COVID-19 & Healthcare

Arizona Department of Insurance will not enforce ‘ObamaCare’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

27 states defaulted to a federal marketplace health insurance exchange for purchasing health insurance — a major component of the Affordable Care Act — including Arizona.

6 states — Texas, Arizona, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming — have notified the federal government that their state insurance departments will not be policing the Affordable Care Act health care law.

In the 6 states that will not enforce the insurance exchange and market reforms, the federal government will have to review insurance forms and respond to consumer complaints about health insurance. Think Progress reports, These Six States Want To Allow Health Insurers To Deny Coverage To Sick People:

Officials in Texas and five other GOP-led states are refusing to oversee even Obamacare’s most basic — and popular — consumer protections and
insurance market reforms. That includes the law’s ban on denying coverage or charging more because of a pre-existing condition and discriminating against women on the basis of gender. The decision could present major hurdles to Americans who buy health insurance through federally-run marketplaces in Texas, Arizona, Alabama,
Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

GOP sabotuers refuse to make easy fixes to ‘ObamaCare’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

All major legislation with lots of moving parts requires tweaking over time. Legislators are not omnipotent, and there are always unforeseen circumstances that require a fix. This is what Congress is supposed to do — at least until the unprecedented insurrection by Tea-Publican economic terorrists with respect to sabotaging the Affordable Care Act (aka "ObamaCare").

In some cases they inserted a "poison pill" amendment into the act, hoping to sabotage it, and in other cases they refuse to make easy fixes that everyone agrees is a workable solution, hoping to emphasize "the horrors of ObamaCare" in a misguided attempt to sabotage the health care program.

Case in point, is an Obamacare Fix Spares Hill Staffers:

Capitol Hill staffers will avoid the financial blow of a
Republican-planted provision in Obamacare that was poised to
significantly raise their health care costs next year and lead to
disruptions in congressional offices.

New websites to learn about individual and business accounts under the Affordable Care Act

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Affordable Care Act (aka "ObamaCare") rollout continues this week.

You can now open your individual "ObamaCare" account – but you'll have
to wait a while before you can actually use it to select a health-insurance plan. 'Obamacare' accounts debut for individuals:

Just eight weeks before the Oct. 1 launch of open enrollment under
President Obama's health-care overhaul law, administration officials
announced Monday that the Affordable Care Act is a step closer to
reality for millions of uninsured Americans.

Health and Human
Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said consumers can now go online to
HealthCare.gov and create personal accounts by establishing a username
and password.

However, serious shopping will have to wait until
sometime in September, when details on insurance plans and premiums
offered in local areas will become available through the new online
marketplace. [Arizona's health insurance marketplace is not yet online.]

Sebelius quickly moved to doubters on notice. "Let me
be clear," she said. "We are on target and ready to flip the switch on
Oct. 1."

Tea-Publican projection on government shutdown: blame the hostage

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted about this topic during the 2012 presidential campaign regarding the shameless liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Willard 'Mittens' Romney: 'I'm rubber, you're glue':

Rubber-glueMittens suffers from another disorder frequently associated with pathological lying, psychological projection, a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which he then ascribes to another person. This is the old schoolyard taunt, "I'm rubber, you're glue – whatever you say (about me) bounces off of me and sticks to you."

A variant of this is "I know you are, but what am I?"

This tried and true technique of five-year olds and Tea-Publican politicians everywhere is making a reappearance this week as the Vast right-wing conspiracy plots a '30 front war' against America and the implementation of "ObamaCare."

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday asked if Tea-Publican lawmakers were prepared to "shoot the hostage" and
shut down the federal government if President Barack Obama refused their extortionary hostage demands to
defund his signature healthcare reform law. Chris Wallace Calls Out GOP on Govt. Shutdown: Are You 'Prepared to Shoot' the Hostage?:

During a talk with the conservative Heritage Foundation last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested that Obama and Democrats, not Republicans, would be to blame if the government was shut down.

In Light of Local Poverty, Tucson Needs Creative Direction & Progressive Economic Ideas

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Development33-sig-sm72by Pamlea Powers Hannley

Business friendly? Tucson’s been there, done that, … and got the t-shirt at Goodwill. As former City Councilwoman Molly McKasson said, we put all of our eggs in the development basket and look where it got us.

Twenty percent of Tucsonans are living in poverty.

Thirty percent of Tucson children are living in poverty.

Fifty-two percent of Tucson children live in a one-parent household.

Seventy-one percent of Tucson Unified School District students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. (Statistics from the Arizona Daily Star.)

How did we get here?

The Back Story on Tucson’s Poverty Rate

In a November 2011 “What If?” article published just a few days before the last mayoral election, former Arizona Daily Star reporter Josh Brodesky interviewed activist, writer, and artist McKasson and mused about how Tucson would be different today if she had beaten former Mayor Bob Walkup back in their 1999 match-up.

I remember that election well. Walkup– a former Hughes Aircraft executive and former head of the Greater Tucson Economic Council– was the quintessential business candidate. Bankrolled by Tucson’s business community, Walkup’s campaign successfully painted McKasson as a flighty hippie artist whose no-growth, tree-hugging, water-conserving policies would be bad for Tucson (ie, bad for business and bad for growth). Meanwhile, Walkup was championed as a business savvy savior who successfully ran a business, and, therefore, (of course!) could successfully run a city.

As mayor, the glad-handing, ribbon-cutting Walkup promoted business development, Rio Nuevo, and ill-conceived, taxpayer-funded private projects like the downtown hotel (which went down in flames, thank goodness). Except for his pro-business, pro-growth cheerleading, Walkup was a do-nothing mayor who depended upon defense funding, the occasional TREO call center moving to Tucson, and housing boom construction jobs to bolster Tucson’s chronically low-wage tourist economy. The Tucson Weekly’s endorsement of McKasson (here) eerily  predicts what happened to Tucson under three terms of Walkup. Read it and more background and new ideas after the jump.