Breaking News from Western Journalism
Jun 28, 2012 02:41 pm | Kevin "Coach" Collins
The
TEA party movement was born of the threat Obamacare posed to us. It
will send the enthusiasm on our side sky high. It will do very little to
excite the Left – hey, they won, didn’t they?
The Supreme… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 02:36 pm | Breaking News
WASHINGTON
(AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld virtually all of President
Barack Obama’s historic health care overhaul, including the hotly
debated core requirement that nearly every American have health
insurance.
The 5-4 decision meant the huge overhaul, still… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 02:33 pm | Fred Weinberg
As
happens many times, the United States Supreme gave a little bit to
everybody, probably satisfying nobody.
We’ve said before in the space that to depend on nine people, appointed
for life, to correct a runaway legislative or executive branch… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 02:32 pm | Daniel Noe
Jun 28, 2012 02:27 pm | Cagle Cartoons
Jun 28, 2012 02:25 pm | Michael J Nellett
The
late, great Ronald Reagan once said “that if we ever stop being one
nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under!” Take a good look
around you at American society, not as Democrats or Republicans, but… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 02:24 pm | Kris Zane
Jun 28, 2012 02:21 pm | B. Christopher Agee
Fifteen
percent of the population is not enough for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. According to ads running in several key states until the
end of this month, the agency is urging even more Americans to sign up
for food… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 02:16 pm | Daniel Noe
Jun 28, 2012 02:14 pm | Kris Zane
On
June 25, Darrell Issa sent a scathing seven page letter to Barack Obama
regarding his invocation of Executive Privilege over Fast and Furious
documents, in which you could almost hear someone yelling into a
microphone reminiscent of the days… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 02:06 pm | Michael J Nellett
Welcome
to my fantasy Presidential campaign. To start off with, I will not make
any campaign promises that I cannot keep; therefore, I’m not going to
make any! I am going to do my best to accomplish the following,
provided… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 02:03 pm | Daniel Noe
Jun 28, 2012 01:57 pm | Daniel Noe
The
results of our latest poll show that 70% of our readers think that
Obama’s recent amnesty to about a million illegals will hurt if not end
his chances of being re-elected this fall. 19% said it would not make… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:51 pm | Daniel Noe
Jun 28, 2012 01:50 pm | Breaking News
When
federal judge Roger Vinson ruled the individual mandate
unconstitutional in early 2011, law professor Karl Manheim took to the
airwaves and declared it “radical decision” that represents “a
resurrection of the old states’ rights, Southern right argument.”
Got that?… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:48 pm | Daniel Noe
I
don’t trust Boehner or the GOP, personally. I believe that whenever the
GOP promises limited government, they are no different than when Joseph
Stalin promised to deliver prosperity to Russia (via communism, of
course) in his reign. And if… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:43 pm | Breaking News
TALLAHASSEE,
Fla. – A judge on Wednesday rejected a request by federal authorities
to block Florida’s contentious move to remove potentially ineligible
voters from its rolls.
The decision could prompt some counties to revive efforts to identify
registered voters who… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:34 pm | Daniel Noe
Jun 28, 2012 01:31 pm | Breaking News
Scores
of companies have received federal loans and grants from President
Obama’s 2009 “stimulus” to manufacture an experimental fuel called
cellulosic ethanol which has not yet been successfully produced in the
U.S. and which may not even work.
The fuel,… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:30 pm | Daniel Noe
Jun 28, 2012 01:27 pm | Breaking News
(CNSNews.com)
– The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a
international group of economists based in France, says the slow
economic recovery and record long-term unemployment in the United States
may lead to chronic “structural” unemployment – the type of… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:26 pm | Breaking News
MAHWAH,
N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says Mitt Romney didn’t ask
him to be his running mate when they appeared at a fundraiser on
Tuesday.
Christie also told a town hall audience in northern New Jersey on… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:23 pm | Breaking News
Another
report of genetically modified creations taking the lives of livestock
has hit the media, and this time genetically modified grass has been
identified as the culprit according to CBS News. Shockingly (and quite
disturbingly), the GM grass actually produced… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:20 pm | Breaking News
Can’t
say exactly whether this makes war between Syria and Turkey more
likely, but it is a definite escalation on the part of Turkey following
the shoot down last week of their unarmed jet.
