ACA is a job creator

 

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The Affordable HealthCare Law resolves health care and jobs issues.

 

If you believe in moving into the 21st Century, believe in health care being accessible to all , if you believe it is a right not a privilege or that the overhaul is long overdue; then you are on the right side of history. Please do not believe how some are portraying ACA, as a law for the poor.  I do not believe that parents with kids in college would say they are poor nor rich and these days most families have two or more in college at the same time. Therefore, having children covered until 26 is considered a relief to some families

The fact is over 32mil people will now have access to an improved health care system that will need more doctors, PA, and those great nurses who we usually see when we feel bad. Think about it, what does it take to run a Hospital? Our current workforce cannot possibly handle that many new customers and will need to hire more folks from the so-called bottom up such as grounds, parking lots, security, maintenance, janitors to gardeners to receptionists, and more.  I have no idea how many people go to the doctor each day, but if you have an appointment during the workday, your child is in school, goes to daycare or you take them with you … most people do not; bam more jobs needed.

I cannot begin to list the impact of 32million more people added to the health care system, but the proof of it being a jobs bill is obvious.

 

In Solidarity …

Information : from www.Whitehouse.gov

For a comprehensive overview of the Affordable Care Act, visit WhiteHouse.gov/HealthReform and HealthCare.gov.

Let’s take a look at what today’s ruling means for the middle class:

• Insurance companies no longer have unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny you coverage, or charge women more than men.
• Soon, no American will ever again be denied care or charged more due to a pre-existing condition, like cancer or even asthma.
• Preventive care will still be covered free of charge by insurance companies–including mammograms for women and wellness visits for seniors.
• By August, millions of Americans will receive a rebate because their insurance company spent too much of their premium on administrative costs or CEO bonuses.
• 5.3 million seniors will continue to save $600 a year on their prescription drugs.
• Efforts to strengthen and protect Medicare by cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse will remain in place.
• 6.6 million young adults will still be able to stay on their family’s plan until they’re 26.

A major impact of the Court’s decision is the 129 million people with pre-existing conditions and millions of middle class families who will have the security of affordable health coverage.

HCAN

The Republicans in Congress need to know that you’re furious over their refusal to do their jobs. Write to your congressperson and tell them to repeal the sequester today.

Last week, Congress took rapid action to end furloughs of government air-traffic controllers that had inconvenienced air travelers.

That’s fine. But they didn’t do a single thing to end the sequester’s across-the-board cuts that are hurting more and more people every day. Nope. The GOP won’t budge unless it helps them and the wealthy special interests.

Let’s be honest: The only reason these Senators and Representatives acted so quickly is they didn’t want to be inconvenienced on the tarmac as they flew home for the weekend. They don’t care about the workers at the Federal Aviation Administration – just folks who can afford air travel.

What about the poor and elderly? Kids who can’t go to Head Start? Doctors and cancer patients who rely on Medicare? With the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, they’re out of luck.

Health Care for America Now is joining the Campaign for America’s Future to tell Congress to repeal the sequester – all of it, not just the parts that affect the wealthy.

Members of Congress have heard from their campaign contributors who like to fly. Now they need to hear from Medicare recipients, from seniors who have lost Meals on Wheels, from parents whose kids can’t go to Head Start anymore and from health care supporters who want the Affordable Care Act to continue moving forward.

Write to your congressperson today and tell them to repeal the whole sequester.

Thanks,

Will O’Neill Health Care for America Now

Is talk cheap ~ or just the talker

elephant talk (Photo credit: gin_able)

just another rant …

Americans, bombarded with a whole lot of crazy talk lately. While some of us may gasp at most or all of what members of Congress are throwing out at us; no doubt it should open the eyes of all those trying to decide which side of the aisle and or what side of history they want to people to read about. It is clear to me.

