NEW: Group Says Rhode Island is Becoming a ‘Laboratory for Accelerated Dependency Culture’
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Rhode Island is leading the nation in the advancement of a larger entitlement culture thanks to its expansion of social services through its health benefits exchange, according to the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity.
When collecting detailed personal financial and household information from individuals seeking health insurance support, the state intends to be the first to utilize a unified infrastructure to proactively introduce participants to other state programs they may be eligible for, such as food stamps, cash payments, and housing assistance.
In stating that one-stop shopping is a hidden element of their health benefits portal scheme, "these un-elected state officials are actually creating a kind of dependency portal," according to Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity. "This is an extreme case of misguided public policy. The expansion of government and special interest control over our personal healthcare decisions, along with the culture of dependency being freely advocated by this administration, should be viewed as an assault on our deeply held American value of self-reliance," added Stenhouse.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTInstead of growing dependency by herding people into government services, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity advocates the proper role of government should be to encourage independence and self-determination by creating an economic environment that fosters the growth of opportunity.
"It's obvious that this hidden element is part of larger national agenda to create an expressway to dependency for more people ... it's obscene," stated Stenhouse. At the press conference, state officials openly admitted that the federal government is pushing this approach.
The RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity has obtained documents published by federal agencies and other national institutions that directly urge states to adopt one-stop-shopping of government services via a concept referred to as "express lane eligibility". Further, a recent federal directive that guts the work requirement for welfare, and an agreement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Mexico that promotes food stamp availability to its nationals, both appear to be part of a coordinated dependency agenda.
