Maternal mortality rates in the US are four or five times the rates in other developed countries -- https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/opinion/sunday/americas-shocking-mate... Trumpcare will only make things worse. Evidently tax cuts for the very wealthy are more important than women's lives and health care
Hopefully, this will be a learning opportunity for women who voted for Trump. All those out of pocket costs, you won't be able to use the dough for tee shirts and red baseball caps from China. What it all comes down to is the Republicans don't care if you die in childbirth, from breast or ovarian cancer, etc. It saves the treatment costs which they can then spend on a new boat and some healthy babe.
47
None of this is surprising given all of the pictures of white male legislators celebrating the bill's passage in the House. Comments like "I wouldn't want to lose my mammograms" are so incredibly ignorant---the logical extension is that any minimum coverage requirements should involve only conditions that could potentially affect both sexes, or all age groups, or all races and ethnicities. Since this would disproportionately advantage white men, the supporters of the House Bill might as well have named it the "American Health Care Act for White Men".
35
If we are going to subscribe to the thinking that men shouldn't have to pay for prenatal care or mammograms then why should I have to pay for anything related to their prostates????
45
"Republican moderates" is an oxymoron. Just look at who voted for this uncaring piece of legislation. All of the GOP House???
29
"Representative John Shimkus questioned, during a debate in March, why men have to pay for prenatal care".
WOW! Just WOW!
" Senator Pat Roberts replied, “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms"
Again WOW! Just WOW!
Wouldn't it be ironic that if he gets cancer, it's breast cancer?
Who elected these clowns? They don't have a clue about how insurance works or the serious health care needs of women. A pox on the republican party! And yes, I'm angry. and I'm not alone.
Women have to pull it together and not vote for a single republican. The only way men like these learn is through the pain of abject failure.
WOW! Just WOW!
" Senator Pat Roberts replied, “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms"
Again WOW! Just WOW!
Wouldn't it be ironic that if he gets cancer, it's breast cancer?
Who elected these clowns? They don't have a clue about how insurance works or the serious health care needs of women. A pox on the republican party! And yes, I'm angry. and I'm not alone.
Women have to pull it together and not vote for a single republican. The only way men like these learn is through the pain of abject failure.
47
What is it that Republicans have against women? Really.
Don't Republican men have wives and daughters? Aren't Republican women concerned about their own health?
In a sane world, this law should get them voted out of office. I can only hope at the very least that the courts would find it discriminatory.
Don't Republican men have wives and daughters? Aren't Republican women concerned about their own health?
In a sane world, this law should get them voted out of office. I can only hope at the very least that the courts would find it discriminatory.
36
According to Trump and the Republicans women are second class citizens-- not entitled to the same rights or protections as men.
Yet many white women still support this regime even though they, their daughters, sisters and mothers are completely demeaned and disrespected. Baffling!
Yet many white women still support this regime even though they, their daughters, sisters and mothers are completely demeaned and disrespected. Baffling!
33
A cursory look around the world shows many successful healthcare systems that all are to the left of Obamacare (although only a handful are 'socialized').
Not one is more privatized, less gov't controlled and none make do the absurd thinks suggested here like only building the cost of say, maternity care into child bearing age women.
These attempts to move right are damaging as we can we see by this article and the reality is proven improvements are only found to the left.
Not one is more privatized, less gov't controlled and none make do the absurd thinks suggested here like only building the cost of say, maternity care into child bearing age women.
These attempts to move right are damaging as we can we see by this article and the reality is proven improvements are only found to the left.
7
Prostate cancer is one of the most treatable forms of cancer...should women point out
we don't want to pay for testing or treatment because we'll never get it?
we don't want to pay for testing or treatment because we'll never get it?
31
Editorial Board, "The Health Care Bill’s Insults to Women." is spot on; however, the greater insult is that a depraved political party and it's fifth-rate poster boy, who was manipulated into the presidency, is dictating how ALL America should live, not just their brain-dead supporters.
Trump is an insult to every thinking human being; his psychopathy prevents him from empathy toward anyone and his party's elevation of him is an abomination to any human being.
Sorry, women, move over and make room for the rest of us.
Trump is an insult to every thinking human being; his psychopathy prevents him from empathy toward anyone and his party's elevation of him is an abomination to any human being.
Sorry, women, move over and make room for the rest of us.
18
The GOP's deep disregard for women is entirely consistent with their religious values.
28
Yes, the lot of women universally could have been considered many levels above the comic had Hillary Clinton been justifiably elected. Even her "grievous" faults would have been allowed had she been able to help the 65 percent of females who live under conditions that are considered unworthy of the males who give the orders.
I look at all the white males in the U.S. Government with their healthy heads of hair which taxpayers pay for, and their fine dental fixtures which taxpayers pay for, etc. And Viagra? Absolutely essential! A gift for the second sex.
I look at all the white males in the U.S. Government with their healthy heads of hair which taxpayers pay for, and their fine dental fixtures which taxpayers pay for, etc. And Viagra? Absolutely essential! A gift for the second sex.
12
Kansas, please don't send Sen. Roberts back to Washington when his term ends.
Illinois citizens in John Shimkus' district, vote him out as soon as you can.
Neither of these men represent their female constituents. Send them home.
Illinois citizens in John Shimkus' district, vote him out as soon as you can.
Neither of these men represent their female constituents. Send them home.
26
I wonder what would happen to these mens' thinking if they were forced to have tattoos placed on their forearms stating "Do Not Treat, No Coverage" or "Do Not Treat, Too Old?" Perhaps the stark reality of not having coverage might then hit home to them. I guarantee you that they run to a MD the moment any little ache or pain arrives in their life. (Fully covered by their generous Federal health insurance.)
It borders on the criminal how womens' health care needs are treated by Republicans. Where do they think babies come from? Storks? Shame on them.
It borders on the criminal how womens' health care needs are treated by Republicans. Where do they think babies come from? Storks? Shame on them.
23
Thank you for this. Since everyone turns out female, unless the fetus receives male hormones st the right times in pregnancy, since there are statistically more live females than males (absent sex selection), and given that no male has ever been born without a woman carrying him for 9 months or so - why then the bias against women by a runaway, heartless GOP, bent on female domination and control?
Women should be in charge of healthcare. Not men. They would certainly do a better job, by and large, in charge of government.
Look at other countries. How many more women at the highest levels of government? Even in some thirds world countries - like ours.
Fundamentalist Christians believe in womens' subordination, that's why we're in such a pickle in this country!
Women should be in charge of healthcare. Not men. They would certainly do a better job, by and large, in charge of government.
Look at other countries. How many more women at the highest levels of government? Even in some thirds world countries - like ours.
Fundamentalist Christians believe in womens' subordination, that's why we're in such a pickle in this country!
30
To all who ask whether these reprehensible politicians have mothers, wives and daughters: of course they do. But that doesn't mean they have any respect for the women in their lives. They clearly do not, and use their power in countless ways to show their female family members just how far beneath them they are. Each adult woman with a man like this in her family has a range of choices about how to respond. They will either show these men that they're right: American women are weaker and deserve to be discounted and dominated, OR they'll behave like the admirable and strong women they could be, and put these men in their place. Permanently.
11
Why does this make me feel as if pregnancy is a disease? Maybe the cure is to destroy the vectors that transmit it, like spraying to kill mosquitoes.
18
If we are looking for places to save a few bucks in the proposed new healthcare plan, maybe we should consider removing prostate exams and treatments from the list. In fact, let's remove all treatment for the male reproductive organs, except sterilization.
22
And the Electoral College insulting Democracy.
2
I've had many employer based health care plans over the years and not one of them offered one plan for men and another for women. A good plan covers health care for everyone in it. Men, women and children.
17
Republican men laugh that they don't need maternity care. Weren't they born? Weren't all men born and might not have been born healthy if their mothers didn't have maternity care? Republicans want to ban abortions, but they don't want to take care of the fetuses who aren't yet born.
30
Quit spreading the lie that any republicans are "moderate". They are not. They are extremists. Watch closely if the Senate changes anything in the house abomination. There will be no bill sent to prez Chaos.
18
What irks me the most about the present GOP is they promote as patriotic and American, the parts of the constitution they most strongly believe in like the 2nd amendment, and conveniently forget the parts they don't agree with.
The Preamble clearly states "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Isn't universal healthcare the key to promoting the general Welfare of our citizenry? Just saying...
The Preamble clearly states "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Isn't universal healthcare the key to promoting the general Welfare of our citizenry? Just saying...
22
All those men were born of women, nursed by women, raised by women, educated by women, and will most likely be fed, diapered, bathed, and cared for by women at the end of their long miserable lives. And yet they really think women's health and wellbeing isn't directly relevant to them?
Sorry, boys, like it or not, we're all in this together. You boys need to pull your weight. Our mammograms are your bread and butter, literally and figuratively.
Sorry, boys, like it or not, we're all in this together. You boys need to pull your weight. Our mammograms are your bread and butter, literally and figuratively.
28
I'm hoping the white educated women who voted for Trump will read this article.
18
Journalists: why not comment on the health plan all members of Congress have, for life I believe. The contrast between the coverage of those cutting coverage for everyone else, and the future coverage of most citizens is startling. I have yet to hear this simple yet damning information in the media. Help!
11
One provision you left out and doesn't seem to get much attention - if the ACA were to be completely repealed the provisions making annual and lifetime limits illegal would disappear. Under the GOP proposal insurers could reimpose annual and lifetime limits.
8
The United States of America of old is slowly and inexorably disappearing before our very eyes. Self interest, gluttony, ignorance and greed are all becoming the lifestyle of choice for more and more people, in particular, the Republican Party amongst us. Whites, monied interests and the so-called empowered want total control, and it appears that they are getting their way. Perhaps it's finally time for another revolution. Is the Republic worth fighting for and preserving, or is it time to call a once magnificent achievement in democracy finished? We now stand at the fork in the road. It's time to decide.
4
Depraved indifference to human life. They should all be arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
10
The essential services mandate should be scrapped. Consumers should have the option to purchase plans with lesser coverage if they so choose, especially given the legal requirement that they must have insurance.
If I think I am unlikely to use certain classes of services, I can take the risk not to cover them in my homeowner's insurance or my auto insurance, and thereby lower my costs. I see no reason why I should not have the same option in my health insurance. The risk is mine to consider, and so are the benefits.
If I think I am unlikely to use certain classes of services, I can take the risk not to cover them in my homeowner's insurance or my auto insurance, and thereby lower my costs. I see no reason why I should not have the same option in my health insurance. The risk is mine to consider, and so are the benefits.
4
Because when you get the condition or disease you will want treatment. And then, unless you are independently wealthy the taxpayers pay, or you pay...and like many suffer bankruptcy.
17
Clearly large segments of the American population harbors contempt for women. As a result it is easy for GOP leaders to treat serious issues affecting women dismissively. I guess I have to wonder where assumptions that women's healthcare exists in a bubble comes from? Most of the women who would be adversely affected by GOP healthcare reform are coupled with or interact with men and children. It is simply impossible to have a strong healthy country when it's women are sick and infirm
13
I'm guessing the GOP tuned out the Women's March.
7
Besides exposing the thinly veiled, pervasive racism that exists in the US, years of Republican erosion culminating in Trumps presidency has torn away any pretense that we are not a deeply misogynistic culture. Men and women alike have deeply internalized our degradation and devaluation of women and women's needs. If a woman is neither utilitarian or ornamental to men (like the Fox news female anchors) they are despised and disposable. The main reason Hillary Clinton lost is that men don't want someone who looks like their mothers or teachers bossing them around. Women are supposed to look pretty, act compliant, and shut up. Haven't we heard these very words from the mouths of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and all of the smirking millionaires posing as our representatives quoted in this article?
In my life I have known gracious, considerate, loving men -- my husband and two grown sons -- so it's not about hating men or painting them with one brush. But we need to face this virulent strain of hatred towards women that is now expressed openly and daily in the halls of power. Women, and men, need to decide that this is not o.k., even if it is the accepted norm.
In my life I have known gracious, considerate, loving men -- my husband and two grown sons -- so it's not about hating men or painting them with one brush. But we need to face this virulent strain of hatred towards women that is now expressed openly and daily in the halls of power. Women, and men, need to decide that this is not o.k., even if it is the accepted norm.
25
I guess you don't realize that 53% of of abortions are female fetuses. Isn't that truly a war on women?
2
No denying women the right to have a choice is a war on women
17
You DO realise that fetuses are not actually babies yet, right? I don't know if you're coming from a religious perspective or not, but if you are, then you should know that G-d is the largest abortionist around. You, not him, are the one adding some kind of magical mystical belief around fetal development. Can you please stop?
23
According to the CDC, 91.6% of abortions are performed at or before 13 weeks. The sex of a fetus can't be determined via ultrasound that early in pregnancy. The idea that sex-selective abortions are rampant in this country is just another lie pro-life organizations want us to swallow.
25
A family member who was an OB/Gyn MD was astounded by the number of self-proclaimed "pro-lifers" (including the pastor of the local Baptist church) who would bring in their pregnant daughters to be given an abortion. "This is different" they'd proclaim. I wish an unwanted pregnancy of a close family member on every one of those men who have voted against women's health interests.
18
I wonder why the male GOP politicians of today still pathetically struggle with the fact that the 19th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Obergefell v. Hodges and Roe v. Wade cases, the 14th Amendment, the Emoluments Clause, the Equal Procection Clause and in fact the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the actual "law of the land". I don't remember seeing "America First" in my constitutional law class, and I certainly do not remember seeing "GOP First". Sad.
18
The million pound gorilla in the room: Americans are increasingly sick. Health care costs are soaring, and the government isn't honest enough to be straightforward with the public. Someone has to foot the bill to keep an increasingly ill country alive, otherwise they lose their tax base.
2 solutions: let certain people (women, minorities, etc.) die, or stop letting corporations destroy the health of Americans. I vote for the later. McDonald's should be paying their fair share towards our health. Or, better yet, internalize the costs of healthcare into their products. WIth higher prices, fewer people would buy their gross food and get sick. There are thousands of corporations, allowed by the government itself, that are making us sick for their bottom line. If it's time for anyone to pay up, it's these corporations and their CEOs!
Of course, this will never happen. Anticipate the marginalized (anyone who isn't a rich white male) to continue to get worse coverage at a higher cost. Anything else is a lie.
2 solutions: let certain people (women, minorities, etc.) die, or stop letting corporations destroy the health of Americans. I vote for the later. McDonald's should be paying their fair share towards our health. Or, better yet, internalize the costs of healthcare into their products. WIth higher prices, fewer people would buy their gross food and get sick. There are thousands of corporations, allowed by the government itself, that are making us sick for their bottom line. If it's time for anyone to pay up, it's these corporations and their CEOs!
Of course, this will never happen. Anticipate the marginalized (anyone who isn't a rich white male) to continue to get worse coverage at a higher cost. Anything else is a lie.
8
An insult to women?
American healthcare is an insult to every American incapable of paying cash for services rendered.
Its the number one cause of personal bankruptcy.
There is no moral argument that can support for-profit healthcare, and any attempt to make that argument is disingenuous to the basic needs of humanity.
Can we please have a serious conversation about single-payer? Because thats what will be coming as the consequence of any re-engineered fiasco from this administration.
American healthcare is an insult to every American incapable of paying cash for services rendered.
Its the number one cause of personal bankruptcy.
There is no moral argument that can support for-profit healthcare, and any attempt to make that argument is disingenuous to the basic needs of humanity.
Can we please have a serious conversation about single-payer? Because thats what will be coming as the consequence of any re-engineered fiasco from this administration.
16
Aren't the cuts $880 BILLION not million as written in this article?
4
@Joe
Use billion for fraud and million for cut and you'll be fine. To remember, think b for bilk or even better bill baby bill.
Maybe you are already, because there's no mention of Medicare fraud in this opinion, just a lot of wailing about the cuts.
Use billion for fraud and million for cut and you'll be fine. To remember, think b for bilk or even better bill baby bill.
Maybe you are already, because there's no mention of Medicare fraud in this opinion, just a lot of wailing about the cuts.
1
Why do men have to pay for why do men have to pay for prenatal care? Because every pregnancy borne by a woman had a man involved -- in some way. There's only a tiny, tiny number of lesbians and single women using sperm donation to achieve pregnancy every year.
8
... furthermore, every man was once born.
9
Women are officially becoming 2nd class citizens in the US. Here's news to Republican men... we aren't going back to the 1950s. Those days are gone. We expect our health care needs to have equal billing with those of men.
Reproductive care
Mental health coverage
Comprehensive health care to cover all our health care issues
Reproductive care
Mental health coverage
Comprehensive health care to cover all our health care issues
12
Health care cannot be fixed. New doctors and nurses cannot be trained fast enough to keep up with the patient demands of an aging population. The administration, financing and management of health care services is a secondary issue in the face of these profound demographic changes.
Projections for percentage of U.S. Population aged 75 and over:
2017 6.6
2020 6.9
2030 9.5
2040 11.7
In raw numbers:
2017 21.6 Million
2020 23.2 Million
2030 34.2 Million
2040 44.3 Million
Any increase in the size of the medical labor force will be more than offset by the tidal wave of older people.
Hospitals are dangerous places. See a doctor only when it is absolutely necessary.
Projections for percentage of U.S. Population aged 75 and over:
2017 6.6
2020 6.9
2030 9.5
2040 11.7
In raw numbers:
2017 21.6 Million
2020 23.2 Million
2030 34.2 Million
2040 44.3 Million
Any increase in the size of the medical labor force will be more than offset by the tidal wave of older people.
Hospitals are dangerous places. See a doctor only when it is absolutely necessary.
2
ED drugs are not the best analogy, because they are not always covered. A better analogy would be injuries caused by recreational activities, like sports, skiing, lacrosse playing, running, etc. These activities are completely voluntary and they cost a ton in insurance costs. Why should they be covered, when pregnancy is not?
I say we let insurance require a rider to cover any injuries caused by voluntary recreational activity, and be allowed to ask about recreational activities when they insure people.
I say we let insurance require a rider to cover any injuries caused by voluntary recreational activity, and be allowed to ask about recreational activities when they insure people.
5
Yes these activities are usually the play time of upper class whites, of course they are going to be covered
6
People who say "Why should I pay for STD coverage for irresponsible women"... my husband of 20 years gave me an STD when he cheated. Was I being irresponsible in having sex with my husband? Unless you live in a cave, never have relations with anybody and are lucky enough never to get raped, you too could get STDs. And the more STDs there are in the population, the more likely innocent people will catch them.
17
If I put R hat;
I don't want to pay for all mid-west opioid coverage as well.
I don't smoke, drink rarely and exercise well.
But I like to really make America great again and so; I like all my fellow Americans a reasonable shot at life and so I am ready to pay taxes for the benefit of a strong USA.
I don't want to pay for all mid-west opioid coverage as well.
I don't smoke, drink rarely and exercise well.
But I like to really make America great again and so; I like all my fellow Americans a reasonable shot at life and so I am ready to pay taxes for the benefit of a strong USA.
10
Republicans would repeal Women's right to vote if they could get away with it.
They are a delusional group.
Keep in mind, if only men could vote Trump would have won in a landslide.
As a man, and a white man at that, who was born to manor of White Privilege some seven decades ago I walk in shame. Though I have achieved much more success in life then I deserved and rightfully earned, and now live in happy retirement, I know that but for the grace of God and my birthright I could have not accomplished the same were I a woman, unless I was willing to work twice as hard as I did.
My heart truly goes out to all women and all minorities who continue to suffer under the draconian laws and backward thinking of my gender. I am truly sorry and humbly apologetic.
DD
Manhattan
They are a delusional group.
Keep in mind, if only men could vote Trump would have won in a landslide.
As a man, and a white man at that, who was born to manor of White Privilege some seven decades ago I walk in shame. Though I have achieved much more success in life then I deserved and rightfully earned, and now live in happy retirement, I know that but for the grace of God and my birthright I could have not accomplished the same were I a woman, unless I was willing to work twice as hard as I did.
My heart truly goes out to all women and all minorities who continue to suffer under the draconian laws and backward thinking of my gender. I am truly sorry and humbly apologetic.
DD
Manhattan
26
Healthcare shopping list: I'll take prostate cancer screening but no surgery, two knee replacements, minor heart surgery, I'll catch it prior to be stretched out on my front lawn, I promise. Let's see, aches and pains, that's part of getting old, I'll deal with that on my own. How much has my premium dropped? This is meant to be tongue in cheek but there is no real humor here. A friend in the insurance biz described policies like a Genga tower. Start removing the unwanted/unneeded pieces and the whole tower crashes. Extracting unwanted pieces from your tower and expect it to remain standing is illogical. To say how much of your monthly premium goes to those items you feel don't want or want for whatever is virtually impossible to say. There is no price list held by the Insurance Company from which you can eliminate those unwanted/needed items. To customize each member's policy, 100's of millions, would drive up cost negating and potential savings.
5
Everything old is new again. It was true for most of my life that being female meant you paid double the cost for health insurance, they paid a fixed dollar amount for pregnancy/childbirth, and most female body parts ("women's things") were either not covered at all or at what became the "out of network" rate.
6
I shouldn't have to pay for Roberts' prostate cancer or his Viagra or his dementia (a preexisting condition). And why should taxpayers pay for coal miners' black lung disease instead of the mining companies that gave it to them?
And the notion that babies are a woman's health issue and not a father's or, for that matter, society's is sick.
And that the government should be able to force a woman to have a baby, or inhibit her access to contraception makes a woman not just a second class citizen, but a mere vessel for the state.
The Republicans are beyond cruel. They are abusers.
And the notion that babies are a woman's health issue and not a father's or, for that matter, society's is sick.
And that the government should be able to force a woman to have a baby, or inhibit her access to contraception makes a woman not just a second class citizen, but a mere vessel for the state.
The Republicans are beyond cruel. They are abusers.
30
Senator Capito will join the committee to serve as the tea and cookies lady.
Well, not really but anyone want to bet that her input into the policy making will be ignored?
Well, not really but anyone want to bet that her input into the policy making will be ignored?
7
Every man in this country is a consumer of maternity services, whether or not they are a father. They consume services for women (both prenatal and maternity) when they themselves are born.
