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By David Edwards
Friday, April 6, 2012 10:59 EDT
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who calls herself “a high-value target for the Democrats,” says that President Barack Obama is a “health care dictator” because his administration is mandating that all insurance plans cover contraception for women.
In a recent interview with PolitiChicks, the former Republican presidential candidate told Ann-Marie Murrell that the eventual GOP nominee would be “1000 percent” better than Obama, no matter who that person was.
“We can’t let Obama have a second term,” she warned. “Not because it’s partisan, not because it’s the Republican team versus the Democrat team, but because we are about a better America and we’re about liberty and we’re about a decent chance for the future.”
“I think the number one threat right now is that under Obamacare, we literally are seeing a change in government for the first time in 225 years,” Bachmann explained. “This is the first time that we are moving truly away from a constitutional republic — slamming the door shut on a constitutional republic — and effectively we’re becoming a dictatorship in that we don’t elect a president anymore, we elect a health care dictator, who we saw with Barack Obama with contraceptives.”
“If you look at this issue, it wasn’t just about contraceptives. It was about the fact that now the president of the United States can order all Americans to purchase a product or service against their will whether they want it or not. And he can decide which product or service will be offered and at what price. That’s unbelievable!”
Bachmann added that Obama had been “more dangerous than any other president” because of his foreign policy.
“We’re seeing a hyperkinetic level of level of terrorist activity and Barack Obama has a lot to do with that,” she said, cautioning of the threat of Iranian weaponry “penetrating our southern border.”
“Even today, the president of the United States is calling for reducing our nuclear weaponry by 80 percent,” Bachmann noted. “OK, now think of this: We have Iran, a third-world basket case, trying to nuke up.”
The Minnesota congresswoman went on to plead with viewers to give her re-election campaign the maximum contribution because she had been “the number one target of [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi to defeat.”
“I am a high-value target for the Democrats,” she remarked. “This race unfortunately will be no different. … I need all of your viewers to give the very best donation that they can give — and I think the maximum is about $2,500 per person.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/06/bachmann-obama-a-health-care-dictator-for-contraception-mandate/
Watch the video from PolitiChicks, broadcast on April 5, 2012.
"No Matter who is the GOP pick, she's behind him LMFAO!!!!" =)
"Oh and their are Iranians crossing the Border of Mexico, I wonder what ever happened to John McLame Finishing that Danged Fence???"By David Edwards
Friday, April 6, 2012 10:59 EDT
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who... more
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By David Edwards
Thursday, April 5, 2012 10:25 EDT
President George W. Bush’s former senior advisor on Tuesday said that President Barack Obama was “some kind of political thug” because he suggested that it would be “unprecedented” for the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the health care reform law.
During his show on Tuesday, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs asked Karl Rove how Obama was handling the possibility that the court might overturn all or part of the Affordable Care Act.
“Not too well,” Rove insisted. “This is a bad way to start off, looking like you are some kind of political thug at the White House threatening the Supreme Court and basically telegraphing to them, ‘You better uphold my law or there’s going to be political damage created and I’ll help do some of the creating.’”
“I thought it was very unpresidential and probably shows the mindset of what the president might do if it’s declared unconstitutional,” he added.
As Bush’s former top political adviser, Rove was also accused of strong-arm tactics like improperly firing U.S. Attorneys for their political beliefs and engineering laws against LGBT rights to turn out conservative voters.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/05/rove-obama-a-political-thug-for-supreme-court-remarks/
Watch the video from Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight, broadcast on April 4, 2012.
"This is very interesting, what do you folks Think???" =)By David Edwards
Thursday, April 5, 2012 10:25 EDT
President George W.... more
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Jennifer Granholm keeps saying that uninsured people get free medical treatment in emergency rooms for which insured people (and the taxpayers) end up paying. It's only partially true.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) simply requires hospitals to determine if an emergency exists and, if so, simply to stabilize the patient, without requiring actual treatment of the underlying condition.
The point is that uninsured people do get effectively turned away from emergency rooms, through a variety of ways. It’s not always simply a direct “we won’t see you because you don’t have insurance.” It can be a brief triage, judging that the patient is “stable” and can just go find actual treatment somewhere else.
