No More Pre-Existing Conditions! December 24, 2013
Posted by Admin in Diary, Healthonymous.Tags: #GetCovered, #YoungInvincibles, 2014, Do No Harm, Expect Better, January 1, Medical bankruptcy, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, pre-existing condition, Young Invincibles
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January 1, 2014 is a day I’ve been looking forward to for more than 28 years. No more pre-existing conditions for me. The moral of my story is – “It could happen to you”.
Dear YoungInvincibles @YI_Care : I was once one of you. Healthy, able to get life and health insurance ‘on demand’. I ran 10k races in college, skied in the winter and hiked in the summer. Then age 26 came along and my medical care changed forever. I found a lump in my breast.
Off I went to the doctor, who assured me that I was “too young” to worry about this hard, fixed in place, not painful lump. I had to manage up and advocate for myself to get a mammogram. So I finally got a mammogram (not always effective in young women with dense, perky breasts) and what do you know, the lump I had found was real-and could be cancerous. But they were skeptical, due to my age.
About this time, my doctor asked for my health history and I realized I had no idea if anyone in my family had ever had cancer. “Mom, what did your mother die from at age 45 during WW2?” -Oh- lung and breast cancer……gee thanks. Gulp. And why didn’t I know this before?
That didn’t matter, because now we had to biopsy my big lump. There was no Breast Cancer Fund, no Internet, there was no Susan Love Research Foundation. There were three books on breast cancer available. One was on plastic surgery-scratch that. I was a busy financial advisor and barely had time for this surgery, let alone another one! Yes, I was a Yuppie. Then there was this one- First, You Cry by NBC correspondent Betty Rollins. I read it, but took small comfort from the story. The third one was apparently not memorable, but we bought it.
Here’s my point, YoungInvincibles; you might not get cancer in your 20’s, but anything else can happen. I didn’t ask to get cancer in my 20’s. And although I had some increased family risk, this wasn’t even the worst thing that could have taken me to the hospital. A skiing accident might have made me a quadriplegic; a car wreck could have placed me in rehab, or e.coli could have killed me!
If I hadn’t had health insurance, me or my family might have had to cover the cost of my 2 surgeries (first one didn’t get all the cancer cells), 8 weeks of radiation treatment and follow-ups ourselves. I might have entered my 30’s with unpaid medical debt. Did you know medical bankruptcy is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S.?
#GetCovered for your wallet. #GetCovered for fewer surprises.
#GetCovered for your health and the Ten Essential Health Benefits.
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Democracy and Healthcare October 9, 2013
Posted by Admin in Health Quote of the Week, Healthonymous.Tags: Health Care Quote of the Week, Ideology, real world, Theory vs Practice
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If you want to understand democracy, spend less time in the library with Plato, and more time in the buses with people. ~Simeon Strunsky
Dublin buses (Photo credit: FroZman)
The US Chamber of Commerce Said What? October 7, 2013
Posted by Admin in Health Quote of the Week, Healthonymous, Money.Tags: Affordable Care Act, Bob Schieffer, Chamber of Commerce, GOP Allies, Senator Cornyn, United States debt ceiling
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In this article, the Chamber of Commerce is siding with the President! That doesn’t happen very often, but has happened before with this President.
The letter circulated by the Chamber of Commerce urges lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling “in a timely manner and remove any threat to the full faith and credit of the United States government.”
No mention of the Affordable Care Act in this letter whatsoever.
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Senator Cruz Full of Fiction (again) September 26, 2013
Posted by Admin in Health Quote of the Week, Healthonymous.Tags: Fiction, Obamacare, Obamacare Myths, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Senator Cruz, Texas, train wreck
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Factcheck.org is pretty busy analyzing the 21 hour talkathon (not a filibuster) by Senator Ted Cruz and others in the US Senate this week.
Max Baucus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of the incorrect attributions by Senator Cruz was about fellow Senator Max Baucus’s comment on the implementation of the ACA being a train wreck. Senator Cruz changed that quote to suit his own needs .as reported by Factcheck.org .
“The facts are clear. It is a train wreck. As the lead author Democratic senator put it: It is a train wreck.” Cruz on the Senate floor
At an April budget hearing, the Montana Democrat upbraided Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for her department’s lack of planning to properly implement the law, and warned of “a huge train wreck coming down.” Baucus “was clearly commenting specifically on a concern he had about one aspect of implementation of the law — the rollout of the public awareness campaign,” Meaghan Smith, an aide to the senator, told us.
Baucus is no longer concerned about that, however. In a Sept. 16 interview with Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney, Baucus said “I don’t expect a train wreck” when the exchanges open for business on Oct. 1.
