https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/887123628638302208
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/887124700610080768
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Posts Tagged ‘Association
19
Jul
17
A Determined President
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Barack Obama, JD: United States Health Care Reform. Progress To Date And Next Steps
Importance The Affordable Care Act is the most important health care legislation enacted in the United States since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The law implemented comprehensive reforms designed to improve the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health care. Objectives To review the factors influencing the decision to pursue health reform, summarize evidence on the effects of the law to date, recommend actions that could improve the health care system, and identify general lessons for public policy from the Affordable Care Act. Evidence Analysis of publicly available data, data obtained from government agencies, and published research findings. The period examined extends from 1963 to early 2016. Findings The Affordable Care Act has made significant progress toward solving long-standing challenges facing the US health care system related to access, affordability, and quality of care. Since the Affordable Care Act became law, the uninsured rate has declined by 43%, from 16.0% in 2010 to 9.1% in 2015, primarily because of the law’s reforms. Research has documented accompanying improvements in access to care (for example, an estimated reduction in the share of nonelderly adults unable to afford care of 5.5 percentage points), financial security (for example, an estimated reduction in debts sent to collection of $600-$1000 per person gaining Medicaid coverage),
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and health (for example, an estimated reduction in the share of nonelderly adults reporting fair or poor health of 3.4 percentage points). The law has also begun the process of transforming health care payment systems, with an estimated 30% of traditional Medicare payments now flowing through alternative payment models like bundled payments or accountable care organizations. These and related reforms have contributed to a sustained period of slow growth in per-enrollee health care spending and improvements in health care quality. Despite this progress, major opportunities to improve the health care system remain. Conclusions and Relevance Policy makers should build on progress made by the Affordable Care Act by continuing to implement the Health Insurance Marketplaces and delivery system reform, increasing federal financial assistance for Marketplace enrollees, introducing a public plan option in areas lacking individual market competition, and taking actions to reduce prescription drug costs. Although partisanship and special interest opposition remain, experience with the Affordable Care Act demonstrates that positive change is achievable on some of the nation’s most complex challenges.
More here
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Good summary in the NYT
09
Jun
15
ObamaCare: The President’s Day
President Barack Obama speaks at the Catholic Hospital Association conference in Washington, DC. President Obama discussed what healthcare reform has meant to millions of Americans and the affordable coverage options for individuals in general
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President Barack Obama greets a nun in the audience
25
Feb
13
Monday: A Video and Image or Two
President Obama takes questions during a meeting with the National Governors Association
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President Barack Obama talks with Gov. Peter Shumlin, D-Vt., center, chair of the Democratic Governors Association, and Gov. Mike Spence, R-Ind., after a meeting with the NGA in the State Dining Room of the White House, Feb. 25, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Official portrait of Vice President Joe Biden in his West Wing Office at the White House, Jan. 10, 2013. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)
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Grrrr, got no newsie bits posted today, will try to make up for it in the morning – I have a seriously monster huuuuuge amount of catching up to do. 😕
03
Jul
12
“is he serious?”
Vice President Joe Biden hugs his wife Jill Biden before speaking at the National Education Association convention at the Washington Convention Center on July 3
ABC: …. Vice President Joe Biden today warned the nation’s public school teachers that they are “under full blown assault” from Mitt Romney and the Republican Party.
“Gov. Romney and his allies in the Congress, their plan for public education in America is to let the states use Title One dollars to boost enrollment in private schools,” Biden told a crowd of more than 15,000 delegates at the National Education Association convention in Washington.
“I’m not looking for boos,” he told the crowd, which was reacting to mention of Romney. “I think we should just have a straight honest to God talk about the difference between… how President Obama and I view education and how our Republican colleagues today view it.”
…. Citing the House Republican budget, Biden said a President Romney would gut investments in public education and lead to more teacher layoffs. He hit Romney for recent comments opposing additional federal aid to states to boost teacher hiring and claims that smaller class sizes don’t matter in student success.
“If you really want to know how fundamentally out of touch he is with what made you choose your profession go to his website,” Biden said. “Here’s what he says about you, and I’m quoting. ‘When your cause in life,’ referring to you… ‘is preventing parents from having a meaningful choice, or children from having a real chance, then you’re on the wrong side.’ That’s what he thinks of you. Pretty astounding,” Biden said.
“Your cause in life is preventing parents from seeing their children have an opportunity to dream? Your cause in life is preventing children from having a real chance? Is he serious? He is though,” he added. “I believe he means what he says. I can’t think of a candidate for president who has made such a direct assault on such an honorable profession.”
