient or Solve the Problem?

There has been no end of problems with Texas' new distribution system for benefits, so naturally the Department with the responsibility for helping the needy has decided to dump more recipients into existing confusion. This constitutes a death sentence for some, and is cynical in the extreme.

State social services officials now plan to switch 1 million or more needy people in the next year to a different application process for benefits, including Medicaid and food stamps.

The state says it intends to shift 953,000 elderly and disabled Medicaid patients into its problem-plagued "integrated eligibility" system by September 2009 – on top of its previously stated goal of moving in 288,000 more food stamp recipients by August 2009.

The state's decision, tucked into an advance copy of Health and Human Services Commission chief Albert Hawkins' planned testimony to a legislative panel next week, caught advocates for the poor, state employee groups, and a veteran Democratic lawmaker by surprise Friday.

They expressed alarm that Mr. Hawkins would so greatly accelerate the rollout of TIERS – the Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System – to aid recipients statewide.

"I'm concerned that the commission is going to take one of the most vulnerable populations, the elderly and disabled, and convert these extremely complicated cases into TIERS so quickly," said Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin. He said the Medicaid recipients are "most likely to have problems" and there could be "dire consequences."

The Texas State Employees Union, which has said an old mainframe-based system works much better than TIERS, denounced the plan.

"It borders on irresponsible behavior," said union spokesman Will Rogers. "They haven't worked out all the bugs with TIERS. You're playing with people's lives by doing that." (Emphasis added.)

Like the cretins in high office in D.C., these right wingers are determined to make it as hard as possible for the unfortunate to get by. As Eschaton cited this morning, we have an unconscionable element, enabled by the philosophy of You're On Your Own. It's a Law of the Jungle that pitches the elderly and handicapped out onto the streets to fend for themselves.

This should not be accepted by the TX legislature, and those who are promoting it should be redirected into a line of work more suitable for them. There's a soon-to-be renamed sewage plant in California that seems right.