WAKE UP CENTRISTS!: MEDICAID COVERAGE SHRINKING UNDER OBAMA

NYTIMES: Illinois became the latest state to drastically cut dental benefits last month, when Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, cut $1.6 billion out of its $15 billion Medicaid budget, reducing adult dental coverage to emergency tooth extractions. The state, whose Medicaid program was considered among the most generous, also cut vision benefits, eliminated chiropractic and podiatry coverage and started requiring co-payments for drugs. 

In about half the states, Medicaid now covers dental care only for pain relief and emergencies, according to a recent report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, a national health research group. Other states cover preventive exams and cleanings but not restorative services, like fillings and root canals. 

The federal health care law generally prohibits states from tightening eligibility for Medicaid before 2014, when a vast expansion of the program to cover people with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line is supposed to take effect. But states are still allowed to cut optional benefits, like vision, dental and drug coverage. 

THIS IS ALL HAPPENING ON OBAMA'S WATCH.

OBAMA HAS NOT STRENGTHENED MEDICAID. OR MEDICARE.

OBAMA HAS WEAKENED BOTH.

OBAMA TOOK HIS EYE OFF THE BALL - IGNORING THE ECONOMY - TO PASS OBAMACARE, WHICH HURTS MEDICARE AND MEDICAID.

IT'S TIME FOR CENTRISTS WHO VOTED FOR OBAMA IN 2008 TO FACE THE FACTS:

• OUR ECONOMY IS WORSE OFF THAN 4 YEARS AGO. 
• OUR FEDERAL BUDGET IS WORSE OFF THAN 4 YEARS AGO.
• MEDICARE AND MEDICAID ARE WORSE OFF THAN 4 YEARS AGO.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY. VOTE ROMNEY-RYAN.