Health Care

[Alex Brecher 10,495]

Health Care Vote: Anti-Abortion Democrats Strike Deal with Obama, House Leadership

[LeighaMason 19]

Too good to be true, I am on pins and needles waiting for the final vote! By the way, universal health care has been shown to decrease abortion anyway. :laugh:

[Alex Brecher 10,495]

Too good to be true, I am on pins and needles waiting for the final vote! By the way, universal health care has been shown to decrease abortion anyway. :laugh:

It's a done deal, no need for final vote.

[BJean 16]

I would love to say that there are Republicans that are better than the worst Democrats in congress, but right now I can't think of one.

The regular people don't matter to the Republicans and they have done a job on vulnerable Americans who have fallen for the hype. It has made no difference at all to the Republicans that every argument they have made has been repudiated soundly. On a far far smaller scale, it is the same here at LBT with the people who are drinking the Republican kool-aide. No matter how much logic or relevant material has been posted that would influence an unbiased voter, certain people just keep repeating the same revolting nonsense and regurgitating the Reagenisms ad nauseum.

As for the tea baggers who have totally lost it and are insulting a man who has Parkinsons and people who disagree with them and using bigoted language against those of a different race, they better cool off or this thing is going to wind up with such a backlash at the polls that it will make their heads swim.

[BJean 16]

Alex, please enlighten us with the specifics.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

YES WE DID!!! Healthcare reform passed!! :laugh:

Those of us who stand with the American people, those of us who stand for middle class America, those of us who stand with the uninsured and the least among us have been victorious.

WE SHOWED THEM.:smile: Them being those who stand with the greedy insurance industry. Those who stand with corporate america. Those who stand with the teaparty, those who stand with the birthers and deathers, those who stand with the racist anti-Obama haters. Those who thought they won. WE SHOWED THEM. :tongue2:

[BJean 16]

I just heard that jackass John Cornyn say that Americans don't want this and he threatened retaliation of sorts. What is wrong with these mean-spirited, vicious people? People don't want greed to rule anymore. People want fairness in government. They're sick to death of the tea baggers, deathers, birthers and racist hate mongers!!

Congratulations Cleo's. I know you've worked for this and I am proud of you and the others who did their part in helping Americans get a fair shake with their health care system.

[BJean 16]

Alex, I'm still wondering if you'll tell us what specifically you were talking about, above.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

The republicans are hoping to take control of the U.S. House in November and repeal this healthcare bill.

I want to see them campaign on repealing the following:

-not losing your insurance if you lose your job

-not being denied insurance because of pre-existing condition

-not being dropped by insurance company when you get sick

-taking insurance away from those previously uninsured

-putting the donut hole back into the medicare prescription drug plan

I want them to stand up and tell the American people that this is what they support.

I welcome them running on this platform and look forward to it. Bring it on!!!

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Thanks, BJean. America has now moved forward to at least the 20th century where all other industrialized nations have had universal healthcare.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

I just heard that jackass John Cornyn say that Americans don't want this and he threatened retaliation of sorts. What is wrong with these mean-spirited, vicious people? People don't want greed to rule anymore. People want fairness in government. They're sick to death of the tea baggers, deathers, birthers and racist hate mongers!!

Congratulations Cleo's. I know you've worked for this and I am proud of you and the others who did their part in helping Americans get a fair shake with their health care system.

Well, I'm sure you heard about the teapartiers who used racial slurs against black members of congress yesterday and used an anti-gay slur against Barney Frank. Add that to the harrassment of the man with Parkinsons. But of course, we must remember that these just represent a few crazies.:smile: (Yea, right!!). My opinion of them :laugh: and what they represent has been well documented on this forum.

[KartMan 58]

Not exactly what I was hoping for (I wanted Single Payer or MediCare for all), but this is a great step in the right direction. The sad thing is that in the end we didn't get a single Republican to vote for it yet we inserted a lot of what they wanted in the bill. The irony is that we could have rammed a more progressive bill through six months ago still with no replublicans - so much for trying to be bipartisan.

[Humming Bird 275]

Maybe some of you who are more educated about this stuff can clear up some stuff for me.

I have not had health insurance since early 2006 and I was self-pay for my lapband. My husband is employed full-time with no benefits and I have 3 part-time jobs with no benefits.

Will it be years before we see results (good or bad) of this stuff?

Will it be good/bad for people depending on their income?

