COVID-19 & Healthcare

The ‘Kochtopus’ crushes the soul of a cancer victim for its anti-Obamacare propaganda

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Last month, the Los Angeles Times‘ business reporter Michael Hiltzik, after debunking one “Kochtopus” Americans For Prosperity “ObamaCare” horror story ad after another, opined Maybe there are no genuine Obamacare horror stories:

Kevin Drum wonders whether there’s a single genuine Obamacare horror story out there, given that virtually every yarn promoted by Republicans or conservatives about people hurt by the Affordable Care Act has deflated like a pricked balloon on the merest examination.

KochIt’s a very good question, inspired by the latest horror story bloomer — the tale of one Julie Boonstra of Michigan, wholesaled by the Koch-founded conservative organization Americans for Prosperity. In a political ad being run by AFP against a Democratic senate candidate in Michigan, Boonstra asserts that “Obamacare” has made her leukemia treatment “unaffordable” and “jeopardized” her health.

But when Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post checked out her story, he found it didn’t hold up. The Affordable Care Act provided her with cheaper coverage than she had before, while allowing her to keep her doctor and maintain her treatment. Kessler didn’t mention it, but Boonstra plainly benefits from another provision of the ACA: the ban on exclusions for preexisting conditions. Patients living in the pre-ACA world of individual health insurance with conditions like leukemia were constantly in danger of losing their coverage and becoming uninsurable. That’s not legal anymore.

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Final lecture in The Evolving Brain series

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Last lecture tonight of this six week series at UA Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. (east of Park Avenue),  at 7 p.m.evolvingbrain

“More Perfect Than We Think”

William Bialek, PhD, John Archibald Wheeler/Battelle Professor in Physics, Princeton University
“From its ability to appreciate beauty, to the reassembly of distant childhood memories, to our almost unthinking ability to respond to the unexpected, is our brain really “doing a good job” at solving the problems we confront as we move through the world? Has evolution granted us a rich inheritance of tools, or saddled us with artifacts of a distant past, limiting our ability to solve new problems? Many other animals, from insects to our fellow primates, do many equally remarkable things, but several examples will be presented allowing us to see how the human brain solves problems in an essentially perfect way — no machine operating under the same physical constraints could do better. Examining what is common among the problems that the brain is good at solving begins to suggest a more general principle that may be at work”.

Martha McSally Wants to Go to Washington to Do… Nothing?

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“Warrior woman”, anti-feminist, and perpetual political candidate Martha McSally wants me to “like” her Facebook page. The only reason someone like me might considering “liking” McSally’s page is to keep tabs on what the stealth candidate with no opinions and no ideas is doing. But I find McSally’s ad featuring an intense, wild-eyed photo of Nancy Pelosi offensive. Let’s face it: … Read more

AZ House approves unlawful CAP bill for harassment and intimidation at abortion clinics

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TalibanThe Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) bill for surprise inspections of abortion clinics, HB 2284 (.pdf) was approved by Tea-Publicans in the Arizona House on a party-line vote on Tuesday, demonstrating that Cathi Herrod’s influence over Tea-Publicans has not been diminished following the public relations debacle over her Religious Bigotry bill vetoed by Governor Brewer. House approves warrantless abortion clinic inspections.

This bill is really about harassing and intimidating abortion services providers and invading the constitutional medical privacy rights of their clients. The bill is sponsored by a CAP water-carrier and Arizona state chairman of ALEC, Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria.

Democrats and Planned Parenthood opposed the bill. The federal courts have previously ruled that snap inspections of abortion clinics are unlawful because women’s medical privacy rights are at risk.

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Cathi Herrod education bill SB1237 killed?

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Cross posted from the Arizona Eagletarian

Last Monday, after SB1062 had already hit the fan, the Arizona Senate passed SB1237, a bill to greatly expand the number of students eligible for taxpayer funds to pay private school tuition (Yarbrough’s STOs).

This is one of the bills 12News reporter Brahm Resnik asked Public School Superintendent John Huppenthal about the week before the SB1062 firestorm. Huppenthal acknowledged that the expanded eligibility would be extended to possibly 50 to 65 percent of students now attending public schools in Arizona.

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