Affordable Health Care Act – get the facts

Health Reform in Action | The White House

Health reform makes health care more affordable, holds insurers more accountable, expands coverage to all Americans and makes our health system sustainable.

www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform

New Data: The Affordable Care Act in Your State | The White House

The Obama Administration releases a new source of data, Health Reform: Results in Your State, to show how the Affordable Care Act’s benefits and …

www.whitehouse.gov/…/new-data-affordable-care-act-your-state

The Affordable Care Act | The White House

Health reform makes health care more affordable, holds insurers more accountable, expands coverage to all Americans and makes our health system sustainable.

www.whitehouse.gov/…/healthcare-overview

Affordable Care Act in Action: Fewer Uninsured Young Adults in …

A new report from the Census Bureau shows that the Affordable Care Act is working: There was a significant increase in the number of 18-24 year olds with health …

www.whitehouse.gov/…/affordable-care-act-action-fewer-uninsured…

Obama Administration Asks Supreme Court to Hear Health Care …

The Obama Administration wants to put legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act to rest and continue moving forward implementing the law to lower the cost of health …

www.whitehouse.gov/…/obama-administration-asks-supreme-court-he…

Today’s Suspension of Payments and the Affordable Care Act | The …

Today, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services has suspended payments worth an estimated $2.3 million per month to …

www.whitehouse.gov/…/today-s-suspension-payments-and-affordable…

Lowering Health Care Cost Growth to Get More Value for Consumers …

… Insurance Exchanges, competitive private insurance marketplaces. But thanks to the Affordable Care Act, we’re keeping costs down and making health care more affordable.

www.whitehouse.gov/…/lowering-health-care-cost-growth-get-more-…

CBO Update Shows Lower Costs for the New Health Care Law | The …

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released updated cost estimates for some parts of the Affordable Care Act. In this update, CBO projects that net …

www.whitehouse.gov/…/cbo-update-shows-lower-costs-new-health-ca…

The Affordable Care Act Helps Women Stay Healthy | The White House

On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) announced historic new guidelines that will allow women to access important preventive health services as …

www.whitehouse.gov/…/affordable-care-act-helps-women-stay-healt…

AFL – CIO: Workers in the construction and transportation sectors urgently need jobs

 

URGENT If Speaker John Boehner and his obstructionist friends in the House of Representatives don’t pass the Senate’s bipartisan surface transportation bill by March 31, thousands of construction and transportation workers—who already have an unemployment rate of 17 percent—will be out of work.Demand a bipartisan surface transportation bill now!     It’s staggering. More than 17 percent of construction trades workers are looking for jobs. (And in some areas of the country, it’s 20 percent, 30 percent or more.) Meanwhile, 68,842 American bridges are deficient. More than 282 million vehicles cross those bridges every day. And many public transit systems have serious problems and are in need of critical upgrades. Workers in the construction and transportation sectors urgently need jobs. And there’s tons of work to be done to fix our crumbling infrastructure and ensure public safety. But obstructionists in the House of Representatives—led by House Speaker John Boehner—are refusing to pass the Senate’s bipartisan surface transportation bill. Tell House Speaker John Boehner and GOP leadership: Pass the Senate’s bipartisan surface transportation bill now. The Senate already has done its job. A supermajority—74 out of 100 senators—came together to pass a bipartisan surface transportation bill. This two-year, $109 billion funding bill will support millions of jobs and help build and maintain safe and strong highways, roads, bridges and transit systems. But Speaker Boehner and other House GOP leaders are holding jobs and public safety hostage while they push an extreme, partisan agenda. Their proposed legislation guts transit funding, privatizes public-sector work to reward campaign donors, kills thousands of jobs and raids the pensions of federal workers. Although the economy is slowly getting better, construction and transportation workers cannot afford to go without work while House Republican leaders engage in power grabs. Tell Speaker Boehner and GOP obstructionists: Stop holding jobs and public safety hostage—pass the Senate’s bipartisan surface transportation bill immediately. Thanks for all the work you do. In Solidarity, Manny Herrmann Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

the Progress Report: Republicans who were for Mandated Coverage and now … not so much

Meet the Republicans for Mandated Coverage

By         ThinkProgress War Room

Republicans For Mandating Coverage (RMC) is a 51-member coalition representing Republicans who supported a federal health care mandate before President Barack Obama endorsed it. Check out the highlight reel:

Republicans who were for the individual mandate in health care before they were against it just because President Obama was for it:

Frmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MA) | Frmr. Rep. Newt Gingrich (GA) | Frmr. Gov. Tim Pawlenty | Frmr. Sen. Bob Bennett (UT) | Frmr. Sen. Chris Bond (MO) | Frmr. Sen. William Cohen (ME) | Frmr. Sen. John Danforth (MO) | Frmr. Sen. Bob Dole (KS) | Frmr. Sen. Pete Domenici (NM) | Frmr. Sen. David Durenberger (MN) | Frmr. Sen. Duncan Faircloth (NC) | Frmr. Sen. Slade Gorton (WA) | Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) | Sen. Orrin Hatch (UT) | Frmr. Sen. Mark Hatfield (OR) | Frmr. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (KS) | Sen. Dick Richard Lugar (IN) | Frmr. Sen. Alan Simpson (WY) | Frmr. Sen. Arlen Specter (PA) | Frmr. Sen. Ted Stevens (AK) | Frmr. Sen. John Warner (VA) | Frmr. Sen. Hank Brown (CO) | Frmr. Sen. Conrad Burns (MT) | Sen. Dan Coats (IN) | Sen. Thad Cochran (MS) | Frmr. Sen. Paul Coverdell (GA) | Frmr. Sen. Larry Craig (ID) | Frmr. Sen. Judd Gregg (NH) | Frmr. Sen. Jesse Helms (NC) | Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) | Frmr. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne (ID) | Frmr. Sen. Trent Lott (MS) | Rep. Connie Mack (FL) | Frmr. Sen. Frank Murkowski (AK) | Frmr. Sen. Bob Smith (NH) | Frmr. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) | Frmr. Sen. Malcolm Wallop (WY) | Frmr. Sen. Don Nickles (OK) | Rep. Cliff Stearns (FL) | Frmr. Rep. Jim (LA) | Frmr. Vice President Dan Quayle (IN) | Sen. John McCain (AZ) | Sen. Scott Scott Brown (MA) | Frmr. Gov. Tommy Thompson (WI) | Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN) | Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) | Sen. Mike Crapo (ID) | Frmr. President George H.W. Bush | Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) | Frmr. Sen. John Chafee (RI) | Sen. Jim DeMint (SC)

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed

Even Donald Trump has problems with the Republican budget, which he calls “suicidal.”

Why do people think Chief Justice Roberts will support Obamacare?

Building the Keystone XL pipeline won’t bring gas prices down.

Fans of Obamacare showed their love for health care reform outside the Supreme Court today as oral arguments got underway.

Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman’s friend: “He’s very sorry because in many ways, George has lost his life too.”

Poll: Only 37 percent of Americans want Obamacare repealed.

Romneycare’s example helped convince Obama to adopt an individual mandate, according to a White House memo.

Rock The Vote rolled out a history of voting rights in America this week.

An Iraqi woman was killed in an apparent hate crime in California over the weekend.

Other recent Progress Reports

Mar 23, 2012: Happy 2nd Birthday, ObamaCare!

INFOGRAPHIC: Two Years In, ObamaCare Is Working Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed ObamaCare Supreme Court preview part III: The perils of overreach. Texas reporter fired after shocking interview on transvaginal sonograms. POLL: 53 percent want to see ObamaCare expanded or left as is, while just 38 percent want to see it [...]

Mar 22, 2012: No Etch A Sketch Will Wipe These Away

TEN Outrageous Positions That Mitt Romney Can’t Erase Yesterday, Mitt Romney’s top adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, explained the Romney campaign’s strategy for the general election: try and erase all of Romney’s extreme right-wing positions.  Watch it: HOST: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right [...]

Mar 21, 2012: Jim Crow Redux? Why Millions May Be Denied The Right To Vote In 2012

Last year, Republicans opened up an attack on voting rights unseen since the Jim Crow era. In states as varied as Kansas, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, conservative legislators passed a range of new laws directly intended to make it more difficult to vote. Voter ID laws, which require certain forms of government-issued photo ID in [...]

Mar 20, 2012: The Tragedy Of Trayvon Martin

On February 26, 2012, a 17-year-old African-American named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old man. Zimmerman admits killing Martin, but claims he was acting in self-defense. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, passed in 2005, allows people to use deadly force if they believe they’re in [...]

Berkley for Senate

This Saturday marks one of the most important milestones of the election season — it will be the first opportunity in 2012 for campaigns across the country to display the depth of their support.

Midnight on Saturday is the end of the first FEC fundraising quarter of the year. Pundits and prognosticators everywhere will use this number as a measure of strength.