Is talk cheap? They say talk is cheap but until you actually listen and read between the walls of words do, you find out what exactly is in the Ryan Budget.  While some say rep.Paul Ryan as a dapper smooth talker they forget that Americans have heard his budget plan at least 3 times, somebody should let him know that renaming it will not do a thing to sell it. The fact is no matter what you call it … the Paul Ryan pathway to prosperity only seems to accept and cover the wealthy. In fact, Mr. Ryan seems to promise to save Medicare close loopholes and of course cuts spending by trillions. The problem is, if you read the talking points it will be off the backs of Seniors, Minorities, low income and the poor.  With the hit, our economy took, it amazes me that the Republican Party of No is so callous to think Americans don’t see Mr.1% in full effect, but then again cheap words can mask the most blatant of realities. It only takes one to filibuster The Middle and Lower classes leaving them to suffer on the way toward that conservative mission to cut slash and burn public service jobs while handing out tax breaks.

If you have heard Speaker Boehner, Mitch McConnell or Rep.Paul Ryan talk about budgets lately,  you know the mission is still the same …. the talk is still cheap and at the expense of the middle/lower classes.  While the austerity and agony lasts until 2040.

Big Pharma Price Gouging

100_0290.jpg (Photo credit: martinboz)

Health Care for America Now released new research today that shows big pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars by systematically overcharging taxpayers and seniors for drugs that they sell for a fraction of the cost in other countries. Since we released our research hours ago, the story has been reported by Politico, The Wall Street Journal MarketWatch and Think Progress. We’re expecting to see a lot more coverage, but we wanted to share our research directly with you first. Check out the blogpost by HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome, which was published by Huffington Post and Daily Kos today.

Big Pharma Pockets $711 Billion in Profits by Robbing Seniors, Taxpayers

By Ethan Rome, Executive Director, Health Care for America Now

Here’s an outrage that must be changed: Big Pharma has been systematically price-gouging the Medicare program for seniors and people with disabilities — and raking in billions in excessive profits. The 11 largest global drug companies made an astonishing $711 billion in profits over the 10 years ending in 2012, and they got a turbo-charged boost when the Medicare Part D prescription drug program started in 2006, according to an analysis of corporate filings by Health Care for America Now (HCAN). ??The drug companies hold the power to charge America’s consumers whatever they want. Worse, Medicare — the nation’s largest purchaser of drugs — is prohibited by law from seeking better prices. The result of this shortsighted policy is dramatic. In 2006, the first year of Medicare’s prescription drug program, the combined profits of the largest drug companies soared 34 percent to $76.3 billion. And unlike other industries, such as Big Oil, drug companies get something even better than a tax subsidy — they get a government program.

There is nothing wrong with a company making profits — that’s what they’re supposed to do. But the drug industry’s profits are excessive as a result of overcharging American consumers and taxpayers. We pay significantly more than any other country for the exact same drugs. Per capita drug spending in the U.S. is about 40 percent higher than in Canada, 75 percent greater than in Japan and nearly triple the amount spent in Denmark.

HCAN reviewed the last decade’s financial filings from the 11 prescription drug giants: Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Merck, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Even as millions of Americans struggle to afford their medicines and as Republicans in Congress threaten to cut seniors’ benefits, these corporate behemoths have extracted $711.4 billion in profits for Wall Street investors. The drug companies’ annual profits reached $83.9 billion in 2012, a 62 percent jump from 2003.

The drug companies, of course, say they have no choice and need to charge outrageous prices to pay for research that enables them to innovate and develop new drugs that save our lives. But that’s not true. Half of the scientifically innovative drugs approved in the U.S. from 1998 to 2007 resulted from research at universities and biotech firms, not big drug companies. And despite their rhetoric, drug companies spend 19 times more on marketing than on research and development.

There are two reasons why it matters that the drug industry is booking eye-popping profits. First, American consumers and taxpayers are footing the bill, and second, we could do something about it. ??It’s against federal law for Medicare, the nation’s biggest health plan, to use its unparalleled market power to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. This makes no sense. If the policy were changed, taxpayers and consumers would save huge amounts of money.

