Tag Archives: California

~~ Fact Sheet ~~ ObamaCares


 Obamahealthcaresig
GET THE FACTS ON HOW OBAMACARE IS ALREADY WORKING:
1.
THE 80/20 REBATE RULE:
If insurance companies
aren’t spending your premium dollars on your health
care — at least 80% – they’ve got to give you money
back. Insurance companies returned $1.1 billion last year,
benefiting 13 million Americans.
2.
YOUNG ADULTS STAY COVERED:
Children can
stay on their parent’s insurance plans until the age of
26. Already, 3.1 million previously uninsured young
adults have gained coverage.
.
Good health care is a vital piece of every American’s
daily life, and decisions about health are some of the
most personal and individual decisions anyone makes.
But too many Americans are left to struggle each
and every day with a system that works better for the
health insurance companies than it does for them.
The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, builds on
what works in our health care system, and it fixes
what is broken, so that Americans can have access to
insurance plans that fit their budgets and are there
when they need them. It is a key piece of strengthening
the middle class in this country.
Obamacare is already making America’s health care
system work better for everyone. And that’s even for
those who have health insurance, because if you like
your plan, you can keep your plan. Over 70 million
children and adults with private insurance have been
able to receive preventive care – like annual checkups,
blood pressure screenings, and mammograms – for
free. When insurance companies overcharged for
care, Americans received a total of $1.1 billion in
direct rebates.
Lifetime limits are banned: no longer will Americans
go bankrupt because they fall seriously ill. More than
3 million young adults continued to have health care
coverage because they can stay on their parents’
insurance until the age of 26 and children with
pre-existing conditions can no longer be locked out
by insurance companies. States like New York,
California and Oregon have announced that monthly
premiums for their residents buying plans on their
own are set to decrease once the health insurance
Marketplace opens in October.
This is the kind of security that Americans deserve
and need to build a future for themselves and their
children. But there remains a concerted effort to
dismantle the law and move our country backwards.
Some members of the House have voted nearly 40
times to repeal the legislation – and have promised
to continue – while conservative groups have funded
$385 million in misleading advertising since 2010 –
outspending proponents 5 to 1. In the name of petty
politics, these groups are threatening the stability of
hard-working families.
OFA and its volunteers are taking action now to
combat these attacks. We will inform and empower
Americans to receive better care at a lower cost.
Starting October 1, millions more Americans can see
the benefits of Obamacare – and it’s our job to show
them how.
OBAMACARE FACT SHEET
BETTER COVERAGE, LOWER COSTS
PRINTED BY VOLUNTEERS
3.
ELIMINATING LIFETIME LIMITS:
Insurance
companies are no longer allowed to place an arbitrary
lifetime cap on your coverage, so if you or a family
member gets sick you won’t be billed into bankruptcy.
Already, 105 million Americans have seen this benefit.t
4.
RECEIVE FREE PREVENTIVE CARE:
Obamacare
ensures that you can receive preventive care services,
like vaccinations, mammograms, cancer screenings,
annual checkups, blood pressure and cholesterol tests
at no cost to you. Already, over 70 million Americans
have received free preventive care

Airport keeping out WWll Survivors


WWll

Stop the Proposed Fence at the Tulelake Municipal Airport, site of the former Tule Lake Segregation Center, California

  By Satsuki Ina with Stop the Fence at Tulelake Airport
                                                Sacramento, California

During World War II, more than 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were forced from their homes and unjustly imprisoned in ten concentration camps across the United States, solely on the basis of race. The Tule Lake camp in Modoc County, California (near the California-Oregon border) became a maximum-security Segregation Center to incarcerate 12,000 inmates who resisted their imprisonment and branded by the federal government as disloyal. Today, a small airport used primarily by crop dusting planes cuts through the center of the Tule Lake site.

I need your help because the Federal Aviation Administration is proposing construction of an eight-foot high, three-mile long fence around the perimeter of the airport that will cut off our access to the Tule Lake site. Besides being utterly unnecessary in such a desolate place, such a fence would desecrate the physical and spiritual aspects of Tule Lake, which has great historical and personal importance to me and many others.

I am shocked by this insensitive and disrespectful plan. This massive fence will interfere with the desire I and visitors to Tule Lake have — to mourn the unjust imprisonment and to heal the scars of the past. Instead, we will be assaulted with a reminder of rejection, exclusion, and emotional pain.

I was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center. My parents were American citizens who protested their unjust incarceration and answered “no” to the government-imposed “loyalty questionnaire.” As punishment for their dissidence, the government removed them from the Topaz concentration camp to the maximum-security Tule Lake Segregation Center. From there, my father was taken from us and interned as an “enemy alien” in a Department of Justice camp in North Dakota. Incarcerated for no other crime than having the face of the enemy, my family lived behind barbed wire for 4-1/2 years.

I’m part of a group of survivors, their families, and friends who organize tours and educational events at the Tule Lake Segregation Center. If this fence is constructed, it will send a strong message to Japanese Americans that they are not welcome at the site where they walked long distances to eat meals, attend school, and use the latrines. A fence will prevent all Americans from experiencing the dimension and magnitude of the concentration camp where people experienced mass exclusion and racial hatred.

