While Senators Denounce Medicaid, The Uninsured Turn To Charity

The debate over health care reform often takes place in a haze of numbers, cost curves and acronyms. Lamar Alexander lifted the fog for a moment on the Senate floor Saturday evening as the third-ranking Republican lambasted the health care bill for opening up Medicaid to millions more Americans.

The plan, said the Senator from Tennessee, is "arrogant in its dumping of 15 million low-income Americans into a medical ghetto called Medicaid that none of us or any of our families would ever want to be a part of for our health care."

Of course, anybody would take the type of insurance available to a senator and his family over Medicaid. But Medicaid is still better than what's available to millions of Americans: nothing -- except the occasional charity treatment.

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