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Obamacare Architect Leaves White House for Pharmaceutical Industry Job

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Glenn Greenwald - Dec. 06 (News Analysis) - Whatever one's views on Obamacare were and are: the bill's mandate that everyone purchase the products of the private health insurance industry, unaccompanied by any public alternative, was a huge gift to that industry; as Wheeler wrote at the time: "to the extent that Liz Fowler is the author of this document, we might as well consider WellPoint its author as well." Watch the five-minute Bill Moyers report from 2009, embedded below, on the key role played in all of this by Liz Fowler and the "revolving door" between the health insurance/lobbying industry and government officials at the time this bill was written and passed.

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Mitt Romney, On 60 Minutes, Cites Emergency Room As Health Care Option For Uninsured

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Sep. 23 (News) -

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Supreme Court to rule Thursday on health-care law - The Washington Post

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Robert Barnes, N.C. Aizenman - Jun. 28 (News Report) - The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the individual health-insurance mandate that is at the heart of President Obama’s landmark health-care law, saying the mandate is permissible under Congress’s taxing authority.

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Individual mandate is Ryan tax credit by other name

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ezra Klein - Apr. 01 (Opinion) - Tax credits : Under various health-care proposals — including the plan of Republican Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) — the tax code is changed to give families a tax credit for buying private health insurance. Families that choose to go without insurance

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Ethan Rome: Republicans to America: Death to Medicare

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ethan Rome - Mar. 15 (News Analysis) - When the Republicans release their budget next week, they'll likely say they have a "new" Medicare proposal that will "save" Medicare instead of eliminate it. That's not true. The Republicans still plan to end Medicare as we know it. But this time they'l

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Santorum living in stone-age

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Stephanie Coontz - Feb. 14 (Opinion) - Presidential candidate Rick Santorum is unhappy with last week's compromise over whether Catholic institutions should be required to cover contraception for their employees, arguing that birth control "shouldn't be covered by insurance at all."

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Trying to Catch His Breath With a Hole-Ridden Safety Net

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Scientific American - Feb. 11 (Opinion) - I’m sitting here on a bed that constantly readjusts itself. It’s terribly annoying and when I lay down on it the low rumbling of the motor pushing air to my legs and sucking it from butt. The noise makes that grey matter between the ears in my head shake. Probably a malfunctioning bed, but it’s nothing to complain about given what is sitting next to me, 2 meters over, in the next adjustable bed. I’m at Carteret General Hospital on North Carolina’s scenic Crystal Coast, where I live. My beautiful, precious 6 year old son was admitted this past Tuesday for Pneumonia. It started 6 days before on a Wednesday. He asked his kindergarten teacher if he could lay down. Odd behavior for such an outgoing kid, one of the class favorites who even at 6 already seems quite the ladies man with 2 Lilies, a Tanzania, and an Ellie running up to him each day when I drop him off for school. Along with 2 Charleses, these friends are just the ones we hear about! When I picked up him from ...

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Fiscal FactCheck

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Jul. 15 (Fact Check) - Washington's spending has recently been higher as a percentage of the nation's economic output than at any time since World War II. But by the same measure, Washington's revenues are the lowest in more than 60 years. So does the U.S. have "a spending problem," as Republicans keep repeating in the current debate over how to reduce the nation's record deficits? Or is the problem that taxes are not high enough? Those questions frame a long-running partisan debate, and as usual we won't offer an opinion one way or the other. But for those seeking their own answers, we can offer some fiscal history and factual context.

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Federal government to review rate increases in 10 states

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Julian Pecquet - Jul. 07 (News) - Federal regulators will review health insurance rate increases in 10 states under authority granted by the healthcare reform law, according to the Medicare agency's Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO).

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The Declaration of Insurance Independence

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TechCrunch - By Dave Chase - Jul. 03 (Opinion) - Healthcare’s perverse incentives and an accompanying stifling bureaucracy driven by encumbering day-to-day healthcare with insurance has caused hyperinflation that is crushing family, employer and government budgets and holding back job growth. This must be stopped. Citizens and healthcare providers are doing exactly that, however counter-productive insurance regulations are impairing the ability to expand upon health plans shown to reduce costs by 40% or more. We, therefore, declare that: the United States are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent of insurance and self-sufficient in accessing day-to-day healthcare; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to insurance bureaucracy; and that all insurance connections involving the purchase of day-to-day healthcare, are and ought to be totally dissolved; as Free and Independent States they have full Power to explore the range of more effective ways of accessing day-to-day healthcare, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

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It's the Health Care Costs, Stupid

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - I’ve already written about Joe Lieberman’s very bad, no good idea of raising the Medicare eligibility age. Austin Frakt and Aaron Carroll show that it’s even worse than I thought: Americans near 65 who don’t have good health insurance delay needed treatment, causing a bulge in Medicare costs when they hit the magic age, and the same phenomenon would get even worse, so this might not even save money. The larger point is that we don’t have a Medicare problem, we have a health care cost problem. And Medicare actually does a better job of controlling costs than private insurers — not remotely good enough, but better.

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House Republicans Face Backlash At Home Over Medicare Vote

Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Lucia Graves - May. 18 (News Report) - House Republicans returning to their districts on Monday faced harsh criticism for voting to turn Medicare, the federal health care program for retirees, into a voucher system. GOP lawmakers faced this same constituent ire mere weeks ago when they first voted to support House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget plan, which would lower tax rates for corporations and the wealthy while replacing Medicare with private-insurance subsidies for those under 55.