20
The AHCA supporters' assault on collective management of health care is an attack on our very social fabric. AHCA supporters use a "divide and conquer" mentality that has no place in a civil society. The future of our country is in peril as long as we continue to treat public policy as a game of "let the best MAN win." This is not what democracy looks like. AHCA supporters will be very sorry when our democracy fragments and implodes as a direct consequence of their myopic ignorance. I am truly sorry that they will also have such a negative impact on my children, who have more respect for our democratic principles than the leaders we have elected.
8
The sight of all those old white guys on the capitol steps giving each other "Attaboys" after passing that insane House bill (along with the No.1 old white guy proclaiming it as "carefully crafted" legislation) was forever etched in my mind as emblematic of today's Republican Party.
Women everywhere ought to fighting to get those kinds of people out of positions of power. They are clueless about everything except how to retain their own and their patrons' wealth.
Women everywhere ought to fighting to get those kinds of people out of positions of power. They are clueless about everything except how to retain their own and their patrons' wealth.
16
Dear Eds,
Under "Slashes Medicaid," did you mean to say "By cutting $880 Billion from Medicaid" instead of "$880 Million"? E.g., see "The American Health Care Act would slash federal Medicaid spending by about $840 billion over 10 years, according to CBO projections" at http://time.com/money/4766063/ahca-new-republican-health-care-bill/
Either way, the American Healt Carnage Act" is hazardous to citizens' health.
I hope they remembered to include free manual prostate exams for the legislators who voted for it, in the effort to possibly locate their brains.
Under "Slashes Medicaid," did you mean to say "By cutting $880 Billion from Medicaid" instead of "$880 Million"? E.g., see "The American Health Care Act would slash federal Medicaid spending by about $840 billion over 10 years, according to CBO projections" at http://time.com/money/4766063/ahca-new-republican-health-care-bill/
Either way, the American Healt Carnage Act" is hazardous to citizens' health.
I hope they remembered to include free manual prostate exams for the legislators who voted for it, in the effort to possibly locate their brains.
8
Stupid voters get stupid, hateful politicians. How can any woman - or any minority person -vote for any male who would make comments like that in public? Imagine what level they sink to out of our hearing. Unfortunately, we all have to suffer under their rules until we can get rid of them.
24
The medicaid cuts are 880 Billion dollars over ten years, not 880 million $.
Thank you for exposing the sham that Republicans are "pro-life".
They are pro-life unless you are poor, a person of color or a woman.
Thank you for exposing the sham that Republicans are "pro-life".
They are pro-life unless you are poor, a person of color or a woman.
17
What else should one expect of the last holdout nation on the planet still measuring things by the size of a dead king's boots?
The US will never get down to the right thing with so many wrong things to try proliferating.
The US will never get down to the right thing with so many wrong things to try proliferating.
10
Steve...a superb etymology lesson on the history of 'foot' and 'inch' !
http://sparkfiles.net/foot-whats-special-12-inches/
http://sparkfiles.net/foot-whats-special-12-inches/
4
Men's tax dollars pay for prenatal care for the same reason women's tax dollars pay for the treatment of prostate cancer.
In fact, it's even more appropriate for men to pay for prenatal care than it is for women to pay for the treatment of prostate cancer. No woman would need to have prenatal care in a world without men, whereas men would have to deal with prostate cancer even in a world without women.
Let's just say that John Shimkus, Sean Spicer, and Pat Roberts are mean, cruel, shallow, unthinking, and unworthy of the public trust.
In fact, it's even more appropriate for men to pay for prenatal care than it is for women to pay for the treatment of prostate cancer. No woman would need to have prenatal care in a world without men, whereas men would have to deal with prostate cancer even in a world without women.
Let's just say that John Shimkus, Sean Spicer, and Pat Roberts are mean, cruel, shallow, unthinking, and unworthy of the public trust.
96
Republicans remind me of the primitive patriarchal societies in many un-named countries where women are considered less than second class humans - subject to the religiously entitled whims of men. You know, where stoning, acid in the face and outright murder is considered defending one's honor and genital mutilation of little girls is a religious right. We are not there, yet, but Republicans are creating a Teflon coated slippery slope to that.
I guess male fetuses and babies do not benefit from prenatal and maternity care - using primitive Republican logic. Can we all pray for Pat Robertson to get breast cancer, as males occasionally do get? I am as serious as Shimkus, Spicer and Robertson are. After all, their comments were not jokes or sophomoric. They intend to inflict their ways on real women to devastating effect and give themselves some extra cash in return.
I guess male fetuses and babies do not benefit from prenatal and maternity care - using primitive Republican logic. Can we all pray for Pat Robertson to get breast cancer, as males occasionally do get? I am as serious as Shimkus, Spicer and Robertson are. After all, their comments were not jokes or sophomoric. They intend to inflict their ways on real women to devastating effect and give themselves some extra cash in return.
14
If coverage for mammograms, child birth, cervical cancer checks, to name a few are dropped by the new law, similar provisions for male healthcare should also be dropped. Those that come immediately to mind are erectile dysfunction and Viagra prescriptions, treatment including surgery for prostate cancer, and mammograms and related treatment for those men who do have breast cancer.
These are just a few examples of problems that only affect men that are covered.
These are just a few examples of problems that only affect men that are covered.
15
Hey, women of America -- Happy Mother's Day from the Republican party!
24
NPR and ProPublica released results of a study that confirms that the US is 6th in maternal morality. That is last among developed nations. Countries like Canada and Norway, Sweden, UK, Denmark are far far safer for childbirth. About 60% of the deaths are preventable. How can this happen in the US? How can the Pro Life organizations permit it?
16
The bill would be especially disastrous for young, single women, but let's not forget that it would also be bad for young married couples in their child-bearing years who purchase family coverage.
Ultimately, the Republicans are trying to create a system where people pay only for the care they use. When insurance is tailored specifically for the costs you are most likely to incur it ceases to be insurance and is more just a payment plan. Health care savings accounts and these insurance policies that are really payment plans work wonderfully for people who have only limited health costs. They will look good to many people, and may will no doubt be pleased with the change as their insurance costs really will drop. But their pleasure will quickly turn to pain as soon as they have (as almost all of us eventually do) a serious health care cost. At that point, they'll realize they've been sold a bill of goods . . . but the Republicans are betting that a few election cycles will pass before that happens and by then no one will remember who was responsible.
Ultimately, the Republicans are trying to create a system where people pay only for the care they use. When insurance is tailored specifically for the costs you are most likely to incur it ceases to be insurance and is more just a payment plan. Health care savings accounts and these insurance policies that are really payment plans work wonderfully for people who have only limited health costs. They will look good to many people, and may will no doubt be pleased with the change as their insurance costs really will drop. But their pleasure will quickly turn to pain as soon as they have (as almost all of us eventually do) a serious health care cost. At that point, they'll realize they've been sold a bill of goods . . . but the Republicans are betting that a few election cycles will pass before that happens and by then no one will remember who was responsible.
14
If reproductive rights strategists are consistently unable to build leverage in the political system, this is what happens. Even beloved liberal icon Bernie Sanders didn't hesitate to ignore that constituency when it was convenient.
When is this movement going to achieve something in the arena besides frantically playing defense?
When is this movement going to achieve something in the arena besides frantically playing defense?
7
The Republican Health Care Bill first turns the methodology of insurance on its head by creating homogenous pools of high-risk, thereby producing a "doublespeak insurance" which provides little benefit at a unaffordable cost.
As clearly demonstrated in this editorial the Republican Party then compounds their mischief by not only being tone deaf to the medical needs of women, but more importantly, they prove calculatingly uncaring and callous in so doing.
Any outcome dominated by a subservience to the Republican far right will produce a bitter fruit. This will be poison to the Party in 2018 and beyond. It is paradoxical that the far right will propel the nation to a single-payer/universal healthcare model through their malevolent machinations.
As clearly demonstrated in this editorial the Republican Party then compounds their mischief by not only being tone deaf to the medical needs of women, but more importantly, they prove calculatingly uncaring and callous in so doing.
Any outcome dominated by a subservience to the Republican far right will produce a bitter fruit. This will be poison to the Party in 2018 and beyond. It is paradoxical that the far right will propel the nation to a single-payer/universal healthcare model through their malevolent machinations.
6
Why women only, in its present form the House approved healthcare bill is an insult to life. Curiously even the women legislators and the so-called moderate members of the Congress too are keeping silence allowing, in turn, the vindictive party leadership to hijack the whole legislative agenda.
7
This is well said - their words and, worse, actions. are an insult to life.
Smug and certain that they and theirs will never be deprived of necessary care, because we take care of them, they demolish access to care for others with jokes.
Smug and certain that they and theirs will never be deprived of necessary care, because we take care of them, they demolish access to care for others with jokes.
6
The GOP does not want to offer affordable health insurance or affordable health care to the undeserving. The undeserving are a drain on the free market capitalistic society. They take and contribute little.
Women, all people of color, all people who are not Christians, all immigrants, etc.
These are the undeserving, these are the second class citizens who the GOP can and do ignore as much as they can.
Problem is these 'second class' citizens are growing in % of population and they vote. The old white men in charge are simply dying away. Voter suppression will work for a short while only.
The second class citizens will not get complete and fair health care until they decide to vote for their rights in one solid block. And they must vote in every election at every level of government. Then and only then will results occur.
Women, all people of color, all people who are not Christians, all immigrants, etc.
These are the undeserving, these are the second class citizens who the GOP can and do ignore as much as they can.
Problem is these 'second class' citizens are growing in % of population and they vote. The old white men in charge are simply dying away. Voter suppression will work for a short while only.
The second class citizens will not get complete and fair health care until they decide to vote for their rights in one solid block. And they must vote in every election at every level of government. Then and only then will results occur.
14
Their beliefs in magic are all in vain.
2
Inasmuch as men do get breast cancer, and several of those old senators have the mammae for it, why should Pat Roberts's nasty comment be a joke?
But the larger question is, How do women like Murkowski and Collins and Ernst and Fischer and Caputo remain in that party? McConnell named all men to the Death Panel.
But the larger question is, How do women like Murkowski and Collins and Ernst and Fischer and Caputo remain in that party? McConnell named all men to the Death Panel.
17
Dear Mom,
Happy Mother's Day! I'm sorry I haven't been home in a while but things have been very busy at the House. You might be interested in some of those women's things.
About those wee creatures you lady folks have growing in your wombs (not tumors) sometimes. We're still making it difficult to let anyone get rid of them. But we're working to save money so we won't be paying for any of that maternity care stuff, like pre-natal care and labor and delivery. Men don't benefit from these, so it isn't fair to make them pay.
I know you like going to Planned Parenthood for those tests and stuff. Other clinics are so much farther away but I'm sure if you really tried you could get someone to drive you to one, or get a bus or something. That group does horrible things like abortions. What a terrible thing to do to those wee creatures! Human life is precious, and the House is looking out for them, sort of. But once they're born our compassion wanes. After all, you ladies had them, so it's time for you to pay for them.
We hear some ladies moan and groan about birth control costs, and expect the government or insurance to pay. Well, if they can't afford to pay, they shouldn't, you know, fool around.
With all of these changes the cost of insurance will go way down, and wifey and I can finally afford that second house in Florida.
I'm sorry I didn't get you a card, or a gift, or even a few flowers. Maybe I'll call next week.
Your Son,
Proud GOP House Representative
Happy Mother's Day! I'm sorry I haven't been home in a while but things have been very busy at the House. You might be interested in some of those women's things.
About those wee creatures you lady folks have growing in your wombs (not tumors) sometimes. We're still making it difficult to let anyone get rid of them. But we're working to save money so we won't be paying for any of that maternity care stuff, like pre-natal care and labor and delivery. Men don't benefit from these, so it isn't fair to make them pay.
I know you like going to Planned Parenthood for those tests and stuff. Other clinics are so much farther away but I'm sure if you really tried you could get someone to drive you to one, or get a bus or something. That group does horrible things like abortions. What a terrible thing to do to those wee creatures! Human life is precious, and the House is looking out for them, sort of. But once they're born our compassion wanes. After all, you ladies had them, so it's time for you to pay for them.
We hear some ladies moan and groan about birth control costs, and expect the government or insurance to pay. Well, if they can't afford to pay, they shouldn't, you know, fool around.
With all of these changes the cost of insurance will go way down, and wifey and I can finally afford that second house in Florida.
I'm sorry I didn't get you a card, or a gift, or even a few flowers. Maybe I'll call next week.
Your Son,
Proud GOP House Representative
88
When will we notice that most people ARE women?
15
"Me first!" sure makes for a nation of self-destructive misfits.
10
I am glad to see Planned Parenthood being stripped of taxpayer dollars. It is MORALLY WRONG to make taxpayers fund the killing of babies I do not want to pay for other people's abortions. This is another example of how the left wing supports people who do not pull their fair share of the load.
Next, the current system of abortion is a form of government-subsidized racist eugenics. Black babies are aborted at a disproportionate rate.
Next, the current system of abortion is a form of government-subsidized racist eugenics. Black babies are aborted at a disproportionate rate.
2
Planned Parenthood uses NO public tax money to cover abortion services.
Do you mind that they perform gyn. exams, and provide birth control, and educate women about their bodies, including how to have healthy pregnancies?
Do you mind that they perform gyn. exams, and provide birth control, and educate women about their bodies, including how to have healthy pregnancies?
10
Planned Parenthood receives government tax dollars. They can therefore just shift money from one funding line to the next. As a result, they have more money for abortions.
No, I don't mind, but I don't think that taxpayers should have to foot the bill for other people's healthcare. Plain and simple, it's just a way for the government to take money from one person and give it to another, or demand that doctors work for free. The call to increase the welfare state is counter to the American concept. Thank God Trump won! Now all you Frankfurt school worshippers are showing your true colors!
Next, do you care that Planned Parenthood sells aborted fetus' body parts? You should check out the videos. I wonder why that wasn't covered more in the media--oh yeah, the corrupt media is too scared to tell people about any truth that would undermine the left wing agenda.
No, I don't mind, but I don't think that taxpayers should have to foot the bill for other people's healthcare. Plain and simple, it's just a way for the government to take money from one person and give it to another, or demand that doctors work for free. The call to increase the welfare state is counter to the American concept. Thank God Trump won! Now all you Frankfurt school worshippers are showing your true colors!
Next, do you care that Planned Parenthood sells aborted fetus' body parts? You should check out the videos. I wonder why that wasn't covered more in the media--oh yeah, the corrupt media is too scared to tell people about any truth that would undermine the left wing agenda.
1
There are already laws that prevent any government funds from paying for PP abortions, so this law does nothing to improve that situation. What is does do is prevent women from getting other needed care. And a single mother who works but doesn't make enough to pay for insurance after she feeds, clothes and houses her children IS certainly pulling her fair share of the load. She may be pulling more than her fair share of the load, when you consider the tax breaks the wealthy get that she doesn't get. And women pull more than their fair share of the load when you factor in who cares for the family and elderly and sick parents. These have bearings on her ability to earn an income that is the same as a man who dumps these responsibilities on his wife, mother or sister. Yes, I was one of those women. I cared for my grandparents and parents, while working, until it broke my health down to such an extent I can no longer work. But I pulled more than my fair share for 30 years, so I contributed to the support I get now.
9
How many female Representatives and Senators have been involved in drafting this legislation? 0 House times 0 Senate equals 0 x 0 = 0^2.
8
Republicans are clueless that eliminating maternity benefits as an essential service means that Trumpcare would cause healthcare premiums to skyrocket for families with women of childbearing age.
At that point they'd officially be on record as opposing motherhood.
Apple pie would be still be OK, given its role in the traditional GOP approach to health coverage: bake sales.
At that point they'd officially be on record as opposing motherhood.
Apple pie would be still be OK, given its role in the traditional GOP approach to health coverage: bake sales.
12
Where are the DEMOCRATS on this? Why don't they have a plan to IMPROVE the ACA? Standing on the sidelines criticizing the AHCA is a waste time. We need our legislators to LEGISLATE.
5
The 2017 Republican Death To All (Except Men's Sperm) Act is a classic piece of medieval male misogynistic, misanthropic work.
"The best pregnancy is a forced one"
Gonads Over Pudendums
GOP 2017
"The best pregnancy is a forced one"
Gonads Over Pudendums
GOP 2017
23
Don't forget the corollary from GOPer Todd Akin: "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” No need for medical intervention, ever.
8
When women are told they have to pay for the things they want, Liberals call it a "War on Women".
When women are told that everyone but they themselves are going to pay for the things they want, it's called "A War on Men".
At least, if you're thinking logically. Luckily, Liberals don't think.
When women are told that everyone but they themselves are going to pay for the things they want, it's called "A War on Men".
At least, if you're thinking logically. Luckily, Liberals don't think.
2
Thank you for your continuing War On Logic, Bostonia.
The idea of universal insurance is that all of us together pay for the few sick and medically needy by spreading risk in a giant pool of contributors; it's a very successful idea with a long history of working just fine.
That's why we all pay for some men's prostate and testicular cancer and some men's flaccid sexual organ medicine.
And that's why we also pay to flush out some unwanted renegade male sperm from the occasional uterus because of a contraception failure.
And if men could get pregnant, there would be no debate about women having to pay for male abortions....the Morning After Pill would be the National Vitamin, completely taxpayer-funded and handed out like chewing gum to every male in the land.
Right-Wing Misogyny 101: Female Body Sovereignty Doesn't Matter
The idea of universal insurance is that all of us together pay for the few sick and medically needy by spreading risk in a giant pool of contributors; it's a very successful idea with a long history of working just fine.
That's why we all pay for some men's prostate and testicular cancer and some men's flaccid sexual organ medicine.
And that's why we also pay to flush out some unwanted renegade male sperm from the occasional uterus because of a contraception failure.
And if men could get pregnant, there would be no debate about women having to pay for male abortions....the Morning After Pill would be the National Vitamin, completely taxpayer-funded and handed out like chewing gum to every male in the land.
Right-Wing Misogyny 101: Female Body Sovereignty Doesn't Matter
25
You just don't get it. Reread and think!
5
We are seeing the results of indulging the type of juvenile male that is currently in legislative positions of power and in the right wing media.
Mature males do not have to be told to protect their society's citizens. They do not pout when told that healthy children mean you take care of the mother. They do not whine about not having ovaries so why pay for ovarian cancer- they have the kind of mind that understands shared risk in a healthy culture. They also "get" that most of the cost of gun violence, war, road rage, and murder are produced by males.
Grow Up is the message for the GOP.
Mature males do not have to be told to protect their society's citizens. They do not pout when told that healthy children mean you take care of the mother. They do not whine about not having ovaries so why pay for ovarian cancer- they have the kind of mind that understands shared risk in a healthy culture. They also "get" that most of the cost of gun violence, war, road rage, and murder are produced by males.
Grow Up is the message for the GOP.
106
Reading comments here and other NYT articles, well "crafted" and thought out, state only the obvious. I get tired and people who should be concerned do not read this.
America wake up! This is not a nightmare.
America wake up! This is not a nightmare.
6
The GOP hates women and I cannot figure out how any female could be a Republican. Seemingly, the women who are GOP elected officials must have blind spots the size of Kansas. I'm not sure how these GOP men have daughters or maybe they never noticed the difference in boys and girls. Of course, the President knows the difference because he knows where to grab'em.
16
And yet more college educated women voted for Trump that the first female candidate. I am not sure who insults whom.
7
Hello--women don't get pregnant on their own!! Have these men forgotten that?
Well, no, of course they haven't--Congress has a healthcare plan that even those benefiting from the richest private employer plan would envy.
So, of course, when their wives get pregnant, there will be ample pre-natal care. It's just everyone else's wives, mothers, sisters, aunts, and daughters they don't care about.
Attention, Congress: those women vote, and they are giving birth to future citizens and voters--doesn't the future of this country mean anything to them?
And even if they are thinking these awful thoughts, how is it is that they don't realize they shouldn't say them out loud? Which are they--incredibly cruel or incredibly stupid?
Well, no, of course they haven't--Congress has a healthcare plan that even those benefiting from the richest private employer plan would envy.
So, of course, when their wives get pregnant, there will be ample pre-natal care. It's just everyone else's wives, mothers, sisters, aunts, and daughters they don't care about.
Attention, Congress: those women vote, and they are giving birth to future citizens and voters--doesn't the future of this country mean anything to them?
And even if they are thinking these awful thoughts, how is it is that they don't realize they shouldn't say them out loud? Which are they--incredibly cruel or incredibly stupid?
15
The health care debate affects men and women. We all can get sick and we all need affordable medical insurance. Why does the liberal press wish to turn it into a matter about women? This is how Democrats lose elections. By focusing on half the population, the other half feels excluded. Believe me, men have a lot at stake in this debate. I have never heard a man say "why should I pay for mammographies?" just as I have never heard a woman say "why should I pay for prostrate procedures?".
2
the only time I have ever heard of males not funding mammograms as part of public health has been from a male politician.
Obviously since I have never heard anything from a woman about not funding prostate exams for men, as I have said for a long time, women are far smarter than men (and definitely smarter than politicians).
Obviously since I have never heard anything from a woman about not funding prostate exams for men, as I have said for a long time, women are far smarter than men (and definitely smarter than politicians).
8
This is just plain wrong. Cutting any healthcare coverage, denying healthcare coverage, restricting healthcare coverage, shows that this is NOT the richest nation in the world, it's a very poor nation for the vast majority of people. But it's ruled by the richest people in the world who are a tiny minority of cutthroat business people! They do no work. They live off the backs of working people. Working people build their mansions, cars, sew and distribute their designer clothes; we pave the roads and teach the children; we heal the sick and take care of the dying; we herd, plant and harvest the food; we cook and serve in the restaurants that the wealthy frequent. But to the wealthy, we are just slaves that need to be disciplined so that we continue to serve them without complaint—even when our children are starving. That's why they're called the "filthy rich!" The vast majority of us have no human rights except what we can afford to pay for, which, is very little. The police and the jails are for us, not for the wealthy elite. They make the laws to benefit them. We working people need our own political party totally independent of the wealthy and their government. We need to fight for the basic human rights we deserve—food, housing, healthcare and education and the democratic right to own what we create and to democratically rule for ourselves! The government does not represent working people. It stands for and represents only the wealthy. This must end! We are the majority!
9
My wife and I never had children yet we pay local school taxes. What's that about? Well, if you have to ask stupid questions like that, you certainly should not be working as a legislator at any level of government.
29
I'm in the same position as you are and I happily pay taxes for schools, the cheapest investment I can make and a huge payoff later in the years, from an educated society.
