ObamaCare: Providing Women The Healthcare They Deserve

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White House: What You Need To Know About The New Contraception Guidance

It is crucial that insurance companies provide all the benefits that women deserve under the Affordable Care Act, at no cost or inconvenience. So this week, the Obama administration took steps to eliminate any ambiguity around the reforms the ACA calls for. Here is what the Administration’s guidance makes clear: Most insurers must cover, without cost-sharing, at least one form of contraception in each of the 18 methods for women that the FDA has identified, including the ring, the patch, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and birth control pills. Additionally, the Administration is making a few other things clear to protect important preventive services:

Insurers must cover preventive screening, genetic counseling, and genetic testing for women who are more likely to have a certain type of gene that puts them at increased risk for breast cancer, if deemed appropriate by their providers. Issuers cannot limit preventive services based on an individual’s sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or recorded gender. This will help ensure that transgender people receive the care they need. If a plan covers dependent children, companies must provide recommended women’s preventive services for those dependent children.

More here

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RT to spread the word about the new guidance for insurers on birth control → http://t.co/D6H0NrKfiJ #NWHW pic.twitter.com/5L0tJj7IhT

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) May 12, 2015

Great news!! The CBO reports the #Obamacare subsidies will cost 20% less over the next decade or $209B less than reported last year!!!

— Michael 🌊🇺🇦🌊🇺🇦 #BidenHarris (@mterr337) May 12, 2015

Catching Up

See the full interview here

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Cagle

Cagle

Cagle

Cagle

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More soon 😉

evening all

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk in the Green Room of the White House before hosting a Smithsonian Museum of African American History reception in the East Room, Feb. 22, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Barack Obama listens during the groundbreaking ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, February 22

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Don’t miss Liberal Librarian’s latest post at The People’s View

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Business Week

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The Hill: The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package continues to have a significant effect.

The bill raised fourth-quarter 2011 gross domestic product by as much as 1.5 percent, it states, and lowered the unemployment rate by as much as 1.1 percentage points.

The package reduced the rolls of the jobless by up to 2 million people in the last three months of 2011.

More here

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LA Times: Sales of previously owned homes rose 4.3% in January and inventories fell to nearly seven-year lows as lower prices, unusually warm weather and an improving economy lifted demand.

….. January sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million …. Sales rose in all four major regions, including an 8.8% pop in the West.

Job creation, mild weather, rising rents and increased household formation contributed to the sales gains, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the Realtors group. “Things are genuinely improving,” Yun said.

More here

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Slate

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Link

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One photo, two cool cats.

Thank you Pam!

(You can buy the PBO poster here – thank you Donna Dem)

afternoon all

Steve Benen: …. It’s a safe bet the Bishops won’t be satisfied, but it’s a pretty straightforward fix: religiously-affiliated employers that don’t want to pay for contraception coverage as part of their benefits packages won’t have to, but these employees will still get the coverage because the White House will instruct insurers to pick up the costs.

…. several major stakeholders in this fight have already offered praise for the White House move. Planned Parenthood, for example, endorsed the compromise …. Similarly, EMILY’s List said it was “reassured” by the new policy, and NARAL Pro-Choice America’s statement struck a similar note.

What’s more, Sister Carol Keehan and the Catholic Health Association have also endorsed the administration’s position, which not only offers the White House some political cover, but also further isolates the Bishops…..

For the White House, having support from both the Catholic Health Association and Planned Parenthood was critical…..

Full post here

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Greg Sargent: …. the Obama team is betting that any further objections to this policy will unmask opponents primarily as hidebound foes of birth control at any costs, a politically difficult position to sustain, rather than as defenders of religious liberty. Indeed, this looks like an effort to reframe the debate to Obama’s advantage: If Team Obama has its way, the argument will now be about whether all women should have access to contraception, and not about whether these institutions are having their religious freedom impinged upon.

More here

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For those who freaked out about a major compromise with the Catholic church (eh, me):

When will I ever learn?

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Don’t miss Liberal Librarian’s first post at The People’s View – it’s predictably brilliant

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President Obama signs the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012 as former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly look on. The bill was the last piece of legislation on which Giffords voted before she resigned in January, a year after she sustained a gunshot wound to the head.

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TPM

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First lady Michelle Obama high-fives the Dallas Cowboys mascot Rowdy as she arrived at the Kleberg-Rylie Recreation center in Dallas

Michelle Obama judges food, along with assistant White House chef and food initiative coordinator Sam Kass and “Top Chef” judge Tom Colicchio, during a taping of the TV cooking show “Top Chef” in Dallas

ah, so fair and balanced!

