Archive for March 31st, 2014

31
Mar
14

Picture Of The Day

By Nerdy Wonka 155 Comments
Categories: All Photos
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Pete Souza: 5-month old Vann Carroll grabs the President’s nose during a wounded warrior visit in the East Room today.

31
Mar
14

You Think You’re Hurting President Obama? Be Smart. Get Covered

By Nerdy Wonka 147 Comments
Categories: All Photos
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His wife responded. 🙂

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🙂

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Continue reading ‘You Think You’re Hurting President Obama? Be Smart. Get Covered’

31
Mar
14

A Beautiful Day

By Chipsticks 149 Comments
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People line up to enroll for health insurance at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on Monday, March 31

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Shuxun Yu, right, 19, of Oakland, gets assistance filling out an application form during a health care enrollment event at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center Monday, March 31, in Oakland, Calif.

31
Mar
14

Celebrity Or Everyday Person? ObamaCare Is There For You

By Nerdy Wonka 113 Comments
Categories: All Photos and All Videos
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Continue reading ‘Celebrity Or Everyday Person? ObamaCare Is There For You’

31
Mar
14

ObamaCare In Action

By Nerdy Wonka 149 Comments
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San Antonio, Texas

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Noam N. Levey: Obamacare Has Led To Health Coverage For Millions More People

As the law’s initial enrollment period closes, at least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage. Some have done so through marketplaces created by the law, some through other private insurance and others through Medicaid, which has expanded under the law in about half the states. The tally draws from a review of state and federal enrollment reports, surveys and interviews with insurance executives and government officials nationwide. The millions of newly insured also create a politically important constituency that may complicate any future Republican repeal efforts. Precise figures on national health coverage will not be available for months. But available data indicate: • At least 6 million people have signed up for health coverage on the new marketplaces, about one-third of whom were previously uninsured.

A February survey by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found 27% of new enrollees were previously uninsured, but newer survey data from the nonprofit Rand Corp. and reports from marketplace officials in several states suggest that share increased in March. • At least 4.5 million previously uninsured adults have signed up for state Medicaid programs, according to Rand’s unpublished survey data, which were shared with The Times. That tracks with estimates from Avalere Health, a consulting firm that is closely following the law’s implementation. • An additional 3 million young adults have gained coverage in recent years through a provision of the law that enables dependent children to remain on their parents’ health plans until they turn 26, according to national health insurance surveys from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 • About 9 million people have bought health plans directly from insurers, instead of using the marketplaces, Rand found. The vast majority of these people were previously insured. Rand has been polling 3,300 Americans monthly about their insurance choices since last fall. Researchers found that the share of adults ages 18 to 64 without health insurance has declined from 20.9% last fall to 16.6% as of March 22. The decrease parallels a similar drop recorded by Gallup, which found in its national polling that the uninsured rate among adults had declined from 18% in the final quarter of last year to 15.9% through the first two months of 2014. Gallup’s overall uninsured rate is lower than Rand’s because it includes seniors on Medicare.

More here

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line.mcallen

McAllen, Texas

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Peggy O’Hare: Officials Ready For 1,000 At Alamodome Health Sign-Ups Monday

Organizers are bracing for as many as 1,000 people to show up at a daylong health insurance enrollment event at the Alamodome on Monday, the deadline to apply for 2014 coverage. Public interest in health plans on the federal marketplace has surged markedly, say local navigators and others assisting with enrollment. The last-minute rush has been apparent nationwide. More than 6 million Americans have signed up for private health plans through government-run marketplaces, meeting the target number established by the Congressional Budget Office.

Updated enrollment numbers for Texas and Bexar County were not available Thursday. But community groups are on track to meet the goal of enrolling 47,000 San Antonio residents by deadline, health officials said. Local offices said they’ve also seen a surge in public interest. “This week, it’s just kind of skyrocketed,” said Donna Teall, a health insurance marketplace navigator with the Alamo Area Council of Governments.The largest turnout is expected Monday. EnrollSA will have 150 workers and volunteers on hand to assist with the mass sign-ups at the Alamodome that day. That event, scheduled for 9 a.m. until 8 p.m., could draw 1,000 people seeking health coverage, said Andrea Guajardo, an EnrollSA official who helped plan the event.

More here

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vegas.photos

Las Vegas, Nevada

Continue reading ‘ObamaCare In Action’

31
Mar
14

A Tweet or Two #GetCovered

By Chipsticks 127 Comments
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Continue reading ‘A Tweet or Two #GetCovered’

31
Mar
14

Rise and Shine

By Chipsticks 119 Comments
Categories: All Photos, All Videos, Articles and Michelle Obama
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@BarackObama

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The Week’s Schedule

Today: The President will attend meetings at the White House.

Tuesday: Welcomes the Boston Red Sox to the White House to honor the team and their 2013 World Series Championship.

