Do Death Panels Exist Under Kansas’ Privatized Medicaid?

Secular Talk

Recently, a High school senior was rejected by the privatized state Medicaid system in Kansas.

Changes to the Kansas health care system instituted by state’s governor Sam Brownback channeled about 400,000 Kansas residents out of the public Medicaid health insurance program into a new, privately-run, profit-making system called KanCare.

Three health insurance companies now coordinate that care.

The student said that he was just days away from dying when he fled the state and found treatment at a hospital in Tennessee, states RawStory.

Ross’ doctors advised him to get treatment out of state, but after not responding for weeks, his insurance provider rejected the advice.

The private insurance provider told him that he had to get the surgery at a hospital in Kansas, even though his own doctors told him that was impossible.

The Inquisitr states that St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee told Levi he could have his surgery there, and he will have to make payments to them.

Levi Ross will still have considerable costs associated with his cancer care and even though he is back in Kansas, they won’t all be covered, states The Inquisitr.

His family has created a crowdfunding page to help with those costs on GiveForward.com, which can be reached here at this link.

(Updated article)

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/cancer-patient-with-a-week-to-live-flees-kansas-for-profit-medicaid-for-life-saving-surgery-in-memphis/

http://www.inquisitr.com/2049480/levi-ross-cancer/

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article2174129.html

Venezuelan President Bans Visas for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney

According to Ring of Fire radio and RT, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also announced in a speech on Saturday that former president George W. Bush and former vice president Richard “Dick” Cheney would not be allowed visas to enter Venezuela.

There will also be new mandatory visa requirements in general for all U.S. nationals travelling to Venezuela.

The new visa requirements were changed on March 3rd, according to TeleSUR.

Along with former president Bush and vice-president Cheney, Maduro also said that Congressional Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Marco Rubio (FL), and Democrat Robert Menendez (NJ), and former CIA chief George Tenet would be banned from entering Venezuela as well.

Maduro also called them “terrorists,” in an interview with teleSUR Saturday.

In the interview, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez also said that the U.S. Embassy in Caracas will be ordered to reduce its diplomatic staff.

The Venezuelan government says the embassy has over 100 workers.

Rodriguez added that current United States diplomats in Venezuela will have to re-apply for visas.

Maduro said that these new visa bans target those who “violated human rights and bombed villages in Iraq, Syria, and Vietnam,” and that from now on, US diplomats “will be required to seek approval from the Foreign Ministry for meetings they conduct in Venezuela,” according to RT.

For Americans traveling to Venezuela in general, a new tourist visa fee will be implemented at a rate equal to that which “a Venezuelan pays to travel to the US,” Maduro said.

In other news, the United States declared Venezuela a national security threat on Monday and ordered sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials in the worst bilateral diplomatic dispute since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013, says Reuters.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed and issued an executive order, which senior administration officials said did not target Venezuela’s energy sector or broader economy.

But the move stokes tensions between Washington and Caracas just as U.S. relations with Cuba, a longtime U.S. foe in Latin America and key ally to Venezuela, are set to be normalized.

More here

(Updated post)