Jan Brewer, liberal hero? The Republican Governor of Arizona—traditionally no friend to the left—has pledged to veto every bill that lands on her desk until her fellow Republicans agree to implement the Medicaid expansion in Obamacare. Yesterday, she made good on the threat, vetoing five bills in quick succession and repeating demands that Republicans in the state house approve the expansion. A local wing of the GOP is putting enormous pressure on Republican state legislators to oppose the expansion, which would provide coverage to an estimated 50,000 low-income Arizonans. (Photo credit: AP) source
We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.Mitt Romney today. Actually, about 26,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have health insurance, so Romney is flatly wrong (and, in our eyes, being a bit disrespectful to about 26,000 American families). He also said that “we don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack.’” source
» Roy Blunt, blunted: The amendment authored by the Missouri senator was a response, initially, to a very public dispute between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration over contraception insurance. If passed into law, it would have stated that any employers could deny a certain type of health care service if that service violated their religious beliefs, or moral conscience. The latter provision is the key one – there isn’t a stipulation as to what constitutes a moral objection, which means employers would have a great deal of power over workers’ health care. One person who might benefit from this failure? Mitt Romney, who publicly flip-flopped on it yesterday. He’d likely be happy just to have it out of the news cycle.
» Approximately one-sixth of Americans received one or more additional preventive care services in 2011, as a direct result of the Affordable Care Act, according to a newly released report from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Over 20 million adult women received an additional service, as well as 14 million children, and just under 20 million adult men. Of the 50 states, Wyoming had the fewest patients (102,000) receive a new service while California took the cake with more than 6 million patients, over 2 million more than 2nd place Texas, receiving at least one new preventive service last year.
Wal-Mart expanding into medical care: Beloved by some for their low, low prices and reviled by others for suspect workplace practices and their debilitating effect on local economies, Wal-Mart is moving a new direction that figures to stoke similar passions — the health care industry. Their thinking seems to be that with a huge surge in insured citizens on the horizon, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, there will be a shortage of general practitioners and medical clinics to accommodate them. These in-store medical clinics would, according to NPR, be equipped to handle such critical things as HIV and diabetes management. source
![Blitzer: “Are you saying society should just let [uninsured people] die?”
Some guy in the audience: “YEAH!”
Ron Paul: (awkward silence)
Correction: Ron Paul didn’t respond with an awkward silence. He said “no,” then the audience yelled, and then he paused. Our apologies; we’ll have a video soon.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrft3qimzx1qas8z9o1_500.jpg)
Blitzer: “Are you saying society should just let [uninsured people] die?”
Some guy in the audience: “YEAH!”
Ron Paul: (awkward silence)
Correction: Ron Paul didn’t respond with an awkward silence. He said “no,” then the audience yelled, and then he paused. Our apologies; we’ll have a video soon.
I’d think it’s a terrific idea. I think you’re going to find when it’s all said and done, after all these states that are the laboratories of democracy, get their chance to try their own plans, but those who follow the path that we pursued will find it’s the best path, and we’ll end up with a nation that’s taken a mandate approach.Mitt Romney • Expressing his experience-based belief that health care (and insurance) reform would be helped by an individual mandate, on a 2007 episode of Meet The Press. In other words, one of the quotes Romney is hoping beyond feverish hope not too many Republicans read heading into 2012. The thing is, this does conform with what he’s been insisting, that he supports what he did on health care because it was at the state level (the laboratories of democracy), not the federal level. However, he clearly says here that the mandate would, in fact, be the best plan nationwide. This is a problem — the GOP’s talking points haven’t just been saying that the mandate is bad because it’s federal, they’ve also been saying it’s wrong for the government to force you to buy something. Whether it’s Barack’s federal government, or Mitt’s Massachusetts, that argument ought to stay the same, right? source (via • follow)
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