Pregnant women could be denied coverage. That was a thing.
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OFA: 12 Actual Pre-Existing Conditions From Before The Affordable Care Act
Before the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies could refuse to cover you because you had one of these “pre-existing conditions.”
More here
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Your treatment for your sniffles around cats used to be grounds for an insurance company to turn down your business.
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Before the Affordable Care Act, treating your pimples could have rendered you uninsurable.
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Insurance companies used to be able to reject people—including kids—with asthma.
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Because insurance companies considered firefighting to be a “high-risk occupation,” they could include it in their underwriting guidelines as an uninsurable profession.
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Here’s The Good News
When you shop on the new marketplace, you won’t be asked if you have a pre-existing condition. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, you have basic protections from crazy insurance company abuses, and pre-existing conditions are no longer a thing.
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The Obama Diary 
Success is the best way to halt the nay sayers.
My TOD Breaking Bad cool crew, can you tell me who that beanie wearing dude in the car saying “WHAT?” is?
Jesse!!!!!!
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner.
I would’ve given you the standard Jesse response of “Yeah B—h!” but this isn’t TOD After Dark. 😆
I want a prize!!!!
Here you go. Your very own Jesse Pinkman prize.
😆 I iz verrrry happy now, thank you UT!!!
I just ordered the complete series because I kept falling asleep during the marathon …I can’t wait to get it.
You are going to have so much fun and so many emotions. It’s hell of a wonderful ride. One of the best written, acted, and detailed shows that has ever been on TV.
Bryan Cranston as Walter White was jaw dropping goooooood.
Yo, that’s Jesse Pinkman, BITCH.
lol: 😆 😆
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahaha….and here comes Tally with the patented Jesse Pinkman response to everything and everyone.
OMG, BITCH! I could be a cougar….
By the way, finished watching BB last night…Holy Shitstains. Excellent! Did you see where they are going to make another spin off?
Oh yeah, the spin off is ‘Better Call Saul’ I believe.
The final scene and song used was just mind-blowing AMAZING.
I could not have wished for a better way to end Breaking Bad. Bryan Cranston as Walter White deserves all the awards. Everyone gave their A+ game.
😆 The TOD Breaking Bad crew looooooooooves Jesse and his sayings, YO!
Yes we do! Liked that Badfinger song, did you? That was from MY DAY:) I sang right along with it last night…perfect!!
Actor Aaron Paul playing Jesse Pinkman
Never mind. i forgot you’re a longtime fan.
He has his own page on huffpuff
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/aaron-paul/
If you find yourself going through hell……keep going.
Strong is where you are when you run out of weak.
Faaaaaaantastic gifs UT, love love love this post!!!!
OMG ut this is one of my favorite posts EVER on TOD!!! Jesse Pinkman!
Yay!!!! Another Breaking Bad customer satisfied.
Information and humor. Works for me!
I am immensely enjoying these clips.
Lovely UT.
Happy Friday, the 1st in Jan and of the New Year in 2014 😉
Hello TODable TODbots.
today, all the brownies will be devoured. so if you have a bag of cookies in your cabinet, and you live in a neighboring state, lock it up!
Ha!
I’ll tell you what…someone would be REAL SMART to have a little MJ stand right at the 4 corners…..just sayin’…..
🙂
My goodness how bad does the lying bishop, Willard Mitterrand Romney has to be to get on Fox for attention? Seriously? The MHP one segment last Sunday is still being milked by these fakers? Seriously? How shameful.
Millions get health care for the 1st time – Someone jokes and tells the truth about the Romney family – which do you think is more important to Fox News?
love the gifistrations 🙂
India’s Prime Minister steps aside for Gandhi
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article3964686.ece
The Obama administration on Friday called on a Supreme Court justice to stop blocking the new health care law’s requirement that some religion-affiliated organizations provide health insurance that includes birth control.
The Justice Department called on Justice Sonia Sotomayor to dissolve her last-minute stay on the contraceptive coverage requirement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. …
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/24356821/govt-birth-control-mandate-should-not-be-blocked
Is Justice Sotomayor on twitter or does she have an email address at which we could respectfully write and ask her to dissolve her stay?
I still don’t get why Sotomayor jumped in on this. I was hoping there was some secret good reason which would become apparent—but no, not so far anyway. These religious organizations are already exempt from this obligation. All they have to do is sign a form that they have religious objections, according to reports. But they didn’t want to even do that because——-religion? And Sotomayor’s action provided the rt. wing nuts another opening, not that they need any encouragement, to say that the Obama admin. is a Big Meanie to the Little Sisters of the Poor. So I don’t get it.