No, this doesn’t (usually) happen when someone is in the process of bleeding to death, but in a great many other situations, it’s easy enough to state that the patient is not in imminent danger and simply to evaluate the patient briefly, note “stable” condition, and discharge — with butt covering proviso that the patient is to seek additional medical attention in the event that the situation happens to worsen — what’s the old conservative saw about “treatment delayed is treatment denied?” That’s why uninsured children who are taken to emergency rooms have twice the fatality rate of insured children.
- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CAJennifer Granholm keeps saying that uninsured people get free medical treatment in... more
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By David Edwards
Friday, March 30, 2012 12:02 EDT
Rep. Michele Bachmann insisted this week that the reason 40 million Americans “choose” not to buy health care insurance has nothing to do with the cost.
Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity after attending Supreme Court arguments on Wednesday, the former Republican presidential candidate said that the Obama administration was wrong to suggest that insurance could be regulated because everyone would eventually be in the health care market.
“One argument that the government was trying to make is that somehow health care is uniquely different,” Bachmann explained. “That government can regulate it because everyone participates. Health insurance is not uniquely different.”
“It’s still an opportunity that some people choose to engage in, but 40 million people do not.”
She continued: “And the premise was made that people don’t buy insurance because they can’t afford it. That’s not true. There are people who just decide they want to roll the dice and take their chances that they won’t need insurance.”
Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families found in 2009 that 66 percent thought Congress’ top priority should be making health care more affordable. In all, 44 percent of those polled said they had cut back on household spending in the previous two years as a result of health care costs.
The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured determined (PDF) in 2007 that 80 percent of those without health insurance were working families.
In 2010, Bachmann became the first lawmaker to introduce legislation to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.
As justices were hearing oral arguments on Monday, the Minnesota Republican stood on the steps in front of the Supreme Court and told several tea party groups that “this is the day that we have been waiting for!”
“We have not waved the white flag of surrender on socialized medicine!” she exclaimed. “This is one of the most important, consequential decisions that will ever come before this court. … We believe that the Constitution means something!”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/30/bachmann-not-true-that-people-go-without-insurance-because-of-the-cost/
Watch this video from Fox News’ Hannity, uploaded March 28, 2012.
"You Bet your F***ing Asses I expect you to look through 2700 pages!!!! I expect you folks who write the Law of the Land to do so at whatever Cost!!!!"By David Edwards
Friday, March 30, 2012 12:02 EDT
Rep. Michele Bachmann insisted... more
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By David Edwards
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 10:23 EDT
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday insisted that President Barack Obama’s health care reform law should be overturned and that people with preexisting conditions should be denied coverage if they had never had insurance before.
During an appearance on NBC’s Tonight Show, host Jay Leno told Romney that he knew people that had never been able to get insurance before “Obamacare” was passed.
“It seems to me like children and people with preexisting conditions should be covered,” Leno noted.
“People with preexisting conditions — as long as they’ve been insured before, they’re going to continue to have insurance,” Romney explained.
“Suppose they were never insured?” Leno asked.
“Well, if they’re 45 years old, and they show up, and they say, I want insurance, because I’ve got a heart disease, it’s like, `Hey guys, we can’t play the game like that. You’ve got to get insurance when you’re well, and if you get ill, then you’re going to be covered,’” Romney replied.
“I know guys that work in the auto industry and they’re just not covered because they work in brake dust,” Leno pressed. “And then they get to be 30, 35, and were never able to get insurance before. Now they have it. That seems like a good thing.”
“But people who have had the chance to be insured — if you’re working in an auto business for instance, the companies carry insurance, they insure all their employees — you look at the circumstances that exist,” the candidate explained. “But you don’t want everyone saying, `I’m going to sit back until I get sick and then go buy insurance.’ That doesn’t make sense. But you have to find rules that get people in that are playing by the rules.”
The Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent pointed out that by passing health insurance mandates in Massachusetts, Romney had acknowledged that people should get coverage when they are well, but he had since moved further to the right in an effort to win the GOP presidential primary.
“So he’s forced to give a nonsensical answer to the core policy and moral question that’s left behind if we do away with Obamacare: What should the federal government do about those who can’t get insurance covarge, thanks to preexisting conditions?” Sargent wrote.
“Until Romney details otherwise, his answer, for all practical purposes, is: Nothing.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/28/romney-uninsured-with-preexisting-conditions-should-be-denied-coverage/
Watch this video from NBC’s Tonight Show, broadcast March 27, 2012.
