Category: Health Care

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Featured Health Care

You Think This Is About Health Care? Sucka.

This is not about health care, and as a matter of fact, the Republican self-immolation this past week has never been about health care. Or health insurance. Or health. Or care.

It’s the taxes, stupid.

That’s what the Republicans care about. That’s what they think will make them healthy and insure their political future. Taxes. as in lower taxes. As in lower taxes than Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush would ever consider because as repellent as their political and economic philosophies were, they were rooted in real-world and real-economy assumptions. Those assumptions turned out to be wrong, as is amply evidenced by the deficits they created and the fact that economic growth never reached the heights it would need to pay back the Treasury for their rashness.

And Reagan even raised taxes over the course of his term in office to cover part of the shortfall. W’s dad gave up his political career when he raised taxes and set the stage for the Clinton boom in the 90s that was further fueled by the tax hikes in Bill’s budgets.

But now we have the ultra-right wing sycophants who forget or, my assumption, never learned those lessons. They’ve wanted to cut taxes for the past eight years and now they have the ultimate know-nothing in the White House who’s going to make their dreams come true.

In order to do that, though, they need to claim the money that President Obama used to revolutionize the health care system. To make sure that uninsured Americans can get affordable health insurance, which they are getting thanks to government subsidies, and to make sure that those people who have pre-existing conditions or are women or are elderly and should not be denied or price-gouged, taxes went up for the wealthy. And corporations. That’s obviously too much for the GOP to handle, so repeal became the rallying cry.

Well, when your goal is to repeal instead of making people healthier, then repeal is what you get. Except, the bill the House passed last week is not repeal. It just guts the best parts of the ACA while making the most vulnerable and sick people in this country subject to paying far more for health care.

Like they used to. When America was great. We’re going to make it great again by making health insurance more expensive, less comprehensive, unfairly discriminatory, and less job-friendly.

But at least taxes will go down, way down, for the already wealthy and to pay for the cuts Donald Trump will sell our intellectual and cultural soul. Because in the end, Trump only wants victories. He knows nothing about health insurance, or about how to be president for that matter, and only counts wins and losses. He considers the vote last week a win. It was not.

Let’s hope that the Senate proposes an actual health care bill that benefits real people. Otherwise, 2018 will not be kind to the Republicans.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Featured Health Care

Republicans’ Radical Plan to End Medicaid

The shiny object that has our attention is the latest nonsense spewing from Trump’s mouth at any given time. And while the media is focus on Trump and the Republican’s talk about repealing Obamacare, a move that will take healthcare away from 32 million Americans, and while the media is captivated by Trump’s dictator-style treatment of them, the bigger story is the Republican’s radical plan to end Medicaid.

This radical plan has nothing to do with the ACA and everything to do with conservatives’ long-standing ideological goal to cap and cut federal Medicaid spending. Medicaid has been a pillar of our health-care system for 52 years and now insures nearly 1 in 5 Americans. A per-capita cap (sending a fixed amount to the states for each beneficiary) or a block grant (sending a fixed amount to the states for their entire program) would be an unprecedented abandonment of federal responsibility by giving states substantially less federal funding than they would get under Medicaid today, with the cuts growing larger each year. That would pass the buck to the states, our health-care safety net and all Americans — and deny care to the most vulnerable among us.

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Health Care Politics september 11

Congress Finally Approves Bill to Help 9/11 Responders

Thanks in part to the likes of Jon Stewart who, after his retirement from The Daily Show, made it his personal duty to fight the Republicans that blocked progress on the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act,

Over 14 years after terrorists hijacked planes to strike the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, lawmakers on Capitol Hill cut a deal Tuesday to provide effectively permanent health care for the thousands of Americans who are now sick and dying because they came forward to help that day.

After remarkably difficult negotiations that prompted critics to create a #WorstResponders hashtag for Congress, legislators finally agreed to an $8.1 billion reauthorization of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, and attached it to the massive omnibus spending bill that will have to pass in order to fund the government.

The spending bill was expected to be posted online imminently Tuesday night, said a senior Republican aide who confirmed the 9/11 bill is included.

“This agreement is incredible news for our 9/11 heroes and their families, and it is a testament to the extraordinary power that Americans can have when they raise their voice and demand action,“ said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

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Health Care Healthcare Politics repeal obamacare

John Boehner Is Still Promising to Repeal Obamacare

Relax Americans, the good old folks in the Republican party are working hard on your behalf, and they are promising to do everything they can to take away your health care and to deny you the basic right of having affordable health care.

In a statement issued on his website, House Speaker John Boehner said;

“The president’s health care law continues to wreak havoc on American families, small businesses and our economy, and as I’ve said many times, the problem was never just about the website – it’s the whole law.  Millions of Americans are seeing their premiums rise, not the lower prices the president promised.  Many small businesses are afraid to hire new workers, instead cutting hours and dropping health coverage for existing employees.  Many Americans can no longer see their family doctor, despite the pledge no one would lose access to their physician.  Seniors are feeling the impact, losing their Medicare Advantage plans the president promised they could keep.  And taxpayers are being forced to pick up an unaffordable tab.

