Nikki Haley's Victims
If you would like to meet some of the tens of thousands of people hurt by the policies and politics of SC Governor Nikki Haley, head down to Greenville’s Free Medical Clinic. I was there registering people to vote and met a woman I’ll call Miranda. Miranda once worked at Wells Fargo in collections and she made $50,000 a year. She suffered two strokes and now has vascular dementia which causes short term memory loss. She was waiting at the free clinic because she lost her job and her insurance and doesn’t qualify for subsidized insurance and probably could qualify for Medicaid but can’t get that because Nikki Haley refuses to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Madeline also doesn’t qualify for unemployment and has been refused disability payments because her doctors insist that she is able to work with restrictions. But as she said who’s going to hire a woman who can’t remember simple instructions and has to use GPS to find her way home? Miranda’s car is being repossessed and she just moved in with her mom. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “It’s humiliating to go from making $50,000 a year and now be waiting in line at the Free Medical Clinic.” Is Miranda the woman, Ronald Reagan was fond of calling a “welfare queen?” Maybe not because she can’t even qualify for assistance. My heart literally broke for her and I could offer her nothing except the possibility that she can vote for change and maybe just maybe land on the winning side this November. If Vincent Sheheen wins, more than 200,000 people in South Carolina will qualify and receive Medicaid. Lives will be saved. People can be diagnosed and treated for life threatening illnesses. Everytime I hear a story like Miranda’s I think, “How does Nikki Haley sleep at night? Doesn’t she realize that her political intransigence has real life consequences? Real people are dying for lack of affordable, available medical care in our state. How can Haley refuse to expand Medicaid to help the working poor yet pay former Governor Carroll Campbell’s highly unremarkable and unsuccessful son $116,000 to serve part time as a commissioner on the SC Worker’s Compensation Commission? If the legislature is looking for cost cutting measures, let’s start with the compensation paid to these politically appointed flacks on dozens of boards and commissions.
When Congressman Paul Ryan talks about our social safety net becoming a hammock for poor people, I’ll be thinking of Miranda and all the other souls waiting in line for health care or a dental appointment and hoping they don’t die before their number is called. How do they sleep at night?
Roxanne Walker
My friend and fellow Democrat Johnnie Fulton had this clarification of my blog post…
just read your excellent blog article. There was one point of clarification that I wanted to make. Mike Campbell has been appointed to a full - not part- time position ( supposedly). The expectations of the job are at least a 40 hour week. Having said that , the Gov is not going to complain if he makes it part time- as long as he rules against injured workers and in favor of industry. This appointment is Nimrata’s worst yet to the Commission and has the potential to further destroy workers’ rights in SC. It is my understanding that he doesn’t have a college degree and little, if any, work experience outside of the family business. He has no experience from which he can claim qualification to act as a hearing office. The only good news about this appointment is that it is an interim appointment only, until his appointment is approved by the Senate in January. Obviously, if Sheheen wins, he wont be approved. There is also at least one instance in which an interim Commissioner appointment was not approved by the Senate. This was during a Republican Governor’s tenure. So, we can hope that her relations with the Senate continue to deteriorate and they refuse to approve her interim appointments. I have got my fingers crossed…Thanks for all that you do.
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