Doing the Right Thing - Lab Tests for Everybody

by: jdwolverton

Fri Dec 10, 2010 at 06:15:27 AM PST

best website ever. unicorns and rainbows.

by: los anjalis

Mon Mar 29, 2010 at 13:03:25 PM PDT

Say no more: http://didtheypasshealthcarereform.com/

Sure it's perhaps a bit too elated, but the website energy and design (and the fact that it went live almost immediately after the health insurance reform bill was signed by President Obama) get a big YAY.

Plus, here at Cure This, we like unicorns.

calling for civil discussion among progressives

by: los anjalis

Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PST

This week has seen intense discussion among progressives over whether to support and fix the health insurance reform bill or whether to kill it. Such debate began after the Senate version of the health insurance reform bill was stripped of its hugely popular "public option" and then further stripped of a possible "Medicare buy-in" by Senators who essentially held the US Senate hostage.

This debate has been important, and it is healthy for progressives to have differing opinions on a piece of legislation, but recently there has been some disappointing yelling across the aisles and name-calling. On both sides.

[Of note, there are some folks who from the start have called everything "less" than single-payer (100% government-funded and privately/publicly delivered healthcare) a compromise and vowed not to support anything but single-payer. Those folks have a right to their opinion but I'm not referring to them, they haven't been fighting together with other progressives for improving this bill all along. I'm talking about progressives who have tried to make this process workable from what was put on the table.]

(more after the jump...)

cooperation with evil

by: los anjalis

Fri Dec 25, 2009 at 21:36:29 PM PST

The New York Times has a piece out today -- Christmas Day -- that sheds some light on cooperation with evil in the context of the abortion debate and the health insurance reform bill that just passed the Senate yesterday.

The Senate bill, approved Thursday morning, allows any state to bar the use of federal subsidies for insurance plans that cover abortion and requires insurers in other states to divide subsidy money into separate accounts so that only dollars from private premiums would be used to pay for abortions.

Just days before the bill passed, the Catholic Health Association, which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals across the country, said in a statement that it was "encouraged" and "increasingly confident" that such a compromise "can achieve the objective of no federal funding for abortion." An umbrella group for nuns followed its lead.

The same day, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called the proposed compromise "morally unacceptable."

(more after the jump...)

'twas the night before christmas and all through the senate...

by: los anjalis

Thu Dec 24, 2009 at 17:50:43 PM PST

• Today (Christmas Eve) marked the 25th straight day of debate. This is just short of the record for the longest number of consecutive days that the Senate was in session, in the winter of 1917 (thanks to @wonkroom on Twitter for this fact).  The extended debate in 1917 was due to anti-war legislators stalling debate about whether or not to arm US merchant ships during World War I ... (more below)

a bizarre process & a historic vote: healthcare reform

by: los anjalis

Mon Dec 21, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PST

So what exactly happened?  Well, the US Senate voted 60-40 NOT in favor of PASSING the bill -- but in favor of ending debate and stopping further filibustering on a specific set of amendments put forth by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.  Yes, they voted for "cloture" -- to end debate on the bill.  Were the debate to continue, Republicans (or Sen Lieberman or Nelson) would have more and more chances at filibustering the bill (a process by which they are allowed to read every page of the phone book aloud or do other things a 2nd grader wouldn't even do, in order to stall the process of moving a bill forward)...  

public option = citizen owned alternative

by: los anjalis

Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 19:50:32 PM PDT

biting satire

by: los anjalis

Sat Aug 22, 2009 at 21:57:40 PM PDT

"Both parties understand that the current system is broken," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday. "But what we can't seem to agree upon is how to best keep it broken, while still ensuring that no elected official takes any political risk whatsoever. It's a very complicated issue."

"Ultimately, though, it's our responsibility as lawmakers to put these differences aside and focus on refusing Americans the health care they deserve," Pelosi added...

"People should know that every day we are working without their best interests in mind," [D-NV Senator] Reid said. "But the goal here is not to push through some watered-down bill that only denies health care to a few Americans here and a few Americans there. The goal is to recognize that all Americans have a God-given right to proper medical attention and then make sure there's no chance in hell that ever happens."

"No matter what we come up with," Reid continued, "rest assured that millions of citizens will remain dangerously uninsured, and the inflated health care industry will continue to bankrupt the country for decades."

How to explain the public option for healthcare reform. Really.

by: los anjalis

Fri Aug 21, 2009 at 09:00:00 AM PDT

The speaker is Chris Hayes, DC editor of The Nation magazine, and the setting is the Netroots Nation blogger/media conference in Pittsburgh, August 2009.

After the conference, a blogger named Nicholas Beaudrot transformed Hayes' flowchart-gesturing and converted it into an easy to read and share flowchart about the public option. Click on the image to enlarge it.

FINALLY, easy to understand, right?  Precisely why you should share it with your colleagues, friends, and foes alike.  

The healthcare debate: don't let anyone tell you it's beyond your grasp

by: los anjalis

Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 16:48:12 PM PDT

Health-care reform is not that hard to understand, and those who tell you otherwise most likely have an ulterior motive.  Reform proponents exaggerate the complexity of the issue to elevate their own status as people who understand it; opponents exaggerate it to make the whole endeavor out to be a bureaucratic monstrosity.

- from "Your Handy Healthcare Cheat Sheet" by Alec MacGillis, WashingtonPost.com

Here's an example.  Last week, as I waited to board a flight, I was drawn to a mainstream "politics" show at the airline gate. This was a show on CNN, which featured an old white conservative man talking with old white male guests on his show. The topic: health care reform. In 20 minutes of discussion, the only information I could glean from the show was that we are screwed. Numbers and $$ costs and statistics were thrown at the audience in rapidfire fashion, in a very obvious attempt to derail the actual debate and incite fear in the public around the steep costs of reform. Nothing of great substance was discussed, and I came away not more knowledgeable, but more anxious.

So, coming back to this wonderful article. Please check it out.  Pass it on to your friends and family. Make sure you all know the framework and facts on both sides of the debate.  Thanks greatly to the author for clearly and concisely presenting the information. The article ends with this call to action:

It's your health care. Don't let anyone tell you that it's somehow beyond your grasp.

Right on.