Simply empowering Medicare to get the same bulk purchasing discounts on prescription drugs as state Medicaid programs would save the federal government $137 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Eliminating price-gouging on that scale would go a long way toward addressing the fiscal challenges that are constantly under discussion in Washington — without harming seniors and middle-class families. This proposal has been supported by President Obama and is in the House Democrats’ budget plan. It is reportedly in the president’s 2014 budget plan as well.

Our politicians give all kinds of tax breaks and subsidies to big corporations that don’t need them: Big Oil. Wall Street. Companies that ship our jobs overseas. Every gift to a special interest, including allowing Big Pharma to overcharge Medicare, is an expenditure of scarce tax dollars. That’s called wasteful spending.
When it comes to addressing our country’s fiscal challenges, we shouldn’t even talk about cutting Medicare or any services people depend on, as the Republicans have proposed. Instead, we should eliminate indefensible special-interest tax breaks and subsidies for big corporations that don’t need them.

The answer is not in black or white

On the evening of April 4, 1968, King was fatally shot while standing on
the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where he had traveled to support a 
sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of his death, a wave of riots
swept major cities across the country, while President Johnson declared a
national day of mourning. 

If you have time for a Day of Action in memory of   MLK Jr.

Just another rant …

As fights against discrimination in all its forms breaks out all over the U.S. one has to wonder if voters are drinking the Republican fear mongering kook aid instead of putting “We the People”  ahead of Lobbying groups that arm their current or next elections with $$$. In a place that has always welcomed and or cared for the poor, single mom’s with kids, The constitution; specifically the 14th Amendment, immigration, women’s , senior citizens and worker rights when the need is clear with votes on the Floor of Congress. Now, has a new look called the Republican Tea Party with even more ugly Colonial ways and ideologies on old issues like – Race, Religion and the rights of its people.  I used to think all we had to worry about was what side of the political aisle these righties stood on and how many. Now, it is all about what state and social program will they cut slash or burn while pitting the middle class against the working class and eliminating those in need a well.  The fact is 1 out 6 people live in poverty and 20% … let me say that again 20% of our American children live in poverty and for an ultra-rich country that information should offend/outrage us all. If you listen to conservative media speak; it is clear they control the airwaves so the lines of fair or balanced news and behavior becomes blurry. If they get their way, if

they complete their mission, the only ones standing will be those who claim to be a member of the Republican Tea Party. Election2014

 We the People cannot allow that to happen ….

 We all know that programs like Social Security, Medicaid as well as Medicare; considered Mandatory Spending accounting for almost 60% of federal expenditures and yes, they definitely are in need of reform but not elimination. The current crazy offensive fiscal attacks by Republicans do not seem to be because of the deficits we are facing but a brazen attempt to privatize these programs, get a copy of the Ryan Budget and be informed. Most people in the U.S. know the big three need updating but Republicans are not going to update or reform them of waste and fraud will not make them better either. The plan is to split them up into pieces where premiums and prices probably will have absolutely no regulation of or caps on how high or how often the costs could rise. I have to ask, didn’t Republicans learn a single thing from our near collapse and do these new tea party members of Congress just have a big itch to see what exactly happens when a government falls apart.

What we have here, what we have all been watching is the destruction of our government  trying to change it into a new Republican Tea Party version based on a “family values platform” and it is a disturbing and truly rude awakening.

photo from: The internet

 History.com

Americans Like Equality

By  ThinkProgress War Room

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Leading conservative commentator says DOMA is unconstitutional.

GOP Congressman: “The best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out.”

Starbucks CEO: If you don’t like marriage equality then feel free to sell your Starbucks stock.

Michele Bachmann: Obamacare is “literally” killing people.

A GOP senator’s latest attack on immigrants.

Speaker Boehner promises another manufactured debt ceiling crisis in two months.

House Republicans pass budget plan that ends Medicare as we know it, raises middle class taxes in order to slash taxes on the rich.

Obamacare has saved seniors over $6 BILLION on their prescription drugs.

On government spending, the GOP faces a reckoning.

