COVID-19 & Healthcare

Hey hysterical media villagers! It turns out that ‘millions’ did not lose their health insurance because of ‘ObamaCare’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Back in November the conservative media entertainment complex latched onto the GOPropaganda talking point that millions of Americans have had their health insurance policies "cancelled" – implying that these individuals would be left without health insurance coverage because of "ObamaCare." Their complicit partners in the "lamestream media" picked up the GOPropaganda talking point and caused a media hysteria for several weeks.

There is a big problem with using anecdotal reporting about individuals who claim to be 'victims" of "ObamaCare" to extrapolate a larger media narrative — many of these individuals' stories were quickly debunked by serious and credible reporters who are not given to media hysteria. It turns out GOP claims that millions of Americans would lose their health insurance because of "ObamaCare" was not true (ah, but you already knew that).

A New Report Undermines Claims That Millions Will Lose Coverage Due To Obamacare:

[A]ccording to a new analysis, this ignores counterbalancing policies in the law. The report finds that less than 10,000 people will lose coverage coverage without an immediate and affordable replacement.

The paper, put together on behalf of ranking member Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and other the Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, takes as its starting point a recent Associated Press report that 4.7 million Americans will see their current coverage cancelled. Critics of Obamacare have used this and other reports to play conceptual games, allowing the technical “cancellation” of a plan to imply a consumer will lose all coverage entirely and be left out in the cold. But for the vast major that 4.7 million, the cancellation of a plan simply means a shift into a new and often better form of coverage. The report lays out three ways this happens.

Community gun-control and mental-health forum

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Tucson City Council member Steve Kozachik is hosting a community gun-control and mental-health forum Tuesday, January 7, at 6:30 p.m., at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway. The forum will follow a presentation of Living for 32: Join us on January 7th for a screening of Living for 32, with a panel … Read more

Tucson January 8th Memorial Events

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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

Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s New Year’s Eve

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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.

Sotomayor
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.

‘ObamaCare’ arrives this New Year’s Day

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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.