At the optical office I work at, we accept Medical Assistance. Some of the people who come in are legitimately grateful for this aid and for whatever it helps them out with, but most of them.... are not; they get pissed off and/or shocked when we tell them that the state only pays for glasses for people under the age of 21 and that they can only choose from certain frames. Lots of people have told us that at most other offices there are only about five frames for kids to choose from and they are all pretty horrible. In our office we try very had to give them good choices, and we have, seriously, over 100 frames for them to look at. They aren't crappy ugly frames either, lots of them are really nice.
One of the people who shocked me the most was a mother in her upper 40's who came in with her daughter. They had MA. Doc and I tried valiantly to get the daughter to look at and choose from the frames that would be covered by her plan while Mom just sat there and stared into a mirror, utterly self-absorbed, ignoring us trying to tell her that she would have to pay for anything else herself and that her daughter only needed them for night driving so very few people would see her in them anyway. The daughter came over to mom with a pair of Nine West frames. Mom told her how nice they looked and that she should get those ones. I sat down to write up her bill. It was going to be over $100 to get the designer frame. Mom looked at me in shock. Doc and I both explained (for the fifteenth time) to them that the state absolutely would not pay for that frame and emphasized how little her daughter would need to wear them. Mom put them on the daughter again and goes, "Well.... they look great.... I guess we'll get them anyway." When she was giving me her payment, she noticed the large turquoise ring on my thumb and asked me where I'd gotten it. Um, what? I'm sorry, but if you're on welfare you don't need to be asking me where $80 rings come from, especially after you just frivolously spent over $100 of glasses when you didn't need to.
A few months passed and she brought in her younger daughter for an exam. This daughter didn't have MA, but a different insurance through her father where if you stay to the basics you can get away really cheaply. When all was said and done this daughter's copay was $10. Mom looked at me like I had just shot her in the foot, utterly amazed that she should have to pay 10 freaking dollars for this kid's glasses. She looked like she was going to cry handing it to me and it was all I could do not to smack the shit out of her.
So, in short, people who are getting their medical, etc, expenses covered by other people's taxes- you don't get to complain about what you get unless it truly is unjust (which I highly doubt it is). Be happy that the middle class hasn't come down on your i-phone using, designer clothes wearing, cable-watching asses. Our taxes shouldn't be paying for you to have things that we can't afford for ourselves. I do know some people on welfare who are quite deserving and hardworking and don't complain about what they do get from the state because they are truly grateful for the help, so if you are these people, this isn't about you and I do appreciate you and how much you do to take care of your families; this is for the people who think that they deserve everything for doing nothing.
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