Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Announcement from The January 8th Memorial Foundation: The January 8th Memorial Foundation is honored to present “January 8th Memorial Foundation: Together We Thrive,” which will be presented at three different branches of the Pima County Public Library from January 3rd-31, 2014. This is the first time any of these touching community-created materials … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
For those of you who still watch the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve, you saw U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor start the ball drop.
Pearl Gabel/New York Daily News
But before Justice Sotomayor joined revelers at Times Square, she had a busy evening issuing orders in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Several groups of Roman Catholic universities, schools, and charity organizations on Tuesday afternoon began filing a series of requests for the Supreme Court to delay enforcement of the contraceptive mandate in the new federal health care law. Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports, New challenges to birth-control mandate (UPDATED):
UPDATE 11:21 p.m. In a case from the Tenth Circuit Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily blocked enforcement of the mandate against the institutions in that case, while she awaits a response from the federal government, due by 10 a.m. on Friday. Four separate applications were filed from different federal Circuits, but not all sought immediate relief.
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The Court has already agreed to hear constitutional challenges to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate on birth control and other pregnancy-related services, in the cases of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores (docket 13-354) and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius (13-356). The Court has not yet scheduled those cases for oral argument. Briefing in those two is now in progress.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Unless there was a late order entered by Judge Kathleen Cooper in Biggs, et al. vs. Brewer, et al. (CV2013-011699) that did not get recorded on the docket, Arizona's expanded Medicaid (AHCCCS) program under "ObamaCare" is effective today.
If you have been approved for Medicaid (AHCCCS) health care coverage, you are among the millions of Americans who now have health care coverage that you did not have before thanks to "ObamaCare." With new year, Medicaid takes on broader role:
Medicaid embarks on a massive transformation Wednesday — from a safety-net program for the most vulnerable to a broad-based one that finds itself at the front lines of the continuing political and ideological battle over the Affordable Care Act.
Already the nation’s largest health-care program, Medicaid is being expanded and reshaped by the law to cover a wider array of people.
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On Wednesday, people who have signed up for coverage under the new law will become eligible to receive it, in what supporters have hailed as a historic moment for health care in the United States.
So far, more than 2 million Americans, many previously uninsured, have enrolled in private health plans, thanks in large part to new federal subsidies for low- and middle-income people to buy coverage.
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A far greater number — about 3.9 million — took steps in October and November to sign up for Medicaid, according to federal figures. That includes people who became eligible for the state-federal program under the expansion as well as those who could have enrolled previously, but for one reason or another did not sign up until now.
I had not planned to do any blogging over the holidays but then there was this whitehot-rage-inducing item in the news today:
Marlise Munoz, 33, is in serious condition in the intensive care unit at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, hospital officials said. She is unconscious and on a ventilator, her husband told CNN affiliate WFAA, but she wouldn't have wanted her life sustained by a machine.
"We talked about it. We're both paramedics," he told WFAA. "We've seen things out in the field. We both knew that we both didn't want to be on life support."
Complicating an already difficult situation is that Munoz is also pregnant, about 18 weeks along, WFAA reported. Texas state law prohibits withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant patient, regardless of her wishes.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Could it possibly be? Do my eyes deceive me? Are the Beltway media villagers actually writing positive stories about "ObamaCare" now? Well, at least the Washington Post is.
On Sunday the Post reported America’s newly insured laud health-care law:
Adam Peterson’s life is about to change. For the first time in years, he is planning to do things he could not have imagined. He intends to have surgery to remove his gallbladder, an operation he needs to avoid another trip to the emergency room. And he’s looking forward to running a marathon in mid-January along the California coast without constant anxiety about what might happen if he gets injured.
These plans are possible, says Peterson, who turned 50 this year and co-manages a financial services firm in Champaign, Ill., because of a piece of plastic the size of a credit card that arrived in the mail the other day: a health insurance card.
Peterson is among the millions of uninsured Americans who are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 law that launched far-reaching changes to the U.S. health-care system and is President Obama’s premier domestic achievement.