Michelle Obama Message About The New Health Care Reform

Curmilus — When you hear about the new health reform law these days, too much talk is focused on the political. What I’ve found is that most Americans just want to know how this new law helps their families stay healthy — and how it reduces their costs. The first thing I tell people who ask about the Affordable Care Act is that, for moms like me, it makes our lives easier. It gives families control over their own care. And it gives us the comfort of knowing that our insurance will be there when we need it most — especially if we get sick. Then I tell them that it gets better, but there’s a lot to know. To help, this administration has set up HealthCare.gov, where folks can see customized information about how care will improve for their families. So much of what makes this law great is its emphasis on preventive care — right now, too many people aren’t getting the check-ups or the screenings they need to stay healthy. Twelve percent of kids haven’t seen a doctor in the past year. And 59 million adults — and 11 million children — depend on an insurance plan that does not cover basic immunizations. Health reform is changing that. Under this new law, all new private plans will provide basic preventive services — things like childhood immunizations and checkups, mammograms, colonoscopies, cervical screenings, and treatment for high blood pressure — absolutely free of charge. No copay. No deductible. No co-insurance needed. And, on HealthCare.gov, you can not only learn what preventive steps will help keep your family healthy, but also what insurance coverage options are available based on your needs. A focus on prevention will help us to combat diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure — chronic illnesses that right now lead to seven of ten deaths in the United States and 75 percent of our national health care costs. And it will help us tackle an issue that is dear to my heart — childhood obesity. As some of you know one of my top priorities as First Lady is the Let’s Move! campaign, where we have made it our goal to put a stop to the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation, so children who are born today grow up at a healthy weight. Each of us needs to take responsibility for our own health and the health of our families, and the new health reform law can help. That’s why I’m writing today — to make sure you and Americans across the country know how their health plans are getting better day by day under reform. Please visit HealthCare.gov and find out more about your care: www.healthcare.gov Thank you, Michelle Obama

We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, now you get mad!

Just sharing…

 

We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, now you get mad!

You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.
You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.
You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got ousted.
You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion (and counting) on said illegal war.
You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.
You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people.
You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.
You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown (New Orleans-Hurricane Katrina).
You didn’t get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.
You didn’t get mad when, using reconciliation; a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare.  Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.

You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.

Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans…oh heck no.

BUT YOU ARE 100% MAD BECAUSE WE HAVE A BLACK PRESIDENT!

Note: This was forwarded to me and I do not know who the author is however this is some good reading. I totally agree.

Cooper weighs options in health care reform suit – Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram

As North Carolina’s attorney general, Nash County native Roy Cooper must try to shut the door to politics and look at issues from a legal scholar’s viewpoint. That’s easier said than done for anyone in his position. (Read more @ The Rocky Mount Telegram)

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Doctor tells Obama supporters: Go elsewhere for health care – Source: Orlando Sentinel

MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere." (Read more @ Orlando Sentinel)

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Congress approves final piece of health care overhaul – Source: News & Observer

Congress Thursday passed and sent to President Barack Obama the final piece of landmark health care legislation intended to change dramatically how most Americans buy, use and maintain insurance coverage. (Read more @ News & Observer)

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5 Reasons Republicans Should Let Go Of Health Care – Source: TIME

Reporters leaving Capitol Hill in the wee hours of Monday morning were, for the most part, heaving sighs of relief: health care reform had – finally! — passed, a vote for the history books. However imperfect, the deed was done, the fat lady had sung. A day later and Republicans seem not to have gotten the memo: they are attacking the bill as ferociously as they did before it passed. Repeal it, they’re saying; strike it down in the courts; and in the Senate, the reconciliation fixes may die a death of a thousand amendments. (Read more @ TIME)

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OBAMACARE: AT WHAT PRICE? by William Reed Columnist

Reforming health care in America is proving complicated.  Until now, every attempt to provide Americans universal health coverage, as most other leading nations already do, has failed.  Each of the 200 countries on our planet devises its own arrangements for keeping people healthy, treating the sick, and protecting families against financial ruin from medical costs.  America has been the lone exception among 32 of the 33 developed nations that have universal health care.