Ryan Republican Plan = Romney Plan

ThinkProgress War Room

The New Old GOP Plan That Favors Millionaires Over the Middle Class

As you may recall, we had an election last year in which Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and their ideas were soundly rejected by voters.

Well, one person appears to have not gotten the message: Paul Ryan. Today, Ryan released the latest draconian budget from House Republicans and it is “almost identical to the Republican presidential platform in 2012.”

Here’s a closer at just how closely Ryan hewed to the unpopular and extreme policies he and Romney ran on — and lost.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Paul Ryan’s class warfare on behalf of the rich.

The top 5 worst things about the GOP budget.

GOP budget keeps Obamacare’s cuts and taxes, repeals all the benefits.

The GOP budget maintains 100 year-old tax breaks for Big Oil.

How the GOP budget will undermine the recovery.

Paul Ryan cites myth to justify selling off millions of acres of public lands.

The Koch Brothers might buy several major American newspapers.

Bill to expand background checks for gun purchases moves to the full Senate.

Five Guys franchise owner tries to avoid giving his employees health benefits under Obamacare.

What the American People Didn’t Choose

ThinkProgress War Room

6 Things Americans Did Not Vote for in 2012

Tomorrow, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will release the latest version of his infamous Republican budget plan — you know, the one that ends Medicare as we know it. As we await this plan, it’s worth considering a few things that voters did not choose in the 2012 election.

1. Paul Ryan: In selecting Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney put Ryan and his ideas front-and-center in the election. Voters said thanks but no thanks to Ryan and his radical ideas. Ryan even lost his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.
2. A Republican House of Representatives: President Obama was easily re-elected and Democrats expanded their majority in the Senate, so why are we stuck with a GOP-controlled House of Representatives? Gerrymandering. Democratic House candidates won more than a million more votes than Republican candidates, but districts drawn by Republicans for Republicans allowed the GOP to hold on to their majority. This isn’t even disputed by the Republicans. In fact, they brag about it.
3. The Middle Class Footing the Bill: The centerpiece of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s economic proposal was a tax plan that raised taxes on the poor and middle class in order to slash taxes for the wealthy. By contrast, President Obama proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The GOP budget’s tax proposals is nearly identical to the Romney-Ryan plan rejected by voters in November.
4. Ending Medicare: Mitt Romney not only chose Paul Ryan, he wholeheartedly embraced Ryan’s controversial plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher system that stands to double seniors’ out-of-pocket health care costs. Romney and Ryan lost key states with senior-heavy populations, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and New Hampshire.
5. Repealing Obamacare: Not only did voters not vote for the team that wanted to repeal Obamacare, Mitt Romney says that the president won because of Obamacare. Nevertheless, the GOP budget plan to be unveiled tomorrow will once again call for repealing Obamacare — except for its $716 BILLION in savings from Medicare. Despite demonizing the president for the cuts throughout the campaign, Ryan’s plan keeps those cuts in order to to pay for new tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street banks.
6. European-Style Austerity: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan proposed unrealistic draconian spending cuts, while the president proposed investments that will create jobs now and grow the middle class and our economy over the long run. The American people rejected the former and gave an Electoral College landslide to the latter. Nevertheless, the GOP budget plan will feature the kind of unrealistic draconian spending cuts that will make it impossible to make investments in the middle class.The GOP plan will slow down the economy and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs. It’s the same kind of austerity that has led to shrinking economies and record-high unemployment in Europe. Austerity isn’t working there and it won’t work here.

BOTTOM LINE: Paul Ryan and his policies were soundly rejected by voters last November. Instead of doubling down on extreme and unpopular ideas like ending Medicare as we know it and raising taxes on the middle class in order to slash taxes on the wealthy, Republicans should come back to the table and agree to deal with our fiscal challenges in a responsible, balanced manner.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Key senators reach agreement on path to earned citizenship.

After watering down Wall Street reform, former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) becomes bank lobbyist.

GOP senator takes credit for anti-rape law he voted against.

Awash in profits, corporations shift even more money to tax havens.

The ridiculously biased and incorrect text books approved under Bobby Jindal’s education reform.