Wednesday: Travels to Ann Arbor, Michigan for an event on his proposal to raise the national minimum wage. Following this event, he will travel to Chicago, Illinois to attend DNC events

Thursday: The President and First Lady will host members of the United States teams and delegations from the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games at the White House.

Friday: The President will host Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa of Tunisia at the White House.

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LA Times: Obamacare has led to health coverage for millions more people

At least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gotten health insurance since Obamacare started, surveys and reports show.

President Obama’s healthcare law, despite a rocky rollout and determined opposition from critics, already has spurred the largest expansion in health coverage in America in half a century, national surveys and enrollment data show.

As the law’s initial enrollment period closes, at least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage. Some have done so through marketplaces created by the law, some through other private insurance and others through Medicaid, which has expanded under the law in about half the states.

More here

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Huffington Post: Obamacare Success Story: Man With HIV Thought He’d Be ‘Dead Within 6 Months,’ Now Has Awesome, Cheaper Insurance

Dan is a gay man from Michigan who called my radio program on SiriusXM Progress on Oct. 23. He sounded frantic. He’d received one of the infamous cancellation letters from his insurance company, he said.

.”… I am going to be one of the people who are going to be screwed by Obamacare. And I really support the president….”

…. Last week Dan called back again … he just kept looking until he found his perfect policy on the Michigan exchange.

… Dan was paying $1,485 per month for his old plan with the $1,000 deductible. His new plan under Obamacare, which includes coverage not only for all his prescriptions but for dental and vision – which his old plan did not – is costing him over $500 less per month, at a total cost of $914, with the same deductible. That’s not to mention that he got it with the pre-existing condition of HIV…..”

.”… I want to say to all your listeners: I was terribly wrong,” he said. “Now I’m going to push myself as a huge Obamacare success story. I’m bragging it to everyone.”

Full post here

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WH.gov: Photos: This is What an #ACASurge Looks Like

The line started forming at 5 a.m. in front of an enrollment center in Miami — where trained workers have signed up 25,000 of their fellow Floridians since November. It was standing-room-only at a center in Houston yesterday.

The final deadline to get covered in 2014 is in just two days, and Americans are literally lining up at grassroots events across the country to make sure they’re covered.

This is what momentum looks like.

Take a look at some of the photos folks are sending in from events around the country…

More here

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Paul Krugman: The ACA Surge Blackout

… I’m somewhat amazed by what amounts to a de facto blackout by major news media on a developing story that’s really obvious if you read the invaluable Charles Gaba, or even the White House blog: a huge surge in Obamacare enrollments in the final days of the signup period….

…. where I think this does matter is that it shows a persistent slant in much reporting toward emphasizing the negatives about health reform. The website woes were, and deserved to be, a big story; the quite amazing comeback somehow doesn’t fit the preferred narrative….

Full post here

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Ashwani Talk: The Final Countdown

…. Thanks to this law, I won’t have to worry.

Thanks to this law, 129 million can’t be denied coverage due to a preexisting condition.

Thanks to this law, 3 million young adults can stay on their parents’ plans until 26.

Thanks to this law, 6 million people are covered for the first time in their lives.

Thanks to this law, insurers must spent 80% of your premiums on actual care.

….[Today] is the deadline for open enrollment. There’s no reason not to sign up, or at least take the time to view all the options.

…. If you’re anything like me or my family, I can ensure you that it’s the right thing to do, and the best time to support it. Laws like this do not come around that often. But when they do, we all need to stand together.

Full post here

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Steve Benen: GOP struggles with Obamacare surge

As much of the country has probably heard, today marks the end of the open-enrollment period in the Affordable Care Act, and consumers who don’t get coverage are likely to face a tax penalty. ACA proponents have long predicted there’d be an 11th-hour surge in folks signing up, and right now, those predictions are holding up nicely.

…. Congressional Republicans, who are making no effort to hide the fact they’re rooting against the U.S. health care system, aren’t taking the news well.

… “I don’t think it means anything. … I think they’re cooking the books on this,” said Sen. John Barrasso on “Fox News Sunday.”

Even by GOP standards, this was a rather extraordinary moment. A member of the Senate Republican leadership – indeed, the chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee – went on national television to accuse the White House of perpetrating a fraud based on nothing but his own hopes.

More here

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Jonathan Cohn: That Good News on Obamacare? Republicans Insist It’s Not Real

Americans are signing up for the Affordable Care Act. And they appear to be doing so in really big numbers. As of the latest official update, last week, more than 6 million people had selected a private insurance plan through one of Obamacare’s new state marketplaces. But that was before a weekend of huge traffic to healthcare.gov and state-run websites, record call volume to telephone help centers, and queues outside outreach offices in California and even Texas. Charles Gaba, the Michigan-based analyst who runs the website ACASignups.net, now projects that 6.72 million people will sign up for private insurance by the time open enrollment ends.