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Appeals court blasts VA mental health care system

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Paul Elias - May. 10 (Special Report) - Noting that an average of 18 veterans a day commit suicide, a federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to dramatically overhaul its mental health care system. In the strongly worded ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it takes the department an average of four years to fully provide the mental health benefits owed veterans. The court also said it often takes weeks for a suicidal vet to get a first appointment. The "unchecked incompetence" in handling the flood of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health claims is unconstitutional, the court said.

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Libel law makes web hosts the Achilles heel of online journalism

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Martin Robbins - May. 03 (Opinion) - Much attention has been focused on the chilling effects of Britain's libel laws on writers, but standing up to threats counts for little when websites can be shut down on a whim In January 2008, web hosting firm Netcetera received an e-mail from the legal representative of Joseph Obi , a fantasist who describes himself as an "alternative medicine visionary" and "The World's Most Controversial Doctor!" Obi was struck off by the GMC and claimed to head a college which doesn't really exist , and was therefore a ripe target for a spot of debunking on Andy Lewis' popular (and excellent) Quackometer blog, then hosted by Netcetera. This attracted the ire of Obi, who instructed his representative to send the following bizarre threat: "In case the defamation continues beyond 12 noon on Monday the 21st of January 2008, we are instructed to hold you fully liable to the tune of £1 Million (One Million Pounds) per day, together with additional punitive damages relating to the many months during ...

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Workers Comp Targeted By Business, Insurance Groups

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dave Jamieson - Apr. 22 (News Analysis) - While some bipartisan efforts exist, Republicans generally push the reforms, which business groups and insurance trade associations support. And though many of these discussions have been brewing for years, the ongoing efforts seem to dovetail nicely with the anti-labor zeitgeist fostered in Wisconsin and Ohio, as stories of able-bodied workers gaming the system now abound in legislative halls.

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Would Fund Protect US Taxpayers From Nuclear Disaster Here?

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

aolnews.com - By Andrew Schneider - Mar. 18 (News Report) - The U.S. nuclear industry says it would pick up the total tab should a catastrophic wipe-out of multiple reactors, such as the one creating havoc in Japan, occur on American soil. But insurance and risk assessment experts say that's not even close to the truth, and that taxpayers will get stuck funding billions of dollars to cover claims for loss of life, property and business, as well as decontamination.

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Google Ventures, Khosla Make Rain For WeatherBill

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

blogs.wsj.com - By Deborah Gage - Feb. 28 (News) - Google Inc.'s venture capital arm is backing a start-up founded by ex-Googlers that insures farms and other business against the whims of Mother Nature.

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Federal Judge In D.C. Upholds Health Care Reform, Says Some Arguments 'Ignore Reality'

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Talking Points Memo - By Ryan J. Reilly - Feb. 23 (News) - A federal judge on Tuesday upheld the health care reform law signed by President Barack Obama last year and found that Congress had the clear authority to regulate health insurance under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

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Money Won’t Buy You Health Insurance

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Donna Dubinsky - Feb. 20 (Opinion) - This isn’t the story of a poor family with a mother who has a dreadful disease that bankrupts them, or with a child who has to go without vital medicines. Unlike many others, my family can afford medical care, with or without insurance. Instead, this is a story about how broken the market for health insurance is, even for those who are healthy and who are willing and able to pay for it. Most employees assume that if they lose their job and the health coverage that comes along with it, they’ll be able to purchase insurance somewhere. The members of Congress who want to repeal the provision of last year’s health insurance law that makes it easier for individuals to buy coverage must assume that uninsured people do not want to buy it, or are just too cheap or too poor to do so.

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The reality of our health-care debate

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Ezra Klein - Feb. 02 (Opinion) - I don't mind having a conversation about replacing or reforming the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. I think we could do better than PPACA. Wyden-Bennett, for instance. Or dusting off Richard Nixon's plan and using that instead. What baffles me is how my conservative friends can delight in the prospect of repealing or voiding PPACA before they have committed to some alternative that could help Hillary St. Pierre: With a court decision on Monday declaring the health care law unconstitutional and Republicans intent on repealing at least parts of it, thousands of Americans with major illnesses are facing the renewed prospect of losing their health insurance coverage...Hillary St. Pierre, a 28-year-old former registered nurse who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, had expected to reach her insurance plan’s $2 million limit this year. Under the new law, the cap was eliminated when the policy she gets through her husband’s employer was renewed this year. Ms. St. Pierre, who has already come close ...

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With House set to debate healthcare, government finds up to half of Americans under 65 have preexisting conditions

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Amy Goldstein - Jan. 18 (News Report) - Analysis marks the government's first attempt to quantify the number of people at risk of being rejected by insurance companies or paying more.

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U.S. Proposes Rules on Raising Insurance Premiums

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Robert Pear - Dec. 21 (News Report) - In a move to protect consumers, the Obama administration said Tuesday that it would require health insurance companies to disclose and justify any rate increases of 10 percent or more next year.

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Investors Bet on Strangers' Lives

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Mark Maremont, Leslie Scism - Dec. 21 (News Report) - Life Partners, a company that lets investors buy parts of strangers' life-insurance policies, has made large fees while often underestimating the life expectancies of people whose policies its customers invest in.

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Key provision of health-care overhaul ruled unconstitutional

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:46:23 -0800

Washington Post - By Rosalind S. Helderman - Dec. 13 (Breaking News) - A federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that a key provision of the nation's sweeping health-care overhaul is unconstitutional, the most significant legal setback so far for President Obama's signature domestic initiative.

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Virginia judge rules parts of health care reform unconstitutional

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Bill Mears - Dec. 13 (Breaking News) - A federal judge in Virginia has ruled parts of the sweeping health care reform effort led by President Obama to be unconstitutional.

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