13
Probably the most cringe-making tho't is that we are also stuck paying their salaries, benefits and pensions, even as they stick us in the eye.
5
Where is Melania Trump in all this? Doesn't she care about what's happening to women, or has she been told to keep her mouth shut and stay out of the fray? Guess she's too busy making money by virtue of her position as First Lady. Apparently, women will have no female advocate in the White House.
13
Do these men have no female cousins, aunts, nieces?
No daughters, granddaughters, mothers, of grandmothers?
The self-centered cruelty of these men is unbelievable.--not only could they not care less about American women they don't know, they don't care about the women in their own families!
Today's Republican's have zero empathy.
No daughters, granddaughters, mothers, of grandmothers?
The self-centered cruelty of these men is unbelievable.--not only could they not care less about American women they don't know, they don't care about the women in their own families!
Today's Republican's have zero empathy.
10
If women have to worry about the cost of pre-natal and maternity care, the solution is simple: don't get pregnant. If women have to rely on Medicaid to cover the costs of births, the solution is the same: don't get pregnant. If a woman wants an abortion, the solution is simple: she can pay for it herself, or maybe send the bill to the guy involved. Or, even better, don't get pregnant in the first place.
As to pre-existing conditions, forcing insurers to cover them just turns "insurance"--a mechanism for dealing with risk--into a welfare scheme.
As to pre-existing conditions, forcing insurers to cover them just turns "insurance"--a mechanism for dealing with risk--into a welfare scheme.
1
Did you know that low-risk hospital births cost $9,000 on average? Should only wealthy women be allowed to give birth? And since abortions and contraceptive pills won't be covered anymore, what should women who accidentally get pregnant but can't afford a hospital stay and pre-natal care do? Republicans call themselves pro-life, but never seem to support life once it is actually born.
14
It all sounds so simple, doesn't it? This is real life and these are real issues!
1
Short of those with real expertise no men should be involved with any decisions regarding women's health care.
Why those who purport to represent all of the citizenry dismiss the needs of over half the population is beyond ignorance.
Why those who purport to represent all of the citizenry dismiss the needs of over half the population is beyond ignorance.
12
Curious. A man can say he doesn't need to pay for prenatal care, and at the same time declare that a woman should not be permitted to have an abortion. So reproduction is all on the woman. To do and to pay for, alone. Wait - don't men play a part in reproduction? Could I be mistaken on that? Gee . . .
11
Sharks in skin suits. They are saying, "Let them eat cake."
5
This article tells us that Planned Parenthood offers a "range of reproductive health services". All I have heard, so far, is that it turns women away from any other option but abortion. That does not seem a health service to me, but a misguided effort towards population control through manipulating pregnant women in a way that takes away real choices from them.
If Planned Parenthood were, indeed, interested in "Reproduction Rights", they would, logically, work towards improvements in maternity care, birth clinics, and baby care - all these, however, seem utterly hated by them, and in particular the Constitutional Right to Life which I believe to be granted to all humans, at all stages of their lives!
If Planned Parenthood were, indeed, interested in "Reproduction Rights", they would, logically, work towards improvements in maternity care, birth clinics, and baby care - all these, however, seem utterly hated by them, and in particular the Constitutional Right to Life which I believe to be granted to all humans, at all stages of their lives!
1
Listen, or read, information from various news organizations and you will learn that Planned Parenthood is mostly involved with family planning and women's health services (contraception, cancer screenings, mammograms, etc. along with counseling). Abortion is not their business - it is a tiny amount of what they offer American women. That includes d&c's after miscarriage as well. If you only listen to one tv station, you will only hear what you want to.
14
If this becomes law, it is time for the ancient solution to the problem. ALL women should refuse to have sex until these services are restored.
20
Alas, in an ideal world, your solution would work, but of course we don't live in an ideal world. Far too many women around the world and here at home, don't have that option. It's easier and literally safer for them to put out rather than be put out of home, deprived of their children, beat up or even killed. This, sadly, will never change. Doesn't say much about the human race, not much at all.
3
This week I sent postcards to several senators to ask them this Mothers Day to remember that even Jesus passed thru a woman's womb and to keep health care for all women accessible and affordable. I know it's futile but where do these men think they came from, the cabbage patch?
20
The jokes of men about insurance which covers prenatal care, maternity care, and mammograms indicate that the men are a joke for not understanding insurance. (We can leave out counter-jokes about insurance needlessly covering erectile disfunction, vasectomies, and prostate and testicular cancer.)
Simply put, insurance takes everyone's money to pay for anyone's problem. By excluding this, that, or the other problem, Congress shows itself discriminating against classes of people. It reminds me of the Politburo which excluded non-Communists from politics and of the Reichstag which excluded Jews from the economy. Do they have a gulag or concentration camp ready for the ladies?
Simply put, insurance takes everyone's money to pay for anyone's problem. By excluding this, that, or the other problem, Congress shows itself discriminating against classes of people. It reminds me of the Politburo which excluded non-Communists from politics and of the Reichstag which excluded Jews from the economy. Do they have a gulag or concentration camp ready for the ladies?
14
As I see it, the only way to respond to the incredibly dim-witted public statements questioning the responsibility of males 'to pay for prenatal and maternity care services' is to put THEM on the spot by reminding them that when they submitted their claims to their insurer's for their own children's birth expenses, two important things happened. Those costs were negotiated downward by either their private or government insurer and two, the premiums paid by the whole (the community who also pays into the system) went into that kitty to pay those two representatives maternity expenses.
I don't get so angry at these two dunces; I cringe at the self-serving idiots who voted for them. The "I've got mine so who cares about you" morons. Sorry, fellas. The real developed world doesn't work like that. Not even Russia works so hard at denigrating its' own. Imagine that.
It is high time we start calling out these special interest cads. Keep it up NYT's.
I don't get so angry at these two dunces; I cringe at the self-serving idiots who voted for them. The "I've got mine so who cares about you" morons. Sorry, fellas. The real developed world doesn't work like that. Not even Russia works so hard at denigrating its' own. Imagine that.
It is high time we start calling out these special interest cads. Keep it up NYT's.
31
These preposterous poseurs must be placated for the sake of a better afterlife.
5
let's all pay for our own abortions. I won't ask you to pay for mine, ok?
4
You can pay for your own prostate surgery, too.
3
You don't pay for anyone's abortions anyway. Ignorance is no excuse in the healthcare discussion.
6
Than don't expect any help with your prostate cancer or ED drugs. Or better yet why not drop your insurance coverage and you'll only have to pay for yourself.
13
The ultimate goal of these mostly older white males is to put women back in the home full time. They want their females barefoot and pregnant and and at their beck and call. I go to the old mining town of Virginia City at least once a year. While visiting the cemetery I am always humbled by the young women and their children who died such early, and no doubt painful deaths. Their tombstones tell a heartbreaking story.
Who would want to return to those times? Only men who felt women were disposable, as they once were.
Who would want to return to those times? Only men who felt women were disposable, as they once were.
26
It is kind of ridiculous to think that the Republicans don't care if maternity coverage exists for women yet insist ALL abortions will be illegal.
How does that work?
As it is our planet can't handle the 7 billion people so just imagine how many more (unwanted) people will be added.
How can it not be any clearer- Republicans hate women, poor people, the elderly and disabled. Death panels under President Obama's ACA? The GOP won't even bother with the panel-die already!
How does that work?
As it is our planet can't handle the 7 billion people so just imagine how many more (unwanted) people will be added.
How can it not be any clearer- Republicans hate women, poor people, the elderly and disabled. Death panels under President Obama's ACA? The GOP won't even bother with the panel-die already!
22
They are simply doing the will of God. If they can ban abortion they'll defer the Rapture.
5
"Almost half of all births in the country, and 75 percent of publicly funded family planning services, are covered by Medicaid."
Medicaid has not been doing a very good job in ifamily planning services if 20 percent of the child-bearing age women are having 50 percent of the children.
Having babies, many, and collecting welfare for each one, has become the default occupation of these poor young women. And it is not because they have not been having access to family planning services.
The current policies incentivize single poor mothers to have many children, and they never get out of poverty, nor do their children.
Medicaid has not been doing a very good job in ifamily planning services if 20 percent of the child-bearing age women are having 50 percent of the children.
Having babies, many, and collecting welfare for each one, has become the default occupation of these poor young women. And it is not because they have not been having access to family planning services.
The current policies incentivize single poor mothers to have many children, and they never get out of poverty, nor do their children.
1
These folks can't afford to fix a bent rim, much less cough up $500 for a long-duration IUD.
4
Like Mitt Romney and his9? children?
8
The problem is do many people with so few facts. Believing things you heard once rather than doing a bit of research. Programs supplying long term contraceptives have had a powerful effect on the birth rate in Colorado. In general the teen birth rate is way down since the 90s. Those people having babies on Medicaid are not women on welfare. They are the working poor, often with full time service jobs that do not offer insurance and pay close to minimum wage. They would have health insurance without Medicaid because they can't afford it and their babies--innocent babies, who don't deserve to suffer because of anything their moms or the republicans or anyone else has done--could die or have birth complications it develop preventable disease as a result.
I thought you lot were pro-life. What did the BABIES do to deserve no coverage at birth?????
I thought you lot were pro-life. What did the BABIES do to deserve no coverage at birth?????
7
Many of these old white men in empty suits (who, by the way, are undeservedly giving a bad name to all old white men) apparently haven't looked out from under their "safe" congressional chairs to count those rowdy women walking right over them, with votes in hand. They will never get rid of the stink of their cowardice; 2018 here we come.
15
Belief in God seems to accelerate their aging, particularly of the brain.
5
Anyone surprised?
6
The complete and total disregard for the health of women is a PRE-EXISTING CONDITION of the Republican Party. Their dedication to the wealth fare of themselves and/or the ultra rich while ignoring basic health care of women and families passes disgraceful in a million ways.
16
What a joy it is to live in a nation that so generously shares the misery of its village idiots.
7
This is what is insulting to me as a woman. Since the passage of Obamacare, my insurance package (purchased through my job) has skyrocketed. My family's deductible is $5,500. Plus the $1,000 per month premium. The closest I came to having my insurance pay for anything is last year when my daughter fell and fractured a bone in her foot. Total cost $4,353.00. No surgery or physical therapy required. I am tired of paying for some irresponsible woman's abortion or birth control that she can get at Wal Mart for $15.00 per month. I have no sympathy for Planned Parenthood who's women's services include STD checks and abortion. They do not provide mammograms. Not my problem. If everyone wants healthcare than everyone should buy in. It is unsustainable for the healthy to pay for the sick.
7
I don't pay close to that amou
2
Hope you don't lose your job like I did at 55. Hope you don't get cancer or have a serious illness. Hope you were never alone , poor and pregnant with no resources. You have been blessed-have a little gratitude and charity.
9
"It is unsustainable for the healthy to pay for the sick."
Except it's not only sustainable, but more effective and affordable, in every other industrialized country in the world. Even President Trump affirmed that during a press event with the Australian Prime Minister, saying "I shouldn't say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia because you have better health care than we do."
You should be asking your employer why they are increasing your costs so much, even as their costs have experienced the lowest rate of increase in decades. Many employers changed the percentage they cover as part of employee benefits packages to shift money to executive compensation and bonuses.
Except it's not only sustainable, but more effective and affordable, in every other industrialized country in the world. Even President Trump affirmed that during a press event with the Australian Prime Minister, saying "I shouldn't say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia because you have better health care than we do."
You should be asking your employer why they are increasing your costs so much, even as their costs have experienced the lowest rate of increase in decades. Many employers changed the percentage they cover as part of employee benefits packages to shift money to executive compensation and bonuses.
13
Hey, the GOP health care "plan" is perfect social policy for the male crowd that wants ever younger Trophy Wives, a special approach favoring those Groper Older Pops who get older and want arm candy.
Kill off the older ones. Never have to worry about paying support or alimony.
Perfect! For everyone who counts ... or votes on health policy ...
Kill off the older ones. Never have to worry about paying support or alimony.
Perfect! For everyone who counts ... or votes on health policy ...
13
I keep asking: 1: why would any woman vote for any Republican? and 2: why are not attempts to reduce, restrict, or deny women's rights to abortion NOT considered an assault on her civil rights?
21
Our legislatures are heavily doped with people who firmly believe that we consented to them managing our own bodies for the blessings of their incompetent governance.
5
In other new, the GOP plan eliminates funding for anesthesia, replaces it with a "bite stick" and a bottle of bourbon. But the replacement does call for American-made bourbon.
16
It's as if the AHCA was tailored to appeal to and only meet the needs of Trump's "base:" white men. And, of course, that's who wrote it.
15
Medicaid covering all those births! Bingo, big savings if those women had been on long term reversible contraception, IUDs for example. Leads to savings in WIC programs, SNAP, public housing subsidies, public school costs, etc. If the USA had cut the Medicaid birth rate by 50% over the past couple of dozen years, imagine the hundreds of billions in federal, state, and local tax savings.
4
If people would pass on the opportunity to become Munchausen by Proxy parents when prenatal testing indicates a fetus has a crippling disability, that would save a lot of money too.
3
Women are over half the electorate - this legislation shows the basic disfunction in our voting system - we have a grossly unrepresentative democracy.
13
Planned Parenthood was defunded by the Republican administration because it is considered an abortion and birth control clinic only. Statistically, that is probably true. There are very few Planned Parenthood agencies that actually treat or even offer prenatal care. So if you are ProLife and consider birth control an individual responsibility, not a disease/condition to be covered under health insurance, it will be the first place to cut.
Obamacare extended the eligibility criteria for Medicaid. So where did this new poor category of women go before then? They probably went to Planned Parenthood for abortions. Is that what the administration really wants to bring back? Is that the dirty kept secret? Most crack, HIV and drug addicted newborns are born to poor women costing society much more. Eliminating that cost would help make healthcare cheaper.
Finally, the larger concern if ALL prenatal care is eliminated then what? Only affluent women will have the ability to obtain prenatal care. Do you see where I am going with this?
Obamacare extended the eligibility criteria for Medicaid. So where did this new poor category of women go before then? They probably went to Planned Parenthood for abortions. Is that what the administration really wants to bring back? Is that the dirty kept secret? Most crack, HIV and drug addicted newborns are born to poor women costing society much more. Eliminating that cost would help make healthcare cheaper.
Finally, the larger concern if ALL prenatal care is eliminated then what? Only affluent women will have the ability to obtain prenatal care. Do you see where I am going with this?
1
Pregnancy is God's punishment for sex, and God's little pet goldfish are here to make sure that God's will is enforced.
3
All human beings are gestated in and born of their mothers. Women's reproductive health affects 100% of all Americans.
19
More Leftist hysteria ginned up by this publication. Please quit with this "war on women" lie. The democratic party wouldn't exist if they weren't able to split this country into groups and then convince them that they are victims, and this publication does nothing but feed this victim mentality. Blacks, gays, women etc.. where else in the world do they have it better? Quit your whining, work hard, don't make stupid decisions and you'll do just fine in America. I'm sick of this "everyone's a victim except for white, male, heterosexual, Christian males" ENOUGH!
4
I came here as an immigrant, worked hard, made no stupid decisions, and did pretty well for myself. And if there is any group in the country with a victim mentality, it is the white Christian males who vote for Trump. I can't tell you how often I heard them whining about "disrespect", or "coastal elites", or "war on Christmas", or "unborn babies". And all the while, they slip behind most immigrant groups because they are uneducated, lack entrepreneurial skills, and reject science. If you don't understand why a single payer is the most economically sound model for providing healthcare, you don't know math. And then you lash out at immigrants, or gays, or women because they have taken the jobs you cannot do. So who is being a victim here?
16
Poor baby! Women are more than half the population. If you read the article you would have learned how ACHA short changes women's healthcare.
3
"These sophmoric jokes and flippant disregard...."
This morning I woke up and realized what my biggest mistake in my life was.
No, it wasn't the usual litany of real or imagined lack of social graces. It was that, when I was 30 (40 years ago) that I didn't move to Sweden or Norway or Scotland or Iceland.
That's it. No long tales. Just the certain knowledge that if I hadn't made that one mistake, that my entire life would have been different to a magnitude that I can barely perceive.
If you are considering it, do better than that. Research it. Plan for it. Think of what you want out of life, recognize that you are not going to get it here where you are just a scummy joke and, literally, a second-class citizen. Every problem in this country has solutions. It is not the "solutions" part that is the problem; it is the "in this country" part. There has always been a dark under-belly, but now the beast has rolled and what was 'under' is now on top.
Chuck it.
You don't deserve it, you don't need it, go somewhere where you at least have a fighting chance. Pay your taxes to another land, educate your children in real schools, give your labor to a country that cares and that has a good track record on supporting a society that has value.
That's all.
Happy Mother's Day.
Celebrate it elsewhere next year.
This morning I woke up and realized what my biggest mistake in my life was.
No, it wasn't the usual litany of real or imagined lack of social graces. It was that, when I was 30 (40 years ago) that I didn't move to Sweden or Norway or Scotland or Iceland.
That's it. No long tales. Just the certain knowledge that if I hadn't made that one mistake, that my entire life would have been different to a magnitude that I can barely perceive.
If you are considering it, do better than that. Research it. Plan for it. Think of what you want out of life, recognize that you are not going to get it here where you are just a scummy joke and, literally, a second-class citizen. Every problem in this country has solutions. It is not the "solutions" part that is the problem; it is the "in this country" part. There has always been a dark under-belly, but now the beast has rolled and what was 'under' is now on top.
Chuck it.
You don't deserve it, you don't need it, go somewhere where you at least have a fighting chance. Pay your taxes to another land, educate your children in real schools, give your labor to a country that cares and that has a good track record on supporting a society that has value.
That's all.
Happy Mother's Day.
Celebrate it elsewhere next year.
189
If every woman leaves this country because of misogyny who will be left to fight for gender equality.
After a long struggle women got the vote.
After a long struggle women got the right to own property
...to be educated
...to have a legal abortion
...to fight back against rapist
...to be in society with out chaperones
...to be CEOs, CFO and sit on the stock exchange
Is it perfect? No but much better and none of these improvements came from running away.
So instead of complaining, fight harder; demonstrate, lobby, embarrass those misogynist men and woman and vote at every level of government.
After a long struggle women got the vote.
After a long struggle women got the right to own property
...to be educated
...to have a legal abortion
...to fight back against rapist
...to be in society with out chaperones
...to be CEOs, CFO and sit on the stock exchange
Is it perfect? No but much better and none of these improvements came from running away.
So instead of complaining, fight harder; demonstrate, lobby, embarrass those misogynist men and woman and vote at every level of government.
5
I have visited all those countries you mention and many more and they are lovely but would never want to live there. I would not trade my American citizenship for any amount of money and am glad to be an American by birth. We live in a wonderful country and if it is as bad as you say, why are there so many people who come her legally and illegally. Our country may not be perfect, but it as about as perfect as any you will find.
2
If beliefs against abortion are deeply spiritual and religious in origin then consistency would demand excellent coverage for prenatal health care, medical care for children and support for families in terms of funding for schools and childcare, family leave, etc. Instead, what is revealed is a mere dismissal of all that most women hold dear and need in order to care for their families. I don't know why they have such a bee in their bonnet about Planned Parenthood. I worked in OB-GYNE for years. Most private doctors do referrals for abortion. Planned Parenthood of Oklahoma does not provide any abortions and in states where they do it only accounts for a very small percentage of the services provided.
113
Consistency and logic are incompatible with belief in the preposterous for post-mortem benefits.
5
is it not true that our President replied to his wife when she told him she is pregnant "As long as your breasts are going to be as before". Did he give her an option? LIke have an abortion if you can't guarantee perfect breasts.
1
The thirteen older White male Senators that Majority Leader McConnell appointed to devise the Senate version of this legislation do have a challenge, don't they? A formidable one is they need 3 of the 5 women Republican Senators to vote for whatever they devise.
11
With all our motherly equipment, like breasts, and vaginas, and ovaries, and uteruses (uteri?), isn't it nice to be reminded Republican men would love to take our motherhood capabilites away from us by keeping us unhealthy as we look forward to Mother's Day tomorrow?
How did those guys get born, anyhow? And who paid for it?
How did those guys get born, anyhow? And who paid for it?
19
Amen!
4
New studies show that women are three times more likely to die because of pregnancy and childbirth in the U.S. than in Canada. The maternal mortality rate has been going up in the U.S. since 2000. In all other developed nations the maternal mortality rate has continued to drop.
In addition, maternal deaths in the U.S. can't be attributed solely to poverty: the rates are too high across all demographic groups.
This was all over the news yesterday. I wish you had included it in this important editorial. It's tragically relevant.
In addition, maternal deaths in the U.S. can't be attributed solely to poverty: the rates are too high across all demographic groups.
This was all over the news yesterday. I wish you had included it in this important editorial. It's tragically relevant.
15
It seems to me, for many Republican men, including our president, that the lack of interest in the health of women stems from this attitude that women are interchangeable, disposable and therefore not valuable. They can always find someone to 'take' and discard without impact, except perhaps to their pocket books. So some one gets pregnant, dump them. If she gets breast cancer, move on. Mitch McConnell doesn't find a woman's voice valuable or necessary in determining the health needs of women, either. Until we are seen to have as much value as a white male, this will keep happening. We need to stand up to this attitude with a 'Women's Lives Matter' movement.
146
Mitch McConnell is a Mobius loop folded through his own navel. He owns his own self-contained universe.
6
If women all vote to protect their own interests, you will see women's interests protected. As long as women vote these primitives into office, nothing will change.
5
The top 400 richest Americans get a 7 million dollar tax break each. It takes kicking 24 million Americans off their health insurance to pay for it.
This bill has nothing to do this healthcare.
This bill has nothing to do this healthcare.
13
Anyone who is surprised at the changes republicans are making in health care havent been paying attention to how low the party has gone in the past 30 years. Anyone who voted these creatures into office need to have their heads examined. Anyone who continues to vote for these hateful republicans deserve the horrors that the party will do to our country. It is not just healthcare, it is the whole budget - tax cuts for the rich and benefits slashing for the non-rich, and of course more money thrown at the military industrial complex.
14
Republicans are supposedly such big advocates of religious freedom, and yet they propose reproductive health legislation that is largely guided by conservative Christian objections to birth control and abortions. In doing so, they impose their own religious beliefs on millions of vulnerable women by limiting access to care. The hypocrisy is deafening.
13
To Republicans, "religious freedom" is the right to tell anyone that God has decreed them deficient in some way that justifies demeaning them.
