They’re attacking from all angles. Republicans are circling the president like sharks tasting blood in the water. They think they have the upper hand this time and they’re going all out to convince you that having affordable health insurance is not a good thing for you.
They’re now attacking the claim the President made during the campaign when he said, “if you like your insurance you can keep it.” Republicans are now using this claim to say the President lied to you, because Insurance companies are now forced to cancel the garbage plans some people had, and upgrading those plans to acceptable plans.
Some people just don’t get it, so now the President has to explain his phrase, if you like your insurance you can keep it. “What we said was you could keep [your plan] if it hasn’t changed since the law was passed,” Obama said, as quoted by CBS News. “If the insurance company changes it … they’ve got to change it to a higher standard.”
But these people don’t care about getting a better plan or having their garbage plans upgraded to a higher standard. This is not about health, it is about winning a political argument. So the garbage collectors will happily give up their healthcare – some wouldn’t even look at the upgrades available – if it means winning the argument.
Women with high density breast tissue are least likely to have small tumors picked up by a standard mammogram.
The National Cancer Institute estimates that about 40% of women receiving mammograms have dense breasts, meaning that they have a high amount of connective and glandular tissue compared with less-dense breasts, which have a high amount of fatty tissue. Women with dense breasts have an increased risk of breast cancer, since dense breast tissue may hide smaller tumors normally picked up during mammograms, enabling the disease to advanced to a stage more difficult to treat.
To counteract this, the FDA has recently approved the first ultrasound device for use in combination with a standard mammogram on women with DBT who receive a negative mammogram (no disease found in your breasts) and no symptoms of breast cancer. Known as the somo-v Automated Breast Ultrasound System (ABUS) this specially-shaped transducer can automatically scan the entire breast in about one minute to produce several images for review using ultrasound capable of detecting small masses in dense breasts. Software analyzes the differences in how the sound waves are reflected off different tissues and back to the transducer to create an image a physician can review for abnormalities.
Ask your physician to recommend additional screening using ultrasound, if it has been determined you have dense breast tissue and you’ve received a negative mammogram.
What a waste of time, effort and money. During the sixteen days that the government was shut down, the United States could have been funding scientific research, analyzing economic data and providing needed services to people who need them. It could also have begun work earlier on the health care website that will obviously need almost a complete overhaul, while fending off calls to delay or scrap it by members of both parties. The shutdown only delayed the solutions, and the hope, on this side of the political spectrum at least, is that the site will be up and running more effectively by the middle of November. In the meantime, the federal government should allow the states in which it runs the exchanges to post their choices and prices so that people can simply log on and sign up when the site’s fixed.
Despite those marks, the poll shows voters disapprove of the way Christie has handled two issues they cite as among the most important in the state: the economy and taxes. Only 42 percent approve of his handling of the economy and jobs, while 38 percent approve of his performance on taxes.
while also gaining an endorsement from the Newark Star-Ledger that was one of the least enthusiastic in recent memory. It seems as thought the Ledger was just following other left-leaning voices in not wanting to offend the great offender and pull punches rather than be called stupid in a YouTube video.
It really is a terrible state of affairs that Democratic candidate Barbara Buono, who actually has a positive plan to run the state and will stay in Trenton for the next four years, has had such trouble getting her message out. She’s compassionate, tough, and respectful, things the present governor is not so much of. Now that the Senate special election is over, the Buono-Christie race has a clear field ahead of it. With negatives in the two areas that most New Jerseyans care the most about, Buono has a chance to score some points and gain in the polls. That the state and national Democratic Party will sacrifice her to the gods of money and opportunity is one of the great sell-outs of all time.
It’s the season of scary, and the thought of more GOP power in the statehouse and nation fits it very well. This year, though, the cry will not be boo, but boo-hoo. Oh, what could have been.
In the end, we got a terrible economic deal, but a nice political gift. Congress essentially kicked the problem down the road and ensured that early January would mark the beginning of other round of hostage-taking on the part of the right, more attacks on the health care law, and an intransigence on raising revenue in a fiscal deal that will raise hypocrisy to a new level, after they lambasted the president for not negotiating on the debt. Which he did. Anyway.
Even worse is listening to chastened Republicans talk about the importance of bipartisanship and how they hope that Democrats learn the lesson that they shouldn’t do this when they’re in the GOP’s position. Remember: Only the right can shut down the government and scare the world into thinking we’d default on our loans.
The good news is that this deal was worse for the Republicans than even I thought it would be. It was clear that this gambit was not going to help them, and Ted Cruz made it even better for the left because he was convinced that everyone outside of the major cities agreed that the ACA was from the devil and needed to be exorcised. The president stood his ground and public opinion shifted severely away from the GOP. It will take quite a bit of work on their part just to maintain their ranks in the Congress next year. They can kiss the Senate goodbye and might even lose the House, gerrymandered or not.
