…don’t blink!

Posted on October 13, 2013 by hugmamma

That’s what Heritage Action’s 31-year-old president Michael Needham is advising his Tea Party rookies in the House of Representatives.

Don’t blink!

In the Wall Street Journal‘s editorial “The Strategist Behind the Shutdown,” Needham is hailed as the craftsman behind the tragedy in which millions of Americans find themselves. Himself a pawn in the game of high stakes funded by the likes of billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, Needham vows to wreck havoc with Obamacare.

So what is the endgame–is there any exit strategy short of Mr. Obama rolling over? Mr. Needham admits that ObamaCare will never be repealed as long as Mr. Obama is president, but he still thinks it can be defunded or delayed: “Look, Democrats usually win these fights because they do a better job of not cracking. Obama says he will never blink and we believe him. They’re very good at this. We’re obviously very bad at it.”

At some point, doesn’t there have to be a compromise? That’s the way the system works, after all. Mr. Needham agrees, “at some point in this fight somebody has to blink.” His mission, he says, is to persuade “the House not to blink first.”

And so conservative wonder boy, Michael Needham, wears a broad smile in the face of the government shutdown. “Why so?” you ask. Because Needham believes “…we are in a great position right now” since he feels the Republican Party and the conservative movement will win the political battle over the shutdown.

One wonders why Needham credits the democrats with not blinking first.

Perhaps it has something to do with the Democrats’ steadfast commitment to the 98% of Americans whom Republican delegate Mitt Romney claimed not to represent during his run for the presidency. Helping the less fortunate among us is not a game of “see who blinks first,” as Needham seems to think.

He says the path to victory now is for the House to keep passing bills to open up popular agencies of government, such as the national parks, the National Institutes of Health and Veteran Affairs: “I don’t think that the Senate can keep refusing to open up these agencies as the shutdown drags on and on and on.”

Like his predecessor Ed Feulner, founder of Heritage Action, Needham believes that ” ‘in the war of ideas there is no room for pacifists,…” Those within his party in opposition to Needham’s ideas “denounce him as everything from cocky to a GOP wrecking ball.” Sources interviewed for this article, “both inside and outside of Heritage have complained of late that Mr. Needham’s $7 million lobbying shop has become the tail that wags the $75 million think tank.”

Michael Needham is unconvinced that shutting the government for weeks and weeks is a bad thing for the economy. His only concern is the repeal of Obamacare. All else is of little consequence.

So it seems fair to say that Needham, Cruz, and their financial backers have the President in their sights, and are determined to…

…take the president…down…

………hugmamma.

The shutdown’s enforcer in chief (macombdaily.com)
Heritage Keeps Pushing to Defund Obamacare (usnews.com)
Introducing the Tea Party Young Turks (digbysblog.blogspot.com)

shutdown…a matter of semantics

Posted on October 7, 2013 by hugmamma

An expert on prison sieges likened the current U.S. government shutdown to prisoners who hold the institution hostage. Those in authority must negotiate with the prisoners in order to return the establishment to normalcy.

So far there’s a lot of dancing around by both sides…the President and his supporters…and Baynor and his motley crew of supporters and challengers.

The Health Care Law is just that…the law.

Tea Party reps don’t like the law, so they’re holding Americans hostage with the shutdown. Representative Ted Cruz and his followers are trying with all their might to reopen the discussion on Obamacare. They’ll even do so on the backs of millions of citizens who now find themselves furloughed and unable to pay their bills.

In the summer of 2013, Cruz embarked on a nationwide tour sponsored by The Heritage Foundation to promote the congressional effort to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, arguing that a shutdown of the government would not be a disaster for America or the Republican Party.^[77]^[78]

On September 24, 2013, Cruz began a speech on the floor of the Senate regarding the Affordable Care Act relative to a continuing resolution designed to fund the government and avert a government shutdown.^[79]^[80] Cruz promised to keep speaking until he was “no longer able to stand.”^[81] The fourth-longest speech in United States Senate history, Cruz yielded the floor at noon the following day for the start of the proceeding legislative session after twenty-one hours nineteen minutes.^[82]^[83] Following Cruz’s speech, the Senate voted 100–0 regarding a “procedural hurdle toward passing a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown.”^[84] Cruz was joined by 18 Republican senators in his effort to prevent stripping out a clause that would have defunded the Affordable Care by voting against the cloture motion, leaving the effort 21 votes short of the required number to deny cloture.^[85]

It’s unclear which Americans the right-wing extremists in Congress represent. The quick answer seems to be…the wealthy who are at the helm of the Tea Party…and folks who prefer the America of old, perhaps pre-FDR and his New Deal. Since the Depression is a relic of the past, the younger right-wingers might feel our country is exempt from another. Or they might be willing to risk sinking into another Depression as long as they can take care of their own.

Wouldn’t it be nice to return to the good old days?

The March 1944 eruption of Vesuvius, by Jack Reinhardt, B24 tailgunner in the USAAF during World War II (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Unfortunately, the world has erupted like Mt. Vesuvius, and there’s no pouring the magma back down into the crater…no matter how hard we try. Like the lava that dries and hardens, mankind and all its virtues and faults, are part and parcel of the landscape.

I think the Tea Partiers are looking to…

…return to the garden of eden…before eve tempted adam to take a bite…

………hugmamma.

non-profit hospitals offer financial assistance…???