4
The Republican party has become incoherent. They are directly attacking the mechanisms for the continuation of the species on the feminine side. On the male side, insurance coverage for the little blue pill etc etc is SOP.
It is an immature worldview with heavy doses of self righteousness and selfishness. Their id has broken loose and is currently epitomized by DJT, but by no means is he alone in his darkness. He is enabled every day by a party that has groomed itself into this oozing underbelly of humanity's worst impulses.
It is an immature worldview with heavy doses of self righteousness and selfishness. Their id has broken loose and is currently epitomized by DJT, but by no means is he alone in his darkness. He is enabled every day by a party that has groomed itself into this oozing underbelly of humanity's worst impulses.
14
HALF of births in this country are covered by Medicaid? Unreal. We need to do a better job of PREVENTING these pregnancies and promoting more responsible reproduction
3
Here in the US, you can't get wealthy enough to afford children until you have to spend it all on fertility treatments to have them.
2
Who do you think is on Medicaid? Do you know mothers on Medicaid can include two-parent households where both parents work full-time? The problem is wages, which get lower and lower even as the wealthy have more and more money. And now you want to take Medicaid away from your Walmart checkout worker, your waitress, your hairdresser, you kids' preschool teacher?
sometimes it seems like conservatives just want to live in Dickensenian England, or a third world nation where they have to live in gated communities with glass on the walls around their yards and guards to prevent kidnappings. They don't know how good they have it and they are absolutely furious with jealousy that some poor woman working two jobs and taking busses in the rain might have it better. What is wrong with all of you?
sometimes it seems like conservatives just want to live in Dickensenian England, or a third world nation where they have to live in gated communities with glass on the walls around their yards and guards to prevent kidnappings. They don't know how good they have it and they are absolutely furious with jealousy that some poor woman working two jobs and taking busses in the rain might have it better. What is wrong with all of you?
4
Half of all births in this country are covered by Medicaid. Of all the information in this article, I think that is the scariest. Half of the people in this country are so irresponsible that they don't care that they shouldn't be having children they can't afford to take care of. Medicaid funds 75% of the family planning services. Obviously these services aren't working very well. Maybe we can write into a new health bill that birth control is mandatory if you are on Medicaid. Now that is a cost cutting measure that makes sense.
2
I question that statistic.
2
According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. Being male is a pre-existing condition that I as a woman don't have. Why should I pay for a man's treatment?
15
As a healthcare advocate and a woman, I am beyond disgusted by the complete disregard with which white males in Congress are jeopardizing women's wellness.
Pain, suffering and death doesn't seem to get their attention, so let's put it in a language the GOP will understand. Money.
Underinsured or uninsured women cost taxpayers more money. They have higher rates of preventable chronic conditions. The mortality rates of their children increase. Treatable conditions such as heart disease and high cholesterol become ER visits and unpaid hospital stays.
Now let's consider the next Zika outbreak. Or the back alley abortions. Or the children that are born with catastrophic abnormalities that are destined for a life on public assistance.
No, women's health does not seem to weigh on the hearts of the GOP in Congress. When the healthcare system begins to fail millions of Americans, maybe they're realize the error of their ignorant and arrogant ways.
Pain, suffering and death doesn't seem to get their attention, so let's put it in a language the GOP will understand. Money.
Underinsured or uninsured women cost taxpayers more money. They have higher rates of preventable chronic conditions. The mortality rates of their children increase. Treatable conditions such as heart disease and high cholesterol become ER visits and unpaid hospital stays.
Now let's consider the next Zika outbreak. Or the back alley abortions. Or the children that are born with catastrophic abnormalities that are destined for a life on public assistance.
No, women's health does not seem to weigh on the hearts of the GOP in Congress. When the healthcare system begins to fail millions of Americans, maybe they're realize the error of their ignorant and arrogant ways.
12
Some people honestly believe that abortion is murder. They don't call a baby a fetus. They don't vote for liberal Democrats.
1
When I thought thru my friends and acquaintances those most adversely affected were women.
1
More fear mongering by the NYT editorial board. The health care bill has not yet been passed by the senate. Maternity care is a choice. If there are several insurance companies offering a range from full coverage of maternity care to no coverage of maternity care than the individual woman can decide what is best for their needs. It is not like if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. If it is in the contract it has to be covered. Leave the government, its mandates and subsidies out of women's choices.
4
Uh, the time to speak up and get facts is BEFORE a bill is passed,
In case you care, maternal death rates are UP in the US. And most of them are preventable. Maybe you will care when it is your daughter or niece who is receiving substandard care due to the ignorance of male legislators.
In case you care, maternal death rates are UP in the US. And most of them are preventable. Maybe you will care when it is your daughter or niece who is receiving substandard care due to the ignorance of male legislators.
8
If you make it a choice it will be unaffordable, that is the point. People will only get it if they plan on having children. It won't even be insurance--it will basically be self pay. Many women simply will not be able to afford it, so the working class will not be able to have children anymore. The poor still will be able to as they have Medicaid. The middle class have employer insurance so they'll be okay too. But still the birth rate could plummet enough (look at Japan) that we will need immigration in order to pay the bills. Especially social security. We will need nurses, so expect more of that immigration you all hate, the kind Germany needs because iof its plunging birth rate. It's called unintended consequences. Expect more of those since the Trumoers don't like to listen to experts.
every woman with an unintended pregnancy will be forced into abortion. It will be the only affordable choice. Even if it is illegal here, it will be cheaper to fly somewhere than pay tens of thousands for a birth. Those pro lifers sure will be disappointed, if that's what they care about, rather than making sexually active women frightened and miserable, but they seem to be reslly happy, so I guess it wasn't about babies after all.
every woman with an unintended pregnancy will be forced into abortion. It will be the only affordable choice. Even if it is illegal here, it will be cheaper to fly somewhere than pay tens of thousands for a birth. Those pro lifers sure will be disappointed, if that's what they care about, rather than making sexually active women frightened and miserable, but they seem to be reslly happy, so I guess it wasn't about babies after all.
2
It is to be expected from old white man that require their little blue pills.
Having said that, the existential question is what are the priorities going to be of this great nation ?
Is it going to coddle rich white men or is it going to treat all of its citizens equally ? ( especially women, that make up more than half of the country )
Having said that, the existential question is what are the priorities going to be of this great nation ?
Is it going to coddle rich white men or is it going to treat all of its citizens equally ? ( especially women, that make up more than half of the country )
16
Iowa congressman Rod Blum in a Dubuque town hall last Monday asked, "Why should a 62 year old man have to pay for maternity care?"
I ask, why should I pay for a bridge I don't cross, a sidewalk
I don't walk on, a library book I don't read.
Why should I pay for a flower I won't smell, a park I don't visit, or art I can't appreciate?
Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn't vote for, a tax cut that doesn't affect me, or a loophole I can't take advantage of?
It's called democracy, a civil society, the greater good.
That's what we pay for.
I ask, why should I pay for a bridge I don't cross, a sidewalk
I don't walk on, a library book I don't read.
Why should I pay for a flower I won't smell, a park I don't visit, or art I can't appreciate?
Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn't vote for, a tax cut that doesn't affect me, or a loophole I can't take advantage of?
It's called democracy, a civil society, the greater good.
That's what we pay for.
371
Perfect response!
3
I have long said about anti-choice politicians that they're not anti-choice because they love your baby, they're anti-choice because they're terrified you might love yourself. This is no different. Oppressing women's health works hand in hand with racism, homophobia, xenophobia and marginalization of the poor. When they make it more difficult to be a woman (or a minority, or a sexual minority, or an immigrant or all of the above) they do it to continue to make it easier to be a white man. This isn't a healthcare plan, it's a way to give white, rich men a tax cut and a continued leg up. Women took to the streets on January 21st and we should do it again.
6
Yes. Republicans are evil.
What can we do? Americans are republicans. They only vote democrat when republicans go too far. If you gave your essay to republicans they would argue every one of your TRUTHS. Republicans argue against the TRUTH.
What can we do? Americans are republicans. They only vote democrat when republicans go too far. If you gave your essay to republicans they would argue every one of your TRUTHS. Republicans argue against the TRUTH.
5
First of all, as many commenters have stated, insurance is about everyone covering the sick because everyone eventually gets sick. Second, essentially everyone over 40 has something. So, putting people with pre-existing conditions is silly. You'll only help the young and healthy. So, better to put the older folks (say over 50) in medicare. Third, the quoted $880 Billion (over 10 years) is reduced funding of medicaid, but no savings in the costs of helping those who required those funds for their illnesses. The republicans mean, greedy and often ill-informed. People will not stand for it any longer.
6
Isn't maternity care primarily for the benefit of the unborn baby? I thought Republicans worshipped the fetus.
19
Ah NY Times, you are towing the "identity" politics line that helped get Hillary defeated (along with being an establishment left candidate).
The Republican plan HURTS ALL AMERICANS, unless they are rich.
Liberal females know the republican plan hurts them. You should be writing editorials how the republican plan hurts poor white voters in the states Trump won in.
The Republican plan HURTS ALL AMERICANS, unless they are rich.
Liberal females know the republican plan hurts them. You should be writing editorials how the republican plan hurts poor white voters in the states Trump won in.
10
The Times publishes many articles detailing the ways that the Republican plan hurts poor Americans, white or not. This one focuses on the damage done to women because the "jokes" made by the Republican lawmakers were aimed squarely at women.
Using misogynous (or racist) language such as this to gain the support of poor white voters who themselves are harmed by the same policies has long been an effective strategy used by the GOP.
Using misogynous (or racist) language such as this to gain the support of poor white voters who themselves are harmed by the same policies has long been an effective strategy used by the GOP.
2
Funding for birth control, prenatal care, mammograms, even abortion will be on the block. These are the same GOP "Men" who also don't want to pay for care when that baby is born, yet don't want the woman to protect herself from getting pregnant in the first place. Hypocrisy in its highest form. They know very well that these mostly affect poor women. Their own daughters and wife's can always find ways, financially and otherwise to protect themselves from getting pregnant. I remember the 60s when the well to do woman could fly to another country to get a safe abortion. They could pay for birth control. WOmen in the US wake up and get rid of these women haters in the white house. THese guys have the best health insurance for themselves and their families and the hell with the poor and the sick. Wake up
12
Besides the fact that the GOP doesn't even try to hide the patriarchy and misogyny anymore, this article reaffirms my belief that the Republican Party lacks an empathy gene. Seriously, what is wrong with these people?
13
Why does the NYTimes give this bill passed by the Republicans the respect of calling it the AHCA? Call it Trumpcare or Ryancare. Either way, it should be branded to the GOP. Just as calling the ACA Obamacare served to align masses of uninformed votes to instinctively rail against the law because of the Obama moniker. Voters can now see how Trumpcare or Ryancare really does kill Grandma! Bring on the Death Panels!
14
Prostate treatment penile implants and vasectomies should also be eliminated in the new republican bill.
How many republican senators and representatives have resigned from the Gold Plated Federal Employee Health Care plan that allows them a massive menu of choices? Answer-None.
They get unlimited doctors visits, hospitalization and drugs with minimal co pays.
America should demand to be signed up for THEIR health care plan which subsidizes $5 in tax payer money for every dollar that they pay for their health care. Great deal!
How many republican senators and representatives have resigned from the Gold Plated Federal Employee Health Care plan that allows them a massive menu of choices? Answer-None.
They get unlimited doctors visits, hospitalization and drugs with minimal co pays.
America should demand to be signed up for THEIR health care plan which subsidizes $5 in tax payer money for every dollar that they pay for their health care. Great deal!
7
Under your logic that women should pay the same rate as men despite using more services, shouldn't old people pay the same rate as young people? And yet there's no outrage that people who are 60+ are forced to pay three to five times as much for their medical insurance as those who are in their twenties. Put all citizens in the same risk pool, pay for the program with a value added tax, and provide offsetting credits for Medicare taxes already paid or military service previously rendered.
34
I'm plenty outraged that seniors have to pay more than others. Insurance is a way to spread risk for everyone. Carving out different rating groups for higher premiums is a way for insurance companies to cave out higher profits. It's illegal in many states for car insurance snd ought to be in health insurance as well.
6
Uh, that would be akin to a single payer system and I guarantee you that if you do that, you'll get better health care for all.
8
Actually I am quite outraged at what I might end up having to pay for medical as I reach an older age. If all paid the same all their life into the pool then we get a payback as we get older.
6
Cruel, callous Republicans curiously don't mention, of course, men's services - Viagra, vasectomies and prostate screenings.
Not surprising from this group of misogynistic, oligarch-serving traitors.
Not surprising from this group of misogynistic, oligarch-serving traitors.
15
I can't decide if these guys are willfully ignorant or are merely callous; clueless also comes to mind along with some unprintable names. I question if they know where babies come from...(I am guessing this is the part they enjoy the most and if it needed to be covered it would be covered 100%...oh, I forgot, how stupid of me...viagra is covered!) and who does the work of bringing them into the world. And what could women possible do without these big strong men to help us make decisions about our bodies and our personal medical decisions? I suspect it always goes back to power and control...They should all be very mindful that we are a powerful voting block and that we have very long memories.
11
We can't be surprised that a group of aging white males see no value in paying for women's health. Or maybe I am just not surprised. I am a Catholic. I am used to aging celibate males spew forth ignorantly on women's health.
The whole idea of insurance is to spread risk and cost. I pay for your heart attack, you pay for my pre-eclampsia.
The fundamental problem is that people want full healthcare, fully paid for, but don't want to pay for what others need. That's socialism, I guess. People long thought insurance was free and care is free, a benefit to employment.
But now we don't have cheap benefits and the cost of care is getting more and more obvious. In terms of premiums it is ghastly; in terms of social disaster, it is driving efforts to move jobs abroad and to jettison people from the payroll as they age and drive up costs.
And in terms of people be willing to enter a contract in which they all agree on basic heath care, it is unraveling a social contract. Like elderly who don't want to pay for school taxes, some men don't want to pay for women's health.
We can agree to spread the costs and pay for each other. We can agree to pay for only disasters. We can agree to not pay for anyone but ourselves and hope we end up winning and not losing.
But we cannot set up a system in which some of us get everything and pay for nothing, and some get nothing at all. Women are set up to be losers; so are older employees, poor working adults and people who are ill.
The whole idea of insurance is to spread risk and cost. I pay for your heart attack, you pay for my pre-eclampsia.
The fundamental problem is that people want full healthcare, fully paid for, but don't want to pay for what others need. That's socialism, I guess. People long thought insurance was free and care is free, a benefit to employment.
But now we don't have cheap benefits and the cost of care is getting more and more obvious. In terms of premiums it is ghastly; in terms of social disaster, it is driving efforts to move jobs abroad and to jettison people from the payroll as they age and drive up costs.
And in terms of people be willing to enter a contract in which they all agree on basic heath care, it is unraveling a social contract. Like elderly who don't want to pay for school taxes, some men don't want to pay for women's health.
We can agree to spread the costs and pay for each other. We can agree to pay for only disasters. We can agree to not pay for anyone but ourselves and hope we end up winning and not losing.
But we cannot set up a system in which some of us get everything and pay for nothing, and some get nothing at all. Women are set up to be losers; so are older employees, poor working adults and people who are ill.
121
We are chum to them.
3
We can only hope and pray that Trump's catastrophic American Health Care bill will not pass in the Republican Senate. Awful enough, it will harm millions of poor, sick, elderly Americans if it becomes law, but worst of all, it will cost untold damage to women.
Two Republican Senators, Susan Collins ("Our Susan") of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are working to make sure that the A.H.C.A. - Trump's effort to repeal and replace Obamacare - will not strip funding to Planned Parenthood, will not endanger abortion coverage, will not eliminate pre-existing condition protections, will not slash medicaid.
Ashcanning essential services for women - mammograms, birth-control, prenatal and maternity care, mental health care and prescription drugs - is a sure path for misogynistic Republican Senators to cause health-care disaster for American women. May they not further insult women by passing Trump's re-do of President Obama's Health Care Act.
Two Republican Senators, Susan Collins ("Our Susan") of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are working to make sure that the A.H.C.A. - Trump's effort to repeal and replace Obamacare - will not strip funding to Planned Parenthood, will not endanger abortion coverage, will not eliminate pre-existing condition protections, will not slash medicaid.
Ashcanning essential services for women - mammograms, birth-control, prenatal and maternity care, mental health care and prescription drugs - is a sure path for misogynistic Republican Senators to cause health-care disaster for American women. May they not further insult women by passing Trump's re-do of President Obama's Health Care Act.
10
Why should women have to pay for prostate cancer screening and treatment? Women will never have a prostate problem.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
3
If would be nice if Republicans just were patriotic instead of self-centered.
7
And I bet, to a man, these guys are 100% christians, plus a Mormon or two.
4
I thought this surely couldn't be true: the Japanese Diet approved Viagra in 6 months but took over 9 years to approve the pill. But it is. Amazing how similar our own Congress!
Equally amazing that these men making rules for the lives of their mothers, wives, and daughters lack empathy enough to spare them a single thought.
--but then, men have always assumed the perogative of making rules for women "for their own good."
Equally amazing that these men making rules for the lives of their mothers, wives, and daughters lack empathy enough to spare them a single thought.
--but then, men have always assumed the perogative of making rules for women "for their own good."
3
Trump’ got an overall 42% of the female vote and 53% of the white female vote.
Ladies, what color are you seeing now?
Ladies, what color are you seeing now?
7
Recently I spoke to a retired teacher, who said to me, I had to come back to work to cover my health care expenditures, they doubled. I had to switch to Obamacare and I am so grateful that I had that option, now my insurance is more affordable. This is someone who spent her professional life in the service of the children of our country, who also needs the Affordable Care Act, after retiring with health care that became too expensive for her. She said to me I am scared to death of what is happening, I need it and I have a disabled daughter that I am coverning thankfully through Obamacare. There are millions of stories of women who are struggling with their families who give service to this country, yet we are not worthy enough to be represented in developing an effective health care system for our country? Every citizen should be outraged at what is happening around the substandard Health Care proposal that our representatives are trying to push on the american people. Please let your representatives know that you will not stand for it. How can this bill serve the entire population if women of this country, have no voice in its development?
11
Women for Trump? They still support him.
Why? It's all the liberal media's fault.
If they'd just give him a chance!
(You do have to wonder when it's going to dawn on them that Trump is not on their side. And that genital groping is about as far into women's health as Trump wants to get.)
Why? It's all the liberal media's fault.
If they'd just give him a chance!
(You do have to wonder when it's going to dawn on them that Trump is not on their side. And that genital groping is about as far into women's health as Trump wants to get.)
4
Let's call this what it is. It is not healthcare it is insurance. Typically coverage offerings for women and coverage offerings for men tend to balance each other until our lawmakers begin to inject their political agendas in the mix. For example, the push to not cover birth control for women and on a larger scale to defund planned parenthood and all of the related services they offer to women. Yet, there is never a mention if dropping prescription coverage for Viagra, Cialis, or any of the other male ED enhancement drugs, which by default, due to our accepted insurance model, as women, we help pay for in our premiums. Really?
109
I agree with the jist of this editorial, despite its reliance on challengeable premises.
You don’t argue successfully with religious excessives that their faith gets in the way of basic human rights. They don’t acknowledge that a woman’s right to control her reproductive fate, even to negotiated ends, is a “right”, but that women must submit to the biological imperatives that have governed our species since long before we WERE a species. Besides, God said so – from a burning bush, even.
You need to make it quite plain electorally that if they persist in trying to impose their view of heaven on Earth, they will lose the opportunity they have been given to do all the OTHER things for which voters elect Republicans and not Democrats.
My unease about all this develops from the observation that Democrats are blowing that effective response badly. They remain solidly condemned to the political wilderness, and it’s because they haven’t come up with new and compelling arguments for ages that entice Americans to vote for them. And a single-minded “resistance” to Trump based merely on their hatred of him and desperate fear of his ENTIRE agenda won’t bend that arc. It might even get him RE-elected. And it certainly won’t alter the composition of Congress.
Come up with the necessary new arguments, guys, become relevant again to our governance, and, with help from the rational right, together we’ll better protect rights that are quite legitimate.
You don’t argue successfully with religious excessives that their faith gets in the way of basic human rights. They don’t acknowledge that a woman’s right to control her reproductive fate, even to negotiated ends, is a “right”, but that women must submit to the biological imperatives that have governed our species since long before we WERE a species. Besides, God said so – from a burning bush, even.
You need to make it quite plain electorally that if they persist in trying to impose their view of heaven on Earth, they will lose the opportunity they have been given to do all the OTHER things for which voters elect Republicans and not Democrats.
My unease about all this develops from the observation that Democrats are blowing that effective response badly. They remain solidly condemned to the political wilderness, and it’s because they haven’t come up with new and compelling arguments for ages that entice Americans to vote for them. And a single-minded “resistance” to Trump based merely on their hatred of him and desperate fear of his ENTIRE agenda won’t bend that arc. It might even get him RE-elected. And it certainly won’t alter the composition of Congress.
Come up with the necessary new arguments, guys, become relevant again to our governance, and, with help from the rational right, together we’ll better protect rights that are quite legitimate.
1
I would like to know where these men hailed from - did they spontaneously appear upon the earth? Each one of them was born - to a woman - who needed maternity care. That alone should make them understand the need for coverage of maternity care - the species does not continue without it. It boggles my mind that this concept does not get across to the old white men deciding our future.
10
Happy Mothers Day from the GOP!!!
7
The only thing missing from the AHCA's attack on half the population would be a proscription from using sterile techniques during labor and delivery. If it had added this, we would fully be thrown back to the 19th century world of Ignaz Semmelweis in which deaths from "childbed fever" (puerperal sepsis) were common and even expected. The Republican Mothers Day gift to women is a world where more women would die early and more children would become motherless. Great job, Republicans!
7
Asinine Republicans are struggling mightily to drag America back toward the Dark Ages and a puritanical theocracy.
9
I'd really like to know who marries these men - they obviously hate women and seem to lack any regard for their mothers, sisters, daughters, lovers (if they have any) and further what is wrong with their education, empathy, intelligence, basic humanity? These morons sit in our congress,were elected by men and women - the latter makes me wonder. But then about 50 % of women voted for Trump after he scorned, defiled and humiliated them. There appears to be a lot of brain dead people of both sexes rampant today. It's all a mystery to me - whatever happened to create such an uneducated class, and then elect them.