… Republicans are challenging the statistics — primarily, by suggesting that most of the people getting insurance already had coverage. Some, like Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, say the administration is “cooking the books.” Others, like Senator Ted Cruz, say that the number of people without insurance is actually rising.

Sorry, but that’s nonsense….

More here

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Meanwhile:

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ThinkProgress: This State Is Quietly Becoming One Of The Worst For Women’s Health (And No, It’s Not Texas)

Thanks to the high-profile battle over new abortion restrictions in Texas this past summer, the national media typically associates the Lone Star State with harsh abortion laws. The dire situation in Texas is certainly alarming for reproductive rights activists — but it’s hardly the only state where women’s access to abortion is under siege.

Ohio has recently dramatically tightened its restrictions on abortion, and the number of clinics in the state is dwindling. State lawmakers haven’t shown any signs of ceasing their politically-motivated attacks on reproductive health care. Yet unlike Texas, Ohio women’s fights haven’t garnered much widespread attention.

More here

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Still all teary:

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Jim Stuart: The Obama Doctrine

Nancy LeTourneau was the first to frame what the President said in this big policy speech last Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium as an Obama Doctrine. I believe this framing is very appropriate…

…. In a nuclear age, military conflict between the great powers is unthinkable. So what happens when a great power wants to eat up its neighbor? Are we pretty much helpless? Until now, the answer was pretty much – Yes. Nobody could stop us from invading Iraq, and nobody did. Nobody could stop NATO from bombing Kosovo, and nobody did. So Putin says to himself, “Since the US won’t use military force, no one can stop us from invading the Crimea, and probably the Ukraine, and nobody will.” Until Obama did.

…. This may take a week, a month, a year, or more. But starting with Wednesday’s speech, we are watching our President lead us …. He is leading the world in establishing certain norms that say all of us have value; that we all deserve to be heard; and that the more powerful should not be allowed to run roughshod over us.

These are norms worth fighting for.

Full post here – follow Jim on Twitter here

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Still laughing:

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On This Day

Sen. Barack Obama hugs Jean Hockenbrocht as fellow workers look on during his visit to Wilbur Chocolate Company March 31, 2008 in Lititz, Pennsylvania

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President Obama walks with First Lady Michelle Obama as they depart the White House for a week long trip to Europe, in Washington on March 31, 2009

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President Obama, surrounded by the family of Cesar Chavez and leaders of the United Farm Workers that Chavez co-founded, signs a proclamation in the Oval Office designating March 31, 2010, which would have been his 83rd birthday, as Cesar Chavez Day (Photo by Pete Souza)

First Lady Michelle Obama, White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass and students from Bancroft and Hollin Meadows elementary schools do a dance intended to help the rhubarb they just planted to grow in the White House Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on March 31, 2010

President Obama practices his pitching with trip director Marvin Nicholson in the Rose Garden of the White House, March 31, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama practices his pitching form with personal aide Reggie Love and Jake Levine in the Rose Garden of the White House, March 31, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Bo stands in the Rose Garden of the White House, March 31, 2010 (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

President Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office, March 31, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama greets an audience member prior to delivering remarks on energy security at Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility in Maryland on March 31, 2010

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President Obama smiles during the filming of a campaign video, March 31, 2011 (Photo by Christopher Dilts for Obama for America)

President Obama meets with FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, March 31, 2011. Flanking Commissioner Hamburg are Vicki Seyfert-Margolis, Senior Advisor to the FDA Commissioner for Innovative Strategy, left, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, right (Photo by Pete Souza)

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First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia, tour the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton before the ship’s commissioning ceremony in Alameda, Calif., March 31, 2012

First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters Sasha tour the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp speaks during the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton’s commissioning ceremony in Alameda, Calif., March 31, 2012. First Lady Michelle Obama is the official sponsor of the Stratton and is the first First Lady to sponsor a Coast Guard cutter.

First Lady Michelle Obama congratulates Melinda Cook, the grand niece of U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Dorothy Stratton, during the commissioning ceremony of the Cutter Stratton on Coast Guard Island in Alameda, Calif., March 31, 2012

First Lady Michelle Obama with Taylor Swift at Nickelodeon’s 25th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards, March 31, 2012

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On This Day: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk with their daughters Sasha and Malia, right, to attend an Easter service at St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., Sunday, March 31, 2013 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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MoooOOOooorning!

31
Mar
14

Early Bird Chat

By Chipsticks 125 Comments
Categories: All Photos and Michelle Obama

On This Day: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk with their daughters Sasha and Malia to attend an Easter service at St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., Sunday, March 31, 2013

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MoooOOOooorning Early Birds – Happy Monday!

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