Nevada is going to be one of the closest elections in the nation — which means our numbers this quarter are even more important. That’s why I set a goal — $25,000 by the filing deadline on Saturday.

Don’t miss this chance to show our strength — contribute what you can today, and help us get to our $25,000 goal before the deadline.

Special interests back in Washington, D.C. don’t think a grassroots campaign can amass the strength necessary to take on their millions. They think they’ll be able to throw so many smears at us that we won’t be able to fight back.

I know they’re wrong, but I need you to help me prove it. We need enough resources to counter the barrage that will inevitably come in this race.

This is a critical test — and an opportunity for us to make a statement about our strength. Contribute today — even if it’s $5 or $10 — and help us hit our $25,000 goal before Saturday.

I’m running for Senate because I believe in strengthening our economy and the security of the middle class. But to win, we’ll need to show that we have a different kind of strength already within us. I hope you will stand with me.

Thanks for all you do.

Shelley

PS: Know anyone else who’d like to help us show our strength? Do your part and contribute today, then share our call with your family and friends on Facebook and Twitter.

I am NOT Alissa … Alissa via Change.org

When I was 16, I was sold for sex against my will on a website called Backpage.com, the biggest website for child sex trafficking ads in America. Tell Village Voice Media, owners of Backpage, to shut down their sex ads now.                                                 Sign the Petition     Thank you for taking the time to read my story.  I am one of many girls who have been exploited and sold for sex online. And I was sold for sex on a website called Backpage.com, which makes $22 million a year from ads for prostitution. You should know that my name is not Alissa. I’m afraid that if I use my real name, the pimps who used to sell me for sex will hunt me down and kill me. I am also afraid that Village Voice Media (which owns Backpage) will ruin my life and come after me as they have others who have stood up for girls who have been sold on Backpage. But I’m even more afraid that if I don’t tell my story, no one will rise up to stop the people who buy and sell girls like me. Now, there’s a petition on Change.org asking Village Voice Media to shut down its sex ads. Click here to sign the petition. I was 16 when I met my first pimp — he told me I was pretty, that he wanted me to be his girlfriend. I was just a kid, and I believed him. But soon he was selling me for sex every day: I was raped 365 days a year. I was sold to other pimps, back and forth between them like an animal. One pimp gouged my cheek with a potato peeler as a warning not to run away, but after two years I worked up the courage and ran anyway. He tracked me down and beat me and stomped on me, breaking my ribs and jaw. That’s when I went to the police. It’s still hard for me to believe that this web page exists, that it’s so easy for pimps to sell terrified, unwilling girls like me. Can you go buy a child at Wal-Mart? Of course not, but you can buy me on Backpage. There is some hope, though: Craigslist used to host ads for girls like me, but after people started speaking out, Craigslist shut down their adult section. A new study says that prostitution ads as a whole have gone down by 50% since Craigslist got out of the business. 50%! If men can’t use sites like Backpage.com to buy and sell girls, maybe fewer girls will be bought and sold. Now, I’m in college, and work at a nonprofit, FAIR Girls, where I help other girls like me — I even got to tell my story to Nick Kristof at The New York Times. I got out, which makes me one of the lucky ones. But Backpage is still making millions a year off the ones who aren’t so lucky. I see these teenage girls, some as young as 15, every day now in my work, and it breaks my heart. Click here to tell Village Voice Media to shut down all prostitution ads on Backpage.com. Thanks, Alissa

Nothing left after the storm … Helene D. Gayle, CARE

The people of Madagascar were struggling to recover from Cyclone Giovanna when a second tropical storm, Irina, took them by surprise last month. With nearly a quarter of the island’s population living in poverty, these two storms made things worse. In addition to causing more than 100 deaths, the storms ripped through homes and destroyed the few possessions families owned. CARE is on the ground today working with our partners to provide emergency relief for 250,000 people who now lack even the basics: food, clean water and shelter. Will you make a gift today to help survivors of the storms in Madagascar and people all around the world benefiting from CARE’s lifesaving and life-changing programs? Among the survivors in Madagascar is Jackie, his wife and 7-year-old daughter. He told CARE about the night Cyclone Giovanna tore through his district, “We saw a part of our roof blown away by the storm and our house collapsed after that.” Nothing near where Jackie lived survived the storm that night — not homes, stores or crops — but Jackie is thankful he and his family did. Today, many people in his town are in a dire situation. People are facing hunger as their food was blown or washed away and they’re living in inadequate, temporary shelters that do little to protect them from the elements. Irina’s heavy rains severely damaged roads, making them impassable and preventing urgent delivery of emergency response services. Flooding and broken infrastructure also threaten to increase the spread of waterborne diseases like cholera and malaria. CARE is distributing food and emergency shelter materials as well as repairing roads so that aid reaches those who need it most. However, much remains to be done before Jackie and his family can resume their normal lives. Please give now and help CARE bring relief and much-needed hope to poor families and communities around the world. Your gift to CARE can support disaster survivors like Jackie during their road to recovery, help us prepare for future emergencies and provide people around the world access to tools, resources and education they can use to help lift themselves, their families and their communities out of poverty for good. Please give as much as you possibly can today. On behalf of the millions of people CARE serves around the world, thank you for your generosity. Sincerely, Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH President and CEO, CARE