Reuters:
In southeastern Turkey, Turkish military… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 01:03 pm | Breaking News
Nora
Ephron lost her battle with acute myeloid leukemia. She was 71. If
you’re not familiar with the name, you might be familiar with some of
the films she was involved in writing, producing, and directing:
Heartburn (1986)
When Harry… Continue to Post
Jun 28, 2012 12:31 pm | Breaking News
Sometimes
“No” Means Exactly That
I was interviewed last night on BBC radio. The questions were good and
the newsman was knowledgeable. The concentration was on Greece and Spain
and as I detailed the real debt to GDP ratios for… Continue to Post
Freedom Outpost
Health care ruling could leave poorest Americans at greatest risk
Former
Medicaid and Medicare director Donald Berwick says few states were
likely to reject the Medicaid funds despite the court's decision.
Updated at 7:04 p.m. ET: Now that the Supreme Court has upheld President Barack Obama's health care initiative, will Congress have to rewrite it from scratch?
It's not a paradoxical question. The court signed off on
nearly all of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but it
struck down one provision, and in doing so — whether it knew it or not —
it may have put the poorest Americans at the greatest risk of being
left without any health insurance.
Chief Justice John Roberts said as part of the 5-4 decision that states can't be penalized for refusing to join the law's expansion of Medicaid eligibility. Health law experts said that had the practical effect of flipping an all but mandatory program into one a state can choose not to join.
Here's the problem: The ACA creates state health insurance "exchanges," providing tax credits to eligible residents to buy affordable, state-certified health insurance. But the poorest Americans aren't in that eligible pool, because the law assumes they'll be covered by the expansion of Medicaid, which is no longer a given.
In states that reject the expansion, poor residents could be left without either form of coverage — as many as 15 million if all 50 states opt out, a circumstance that former Medicaid director Donald Berwick said was highly unlikely.
The White House didn't address the issue in a long Q&A it issued on the court's decision. The statement touted every provision of the act but one: Medicaid expansion.
Medicaid currently covers only some low-income people, primarily parents with children, pregnant women, people with severe disabilities and senior citizens. Adults without disabilities or children, in other words, aren't generally covered. That's the group the Medicaid expansion was supposed to help the most.
Supreme Court upholds health care mandate
Obama calls ruling victory for US; Romney vows to repeal
After the ruling: Lots left to do on health reform
Full ruling from the court
If their states opt out, young working adults below the poverty line could be in a Catch-22, because "they may not get Medicaid, and they may not be eligible to purchase insurance through the exchange," said Christina S. Ho of the Rutgers University School of Law, who was a member of President Bill Clinton's Domestic Policy Council.
It works this way:
The insurance tax credits are targeted at people with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty line as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Congress sought to compel the states to cover everyone under the line through Medicaid.
The federal government promised to fully cover all expenses for the expanded coverage before eventually pulling back to cover 90 percent after a few years. The states would have to pick up the extra 10 percent eventually.
States aren't required to take part, but if they don't, the law as enacted would have turned off the flow of all Medicaid funding from Washington.
That enforcement mechanism is what the court invalidated Thursday, meaning there's no penalty for a state that says, "Thanks, but no thanks."
Twitter reactions to the ruling
Because states haven't had time to consider yet whether they will opt in or out. it's difficult to say how many people could be affected.
But about half of the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans have incomes below the new eligibility thresholds, according to the latest report, in October, from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. And about 6 in 10 of them are adults without dependent children — the primary beneficiaries of the program's expansion.
If you do the math, roughly 15 million Americans could be in the newly created gray area. In 2010, when the act was passed, the Commonwealth Fund, an independent health care policy foundation, similarly calculated that the Medicaid expansion would benefit 12 million of the 15 million uninsured Americans under the poverty line.
Donald Berwick, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the two programs, said few states were likely to take that risk.
"Those people are still living in your state, They're still poor. They're going to come to your emergency room. They're going to be operated on, and they're going to have diseases that get worse, and you're going to have to pay for that. That will come from the state — free care pools and charity in the state," Berwick said in an interview on MSNBC-TV.
"I think what's going to happen is the states are going to be under pressure from providers of care who say: 'Why are you leaving this money on the table? Let's join in with the federal dollars.'"
