Utter Madness

Will this be the month that tips us into action?

We can't get jobs, live in our homes, educate our kids.  Get out of the way of the tornadoes. Or, apparently, influence substantially the policy decisions imposed by an increasingly vicious and mean-spirited minority.

In California advocacy has been reduced to documenting the rubble.  Medicaid is cutting doctors' visits to 7 a year, for the seriously chronically ill who can still manage to qualify.  To his credit, I think, the Governor just vetoed a budget that has been a disaster for decades because no one can wrench control of the process from the 1/3 of the legislature whose most animating vision is to drown the government in a bathtub. We cannot add $70 a year to our car registration fees as a downpayment on staunching the demise. You might have missed this story because there was a sex scandal this week, and some baseball games. (I like baseball; not the point.)

Other states are dealing with the crisis by fomenting mobs who probably do not quite get the biological links among contraception, pregnancy and abortion, but are convinced they're against all of it, whatever it is.

Congress will not tax a cent of a billionaire's gains from gambling on the stock market, but voted to cut the Women and Infant Children program that gets some minimum level of nutrition to indigent kids.  The Administration of course is taking a strong lead in rallying the nation to hold off on arbitrary cuts to the Social Security benefits of the 50% of seniors who subsist on meager incomes, and to keep Medicare out of the clutches of the vampires in the insurance industry.  Aren't they?  I thought they were; or intended to; or might at some point; or will promise to if re-elected.

Ok, it's not their job; when the people lead the leaders will follow. We are the majority, who support the idea of having an actual society, will lend our neighbor a hand, believe in the right to reproductive health care, above all know there's something terribly wrong when so many can't find work while so few bask smugly in obscene excess. I'll write again soon about the people, organizations and campaigns that are trying to corral us close enough to each other so that we can make a difference. We're out here.  But right now, it's time to take a moment and call a travesty a travesty.


 

From Crisis to Progress: This Week In Health Care Politics

So Republicans say they will not push Medicare repeal as a condition of raising the debt ceiling, which begins to expire on May 16 and still has life through August. Turns out even those deluded by Fox News aren't buying that one just yet, even though the House voted for the Ryan budget bill for 2012 a few weeks ago that featured turning Medicare into a scantily-funded voucher program.

So what other egregious demands can we expect to issue forth from the loonies of the Right?

Well for one hint take a look at H.R. 3, and the Dems' concession in the 2011 budget fight to sacrifice abortions for poor women in DC. H.R. 3 is the bill that would strip abortion coverage from private health insurance plans, on the grounds that employers that provide these plans receive a federal tax credit for doing so. Women who receive the small number of abortions still permitted because the pregnancies were caused by rape or incest could be required to document their trauma to insurance agents or regulators to get coverage. It passed the House on Wednesday by a vote of 251 to 175, with zero R's voting No and 16 Democrats in support: Altmire, Boren, Costello, Critz, Cuellar, Donnelly (IN), Holden, Kaptur, Kildee, Lipinski, Matheson, McIntyre, Peterson, Rahall, Ross (AR), and Shuler. That's

Reproductive rights has lost majority support in the House and the Senate. The 40-plus dependable champions in the Senate can muster a filibuster, but that's still short of the majority that would reflect pro-choice opinion in the country.

Of the 33 Senate seats up in 2012, 23 are Democrats (or Independents who vote with Ds) and 10 are Republicans

So:

Come to the May 13 conference From Crisis to Progress: Health Care Reform, Public Health, and Women’s Preventive Services

Friday, May 13, 2011 ~ 8:30am to 4:00pm

Elihu Harris State Office Building at 1515 Clay Street, Oakland CA

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE

Meanwhile, in California, there is progress;

State Senator Mark Leno's state single payer bill, SB 810, moved forward from the Senate health committee this week.

And CA Assembly member Mike Feuer's AB 52 moved ahead. This bill would authorize the state Insurance Commissioner to limit excessive health insurance increases, a power now available for auto insurance but not for health care. AB 52 moved out of the Assembly Health Committee and on to the financing committee (Appropriations) . If successful in Approps, it should go to the Assembly for a vote in June. Think your health insurance costs to much? Call or write your state assembly member and senator and let them know - and send a copy to Mike.

California’s Health Insurance Exchange Law: Why Does It Matter?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has created a new system of health insurance exchanges. States can design and implement the exchanges to offer new opportunities for access to affordable, accountable health insurance. California’s law is the first in the nation..

Under the federal ACA, exchanges will open in 2014 to offer standardized insurance plans to individuals and small businesses, with subsidies available to people earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level. The California law creates a 5- member governing body with two important features. First, it must “take into consideration the cultural, ethnic, and geographical diversity of the state so that the board’s composition reflects the communities of California.” Secondly, its strong conflict of interest provisions exclude participation by active agents of the insurance and health care industries.

In a key provision for affordability, the state will have the right to engage in “selective contracting” with insurance plans, meaning it will be able to negotiate on premium rates. In addition, it has the right to “require carriers to offer additional products within each of” the five levels of coverage specified by the ACA. These could conceivably refer to supplementary dental plans.

The exchanges for individuals and small employers are initially separate. They could be united in the future, pending a study due by 2018.

The exchange must be self-supporting, after repaying an initial loan for administrative start-up, although there is a prospect for General Fund support. Critics have noted that this funding limitation could hamper the exchange’s viability.

The law includes other important features. It requires coordination with existing health programs. The exchange must provide “oral interpretation services in any language for individuals seeking coverage through the Exchange and makes available a toll-free telephone number for the hearing and speech impaired.” And, “The board shall ensure that written information made available by the Exchange is presented in a plainly worded, easily understandable format and made available in prevalent languages.” Further, the Board must “consult with stakeholders relevant to carrying out” its activities, including “health care consumers who are enrolled in health plans, individuals and entities with experience in facilitating enrollment in health plans, representatives of small businesses and self-employed individuals, the State Medi-Cal Director, and advocates for enrolling hard-to-reach populations.”

Read the bills here:

California Exchange Bill AB 1602


CA Exchange Bill – Senate Bill 900 (Governance)