That this all occurred at the same time that the ACA rollout produced disastrous results makes the episode even sweeter, and is the political equivalent of rubbing salt in right wing eyes. If they had played it straight, they could have earned two years of political capital and would have had the Democrats on the run. But the right made sure that the computer problems will be mostly fixed by the time they’re ready to renew their attacks, and most people won’t pay attention anyway.
The only positive redemption I can see is if the GOP makes the debt and deficit an issue that only they can solve. The public is on their side on that argument, but that would also include cuts to Medicare and Social Security that will not go down well. The shutdown showed that Americans were upset because national parks were closed. Does the GOP think we’d also like to privatize entitlements? I think not.
Let’s hope that Barack Obama keeps his spine straight and forces the right to accept a deficit deal mostly on his terms and without significant consequences for the health care bill. He can also push the immigration bill while the right is down and hope that enough of them see fit to change their minds. Probably not, but it’s fun to dream.
In any case, enjoy the next six weeks. Then it all starts again.
Here’s a surprise: the shutdown was planned months ago. So the pleadings and forthright looks we’ve been getting from Ted Cruz and the orange-tinged scoldings from John Boehner and the laments of the lack of compromise by Republicans everywhere have been fakes. Falsehoods. Frauds. Wait for it…Lies.
What the Republican Cadre, because it’s no longer a viable political party, has done is reprehensible. From the beginning, and I mean 2009, they have tried to obstruct President Obama’s agenda and wait out the electoral clock for four, and now eight years while they plot their way back to power. Thank heavens that they don’t, in fact, know how to do that effectively on the national stage. They will continue to win House seats, though a new poll suggests otherwise, but they’ve fallen farther behind when it comes to women and Hispanics, and we know how viable you are when that happens. In the meantime, all they have is obstruction.
Any talk of compromise or negotiation is not to be trusted. They don’t want to delay the health care bill, they want it gone. They also want Dodd-Frank repealed and for the XL pipeline to be built and they want no new taxes in any economic or tax bill they’d support. And who won the 2012 elections?
But, oddly, they seem to love Medicare and are falling over themselves to fund some parts of the federal government if they believe it will help them. Wait long enough, and they’ll CR themselves into opening the whole thing in a week or so.
Jimmy Kimmel did this a few days ago, when he sent a camera crew out on the streets of California to find out exactly what people knew about The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The results were quite shocking, and they proved that the propaganda machine from Fox News and the Republican party was successful in dumbing down the American public on this healthcare law.
Now, Bill Maher followed and sent his crew out on the streets of New York. You would think that in a place like New York, the people would at least know what Obamacare is, but you would be wrong.
I guess when Republicans say they’re “winning” well, it’s hard to dispute that. Just look and listen to the ignorance displayed in a state where, in 2006, had the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Here are some examples:
INTERVIEWER: What do you think about the Affordable Care Act?
“I think it’s …I think it’s affordable.”
“The worst thing about Obamacare…is the first name. Obama. Why did he name it after HIMSELF?” (Prior to Obamacare, there was Clintoncare…a term coined in the 90s. When Hillary ran against Obama, she used ‘Obamacare’ to describe his ‘inferior’ healthcare plan. Republicans picked it up as a pejorative, and Obama began taking it back when he countered to Romney during a debate, “Obama DOES care.”)
Of course they’re one in the same. But that didn’t stop some random folks being interviewed from picking one over the other, ready with “informed explanations” and all…
Its one thing for the Obama Administration to get the information out sufficiently on the new Affordable HealthCare Act, it’s another for people to actually go and seek it out. That may be the President’s biggest hurdle.
Butch Matthews is a 61-year-old former small business owner from Little Rock, Arkansas who used to wake up every morning at 4 A.M. to deliver canned beverages to retailers before retiring in 2010. A lifelong Republican, he was heavily skeptical of the Affordable Care Act when it first passed. “I did not think that Obamacare was going to be a good plan, I did not think that it was going to help me at all,” he told ThinkProgress over the phone.
But after doing a little research, Matthews eventually realized how much the law could help him. And on Tuesday, his local Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) provider confirmed that he would be able to buy a far better plan than his current policy while saving at least $13,000 per year through Arkansas’ Obamacare marketplace.
Matthews was self-employed between 1997 and 2010, meaning he had to purchase his own plan on the individual market. He chose a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan for himself and his wife that charged a $250 per month premium and had a $2,000 deductible. But the price of that policy kept rising even as it covered fewer of his costs, eventually devolving into his current rate of $1,069 per month with a $10,000 deductible. At this point, it doesn’t even cover his medication or doctors’ visits — particularly concerning considering he had to have two stents placed in his heart in 2006.