14 guests:

Bethany McLean

3 Dems

9 GOP + 1 GOP media stooge

chilling out

President Obama and Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Bob Casey order water ices during an unannounced stop at John’s Water Ice in Philadelphia

President Obama poses for photos at John’s Water Ice

Earlier…

…. greeting wellwishers after arriving at Philadelphia International Airport

nutroots

I was just reading a report on today’s Netroots gathering and I’m now wiping coffee spray from my monitor. Seriously, it was that funny.

The panel for one of today’s discussions featured – ready for this? – three ‘Nutroots’: Dan Choi, John Aravosis and Jane Hamsher. The ‘Look At Me’ brigade!

So much hate, fakery and narcissism at one table!

Choi, bless him, is still recovering from the crushing disappointment of President Obama fulfilling his promise to end DADT, a development that robbed him of his media star status – no one really wants to hear his rants any more, his 15 minutes of fame are up.

When an Organizing for America volunteer stood up and asked him to support the President in 2012, Choi ripped up an OFA flyer he had been given and threw it in the man’s face.

Classy!

It renewed his hero status with the Nutroots people who pollute Netroots, though, so that was nice.

America Blog’s Aravosis? You know, the guy who’s equally devastated by the President’s record of achievement on gay rights – because his ‘Obama is a Homophobe!’ rants have just become embarrassing.

Firebaggerlake’s Hamsher? What can you say about this creature? It’s five years since she let her mask slip when she posted that photoshopped picture of Joe Lieberman as a ‘black’ man on Huffington Post, in a sneering attempt to describe his efforts to “woo African American voters”. The photo was promptly removed, and she offered a ‘sorry if you were offended’ apology. And still the professional left regard her as a progressive!

Also on the panel was immigration reform supporter Felipe Matos who attacked the President for not passing the DREAM Act. Err? Could someone let this guy know how American democracy works? Hint: the President wants the DREAM Act passed, the Senate rejected it.

“One way to ensure Democrats do not take progressive votes for granted is to stop voting for Democrats,” said Choi.

How about President Bachmann, Dan? (“We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders.”) Or any of the Republican candidates?

Good luck with that.

Hey, thanks for the laughs, Nutroots!

The headline on Arianna Huffy’s site tonight …. no wonder she admires Dan so much, they’re both self-promoting right-wing fakes, posing as ‘progressives’. See you in 2012 😉

‘i see the sadness and worry that’s creasing his face’

…with California Air National Guard Capt. Kelly Smith during a Joining Forces event in Beverly Hills, California, June 13

Sun Times: Pool report from First Lady Michelle Obama’s Pasadena funder: About 500 people gathered on the ample lawn behind the Pasadena home of Ann and Robert Hamilton for a lunch-time fundraiser …The First Lady spoke for about 25 minutes….

Lena Kennedy, the co-chair of the event, introduced her as “the not-so-secret weapon of the President of the United States.”

…She began by recounting her husband’s journey to the White House, beginning with the moment he told her he wanted to run for President.

”I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea,” she said. “I still had some cynicism about politics, that was my hesitation.”

 But she said she was transformed on the campaign trail after hearing the stories of everyday Americas….

Obama then listed some of the things her husband has done in office during his first two years. “We’ve gone from an economy that was on the brink of collapse to an economy that is starting to grow again,” she said.

 She also mentioned healthcare reform, the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Act and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…..

….The First Lady talked about the toll that his work had taken on her husband. “I see the sadness and worry that’s creasing his face,” she said.

She described his work ethic as tireless. “He reads every word, every memo, so he is better prepared than the people briefing him,” she said. “This man doesn’t take a day off.”

Obama said the next few years of campaigning would be difficult at times for the Obamas and their supporters. “It is not going to be easy, and it is going to be long,” she said. “Now more than ever we need you help to finish what we started.”

when irish eyes are smiling…..

President Barack Obama is hugged by a woman in the crowd after delivering a speech to thousands of people at a public rally at College Green in Dublin, Ireland, on May 23

‘poker face’

Salon: At the annual White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday, SNL’s Seth Meyers made a quip about Osama bin Laden’s elusiveness….President Obama, who had actually authorized action against the terrorist leader on Friday morning, was sitting ten feet away. Check out his reaction: