Jim Lindsay: GOP solutions on health care?
For all the rhetoric from the newly elected Republican House members on repealing the health care law, we hear absolutely nothing about their solutions to our health care crisis.
I have not heard one politician who talks of repeal propose a single viable solution to fix our dysfunctional insurance system. Maybe the Republicans offer no new solutions because they know they’re already included in the health care reform law? Lest we forget, the health care law considered the best ideas from both parties and provides consumers protections against the worst insurance industry abuses, covers millions, reduces cost and reduces the deficit by a trillion dollars.
The Republicans’ rush to repeal is an ill-informed, political pursuit, uncomplicated by the harsh reality of an insurance quagmire that wreaks havoc with the lives of thousands of Virginians every year. Polls show that 50 percent of Americans want to strengthen the health care law or give it time to work. Americans do not want to return to the status quo where the insurance industry is not held accountable to consumers. It’s time to cease the partisan campaign theatrics and start working to implement the health care law that will help millions of Virginians.
Arlington resident Jim Lindsay is a member of the Virginia Organizing Health Care Committee.
Jim Lindsay: Reform cannot come too soon
Thanks to health care reform, things will begin to get a lot better in our communities as the initial phase of consumer protections kicked in last week. Having doubts? Maybe you should ask the parents of children with pre-existing conditions who can no longer be denied coverage, or young adults without insurance who can now get coverage under their parents policies. Ask someone you know with a pre-existing condition who can finally get insurance coverage in a high risk pool, or someone who’d been afraid to seek treatment whose insurance can no longer be canceled when they become ill. Try asking someone facing long and costly treatment who no longer has to face lifetime limits on benefits. This could be any of us, and it affects many of us.
These protections are a critical first step in eliminating much of the needless suffering and loss of life which is the byproduct of our current health insurance system. I am grateful for those who had the vision to see the difference reform could have on our communities and the commitment to make it a reality. I look forward to the remaining badly needed reforms due to be implemented over the next few years. They can’t come too soon.
Letter from Jim Lindsay/Arlington
MBC partners with private colleges, universities on health-care benefits
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Mary Baldwin College announced this week that it has entered into a partnership with 11 other private colleges in Virginia in the formation of a newly created benefits consortium designed to keep health care affordable.
The Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia, an association of Virginia nonprofit private colleges, formed the program after studying similar efforts in a handful of states where private colleges have formed similar consortia. Continue reading “MBC partners with private colleges, universities on health-care benefits” »
David Reynolds: Births and boards
Column by David Reynolds
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“We held on as long as we could,” was the announcement. It came as no surprise. There were numerous warnings to soften this latest blow to our proud past. Still no one was happy. Parents, particularly mothers, were angry. They wanted time as much as money to work the whole thing out. Maybe a year would do it. After all, we spent millions fixing up the place. And why do those bean counters from out of town keep making our decisions? Continue reading “David Reynolds: Births and boards” »
Austin Gisriel: Pragmatism and politics
Column by Austin Gisriel
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What works? The American people still believe in this most basic American value, even if American politicians have abandoned it.
Pragmatism is, perhaps, the quintessential American value, and it essentially defines the growing political center. It is why even people who generally approve of the recently passed health care bill are uneasy. Simply put, they are not sure that it will work. Continue reading “Austin Gisriel: Pragmatism and politics” »
David Cox: What’s bad for the goose …
Column by David Cox
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Barack Obama’s signature on the health-care bill had hardly dried before Virginia’s attorney general, Kenneth Cuccinelli, filed suit declaring that requiring individuals to buy insurance is beyond the scope of federal power.