I don’t understand why reports keep saying “and some of the employees are nuns” – fairly obvious no employer is going to have to pay for birth control for nuns – the stupid is mind boggling. Do the employers think the nuns may be taking birth control – just in case?
And – how many children do good catholic families now have – not the 15-20 of past years – the majority of these families use birth control – this whole nonsense is just another ploy of MEN to make life difficult for women.
Ralph Nader received a request for donation from George W. Bush ……
You can imagine my surprise when I received a request from a certain notorious former President of the United States asking for my financial support in his public policy center’s efforts to address the “challenges facing our world.”
—
His response letter is amazing …..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-nader/letter-to-george-w-bush_b_4537137.html#comments
Here is just the PS.
P.S. I am enclosing as a contribution in kind to your presidential center library the book Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions by Clyde Prestowitz (2003) whom I’m sure you know. Note the positive remark on the back cover by General Wesley Clark.
Great letter from Nader. Now if Nader would look in the mirror and acknowledge that he could have also prevented this period of disaster for our country. He knew he would not win in the general election in 2000 but failed to drop out directly causing Bush to win. He never polled higher than 10% of the total vote. So in Florida (as we all remember and will never forget) the botched recount had Gore short 537 votes. Nader got 97,421 in Florida.
So Ralph, there would have been no Iraq War or President Bush to write a letter to today if instead of following your inflated ego to the country’s ultimate doom.you had helped the best man win.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho governor: State will take over operation of CCA-run prison after decade of problems.
—-
Good….for profit prisons are a travesty.
Look at the travesty… http://thinkprogress.org/search/?query=private+prisons&x=0&y=9 Should be outlawed in every state!
Wow…..will read them later…thanks
Brilliant. http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/01/trying-to-have-21st-century.html
Lots of folks are wanting to excuse what Edward Snowden did because the results of his leaking of classified information has started what they think is a productive conversation about privacy. Please excuse me if I don’t agree. What we’re having is a conversation about privacy based on what we assumed it was during the last century – not today.
Let me provide you with a bit of background for that conclusion. First of all, from Al Giordano:
The democratization of public or semi-public exhibitionism has thrown traditional concerns about “personal privacy” out the window. Who needs the CIA anymore when everybody is out there blurting the kinds of secrets it used to take surveillance to discover? Privacy didn’t disappear because Big Brother took it away. We gave it away! Freely! It fell aside to a greater impulse: the need to expose ourselves in public, to have an audience, and to keep it.
More here: http://immasmartypants.blogspot.ie/2014/01/trying-to-have-21st-century.html
While Facebook sells everyone’s data………
Or hacked and stolen…Snapchat, Target, and tens of thousands of current and former students of Maricopa County Community College system……
Sorry:) Too much? Sometimes I just get carried away. Thanks.
🙂 No worries DF, just want everyone to visit the source rather than reading most of it here! Thank you for the awesome link to the awesome SP!
My (breaking) bad 🙂 I should know better by now….she is INCREDIBLE. Just like you!
“My (breaking) bad” 😆 I’ll have to rename this place ‘The Obama Diary – B***h’!!!
🙂 TOD Nightime Edition:)
Oooooooh, there’s an idea!!! 😆
I KNOW! 🙂
Snowden committed treason based on the terms of his clearance to collect data on behalf of the United States. It doesn’t matter why he did what he did or to what end. The bottom line is Snowden is NOT allowed to reveal any of what he revealed. He should be locked away for a very very long time.
THIS! I don’t even understand why this fact is up for a fucking debate.
This IS my daytime language…
Desertflower you are so correct. My question (I don’ t do twitter) to these morons who thinks this traitor is God and has some how shamed the President is; what would your conversation be “if Snowden was a black man” and the President was white? Give us 24 hours to submit our answers.
Happy New Year, TODville.
Our focus this year, like our President’s and the Roman Catholic Pope, is to wake America up to the income inequality that is getting worse each year.
BobFR is absolutely right that we are at the precipice of plutocracy.
Most of America was appalled that Ethan Couch received no jail time, only probation for killing four innocent people (a stranded motorist and 3 good samaritans) and severely crippled 2 people who were riding in the bed of his pickup truck. Ethan Couch, a 16-year-old with a blood alcohol level of 3 times the legal limit whose father is paying (a racketeer no doubt) $450,000 a year for his son to attend a SoCal “rehab” center.
Appalling yes.
