The White House ordered the Office of Personnel Management—headed by a gay man—to ignore a judge's order to extend federal health insurance benefits to the partner of a lesbian court employee. Fierce! But, hey, the Obamas hired a gay man to decorate the White House for Christmas. So... [...]
If President Obama pronounced a blog post on health insurance reform to be a must-read, and then Rahm Emmanuel told senior White House staffers "not to come back" the next day if they hadn't read the post, would you make it your business to read the post' [...]
The group Gun Owners of America thinks so:
The special "wellness and prevention" programs (inserted by Section 1001 of the bill as part of a new Section 2717 in the Public Health Services Act) would allow the government to offer lower premiums to employers who bribe their employees to live [...]
After an event in the International District yesterday afternoon intended to highlight her efforts to take Washington's Basic Health plan national, Sen. Maria Cantwell sat down with a few local reporters to talk about the overall health insurance reform effort.
The house passed its reform bill on Nov. 7. [...]
On the eve of a big senate vote to open debate on health insurance reform, Washington Senator Patty Murray explains the stakes:
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This brings us to recent politics. There has been an explosion of debate surrounding Congress’s attempt to reform health care. Despite what some would say, free health care is not a right. I’m sorry, but you do not have the right to have your neighbor buy health insurance [...]
Steve Benen at Political Animal gets right to the heart of inanity and hypocrisy of Republicans over abortion and health insurance (my emphasis):
As we talked about this morning, all the RNC has done here is opt out of abortion coverage for RNC employees. [...]
But more important is the [...]
The Republican National Committee’s health insurance plan covers elective abortion—a procedure the party’s own platform calls “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.” Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.
Informed [...]
Now that the House has passed its landmark health insurance reform bill, the big question is how long it will take for the Senate to act.
At the moment, it sounds like that chamber will get to work next Tuesday—provided the Senate Democrats can hold themselves together on procedural [...]
E.S.
So said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, talking this afternoon in Seattle about the controversial abortion amendment that was added at the last minute to the House health insurance reform bill.
Which is not to say she likes that the amendment had to be added.
"I myself do not" [...]
This afternoon on the sidewalk outside Swedish Hospital on First Hill, just after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finished her health insurance reform press conference, a remarkable collection of teabaggers displayed themselves. We begin with the man who's missing an apostrophe and so much more....
...and proceed to this [...]
What's the deal with that last-minute abortion amendment that was added to the House health insurance reform bill? Ezra Klein explains:
Rep. Bart Stupak's amendment did not make abortion illegal. And it did not block the federal government from subsidizing abortion. All it did was block it from subsidizing [...]
Take a good look at this snippet of map, from a larger map put together by The New York Times.
It's a reminder that in the historic House vote on health insurance reform over the weekend, only one Democratic Congressman from Washington State voted no:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is joined by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, left, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., on Saturday in Washington.
"The House of Representatives on Saturday passed, by a 220-215 vote, historic health care overhaul legislation that would require nearly all Americans to obtain health insurance and create a" [...]
Office of Nancy PelosiHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be here early this afternoon for an event intended to remind us "how the groundbreaking health insurance reform legislation passed on Saturday by the US House of Representatives helps Seattle."
Which begs the question: Why Seattle?
The 7th Congressional District [...]
It's happening now, and when it's finished—probably later today—it's likely that the U.S. House of Representatives will have made history, passing* a huge health insurance reform bill that includes a public option.
Follow it here, here, and here.
*Without the help of Washington Democrat Brian Baird.
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Young Turks: Boehner’s big boner.
Pap: The showdown in Chicago.
The Week in Health Care and Scare:
Headzup: The Republican Health Care plan. Young Turks: Rep. Grayson reads number dead with no health insurance in GOP districts. Andy Cobb is The Spokes-jerk: Shuster: Rep. Tancredo storms off set after [...]
Office of Brian BairdBrian Baird, the Democratic congressman from Vancouver, Washington, says he's going to vote against his party's landmark health insurance reform bill this weekend (or, perhaps, early next week). Why?
Until more information is available on premium estimates and Medicare impacts, I will vote [...]
A reliable source sends over a copy of an e-mail that he says went out recently to employees of Premera, one of Washington State's largest insurance companies, telling those employees to call their representatives in Congress and urge them to vote no on the Democrats' health insurance reform bill:
Message from' [...]
Susie Pouliot, CEO of the Idaho Medical Association, tells an Idaho legislative committee on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009 that if everyone in Idaho had health insurance tomorrow, there wouldn't be enough doctors in the state to treat everyone. Story here. (Betsy Russell/SR)
NIC Sentinel wins 'Best of Show' in national' [...]