Posted on March 28, 2013 by hugmamma

Learned something new while watching ABC World News tonight with Diane Sawyer.

Seems a woman who owed a hospital $27,000 was on the verge of losing her house. With the help of an ABC investigative reporter, the woman’s bill was lowered to $7,000…allowing her to keep her home.

Non-profit hospitals (I never heard of the concept…Have you?) are required by law to publicize the fact that financial assistance is available to those in need…even folks with health insurance.

How is that possible? Government money.

Non-profits get our money. It’s only fair…they give back.

So next time you’re in a hospital, check if it’s non-profit.

If it is…look for some kind of public notification which indicates the hospital is in compliance with the Affordable Care Act‘s financial assistance requirements.

The ACA directs the IRS to establish Section 501 ( r ) of the Internal Revenue Code to implement new community benefit rules for hospitals that are subsidized through the federal tax exemption. These new rules are currently in effect and require that hospitals do the following:

1. Establish written financial assistance policies describing who is eligible for free or reduced cost care and publicize them to patients and the community.

2. Refrain from extraordinary collections actions against patients before screening them to determine whether they qualify for financial assistance.

3. Limit fees charged to patients eligible for financial assistance to rates paid by Medicare or the lowest amounts paid by insured patients.

4. Conduct a regular community health needs assessment and implement a plan to address selected needs.

(An excerpt from http://blog.credit.com/2012/05/how-obamacare-keeps-debt-collectors-out-of-hospitals/ )

a brave decision…a necessary one…

Posted on June 28, 2012 by hugmamma

English: A member of the audience holds a &quo...

English: A member of the audience holds a “Thank You” sign during President Barack Obama’s speech on medicare fraud and health care insurance reform at St. Charles High School in St. Charles, Mo., March 10, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Stepping out from behind his conservative mantle Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts stood apart, and gave voice to his own thoughts on the matter of Obama‘s Health Care Reform Law.

In my 20s I worked for Hawaii Medical Service Association, the Blue Cross-Blue Shield in that state. I was a customer service rep for a few years, helping insured members understand the hows and whys of their reimbursements or nonpayments. It was a tricky path to maneuver, defending the insurance giant’s decisions.

Looking back…it was a lot of mumbo-jumbo, smoke and screens. Granted, it makes more sense when one is ensconced in the jargon on a daily basis. However the reality of it is insurance companies want to give back as little of the money as possible in benefits, that they garner in premiums from its members. At the time I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable that the big-wigs were giving themselves great salaries and nice perks. I heard this from a friend who was married to a rising star in management.

Granted, huge compensation packages are part and parcel of capitalism. Companies use them to attract and keep excellent executives. However in dealing with life and death, making money is not like buying and selling merchandise. Unlike any other enterprise, health insurance coverage deals in morality. Dismissing this fundamental fact in favor of believing that disbursement of health dollars should be strictly measured according to some committee’s valuation is disturbing…at least to me.

I don’t profess to be an expert on Obamacare. Just as there are some good points, I’m certain there are some that don’t bode well for certain groups. I can only speak to those that hold value for me.

Among those items I support…family plans to allow coverage for children until age 26, drug help for seniors, premiums for women the same as for men, no disallowance for pre-existing conditions, and no maxing out of coverage.

Having to explain to insured members that they aren’t covered for treatment of diabetes or heart disease or pregnancies because they’re pre-existing conditions was like walking on hot rocks. Not fun. Not easy. But I made it to the other side of the argument. And if I didn’t, I turned the customer over to my supervisor. He was better at walking on hot rocks. I guess it helped that he made more money than me. That helps when you’ve got to take on a nearly-impossible task.

Then there were the times when I had to tackle the conundrum of insured members maxing out their medical benefits. “Oh, sorry. We’re no longer covering your chemotherapy treatment because you’ve run out of coverage. Sorry. Sorry.”

think outside the box (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

Ever since I left the insurance business, I’ve been extremely reluctant to deal with my own or my family’s medical claim problems. I know the rigamarole, the yada-yada-yada, the run-around. I’m resigned to the fact that customer service reps are regurgitating what they’ve learned to say by rote. Thinking outside the box is not generally allowed.

insurance (Photo credit: I am marlon)

Rather than succumb to stress which would ultimately undermine my own health, I try to “think outside the box” to help myself. Not everyone has the means or wherewithall to do the same. So I commend President Obama for sticking his own political neck out, and Chief Justice Roberts for alienating his conservative cronies. They have given a hand up to those unable to take on the big conglomerates by themselves.

Having been to the emergency room on several occasions, I can attest to the astronomical costs those visits incur. After my last trip when I was sure something was terribly wrong when nausea and sharp abdominal pain came on suddenly, I firmly resolved never to return when I saw the $8,000 bill. And I have insurance! So I’m not obligating my fellow taxpayers to foot my expenses. Without health care reform, we’re all paying emergency room visits for the uninsured.

Those with the most to lose, don’t like it when the status quo is disrupted.

Change is inevitable. History overflows with examples. Mankind has always adjusted, sometimes kicking and screaming all the way. Life moves forward, regardless.

My advice? Live long. Live happy. Even if you can’t embrace it, get use to change…

…especially when it’s…for the better of all human beings…not just some…

………hugmamma.