GOP hypocrisy on including Obama policies in their budget exposed.

Top GOP strategist: GOP “doesn’t give equal opportunity to women.”

What Paul Ryan really means when he says “pro-growth tax reform.”

The good news about human nature: most people aren’t jerks.

CBO … Medicare and Medicaid & HR307

How Have CBO’s Projections of Spending for Medicare and Medicaid Changed Since the August 2012 Baseline?

 

In its most recent baseline projections, CBO reduced its estimates of spending for the Medicare and Medicaid programs compared with its estimates in the August 2012 baseline. For the 2013–2022 period, projected spending for those programs is now $382 billion (or 3½ percent) below the agency’s estimates in August 2012.

H.R. 307, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013

As reported by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on February 14, 2013

H.R. 307 would amend the Public Health Service Act and the United States Code to authorize funding for certain activities carried out by the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Veterans Affairs (VA) that would support the readiness of the public health system to address public health and medical emergencies.

Beware: The Scooter Store

David Sell, Inquirer Staff Writer

 

Posted: Friday, February 22, 2013, 3:01 AM

In TV ads, the Scooter Store suggests to seniors and others needing motorized scooters and wheelchairs that they can be had for almost no cost because the company will handle all the messy paperwork with insurers, particularly Medicare.

Wednesday and Thursday brought another example that nothing is free. Somebody – often taxpayers – has to pay.

About 150 state and federal law enforcement officers raided the company’s headquarters in a San Antonio suburb. The action was another phase in an ongoing health-care fraud investigation of the Scooter Store, which has an outlet in the Philadelphia region.

A spokesman for the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Medicare and Medicaid, would say only that the agency “executed a search warrant at several locations of the Scooter Store and that we were part of a multiagency task force.”

The San Antonio Express-News reported that OIG was joined by the FBI and the Texas Attorney General‘s Medicaid fraud unit.

The Scooter Store’s Philadelphia outlet is in Trainer, Delaware County. The manager declined to give his name and referred a reporter to the national office, which did not respond to phone and e-mail requests for comment.

“This raid is a welcome step toward cracking down on waste and fraud in Medicare payments for motorized wheelchairs involving the Scooter Store,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) said in a statement. “I have urged action to stop abusive overpayments for such devices – costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and preying on seniors with deceptive sales pitches.”

The cost of health care is a huge component in local, state, and national debates about how to solve budget challenges. In recent years, the federal government has increased efforts to scrutinize billing practices and thwart fraud, with durable medical devices being one area of particular concern.

Blumenthal is among the congressional leaders who have urged federal authorities to crack down on what they view as deceptive advertising that results in some angry seniors and bills for all taxpayers.

As Blumenthal noted, this is not the first time the Scooter Store has faced allegations of fraud.

In 2007, the company settled a civil suit with the Justice Department by paying $4 million and forgoing $13 million in Medicare claims after the government alleged the company submitted false claims for power wheelchairs that, among other things, beneficiaries did not want, did not need, or could not use.

The company’s five-year corporate integrity agreement with the government was due to expire in 2012 but remains open. The company was also supposed to reimburse the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) $19.5 million for overpayments between 2009 and 2011, according to the San Antonio newspaper. However, senators criticized the CMS for not pushing for more reimbursements, based on an outside audit of the company’s operations.

The company’s website has a specific category of products called “Medicare-Reimbursable Power Chairs,” with several listed for $3,699. It posed the question many seniors would ask: Is the power chair or scooter entirely covered by my insurance?

The answer had a few caveats, including the Medicare requirement to meet with a doctor to determine mobility needs. It also said: “If you qualify, Medicare may cover up to 80 percent of the cost of your power chair. Your supplemental insurance may pay the remaining 20 percent. In most cases, our customers pay little to nothing for their power chairs.”

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20130222_Raids_mark_latest_turn_in_Scooter_Store_fraud_probe.html#ixzz2LgKVCXjL
Watch sports videos you won’t find anywhere elseDavid Sell, Inquirer Staff Writer