Reporters lack common sense, among other things

My brain felt like it was turning to mush the last few days from shaking my head. Nothing really new except reporters have gotten worse over the years and not better. Do they really have to teach common sense in journalism class? Start with the Affordable Healthcare Act they love to call Obamacare because too many in this country think they are two different things. Obama got blamed and took it on the chin for something that wasn't his fault but hey, the press jumped on the fact he said people could keep their plans. That didn't mean insurance companies would do the right thing. Here's someone actually using common sense.

Obama never lied about your plan
Terminated policies were introduced after ACA's passing -- often with insurers' knowledge they'd be scrapped
DEAN BAKER
ALTERNET
November 15, 2013

President Obama has been getting a lot of grief in the last few weeks over his pledge that with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in place, people would be able to keep their insurance if they like it. The media have been filled with stories about people across the country who are having their insurance policies terminated, ostensibly because they did not meet the requirements of the ACA. While this has led many to say that Obama was lying, there is much less here than meets the eye.

First, it is important to note that the ACA grand-fathered all the individual policies that were in place at the time the law was enacted. This means that the plans in effect at the time that President Obama was pushing the bill could still be offered even if they did not meet all the standards laid out in the ACA.

The plans being terminated because they don’t meet the minimal standards were all plans that insurers introduced after the passage of the ACA. Insurers introduced these plans knowing that they would not meet the standards that would come into effect in 2014. Insurers may not have informed their clients at the time they sold these plans that they would not be available after 2014 because they had designed a plan that did not comply with the ACA.

However if the insurers didn’t tell their clients that the new plans would only be available for a short period of time, the blame would seem to rest with the insurance companies, not the ACA. After all, President Obama did not promise people that he would keep insurers from developing new plans that will not comply with the provisions of the ACA.
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Back to this issue and the fact that the computer programmers screwed up and should have been fired along with having to pay back what they got for sucking at their jobs, but again, reporters wanted to pretend it was all Obama's fault.

Never mind that Congress has had three years to make sure the money was being spent wisely and the contractors would deliver what they said they would but hey, got them a lot more attention to hold the hearings after the fact, much like they do most of the time.

Then we have the cluster you-know-what with the Benghazi report 60 Minutes screwed up but Senator Graham didn't seem to understand that it was a lie.

These are just part of a very long list of things the reporters play on. Would be nice if they would use some common sense and actually start getting the answers we really want to know.

Why were members of Congress so hell bent on getting rid of the one thing that tried to fix what was happening to family after family in this country suffering because of health insurance? Why didn't they spend that amount of time trying to find the best solution for what we needed and not what they could fire up some hotheads with? Did they ever really think of us?

Why didn't insurance companies do the right thing? They had three years to come up with policies that would work for the people who trusted them with their premiums every month. Did anyone ask about the policies that were canceled? Did they ask if those policies ended up belonging to policy holders who dared to file a claim for care? Anyone ask? Did anyone ask to see if the policy holders were looking for something else, shopping around and got canceled because of that?

Believe me, if you read Wounded Times with any regularity, you know I don't defend any politician. It would really be nice if most reporters deserved defending for telling the truth for a change and asking questions so we can know what the facts are instead of playing games on our emotions. In this case, health insurance coverage is a matter of life or death for too many of us. Would have been great if they took it seriously enough before all of this.

Finance Committee Chairman talked about access to healthcare

Senators and representatives made opening statements about a Republican budget bill which provided a tax cut of close to $800 billion. The president had threatened to veto the bill.  Not this one but back in August of 1999

Senator Bill Roth R-Delaware Finance Committee Chairman "Well-being of all families, the need to provide them with the most meaningful tax relief possible. To do it in a way that families can meet their individual needs." Increases access to healthcare!

Congressional idiots don't do jobs but Military would work through shutdown

This isn't a political blog but I am sick and tired of Congressional idiots not doing their jobs while folks in the military and veterans suffer. They manage to do their jobs to the point where it could cost them their lives but congress can't even manage to work together for the sake of what they got elected to do.

Military would work through shutdown; paychecks could be delayed
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: September 23, 2013

WASHINGTON – Military troops, including those in conflict zones, may have their paychecks delayed if elected officials in Washington can’t work out a deal to fund government operations in the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1, the Pentagon said Monday.

Large numbers of civilians could be temporarily furloughed, however, and it would require an act of Congress for them to get retroactive pay.

In a memo sent late Monday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told DOD employees that the White House Office of Management and Budget had directed the Pentagon update its plans for a shutdown, as reported by Stars and Stripes last week.

As has been the case in recent years when earlier shutdowns threatened, military members will continue to serve regardless of the funding status of the government, Carter wrote. A large number of civilians would be furloughed if the government shuts down, he said, with civilians deemed necessary for the safety of life and property expected to be required to stay on the job.
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They whined about Affordable Healthcare because there are problems with it. Ok, then why didn't they come up with another way of doing the right thing? Why do they believe government funded health insurance is fine for them but the American people don't deserve it?

They cut food stamps again never once considering that there are veterans on food stamps and a lot of National Guards/Reservist families need food stamps to make up for lost income because they were sent into Afghanistan by the congress. Wounded soldiers still wait for their claims to be approved but congress just whined about that too without ever thinking it is time to fix the VA once and for all so this doesn't keep happening.

They hold stupid hearings on things that really don't matter while billions are spent every year on PTSD and suicide programs that ended up producing more attempted suicides along with completed deaths leaving families behind wondering why nothing the DOD and the VA did worked. After all, these folks survived combat deployments but couldn't survive being back home and congress just funds the same programs that failed while they still whine about "Obamacare" that would at least let them find insurance coverage to cover what the congress screwed up in the first place!