“I do not work now, I’m 61, and we do have assets saved up. But still, to come up with that $1,069 per month….” he said, trailing off. “I went to Blue Cross Blue Shield, and they don’t even sell that plan anymore, but I could not change it to anything else. So I was locked in with it.”
That all changed once Obamacare’s state-level marketplaces opened to the public on Tuesday. Matthews knew that, at his income level, the law would help him pay for insurance. But even he might not have expected just how good of a deal he could get: his new coverage will cost him absolutely nothing in monthly premiums after factoring in federal subsidies, and has a deductible of $750.
“Which is a lot different from $10,000,” he pointed out, laughing.
The mid-level “Silver” policy that he picked out also offers a significantly better benefits package. “It’s a lot better plan,” Matthews said. His old plan was considered to be “Bronze” and had much higher co-pays. Under Obamacare, when Matthews visits a doctor, it will no longer cost him around $150. It will cost $8.
So what would Matthews tell other Americans who are skeptical about Obamacare? “I would tell them to learn more about it before they start talking bad about it,” he noted. “Be more informed, get more information, take your time and study and not just go by just what you hear on one side or the other. Actually check the facts on it.”
“I still am a very strong Republican, but this… I’m so happy that this came along,” he continued.
We can thank the Republicans in Congress and the conservative media for this. With all their 24hrs barrage of lies about the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare, the average American is no wiser as to the benefits of the law or that the simple knowledge that the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare is the same thing.
Jimmy Kimmel proves this point by sending out a camera crew and asking the average joe on the street if he/she prefers Obamacare over The Affordable Care Act. Not even knowing that the two are the same, a majority of those asked chose The Affordable Care Act.
Republicans have indeed made a mockery out of the American people. Thanks GOP!
So when Congress passed the bill in both the House and Senate, and when President Obama signed it into law, and when the United States Supreme Court ruled the law constitutional, they all broke another unknown law and committed a criminal act, according to the brilliant mind of Rick Oops Perry!
At a campaign event for Republican New Jersey Senate candidate Steve Lonegan, Perry blamed Democrats for the current government shutdown because they were unwilling to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act.
“If this heath care law is forced upon this country, the young men and women in this audience are the ones who are really going to pay the price,” the governor told a crowd at the Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights, according to The Star-Ledger. “And that, I suggest to you, reaches the point of being a felony toward them and their future.”
“That is a criminal act, from my perspective, to put that type of burden on them — to mortgage their future like that,” he added. “America cannot stand that.”
For his part, Lonegan insisted that he approved of the tactics being used by House Republicans, saying, “We’re shutting down unnecessary parts of government? Good.”
Lonegan’s Democratic opponent, New Jersey Mayor Corey Booker, blasted the Republican businessman in a statement on Tuesday.
“Steve Lonegan today underscored why he has no business representing New Jersey in the U.S. Senate,” Booker said.
“It was bad enough that he reemphasized his allegiance to the extreme right wing of the Republican Party and their efforts to hold the American people hostage by shutting down our government. But in an event today with [Perry], Lonegan also trivialized the furloughing without pay of more than 30,000 New Jersey federal workers.”
Sitting on the sidelines with the rest of America, slowly taking in the fact that the GOP House has just shutdown the Federal government, I’m wondering what their real point was.
Right now the Republican Party aka The Tea Party, is coming off as a bunch of frat brothers raising hell on campus during a wild night of hazing and partying. A dumbbell mentality of mob rule and terrorism, simply because they have the newfound ability and power to do so.
No strategy, no compromising, no sensible plan A, B or even C. Just shouts of “Shut it down!” when the Senate refused to comply with a stop to the mandate of the Healthcare Reform Act in exchange for a continuing resolution to pay the country’s bills on time.
Speaking shortly before the first House vote Monday, Boehner said the measure to delay the mandate was about fairness.
“I would say to the president: This is not about me. This is not about Republicans here in Congress. It’s about fairness for the American people.”
But a recent survey of the American people conducted over the weekend begs to differ. About 60 percent of the 803 U.S. adults polled said they want lawmakers to “pass a budget agreement to avoid the shutdown!”
It had to be obvious to any GOPer with brains that the party would bear the brunt of the blame for this shutdown. What is the Republican plan to offset that blame, or have they not even thought that far ahead?
And now that they have proven that they can shutdown an entire government, what’s the Tea Party’s next mission for the hostage-looking Speaker Boehner?
We do finally know one thing for sure. What all John Boehner’s crying was about.
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