It may not be “world-class”, but American lawmakers can now say Heath Care Reform is “a done deal”.  Congress and Obama Administration officials say Americans will now get health reform “based on shared responsibility that asks businesses, insurers, providers and individuals to do their part to make health care more affordable and our people and our economy healthier”.  While many Black Americans are elated over what is deemed as a political victory for Obama, they’d be native not to note the role health, hospital and insurance companies and organizations played as the legislation was taking place. Major “Pay for Play” was on display: insurance-related companies and organizations employed 4,500 lobbyists to influence the bill.

After the final legislation is signed, in six months insurance companies will be banned from unpopular practices such as: rescinding coverage when policyholders get sick, imposing lifetime financial caps on coverage or denying coverage for children with pre-existing conditions.  These companies will be required to allow parents to keep children up to age 26 on health care policies, unless the offspring get employer-backed coverage.  In coming years, the government can offer a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries to help pay their prescription drug costs when they hit the “doughnut hole” – an existing coverage gap.  Two years out, Medicare beneficiaries will see a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs.

Unless waylaid by lawsuits from the states, within 90 days, a temporary high-risk pool will be created for those uninsured because of pre-existing medical conditions, allowing them to immediately buy insurance.  Other provisions include:

• Uninsured and self-employed individuals will be able to purchase insurance through state-based exchanges with subsidies available to individuals and families with income between 133 and 400 percent of poverty level – about $30,000 and $80,000 annually.

• Separate exchanges are to be created by 2014  for small businesses to purchase coverage.

• The funding that is supposed to be available to states to establish exchanges is to be provided within one year of enactment.

Every American, beginning in 2014, may be required to buy insurance or pay a penalty.  Subsidies will be offered to help those making less than $44,000 or $88,000 for a family of four, afford insurance.  Fines would be $95 in 2014, gradually rising to $695 by 2016.  By January 1, 2014, companies with more than 50 workers would be required to provide health care for them or face a penalty of $2,000 per worker.  Up to $40 billion in tax credits will be offered to help companies buy insurance for workers.  It will cost $940 billion over 10 years and provide coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans.  When fully phased in, 95 percent of eligible Americans will have coverage, compared with 83 percent today.

Among rich nations, America has the highest level of poverty and income inequality.  This structural racial inequity significantly affects Blacks.  Forty percent of Black Americans were uninsured for some portion of 2007-2008, compared to 1 in 4 whites.  Calling it “a moral imperative”, most of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) voted for the bill.  CBC Chair Barbara Lee of California, said: "The president’s plan will give American families and small-business owners more control over their own health care."  Although Blacks have suffered the most inequities in health care, Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, a CBC member who represents the only majority Black congressional district in the state, voted against the bill.  Davis is running a “mainstream platform” in his campaign for Alabama governor against the state’s Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks.  Sparks, a white man, accuses Davis of “selling out his constituents by opposing health care reform to satisfy conservative big business interests”.

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

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3 N.C. Dems join GOP in opposing health care bill – Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram

RALEIGH — Three conservative congressional Democrats joined all five North Carolina Republicans in voting against health care legislation that passed the U.S. House. (Read more @ The Rocky Mount Telegram)

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For the first time in our nation’s history, Congress has passed comprehensive health care reform

Curmilus — For the first time in our nation’s history, Congress has passed comprehensive health care reform. America waited a hundred years and fought for decades to reach this moment. Tonight, thanks to you, we are finally here. Consider the staggering scope of what you have just accomplished: Because of you, every American will finally be guaranteed high quality, affordable health care coverage. Every American will be covered under the toughest patient protections in history. Arbitrary premium hikes, insurance cancellations, and discrimination against pre-existing conditions will now be gone forever. And we’ll finally start reducing the cost of care — creating millions of jobs, preventing families and businesses from plunging into bankruptcy, and removing over a trillion dollars of debt from the backs of our children. But the victory that matters most tonight goes beyond the laws and far past the numbers. It is the peace of mind enjoyed by every American, no longer one injury or illness away from catastrophe. It is the workers and entrepreneurs who are now freed to pursue their slice of the American dream without fear of losing coverage or facing a crippling bill. And it is the immeasurable joy of families in every part of this great nation, living happier, healthier lives together because they can finally receive the vital care they need. This is what change looks like. My gratitude tonight is profound. I am thankful for those in past generations whose heroic efforts brought this great goal within reach for our times. I am thankful for the members of Congress whose months of effort and brave votes made it possible to take this final step. But most of all, I am thankful for you. This day is not the end of this journey. Much hard work remains, and we have a solemn responsibility to do it right. But we can face that work together with the confidence of those who have moved mountains. Our journey began three years ago, driven by a shared belief that fundamental change is indeed still possible. We have worked hard together every day since to deliver on that belief. We have shared moments of tremendous hope, and we’ve faced setbacks and doubt. We have all been forced to ask if our politics had simply become too polarized and too short-sighted to meet the pressing challenges of our time. This struggle became a test of whether the American people could still rally together when the cause was right — and actually create the change we believe in. Tonight, thanks to your mighty efforts, the answer is indisputable: Yes we can. Thank you, President Barack Obama