“House Republicans will continue to work to repeal this law and protect families and small businesses from its harmful consequences, and that’s why we’re taking action this week to repeal the law’s 30-hour rule that has become a significant barrier to job growth and higher wages.  We will also continue our work to replace this fundamentally-flawed law with patient-centered solutions focused on lowering health care costs and protecting jobs.”

Yes Americans, having access to quality healthcare is apparently not a good thing. You should be allowed to get sick and die if you have no insurance. And for the selected few that have insurance, your policies should be subjected to denial by the insurance companies if they so choose.

You know… freedom! Like it was in the good old days.

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Health Care ObamaCare Politics Repeal

Fox News To Ted Cruz – Majority of Americans Want Obamacare – Video

Although Americans from all stripes are showing more support for the President’s health care law, Republicans like Ted Cruz are still insisting that the people want “every word” of the law repealed.

On the morning after a massive surge by Americans to get healthcare, Cruz was heard on Fox News saying, “I think at this point it is abundantly clear this thing it isn’t working. You can’t fiddle around the edges. I think it is the essence of pragmatism to recognize this thing isn’t working, and let’s start over, let’s repeal every word of it.”

Fox host Steve Doocy printed out to Cruz that he was speaking for a minority, not the majority of Americans.

“You know, you’re kind of in a minority when it comes to that. You look at the polling, Senator, and a lot of Americans like parts of it, would like to see parts of it continue. So, to blow the whole thing up, I don’t know if people are behind that.”

Cruz, however, discarded that fact and held firm to his talking point, saying “every poll that’s done” showed that the Affordable Care Act was the “profoundly most unpopular law we’ve seen in modern times.”

“I think it’s going to be repealed because I think the American people are demanding it,” the Texas Republican added.

Vudeo

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Health Care Healthcare ObamaCare

Obamacare Prediction – 6 Million Sign ups Will Happen By End of March

Charles Gaba has “been tracking the most up-to-date enrollment information and offering his own projections on his blog, ACAsignups.net. On the same day that he predicted the 5 million signups milestone, he accurately predicted that California would hit the 1 million mark.”

“His next big prediction: The final sign-up tally will hit 6.22 million.”

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Health Care ObamaCare Politics

Already More Healthcare Enrollees in December Than Entire Month of October

If you have no health insurance and have no interest in seeing what plans are available to you through healthcare.gov, then you’re either a Republican who thinks your party’s false message is more important than your own wellbeing, or you are a low information consumer listening to the lies of right winged media outlets.

For those that take their health seriously, they’re signing up for health care!

More people signed up on the government’s new health insurance website on the first two days of December than in the entire first month of the launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, sources familiar with the numbers said on Wednesday.

The sources said about 29,000 people enrolled on Sunday and Monday, surpassing nearly 27,000 for all of October when the opening of the HealthCare.gov website was beset by glitches that led to a public apology by the president and a retooling of the portal.

Obama’s administration has been criticized by Republican opponents for not regularly disclosing figures over political concerns.

The improved enrollment figures provide the first evidence that a five-week emergency effort by the administration to fix HealthCare.gov was allowing more people to sign up for insurance in 36 states served by the website. Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. run their own online insurance marketplaces.

The agency in charge of the healthcare policy rollout, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said on Wednesday that it would announce official numbers later in December.

The upward swing is a tentative good sign for Obama, whose job approval ratings plummeted as the website made a disastrous debut on Oct. 1 and millions received policy cancellation notices despite Obama’s repeated pledge they could keep their current plans under the Affordable Care Act.

Preliminary government data has also indicated that about 100,000 people chose a health plan through HealthCare.gov during November. Tens of thousands more Americans have signed up through state exchanges.

While enrollment is improving, the administration is still far off track of the 7 million people whom the Congressional Budget Office has said were expected to sign up for private insurance through March 31.

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Health Care Politics

Reuters Poll: Interest In Obamacare Coverage Still On the Rise

Reuters is reporting that uninsured Americans are showing more interest in the coverage offered under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law despite technical problems that have hindered enrollment through a government website, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The glitches have crippled HealthCare.gov, the new online insurance marketplace meant to serve people in 36 states, frustrating millions of would-be applicants since it opened for enrollment on October 1.

The poll’s findings are good news for Obamacare supporters who worry the problems and bad press could dissuade people from signing up, particularly the young and healthy who are crucial to diversifying the pool of insured and keeping premiums down.

The uninsured view the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, more favorably since online marketplaces opened – 44 percent compared with 37 percent in September, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll. It found that 56 percent oppose the program compared with 63 percent in September.

