COVID-19 & Healthcare

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona university students are moving back into their dorms on campus this week. Classes begin Thursday, August 22 at ASU, Monday, August 26 at the U of A, and Wednesday, August 28 at NAU. This would be a good time for the Young Democrats of America (YDA) university chapters to ramp up their involvement in the new initiatives to encourage youth enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (aka "ObamaCare") being announced today. White House Unveils Latest Attempt To Get People To Enroll In Obamacare:

The latest initiatves are set to be unveiled on Monday, when the
Department of Health and Human Services will debut a video contest —
complete with cash prizes — designed to persuade younger consumers to
get insurance.

The administration will partner with Young Invincibles, a non-profit youth issues organization, to run the contest, with the goal of reaching those younger Americans who are skeptical of the need for health
coverage.

Participants will be encouraged to submit three different types of
videos advertising the benefits of the exchanges: a song, an animated
short, or a video designed to convince viewers that they aren't
invincible. Using funds from the Affordable Care Act's education and
outreach budget, HHS will award $3,000 each to the creators of the three
most popular and persuasive videos, while second and third place
winners will get $2,500 each.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Today the "Kochtopus" funded Heritage Action for America is launching
a nine-city tour designed to drum up support among tea-Publican Congress critters for the push to
defund "ObamaCare." The White House-allied Americans United for Change is vowing to match Heritage’s events with its own ("Accountable Congress"), which asks the pro-ObamaCare side to "show up and demand answers" from their Tea-Publican Congress critters.

This is what happened to Florida Republican Rep. Daniel Webster during a town hall held in Winterhaven last Thursday. Diane Sweet at crooksandliars.com reports, Crowd Calls 'Bullsh*t!' On GOP Congressman's Obamacare Lies:

It's going to be a very long, and painful election season for the
Republicans this year. All those millions of people who now have health
care insurance, thanks to Obamacare, are quite happy about it. What
they're not happy about is their GOP lawmakers continuous efforts to repeal it.

During a town hall held by Florida Republican Rep. Daniel Webster in
Winterhaven on Thursday, voters were well informed on the fine points of
the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare." When Webster began
to recite misleading claims that the law’s consumer protections are
being dismantled by the Obama administration, his informed constituents
called him out.

Webster was also criticized for being part of the 40 repeal votes by
the Republican-heavy House of Representatives against the mandate by one
resident who said he was waiting for the state healthcare exchange to
open, in spite of state GOP resistance.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

President Obama used his weekly address on Saturday to call out the Grand Obstructionist Party (GOP) for its economic terrorist threats to either shut down the government or to default on the national debt and cause an economic calamity unless Democrats agree to their extortionary hostage demands to defund "ObamaCare" or to repeal it. From the Transcript of prepared remarks:

Right now, we’re well on our way to fully implementing the Affordable
Care Act.  And in the next few months, we’ll reach a couple milestones
with real meaning for millions of Americans.

If you’re one of the 85% of Americans who already have insurance,
you’ve already got new benefits and protections under this law that you
didn’t before.  Free checkups, mammograms, and contraceptive care. 
Discounted prescription medicine on Medicare.  The fact you can stay on
your parents’ plan until you turn 26.  And much, much more.  And it’s
okay if you’re not a fan of the Affordable Care Act – you can take
advantage of these things anyway.

If you don’t have insurance, beginning on October 1st, private plans
will actually compete for your business.  You can comparison shop in an
online marketplace, just like you would for cell phone plans or plane
tickets.  You may be eligible for new tax credits to help you afford the
plan that’s right for you.  And if you’re in the up to half of all
Americans who’ve been sick or have a preexisting condition, this law
means that beginning January 1st, insurance companies have to cover you –
and they can’t use your medical history to charge you more than anybody
else. 

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

On Friday, Government Executive, essentially a business newspaper for
people whose "business" is government agency operations, published an
"insider baseball" sort of article.  It relates to areas that are designated as "medically underserved areas" (MUAs).

Federal employees are covered covered under slightly different health insurance reimbursement rules when they work in MUAs.

From the article, written by Eric Katz –

The statute that governs the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program
requires OPM to determine which states have “critical shortages of
primary care physicians.” Employees in these states — known as
“medically underserved areas” — receive reimbursement for covered
services by any licensed provider in the state.

 The next lines in the article are the ones that caught my attention (emphasis added) –

OPM [the federal Office of Personnel Management, basically the federal government's version of an HR department] calculates which states are underserved using data from the Health
and Human Services Departments, as well as the Census Bureau. If at
least 25 percent of the state’s population lives in a “primary medical
care manpower shortage area” — as determined by HHS — the state is
considered underserved.

The 12 states that will receive the distinctive consideration in 2014
are Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri,
New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming.

 After first noticing that most of the states listed are "red" states (hey, this is *political* blog, not a *medical* one...), I noticed that most of the states listed, other than Illinois, are known as being very rural.

Which sent my thoughts off on a tangent (hence, this post.  🙂 )

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

 Kaiser Family Foundation has an instructional video, The YouTunes Get Ready for ObamaCare. Watch New Video (below the fold)

The kff.org website has lots of useful information. Browse around.