The crisis of Medicaid for US farmers (who voted for Drumpf) and inequality of Wealth in the U.S. as Imperial Implosion

 only 41.4% of farming, fishing and forestry workers are eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance.

  Nationwide, nearly half of all rural children are enrolled in Medicaid.

  Medicaid also plays a crucial role in funding rural hospitals that all patients rely on, whatever insurance they may have. And our rural hospitals are already struggling as it is.

  Jimmy Gentry is president of the North Carolina State Grange.

https://www.wakeweekly.com/columns/medicaid-cuts-would-devastate-americas-agriculture-and-its-farmers-4ff15cbc 

 “Coverage is not the same thing as access, and access to waiting lists is not the same thing as access to health care,” Snyder said. “So just because you have a card that says you are covered by Medicaid does not mean you’re going to find a hospital or a physician who actually accepts that.”

Dr. Doug Curran

Dr. Doug Curran, a physician in Athens, Texas, said the low reimbursement rates are stark compared with private plans.  

“Medicaid will pay you about 28 bucks for seeing a kid with an earache,” he said. “You know, you can’t even pay the electric bill, hardly, for that.” 

https://publichealthwatch.org/2024/03/04/texas-farmers-ranchers-health-uninsured/ 

millions of farmers rely on Medicaid for health care - but the above proves that it's not really healthcare. Below is just a handful of states proving some 5 million of farmers relying on Medicaid yet 50% of those farmers are NOT making a "minimum wage income"! Their net income is only hundreds of dollars a year at most. In 2023 reported a NEGATIVE net income for "intermediate family farms"

Households associated with intermediate farms reported median farm income of -1,974

 

And now even that healthcare will be cut off unless a farmer can prove a "minimum wage" for 80 hours a month! Yet in 2021 the IRS farm income for 50% of farmers was $210 net income!! That means farmers don't have a minimum wage at all for 50% of farmers.

The increasing cost of health care has limited the ability of some U.S. farmers and ranchers across the U.S. to increase their operations because they’re unable to work the land full-time. They have to work outside jobs to get health insurance; when they come home, they must feed the animals, repair the fences, help a cow give birth and plow the fields. 

“It’s a big responsibility, you know, it’s not an eight-to-five job. It’s round the clock,” said Robin, a family friend and farmer from the Hill Country. She asked that only her first name be used.  “Farmers and ranchers just don’t have any idle time, really. There’s always something to do.”