The Grinch who ALMOST stole Medicaid

This blog was written by the Tarrant County Chip Coalition and the original post can be found here.

Every kid down in Whoville needed Medicaid a lot
But the Grinch who lived just South of Whoville did not

The Grinch hated Medicaid! The whole Medicaid program!
Now, please don’t ask why. I don’t know the reason.
It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

Whatever the reason, His heart or his shoes,
He stood there in Austin, hating the Whos,
who depended on Medicaid and depended on CHIP

To keep their kids healthy without financial hardship. 

 Staring down from his mansion with a sour, Grinchy frown,
At the warm lighted windows in each Texas town.
Were more and more kids that needed a hand

To pay the prices doctors and hospitals demand.

“It’s costing too much,” he snarled with a sneer,
“We can’t afford to take care of all these kids here!”
Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
“I MUST find some way to stop Medicaid from coming!”
He saw all of the spending on kids in the past,
For pills, eyeglasses, a vaccine, a cast

The money, what money it was costing the state!

Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
THE GRINCH GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!
“I’ll cancel their Medicaid!” The Grinch laughed in his throat.
And he made a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat.
And he chuckled, and clucked, “What a great Grinchy trick!”
“I’ll save Texans money and look just like Saint Nick!”

Then, he loaded some bags and some old empty sacks,
On a ramshackle sleigh And he hitched up old his racks.
Then the Grinch said, “Giddap!” And the sleigh started down,
To steal Medicaid and CHIP benefits in each town.
All their windows were dark. Quiet snow filled the air.
All the Whos were all dreaming of stable healthcare.

From all of the Whos with CHIP and Medicaid cards

He shredded them up with few regards.

At one house, the Grinch’s hands were starting to freeze,
When he heard a small sound like a cough or a wheeze.
He turned around fast, and he saw a small Who!
Little Cindy-Lou Who, who was not more than two.
The Grinch had been caught by this Who who looked paler,
And had got out of bed to grab her inhaler.
She stared at the Grinch and said, “Santy Claus, why,”
“Why are you taking our Medicaid? WHY?”
But, you know, that old Grinch was so smart and so slick,
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!
“Why, my sweet little tot,” the fake Santy Claus lied,
“You’ll be better off and you’ll point to Texas with pride.”

But, then all the good Whos in Texas found out

And they cried to each other, shout upon shout.

“We care about kids, the tall and the small,

We can’t cancel Medicaid; our hearts aren’t THAT small!
We care about families where incomes had dropped

And parents who had too little money to shop.”

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”
“Maybe Medicaid,” he thought, “really does make kids better.”
“Maybe Medcaid…perhaps…means we’re a little bit richer!”
And what happened then? Well…in Whoville they say,
That the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day!
And 2 million Medicaid and CHIP kids in Texas

Can enjoy Christmas Day without parents so anxious

So let’s go out next year and cover the others

Let’s drop all the barriers that keep families out

Let’s allow buy-in for middle-incomes, so there’s no doubt

That Texans want for their children the best,

Health coverage that ensures a future that’s blessed.

This blog was written by the Tarrant County Chip Coalition and the original post can be found here.