Rhoades' sad Health Care Legacy for BadgerCare Recipients.

I have always had a hard time praising people who found it easy to turned a cold shoulder to those who needed life saving health care but couldn't afford it. This is one of those times.

State Department of Health Services Secretary Kitty Rhoades died Saturday after falling ill the past week. She was 65. "Kitty’s dedication and service to the state have changed Wisconsin for the better, and she leaves behind a long list of accomplishments as her legacy," Walker in a statement.

It's true Rhoades did a lot to increase care for Alzheimer's and dementia patients statewide. But when it came to everyone else, those who couldn't afford health care, not so much. Here's a Rhoades moment to look back on, from Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Gousha: "There are going to be people who will say, yea, but this painful for a family of four, if you're making $31,000 a year, maybe an extra $1,000, ah, wouldn't you agree, those are painful decisions that families have to make about where they spend their money, given the new reality..."
Rhoades: "...Sure it always does, but when I was a kid, my parents budgeted by the envelope system. You cashed your paycheck, you put how much was due for the mortgage...you know when you then had to make discretionary decisions, you went to the entertainment envelope first."

Yea, fewer supposed vacations for the poor. How many BadgerCare recipients have anything like an "entertainment envelope" to pay their health care bill? Rhoades, a former Republican representative, thinks they do:



As a representative, Rhoades had little respect or sympathy for the poor and unemployed during the Great Recession...what a time to attack:

Here’s Rep. Kitty Rhoades (R-Hudson), co-chair of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, with her mean spirited attack on the needy, suggesting the state withhold food stamps until the unemployed get job training in a jobless market.

"Especially in a down economy, we want to be creating jobs and putting people to work, not re-creating welfare,' Rhoades said."

Let’s feel sorry for Health Sec. Kitty Rhoades!

Tone deaf to the point of frustration, State Health Services Sec. Kitty Rhoades has the balls to joke about losing “vacation time” getting an elective procedure paid for by taxpayers. First, I don’t like the fact that hip replacement surgery is considered “elective,” since going without is so painful and debilitating.

But that’s our health care system. And the one in charge, Rhoades, who is about to bounce nearly 90,000 Wisconsinites off Badgercare, thought it was appropriate to intentionally whine, joke, about having it done, losing vacation time, getting all the well wishes and returning pain-free. Republican elitist royalty has its privileges I guess:

jsonline: State Health Services Secretary Kitty Rhoades is getting a leave of absence for

part of this summer, but it's not the sort that anyone would welcome. Rhoades will be having a hip replacement and then recovering … “This was an extremely difficult decision for me to make … at the urging of my family I have decided not to delay this surgery any longer … I had wanted to take a vacation this summer, but this isn’t exactly how I planned to do it … I appreciate everyone’s encouragement and well wishes and am very much looking forward to returning to the Department pain-free.”

Walker scheme feeds the private health care gravy train

Congratulations Kitty Rhoades? This is another highly partisan political appointment, where a former longtime state assembly Republican is rewarded for loyalty.

Scott Walker doesn’t hide the fact that he wants the unemployed and working poor to pay into the for-profit private sector health insurance industry. That’s why he likes Kitty Rhoades, who thinks the poor have a secret stash of money in their “entertainment envelope.”

Back in August 2012, I wrote about Kitty’s outrageous comments about supposedly “preserving access to Badgercare” Sound familiar? Sure, because Paul Ryan wants to preserve Medicare too:

Heartless to the nth degree, "Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Kitty Rhoades says the state hopes to preserve access to BadgerCare for as many people as possible by increasing cost sharing." Great question from Upfront's Mike Gousha:

Rhoades: "When I was a kid, my parents budgeted by the envelope system. You cashed your paycheck, you put how much was due for the mortgage...you know when you then had to make discretionary decisions, you went to the entertainment envelope first." 

Crass. Just as sickening, look at how the mental health care industry, thanks to the gun debate, began falling all over itself in anticipation of emptying all those "entertainment envelopes:"

Mental Health America of Wisconsin Congratulates Sec. Kitty Rhoades on her Appointment ... Milwaukee Mental Health Task Force Welcomes Appointment of DHS Secretary Rhoades ... BPDD CONGRATULATES NEW DHS SECRETARY KITTY RHOADES, Disability Rights Wisconsin Congratulates Newly Appointed Dept. of Health Services Sec. Kitty Rhoades ... The Wisconsin Hospital Association congratulates newly-appointed Kitty Rhoades.

Yea, fewer supposed vacations for the poor. Yea, taxpayer money is coming soon. But health care is not a consumer product. When we find ourselves sick in the hospital, we’re not approached by a team of waiters offering a menu of choices, price points and daily specials. We may not even be in the condition to care.

Rhoades' goal, like Scott Walker’s, is to take whatever money the poor can scrape up and give it to the private, for profit sector, under the guise of weaning people off "government handouts." In the words of Walker’s own press release:

Rhoades has received numerous awards from advocacy groups ... including her support for the development of consumer driven programs.

 And that's root of the problem. Health care is not a consumer driven program.