Mandela Day

Ahead of Mandela Day, I spoke with the talented young people who just completed our @ObamaFoundation Leaders Africa program. They’ve been working on some of the most pressing issues across the continent, and are working together to find solutions. I couldn’t be prouder of them. pic.twitter.com/D72wZs8V1M

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 18, 2022

Becoming Me

My work with the @GirlScouts has always been so rewarding for me—and I absolutely loved speaking with some of the incredible girls in the Becoming Me program about the young readers’ edition of Becoming. Take a look! #IAmBecoming 💚 pic.twitter.com/tl2qqj7o7I

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) May 11, 2021

Former first lady @MichelleObama is teaming up with the @girlscouts to create a “Becoming Me” program, based on her bestselling book, “Becoming”! https://t.co/i9rZzYvW4s pic.twitter.com/BQgUSd244B

— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 5, 2021

Activist Family

It was great to hear from this impressive group of young leaders. If there's one thing we can bank on, it’s that young folks like these are our best hope for a more sustainable and just world. https://t.co/r3hzsgwgg3

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 25, 2021

“You’re now part of my activist family.”

At the conclusion of our six-month inaugural Leaders: Europe program, 35 #ObamaLeaders joined President @BarackObama to talk about activism, inspiration, and building a sustainable future. pic.twitter.com/oLWDY0t0J6

— The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) February 25, 2021

Between Cultures

I felt inspired and hopeful after speaking with students in @TheTellingRoom’s Young Writers & Leaders program. I wrote #APromisedLand in part because I hoped to reach young people like those in this group—the unique voices of a new generation, energized and unafraid to dream big. https://t.co/LP1Ri8Epva

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 18, 2021

'No matter what somebody’s accomplished—the greatest novelist, the greatest surgeons, the greatest political activists—they didn’t start that way' — @BarackObama met with writing students to talk about their ambitions and share his own experience of growing up between cultures pic.twitter.com/6u6i5mPP5m

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 18, 2021

A New Generation Thanks You President Obama

1.5 million books read under Obama administration's Open Ebooks program, bringing digital books to Title I schools. https://t.co/4LkDZozkNO

—
Jennifer 8. Lee (@jenny8lee) April 20, 2017

Behind The Scenes: The White House Internship Program

Early Bird Chat: First Lady Michelle Obama Honors Student Poets

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First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities poetry reading to honor student poets at the White House

Rapper and Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Hip Hop Culture, Q-Tip recite a poem

The President And First Lady’s Day

President Barack Obama with Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, Air Force Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, and Anthony Sadler, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, to honor them for heroically subduing a gunman on a Paris-bound passenger train last month

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First Lady Michelle Obama greets students at Howard Community College in Columbia, Md as part of her ‘Reach Higher’ initiative

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Let's make two years of community college as free and universal as high school is today → HeadsUpAmerica.us/Act amp.twimg.com/v/f6e7d09f-1ef…

—
The First Lady (@FLOTUS) September 17, 2015

Don't be afraid of hard work & don't be afraid to fail. It's not about failure, it's about resilience -@FLOTUS trib.al/K3I8f4U

—
Essence Magazine (@essencemag) September 17, 2015

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.@FLOTUS Michelle Obama's advice? "Continue building great character." #ReachHigher @ReachHigher #howardcc http://t.co/ICDyD9iIyo

—
Howard Comm. College (@HowardCC) September 17, 2015

"This is the best investment you can make in your future" @FLOTUS on the value of education #ReachHigher http://t.co/ZCxTjv3Zbs

—
Reach Higher (@ReachHigher) September 17, 2015

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First Lady Michelle Obama speaks to students during her visit to a career and technical training program at Howard Community College

The President’s Tuesday In Ethiopia

President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is the first U.S. president to address the 54-nation body

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President Barack Obama shakes hands during a bilateral meeting with African Union Commission chairperson, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, at the African Union

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President Barack Obama shows off a ear of corn grown by a farmer participating in the Feed the Future program as he tours the Faffa Food factory in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

President Barack Obama laughs after commenting on the press corps, who were wearing hair nets on a tour of the Faffa Food factory. “You didn’t get the memo about the baseball caps?” President Obama joked

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President Barack Obama walks to Air Force One with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, as he departs Bole International Airport on the final day of his visit in Ethiopia. Closing a historic visit to Africa, President Barack Obama urged the continent’s leaders to prioritize creating jobs and opportunity for the next generation of young people or risk sacrificing future economic potential to further instability and disorder

McAllen, Texas Saved $20M On Healthcare?! Thanks ObamaCare

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NYT: A Health Care Success Story

IT may have been the most influential magazine article of the past decade. In June of 2009, the doctor and writer Atul Gawande published a piece in The New Yorker called “The Cost Conundrum,” which examined why the small border city of McAllen, Tex., was the most expensive place for health care in the United States. The article became mandatory reading in the White House. President Obama convened an Oval Office meeting to discuss its key finding that the high cost of health care in the country was directly tied to a system that rewarded the overuse of care. Five years later, the situation has changed. Where McAllen once illustrated the problem of American health care, the city is now showing us how the problem can be solved, largely because of the Affordable Care Act that Mr. Obama signed into law in 2010.

The problem was that doctors in McAllen were responding to reimbursement incentives in the American health care system that rewarded activity rather than value. The more procedures and visits a doctor billed, the more he got paid. The Affordable Care Act was designed to change that. One of its provisions created the Medicare Shared Savings Program, which rewards doctors for keeping their patients healthy. Participation in the program requires primary care doctors to create networks, called accountable care organizations, or A.C.O.s, to better coordinate patient care. These networks are reimbursed for delivering high-quality care below a baseline of historical Medicare costs. In 2012, doctors in McAllen formed the Rio Grande Valley Accountable Care Organization Health Providers, and signed up for this experiment. The early results are in, and they are stunning: From April 2012 to the end of 2013, the Rio Grande Valley A.C.O. saved more than $20 million from its Medicare baseline. These changes didn’t just save money; they also improved patients’ health. From 2012 to 2013, the number of patients achieving control of their diabetes rose 11.8 percentage points. The number receiving vaccinations rose 12.2 percentage points.

More here

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