"Brought to you by the Weasels that also brought you Death Panels!!!!" Can I get a drum roll Please!!! =)By David Edwards
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 10:23 EDT
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Handy little reference map for the differences in cost to 25 year old women and 25 year old men.
Yeah, maternity costs... but when states are trying to limit access to birth control, won't those costs go up? Won't that mean insurers will try to find more ways to charge women? And with some states trying to weaken laws against domestic violence, will more women end up in the ER due to failure to protect them?Handy little reference map for the differences in cost to 25 year old women and 25... more
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By Eric Kleefeld / Talking Points Memo
Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is continuing to joust with Democrats on the Obama administration's contraception mandates on health insurance -- and not just with his Democratic opponent, former White House financial reform adviser Elizabeth Warren. The latest Dem to step up to challenge Brown on the issue, the Boston Herald reports: Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), son of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy whose old seat Brown won in the January 2010 special election. The younger Kennedy's demand: Stop invoking my dad's name.
Brown's answer: Nope.
By Eric Kleefeld / Talking Points Memo
Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is continuing to... more
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By David Edwards
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 16:37 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Tuesday charged that the Obama administration was full of “elite snobs” who were looking “down their nose at the average American.”
The former Pennsylvania senator went on the attack against President Barack Obama and Democrats for rejecting Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) to replace the current Medicare program with a voucher scheme.
“They don’t believe you can make these decisions,” Santorum told a crowd in Boise, Idaho. “They need to makes these decisions for you because if you were left to make decisions you will obviously jump off a cliff.”
“Don’t you see how they see you? How they look down their nose at the average American — these elite snobs.”
He continued: “Guess what Paul Ryan’s plan is modeled after? Members of Congress’ plans. It is the same model, exactly the same. It says because members of Congress have the same plan as every federal employee, which is a pretty good plan. … It gives everybody the opportunity to go out and get what they need. What they think they need.”
Although Ryan told NBC that his his plan “works exactly like the health care I have as a member of Congress and federal employees have,” Princeton economics professor Uwe E. Reinhardt says there is at least one “huge difference.”
Under the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP), the government contribution rises at the rate of average premiums charged by private insurers. But Ryan would only have Medicare spending tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which has historically not kept up with health care costs.
“Indexing the federal contribution to Medicare beneficiaries to the C.P.I. can thus be expected to shift an ever-larger share of the total health spending on Medicare beneficiaries from the books of government to the household budgets of these beneficiaries,” Reinhardt wrote in May.
“It is fair to wonder whether members of Congress would ever pass a bill indexing the federal contribution to their insurance premiums only to the C.P.I. rather than, as now, to the growth in insurance premiums.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/15/santorum-dems-look-down-their-nose-at-americans/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Feb. 14, 2012.
"Elite Snobs!!! Yup that's why I Abhor Both Parties!!!"By David Edwards
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 16:37 EST
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By David Edwards
Thursday, February 9, 2012 10:37 EST
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum warned on Wednesday that President Barack Obama and other liberals are leading people of faith down a path that ends at the guillotine.
During a campaign event in Plano, Texas, the candidate charged Obama had an “overt hostility to faith.”
“When you look and see what the left is trying to do in America today, progressives are trying to shutter faith, privatize it, push it out of the public square, oppress people of faith, strip their charitable deductions away from them, trying to weaken them, churches — trying to say that anyone who believes in the value of Judeo-Christian principles,” Santorum explained.
“As we saw in the Ninth Circuit just this week, that if you believe that [same sex marriage is wrong] — this is what the court said — that if believe that, if believe what’s taught in Genesis, if you believe what’s practiced Biblically and a generation since then you are irrational. The only possible reason you could believe this, according to the Ninth Circuit, is that you are a bigot and that you are a hater.”
He continued: “They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is a government that gives you rights. What’s left are no unalienable rights. What’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the the guillotine.”
Santorum admitted that the U.S. was “a long way from that,” but if Obama had his way then “we are headed down that road,” citing the Obama administration’s decision to require nearly all private health insurance policies to cover family planning, including female contraceptives.
“Now is the time for America to rise up and say enough!” the GOP hopeful exclaimed.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/09/santorum-obama-leading-christians-to-the-guillotine/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Feb. 7, 2012
"Why is this Guy always claiming that the other side is doing what his Party is Guilty Of???"By David Edwards
Thursday, February 9, 2012 10:37 EST
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The individual mandate was always a bad idea. Instead of recognizing that healthcare is a right, the members of Congress and the Obama administration who cobbled together the healthcare reform plan created a mandate that maintains the abuses and the expenses of for-profit insurance companies—and actually rewards those insurance companies with a guarantee of federal money.