8
More manufactured left-wing hysteria from the premier purveyor of fake news. The American taxpayer should never be forced to support an organization dedicated to the systematic murder of unborn children.
1
So you oppose military spending, then... right?
7
I have zero respect for any woman who votes for republicans. It is an excercise in self hatred.
13
You find it a flaw that the new bill "endangers abortion coverage"? Even if I agreed with your faux outrage over the other features of the bill, that attribute alone would get my support. No ethical person should be required to pay for the killing of a child. Shouldn't be too hard for you to see that.
7
To MFW: Abortion has been legal in the USA on a federal level since 1973. Abortions don't kill children, they end pregnancies. Your fanatical views are irrelevant for the rest of us. If you are against having an abortion, don't get one.
9
"No ethical person should be required to pay for the killing of a child."
But it is O.K. to take the tax money and pay for the killing of 19 year old boys through military funding? Where do you call the limit between child and adult, and why is it O.K. to fund killing an adult? The idea that we can control where our tax's go is such a farce.
But it is O.K. to take the tax money and pay for the killing of 19 year old boys through military funding? Where do you call the limit between child and adult, and why is it O.K. to fund killing an adult? The idea that we can control where our tax's go is such a farce.
9
Your tax dollars do NOT pay for abortions. The Hyde Amendment makes this illegal. Stop perpetrating falsehoods. TRUTH: My tax dollars (and yours) pay to kill civilians via drone strikes in other countries. I do not have a choice in this. Explain that.
8
Incorrect, the NYT is again conflating the issue.
What it does is allow defined benefit plans that were previously allowed in some states. It does not strip benefits from a woman. It allows you to choose. PP competes with many other Federal Funded clinics that do not do abortions. Nor do they actually do mammograms, they do referrals for those services.
Wake up!
What it does is allow defined benefit plans that were previously allowed in some states. It does not strip benefits from a woman. It allows you to choose. PP competes with many other Federal Funded clinics that do not do abortions. Nor do they actually do mammograms, they do referrals for those services.
Wake up!
5
This lady said it nicely, I wouldn't, so I post her comment instead:
Barbara Rank
Hinsdale, IL 10 minutes ago
"Iowa congressman Rod Blum in a Dubuque town hall last Monday asked, "Why should a 62 year old man have to pay for maternity care?"
I ask, why should I pay for a bridge I don't cross, a sidewalk
I don't walk on, a library book I don't read.
Why should I pay for a flower I won't smell, a park I don't visit, or art I can't appreciate?
Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn't vote for, a tax cut that doesn't affect me, or a loophole I can't take advantage of?
It's called democracy, a civil society, the greater good.
That's what we pay for."
Barbara Rank
Hinsdale, IL 10 minutes ago
"Iowa congressman Rod Blum in a Dubuque town hall last Monday asked, "Why should a 62 year old man have to pay for maternity care?"
I ask, why should I pay for a bridge I don't cross, a sidewalk
I don't walk on, a library book I don't read.
Why should I pay for a flower I won't smell, a park I don't visit, or art I can't appreciate?
Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn't vote for, a tax cut that doesn't affect me, or a loophole I can't take advantage of?
It's called democracy, a civil society, the greater good.
That's what we pay for."
6
WRONG! Only those with adequate insurance and/or income have choice. There are 105 counties that have NO clinics other than PP. Those women will not have CARE.
8
Personal experience...I live in the largest township in the country. We have 7 large colleges. We have two Planned Parenthood clinics, one of which does abortions. We have NO other clinics. None.
PP has weekly teen clinics, is involved with other community events & organizations for young people. They also outreach to our 18% senior citizen population.
So, to satisfy your own personal, questionable morals, we should lose their services? I do Not think so. The people's needs have spoken.
PP has weekly teen clinics, is involved with other community events & organizations for young people. They also outreach to our 18% senior citizen population.
So, to satisfy your own personal, questionable morals, we should lose their services? I do Not think so. The people's needs have spoken.
7
Are there any Republican men at all who are not total jerks?
11
What do you expect from a party of Free-Dumb loving ol' White Boys that still don't understand that they do not rule the world.
Is it 2018 yet?
Is it 2018 yet?
7
Under the GOP maternal deaths are at third world levels.
Pence caused an HIV public emergency in his state.
The GOP enshrining medical ignorance for political gain is immoral- they should be held accountable.
Pence caused an HIV public emergency in his state.
The GOP enshrining medical ignorance for political gain is immoral- they should be held accountable.
160
@ Kay Johnson - Careful Kay, they have been at 2d or 3d-world levels for a long time.
Only-Never in Sweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
Only-Never in Sweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
Lawrence: what is your point. The US is not Cuba, not Haiti. The GOP has been hounding women's health for decades. Texas just made itself maternal death winner after it closed its Planned Parenthood in West Texas for political reasons. There is simply no reason for this to be happening.
Care and the lack of care are not the same thing.
Care and the lack of care are not the same thing.
7
You know, while not directly relevant to the focus of this column, it is relevant to what the Trump phenomenon means. Particularly if the Abominable Horrific Condemnable Act passes the Senate.
People object to what they argue is a casual comparison of the Trump phenomenon to the rise and rule of Hitler. But ask yourselves this: if Trump and the GOP succeed in depriving millions of people of health care, via a variety of means, financial, eligibility, pre-existing conditions, won't they have directly created, via a rather open subterfuge, a Holocaust worse than that of WWII?
It's only "saving grace" is that it will hit the poor and vulnerable of all races and creeds, not just Jews, gypsies, gays, and political opponents. Although it will hit them too if they have care under the ACA now which they will lose if this wealth stealing "health care" bill which is an enrichment of the wealthy and nothing more actually passes.
Any woman who supports Trump, by the way, is a fool and worse. She is someone who has no respect for herself. Because how could she, given this monstrosity's life-long disrespect of women except as objects for his ogling, fondling or penetrating? I simply, as a happily married man with three adult daughters who find Trump disgusting in his treatment of and attitudes towards women, cannot comprehend this except as an instance of Stockholm Syndrome.
In a word, sad.
People object to what they argue is a casual comparison of the Trump phenomenon to the rise and rule of Hitler. But ask yourselves this: if Trump and the GOP succeed in depriving millions of people of health care, via a variety of means, financial, eligibility, pre-existing conditions, won't they have directly created, via a rather open subterfuge, a Holocaust worse than that of WWII?
It's only "saving grace" is that it will hit the poor and vulnerable of all races and creeds, not just Jews, gypsies, gays, and political opponents. Although it will hit them too if they have care under the ACA now which they will lose if this wealth stealing "health care" bill which is an enrichment of the wealthy and nothing more actually passes.
Any woman who supports Trump, by the way, is a fool and worse. She is someone who has no respect for herself. Because how could she, given this monstrosity's life-long disrespect of women except as objects for his ogling, fondling or penetrating? I simply, as a happily married man with three adult daughters who find Trump disgusting in his treatment of and attitudes towards women, cannot comprehend this except as an instance of Stockholm Syndrome.
In a word, sad.
10
The fact that so many white women continue to vote for and elect these old, white men who don't care about them, makes me crazy. Republicans and evangelicals elect men who are taped telling mistresses to get abortions--Dr. Desjarlais are you listening?-- because they have an R next to their name. I've reached the point that I hope that if these draconian bills pass, they hit the people who have voted for these nasty men the most. Maybe when they see how completely devoid of empathy and care for anyone but themselves men like McConnell et al are, Republicans in Red American will wise up. It takes a village boys.
11
[facepalm]
Now I understand why the GOP is so fanatically against gun control! Under the AHCA a gun is the only cheap and available treatment for those of us who get cancer. Or asthma, diabetes, heart attack, lupus, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, broken bones, Alzheimers, auto accident, appendicitis, birth defects, depression, hernia, stroke, noro virus, or pregnancy, to name a few. Now it all makes sense.
Now I understand why the GOP is so fanatically against gun control! Under the AHCA a gun is the only cheap and available treatment for those of us who get cancer. Or asthma, diabetes, heart attack, lupus, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, broken bones, Alzheimers, auto accident, appendicitis, birth defects, depression, hernia, stroke, noro virus, or pregnancy, to name a few. Now it all makes sense.
7
- Less money for Planned Parenthood used mainly for dumb, unplanned, irresponsible parenthood, excessive salaries, business-class travel, opaque accounting, and bloated job titles for women-dominated executive suites : good.
- no free contraceptives and unnecessary mammograms: good
- no more free rides for pre-existing conditions: good
- eliminating abortion coverage: good
- less money for the fraud-prone Medicaid (in the annual billions) : good
Enough of this socialist joke called Obamacare. The NYT EB will holler no matter what. Needless to say, the wise men at Senate have heard it all before. Thank goodness they'll do what we expect them to do: clench fists, make some painful noises, do some cosmetic trimming here and there, then pass. Good.
- no free contraceptives and unnecessary mammograms: good
- no more free rides for pre-existing conditions: good
- eliminating abortion coverage: good
- less money for the fraud-prone Medicaid (in the annual billions) : good
Enough of this socialist joke called Obamacare. The NYT EB will holler no matter what. Needless to say, the wise men at Senate have heard it all before. Thank goodness they'll do what we expect them to do: clench fists, make some painful noises, do some cosmetic trimming here and there, then pass. Good.
2
The lack of Women in Congress is deeply disturbing. Women need more representation at the highest level of government. The Trump administration exemplifies all the worst qualities of the Masculine. Not surprising the boys celebrated with Beer and Pizza after passing their evil Health Care Bill ! Go Team !!!
3
Of course the GOP Congress, like the disreputable "frat house" it has become, held a beer and pizza bash to celebrate removing vital healthcare services from women and so many other vulnerable citizens. Now that they're in charge, the "extreme" hazing rituals have begun, and American women will be summarily "blackballed" until these misogynist louts are voted out. "Animal House" indeed.
6
1) How can a party, the Republicans, who claim to want government out of our lives presume that it is their right to be in our bedrooms to decide our healthcare?
2) OK, so in fairness, where do they take away subsidies for ED drugs?
3) Have anyone of these fools looked into the cost of birth control drugs unless you are on a corporate plan?
Pathetic
2) OK, so in fairness, where do they take away subsidies for ED drugs?
3) Have anyone of these fools looked into the cost of birth control drugs unless you are on a corporate plan?
Pathetic
2
Having one large risk pool, rather than numerous smaller ones, makes the actuarial projections of various health care needs more accurate, reduces the margin of error and will reduce the overall premiums, in the long-run.
As a m ale, I surely don't need mammograms; however, breast cancer does crop-up in males. Likewise, by including prostate coverage for my wife, brings down the overall incidence of cancer there, and lowers my premiums, just like my mammogram coverage lowers here.
Those sophomoric jokes are just as asinine as when Senator James Imhoffe, another Trump Republic can, brought a snowball into the floor of the Senate. He just showed his ignorance, by not studying the Science. You do rememberer Science, don;t you, Senator. And, you head the Committee!
https://thetruthoncommonsense.com
As a m ale, I surely don't need mammograms; however, breast cancer does crop-up in males. Likewise, by including prostate coverage for my wife, brings down the overall incidence of cancer there, and lowers my premiums, just like my mammogram coverage lowers here.
Those sophomoric jokes are just as asinine as when Senator James Imhoffe, another Trump Republic can, brought a snowball into the floor of the Senate. He just showed his ignorance, by not studying the Science. You do rememberer Science, don;t you, Senator. And, you head the Committee!
https://thetruthoncommonsense.com
111
I would think that a male married to a female with terminal breast cancer, terminal because she couldn't have the mammogram which might have saved her, would also be financially and emotionally affected by the reptilian behavior of our elected officials.
1
U.S. Rep. Tom MacArthur of NJ owns this disaster.
Never forget, never forgive.
Vote NO!
Never forget, never forgive.
Vote NO!
7
The last paragraph needs to be corrected. Medicaid cuts over the 10 year period are $880 billion, not $880 million.
Oddly enough, slashing prenatal care affects MALE babies, too. Every single one of these jokers was birthed by a woman. Funny how men don't think prenatal care has anything to do with them (not even mentioning how the baby got there in the first place) but they have all benefited (or suffered from it) at least once..
169
How about a huuuuge tax on erectile dysfunction drugs to fund women's health??? What's a 1000 dollars tax on a fabulous time??? What say you, OLD boys???
11
Boys, until you perfect the artificial uterus, you need us, at least for breeding purposes. Work harder.
6
The white male Republican Party could care less about woman's health. Women are only there to bring them pleasure. Besides, when the Republicans get tired of the old model they can always divorce and get a new one. Might as well grab those tires a few times to be sure it is what they want.
These Republicans are despicable and need to be voted out of office.
These Republicans are despicable and need to be voted out of office.
4
Can a gender sue a government? ..... Asking for a gender.
7
For lack of coverage of women's health care coverage. No more sex for any husband who wrote the bill or votes for it. Over done. Period. Women can fight back too you know. Oh I forgot, most of these old fools are erectile dysfunction medication subscribers, on women's dime.
3
It's all about the ignorant men who wrote this bill and how they want to keep money in their own pockets. They don't ever consider anyone other themselves. I pity their wives and daughters. Misogynists all.
8
Wow. The Times editors are nothing if not predictable.
Remember the story of how the world will end? It's an oldie, but it's golden.
The day before the end of the world, the Wall Street Journal's headline will be: "The world ends tomorrow at 1 p.m. EST. Markets will be closed."
The New York Times's headline will be: "World ends tomorrow at 1 p.m. ST. Women and minorities will suffer most."
Remember the story of how the world will end? It's an oldie, but it's golden.
The day before the end of the world, the Wall Street Journal's headline will be: "The world ends tomorrow at 1 p.m. EST. Markets will be closed."
The New York Times's headline will be: "World ends tomorrow at 1 p.m. ST. Women and minorities will suffer most."
3
These sexist comments on healthcare have no place in a civilized modern western world. We spend $B on foreign countries including forsaking the lives of young Americans in attempt to civilize the world. This includes women and children in the foreign countries suffering due to the abuse of power and sex hungry males. We should send these arrogant, chauvinist, "privileged" and American public servants there instead of the youngsters who have so much more to contribute. They should feel right at home and so would the civilized Americans who truly care about their neighbors.
77
Did anyone really expect anything different from Trump?
He said he was ending AC
He is a self confessed sex offender
He shows no respect to women
And yet he got the majority of the vote of white women.
Go figure.
He said he was ending AC
He is a self confessed sex offender
He shows no respect to women
And yet he got the majority of the vote of white women.
Go figure.
9
Way to go, Republicans.
If pregnancy riders are optional, it won't be just men who opt out - there is no reason for post-menopausal women, women who have had a tubal ligation, and women who are convinced they will not get pregnant will opt out as well.
As a consequence, the cost of insurance coverage for maternity care will be borne entirely by women childbearing age who are planning to get pregnant. The costs will steadily rise, as women who think it is unlikely that they will get pregnant drop the riders.
But 50% of pregnancies are unplanned - so we will see an increase in the number of pregnant women who do not have insurance for prenatal care because they did not think they would get pregnant. Some of them will skip prenatal care because they cannot afford it, and we will see a rise in the number of infant mortalities and other complications.
If pregnancy riders are optional, it won't be just men who opt out - there is no reason for post-menopausal women, women who have had a tubal ligation, and women who are convinced they will not get pregnant will opt out as well.
As a consequence, the cost of insurance coverage for maternity care will be borne entirely by women childbearing age who are planning to get pregnant. The costs will steadily rise, as women who think it is unlikely that they will get pregnant drop the riders.
But 50% of pregnancies are unplanned - so we will see an increase in the number of pregnant women who do not have insurance for prenatal care because they did not think they would get pregnant. Some of them will skip prenatal care because they cannot afford it, and we will see a rise in the number of infant mortalities and other complications.
58
As this editorial makes clear, the Republican Party may be pro-fetus and pro-forced birth, but it is not pro-life. All data show that pre-natal care is essential to healthy mothers, safe births, and healthy babies, but they call it non-essential care. Truly hypocritical and disgusting. Now contraception access itself seems to be in the crosshairs. All should note that Trump just appointed an anti-contraceptive advocate (who routinely spews lies about the effectiveness of contraception) to a major family planning program at HHS. The Handmaid's Tale no longer seems like the dystopian science fiction I thought it was in the 1980's.
124
Since pre-natal care is cut, they are not even profoetus. Just pro forced birth.
49
Just a quick question on content in the Editorial. I thought the AHCA cut $880 "billion" over 10 years, not $880 "million".
30
Yes, it is $880 billion over 10 years. NYT editors, please get your numbers right. A billion is 1,000 times a million. People need to understand how bad the Republicans' bill really is.
3
Let's face it: to Republican men, women are considered objects, things to control. To them, our worth is measured by our fertility. If they could restructure society to resemble the Republic of Gilead, they would do it in a heartbeat.
60
Please NYT, more editorials like this! Repeat again and again and again and it will start to sink in and spread. Healthcare, particularly for women, is an area where loss of healthcare benefits resonates strongly enough with Republicans and Democrats that they've been rallying at town hall meetings and demanding that Republicans reconsider.
The Comey firing, important as it is, has taken center stage and represents real ethical ideals but not the gut wrenching reality like death resulting from no health care insurance. That will create votes for the people and healthcare.
Healthcare has the urgency so that it can have a deciding effect on the mid-term elections.
A separate piece in NYT yesterday focused on several middle-aged, middle class families that felt that the ACA was too expensive because they were not sick and didn't need the coverage. In spite of the fallacy of that argument, most of the people interviewed knew "friends" who required insurance and needed the "preexisting conditions" requirements of the ACA. I am convinced that the "friends" also included a subconscious fear for themselves, should they become sick and lose healthcare entirely.
Please, more coverage of the 13 old, rich, white men who are conniving behind the Comey smoke screen to eliminate as much of health care as they can get away with.
The Comey firing, important as it is, has taken center stage and represents real ethical ideals but not the gut wrenching reality like death resulting from no health care insurance. That will create votes for the people and healthcare.
Healthcare has the urgency so that it can have a deciding effect on the mid-term elections.
A separate piece in NYT yesterday focused on several middle-aged, middle class families that felt that the ACA was too expensive because they were not sick and didn't need the coverage. In spite of the fallacy of that argument, most of the people interviewed knew "friends" who required insurance and needed the "preexisting conditions" requirements of the ACA. I am convinced that the "friends" also included a subconscious fear for themselves, should they become sick and lose healthcare entirely.
Please, more coverage of the 13 old, rich, white men who are conniving behind the Comey smoke screen to eliminate as much of health care as they can get away with.
296
It is imperative to call the Republicans on:
1) making women's health a joke
2) making pregnancy support a cruel parody
3) making disabled children out as outcasts
4) eschewing mental health care
5) excluding women from the deciding elite
6) assuring the secondary care role of women will be bondage
7) guaranteeing the searing misery that all poor women will feel
1) making women's health a joke
2) making pregnancy support a cruel parody
3) making disabled children out as outcasts
4) eschewing mental health care
5) excluding women from the deciding elite
6) assuring the secondary care role of women will be bondage
7) guaranteeing the searing misery that all poor women will feel
61
The GOP the party of family values doesn't realize how sarcastically that motto is now viewed
3
These old guys believe people should be responsible for their actions. Don't they realize that in most cases pregnancy is caused by males. Old men are more likely to cause a pregnancy than old women.
78
Amazing that men completely ignore that every pregnancy requires both a man and a woman--and the woman is to be punished alone.
3
"Most"?
2
Healthcare is a public good, not a private one. EVERYONE needs healthcare...and they need what they need when they need it. (That's needs...not wants. Elective cosmetic, etc. is your dime.) US healthcare is much more expensive with worse outcomes than 11 other developed countries. American women are 3 times more likely to die in childbirth than Canadians and 6 times more likely than Scandinavians. Even conservative Forbes magazine, in 2011, had an article titled, "Why Switzerland Has the World's Best Health Care System." Even President Trump recently said, "Australia has better health care than we do." (The bombastic buffoon apparently didn't know that Australia has a government funded universal system.) How much more of this "bloviating ignoramus" (as George Will calls him) must we endure? He is a growing danger to our democracy and world standing.
44
All men should be exempted from paying for prenatal care who can present proof that they were not conceived by a woman, nurtured in her uterus for the better part of a year, and delivered alive into this world. Fair enough?
160
Healthcare coverage must be comprehensive for all and for everything independently of sex or sexual orientation. Single payer for all , everything covered like in Canada , Europe etc.
Of course if I am a man I don't need prenatal , maternity care etc.
But the immense savings that comes from eliminating the red tape distinguishing what is covered or not is sure worth the switch .
Lawmakers who stupidly make all this cherry picking have absolutely not understood the mechanism that is driving an efficient health care system that the USA does NOT have and NEVER had.
Regarding the very stupid remark for mammograms YES there are man who developed breast cancer ..
So listen to sen Sanders and trump( who admitted that Australia , new Zelanda etc have much better health care system...syngle payer for all) and get finally over the present situation . President Obama wanted single system for all but was precluded by GOP to attain it . Amen
Of course if I am a man I don't need prenatal , maternity care etc.
But the immense savings that comes from eliminating the red tape distinguishing what is covered or not is sure worth the switch .
Lawmakers who stupidly make all this cherry picking have absolutely not understood the mechanism that is driving an efficient health care system that the USA does NOT have and NEVER had.
Regarding the very stupid remark for mammograms YES there are man who developed breast cancer ..
So listen to sen Sanders and trump( who admitted that Australia , new Zelanda etc have much better health care system...syngle payer for all) and get finally over the present situation . President Obama wanted single system for all but was precluded by GOP to attain it . Amen
110
So, as a man you derive no benefit from your wife receiving prenatal and maternity care?
You'd prefer to pay all that out of pocket? Your mutual, family pocket?
Why do men think like this?
You'd prefer to pay all that out of pocket? Your mutual, family pocket?
Why do men think like this?
You need to help pay for the prenatal care of your child if you make someone pregnant! Why should you, who are just as responsible for that pregnancy as the woman involved, escape this cost?
What you are calling for is universal healthcare. This is like slavery. You are advocating for stealing the fruit of one's work. Why should a person who is healthy, exercises, and eats right have to pay for some obese lazy person who requires $5000 dollars a month in healthcare due to poor lifestyle choices? Why should a person who works hard every day have to cover the expenses of a full grown and capable adult who "suffers" from anxiety and doesn't work at all? (I actually have two neighbors who get to do this).
