Tag Archive | healthcare

Katy Perry Covers Rolling Stone, says She’s Part of the ‘Problem’

Jun23

In the new issue of Rolling Stone, on stands June 24th, Katy Perry invites editor Erik Hedegaard backstage at the kick-off of her California Dreams Tour. Between the elaborate rehearsals and three-hour make-up sessions, Perry reveals that she’s recently undergone a political awakening.

“It just feels like the thing running our country is a bank, money,” she says. “I know it sounds like an intense viewpoint, but I’m only slowly but surely getting the wool taken off my eyes. When I was a kid, I asked questions about my faith. Now I’m asking questions about the world.”

Just one of her political opinions. Keep reading below and you will realize how intelligent this woman is!

Continue reading →

Obama Kicks the “Middleman” Out

Mar30

*GOOD NEWS FOR STUDENT LOAN BORROWERS*

Declaring himself an ally of American students in a fight against commercial banks, President Obama on Tuesday signed a new law designed to free up more money for higher education by ending the role of banks as “middlemen” in the college lending process.

The changes to the college loan business come as part of the final piece of the healthcare reform law, which Obama enacted in a signing ceremony at a community college in the Virginia suburbs of D.C.

Speaking to a crowd of students, Obama credited Democrats in Congress with tackling “a sweetheart deal in federal law” that guaranteed billions of dollars in profits for banks to offer college loans.

Money that should have been spent advancing the educational interests of students “instead was spent padding student lenders’ profits,” the president said. “It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the banks hired an army of lobbyists” to fight it.

“But I didn’t stand with the banks and the special interests,” Obama said of himself and the Democratic members of Congress who joined him at Northern Virginia Community College for the event. “We stood with you. We stood with America’s students.”

Continue reading →

Texas Tops Uninsured List

Sep21

health_insurance

DALLAS — Texas virtually leads the nation in the percentage of residents without health insurance, according to a published report.

The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday that only 49.5 percent of the state’s residents have health coverage on the job, based on a two-year average ending in 2008. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated this month that across the country, almost 59 percent of people have health insurance.

Up to one-third of Dallas-area residents lack health insurance. A sizable number of northern Texans are footing the bill through taxes and higher insurance costs.

Texas’ health insurance woes are compounded by the large number of uninsured illegal immigrants.

The chief executive of Baylor Health Care System, Joel Allison, says a restrictive state Medicaid program also contributes to the number of uninsured.

Obama in Media Blitz to Push Health Care Overhaul

Sep18

Obama will deliver his speech to the children at 11 AM today, 9/8/09

(Associated Press – September 18, 2009) WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is sitting down for interviews with five television networks this afternoon, a highly unusual schedule even for a president who regularly uses the media to get his message across.

Obama will be taping interviews with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Univision that will be shown during the networks’ Sunday morning talk shows. The only network missing from the lineup is Fox News, which has refused to carry Obama’s last several prime time news conferences.

Obama also is visiting David Letterman on Monday, the first appearance ever by a sitting president on Letterman’s “Late Show.” White House aides say Obama agreed to the interviews in order to reach as many people as possible with his health care reform message.

Update on Obama’s Health Care Plans

Aug19

obama-health-care-planning1

From MSNBC

*** Good news and bad news: The (relatively) good news for the Obama White House in the new NBC News poll is that the contours of the health-care debate haven’t really changed that much since those raucous congressional town-hall meetings began about two weeks ago. The bad news, however, is that the American public continues to have concerns about the president’s plans, and this comes after a big-time P.R. blitz from the president himself and supporters using millions in TV ads. Consider: 40% (a plurality) believe the plans would worsen the quality of health care, only 41% approve of President Obama’s handling of issue, and 54% are more worried that the government will go too far in reforming the nation’s health system than they are concerned the reform won’t do enough to reduce costs and cover the uninsured. Still, there is an appetite for reform. A combined 60% of respondents say the system needs either a “complete overhaul” or “major reform.” But that combination has declined 10 points since April, and the percentage wanting a “complete overhaul” has dropped 12 points since that time.

*** What’s in it for me? In short, the president can’t get across the “what’s in it for us?” part of his health-care message. Folks with private insurance, in particular, are becoming more negative about his reform proposals. Clearly, the White House is seeing similar polling results as the president’s last three town-hall meetings were about health INSURANCE reform and were an attempt to answer the “what’s in it for me?” question so many folks WITH insurance have.

*** Obama’s and Biden’s day: At 4:30 pm ET today, President Obama will deliver remarks from the White House honoring 2008 Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. An hour later, the president will host a conference with faith leaders to discuss health reform. Also today, Vice President Biden and Education Secretary Arnie Duncan head to the battleground state of Florida to argue how the stimulus has benefited the state (the administration says that 26,000 education jobs in Florida have been saved, and that the state has received $3.1 billion in stimulus funds for education and $8.3 billion in overall stimulus funds).

*** Obama’s Thursday: Obama also will have an interesting Thursday. The White House tells First Read that the president tomorrow will be a guest on conservative talk-radio host Michael Smerconish’s program, and they’ll discuss health-care reform. Smerconish will broadcast his program from Diplomatic Room at the White House, and it will be the first radio show to be broadcast from the White House since Obama took office. Also on Thursday, Obama will participate in a strategy session — by phone and online — on health care with supporters from his Organizing for America list.

Palin Calls Obama Health Plan ‘Evil’

Aug13
Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Aug. 7) — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama’s health plan “downright evil” Friday in her first online comments since leaving office, saying in a Facebook posting that he would create a “death panel” that would deny care to the neediest Americans.

“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care,” the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote.

Obama addressed the controversy during a July 28 AARP-sponsored town hall.
“Nobody is going to be forcing you to make a set of decisions on end-of-life care based on some bureaucratic law in Washington,” he said.

An e-mail sent to Palin’s spokeswoman to confirm authorship of the Facebook posting was not immediately returned Friday. There was no immediate reply to phone messages left late Friday with the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office seeking comment on Palin’s remarks.

Have you guys been keeping up with Obama’s healthcare plans?  What are your thoughts?