Those who think that the for-profit (or even not-for-profit) insurance industry has to control any healthcare reform initiative have every right to be upset with the 11th Circuit’s ruling—which almost certainly will send the case of the Obama healthcare plan to the US Supreme Court.
But those of us who have no desire to perpetuate the insurance industry can and should recognize that the proper—and entirely constitutional—reform is an expansion of Medicare to cover all Americans.
There is no question that Medicare is a sound and popular program. (Just ask House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, who took an epic political beating when he proposed a scheme to replace the successful single-payer system with a voucher scheme designed to enrich insurance firms.)
While Medicare is exceptionally popular, polling shows that the individual mandate is not—according to recent surveys, roughly 60 percent of Americans oppose it.
It also passes constitutional muster.
As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich notes: [No] federal judge has struck down Social Security or Medicare as being an unconstitutional requirement that Americans buy something. Social Security and Medicare aren’t broccoli or asparagus. They’re as American as hot dogs and apple pie.”
“So if the individual mandate to buy private health insurance gets struck down by the Supreme Court or killed off by Congress, “ says Reich, “I’d recommend President Obama immediately propose what he should have proposed in the beginning — universal health care based on Medicare for all, financed by payroll taxes.”
The insurance companies would, of course, scream.
But let them complain.
Americans don’t need mandates. They need healthcare.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/162765/can-we-have-health-reform-without-individual-mandate-yes-its-called-medicare-allThe individual mandate was always a bad idea. Instead of recognizing that healthcare... more
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"Last year, political neophyte Rick Scott spent $73 million of his own money to bring the tea party's anti-government, pro-privatization agenda to the Florida governor's office. Today, the former executive pays just $30 a month for health care—and lets taxpayers cover the rest.
The governor, a proud bearer of the Republican Party's deregulation standard, has spent his first half-year in office decrying government waste: He's laid off thousands of Sunshine State employees, slashed their benefits, turned down (most of) the federal government's health care dollars, and put extra financial pressure on Florida retirees and Medicaid recipients. But Scott and his dependents pay one-fifth what a janitor in the state Capitol pays for health insurance…and less than 3 percent of what a retired state trooper pays for life-saving coverage."
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http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/rick-scott-pays-360-year-state-health-insurance"Last year, political neophyte Rick Scott spent $73 million of his own money to... more
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The Obama administration has declared that health insurers must cover birth control with no copays, as part of an expansion for women's preventative care. Breast pumps for nursing mothers, well-woman physicals, and counseling on domestic violence also must be covered with no copays. The new requirements will take effect on Jan 1, 2013.The Obama administration has declared that health insurers must cover birth control... more
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A report for the Institute of Medicine has recommended that birth control, sterilization and reproductive education be completely covered with no cost to patients under the health care reform law. In addition to these services, which help women avoid unwanted pregnancies and space births, the group also recommended covering HIV testing, breastfeeding support and well-woman visits for preventive care.A report for the Institute of Medicine has recommended that birth control,... more
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We're taking a daily look at some of the most popular stories from the Current community, and we've rounded up some highlights to share. Check them out and add your two cents:
Climate change bringing infection, hunger and illnessSubmitted by JanforGore
Climate change is affecting the environment -- but it could also have affects on our health, with an increase in infectious diseases, worsening existing illlnesses and causing hunger and political unrest.
The health of all humans is directly tied to how we, as communities, nations, and a global population, respond to the growing climate threat, says Ferber, a science journalist and Epstein, Associate Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School.
Obama seeks more drilling in Alaska and Gulf of MexicoSubmitted by KB723
Under pressure to lower gas prices, President Obama announced new plans to expland domestic oil production in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
The president, a Democrat, has pushed for reducing U.S. oil consumption and expanding renewable energy sources while also encouraging domestic oil and gas production -- an area Republicans want to expand dramatically.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president met some of those Republican demands, outlining ways to boost domestic drilling and streamline the process of issuing permits in Alaska.
Health Insurers Making Record Profits as Many Postpone Care! Corporate tyranny anyone?Submitted by kennymotown
Health insurance companies are heading into a third year of record profits as Americans facing tough economic times postpone medical care, or go without.