But Judy Solomon, vice president for health policy at the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, agreed with Ho that the decision means low-income adults could lose the promise of Medicaid coverage "even while people with somewhat higher incomes will be eligible for premium tax credits."
Writing on the center's policy blog, Solomon said: "The poorest adults — primarily parents and other adults working for low wages — will be left out in the cold."
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Updated at 7:04 p.m. ET: Now that the Supreme Court has upheld President Barack Obama's health care initiative, will Congress have to rewrite it from scratch?
Chief Justice John Roberts said as part of the 5-4 decision that states can't be penalized for refusing to join the law's expansion of Medicaid eligibility. Health law experts said that had the practical effect of flipping an all but mandatory program into one a state can choose not to join.
Here's the problem: The ACA creates state health insurance "exchanges," providing tax credits to eligible residents to buy affordable, state-certified health insurance. But the poorest Americans aren't in that eligible pool, because the law assumes they'll be covered by the expansion of Medicaid, which is no longer a given.
In states that reject the expansion, poor residents could be left without either form of coverage — as many as 15 million if all 50 states opt out, a circumstance that former Medicaid director Donald Berwick said was highly unlikely.
The White House didn't address the issue in a long Q&A it issued on the court's decision. The statement touted every provision of the act but one: Medicaid expansion.
Medicaid currently covers only some low-income people, primarily parents with children, pregnant women, people with severe disabilities and senior citizens. Adults without disabilities or children, in other words, aren't generally covered. That's the group the Medicaid expansion was supposed to help the most.
Supreme Court upholds health care mandate
Obama calls ruling victory for US; Romney vows to repeal
After the ruling: Lots left to do on health reform
Full ruling from the court
If their states opt out, young working adults below the poverty line could be in a Catch-22, because "they may not get Medicaid, and they may not be eligible to purchase insurance through the exchange," said Christina S. Ho of the Rutgers University School of Law, who was a member of President Bill Clinton's Domestic Policy Council.
It works this way:
The insurance tax credits are targeted at people with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty line as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Congress sought to compel the states to cover everyone under the line through Medicaid.
The federal government promised to fully cover all expenses for the expanded coverage before eventually pulling back to cover 90 percent after a few years. The states would have to pick up the extra 10 percent eventually.
States aren't required to take part, but if they don't, the law as enacted would have turned off the flow of all Medicaid funding from Washington.
That enforcement mechanism is what the court invalidated Thursday, meaning there's no penalty for a state that says, "Thanks, but no thanks."
Twitter reactions to the ruling
Because states haven't had time to consider yet whether they will opt in or out. it's difficult to say how many people could be affected.
But about half of the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans have incomes below the new eligibility thresholds, according to the latest report, in October, from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. And about 6 in 10 of them are adults without dependent children — the primary beneficiaries of the program's expansion.
If you do the math, roughly 15 million Americans could be in the newly created gray area. In 2010, when the act was passed, the Commonwealth Fund, an independent health care policy foundation, similarly calculated that the Medicaid expansion would benefit 12 million of the 15 million uninsured Americans under the poverty line.
Donald Berwick, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the two programs, said few states were likely to take that risk.
"Those people are still living in your state, They're still poor. They're going to come to your emergency room. They're going to be operated on, and they're going to have diseases that get worse, and you're going to have to pay for that. That will come from the state — free care pools and charity in the state," Berwick said in an interview on MSNBC-TV.
"I think what's going to happen is the states are going to be under pressure from providers of care who say: 'Why are you leaving this money on the table? Let's join in with the federal dollars.'"
But Judy Solomon, vice president for health policy at the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, agreed with Ho that the decision means low-income adults could lose the promise of Medicaid coverage "even while people with somewhat higher incomes will be eligible for premium tax credits."
Writing on the center's policy blog, Solomon said: "The poorest adults — primarily parents and other adults working for low wages — will be left out in the cold."
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Stolen Valor Act struck down
- Miss.'s only abortion clinic sues over new law that could shut it down
- Brother of lesbian teen shot in head: She's 'fighting'
- Lying about military service? These bloggers have you in their sights
- Army veteran campaigns to adopt Diego the bomb-sniffing dog
- Video: Teacher who slammed student in blog is fired
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