The idea of universal healthcare is nice, but in reality, who's going to pay for it?
Wake up call--don't look to the government to solve all your problems. Roll up your sleeves and work.
The idea of universal healthcare is nice, but in reality, who's going to pay for it?
Wake up call--don't look to the government to solve all your problems. Roll up your sleeves and work.
When I meet a woman who tells me she is a republican I just don't get it.
Republicans aren't for anything.
What have they actually done for you that was good for your family? They don't believe in investment of infrastructure, clean water, fair pricing, fair wages, or policing the companies that take advantage of us or poison us. They don't believe in critical thinking or education or planning or the future.
Tax breaks for the wealthy is not policy it is sociopathy
Republicans aren't for anything.
What have they actually done for you that was good for your family? They don't believe in investment of infrastructure, clean water, fair pricing, fair wages, or policing the companies that take advantage of us or poison us. They don't believe in critical thinking or education or planning or the future.
Tax breaks for the wealthy is not policy it is sociopathy
117
Without good maternity care, a woman's health can be affected which can also endanger the health of the baby. Have those smug Republicans thought about the future Republican male babies who might not survive without appropriate maternity care? One way or the other, they will become an endangered species and they will do it to themselves. Unfortunately, we have to suffer through it until then.
146
@Lee Del
Well, wait a minute. Actually those smug Republicans have a clever plan. They are going to be rewarded by many wealthy Republican male babies--that is, the offspring of the very rich. Those male Republican babies will grow up to be just like their daddies and will maintain the status quo!
Well, wait a minute. Actually those smug Republicans have a clever plan. They are going to be rewarded by many wealthy Republican male babies--that is, the offspring of the very rich. Those male Republican babies will grow up to be just like their daddies and will maintain the status quo!
3
Lee Del, Republican babies will be fine. It's the OTHER babies who don't matter.
2
Every man at least had a mother, if not a sister, wife, or daughter. Do women really mean nothing to them? Making jokes about women's health needs as if they were a waste of money shows how little we are valued or respected. And I'm beginning to think it will always be so.
235
Not all men are that vile and cruel. Fortunately, we have a pretty good majority that are just as appalled by this misadministration's attempt to marginalize women. I see and talk to them daily and they're just as ready to vote out those jerks as is everyone else who has a heart and soul.
If you don't like this, don't vote for any Republican.
Take advantage of every opportunity to vote Republicans out of federal, state, and local offices!
Take advantage of every opportunity to vote Republicans out of federal, state, and local offices!
Remember that members of Congress were careful to vote themselves exempt from any of the changes mentioned here and rest assured that their own health care, and that of their families, was never in jeopardy. Also remember the cardinal rule of Republicans: whoever might be harmed in any scenario of their making, it will not be they.
Why should I have to pay for all those roads in Alamba I don't use? Or those schools up the street my kids don't attend? Why should I pay for anything from which I don't immediately and directly benefit? It's called the social contract! The foundation of a civilized society. But the real cruel joke about these old guys is this idea that women spontaneously become pregnant. Immaculate conceptions if you will! Why shouldn't men have to help pay for something to which they directly contribute. That's the question we all should be asking.
Republicans have chosen a diverse group of older white conservative wealthy men to come up with a health care plan. What, me worry?
20
When ObamaCare was being considered in Congress. Stupak, a Democrat, requires that abortions not be funded with federal funds. Obama lied to him and said he would issue an executive order banning the use of federal funds to pay for ObamaCare and requiring policies that covered abortion to have a separate premium. Once again, he lied.
So any of the pro-abortionists who condemn the continued pressure against abortion, remember that you breached the agreement struck decades ago that abortion on demand would remain legal but the federal taxpayer was not going to fund the elective procedure. Expect to see continued pressure to bring abortion on demand available only until the point of viability, currently 20 weeks gestation.
So any of the pro-abortionists who condemn the continued pressure against abortion, remember that you breached the agreement struck decades ago that abortion on demand would remain legal but the federal taxpayer was not going to fund the elective procedure. Expect to see continued pressure to bring abortion on demand available only until the point of viability, currently 20 weeks gestation.
5
No one is pro-abortion.
2
Your argument has a simple solution: there is no such thing as a "pro-abortionist", so you're railing against a mythical foe.
4
Why should women bear all the physical and medical costs of continuing the entire human race? These men who scorn to share in women's gynecological and obstetric expenses -- were they themselves not born of women? Can they generate their own offspring without the aid of women?
Until then, they need to remember their responsibilities as members of the human race.
Until then, they need to remember their responsibilities as members of the human race.
60
Yet again, anybody could see that the decision by Mitch McConnell to choose and who he chooses as the people manning (literally) the Health Care Working Group, confirms and provides the already ample evidence seen in so many other areas of American political leadership, quality personnel and appointments, just how Inept, Amatuer, lacking in experience, talent in the type and quality of people needed best to run Government departments, State & Federal positions and all the many positions and roles that are supposed to provide the best people for the most important jobs in the World for the sake, security and best possible results not only for the Citizens and Nation, but also, by reality most people in the World.
On any measure, by any standards, most of these and so many other appointments made , especially by and of the Republicans is a Travesty and Insult to those they are sworn to best protect and help provide better more prosperous lives and secure futures.
I terms of what they pledge to do best versus what they do and who they pick to best do those things to benefit & protect the most and the outcomes created by almost all of them and those...is a Crime.
In regards to so many in the GOP (and most certainly, some Democrats),
What is so Wrong with America that makes it so easy for it to become beholden & answerable to some of the very worst people you could ever want to defend your best interests and institutions as we see?
On any measure, by any standards, most of these and so many other appointments made , especially by and of the Republicans is a Travesty and Insult to those they are sworn to best protect and help provide better more prosperous lives and secure futures.
I terms of what they pledge to do best versus what they do and who they pick to best do those things to benefit & protect the most and the outcomes created by almost all of them and those...is a Crime.
In regards to so many in the GOP (and most certainly, some Democrats),
What is so Wrong with America that makes it so easy for it to become beholden & answerable to some of the very worst people you could ever want to defend your best interests and institutions as we see?
This is not a health care act. It's a tax cut for rich people act. It's yet another assault by the wealthy on the poor and working people of this country, strip mining our dignity and our assets, attacking our health, undermining our right to life and even, if we're women, the right to control our bodies.
These holier-than-thou patriarchal hypocrites have got to go.
These holier-than-thou patriarchal hypocrites have got to go.
30
Only men seem to have full citizenship and rights in the GOP's America. Women and minorities are not full people. Their needs are met by doling out whatever the men feel like. The jokes showed that those men felt no connection with women. Yet those men presumably had mothers and grandmothers, and possibly other female relatives including wives and daughters.
Pretending that half the population can do without essential health care is cruel, sick, misogynistic and evil. Laughing about how they don't need women's medical care is like laughing about how they don't need children's hospitals or healthcare themselves or don't personally benefit from treatments for tropical diseases or mental health facilities. They represent all Americans, not just wealthy, healthy white males. But you would never know it from their policies, comments or actions.
In 2018, no woman should vote Republican unless she enjoys the despair and suffering and unnecessary deaths of fellow Americans. Anyone who votes for these cruel people is voting against everyone else and their rights and welfare.
Pretending that half the population can do without essential health care is cruel, sick, misogynistic and evil. Laughing about how they don't need women's medical care is like laughing about how they don't need children's hospitals or healthcare themselves or don't personally benefit from treatments for tropical diseases or mental health facilities. They represent all Americans, not just wealthy, healthy white males. But you would never know it from their policies, comments or actions.
In 2018, no woman should vote Republican unless she enjoys the despair and suffering and unnecessary deaths of fellow Americans. Anyone who votes for these cruel people is voting against everyone else and their rights and welfare.
471
I guess in the Republican view, women are only worth 3/5 of what a male is worth. These men must have all had serious issues with their mothers!
2
I agree with you wholeheartedly, unfortunately, there are a lot of Stockholm Syndrome GOP women who just don't believe that "their" men "mean it" or that it would apply to them somehow. Ever read or see Anne EW Stone? She's a real GOP treat. I stopped watching "To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe" on PBS whenever she has that vile "woman" on her panel. Her thought process defies logic, just like Anne Coulter.
3
One doesn't count as a man to them either if one doesn't share their drippy narcissistic delusions of divine descent.
5
Well! If there was ever any doubt about the Republican/Conservative war on women, the contents of this much-appreciated-by-this-reader article have put all doubt to rest.
The Republicans, it appears, hate everyone who isn't male, white, rich, straight, healthy, and all-powerful, but they reserve their deepest contempt for the gender that literally carried and delivered them into the world.
It's bad enough that we have an amoral president who lacks even the most basic empathy for others, but that we are being bullied by Republican representatives over our health and healthcare is an atrocity.
The Republicans are culling the herd. No question about it. That they exempted themselves from this hideous piece of legislation is evidence enough.
They are every bit the craven con artists as their commander-in-chief, full of hubris and meaningless words about liberty and freedom and patriotism, while their actions and policies hurt millions and millions of real, ordinary Americans in very real and very destructive ways.
They are, all of them, a craven disgrace and a danger to our country, most Americans, our democracy, and our Constitution. They believe they are the only ones who really deserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Republicans, it appears, hate everyone who isn't male, white, rich, straight, healthy, and all-powerful, but they reserve their deepest contempt for the gender that literally carried and delivered them into the world.
It's bad enough that we have an amoral president who lacks even the most basic empathy for others, but that we are being bullied by Republican representatives over our health and healthcare is an atrocity.
The Republicans are culling the herd. No question about it. That they exempted themselves from this hideous piece of legislation is evidence enough.
They are every bit the craven con artists as their commander-in-chief, full of hubris and meaningless words about liberty and freedom and patriotism, while their actions and policies hurt millions and millions of real, ordinary Americans in very real and very destructive ways.
They are, all of them, a craven disgrace and a danger to our country, most Americans, our democracy, and our Constitution. They believe they are the only ones who really deserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
28
Since so many white women voted for Trump despite his misogyny and despite being offered the alternative of a smart and accomplished woman, what does it say about them? Shouldn't they get what they wanted: loss of health insurance, disrespect and premature death for themselves and their children? Of course, this half-baked health care bill will adversely affect also women in blue states. However, there is a remedy for it: state rights. Let California take care of our own and offer generous subsidy for Planned Parenthood or better still, take first steps toward a form of single payer, which is the most economically sound form of health care. The rest can enjoy their freedom of finding lumps in their breasts and not knowing what to do about it. In some states in the South, maternal and infant mortality approaches that of Subsaharan Africa. If the women in these deep-red states are not bothered by this situation, why should I?
20
I'm trying to decide if Republicans hate women or if they're just punishing us for the Women's March. This healthcare plan is both cruel and ridiculous. Only in America is getting sick or being born a woman considered a pre-existing condition punishable by bankruptcy and death.
40
Both. It's a war on women.
19
It's not so much that they hate women, as long as they're not uppity. It's that they have contempt for women.
3
I fear that all too many men the world over express themselves in exactly the forms used by the appalling Republicans quoted here - even in Sweden.
But one thing I can be sure of is that no Swedish male political figure would ever express himself so idiotically about any of the health services that always place Sweden among the world's best countries as having the world's lowest infant and maternal mortality - and a host of other measures of maternal/infant health pre, peri, and post natally for up to two years. That any American woman could vote for a Pat Roberts type is a mystery.
And high praise to the Editors for presenting the facts so clearly. I conclude by noting in connection with the final sentence beginning with "Almost half of all births..." something I have noted here ao often I have lost count.
In Swedish Universal Health Care all - yes all that is 99% - pregnant women enter the system at about week 12 of their pregnancy - if not earlier - and then see health-care providers often with support extending long after delivery. No matter what the woman's economic status, place of residence, or line of descent is, she gets this care cost-free starting at her local cliinic her "Vårdcentral".
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
But one thing I can be sure of is that no Swedish male political figure would ever express himself so idiotically about any of the health services that always place Sweden among the world's best countries as having the world's lowest infant and maternal mortality - and a host of other measures of maternal/infant health pre, peri, and post natally for up to two years. That any American woman could vote for a Pat Roberts type is a mystery.
And high praise to the Editors for presenting the facts so clearly. I conclude by noting in connection with the final sentence beginning with "Almost half of all births..." something I have noted here ao often I have lost count.
In Swedish Universal Health Care all - yes all that is 99% - pregnant women enter the system at about week 12 of their pregnancy - if not earlier - and then see health-care providers often with support extending long after delivery. No matter what the woman's economic status, place of residence, or line of descent is, she gets this care cost-free starting at her local cliinic her "Vårdcentral".
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
25
The kind of images that Trump and the Republicans are portraying lately and from their shady past, they're definitely not only mincing words but in all practical purposes showing to all of us that they really don't care for our women.
Todd Akin showed us the heart of the Republican principles in the 2012 elections by claiming that "all rapes are legitimate."
Or in other words our women should put up with the rapes and carry their rapists' babies instead of aborting the unwanted children.
So if this is the rationale they're offering to all our women by which they're literally threatening their lives by forcing them to carry their unintended or unwanted babies through full terms instead of asking our doctors to abort them, then our country's core principles that Trump doesn't understand is in great danger of disintegration.
Actually these bunch of phony pro-lifers who want to save the lives of unborn children, want to condemn the lives of those unborn children's poor mothers to death or from lifelong miseries from hunger and child rearing as it had been proven without doubts that most of those women who opt for abortions are either poor Blacks or Latina women and heavily dependent on Medicaid which the Republicans want to gut.
By defunding the Planned Parenthood Clinics from 105 counties with half of them in rural areas where 2.5 million of patients receive their cares,Trump and the Republicans are proving once again that they really like to continue their 'War on Women."
Todd Akin showed us the heart of the Republican principles in the 2012 elections by claiming that "all rapes are legitimate."
Or in other words our women should put up with the rapes and carry their rapists' babies instead of aborting the unwanted children.
So if this is the rationale they're offering to all our women by which they're literally threatening their lives by forcing them to carry their unintended or unwanted babies through full terms instead of asking our doctors to abort them, then our country's core principles that Trump doesn't understand is in great danger of disintegration.
Actually these bunch of phony pro-lifers who want to save the lives of unborn children, want to condemn the lives of those unborn children's poor mothers to death or from lifelong miseries from hunger and child rearing as it had been proven without doubts that most of those women who opt for abortions are either poor Blacks or Latina women and heavily dependent on Medicaid which the Republicans want to gut.
By defunding the Planned Parenthood Clinics from 105 counties with half of them in rural areas where 2.5 million of patients receive their cares,Trump and the Republicans are proving once again that they really like to continue their 'War on Women."
12
About 3,100 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in the US annually. This compromises 1 percent of all breast cancer. A smaller number but those affected and their families may care
12
Consider:documenting levels and qualities of ignorance and insensitivity of elected officials to a range of issues doesn't, in and of itself, lead to needed, sustainable changes.Consider:the same members of Congress,new and veterans ones, and their staff members, who are committed to ridding the nation of alt-fact-toxic, destructive,Obamacare are required by law to purchase their health insurance through the exchanges offered by the Affordable Care Act. Consider:the federal government-ours and not simply THEIRS- subsidizes approximately 72 percent of the premium cost with our tax money.Not through, and by, non-paid-taxes;whatever the legal status of non-payment.Consider: Vico, an Italian thinker from the past,not too often remembered, suggested that: "truth is constructed." Consider:now what? In what ways is-can- the freedom and responsibility of daily documentation of what's wrong going to right what is needed?Facts alone don't create tipping points to action.And in the real world of uncertainties,unpredictabilities, randomness, impermanence and unintended outcomes we are "gifted" with the opportunity to question.And not just to be sated by all too easy, and oft times, irrelevant answers.We seemingly continue to be satisfied with achieving too-early-closure with quotable and documentable answers.As if knowing is understanding.As if descriptions,even those which are clearly presented,are valid explanations.The map is not the territory.The word,not the thing.Again, now what?
If women stopped voting for Trump and the GOP, the entire issue would be mute after the next election.
10
If I follow the logic espoused in Shimkus', Spicer's & Robert's comments, then I shouldn't have to pay school taxes since I have never had any children.
9
Then you would be a libertarian. Or a Trumpist.
1
Senator Roberts, men get breast cancer too. I guess you'd better use your taxpayer-funded healthcare to get your mammogram while you take away the ability of millions of women's ability to receive the same test.
6
The figure for Medicaid cuts should be $880 billion not million.
1
Affordable private insurance unless paid for by an employer is no longer a viable business. Congress must stop trying to cut a sweetheart deal for the insurance companies and accept the fact that a single payer system is inevitable.
6
Forgotten by all these men is that they all spent time in the womb and thereby benefitted from maternity care. One can also make a case that they should be responsible for paying for care for "the fruit of their loins." Do these guys even understand the concept of insurance? If you only pay for what you use, then it's not insurance.
12
Sharing sex is a partnership. It takes two people of different sexes to have children. It seems to me that men don't want to take responsibility for the result of their actions when women get pregnant. We are going back to some old standards where it is the woman's fault if they get pregnant and men exit the picture. Where is it that women are prized because they are the bearers of children? Certainly not here!
12
These and other problems with healthcare can be resolved with a simple single payer plan. We have one already in operation called Medicare. Medicare can be expanded to include everyone, The cost is the same for almost everyone depending upon when they entered the system. I pay $109 a month for parts "A" (hospital), "B" (Medical) and "C" ( Rx). My wife, aged 63 has a ACA plan that costs her $688 a month without any credits or government assistance, has a deductible and maximum out of pocket $1200.00.
Which plan would you prefer?
It can be done, so let's do it.
New York State has a bill pending that could change the face of healthcare and make it accessible to everyone in our State. Let's push for its approval.
Which plan would you prefer?
It can be done, so let's do it.
New York State has a bill pending that could change the face of healthcare and make it accessible to everyone in our State. Let's push for its approval.
13
Good health is like security, the free market doesn't provide it.
In times of great national peril, we insist that everyone participate in securing our safety. We do this through laws, inscription and taxes. Participation is mandatory because we are only secure as individuals if we are secure as a group.
Similarly, to secure good health as individuals, we must secure good health for the community. The greater the health threat, the more stringent the laws, taxes and mandatory participation.
Just as we should not wait for an imminent security threat to provide for our common defense, we should not wait for an imminent health threat to provide for our communities' health. Sound universal health insurance is the ounce of prevention that's worth a pound of cure.
In times of great national peril, we insist that everyone participate in securing our safety. We do this through laws, inscription and taxes. Participation is mandatory because we are only secure as individuals if we are secure as a group.
Similarly, to secure good health as individuals, we must secure good health for the community. The greater the health threat, the more stringent the laws, taxes and mandatory participation.
Just as we should not wait for an imminent security threat to provide for our common defense, we should not wait for an imminent health threat to provide for our communities' health. Sound universal health insurance is the ounce of prevention that's worth a pound of cure.
11
Why is anyone surprised at this?
During the Republican Convention last summer, a female delegate was being interviewed on C-SPAN. She was bragging about the fact that she had suddenly become the person who would deal with women's issues at the Convention. Her comment to the interviewer went something like this: "I went to the Republican leaders running everything at the Convention to find out about the part of the Convention that would be dealing with women's issues, and they said there wasn't one. So I volunteered to be in charge of it and they said 'sure'!"
For Hillary Clinton, women's issues are the world's issues, and as a public servant she was a tireless leader and supporter of the rights of women and girls around the globe. For Donald Trump and all of the male Republicans in the WH and Congress, there really are no women's issues. (Please, can anyone show me where I'm wrong on this?) With a few strange exceptions, they simply do not see women as worthy of anything other than: (1) to grab by their private parts; (2) to parade around as eye candy; (3) to raise the kids, cook and clean; (4) to put on some weird confining pedestal (à la Mike Pence); or (5) "to date, if she weren't my daughter."
So Trump and the Republicans in Congress long ago telegraphed their utter lack of interest in women's issues, including their health care issues. And the biggest problem? Women haven't been fighting back loudly or clearly enough.
During the Republican Convention last summer, a female delegate was being interviewed on C-SPAN. She was bragging about the fact that she had suddenly become the person who would deal with women's issues at the Convention. Her comment to the interviewer went something like this: "I went to the Republican leaders running everything at the Convention to find out about the part of the Convention that would be dealing with women's issues, and they said there wasn't one. So I volunteered to be in charge of it and they said 'sure'!"
For Hillary Clinton, women's issues are the world's issues, and as a public servant she was a tireless leader and supporter of the rights of women and girls around the globe. For Donald Trump and all of the male Republicans in the WH and Congress, there really are no women's issues. (Please, can anyone show me where I'm wrong on this?) With a few strange exceptions, they simply do not see women as worthy of anything other than: (1) to grab by their private parts; (2) to parade around as eye candy; (3) to raise the kids, cook and clean; (4) to put on some weird confining pedestal (à la Mike Pence); or (5) "to date, if she weren't my daughter."
So Trump and the Republicans in Congress long ago telegraphed their utter lack of interest in women's issues, including their health care issues. And the biggest problem? Women haven't been fighting back loudly or clearly enough.
14
"What's the Matter with Kansas?"
It is people like Senator Roberts of Kansas, who wisecracked, "I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms,” and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who vetoed a Medicaid expansion bill, citing among other reasons, that it will lead to "an increase in funding for Planned Parenthood." Oh, the horror! Never mind the horror of Brownback running Kansas to the ground with ill-conceived tax policies.
After push back by many, including Rep. Jackie Speier (Dem. - CA), who retorted, "I don't want to lose my prostate cancer screenings either," Sen. Roberts repented.
Sen. Roberts and others are, it appears, ignorant of the fact that men, albeit a very small %, are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
The callousness of men like Sen. Roberts, who seem utterly indifferent to women's healthcare, can only be overcome by voting them out of office.
Women have the power to make that happen. It is never too late.
It is people like Senator Roberts of Kansas, who wisecracked, "I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms,” and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who vetoed a Medicaid expansion bill, citing among other reasons, that it will lead to "an increase in funding for Planned Parenthood." Oh, the horror! Never mind the horror of Brownback running Kansas to the ground with ill-conceived tax policies.
After push back by many, including Rep. Jackie Speier (Dem. - CA), who retorted, "I don't want to lose my prostate cancer screenings either," Sen. Roberts repented.