Yet the companies continue to press for higher premiums, even though their reserve coffers are flush with profits and shareholders have been rewarded with new dividends. Many defend proposed double-digit increases in the rates they charge, citing a need for protection against any sudden uptick in demand once people have more money to spend on their health, as well as the rising price of care.
Join the discussion -- or head over to the News group for more popular stories from the community.We're taking a daily look at some of the most popular stories from the... more
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By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
The Vermont state Senate passed legislation to create a single-payer health insurance system, Paul Waldman reports for TAPPED. Since the state House has already passed a similar bill, all that’s left to do is reconcile the two pieces of legislation before the governor signs it into law.
Waldman stresses that there are still many details to work out, including how the system will be funded. Vermont might end up with a system like France’s where everyone has basic public insurance, which most people supplement with additional private coverage. The most important thing, Waldman argues, is that Vermont is moving to sever the link between employment and health insurance.
Roe showdown
Anti-choicers are gunning for a Roe v. Wade showdown in the Supreme Court before Obama can appoint any more justices. At the behest of an unnamed conservative group, Republican state Rep. John LaBruzzo of Louisiana has introduced a bill that would ban all abortions, even to save the woman’s life. The original bill upped the anti-choice ante by criminalizing not only doctors who perform abortions, but also women who procure them. LaBruzzo has since promised to scale the bill back to just criminalizing doctors. This is all blatantly unconstitutional, of course,. but as Kate Sheppard explains in Mother Jones, that’s precisely the point:
The Constitution, of course, is exactly what LaBruzzo is targeting. He admits his proposal is intended as a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional right to privacy included the right to abortions in some circumstances. LaBruzzo says he’d like his bill to become law and “immediately go to court,” and he told a local paper that an unnamed conservative religious group asked him to propose the law for exactly that purpose.
Drug pushers in your living room
Martha Rosenberg poses a provocative question at AlterNet: Does anyone remember a time before “Ask Your Doctor” ads overran the airwaves, Internet, buses, billboards, and seemingly every other medium? Direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising has become so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget that it was illegal until the late ’90s. In the days before DTC, drug advertising was limited to medical journals, prescription pads, golf towels, and pill-shaped stress balls distributed in doctors’ offices–which makes sense. The whole point of making a drug prescription-only is to put the decision-making power in the hands of doctors. Now, drug companies advertise to consumers for the same reason that food companies advertise to children. It’s called “pester power.”
DTC drug ads encourage consumers to self-diagnose based on vague and sometimes nearly universal symptoms like poor sleep, daytime drowsiness, anxiety, and depression. Once consumers are convinced they’re suffering from industry-hyped constructs like “erectile dysfunction” and “premenstrual dysphoric disorder,” they’re going to badger their doctors for prescriptions.
That’s not to say that these terms don’t encompass legitimate health problems, but rather that DTC markets products in such vague terms that a lot of healthy people are sure to be clamoring for drugs they don’t need. Typically, neither the patient nor the doctor is paying the full cost of the drug, so patients are more likely to ask and doctors have little incentive to say no.
Greenwashing air fresheners
A reader seeks the counsel of Grist’s earthy advice columnist Umbra on the issue of air fresheners. Some of these odor-concealing aerosols are touting themselves as green for adopting all-natural propellants. Does that make them healthier, or greener? Only marginally, says Umbra. Air fresheners still contain formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, and other questionable chemicals.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
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By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z7FiBsR8OQ[/youtube]
How will the next generation of seniors pay for health care if Republicans privatize Medicare? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) suggests some options in a darkly funny ad featuring a grandfatherly gentleman mowing lawns and stripping for extra cash. The ad will run in 24 GOP-controlled swing districts, Suzy Khimm reports for Mother Jones.
The ad is a riposte to Paul Ryan’s budget, which would eliminate Medicare and replace it with a system of “premium support”–annual lump sum cash payments to insurers. These payments would be pegged to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) +1%, even though health care costs are growing much faster than the economy at large. That means that real benefits will shrink over time. Seniors will be forced to come up with extra money to buy insurance, assuming they can find an insurer who’s willing to sell it to them.
Josh Holland of AlterNet predicts that the GOP is committing political suicide with the its anti-Medicare budget. The more ordinary voters learn about Ryan’s budget, the less they like it:
A poll conducted last week found that, “when voters learn almost anything about [the Ryan plan], they turn sharply and intensely against it.” And why wouldn’t they? According to an analysis by the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the Republicans’ “roadmap” would “end most of government other than Social Security, health care, and defense by 2050,” while providing the “largest tax cuts in history” for the wealthy.