Should I start shopping now for private healthcare insurance? Should I wait to see if this bill will help me out? Is that just wishful thinking? With all my bills and paying financed surgery I really can not afford insurance right now. Will they fine me? How do they even know I do not have insurance?

I have been turned down for insurance in the past because of my weight. Now that they can't turn people down for pre-existing conditions, will they just charge me more?

Edited March 22, 2010 by Humming Bird

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Maybe some of you who are more educated about this stuff can clear up some stuff for me.

I have not had health insurance since early 2006 and I was self-pay for my LAP-BAND®. My husband is employed full-time with no benefits and I have 3 part-time jobs with no benefits.

Will it be years before we see results (good or bad) of this stuff?

Will it be good/bad for people depending on their income?

Should I start shopping now for private healthcare insurance? Should I wait to see if this bill will help me out? Is that just wishful thinking? With all my bills and paying financed surgery I really can not afford insurance right now. Will they fine me? How do they even know I do not have insurance?

I have been turned down for insurance in the past because of my weight. Now that they can't turn people down for pre-existing conditions, will they just charge me more?

From what I've read - within 3 months of the law's taking effect, people who have been locked out of the insurance market because of a pre-existing condition would be eligible for subsidized coverage through a new high risk insurance program. That special coverage will continue until the legislation's engine kicks into higher gear in 2014, when coverage would be extended to a wider portion of the population through Medicaid and new state run insurance exchanges.

Hope this helps.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Healthcare reform and abortion:

No more speculation. Now we know—universal health care coverage leads to a reduction in the abortion rate, confirming what many have long suspected but have never before been able to prove in the United States. A report released this week in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that the abortion rate declined in the first two years after Massachusetts implemented health care reform.

According to the study, the insurance rate was 86 percent prior to Massachusetts' health coverage expansion in 2006. By 2008, 94 percent of people had insurance. During that same time, the number of abortions declined 1.5 percent overall and by a whopping 7.4 percent among teenagers. Yet, nationally, the steady decline in the abortion rate had been stagnating and actually increased by 3.2 percent from 2005 to 2006 (the most recent data available) while the rate for teenagers rose 1 percent.

Another interesting fact: The birth rate increased in Massachusetts in 2007, the last year for which data are available. This decrease in abortion and increase in births occurred even though the state's Medicaid program provides full coverage for abortion for its poorest residents and even though the private plans that insure people in the next income bracket also cover abortion.

Given that the poorest women are more than four times as likely to have an abortion as the most affluent women, this development offers especially striking evidence that, contrary to popular belief, covering abortion neither encourages nor increases its usage.

The study concludes that the increased availability of affordable health care is a key driving force behind these trends. Abortion rates are a result of complex social determinants, and no single factor will likely ever be enough on its own to tip the balance. But it seems almost too obvious to state that a woman who would like to have a baby would be reassured by the knowledge that she and her child will have access to health care whenever they need it, not to mention the economic burden that affordable coverage alleviates.

Moreover, providing coverage removes the very real financial barriers that prevent many women from seeing a health provider and obtaining routine health care, including reproductive care. With coverage, women can access contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies as well as receive the care they need to have healthy, wanted pregnancies. Indeed, the single most important factor in achieving a healthy pregnancy is the health of the woman before she becomes pregnant. Simply put, overall health care is a vital ingredient in achieving positive reproductive health outcomes.

International data have provided similar evidence for decades—countries with a strong health care infrastructure have a low abortion rate, while countries with poor health care access have high abortion rates, regardless of whether abortion is legal or criminalized. In fact, the Washington Post reported earlier this week that the United States continues to have the highest abortion rate in the industrialized world in part because we do not have universal health care. But now, with this latest study, even skeptics who may point to cultural or other differences can look within our own borders and find the same results.

This is good news for everyone, including supporters and opponents of abortion rights alike. With universal coverage, those who call themselves pro-life will see the abortion rate go down, while those who call themselves pro-choice will know that women's pregnancy decisions will come more from their heart than their circumstances.

It is the height of irony, then, that one of the biggest sticking points in the health care debate has been abortion, when we now have such compelling evidence that universal health care can reduce the abortion rate. As an organization representing 59,000 Roman Catholic nuns recently stated, the pending health reform bill "is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it."

We may have waded so deep into the realm of politics that facts have little bearing at this point. But for politicians concerned about abortion, the best thing they can do is vote for comprehensive health reform.

Jessica Arons is the Director of the Women's Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress.