The LA Times reports a story of government largesse in San Francisco:

Cheng Wang…has diabetes and other ailments…When he immigrated here in May to be closer to his elderly mother, the 64-year-old Taiwan native brought enough pills to last seven months. When those ran out, he didn’t know what to do. He had no medical insurance. And it scared him. Then he learned about a groundbreaking city health plan that provides a network of care to residents regardless of their ability to pay, immigration status or existing medical conditions…

Those below the federal poverty level of $10,210 in annual income for a single person and $20,650 for a family of four pay no fees. Starting next month, the plan will be open to individuals with incomes up to 500% of the poverty level…

“Our system didn’t serve the population,” said program director Tangerine Brigham. “It was easy for people to do episodic care or seek no care at all. “The idea was, ‘Well, if I don’t have my own Marcus Welby, I might wait for trauma care.’ We’re trying to give everyone their own Marcus Welby”…

This is SCHIP on steroids. Where do you suppose the money will come from to give essentially free medical care to those at 5x the poverty level?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 8:04 pm and is filed under General, idiots!, Left of Left. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.