Health Care Reform NCNAACP

north carolina National association

for the advancement of colored people

114 wEST pARRISH STREET, SECOND FLOOR ▪ DURHAM, NC 27701

919/682-4700 ▪ 919/682-4711▪

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II

President

Amina J. Turner

Executive Director

March 21, 2010

Press Release

Statement on Health Care Reform Vote

By

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

NC NAACP STATE PRESIDENT

Today, not only did the United States Congress pass major health reform that will benefit millions of people and families but it will also provide health insurance and the guarantee of health coverage to many who otherwise would have face sickness unprotected.

Congress, by standing strong on this vote, has helped to heal our politics. This vote says that hope is still stronger than cynicism and that the politics of conscience is still more powerful than the politics of convenience.

The NAACP has pushed for health care reform many years as a civil rights and human rights issue. Today, in the tradition of the historical cadre of civil rights leaders, organizations, and other social reformers, who have always fought for a more just society, President Obama and the members of Congress that stood with him, as did Presidents Roosevelt and Johnson in their time, have done something for the people and not just themselves. They have revived the politics of doing what is good for the general welfare of the people and not just the greed of a few.

This is a good day in America-a good day in the United States of America and we should all be proud.

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Butterfield Statement On Health Insurance Reform Passage

U.S. Representative G. K. Butterfield

First District of North Carolina

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For Release:  Immediate

Date:  March 21, 2010

Contact:  Ken Willis
Phone:  (202) 225-3101

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Congressman G.K Butterfield statement following House passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

“Like Social Security and Medicare before, these reforms provide a historic step toward making good on the promise of ensuring every American has access to high-quality, affordable health care. These reforms will finally bring an end to the quiet struggle millions of Americans face each day with a system that works better for the health insurance companies than it does for them. When it comes to health care, decisions must be made by patients and their doctors, not the government or insurance companies. And that’s exactly what this bill does – it puts people back in charge. In addition to providing the biggest deficit-reducing measures since the 1990s, these long-awaited reforms make coverage more affordable for everyone and hold insurance companies accountable, stopping the worst practices like denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, dropping coverage when someone gets sick or arbitrarily hiking up premiums.”

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House Approves Landmark Bill to Extend Health Care to Millions – Source: The New York Times

Congress gave final approval on Sunday to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and remake the nation’s health care system along the lines proposed by President Obama. (Read more @ The New York Times)

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Anti-Abortion Democrats Pledge Support for Health Care Bill in House

House Democrats who had withheld support of the health care legislation because of abortion concerns said Sunday afternoon that they would back the bill, all but assuring that Democrats would have the 216 votes needed for passage. (Read more @ The New York Times)

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— House Democrats have 216 votes needed to pass health care reform, chairman of House Democratic Caucus tells CNN.

— House Democrats have 216 votes needed to pass health care reform, chairman of House Democratic Caucus tells CNN.
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Watch a special live edition of "State of the Union with Candy Crowley" tonight at 8 ET as Candy breaks down the House vote on the health care bill and takes a look at what brought us to this point. Go to: http://www.cnn.com/stateoftheunion.
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Will Healthcare Kill The Tea Party?/Mother Jones

The Abortion Endgame

President Obama may issue an executive order clarifying the health care bill’s abortion provisions. For Bart Stupak, the writing is on the wall. (Read more @ Mother Jones)

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