Senator Cruz didn’t even quote Fox News’ interview with Senator Baucus correctly!
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Health Care Quote of the Week: The conservative case for Obamacare October 2, 2012
Posted by Admin in Health Insurance, Health Quote of the Week.Tags: Health Care Quote of the Week, Health Care Reform, PPACA, President Obama, Public Option, Romneycare
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I can’t add very much to this NYT Opinion piece, save to say that its’ conservative credentials are impeccable. And the writer believes that the President’s health care plan (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) is a wonderful piece of legislation, not for liberals but conservatives.
But here’s the dirty little secret:
“This explains why the health insurance industry has been quietly supporting the plan all along. It levels the playing field and expands the potential market by tens of millions of new customers.”
To which I would add, check your health insurance stocks, mutual funds and ETF’s. Are their shareholders complaining about performance in the last three years?
(This post is not a solicitation to buy or sell securities)
English: Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Affordable Care Act Perspective (as we wait for SCOTUS) June 22, 2012
Posted by Admin in Health Insurance, Health Quote of the Week, Healthonymous.Tags: Affordable Care Act, Coverage, Expect Better, President Obama
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Coming soon to a bank account near you!
Source for above data: The Commonwealth Fund Survey.
And Exhibit B is about the Affordable Care Act‘s provision for young people under age 26…It has worked! More than 3 million young adults have care now….Including my own child…..
To quote groobiecat.com
So, if you’re under 26 and are covered under your parents’ policy and are unemployed–and you still think the two parties are the same?–could you please get them to remove you from the policy coverage? Thanks!
Wonder if any of our nation’s Republican public servants or donors are going to remove their children from coverage…..
English: Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi March 21, 2010
Posted by Admin in Health Quote of the Week, Healthonymous.Tags: bankruptcies, HR 3590, it's personal, liberty, life, opportunity, pre-existing condition, Speaker Nancy Pelosi
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“We will honor the vows of our founders…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We thank President Obama for his unwavering support for health care for all Americans. If I have one word for this legislation, it will be “opportunity“.
Speaker Pelosi went on to indicate that this legislation will take people from “joblocked to unleashed entrepreneurial spirit”; the best action we can take to create jobs, ignite innovation, strengthen Medicare, eliminate discrimination, create 4 million jobs during the life of the bill, being a woman will no longer be a “pre-existing medical condition”.
She acknowledged the work of the late Senator Edward Kennedy; and referenced the letter he wrote to President Obama to be read after his death that contained the phrase “access to health care is the great unfinished business of our society”, until tonight…
She urged an Aye vote.
Protesters Resort to N and R words March 21, 2010
Posted by Admin in Health Insurance, Health Quote of the Week, Healthonymous.Tags: African American lawmakers, House vote, NPR, Protest vocabulary gets smaller
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For some details on these incidents, visit the NPR blog here. Members of Congress have been called epithets in the last two days. At least one House member declined to press charges.
As the NPR blogger wrote,
When anti-overhaul protesters start abusing African American lawmakers with the “n” word or gay lawmakers with the six letter “f” word, then it starts to appear that at least some of the opposition is rooted in something other than philosophical differences over individual mandates.
Romneycare… March 17, 2010
Posted by Admin in Diary, Health Quote of the Week.Tags: Expect Better, Health Care Quote of the Week, Romneycare
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From Paul Krugmans’s blog on March 14th:
Republicans are saying that what makes Obamacare a socialist takeover, whereas Romneycare wasn’t, is the fact that unlike Romney’s plan, Obama’s plan cuts government spending.
As he said: Oh. Kay.
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President Obama and Healthcare Tour2010 March 16, 2010
Posted by Admin in Diary, Health Quote of the Week.Tags: Expect Better, Grand Old Party, hypocrisy, Plan, President Obama
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Last week in St. Louis the President finally had an answer for the Republican request to “just start over with a new health care bill”. He asserted,” Why should we-they had ten years!”
What bothers me is how the print and radio media have ignored this, and the other lies being told on the “other side of the aisle’. Or should I say hypocrisy?
Reconciliation is now the “R word”, despite it being a time-honored tool of the Grand Old Party.
“Deeming” a bill to be passed is now unconstitutional, despite use by both previous Houses controlled by Republicans and other Democrats in past years.
In whose interest is it to have health care for more people? If health insurance stock prices go up after a day in Congress, whose interest is being served?
Frequent Flyer has been depressed about the lack of forward motion on the bill so has been gone for 65 days. I hope that the rest of this week brings cooler heads, warm hearts and the realization that this bill is about moving forward to cover more people in this country.
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