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"They got everything else in the entire bureaucracy that they need to control our healthcare system ... with the signing of this bill. ... That's why repealing this bill has to be our No. 1 priority."
- Republican Minority Leader John Boehner on a live radio show announcing his intention.
Repubs are pulling this out on the week that the first b$250.00 Medicare supplement checks are going out to seniors. Tim Kaine, head of the Democratic National Committee is daring the Repubs to make this destructive repeal move the focus of their fall campaign to win back Congress and has challenged Boehner and Company to reveal the things they'd take away from Americans and give back to Insurance Companies.
News has just broken via the Associated Press that Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) will not seek re-election in the fall. This announcement has come in the wake of controversy regarding the healthcare legislation and its abortion language.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan tells The Associated Press that he'll retire from Congress rather than seek a 10th term this year.
Stupak has drawn criticism from opponents of the recently enacted health care overhaul after leading a bloc of anti-abortion Democrats whose last-minute support was crucial to its approval by the House
Tea party yahoo's are seeing this as a victory for them, claiming that they forced him to retire. Stupak claims otherwise.
But Stupak tells the AP the attacks didn't influence his decision and he could win re-election if he tried.
He plans to announce his decision at an afternoon news conference at Northern Michigan University.
He says he wants to spend more time with his family and start a new career after 18 years in Congress.
I would have to imagine that the threats against his family and himself over his vote for healthcare may have played a part despite his denial of it
I saw this link on Justin Williams' Facebook (WVYD President) and thought it was pertinent for these rough times of opposition towards healthcare.
I'll post the link at the end of this but here is a few examples of how healthcare will help us here in the mountain state. This list was compiled by the Democratic Policy Committee.
Provide tax credits for up to 20,000 West Virginia small businesses to help make coverage
more affordable.
Prohibit insurance companies from excluding coverage of pre-existing conditions for the
386,449 children in West Virginia, starting this year.
Close the donut hole and improve other Medicare benefits for 372,000 West Virginia
seniors.
Reduce Medicare premiums for the 300,400 West Virginia seniors who are not enrolled in
Medicare Advantage and will no longer subsidize these private insurance plans.
Ensure affordable coverage options for 256,000 West Virginians who are uninsured and
41,000 West Virginians who purchase health insurance through the individual market.
Ensure immediate access to affordable insurance options for as many as 35,466
uninsured West Virginians who have a pre-existing condition.
Provide tax credits for up to 204,000 West Virginians to help make health insurance
more affordable, bringing $3.3 billion in premium and cost-sharing tax credits into
West Virginia during the first five years of the health insurance Exchange.
Reduce family health insurance premiums by $1,750 - $2,510 for the same benefits, as
compared to what they would be without health reform by 2016.
Provide access to Medicaid for 161,355 newly-eligible West Virginians, and provide
$3.7 billion in federal funding for the cost of their coverage.
Create 1,700 - 2,700 jobs by reducing health care costs for employers.
That Republicans are now attempting to block all Congressional hearings could be their unified push back at the looming possibility of the public option being introduced.
The polls are certainly showing that since the bill's signing, more and more Americans either like the bill as passed, or else wish the reform did more.
In all of the joy and confusion leading up to the passage of the Senate version, most Dem Obamacare watchers probably thought that Congress stripped the public option out because it somehow lowered the bill's overall chances of passing. Actually, it now appears that all they really need to do is simply put it to an up-or-down vote in the senate to get it passed.
Since 45 senators have already publicly declared support of its passage, which of the remaining Dems would hold out? And even if the option did fail, it certainly wouldn't kill the chances of bill's passage altogether, would it?
BECAUSE THE BILL HAS ALREADY PASSED, HASN'T IT?
The more times HCR bounces back to the House from the Senate during reconciliation, the more people will learn what's actually in the bill. So naturally the more they'll begin to realize they like what's in it.
Except for that nasty lack of cost containment. Thanks to the right-leaning Senate Finance committee, it has the same insurance giveaway loophole as Massachussetts' universal HCR system.
Its just too bad that the media and many progressive websites have been so silent about its virtues. Particularly regarding the CBO score that a strong public option would reduce the deficit at least 500 million bucks, and that other prestigious institutions have valued the measure worth as much as a cool trillion in deficit reduction.
It is notable that the senator who sponsored the strong public option in finance committee markup flatly refused to sign any statement that he'd vote for the measure in the reconciliation process, claiming that to do so would be "too partisan", and has cautioned to "never let the perfect be the enemy of the good". Rockefeller also inexplicably failed to mention that a strong public option would reduce the deficit to the finance markup committee.
U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (WV) announced [yesterday] that the Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS) DBA AccesHealth has been awarded $1.8 million in federal funds for operational expenses which will help citizens of Raleigh, Fayette, and Wyoming counties continue to receive quality accessible healthcare at affordable costs.