Holland interviews an economist who estimates that the Medicaid cuts in the Ryan budget alone would cost 2.1 million jobs.
Under the bus
The Democratic spin about the deal to avert a budget shutdown was that Democratic leaders held fast against Republican demands to defund Planned Parenthood. However, as Katha Pollitt explains in The Nation, the Democrats capitulated on other reproductive rights issues in order to save Planned Parenthood.
For example, under the budget deal, Washington, D.C. will no longer be allowed to use local taxes to pay for abortions. Democrats also agreed to $17 million in cuts to the Title X Family Planning Program, Planned Parenthood’s largest source of federal funding.
American women aren’t alone under the bus. Jane Roberts notes at RH Reality Check that the budget deal slashed $15 million from the U.N. Population Fund, and millions more from USAID’s budget for reproductive health and family planning. At least Democrats successfully rebuffed GOP demands to eliminate funding for the United Nations Population Agency.
Roberts observes:
And this is at a time when the whole world is coalescing behind the education, health and human rights of the world’s women and girls. What irony!
Blood for oil
Nearing the one-year anniversary of the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers, Daniel J. Weiss writes for Grist:
The toll of fossil fuels on human health and the environment is well documented. But our dependence on fossil fuels exacts a very high price on the people who extract or process these fuels. Every year, some men and women who toil in our nation’s coal mines, natural gas fields, and oil rigs and refineries lose their lives or suffer from major injuries to provide the fossil fuels that drive our economy.
Oil rigs are just one of many dangerous places to work in the fossil fuel industry, Weiss notes. Last year, an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia killed 29 workers. Nearly 4,000 U.S. miners have been killed on the job since 1968.
Natural gas has a cleaner image than coal, but natural gas pipelines are also plagued by high rates of death and injury–892 natural gas workers have been killed on the job and 6,258 have been injured since 1970.
Cheers!
Ashley Hunter of Campus Progress brings you an exciting roundup of the news you need about college and alcohol, just in time for Spring Break. In an attempt to discourage rowdy off-campus partying, the College of the Holy Cross is encouraging its students to drink on campus by keeping the campus pub open later and allowing students under 21 inside as long as they wear different colored wrist bands to show they are too young to be served alcohol.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger... more
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In traditionally insidious fashion, the christian right "preys" upon and exploits their loyal congregations. Would poor christians not have to be brainwashed to oppose universal health care which all people would benefit from? Can the wealthier "self professed" christian right truly be christians, when they oppose universal health care which would take care of all the poor's medical needs? To oppose caring for the poor is a very "UNCHRISTIAN" policy! In the following solicitation by Christian Care Ministry, @ Medi Care. org, the blood thirsty and sucking true nature of the christian corporatocracy is revealed in it's most parasitic form, right down to the indoctrination that those with the clinically declared "diseases" of addictions, should not be afforded medical care; another very "UNCHRISTIAN" policy.
"With options to fit every budget, and even an incentive available for our healthier participants"..., Medi-Share is for Christians who want their healthcare dollars to help fellow believers who are living the same lifestyles they are, based on biblical principles and service to others.... Christian Care Ministry is a not-for-profit ministry where the members make the rules---and their dollars don’t support unbiblical choices such as abortion, or drug or alcohol abuse.
Medi-Share is NOT INSURANCE. Health insurance comes with a contractual guarantee to pay your medical bills. For over 17 years our participants have been faithfully sharing medical bills on a non-guaranteed basis, trusting the Lord..."
http://mychristiancare.org/medi-share/
The preying upon vulnerable minds is particularly pronounced by the admission that Medi-Share does not come "with a contractural gurantee to pay you medical bills.". Again, is it any wonder christian corporatocracy has gone to such lengths to rally their congregations in the very unchristian opposition to healthcare reform? It's REALLY BIG BUSINESS for them!!!In traditionally insidious fashion, the christian right "preys" upon and... more
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Last week, House Budget Committee literally approved the end of Medicare as guaranteed affordable comprehensive health insurance for every retired American. The full House is expected to follow suit this week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MQID6sV6m0&feature=player_embeddedLast week, House Budget Committee literally approved the end of Medicare as guaranteed... more
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NC54
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added this
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1 year ago
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