More here
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21
Mar
12
nevada to new mexico
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…. greeted by Clark County Commission, Nev. Chair Susan Brager
President Obama walks across the tarmac to greet well-wishers upon arrival at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas
A Secret Service agent is seen at Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s Copper Mountain Solar 1 facility before a speech by President Obama
…. with Jeffrey Martin, CEO, Sempra U.S. Gas & Power
…. speaking at Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s Copper Mountain Solar 1 facility in Boulder City, Nevada
…. greeting audience members after speaking at the Copper Mountain Solar Project
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…. arriving with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at Roswell International Airport
…. greeted by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez
…. on his way to deliver remarks on energy independence at Maljamar Cooperative Association Unit in New Mexico
27
Feb
12
afternoon all
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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looks at his email while First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during a meeting of the National Governors Association
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer snacks on an apple while Vice President Joe Biden addresses a meeting of the National Governors Association
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More here
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USA Today: Auto sales are growing so fast that Detroit can barely keep up.
Three years after the U.S. auto industry nearly collapsed, sales of cars and trucks are surging. Sales could exceed 14 million this year, above last year’s 12.8 million.
The result: Carmakers are adding shifts and hiring thousands of workers around the country. Carmakers and parts companies added more than 38,000 jobs last year, reaching a total of 717,000. And automakers have announced plans to add another 13,000 this year, mostly on night shifts.
…. the surge in hiring bolsters the argument of those who supported the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler in 2008…..
More here
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Don’t miss Liberal Librarian at The People’s View
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13
Sep
11
oh boy….
Washington Post: …. Rick Perry, whose bid for the White House depends heavily on support from religious conservatives, finds himself confronting an issue that is a flash point for that part of his base: his attempt to order schoolgirls to take a vaccine that would protect them against a sexually transmitted virus.
The uproar over the Gardasil vaccine – manufactured by Merck, a major Perry campaign donor – knocked the candidate off-stride during a Republican debate Monday night ….
Perry bristled at accusations from Michele Bachmann that he had pushed the vaccine in 2007 at the bidding of Merck, a Perry donor that also employed a former aide to the governor as a lobbyist.
“It was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them,” Perry said. “I raise about $30 million. And if you’re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended.”
But campaign disclosure records portray a much deeper financial connection with Merck than Perry’s remarks suggest.
His gubernatorial campaigns, for example, have received nearly $30,000 from the drugmaker since 2000, most of that before he issued his vaccine mandate, which was overturned by the Texas legislature.
Merck and its subsidiaries have also given more than $380,000 to the Republican Governors Association (RGA) since 2006, the year that Perry began to play a prominent role in the Washington-based group…
Perry served as chairman of the RGA in 2008 and again this year, until he decided to run for president. The group also ranks among the governor’s biggest donors, giving his campaign at least $4 million over the past five years….
…. One of Perry’s closest confidantes, his former chief of staff Mike Toomey, was then working as an Austin-based lobbyist for Merck, which was in the midst of a multimillion-dollar campaign to persuade states to make the vaccine mandatory.
Toomey, who has declined requests for comment, has since helped found Make Us Great Again, a pro-Perry super PAC that can accept unlimited donations from corporations and wealthy donors. The group plans to raise as much as $55 million to help Perry compete for the GOP nomination, according to media reports.
Full article here
19
Aug
11
the family values guy….
Justin Elliott (Salon): Here’s an interesting tidbit from Rick Perry’s past to keep an eye on. In the mid-1990s, the presidential candidate owned stock in a video rental store chain whose hardcore porn offerings drew the ire of conservative groups, according to a 2006 report on a liberal Texas blog. That item was resurrected by several liberal web sites this week.
Burnt Orange Report, a site founded by a Democratic activist, reported in 2006 that Perry’s 1995 financial disclosure showed he owned between $5,000 and $10,000 in stock in the company Movie Gallery. He was at the time state commissioner of agriculture.
Why is that significant? Because the now-defunct Movie Gallery, once a competitor to Blockbuster, was known for offering XXX porn rentals along with conventional Hollywood fare….
Ironically, it was the social conservative crusaders at the American Family Association – the very group that helped organize Perry’s stadium prayer rally this month – who spent years on an anti-porn campaign targeting Movie Gallery….
…. Perry’s stock holdings were put in a blind trust in 1996, so what he has owned since that year is not publicly known ….1995 was a long time ago, but never underestimate how intensely social conservatives in places like Iowa abhor porn… it’s not beyond the realm of imagination that it could become a real headache…..
Full post here
The Obama Diary 
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