I was up late last night watching Healthcare pass! So exciting*! In this political climate (read: people grandstanding instead of working towards compromise) getting it done in 14 months is really admirable. Here are some of the immediate changes:
- Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
- Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
- Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
- Lower seniors’ prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;
- Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
- Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
- Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
- Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
- Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
- Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs (Source: Huffington Post).
I read some of those and still seem incredulous that some of these things have been allowed in a “developed” country**.
*I’m a liberal progressive so I am disappointed that there isn’t a public option (and I would rather single-payer) but I’m choosing to see incremental change as a positive development instead of dwelling on what we didn’t get.
**I don’t want abortion rates to increase (and I don’t think they will since free abortion was already available to many) but I think ignoring the plight of millions of people like my sister, who can’t get the one medication for her illness despite being “insured,” in name of a single issue is ignorant. Worse yet, it is a smoke screen for the real reasons republicans don’t want HCR: $$ and big business. Don’t think insurance isn’t big business. For those of us that want to save unborn babies – get off your butts and advocate for women and babies and families rather than further limiting choices. I don’t recall Jesus marching on Rome. I do recall him teaching about love and hope: Matthew 5.
*** I need a footnote program like Arwyn.
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Baby Dust Diaries 
OMG, are you pro life or pro choice? I have to know as you come across as prolife in this entry and I can’t be party to that.
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lol, is this a joke? I almost take it as someone trying to be funny maybe? Why would you ask a question like that as anonymous? If you’ve read my blog at all then you would know the answer to that question. Just last month I had a post all about that regarding the tebow ad during the superbowl.
IDK, I guess I’m not going to reiterate my well-established stance to someone who commented as anonymous. If this is someone being funny, tell me who you are! 🙂
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ok, on further review: anonymous has to be joking or an idiot. I am (a) excited about healthcare passing, (b) label myself as a liberal progressive, (c) i called using one issue (abortion) to stop healtcare as “ignorant”, (d) i say that those who want to save unborn babies shouldn’t do so by limiting choice.
whew, wanted to make sure my post wasn’t vague or misleading.
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I don’t find it funny when someone thinks they have a right to tell me what to do with my life.
Posted as anonymous as don’t want weirdos who think women shouldn’t have a choice being able to contact me.
I didn’t know your stance as had only just found your blog a few days ago… have now read a bit more and unsubscribed.
I will be much more careful in future about subscribing to blogs off of reading one entry – you live and learn.
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Anonymous, I said “funny” because I thought you might be a friend making a joke since no one who reads my blog or knows me in real life would ever think I am pro-life in the political sense. I’m pretty clear that I think women should have a choice which seems to be what you are also saying. Not sure why you feel the need to unsubscribe from a blog that agrees with you. Or, actually I don’t understand unsubscribing from a blog even if I did disagree on one issue since I subscribe to several blogs that are pro-life because I like their other ideas (homeschool for example). Although I would certainly unsubscribe from a blog advocating spanking. /shrug. I still don’t get it since we both seem to be pro-choice? No big deal – I don’t advertise on my blog so I’m not driven by the number of people who subscribe and if you don’t want to read my ideas (natural parenting, infertility, and a sprinkling of feminism) then I certainly wouldn’t want you to. This is definitely a read-at-will blog!
I guess I’m just perplexed as to how you could have taken my post (or any of my other posts) in the exact opposite way they are intended. Are you turned off that I am religious? That I personally think life begins at conception? Is there no room in the pro-choice movement for people of differing moral backgrounds to fight together for woman’s rights?
I have to say I have readers that are pro-life and who disagree with me but they are able to read and engage. I wish you were willing to engage in a dialog about it instead of completely disengaging. This is exactly the problem I mention in my post about congress not even trying to work toward a compromise because they are completely polarized by this one issue.
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Great post! I also don’t understand where A is coming from. Wish she would explain her position. Engaging conversation is the best way to educate. Know and state what you believe and why and then listen to the opposition. You just might learn to respect your fellow bloggers even when you don’t agree with them.
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Dude, my mom rocks. 😀
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Um, what’s up with anonymous? I seriously have started a trend of deleting anonymous disagreeable comments, because I don’t have the head space for them anymore. Grow a pair and get a name, I say. 🙂
Ok. On to the discussion at hand. First of all: Yea, health care reform! I, too, wish health care had been a little more reformed, but I’ll allow baby steps. We’re self-employed and seriously need all the help we can get.
Secondly: I’ve been thinking of this Arwyn-induced envy as well, and I figured out the solution, outlined here: http://tips.blogdoctor.me/2008/03/how-to-make-footnotes-in-blogger.html. Use “a name=” tags, and I think to get the back to top thing you could do another tag at the top and link up a “back to top” text or symbol after each footnote. That was probably clear as mud, but I think I’m going to try it on mine and maybe write up my own tutorial, too. Stupid Arwyn and her stupid awesome footnotes making me all jealous! 🙂
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Sorry for that last one. Blogger hadn’t been letting me post comments – got error messages, so didn’t want to write a long response to have it disappear into the ether.
I’m catching up after not reading for a while now. You & i are on different “sides” (but probably not opposite ends) on a couple of different issues. I don’t think that has ever stood in the way of my enjoying your blog. Disagreement is not something that automatically makes me think i can’t follow or enjoy someone. It can lead to good discussions. Dissension (did i use the right word?) & rudeness would lead me there, but fortunately that doesn’t seem to happen at most places that i visit.
In the early days of blog reading i did sign up to follow lots of someones & eventually learned that a few of them blog just don’t “speak” to me like i thought they would. I learned eventually to sign up as an anonymous follower so that if i feel i can’t continue later i don’t feel badly that i’ve “disappeared.” So, yes, i tend to “lurk.” I don’t post anonymous comments, tho.
But i’ve never announced to someone that i can’t follow them anymore because we disagree too much! They don’t write the blog for me or for anyone else – or they shouldn’t! If it doesn’t “fit me” then i just quietly melt away.
I have learned to moderate comments more than 5 days old. I get some weird ones on those older posts.
Sending you hugs! I’m so glad that even tho we don’t see eye to eye on everything, we can still appreciate one another. 🙂
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