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Entries in Health Care (130)

Wednesday
Sep232009

Baucus Shoots Down GOP Amendment

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

While Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee welcomed and praised the work from the Republican members during the continuation of the markup of America’s Healthy Future Act, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) worked fast to shoot down an amendment proposed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), calling it "Unconstitutional", due to the fact that it requires a congressional agency to issue an order that has consequences towards the executive branch.

According to Baucus, the Republican Senator did not have enough data to back up an amendment that would require Congressional Budget Office certification for cuts made to Medicare advantage.

Republican committee members continued to urge a slow markup process while Democratic members requested that the committee move faster, noting that thousands of Americans continue to lose their health coverage.

With approximately 500 amendments proposed, the markup is expected to last well beyond Wednesday.
Monday
Sep212009

Baucus Bill Could Delay Legal Immigrant Health Care Access

By Travis Martinez
University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Today, four immigration advocacy organizations urged the Senate Finance Committee Monday to provide legal and illegal immigrants with healthcare access. The National Immigration Law Center, the Center for Community Change, the National Council for La Raza and the National Immigration Forum are asking members of Congress to include provisions for legals in the recently unveiled America's Healthy Future Act. The Senate Finance Committee is slated to begin markup of the plan tomorrow.

Sonal Amegaokar is a health policy attorney of the National Immigration Law Center. She said that the glut of eligibility provisions currently in place could inadvertently block millions of eligible immigrants from receiving the benefits provided through the legislation. “At worst, the (healthcare reform legislation) will make it more difficult for eligible people from getting the coverage they deserve,” she said. “Health care reform today is progressing but is clearly not reflecting the reality of our society today... The more people you have covered and the more people you have paying into the system, it’s a better system for all of us."

"The exclusion of immigrants creates a serious racial justice concern for the center of community change,” said Kate Kahan of the Center for Community Change.

The bill was released last week by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. The bill would create tax credits for small-businesses to offer insurance for their employees; allow people to maintain their existing coverage; standardize Medicaid coverage to people living 133 percent below the poverty level and create tax incentives for health care providers to use electronic medical records. The plan would cost $856 million over the next ten years.

Baucus said that his plan would not add to the federal deficit and would be funded "through increased focus on quality, efficiency, prevention and adjustments in federal health program payments" according to his website.

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/leg/LEG 2009/091609 Americas_Healthy_Future_Act.pdf.
Monday
Sep212009

Boehner Addresses Value Voters, Attacks Stimulus

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) rallied against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Saturday morning at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., accusing the legislation's backers of delivering empty promises.

“My Democrat colleagues are bankrupting America... [The stimulus plan] was supposed to be about jobs, jobs and jobs, but what did it turn into? Nothing more than spending, spending, spending, and more spending”, said Boehner.

In regard to the recent Cap and Trade bill, Boehner disagreed with Democratic proposals that would demand higher taxes from the American people, charging that as a result there would be millions of jobs lost and a requirement for every American to invest $1700 in new green infrastructure for their home.

“It will tax every American... that’s anyone that has the audacity to turn on a light switch,” said Boehner.

In closing his remarks Boehner asked for the President allow General McChrystal, who commands U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to testify before the House and Senate. Boehner reiterated the importance of McChrystal’s testimony for success in Afghanistan, explaining that it would provide proper perspective for both Congress and the American people.
Monday
Sep212009

Romney: Obama Has Failed So Far

By Travis Martinez
University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Mitt Romney doesn’t think the last eight months of Barack Obama’s presidency have been successful. In an hour-long speech to hundreds of Republicans last Saturday, Romney said that Obama has failed with healthcare reform, economic redevelopment, stimulus funding and foreign relations.

What President Obama has done these past eight months [stimulus and bailout packages]... has not strengthened America,” said Romney at the 2009 Family Research Council Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. “To strengthen the economy and create jobs the President has to stop trying to borrow the country out of a debt problem... don’t repeat the stimulus, repair the stimulus.”

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential candidate, criticized Obama's approach to foreign policy. Last week, the Obama Administration made headlines when it was announced that the U.S. will scrap the 2007 European missile defense program. Romney called the decision “alarming, and dangerous... We should never cut corners in our military and intelligence agencies,” he said.

With healthcare, Romney said that reform would make a healthier and a stronger nation, but without a public option and less government control. He cited successful reform in Massachusetts that was implemented without a public option. “The right answer for health care is not more government, it’s less government,” said Romney. “As a Republican, I worked very hard to reform health care in my own state... It does teach an important lesson that you can get everyone insured without a public option.”

Romney did not talk about his future career in politics, but said: “The voters are going to make their intentions clear in the 2010 elections.”
Friday
Sep182009

Sec. of State Clinton Previews U.S. Agenda For U.N. General Assembly

By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed Friday the U.S agenda for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), touching on issues such as the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, the conflict in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation and the threat posed by Iran.

While she read her speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., she discussed the “ambitious” intentions of the Obama administration at next week’s UNGA in New York, and alluded to a long term goal of a world “with no nuclear weapons.” While fielding questions, she reflected on the state of American foreign policy today.

“For many years, [the U.S] outsourced our policy and concerns about the nuclear program to others to try to intervene with and persuade Iran to change course,” she said. “So we were on the sidelines...we were just trying to figure out how to get other people to go on the field and deal with this problem and look where we are today. We’re really nowhere.”

Clinton also discussed the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, which was retooled to focus on defending the United States and its allies in Europe from short and mid-range missile attacks. The strategy rejects the Bush administration's plan to station interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland that were intended to stop long-range missiles that the current administration believes Iran does not have. Since Poland and the Czech Republic will no longer have land-based interceptors, the new plan eases pressure on Russia, displeasing some Republican members of Congress upon Obama’s announcement of the strategy on Thursday.

“This decision was not about Russia,” she said. “It was about Iran and the threat its ballistic missile program poses. Because of this position, we believe we will be in a far stronger position to deal with that threat and to do so with technology that works and a higher degree of confidence that what we pledge to do we can actually deliver.”

She later discussed Iran and the repercussions the country must face for not revealing its intentions to the international community for nuclear technology.

“Our concern is not Iran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy, but its responsibility to demonstrate that it’s program is intended exclusively for peaceful purposes,” she said. “This is not hard to do. The Iranian government seeks a sense of justice in the world, but stands in the way of the justice it seeks.”

In response to a question from Brookings Institute President Strobe Talbott, Clinton also discussed the U.S. government’s strategy for restructuring the country’s health care policy.

“It’s interesting that what we are proposing is fundamentally so conservative compared with so many of our friends and allies around the world, who do a much better job then we do in covering everybody and keeping costs down,” Clinton said. “And yet some of the political opposition is so overheated. We have to calm down here, take two aspirin, go to bed, think about it in the morning. But I’m optimistic.”
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