VIDEO: In Arizona, A Latino Family Fighting Against All Odds “Axel Caballero from Cuéntame”

Against All Odds, Stronger Than Ever! Watch this Video | Share this Video Dear Carmen, The Moreno family knows first-hand what it means to fight against all odds in order to keep their family together. Living in Arizona, the emblematic state best known for its harsh stances on immigration and Latino educational culture, has been a challenge in it of itself. Watch this powerful and honest conversation! Honest and direct the Moreno family tell us their powerful story. One which is already changing paradigms and perspectives – from their conservative community to the entire nation. Today, Cuéntame’s video of the Moreno Family is the front page of The Huffington Post Latino Voices. Their conversation is direct, funny, emotional, challenging yet hopeful and ultimately inspirational. The Moreno family is a perfect example of how an honest conversation changes the family dynamic – for the better. Join in the conversation by sharing this video! Yours, Axel Caballero and the Cuéntame team.

Obama’s Powerful Words About Trayvon, The GOP’s Worst Offenders For Women, And One Very Revealing Chart

Why Doctors Are Cheering Obamacare

Which Industry Receives $126 Per Second In Tax Breaks?

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The One Thing About Taxes That The GOP Just Doesn’t Understand

One Graphic Illustrates Why Spring Equals Change

The Reality Check We Can’t Wait To See In November

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Do These Harvard Law Students Look Suspicious To You?

A MoveOn Member Wrote A Song With This Message To You

Economic Recovery For Whom? The 1934 Versus The 2010 Recovery

 

Discrimina​tory Health Insurance Practices Cost Women $1 Billion a Year … Judy Waxman, National Women’s Law Center

Yes, really: insurance companies CAN charge women higher premiums than men for the same insurance plans, to the tune of $1 billion per year. But thanks to the health care law, this discriminatory practice is on its way out. Have you watched our video about how the health care law is helping women and their families and what’s at stake without the law? After you watch it — make sure to share it with your family, friends, and co-workers. Today, as the Supreme Court began three days of arguments about the health care law, there is one argument that has already been won: the health care law is helping women and their families across the country. Thanks to the health care law, over 100 million Americans no longer face limits on the amount of their health care insurers will cover over their lifetime; over twenty million women have received at least one preventive health care service without a co-pay in the past year. Thanks to the ACA, over two million young adults under 26 years old have kept health coverage because they could stay on their parents’ plans. And this is just the beginning. You can’t argue with the facts. Share our video today about how we are benefiting from the health care law and help your friends and family see what’s at stake for women if the law goes away. Thanks for everything you do for women and their families. Sincerely,     Judy Waxman Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights National Women’s Law

Mayor Bloomberg: “You and I and our families are in danger”

I wanted to make sure you saw this powerful video from Mayor Mike Bloomberg talking about the Trayvon Martin shooting.
It was a devastating indictment of the Washington gun lobby‘s scheme to weaken our nation’s gun laws, one by one, state by state.  That’s putting our children, our families and our police in direct and unnecessary danger.
Watch the video, then share it and ask your friends and family to join you in writing to their senators.

Together, we’re demanding that our senators reject bills that would grant violent offenders like Trayvon Martin’s killer a free pass to travel nationwide with a concealed, loaded gun strapped to their hip – even when they couldn’t qualify for a permit in most states.
Thanks to you and other strong supporters, we’re already flooding Congress with messages — more than 50,000 have been sent since just last Thursday.
That’s an amazing start — but to keep up the pressure and ensure these unthinkable bills never make it into law, we all need to speak out. Please ask your friends and family to add their voices today.
Thanks for helping keep up our momentum,

Mark Glaze

Director, Mayors Against Illegal Guns