Sen. Roberts and others are, it appears, ignorant of the fact that men, albeit a very small %, are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
The callousness of men like Sen. Roberts, who seem utterly indifferent to women's healthcare, can only be overcome by voting them out of office.
Women have the power to make that happen. It is never too late.
500
Men also might need a mammogram. see: https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/types/breast-male/male-breast-cancer-r...
"About one in five men with breast cancer have a male or female parent, sibling, or child with the disease. In both women and men, inherited forms of breast cancer are linked to mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which are passed on from one generation to the next. For unknown reasons, male breast cancer is much more commonly associated with BRCA2 than BRCA1 mutations, while in women, mutations in both genes are equally associated with breast cancer risk. Mutations in BRCA2 are believed to account for about one in ten cases of male breast cancer. BRCA2 mutations in men are also associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.About one in five men with breast cancer have a male or female parent, sibling, or child with the disease. In both women and men, inherited forms of breast cancer are linked to mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which are passed on from one generation to the next. For unknown reasons, male breast cancer is much more commonly associated with BRCA2 than BRCA1 mutations, while in women, mutations in both genes are equally associated with breast cancer risk. Mutations in BRCA2 are believed to account for about one in ten cases of male breast cancer. BRCA2 mutations in men are also associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer."
"About one in five men with breast cancer have a male or female parent, sibling, or child with the disease. In both women and men, inherited forms of breast cancer are linked to mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which are passed on from one generation to the next. For unknown reasons, male breast cancer is much more commonly associated with BRCA2 than BRCA1 mutations, while in women, mutations in both genes are equally associated with breast cancer risk. Mutations in BRCA2 are believed to account for about one in ten cases of male breast cancer. BRCA2 mutations in men are also associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.About one in five men with breast cancer have a male or female parent, sibling, or child with the disease. In both women and men, inherited forms of breast cancer are linked to mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which are passed on from one generation to the next. For unknown reasons, male breast cancer is much more commonly associated with BRCA2 than BRCA1 mutations, while in women, mutations in both genes are equally associated with breast cancer risk. Mutations in BRCA2 are believed to account for about one in ten cases of male breast cancer. BRCA2 mutations in men are also associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer."
2
These pathetic shells of human beings cannot see from any perspective other than their own navels.
3
That small % of men who are diagnosed with breast cancer are often Vietnam Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange (Napalm) while serving their country.The rivers,the land,and even the so called purified water on ships was polluted.
1
Trump campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace the ACA called Obamacare. Most of the people who voted for trump and who benefited from the provisions of the ACA didn't realize that they were voting against their own interests. But you really can't blame them. They either can't or don't read and accept every lie proceeding from the mouth of "The Donald" as gospel truth.
I wouldn't be surprised if these people have now substituted the bible for the sayings of donald trump.
I wouldn't be surprised if these people have now substituted the bible for the sayings of donald trump.
5
And just to cap it off I will tell you that we rank last among "developed'
nations in our maternal death rate.
Truly exceptional eh ?
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150506/NEWS/150509941
nations in our maternal death rate.
Truly exceptional eh ?
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150506/NEWS/150509941
7
I cannot get my head around the nonsense that maternity care is the concern of only women of child-rearing age and that, therefore, only they should pay for it. Where is the sense of community? Where is the interest in "future generations" about whom the GOP claims to care when it comes to budget matters? Many GOP lawmakers self-identify as Christians. Do they not know that Christianity is a religion whose theology is firmly rooted in the notion of community?
Successful pregnancies and healthy children should be the concern of all of society. The children are our future, whether we personally produce them or not. Every community whether family, clan, town or nation has a vested interest in raising healthy children. Not only that, but (and maybe this would get the GOP attention) it is financially expedient to pay for good maternity & newborn care. Children with disabilities, cost more in healthcare and education dollars throughout life; some cannot work or need life-long custodial care. Cutting support for early care is penny wise and pound foolish. It is also not how a well-functioning society works.
Successful pregnancies and healthy children should be the concern of all of society. The children are our future, whether we personally produce them or not. Every community whether family, clan, town or nation has a vested interest in raising healthy children. Not only that, but (and maybe this would get the GOP attention) it is financially expedient to pay for good maternity & newborn care. Children with disabilities, cost more in healthcare and education dollars throughout life; some cannot work or need life-long custodial care. Cutting support for early care is penny wise and pound foolish. It is also not how a well-functioning society works.
22
If The House Bill eliminate Medicaid Services, since health care take a big part of aiding people from property, than It's very unfair for American Citizen because every citizen in the United States should be giving these services regardless any situations. Women should be prioritized in the health issue.
6
The health care bill isn't about coverage, it's about tax cuts. The only ways to cut taxes through a health care bill are by cutting health care or making us pay more.
The 13 men working on the Senate bill don't care about women who need health care. Frankly they don't care much about men either, but the cuts to women's health care are more egregious and insulting.
If a red state like mine will be allowed to drop insurance for pre-existing conditions then yes, you DO have to answer when someone asks if rape is considered a pre-existing condition.
I believe the promise was better and more affordable coverage. I just hope that voters remember in 2018 and 2020.
The 13 men working on the Senate bill don't care about women who need health care. Frankly they don't care much about men either, but the cuts to women's health care are more egregious and insulting.
If a red state like mine will be allowed to drop insurance for pre-existing conditions then yes, you DO have to answer when someone asks if rape is considered a pre-existing condition.
I believe the promise was better and more affordable coverage. I just hope that voters remember in 2018 and 2020.
I asked my children to stop celebrating Mother's Day for me for the reason that a) I already know they love me and them spending hard-earned money they could use for something they need would make me happier than me getting something I don't need; and b) America doesn't honor and respect its mothers the other 364 days of the year and no business deserves to make money off of national hypocrisy. Every mother in America is on her own taking care of herself and her children (and husband, if any). We don't get paid maternity leave or paid family leave to care for sick children, spouse or parents. We still earn less than men because we choose the "mommy track" We aren't considered for promotions because we are not available to work 70 hours a week, travel at a moment's notice, be on call 24/7, to "earn" promotions and we end up in our "golden years" with smaller Social Security checks based on lower lifetime earnings and will probably take care of our husbands in their failing health and use up our savings doing it. The Republican healthcare bill, as this writer points out, is just icing on the Mother's Day cake.
126
As a pro-life woman, I do not want my tax dollars going to Planned Parenthood which is the largest abortion provider in the country (330,000 per year). There are more community health centers than Planned Parenthood facilities throughout the country and far superior. They provide mammograms, pap screen testing and many other services but do not perform abortions. They have compassionate and caring employees who provide the best quality care at a reasonable cost. The funds should be directed towards these excellent centers where they will be put to good use.
3
It would be wonderful if all the folks who so zealously want to protect life before birth would demand that their tax dollars go for supporting it afterwards. This has not been the case and might go a long way toward reducing the incidence of unwanted pregnancies in the future.
20
I don't want my tax dollars supporting guns in schools, harming the environment or paying for secret service protection when trump's family travels with the intent of marking money for their empire. I don't want my tax dollars to fund any more war or a stupid wall between us and Mexico. I don't want any of my tax dollars to pay for religion in schools, vacations by trump to his golf courses, tax breaks for the top 1%, the list goes on. Planned parenthood does not use your tax dollars to pay for abortion. They simply do not.
30
This comment sounds robotic to me.
2
Yes, sixty year old men should not have to pay for maternity care since they, personally don't need it.
And, of course, when the adult children of the 60 year olds are facing bankruptcy over the uninsured costs a daughter or daughter-in-law incurred producing the 60 year old's grandchild, the manly, Republican response, according to Paul Ryan, should be, "Tough, kid. I've got mine."
And, of course, when the adult children of the 60 year olds are facing bankruptcy over the uninsured costs a daughter or daughter-in-law incurred producing the 60 year old's grandchild, the manly, Republican response, according to Paul Ryan, should be, "Tough, kid. I've got mine."
43
Think about a mother fighting breast cancer. And her mother, who died from pancreatic cancer. A father who thought diabetes was his biggest health concern, until the bladder cancer diagnosis came. And then there was his mother. She took the news of her cancer stoically, then lived to be cancer-free. Yes, this is what I know about one family's situation. And I think of a great friend of mine from college -- another cancer survivor. I am surrounded by stories of devastating pronouncements from doctors, and of heroic struggles by people who fight the fight against disease and then threatened bankruptcy.
Does Mitch McConnell live such a charmed life that he does not have similar stories affecting those around him? What about the others in that joke of a "health care working group?" To everyone who cares and worries and loses sleep over where this country is headed, particularly with its health care: Protect the vulnerable. Care about those around you. And about all those others out there, the ones you don't know but may one day discover they also confront life and death struggles that began with dreaded words in solemn tones from someone in a lab coat. Remember, if you can, the feelings of the possible and the right that many of us once associated with American values. Remember who you are, then consider who you want to be. Then prepare to fight the fight, the fight for what we deserve and what everyone deserves -- health care for men and women.
Does Mitch McConnell live such a charmed life that he does not have similar stories affecting those around him? What about the others in that joke of a "health care working group?" To everyone who cares and worries and loses sleep over where this country is headed, particularly with its health care: Protect the vulnerable. Care about those around you. And about all those others out there, the ones you don't know but may one day discover they also confront life and death struggles that began with dreaded words in solemn tones from someone in a lab coat. Remember, if you can, the feelings of the possible and the right that many of us once associated with American values. Remember who you are, then consider who you want to be. Then prepare to fight the fight, the fight for what we deserve and what everyone deserves -- health care for men and women.
21
Mitch McConnell's wife is the heiress to a billion dollar shipping line fortune. No worries for them!
7
Thank you for this editorial, much overdue. Thie essence of this editorial needs to be packaged and repeated, to overcome the overwhelming Republican propaganda about the ACHA.
Women's health is men's health.
Trump enjoyed signaling his contempt for poor people of both genders when he signed one of his first executive orders: to bar all services listed here to poor women overseas. This EO will be directly responsible for increasing illegal migration of young men worldwide - sick or dead women cannot raise the food they depend upon.
Republicans have absorbed Trump's self-destructive malignancy, and are collaborating with him now to deny essential health care to Americans of both genders, depriving young men here of health care that their wives use, for example, to deliver healthy sons.
I ask young American patriots to share this editorial and talk with each other. A good topic is, do they think that they will save enough on a cheap policy to cover the delivery of their first child?
Because under the ACHA, that is what they are expected to do, by free choice, to put their own money into a savings account to pay for uncovered health care. And to cross fingers that it will be enough to pay the monopolistic, unregulated prices that they will be charged.
Women's health is men's health.
Trump enjoyed signaling his contempt for poor people of both genders when he signed one of his first executive orders: to bar all services listed here to poor women overseas. This EO will be directly responsible for increasing illegal migration of young men worldwide - sick or dead women cannot raise the food they depend upon.
Republicans have absorbed Trump's self-destructive malignancy, and are collaborating with him now to deny essential health care to Americans of both genders, depriving young men here of health care that their wives use, for example, to deliver healthy sons.
I ask young American patriots to share this editorial and talk with each other. A good topic is, do they think that they will save enough on a cheap policy to cover the delivery of their first child?
Because under the ACHA, that is what they are expected to do, by free choice, to put their own money into a savings account to pay for uncovered health care. And to cross fingers that it will be enough to pay the monopolistic, unregulated prices that they will be charged.
15
I concur 100% with the views expressed, but quibble with the heading. The health care bill endangers women. To call it an "insult" fails to express the damage it could do. Too much discussion of women's issues over the years has centered on "being offended" or "insulted," as if this were a matter of emotion or bad terminology. Without access to birth control, abortion, and maternity care, women and babies will die.
30
I went to Planned Parenthood as a young student (we're talking some 35 years ago) because they were free. Free! I had no health insurance then.
I don't know if they are still free, but I do know that they still have great concern for the health of women. That is their primary concern. If people want to argue abortion, they should not look first at Planned Parenthood. They should look at the lack of health care that denies women birth control and the educational system that does not educate young girls and boys about proper sex education in many states.
Some of the current legislation as proposed by health care providers, call pregnancy a "pre-existing" condition. Hey, ask your Mom about that.
I don't know if they are still free, but I do know that they still have great concern for the health of women. That is their primary concern. If people want to argue abortion, they should not look first at Planned Parenthood. They should look at the lack of health care that denies women birth control and the educational system that does not educate young girls and boys about proper sex education in many states.
Some of the current legislation as proposed by health care providers, call pregnancy a "pre-existing" condition. Hey, ask your Mom about that.
46
I think the bill should be written, agreed, and presented to the public before false assumptions are made such as not covering pre-existing conditions; it does cover them.
2
And then if the Republicans provide some slight of hand and make pre-existing conditions the responsibility of the states, they will have done their job and can blame others for the lacking coverage. Using one's brain to understand that when the law is passed, won't it be too late for people with pre-existing conditions? I guess when Trump becomes presidential everything will be OK.
Can you direct us to the pertinent section about pre-existing conditions, Jan? Or did someone who's working on the bill show it to you as a favor?
1
At a greatly greater cost that most people couldn't afford. Especially if they have MS, ALS, Lupus, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, just to name a few. My 8 year old granddaughter's pre-existing condition is that her mother has MS but it is not considered genetic. Go figure!
2
I believe, all the men who put the new so called healthcare together, and Mitch McConnell, Ryan and the other 13 men who are working on the new so called healthcare, definitely were hatched from eggs. If they were born, like the rest of us, they would care about their mother, sister, daughter, wife and grandmother, if they don't care about other women.
These men, who believe, they have the right to decide what kind of health care women should have, themselves have the best health care for life, and they don't have to pay for it. The republican law makers and the current administration are a group of cold, and shameful people.
These men, who believe, they have the right to decide what kind of health care women should have, themselves have the best health care for life, and they don't have to pay for it. The republican law makers and the current administration are a group of cold, and shameful people.
25
And from reptilian eggs at that!
2
The unspoken fallacy in this column, is the unquestioned idea that the Federal Government should be tasked with taking care of us. It is wholly unsuited to do so. That's how you rack up a 20 trillion dollar tab--with no plan to ever pay it back. All social programs should be run at the state level--because most states are required to balance their budgets annually.
3
Mr. Conservative when states finish handing out money to corporations to relocate in their state and finish cutting taxes where will there be the source of funds to support health care for there citizens. Which states have the budgets that put health care first? Where do most funds for state social programs come from? The federal government! Maybe the Freedom Caucus has an answer that they are keeping from the country on how states can manufacture money for health care but all I see is schemes to privatize everything and develop corporate statism to replace a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
2
What kind of logic is this? How about we all pay -- equally -- as much as it costs to allow the Government to take care of us? Save some big bucks by having one office watching over the money, instead of fifty? We all chip in -- rich States and not-so-rich -- so things even out.
Every single one of us taking care of all our sisters and brothers. What an idea, huh?
Every single one of us taking care of all our sisters and brothers. What an idea, huh?
3
Medicare is much more efficient and effective than the private health insurance bureaucracies.
3
How more ironic can it be that here on the eve of Mother's Day, the Republican Party is attempting to deny those women who do not receive insurance coverage through an employer access to health insurance that covers maternity care. We're not only talking about Medicaid recipients. All women who are self-employed or run a small business are threatened. Before Obamacare, policies on the private market either did not cover maternity care or charged such high premiums that people could not afford them. How barbaric are we that we would allow health insurers to discriminate against moms-to-be or to shove them into shaky high risk pools - putting pregnancy in the same basket with heart disease and cancer. Anyone who would deny women truly affordable maternity care and put pregnant women, and thereby their babies, at risk has lost all right to call themselves pro-life.
26
You neglected to mention that the 880 million cut from medicaid goes to fund a tax cut for rich people. 24 million people lose their healthcare, millions more are priced out of the market. It tips the scales back to big pharma and insurance companies and away from healthcare and consumers. This is a fairy tale so warped, it would scare the Brother's Grimm. Sure it is an insult to women, but only specifically, the rest of us should be insulted too. Polls indicate that there is little drop in support for Trump among Trump voters. So I say, let the carnage commence. Take away healthcare, slash Medicaid, cut funding for education, medical and environmental research, put up barriers to voting, income equality and representation, demand our overstretched police forces concentrate on minor drug offences and making it so hard for day laborers that the women among them are afraid to report battery or rape, for fear of being deported. Any law that causes that kind of harm, should not be followed.
24
Does anyone actually believe that the healthcare bill is actually about providing any kind of health services?
This bill is about destroying the Affordable Care Act, defunding Medicaid and giving the money to the rich. It is about allowing insurance companies to go back to abusing people through denial of benefits and outrageous premiums.
Please understand, the GOP only works on behalf of its donors and their lobbyists in Congress. Once you understand that, anything they propose will immediately make perfect sense.
This bill is about destroying the Affordable Care Act, defunding Medicaid and giving the money to the rich. It is about allowing insurance companies to go back to abusing people through denial of benefits and outrageous premiums.
Please understand, the GOP only works on behalf of its donors and their lobbyists in Congress. Once you understand that, anything they propose will immediately make perfect sense.
39
If an alien from Mars dropped in on our planet and were shown this health plan, said alien would likely immediately observe what a lot of us are thinking: this "health" plan looks like a premeditated effort to gradually eliminate as many middle income and poor, largely female, citizens as possible.
There is only one term that adequately describes a plan that is unaffordable to anyone with a preexisting condition: "government induced euthanasia."
As each week passes, the party of NO and contempt for anybody who is not wealthy gets meaner and meaner. I feel like we're reverting to some medieval state, where people are punished for being poor, sick, female, helpless, minority, gay, nonChristian and the like.
It's as dystopian a future as portrayed in any science fiction film but it's happening now, in the United States that considers itself an "exceptional" nation.
Oh, we're exceptional alright: exceptionally bad at protecting the lives and health of our most unfortunate economic strata, which unfortunately includes an awful lot of women.
Shame on you, GOP: who made you so mean?
There is only one term that adequately describes a plan that is unaffordable to anyone with a preexisting condition: "government induced euthanasia."
As each week passes, the party of NO and contempt for anybody who is not wealthy gets meaner and meaner. I feel like we're reverting to some medieval state, where people are punished for being poor, sick, female, helpless, minority, gay, nonChristian and the like.
It's as dystopian a future as portrayed in any science fiction film but it's happening now, in the United States that considers itself an "exceptional" nation.
Oh, we're exceptional alright: exceptionally bad at protecting the lives and health of our most unfortunate economic strata, which unfortunately includes an awful lot of women.
Shame on you, GOP: who made you so mean?
91
Christine, your first paragraph has given me a chilling insight. Premeditated; we call that selective breeding in regards to plants and animals. What do we call it when applied to humans?
6
One of the nice things about being a Republican is that it's socially acceptable to hate people, torture them and kill them through slow-motion public-policy neglect and abandonment.
After listening to Grand Old Poison on hate radio and Fake News TV for a decade or two, there's simply no good reason why most Americans NOT tuning into White Spite shouldn't just drop dead or bear an unwanted renegade sperm.
Of course, millions of Whites R Us Trumped Republicans are eventually going to find out that the America Death Care Act is specifically designed for them and their premature deaths.
And if they don't die from the Republican Death Care Act, at least they'll have a reasonable chance at being killed by a complete lack of gun control.
And if they don't die by medical neglect or gun shot, perhaps they'll enjoy a forced pregnancy or an all-American medical bankruptcy filing from the Republican 'free-market' medical extortion racket.
The great thing about all of the human misery and suffering the American Death Care Act will cause for tens of millions of Americans is that it's all for a good cause --- massive tax cuts for a small handful of millionaires and billionaires.
"Down With Women's Rights; Up With Male Sperm !"
"Down With Health Care; Up With Sick People !"
"Take Two Tax Cuts and Call Me From The Morgue !"
Dumb White Lives Matter: GOP 2017
After listening to Grand Old Poison on hate radio and Fake News TV for a decade or two, there's simply no good reason why most Americans NOT tuning into White Spite shouldn't just drop dead or bear an unwanted renegade sperm.
Of course, millions of Whites R Us Trumped Republicans are eventually going to find out that the America Death Care Act is specifically designed for them and their premature deaths.
And if they don't die from the Republican Death Care Act, at least they'll have a reasonable chance at being killed by a complete lack of gun control.
And if they don't die by medical neglect or gun shot, perhaps they'll enjoy a forced pregnancy or an all-American medical bankruptcy filing from the Republican 'free-market' medical extortion racket.
The great thing about all of the human misery and suffering the American Death Care Act will cause for tens of millions of Americans is that it's all for a good cause --- massive tax cuts for a small handful of millionaires and billionaires.
"Down With Women's Rights; Up With Male Sperm !"
"Down With Health Care; Up With Sick People !"
"Take Two Tax Cuts and Call Me From The Morgue !"
Dumb White Lives Matter: GOP 2017
321
The way insurance works, everyone pays for everyone else. I exercise and eat well, but I have to pay for someone else's heart attack. I don't smoke but have to pay for someone else's lung cancer. I may eventually come down with ALS or some other type of cancer not to related to lifestyle or I could still have a heart attack or get lung cancer.
When Republicans make these specious arguments about not wanting men to pay for mammograms, (as if they never had a mother), what they really mean is that they don't want to pay for anyone else's healthcare. That means they don't understand what insurance is and how it works.
They are hung up on fanatical individualism and reject the concept of the collective. Then they throw a big pile of misogyny on top of it. They just want to cut health services for women and use these lame excuses as a justification. Happy mother's day GOP!
When Republicans make these specious arguments about not wanting men to pay for mammograms, (as if they never had a mother), what they really mean is that they don't want to pay for anyone else's healthcare. That means they don't understand what insurance is and how it works.
They are hung up on fanatical individualism and reject the concept of the collective. Then they throw a big pile of misogyny on top of it. They just want to cut health services for women and use these lame excuses as a justification. Happy mother's day GOP!
657
Your auto insurance doesn't cover oil changes or new tires, and would be much more expensive than insurance plus the cost of oil changes plus tires if it did. People with higher risk profiles pay more for auto insurance than those who are low risk or drive fewer miles.
Under the Republican plan, people who are continuously insured for the preceding 12 months will be entitled to community rating appropriate for their age. They will be covered for pre-existing conditions, in full. People who wait until they are pregnant to buy insurance will have to rely upon Medicaid, and if they are not poor will have to reimburse the costs. They will have access to prenatal care.
People who wait to be insured but are still healthy when the buy insurance will get community rating plus a 30% surcharge for a year, and people who wait until they are sick to buy insurance will be at the mercy of the state high risk pools.
