The GOP's Ongoing War to Re-Brand Poor People as "Lazy," "Freeloading"

Medicaid may not provide great access to care. But it does provide access -- access its recipients very much need and that, according to research, has measurably improved their health. In what may be the most well-known study of its kind, economists Janet Currie and Jonathan Gruber found large expansions of Medicaid during the 1980s and early 1990s "significantly increased the utilization of medical care, particularly care delivered in physicians' offices," leading to "significant" reductions in both infant and child mortality.

Medicaid also provides benefits that its unique population needs, but would struggle to find in the private insurance market. That includes lead screening for low-income children, a fragile population at high risk of toxicity from chipped paint in old, poorly maintained homes. And it includes long-term care, particularly nursing home care, for senior citizens who can't afford its high expense. In fact, it is the disabled and the elderly -- not the stereotypical single mother on welfare -- on whom Medicaid spends the majority of its money.