He follows the thinking of the General Assembly’s first-in-the-nation bipartisan exemption of state residents from the proscriptions of the then-unpassed national mandate to purchase insurance policies. Continue reading “David Cox: What’s bad for the goose …” »
Bob Goodlatte: The wrong prescription for America
Column by Bob Goodlatte
www.house.gov/goodlatte
Just days ago President Obama signed into law sweeping health care reform legislation pushed by Congressional Democrats that will dramatically impact every family, taxpayer and small business in America. As I have said time and time again, this monstrosity, which I voted against, amounts to a big government takeover of our health care system – one that will lead to fewer choices, higher prices and rationed care. Furthermore, the bill creates more than 159 new government agencies and programs at a cost of well over $2.5 trillion. Continue reading “Bob Goodlatte: The wrong prescription for America” »
GOP candidates press Perriello – and each other
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello is facing a full-court press from the Republicans gunning for the chance to knock him off in November. The press might work better if the GOP’ers weren’t trying at the same time to steal the ball from each other.
“My opponent Jim McKelvey put out a statement challenging Congressman Perriello to ‘go ahead and make my day’ by voting for the pending health-care bill. This is exactly the type of arrogant thought process the people of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District and the country cannot afford to tolerate any longer.” Continue reading “GOP candidates press Perriello – and each other” »
The new, new conventional wisdom on health care
Report by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Jody Grogan thought, like a lot of hardcore health-care reform advocates, that Congress was thisclose to passing … something.
“I’m one of these real cynics about Congress now,” said Grogan, a retired teacher who lives in Staunton, and worked locally last summer as an organizer on the reform effort, and is now among the de-energized in the Democratic Party progressive base.
The conventional wisdom on health care and its impact on partisan politics has been evolving for months. The initial wisdom was that the early surge of interest in the Tea Party movement was a sign that moderates had shifted from backing the Democrats as they had in 2006 and 2008 as a reaction to the push from President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats on health care. Then it shifted to, OK, the Tea Party folks have had their fun, but the real shift isn’t moderates jumping the Democratic Party ship to join the Tea Party, because that’s not happening in an impactful way, but a sizable number of progressive Democrats breaking from the party fold, not to vote Republican, though if they were to sit on their hands before an election and stay away from the polls on Election Day, they might as well be voting Republican, for the effect. Continue reading “The new, new conventional wisdom on health care” »
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing
Howard Dean, Tim Kaine, Vince Lombardi, and a guy named Phil Bengston
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
When the football team starts losing games, the fan base tends to start getting antsy, and when the losses compound into a losing season, you can start hearing calls for the coach’s head.
Politics isn’t unlike football in that respect, which brings us to the curious case of Tim Kaine, the former Virginia governor who was tapped by Barack Obama in January 2009 to head up the Democratic National Committee, a playoff team at the time, to borrow from the football analogy.
The coach that Kaine was replacing was former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who pulled himself up from having been the frontrunner who couldn’t in the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination race to basically being the man responsible for rebuilding the DNC from the ashes of two stinging White House defeats on the wings of his controversial 50-state strategy. In the process Dean established himself as a sort of Vince Lombardi of the Democratic Party, the party’s triumphs in the 2006 midterms and the 2008 Obama win in the presidential race being his back-to-back Super Bowls. Continue reading “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” »
Lawmaker Dispatches
Featuring: Randy Forbes, Tom Perriello, Robert Hurt, Kaye Kory
Randy Forbes: National Dialogue
www.forbes.house.gov
Ask a teacher, and they will most likely tell you that one of the quickest ways to kill classroom discussion is for one strong-willed student to monopolize the conversation. A long-winded or uncomfortably impassioned monologue inevitably polarizes viewpoints. Conversation shuts down, and often times inner-fuming begins.
Likewise, business leaders know that creating dialogue is one of the most effective ways to enhance collaboration, and ultimately create a product that can improve their bottom line. Just as a monologue creates polarization, dialogue by its very nature requires collaboration. An effective dialogue recognizes not only the right to know, but the need to know. True dialogue is important not only because it allows each individual to be involved in deciding what gets done, but because it nearly always leads to a better outcome than if no dialogue had taken place. Continue reading “Lawmaker Dispatches” »
Constance Birch: Health care costs
Posted by afp on January 11, 2012 · 4 Comments
Fewer employers are offering health care and those that do are asking employees to pay higher costs each year. The cost of individual health care is beyond the reach of most individuals and families. The cost of health insurance for public employees is a very big item in state and federal budgets. Continue reading “Constance Birch: Health care costs” »
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