Posted by AzBlueMeanie: (Reposted from April 6, 2011) Last week, Florida Rep. Scott Randolph (D-Orlando) suggested that his wife "incorporate her uterus" so that Republicans would stop their relentless attacks on abortion rights. The logic was, of course, that Republicans would never permit similar regulation of Florida businesses. Randolph's comment inspired the Florida American Civil … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
In somewhat of a surprise this week, the main anti-abortion bill of the Christian Taliban aka Center for Arizona Policy, House Bill 2838, which proposed to toughen state abortion requirements including banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, died after it failed to draw enough support to merit a committee vote.
Perhaps our Tea-Publican legislators were watching the mass protests in Virginia this week that caused Gov. Bob McDonnell to drop his support for the state-sanctioned rape by trans-vaginal ultrasound probe abortion bill. Sen. Jill Vogel, the sponsor of the bill, said she will strike her legislation, killing the bill.
This was followed by the Virginia Senate voting 24-14 to scuttle a bill that would have given fertilized eggs the same legal rights as people (the "personhood" bill). Huzzah! Virginia puts 'personhood' bill on hold until next year.
If only we were so lucky in Arizona. The point man woman for Center for Arizona Policy, Rep. Kimberly Yee (R-Phoenix), plans to paste the language of HB 2838 into another of her bills, HB 2036, as a "strike-everything amendment."
HB 2036, which originally dealt with regulations in the Attorney General's Office (private attorney retention; contingency fees), already passed the House and is scheduled for a hearing on Monday in the Senate Judiciary Committee at 2:00 p.m., in Senate Hearing Room 1. Get yourself there to testify in person or sign up online to testify.
h/t Daily Kos for graphic
By Michael Bryan
The American healthcare system is not a market at all. And it is certainly not a 'free' market.
That may be a counter-intuitive statement, given the political discourse around the American healthcare system. But allow me to make the case before you reject this premise.
Any economist will tell you that a free market system for exchange of any good or service requires several basic preconditions in order to work. Some of those prerequisites are: the existence of fungible goods in the market (substitutions are possible which leave the consumer equally well off), pricing information freely available to consumer and providers, freedom by participants (especially buyers) to select the timing of their purchases, and freedom to choose whether to enter the market at all.
None of these preconditions obtain in the American healthcare system.
By Karl Reiner In 2010, Americans spent $2.6 trillion on health care, a distressing 18% of GDP. The cost in the U.S. was higher per capita than in any other industrialized nation. Although it leads the world in money spent, a lower percentage of America’s population had medical coverage. The need for health care … Read more
by David Safier Senate candidate Richard Carmona will be the keynote speaker at the Arizona Health Forum Satuday, March 3, 1:30-4:30pm at UA.