But even more egregious is that the wealthy North Dallas citizens believe that this unequal justice (in their favor) is an entitlement for them. Look at what global good could be done if America would come to its senses about being hoodwinked by the snake oil known as “Trickle-down economics:”
Here is @IanBremmer’s tweet.
https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/419155547275812864
I also wonder whether the defense psychologist, G. Dick Miller has a stake (financial or otherwise) in the Newport Academy, the rehab center Ethan Couch is “sentenced” to. Note the use of the term “our program:”
Dick Miller, the psychologist who caused an international uproar after diagnosing Couch’s behavior as a medically unrecognized term known as “affluenza,” defended the judge’s decision that Couch didn’t deserve to be punished in jail. He told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that justice was served.
“I believe there’s about an 80% chance in our program, if we stay communicating with the kid, my experience in 30 years – and I’ve got many, many patients – that this kid has about an 80% chance to become a full-functioning citizen who pays taxes, who doesn’t take from the community,” said Miller.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/victim-of-affluenza-ethan-couch-lived-unsupervised-in-own-mansion-before-killing-4-in-drunken-crash-911-tapes-reveal-chaos-in-aftermath-110919/
John McCain and Lindsey Graham is ready to get America into another war.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/03/snowden-lied-about-china-contacts.html
” “I have had no contact with the Chinese government,” Snowden wrote in a Q&A on the Guardian website while taking refuge in Hong Kong in June. “I only work with journalists.”
That’s far short of the truth. By the time he wrote those words in the online chat, Snowden, according to one of my sources in Hong Kong, had at least one “high-level contact” with Chinese officials there.”
Snowden is a foreign agent and he got caught. If you read all available background information on Snowden, it is very clear he was operating on behalf of a foreign government.
Idon,
They know who Snowden is and what he is. They are trying to force the hands of the “Black President” to cow down to pressure. The real question we all need to send in to these morons; what would your conversation be like if Snowden was “black snowden” and the President was white? It’s time to shut these fools down because many of us already know what the headlines would read; hang the traitor, death for the traitor etc.. Some one should start twitter hash tag #What would happen to a “black snowden” with a white President?
Interesting that I come home and find this thread about the ACA. LOVE it, btw. 🙂 Here’s my experience from my stop at Kroger pharmacy to pick up my prescription. It is a monthly refill and I have never had to pay anything since I got on Medicare last year. This time it was $11……definitely no big deal! Anyway, I said, “Huh, I’ve never had to pay anything before for this.” A lady had just walked up behind me and heard me and she said, sort of jokingly (I think), “Oh, it’s because of Obamacare.” I instantly said, “No, it isn’t. You don’t want to go there with me.” She said something like “Oh, I’m sure it isn’t…….I was just kidding.” I didn’t say anything when she said that……just continued with my transaction. This is a perfect example of what the GOP has been able to do with people’s attitude……constant spreading of fear and negativity. One more thing regarding this: I will not say anything to my husband about this because he will be absolutely convinced that it is because of Obamacare. I realize it may have something to do with it……likely one of the changes in Medicare to help cover the costs, but as I said, $11 is no big deal!!!!!!
Did Kroger have an explanation for you ? Just asking because that happened to me at Kroger too. I don’t have prescription coverage and my meds were costing about $47.00 a month…..
One day I went in and they wanted $129.00 …..I put up a stink and they gave me the old pricing…..
A friend at church said that he went to get a prescription filled, has no prescription coverage, and was charged a really high price. Someone working there told him that if he made a fuss they would give him the prescription pricing. This was in the middle of a conversation about the ACA and I think there was a part when he tied the prescription costs to the new law. He’s a person who said his old insurance company dropped him because their plan did not meet the ACA guildelines because of no coverage for birth control and pregnancy. He said his choices seem to be higher premiums and higher deductibles so he’s going to by basically junk insurance with no prescription coverage so he doesn’t pay more out of pocket. He’s not a hard right fanatic, but is more on the conservative/libertarian side. I don’t know if he’s getting good information. And of course Michigan is one of the states that did not open their own health exchanges. He was also really peeved that he was being charged different rates because of his zip code.
Tn, if you have supplemental Medicare Part D, it may have to do with the insurance company you chose, not the ACA. My prescription costs fluctuate throughout the year for the same cream, depending on whatever whim my insurance co. is operating under that month.
Yes, I do have Part D. I bet you are right. Next week I will try to remember to check with my insurance company. Thanks for that suggestion.
Your Medicare Part D plan is probably what changed. You really have to check those changes carefully during the open enrollment period to make sure your particular meds are still being covered, what has changed with co-pays, etc.