The FAA has the power to protect Tule Lake, a sacred site. In doing so, it has the power to honor, rather than desecrate, the remembrance of one of the darkest chapters in American history.

According to the FAA, in an effort to be more “sensitive” to our concerns, the proposed fence would not be topped with barbed wire — but that’s just not enough. Our nation’s history of the unjust incarceration of those of Japanese ancestry during WWII is often forgotten. We must be able to remember what happened to our ancestors to be sure this never happens again.

I’m calling on the FAA to respect our community’s needs and wishes and reject this proposal. Please show your support for the most sensitive solution: DO NOT BUILD THE FENCE AT TULE LAKE.

Rich Hunter via Change.org


My son Nixon “Wildcard” Hunter is truly a miracle. After a premature birth he’s faced serious health challenges, including a most recent death defying hospital stay — the doctors say he’s lucky to be alive. But our medical provider, United Healthcare, didn’t cover the cost of everything, including his cochlear implant surgery.

I started a petition asking UHC to cover my newborn son’s cochlear implant surgery and it quickly grew to over 45,000 signatures, including yours. Less than a month later UHC called to tell me that his cochlear implant surgery would be covered!

As a parent, I was scared that I didn’t know how my wife and I were going to afford all of the procedures Nixon needed. Seeing the outpour of support on our petition from people across the country who had gone through the same thing inspired us to keep fighting — without those stories and signatures of support, we couldn’t have won. 

My wife and I are excited to move forward from this uncertain chapter of our lives and be a family again with our new son. Thank you so much for all your help.

Rich Hunter

Tustin, California

Fracking forum: Secure your spot


UCS

Register for the Forum Today!

Register now to secure your spot for the live webcast of our Science, Democracy, and Community Decisions on Fracking Forum on July 25, 2:00 p.m. PDT, at UCLA.

RSVP button

Science, Democracy, and Community Decisions on Fracking A Lewis M. Branscomb Forum

Dear Carmen,
We’re less than a month away from our public forum at the University of California, Los Angeles. Don’t forget to register to secure your spot for the live webcast of this popular event!
Science, Democracy, and Community Decisions on Fracking A Lewis M. Branscomb Forum Date: Thursday, July 25 Time: 2:00-5:00 p.m. PDT/5:00-8:00 p.m. EDT Location: UCLA
Register today!
Featured speakers will include: Felicia Marcus, chair of the California Water Resources Control Board; Tom Wilber, author of Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale and Shale Gas Review blog; Jose Bravo, executive director of Just Transition Alliance; and Todd Platts, former U.S. Representative (R-PA). Click here for the full line-up of speakers and program.
This event will be a unique opportunity to join leading thinkers and key stakeholders for a dynamic discussion about the state of the science around hydraulic fracturing, the state and federal policy landscape, and what citizens and policy makers need to know to make informed decisions oil and gas fracking.
We look forward to you joining us and contributing to the conversation!

Sincerely, Andy Rosenberg signature.jpg Andrew A. Rosenberg, Ph.D. Director, Center for Science and Democracy Union of Concerned Scientists
P.S. You can also check out our new video, The Curious Case of Fracking: Questions from the Road, to get a flavor of the types of questions that arise when people are faced with making decisions on fracking in their communities.

 

This is crazy, Washington!


Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

Here’s TJ’s number, call them maybe?

Their customers are calling, but Trader Joe’s still refuses to meet with us to discuss ending the sale of meat raised on antibiotics. The grocer says it listens to its customers, so we’re ramping up more calls. Can you call them, maybe?

Take action

 

To save our antibiotics, we can’t just wait for Congress to act. We have to go directly to grocery chains selling antibiotic-raised meat and get them to stop.

So we targeted Trader Joe’s, one of the nation’s most progressive grocers, to lead the way in the fight to save our antibiotics.

But after presenting a half-million of your signatures, sending thousands of emails, postcards and fliers – and running full-page ads in the hometown newspapers where they’re headquartered – Trader Joe’s management still refuses to sit down and talk with us about stopping the sale of this meat.

This is crazy! Now we need a little help from you to convince them.

Make a toll-free call to company headquarters today, and ask them to stop selling meat raised on drugs!

Trader Joe’s prides itself on listening to its customers. Since the company is headquartered in California, we recently put ads in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle asking customers to call company execs and ask them to end the sale of antibiotic-raised beef, poultry and pork. The execs got a LOT of calls!

What did Trader Joe’s do? They dug in even deeper, telling callers they will keep selling meat raised on antibiotics. Pretty unbelievable for a company that claims to listen to its customers. The Pacific-Northwest is a major market for Trader Joes. Your call may be the tipping point.

We’re not giving up until they do. Help us keep the pressure on by making your own quick phone call — and let us know what the grocer tells you.

We’re tackling the overuse of antibiotics in our food animals on every front – including testing meat for drug-resistant superbugs, lobbying in Congress, and pushing industry and the marketplace to stop this risky practice. Join us in making a safer future for your family by making a call now.

Sincerely, Jean Halloran, NotInMyFood.org, a project of Consumers Union Policy and Action from Consumer Reports