A higher proportion of the uninsured also said they are interested in buying insurance on the exchanges, with 42 percent in October, saying they were likely to enroll compared with 37 percent in September. The results have a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points

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Health Care Healthcare women

Fox Expert – “Women Have The Breasts,” So They Should Pay More for Health care

A Fox News medical expert on Tuesday argued that President Barack Obama’s administration was wrong to force gender equality for health insurance rates because men “only have the prostate,” while women “have the breasts, they have the ovaries.”

“Look, it’s not bias, I’m not saying this as a man,” Fox News Medical A-Team contributor Dr. David Samadi told the hosts of Fox & Friends. “They go through a lot of preventive screenings, they give birth, they have the whole mammogram, the Pap smear. Guys, we don’t like to go to doctors, right? Seventy percent of health care decisions are made by women. In my own practice, I see it’s the women who bring the guys, who say, go get screened.”

“Yeah, but shouldn’t that earn us a discount?” Fox News host Gretchen Carlson interrupted. “Basic fact that we are responsible for getting our men to come to the doctor? And what about the fact that women, because they do all this preventative care, maybe their health issues end up costing less than men’s, who don’t go to the doctor until it’s a crisis and a big deal.”

“Yes, that’s a good point, except that, you know, women live longer,” Samadi asserted. “Women live until age 81 and men live only until 76. So, we’re using the health care system much less.”

“In this case, it’s not equal,” co-host Brian Kilmeade agreed. “You have a better time on Earth than we do, you’re here a lot more. You have six years of heaven, where you just have no men around.”

Carlson pointed out that women were blamed for maternity costs, “but men and women have babies together.”

“I agree with you that it’s a shared responsibility,” Samadi said. “But just the way the system are — in my field, we only have the prostate. Women have the breasts, they have the ovaries, they have the uterus. They get checked in every part.”

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Health Care Healthcare Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney To Americans – Use The Emergency Room As Your Primary Health Care Provider

With 46 days to go before the general election, Romney is shedding some light on his plans for Americans after he repeal ObamaCare. The Mitt Romney Health Care plan for Americans would be to get your healthcare needs from your local emergency room.

No joke. In an appearance on 60 Minutes, host Scott Pelley got Mr. Romney to shed some details on his plans for the millions of uninsured Americans. Romney replied;

“Well, we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance,” Romney said. “If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care.”

Crazy… yea, I know. Mitt Romney is promising to Repeal ObamaCare – the legislation signed into law by President Obama that finally addresses the health needs of most Americans – and Romney will replace ObamaCare with the suggestion that people get their healthcare from the emergency room.

But wait. That was what Mitt Romney said yesterday. Do we know how he felt about people using the emergency room for their primary care, say… two years ago? We do.

The Huffington Post quotes a Morning Joe interview from two years ago in which Romney said it “doesn’t make a lot of sense” to have millions of uninsured Americans who get “entirely free care” with “no responsibility” from emergency rooms, especially when those people “have sufficient means to pay their own way.”

And in his book, No Apology, Romney recalls the “collective epiphany” that lead to the creation of Romneycare: “The people in Massachusetts who didn’t have health insurance were, in fact, already receiving health care [from emergency rooms].”

He continues:

Under federal law, hospitals had to stabilize and treat people who arrived at their emergency rooms with acute conditions. And our state’s hospitals were offering even more assistance than the federal government required. That meant that someone was already paying for the cost of treating people who didn’t have health insurance. If we could get our hands on that money, and therefore redirect it to help the uninsured buy insurance instead and obtain treatment in the way that the vast majority of individuals did — before acute conditions developed — the cost of insuring everyone in the state might not be as expensive as I had feared.

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Health Care Healthcare ObamaCare

Americans To Republicans – Leave ObamaCare Alone, Move On Already!

A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation taken after the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare finds a majority of Americans are tired of the Republican’s efforts to repeal President Obama’s Healthcare law.

This poll fielded following the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the heart of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) finds a majority of Americans (56 percent) now say they would like to see the law’s detractors stop their efforts to block its implementation and move on to other national problems.

Democrats overwhelmingly say opponents should move on to other issues (82 percent), as do half (51 percent) of independents and a quarter (26 percent) of Republicans.  But, seven in ten Republicans (69 percent) say they want to see efforts to stop the law continue, a view shared by 41 percent of independents and 14 percent of Democrats.

The public is also divided in its emotional reaction to the decision, with similar shares reporting being angry (17 percent) and enthusiastic (18 percent).  Negative emotions run highest among Republicans who support the Tea Party movement, with 49 percent of this group saying they are angry at the decision.

But what Americans want means nothing to Republicans, as John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are still promising to repeal the law.

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Health Care Politics the supreme court

Supreme Court Says ObamaCare Is Good

The Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s health care law today in a splintered, complex opinion that gives Obama a major election-year victory.

Basically, a bare majority of the justices said that the individual mandate — the requirement that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a fine — is constitutional as a tax.

“Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion that reflected a 5-4 vote on on the question.

Roberts — a conservative appointed by President George W. Bush — provided a key vote to preserve the landmark health care law, which figures to be a major issue in Obama’s re-election bid against Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

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