Insurance premiums for those under 45 will drop precipitously and premiums for those over 45 will increase by 40 to 50% under community rating. This reflects the normal process of putting people in appropriate risk pools commensurate with their risk profiles, rather than coercing those under 45 to subsidize their wealthy elders.
The people who are 25 and healthy will subsidize those who are 25 and sick and those who are 64 and healthy will subsidize those who are 64 and sick. Sounds fair to me, and I am a 62 year old early retiree.
Under the Republican plan, people who are continuously insured for the preceding 12 months will be entitled to community rating appropriate for their age. They will be covered for pre-existing conditions, in full. People who wait until they are pregnant to buy insurance will have to rely upon Medicaid, and if they are not poor will have to reimburse the costs. They will have access to prenatal care.
People who wait to be insured but are still healthy when the buy insurance will get community rating plus a 30% surcharge for a year, and people who wait until they are sick to buy insurance will be at the mercy of the state high risk pools.
Insurance premiums for those under 45 will drop precipitously and premiums for those over 45 will increase by 40 to 50% under community rating. This reflects the normal process of putting people in appropriate risk pools commensurate with their risk profiles, rather than coercing those under 45 to subsidize their wealthy elders.
The people who are 25 and healthy will subsidize those who are 25 and sick and those who are 64 and healthy will subsidize those who are 64 and sick. Sounds fair to me, and I am a 62 year old early retiree.
4
How peculiar is the logic that can compare automobile insurance with health insurance?
If we object to insuring ourselves as drivers, then we don't drive. But it is surely very rare to find someone who decides not to breath because he doesn't want to pay the costs of health insurance.
Many of us -- I'm one -- have not had a sick day in our lives; that is, until we hit the big 50's and 60's and (like me) up to the 80's and up and up. I paid, sometimes my employers paid, for the care of everyone. Without bothering my head about it, because that's what good people do.
What "sounds fair" to you sounds like nasty old tightwad to me.
If we object to insuring ourselves as drivers, then we don't drive. But it is surely very rare to find someone who decides not to breath because he doesn't want to pay the costs of health insurance.
Many of us -- I'm one -- have not had a sick day in our lives; that is, until we hit the big 50's and 60's and (like me) up to the 80's and up and up. I paid, sometimes my employers paid, for the care of everyone. Without bothering my head about it, because that's what good people do.
What "sounds fair" to you sounds like nasty old tightwad to me.
11
Even though insurance is a choice that everyone makes who can afford it and is not rich enough to pay out of pocket for any possible medical care, this choice for some reason must be voluntary and made by individual decision or else it is government tyranny. This purity is perhaps admirable, but in the real world seeking it has the bad consequence of making health care much more complex. In days of yore, fire departments were private and it was up to each individual to sign up for protection or not. The system did not work well, so fire departments were made public so that everybody had to pay and would have their house saved from burning down if possible, even if they were working an insurance scam and wanted the house burnt down.
3
Relationship costs are split between the parties. Health care costs, in particular, can be borne by either the man, the woman, both, or by you and me. The Editorial Board wants me to pay for your visits to Planned Parenthood. I think you should work that out with your significant other.
7
Planned Parenthood covers women's health needs regardless of relationship status. Women have health needs regardless of relationship status or activity, just as men do.
As for relationship costs, that's orthogonal to whether or not women have the right and responsibility to seek and receive care.
As for relationship costs, that's orthogonal to whether or not women have the right and responsibility to seek and receive care.
18
Michjas, if we're in the same insurance pool, we help pay for each other's medical costs. We don't get to decide what particular costs we will or won't pay.
And I'm not in any relationship, so you'll have to explain why you imagine my pelvic exam, Pap smear and hormone prescription are "relationship costs" rather than "routine medical care for a female body." My endometriosis did not care whether I slept alone or not. My cycles did not magically shut down when I divorced. Why do you assume the focus of gynecological care is "relationships" rather than female bodily functions and malfunctions?
And I'm not in any relationship, so you'll have to explain why you imagine my pelvic exam, Pap smear and hormone prescription are "relationship costs" rather than "routine medical care for a female body." My endometriosis did not care whether I slept alone or not. My cycles did not magically shut down when I divorced. Why do you assume the focus of gynecological care is "relationships" rather than female bodily functions and malfunctions?
50
Michjas writes: "Relationship costs are split between the parties."
Are you aware how misogynistic it is to treat women's healthcare as a relationship cost?
A woman doesn't have to be in a relationship to need a mammogram, but unless she's wealthy she will certainly need health insurance to afford treatment for breast cancer.
Apparently you are okay with letting women go without health coverage in order to make sure they and/or the men they're with pay for their own birth control and abortions. But Planned Parenthood isn't just about preventing pregnancy; it's about a whole array of women's health services. Even prenatal and maternal care are too expensive for most couples to afford without health insurance.
Some women don't even have a man as their significant other. Some women never get pregnant. They still need health care for their lady parts.
Are you aware how misogynistic it is to treat women's healthcare as a relationship cost?
A woman doesn't have to be in a relationship to need a mammogram, but unless she's wealthy she will certainly need health insurance to afford treatment for breast cancer.
Apparently you are okay with letting women go without health coverage in order to make sure they and/or the men they're with pay for their own birth control and abortions. But Planned Parenthood isn't just about preventing pregnancy; it's about a whole array of women's health services. Even prenatal and maternal care are too expensive for most couples to afford without health insurance.
Some women don't even have a man as their significant other. Some women never get pregnant. They still need health care for their lady parts.
21
Representative John Shimkus asked "why men have to pay for prenatal care"? Well, the answer is very simple, women need men to get pregnant.
191
...and America needs people to exist...maybe that is why these same people are forcing Women to keep babies no matter what, especially as those requiring them to do so are so unwilling to best help them to be able to do so best or better, which ultimately is in Everybody's best interests
4
And men need women in order to be born.
9
Actually, maybe we don't.
Just sayin'.
Just sayin'.
3
Well obviously, women don't really need healthcare. And certainly don't deserve care, especially if they can't pay the full, highly-inflated costs.
Just who do they think they are?? Certainly NOT old, white, males: the makers. Just stop mooching, females. The millionaires need MORE tax cuts. That's the entire purpose of the GOP. PEROID.
Just who do they think they are?? Certainly NOT old, white, males: the makers. Just stop mooching, females. The millionaires need MORE tax cuts. That's the entire purpose of the GOP. PEROID.
225
The primary beneficiary of Obamacare was big medicine, not the incremental 10 million people who have health insurance. Don't kid yourself. The CEOs of hospital systems and drug companies are primarily old white men who have made generous political contributions.
3
How dare us women! Born with breasts that may develop into a cancer, so mammograms would possibly prevent us from dying earlier. Born with anatomy that may prevent our babies be born vaginally, requiring a surgical procedure -
C section. Seeking treatment for depression so we can take better care of our children.
Boy, Republicans, you better do something about us with female anatomical stressors, like making sure we cannot afford healthcare insurance or medical treatment. Such a drag we are on society.
C section. Seeking treatment for depression so we can take better care of our children.
Boy, Republicans, you better do something about us with female anatomical stressors, like making sure we cannot afford healthcare insurance or medical treatment. Such a drag we are on society.
178
Under ObamaCare, women over age 70, even breast cancer survivors, do not have annual mammograms covered as an essential service in Medicare. It is not covered even with a co-pay. Apparently, that was once of the rationed services that was replaced with end of life counselling. There is no interest in extending the life of vibrant 70 year old women, unless they are running for President.
1
Maybe a few more women should have though of this before voting for Trump. Along with the franchise comes responsibility for the consequences of their vote.
It's not as if Trump didn't promise to repeal the AHCA when he was running for office.
It's not as if Trump didn't promise to repeal the AHCA when he was running for office.
11
MIMA,
Completely agree with you! It's not as if helping female losers and all the problems they get and have or may require by bearing children...is important or anything for society...
...like having a Society...or anyone...
What are they thinking? Who needs our Species anyway? They...
...doh.
Completely agree with you! It's not as if helping female losers and all the problems they get and have or may require by bearing children...is important or anything for society...
...like having a Society...or anyone...
What are they thinking? Who needs our Species anyway? They...
...doh.
3
Fair's fair. Let them also remove coverage for things that only men get, such as prostate and testicular cancer screenings and treatment. Because why should women have to pay for those things they would never use?
Don't these old white men have mothers, wives and daughters?
Don't these old white men have mothers, wives and daughters?
493
You do realize that prostate screenings are not an essential service that must be covered? Check out the listing for what must be covered.
Seabiscute,
Don't be silly!
In regards to having mothers, wives and daughters and let's face it, sons as well...
They obviously already have those.
Theirs.
You are Decent, something that for too many who hold power and have the ability to abuse it, aren't.
That's the only real and critical issue that needs addressing to solve most of all the others, including of course, this one.
Don't be silly!
In regards to having mothers, wives and daughters and let's face it, sons as well...
They obviously already have those.
Theirs.
You are Decent, something that for too many who hold power and have the ability to abuse it, aren't.
That's the only real and critical issue that needs addressing to solve most of all the others, including of course, this one.
Yes. This bill is a reflection of the true regard these lawmakers have for their mothers, wives and daughters.
10
We did a photo essay on the topic to put a human face on the subject.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8703833@N08/albums/72157683462657066
Please link, share, pin, and reuse on your social media!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8703833@N08/albums/72157683462657066
Please link, share, pin, and reuse on your social media!
12
Love it! This old nurse says THANK YOU! Resist!
MIMA
MIMA
7
Hillary Clinton remarked that her favorite analogy to the spectacle of a room filled with men gutting women's healthcare was the image of a room filled with dogs deciding feline healthcare. She was right; male political leaders are acting predatorially about womens' medical protections.
Too many Congressional Republicans, alongside Donald Trump, have neither skin in the game nor concern for those who do. First, that group wrote laws around womens' bodies, now they would just as soon keep us from medical care altogether.
Too many Congressional Republicans, alongside Donald Trump, have neither skin in the game nor concern for those who do. First, that group wrote laws around womens' bodies, now they would just as soon keep us from medical care altogether.
187
And the group that wrote ObamaCare was dominated by women? You have got to be kidding. Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful woman in the federal government in 2010 didn't even have a chance to read the law before cracking the whip to the House to pass the law. She was just following the orders of the white men who wrote the law.
2
Hi ebmem,
Please note that after writing "skin in the game," I added "or concern for those who do." That is a big difference between the parties. As was my reference to writing laws around women's bodies, which is the purview of Republicans.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. Best regards.
Please note that after writing "skin in the game," I added "or concern for those who do." That is a big difference between the parties. As was my reference to writing laws around women's bodies, which is the purview of Republicans.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. Best regards.
3
so Ebmen, this group of men that supposedly wrote Obamacare had no regard for women's health issues? It isn't the fact that men wrote the legislation for trump-no-care it's the fact that these subhuman republicans are denying women access to necessary healthcare. There is a world of difference between Obamacare, which actually guaranteed many health care procedures be covered by health insurance policies and this monstrosity from the the GOP which denies coverage of ordinary health care like pregnancy, mammograms and other illnesses, conditions, and diseases that are over represented by women such as breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and lupus. Women pay taxes and pay for health insurance just as men do. We demand equal representation and will not be relegated to second class citizen status once again.
9
Can we also drop coverage for Prostate exams and Erectile disfunction? Because I for sure would never use coverage for either of these and don't see why my healthcare money should cover them. Also I don't know if baldness treatments are covered but they for sure shouldn't be because that's just a silly cosmetic thing.
296
Good point, but are ED drugs actually covered?
@Tim Clair: ED drugs are definitely covered by Medicare. So your tax dollars and mine are paying for them.
Many private insurance plans cover those drugs, too. The Big Pharma companies that profit from them made sure of it. Of course, just like the Republican party, those corporations are all controlled by rich men who can afford to pay for abortions when they impregnate their mistresses.
Many private insurance plans cover those drugs, too. The Big Pharma companies that profit from them made sure of it. Of course, just like the Republican party, those corporations are all controlled by rich men who can afford to pay for abortions when they impregnate their mistresses.
7
@Tim Clair - Depends on the insurance provider's drug plan like any other medication as to amounts allowed per month, but yes they are covered in most cases.
2
The comments of politicians like Shimkus and Roberts, although undoubtedly intended to provoke laughter, reflect a genuine lack of empathy which appears to qualify as a pre-existing condition for many Republicans these days. A person who evaluates government services based strictly on his own needs demonstrates his inability to represent a diverse constituency that includes...oh, say, women, for example.
Supporters of this bill also probably lack the capacity to appreciate the irony of anti-abortion activists endorsing a measure that would deprive a mother of the resources necessary to care for her baby. In a sane world, the stunning hypocrisy of such an attitude would destroy a politician's career. But we now live in Trump's dystopia, where clear thinking will earn you pink slip from the president.
Supporters of this bill also probably lack the capacity to appreciate the irony of anti-abortion activists endorsing a measure that would deprive a mother of the resources necessary to care for her baby. In a sane world, the stunning hypocrisy of such an attitude would destroy a politician's career. But we now live in Trump's dystopia, where clear thinking will earn you pink slip from the president.
280
All pregnant women in the US are automatically covered for pre-natal care, post-natal care and delivery under Medicaid. Federal law before during and after ObamaCare. Includes illegal aliens.
"All pregnant women in the US are automatically covered for pre-natal care, post-natal care and delivery under Medicaid.
This statement is false. Medicaid coverage for pregnancy is limited by household size and income levels. For example, in Tennessee, a pregnant woman in a three person household who makes more than $39,819 will not qualify.
https://www.tn.gov/tenncare/topic/pregnant
This statement is false. Medicaid coverage for pregnancy is limited by household size and income levels. For example, in Tennessee, a pregnant woman in a three person household who makes more than $39,819 will not qualify.
https://www.tn.gov/tenncare/topic/pregnant
16
The only people I see Republicans empathize with are the most obnoxious sociopaths in the room.
11
And remember that the Affordable Care Act played a key role in decreasing unintended pregnancies and abortions by providing better access to medical information and birth control and by making delivery affordable. Expect an increase in the abortion rate, despite lack of coverage in insurance plans, because it will become the affordable alternative again.
Most importantly, these men all had mothers, and some have had sisters, wives, and daughters. Seven thousand people, mostly women, assembled in Little Rock on January 21, with just two months to organize, plan, and advertise. That may not seem like much, so look around the country at the millions of other women who assembled peacefully on the same day. Women are genuinely mad, and I can tell you that they increasingly reference "revolution" in their casual conversations. (I heard that word four times today!) The GOP leadership may die to regret their relationship with the NRA, their defunding of mental health services, and their jokes about children with disabilities and women with breast cancer. You're correct. It's not a joke. This is deadly serious.
Most importantly, these men all had mothers, and some have had sisters, wives, and daughters. Seven thousand people, mostly women, assembled in Little Rock on January 21, with just two months to organize, plan, and advertise. That may not seem like much, so look around the country at the millions of other women who assembled peacefully on the same day. Women are genuinely mad, and I can tell you that they increasingly reference "revolution" in their casual conversations. (I heard that word four times today!) The GOP leadership may die to regret their relationship with the NRA, their defunding of mental health services, and their jokes about children with disabilities and women with breast cancer. You're correct. It's not a joke. This is deadly serious.
167
For 75 years, it was said that Roosevelt's New Deal saved capitalism. By softening the rough edges of the free market capitalism with reforms such as social security and unemployment insurance, FDR may have prevented adoption of much more radical changes.
75 years from today it is unlikely that anyone will think Obama saved market-priced medical care. Rather, he only prolonged it, and that will not be thought of as a good thing. In the developed world, market-priced medical care still exists only in the USA.
The USA is the last holdout with market-priced medical care not only because of any inherent conservative or free market ideology. Rather, as the wealthiest nation that ever existed we are the last ones who can afford it. Switzerland was one of the last advanced economies to abandon market-priced medical care. It is arguably a greater bastion of conservatism than the USA. Switzerland's women were not granted the right to vote until 1971.
The reason that no nation, including the wealthiest can allow markets to set the prices of medical care indefinitely is that demand for medical care is inelastic. Economics tells us that sellers facing inelastic demand will raise prices until prices reach the elastic portion of the demand curve. Consequently in every developed country in the world, all goods or services with inelastic demand have their prices regulated by government. Medical care in the USA being the only exception..."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1647632
75 years from today it is unlikely that anyone will think Obama saved market-priced medical care. Rather, he only prolonged it, and that will not be thought of as a good thing. In the developed world, market-priced medical care still exists only in the USA.
The USA is the last holdout with market-priced medical care not only because of any inherent conservative or free market ideology. Rather, as the wealthiest nation that ever existed we are the last ones who can afford it. Switzerland was one of the last advanced economies to abandon market-priced medical care. It is arguably a greater bastion of conservatism than the USA. Switzerland's women were not granted the right to vote until 1971.
The reason that no nation, including the wealthiest can allow markets to set the prices of medical care indefinitely is that demand for medical care is inelastic. Economics tells us that sellers facing inelastic demand will raise prices until prices reach the elastic portion of the demand curve. Consequently in every developed country in the world, all goods or services with inelastic demand have their prices regulated by government. Medical care in the USA being the only exception..."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1647632
80
There has not been market priced health care in the US since the 1960's just as there hasn't been market priced higher education. The inflow of federal money has distorted both economic sectors, which has resulted in high salaries for administrators in both systems that cost far more than their contribution.
How can anyone possibly justify paying someone like Michelle Obama $350,000 per year for a part time gig working as the "director of outreach" for a charity hospital and not contributing anything to patient care. Sinecures for the politically connected should be abolished in the charity system. They did not find it necessary to replace her when she moved to the White House.
How can anyone possibly justify paying someone like Michelle Obama $350,000 per year for a part time gig working as the "director of outreach" for a charity hospital and not contributing anything to patient care. Sinecures for the politically connected should be abolished in the charity system. They did not find it necessary to replace her when she moved to the White House.
Lance Brofman,
Of course.
Everything you say is obvious.
Except to Stakeholders who will never admit it. But know it.
And the Politicians who also won't admit it. But know it.
Both for even more obvious reasons!
So the obvious question that must be asked is:
Why do around 250 Million Americans let them get away with it?
Of course.
Everything you say is obvious.
Except to Stakeholders who will never admit it. But know it.
And the Politicians who also won't admit it. But know it.
Both for even more obvious reasons!
So the obvious question that must be asked is:
Why do around 250 Million Americans let them get away with it?
3
@embem - Wow. All the C-level healthcare/pharmaceutical company executives making multi-millions in compensation and you single out Michelle Obama? And by the way, you have the information wrong on her role at the University of Chicago Hospital -- and she resigned her position before her husband took office. She likely did more good for the communities while in her job than any CEO at a healthcare company. Here is actual information for you:
https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2009/01/09/michelle-obama-resigns-posi...
https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2009/01/09/michelle-obama-resigns-posi...
12
It is disheartening to think that anyone who has survived cancer, lupus, or heart disease will go back to being punished for it. Also, disappointing that those who claim to be pro-life are not pro-mom.
378
Gee, my mother survived cancer, paid for by Medicare before ObamaCare. After ObamaCare, Medicare stopped paying for annual mammograms, even for high risk patients. That constitutes rationing, which is what happens when Democrats defund Medicare to the tune of $0.8 trillion.
1
mk,
Not only are they not pro-mom but must be not pro-child as they are all dependant and rely on Mom. So hurt or deny Moms...you hurt and deny innocent babies who depend on Mom for everything...
So helping Mom , helps them.
Pro Life from these so called proponents means literally pro life which is not the same thing as being pro person or pro human.
...or certain people anyway.
And what gift or benefit to God, the Child or Mom is being and enforcing Pro-Life of ANY good or benefit if the existence/Life of that child and/or Mom is reduced, compromised or risked because of the refusal (not inability) of those so called pro-lifers to help save, improve or make better those lives risked or never reaching their full potential because of selfish refusal or thoughts of not deserving the help that could be applied/given rather than if anything reduced if it previously existed?
Yeah...pro-life...as long as it results in living no matter how desperate, bad or unbearable that life is left to live.
if pro-life stops or leaves it at that as it seems to be for those most in need of help and making better being denied because they are poor or sick or at risk and not being supplied with that could be given but isn't despite it being available or easily made available to hurt no other...
...it's meaning needs change and the actions associated with it currently...VASTLY improved and increased.
Not only are they not pro-mom but must be not pro-child as they are all dependant and rely on Mom. So hurt or deny Moms...you hurt and deny innocent babies who depend on Mom for everything...
So helping Mom , helps them.
Pro Life from these so called proponents means literally pro life which is not the same thing as being pro person or pro human.
...or certain people anyway.
And what gift or benefit to God, the Child or Mom is being and enforcing Pro-Life of ANY good or benefit if the existence/Life of that child and/or Mom is reduced, compromised or risked because of the refusal (not inability) of those so called pro-lifers to help save, improve or make better those lives risked or never reaching their full potential because of selfish refusal or thoughts of not deserving the help that could be applied/given rather than if anything reduced if it previously existed?
Yeah...pro-life...as long as it results in living no matter how desperate, bad or unbearable that life is left to live.
if pro-life stops or leaves it at that as it seems to be for those most in need of help and making better being denied because they are poor or sick or at risk and not being supplied with that could be given but isn't despite it being available or easily made available to hurt no other...
...it's meaning needs change and the actions associated with it currently...VASTLY improved and increased.
pro-mom is PRO-CHOICE.
7
1. The concept of insurance is to spread the risk across everyone. No one at this elite level ever takes aim at homeowners' insurance or car insurance, which function exactly that way. Why is health insurance different? Why all of a sudden is it acceptable to say "I don't want my health care dollars going for prenatal care" or to put people with pre-existing conditions in high risk pools? Then this isn't insurance, is it?
2. Our elected representatives are supposed to execute the will of the people. A grand total of somewhere around 18% of the population is in favor of this bill, and it's probably only that high because they don't understand the ramifications of it. In town hall after town hall, Americans are pleading with their elected representatives over this disaster of a bill. People are in the streets demonstrating against it. Are you listening, Republicans? NO ONE WANTS THIS BILL. Yet if the Senate doesn't grow a spine and start listening, we could very well be stuck with something that will quite literally have people dying in the streets - and there's not a single Republican who gives a damn.
Talk about a clear and present danger: it's the Republican party.