This was my full year on Part D. I will definitely check w/my insurance company and be more pro-active this fall (open enrollment). I only take 3 prescription drugs and one of them is written for two pills a day and I only take 3 or 4 a week so that one lasts a long time. I even had Kroger to stop the automatic monthly refill for a few months. Take that one for arthritis but too much messes with my stomach big-time. The one I got today is also for arthritis and is also an antibiotic. The other one I take is Fosamax.
They all play games – you have to check every year. Co-pays change, tier designations, and what meds are covered. If it’s an issue of the particular med, your doctor may have an alternative. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the insurance company didn’t add a co-pay.
Ha !
Bernie Sanders sent a letter to NSA Director Alexander demanding to know if the NSA is listening to Congress’s phone calls.
Where did this come from about the NSA listening to Congress? Greenwald and Snowden.
Tell Bernie Sanders that the American people are concerned about Unemployment insurance benefits, gun control, immigration reform, parity in health and education. No one cares whether or not NSA is listening in on congress’ phone calls. The last time I checked the NSA had a ~54% approval rating, congress had a 10% approval rating. Any questions?
Sister in law is praising ObamaCare on FB to whoever will listen. Her daughter has grown out of being able to be carried on her parent’s health insurance. She has erratic work in the CA film industry as well as lots of cobbled together part time gigs. She also has a pre-existing condition, which has disqualified her from getting health insurance, no matter how much she was willing to pay (with mom and dad’s help). Well now she’s got full, affordable health care coverage and can stop living in fear of bankruptcy if she gets sick. My SIL is so giddy with excitement, she’s going to make sure everyone she meets knows how awesome ObamaCare is. Drop by drop, person by person, the message is getting out.
Perfect, Jackie!!! Please thank your SIL!!!!
These two tweets ….
…. speak to a simple truth. Until we can EDUCATE people to be critical thinkers they will remain easy victims to power crazed, avaricious exploiters.
Yes We Can
go harry go!
I see Ed reporting that the Jan. schedule for the House does not include UI benefits, that they do not intend to allow a vote on this.
HONOLULU — The Obama administration on Friday announced a pair of executive actions aimed at strengthening federal background checks for gun purchasers, with a particular focus on limiting firearm access for those with mental health issues. One proposed rule change aims to clarify terminology used by federal law to prohibit people from purchasing a firearm for mental health reasons. …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obama-proposes-firearm-background-check-changes/2014/01/03/95b34904-74a1-11e3-bc6b-712d770c3715_story.html
Every little bit helps. I love the fact that the administration just keeps pushing every little place it can.
UtaustinLiberal,
Thank you for the wonderful post. It adds sunshine over the pile of snow blocking my view.
So kind of you. Glad to help. 😀
Breaking : Cantor memo says unemployment insurance not on January schedule.
Well..let’s all put it on his schedule!!!!!!
As far as I can recall this is the best vacation the Obama family has been able to have. No “underwear bomber” or debt ceiling debate shortening their time in the sun. PBO was able to travel with his family, not join them when 1/2 the vacation time is over.
And now I am looking forward to their return and a rumored speech on Tuesday concerning the need to extend UI.
I would love for him to go to Cantor’s District and make that speech.
Vicki,
You took the words away from me. I was just saying the same to a friend yesterday. No diaper terrorist, no Benghazzi, no debt ceiling or BP oil spill. I am so happy for the President and his family. Simply wish I could be there, even as a humble servant.
He’s going to make the speech following the bipartisan UI extension Senate bill on Monday night. I think this is to put pressure on the House GOP. He will let Can’t-or and Bone-or both have it.
sounds good to me!
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/us-answer-nun-birth-control-suit-2D11848546
Sorry, wrong post.
Haven’t read article, but hope he has more to his resume than being an American idol runner-up. There are enough pols who talk about the constitution who understand it no more than I do.
He plans to run as a Democrat, meaning he is not a Teabagger. That is the first and only criterion.
Clay was an Obama supporter. He also has a charity for kids with disabilities. He taught special Ed classes.
Thanks NCLB & OG. It is good to hear that Mr. Aiken has an interest in more than himself; I therefore wish him success should he decide to go for it.
“Sorry boss, but I hit the jackpot. I don’t think I’ll be in today, tomorrow or ever.” (every lottery player’s dream)
Mega million co-winner, a delivery truck driver, finally came forward, 16 days after drawing, forgot he bought 5 quick-picks in San Jose where the winning ticket was sold. Finally checked the tickets on his dresser—-presto
New post!
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/01/03/chat-away-298/