"Rural health centers like Community Health Systems extend medical services into isolated areas where the need for medical care is great and resources are often scarce," said Rahall. "This funding will help enhance the range of much-needed healthcare services available to the residents of Raleigh, Fayette and Wyoming Counties where accessibility to good healthcare remains a challenge to many residents."
Community Health Systems, Inc. is a Federally Qualified Health Center and a non-profit organization providing comprehensive primary health care to the citizens of Raleigh, Fayette, and Wyoming Counties and surrounding areas.
Give Rep. Rahall a call and thank him for the good news. While you're at it, be sure and let him know you're counting on his vote in favor of healthcare reform, too:
Beckley Office
301 Prince St.,
Beckley, WV 25801
(304) 252-5000
CA_Berkeley_WV in the comments of One Citizen's post:
I watched the Senate Finance and Health Committee markups live blogging most of it before that big check for Soros arrived I bought new pajamas and a case of Cheetos.
I watched the voting patters of West Virginia native Sen. Tom Carper D-DE, MR Ducks Sen. Blanche Lincoln D-AR, very serious Sen. Jeff Bingaman D-NM and budget scold Sen. Kent Conrad D-ND.
Did you watch all the HELP and all the Finance markups to come to this conclusion? Do you know what amendments were defeated? Rockefeller offered his, made his pitch, and then acknowled that it would be defeated. So did Sen. Wyden D-OR. Sen. Schumer D-NY did not have much luck either, and he may end up the next majority leader.
Would the general public know as much as we do about rescission without the Commerce Committee hearing Sen. Rockefeller held that took testimony from Wendell Potter, whistleblower? Around midnight that last night another thought this was a great Rockefeller quote:
Children from CHIP shouldn't have to go to the exchange, where "insurance companies would...have them for lunch."
Statements in the press are often directed to other members and are the best window we have on consensus building. How a bill gets cobbled together is ugly. Sen. Wyden certainly was not happy with the concessions given between 11:30PM and midnight to Sen. Rockefeller the last night. I know Conrad's legislative director. He got the concessions he wanted. You can't manufacture votes.
Public Option cannot be introduced into the sidecar. It will not stand a Byrd Rule and a point of order. Parliamentarian Emeritus Robert Dove cannot remember being overruled by the chair alone on one of these. This whip got to 51 last fall, John Tester D-MT last one counted. Waiving the Byrd Rule is a 60 vote lift. CBO score on the sidecar today. House vote next week.
States can setup single payer under the Senate bill, so some focus should shift. Congress is not doing this this term, but the long term effort is worth it. Intimating that Rockefeller benefited from stock trades during the markup by linking to Page Not Found Error 404 as a bludgeon, unwisely wielded at this time.
reflecting subsidies provided through insurance exchanges, increased net outlays for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and tax credits for small employers
That is what Rockefeller traded. Add that to Sen. Sanders I-CT community health clinics and I am not ready to cut off my nose to spite my aching toe.
While coal supporters tout the supposed economic benefits to the state that coal produces, West Virginia's coal counties are a very unhealthy place to live.
To paraphrase a catch phrase from a famous wrestler, "Can you smelllllllalalala what the Jay Rock is cooking?"
Senator Rockefeller goes upside the head of Senator Conrad with some serious smack:
"I'm really very tired of hearing about that from him," an exasperated Rockefeller told reporters. "And it's always about North Dakota, and it's never about any other part of the country. And I thought, you know, that's what we're trying to do--we're trying to do the best thing for the country as a whole."
On October 29th, WV-Citizen Action Group, CWA Local 2001, WV AFL-CIO, Direct Action Welfare Group, and other concerned citizens came out for a Halloween themed health care rally/protest at U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito's office in Charleston.
But Rockefeller gets something better than almost anybody I've seen--something he's expressed in interviews and, most recently, during this weeks hearings of the Senate Finance Committee. It's how everyday people, particularly those without a lot of money, interact with the health care system. It's easy to treat health care as an abstraction--to make it all about economic theories and Congressional Budget Office projections. (I'm surely guilty of this myself.) Rockefeller sees it through the eyes of West Virginians making $30,000 a year--people who just want to know they can pay their premiums and that, if they do, the insurance they get will protect them when they get sick.
Rockefeller's ability to channel these feelings may seem odd, given his privileged pedigree. But it makes sense given what he's done with his career. Remember, West Virginia didn't choose him. He chose West Virginia, starting with his service as a VISTA volunteer. He knows his constituents very well. And he acts that way.
You see this in his advocacy for the public plan. The arguments you hear in the debate are mostly about costs, payment rates, and how best to make a market function. But for Rockefeller, it really boils down to a simple proposition: A public plan is good because you know it will always be there for you.
The government isn't going to point to an obscure provision on page 152 of your manual and deny you essential services. The government isn't going to comb through your medical records and decide that, having taken your premiums for several months, you're not eligible for coverage after all. The government isn't going to stop offering coverage next year because it can't make a profit big enough to satisfy Wall Street.
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