Now they are facing yet another crisis because congress can't manage to get their heads out of their armpits long enough to do their jobs for the sake of the whole country. Something stinks in Washington and it is called CONGRESS!

Governor Rick Scott spent $5 million against health insurance

Obamacare: Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott Won't Implement Health Care Reform
Jeffrey Young
Huffington Post
Posted: 12/14/2012

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), one of the most vocal critics of President Barack Obama's health care reform law, won't carry out a central component of its aim to extend health insurance coverage to poor and middle-class residents of his state.

Scott waited until almost the last minute to announce his decision, despite having been a vehement opponent of the health care reform since the debate started soon after Obama's inauguration in 2009. The former hospital industry executive founded an organization called Conservatives for Patients' Rights and sunk $5 million of his own money into a failed effort to derail the legislation that would come to be known as Obamacare.
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More than a quarter of OEF OIF veterans without health insurance

Many younger vets among the ranks of uninsured
More than quarter of all veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t have health insurance and aren’t part of the Department of Veterans Affairs health system, according to an analysis of VA data.
BY CHRIS ADAMS
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Published: Nov. 19, 2012

More than quarter of all veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t have health insurance and aren’t part of the Department of Veterans Affairs health system, according to an analysis of VA data.

The uninsured rate among these recent veterans is higher than for other war periods and for veterans as a whole, raising concerns that veterans recently back from the wars might not be taking advantage of care to which they are entitled.

Veterans advocates and some lawmakers have pushed to automatically enroll veterans in the VA health care system, which could fill in the gap for some of the veterans not now covered by the VA or the private market.

“It is critically important that we continue to reach out and inform veterans of the health care and benefits they have earned through their service to country,” said VA spokesman Josh Taylor. “We have made progress, but there is more work to do.”
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Officials Reassure Troops On TRICARE

When the DOD has to release statements to reassure the troops the health insurance reform will not harm the care they get, it's obvious there are a lot of rumors out there. For anyone lying about something as important as the healthcare coverage the troops and veterans receive, it should be regarded as an attack against them. Have people sunk so far they have to cause military families to fear this when they have so many real things to worry about?

There was a time when common sense was involved in legitimate disagreements by people in office. They would not sink to lying while they were spinning.

Officials Reassure Troops On TRICARE
March 23, 2010
Stars and Stripes
by Leo Shane III

WASHINGTON — Military and Veterans Affairs officials spent the weekend refuting allegations that the health care reform legislation approved by Congress will harm TRICARE programs or Veterans Affairs health benefits, instead promising that servicemembers and veterans will see no change in their coverage.

Before Sunday’s vote approving the massive health care overhaul, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki released a statement saying that none of the proposals would force veterans to purchase new health care or change the way current benefits are delivered.

“Fears that veterans’ health care and TRICARE will be undermined by the health reform legislation are unfounded,” he said. “We pledge to continue to provide the men and women in uniform and our veterans the high quality health care they have earned.”
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Officials Reassure Troops On TRICARE

TRICARE Meets New Health Bill Standards
March 22, 2010
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – The TRICARE military health plan meets the standards set by the health care reform bill the House of Representatives passed last night, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a statement issued yesterday.
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TRICARE Meets New Health Bill Standards

Man Joins Army to Help Ailing Wife

Man Joins Army to Help Ailing Wife
He Loses Job and Insurance, She Battles Cancer
(Oct. 19) -- Two of the nation's most pressing issues -- unemployment and health care -- have come together in a personal perfect storm for one Wisconsin family.

Bill Caudle of Watertown was laid off in March from the plastics company where he'd worked for 20 years. Unable to find another job, Caudle -- on his 39th birthday -- enlisted in the U.S. Army to get the health insurance his wife needs to continue her battle against ovarian cancer. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel told the family's story Sunday.

Michelle Caudle, 40, discovered she had cancer in 2006 and underwent surgery, followed by two rounds of chemotherapy. In May, her doctor told her there were signs the cancer was back and she would need to endure more chemo.
The $136 monthly cost of insurance for the family rose to $497 when Bill's severance package ran out last month and was due to jump to $1,370 in January. Michelle worked part-time at a restaurant to help pay the bills, but the job did not provide insurance.

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Man Joins Army to Help Ailing Wife

Study: 45,000 Americans die each year from lack of insurance

My friend Jen was one of them. She died of cancer. She was more afraid to get better than she was to die because she didn't have insurance. A nephew of mine, had an infection in his jaw because of a bad tooth. It got into his brain. He almost died because he didn't have insurance. Now this study makes even more sense. Most of us understand what it's like to do everything right but end up wondering what we did wrong.

Study: 45,000 Americans die each year from lack of insurance

Harvard researchers published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health a study which reveals roughly 45,000 American adults die every year because they are not covered by health insurance.

Researchers specifically noted that lack of health insurance now kills more adults than kidney disease.

The American Journal of Public Health is a subscription-only service. Physics.org reported:

Lead author Dr. Andrew Wilper, who worked at Harvard Medical School when the study was done and who now teaches at the University of Washington Medical School, said, "The uninsured have a higher risk of death when compared to the privately insured, even after taking into account socioeconomics, health behaviors and baseline health. We doctors have many new ways to prevent deaths from hypertension, diabetes and heart disease - but only if patients can get into our offices and afford their medications."

The study, which analyzed data from national surveys carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), assessed death rates after taking education, income and many other factors including smoking, drinking and obesity into account. It estimated that lack of health insurance causes 44,789 excess deaths annually.

Previous estimates from the IOM and others had put that figure near 18,000. The methods used in the current study were similar to those employed by the IOM in 2002, which in turn were based on a pioneering 1993 study of health insurance and mortality.click link for more