Rep. Roger Marshall (R-KS) thinks that there is a segment of the population that doesn’t want health care and he doesn’t want to have to pay for them. According to an interview with STAT News, the Kansas doctor explained that the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare helps the poor but most of those people just don’t want healthcare. “Just like Jesus said, ‘The poor will always be with us,’” he explained. “There is a group of people that just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves.” When pressed to clarify he simply “shrugged” and explained that the “Medicaid population” is on a “free credit card, as a group” and that those people don’t take care of themselves so they’ll end up costing taxpayers more money.
“First of all, there’s no need to get upset with me, if you want to take it up with someone, try the big guy upstairs, he’s the one who came up with the idea in the first place,” Marshall opined. “Jesus is the one who decided there would always be poor people, he’s the one who made the classification. As unfair as it seems to us earthly folk down here, he probably had a very good reason for doing what he did. While we’re on the subject, poor people know full well that Jesus is pretty much the only option for them, and it’s not up to us to judge or meddle in their affairs. Think about it like this: if they wanted to be part of the system and have a good life because of it, then they had plenty of opportunities to do so. The fact that they didn’t proves that the freedom of choice is what they value more than anything else.”
He continued, “And besides, I don’t know about you, but there’s another reason why we shouldn’t keep forcing the Medicaid program anymore. It just doesn’t feel natural to mix rich people with poor ones, it’s somehow, I don’t know, it seems wrong. And I know all the preachings about it, I’ve had tons of conversations before about the morality of my standpoint, but if you just strip away what everybody thinks the situation is all about and look at it for what it really is, it becomes incredibly clear and easy to see. Poor people are poor because they choose to be, not because they have to be. Well, the majority of them, anyway. The fact that they made that sort of a choice should be a signal for the rest of us to not try to change them or the situation they’re in at the moment.”
“If you want to get moral about it, you really ought to take it up with either Jesus, which I don’t think is a reasonable option, or poor people themselves. However, for better or worse, I say we ought to respect their wishes and leave them alone. As a matter of fact, the only time they seem to matter is right around election time. As soon as that’s done, they go straight back to the margins of society. Therefore, I say we needn’t disturb them anymore than we already have, if they insist on being such a rigid and constant layer of American society. Jesus made the call; I’m just the only one trying to abide by it, apparently. Though, so far it ain’t working out too well, I have to say,” Marshall concluded.
