Tag Archives: United States

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Enrollment Ends


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Open Enrollment For The Affordable Care Act Ends This Weekend With 10 Million Americans Insured

The Affordable Care Act’s second open enrollment period ends on February 15th and 10 million people have already signed up or been automatically re-enrolled in federal and state-run marketplaces since November. If you haven’t already done so, log on to HealthCare.gov this weekend to sign up for a plan or shop around to make sure your current plan is still the best fit for you. At least 2.4 million people have signed up through state run exchanges, and more than 7.75 million people have signed up in the 37 states that use the federally-facilitated exchange. Here are just a few highlights of the 2015 enrollment period so far:

  • Almost 9 in 10 qualify for tax credits. 87 percent of people, or close to 6.5 million, who have signed up for a 2015 plan through the federal marketplace qualify for an advance premium tax credit.
  • Tax credits reduce monthly premium costs by almost 75 percent. The average premium tax credit is $268 a month and on average covers 72 percent of an individual’s monthly premium.
  • Most people could pay less than $100 a month. Nearly 80 percent of people have the option of choosing a plan with a monthly premium of $100 or less. The average monthly premium for those enrolled in the federal marketplace is $105.
  • Tax credits will save individuals over $1 billion a month. The advance tax credits will reduce premium costs by over $1 billion a month.

Despite the fact that millions of Americans finally have access to quality, affordable health insurance, ideologically-motivated Republicans are working to take that away for political gain. A few weeks ago the House voted to repeal the law for the 56th time. And the Supreme Court case King v. Burwell, which we’ve written about before, threatens to strip the premium tax credits from the millions of Americans enrolled in the federally facilitated exchange, which would cause a ripple effect that could destroy the entire health care system.

A report by the Urban Institute breaks down the characteristics of the people most likely to lose access to health care if the Supreme Court rules against the law, and found that those most likely to lose their credits are white, single adults living in the South. It is important to note that while the Supreme Court case could make insurance unaffordable for millions, it currently has no effect on people’s ability to receive tax credits. So if you have yet to visit HealthCare.gov to enroll or renew a current plan, be sure to log before February 15th.

BOTTOM LINE: Millions of Americans have already taken advantage of open enrollment and reaped the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. Nevertheless, ideologically-driven conservatives continue to attempt to dismantle the law with no regard for the devastating consequences that would have on millions of

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An Earful ~~ The Affordable Care Act Benefits People


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Republicans Are Hearing How The Affordable Care Act Benefits People

As momentum continues to build up to the March 31 open enrollment deadline, Republican lawmakers continue to make every effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. The House GOP keeps saying they are going to present an alternative, but all they can agree on is repealing the law–which they have now voted to do over 50 times.

Here’s one of the many flaws with that strategy: the law is working. And what’s more, Republican elected officials and candidates for public office are hearing about it from their constituents. Here are a few recent examples:

  • Constituent Tells Rep. Paul Ryan About A Friend With Leukemia Whose Out-Of-Pocket Expenses Were Cut In Half. 64-year-old Michael Martincic criticized Ryan’s opposition to the law, telling the story of his friend with Leukemia who will save money thanks to the ACA and his own positive experience checking coverage options on the website. “It was so easy to get on the site; the whole thing took 15 minutes,” Martincic said. Michael and his wife are currently insured through his union, but they are thinking that they might switch to coverage under the ACA after he found out that they could save $500 a month through the exchange.
  • New Hampshire GOP State Rep. To Former Sen. Scott Brown: ACA Was A “Financial Lifesaver.” Scott Brown is now taking his anti-Obamacare campaign plan from 2010 in Massachusetts up to the Granite State, but times are different now that the law is in effect. Brown was in the middle of calling the ACA a “monstrosity” at the home of State Rep. Herb Richardson, when his host chimed in to say that it in fact had been a “financial lifesaver” for his family. Previously, Richardson had been injured on the job and forced to live off worker’s comp, paying $1,100 for health care through the federal COBRA law and no longer able to afford his home. Now he and his wife are covered for just $136 per month. “Thank God for Obamacare!” his wife said.
  • Health Advocate To Gov. Chris Christie: There Are “Almost 400,000…Who Qualify For Subsidies. We Need To Help Them Connect.” There are a huge number of people who are not aware that financial assistance is available through the ACA. At a town hall meeting Tuesday, health policy advocate Maura Collinsgru called out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for failing to help the hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans eligible for subsidies to connect to the insurance exchange. According to the Star-Ledger, “Collisgru said insurers, hospital systems, advocates and even Christie’s own Medicaid director all agree they must connect people to coverage.” “We’re asking you to join that,” Collinsgru said.

BOTTOM LINE: People are standing up and telling Republican lawmakers their stories about how the Affordable Care Act is working. The question is will they listen or just keep on pursuing their repeal-at-all-costs agenda?

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Pandora: Moments of Love on Ice … On ABC Feb.14


TumblrMeryl&CharliePandora10940521_1079715032054078_6264363490934603626_nMeryl Davis and Charlie White

  Feb 14 (4-6 EST) 2pm PST

ABC Airing of Pandora Unforgettable Moments of Love on Ice

 (December 20th Event,held in Las Vegas)

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Why would we care about Fashion?


RanThis week, we’ve got a huge opportunity to help end deforestation and human rights abuses for fabric production, and we need your help.

This week is Fashion Week in New York, a time where the biggest luxury designers in the world come together to show off their new collections. It’s a big deal in the fashion world, and that makes it a key moment for our Out of Fashion Campaign. We need to make absolutely sure that part of the discussion and buzz around Fashion Week this year is not just about who’s wearing or showing what, but about how to avoid the devastating impacts that the production of rayon and other fabrics and clothing produced from wood fiber in the form of dissolving pulp is having on forests and communities in places like Indonesia, Canada and Brazil.

The impacts of fabrics made from dissolving pulp, made by companies like Royal Golden Eagle Group’s Sateri Ltd., have gone under the radar for years. It’s time for the world’s most fashionable brands to pay attention and be leaders. Luxury fashion shouldn’t come at the price of land stolen from Indigenous Peoples and the loss of endangered forests. Demand that high fashion not only sets the trends for style, but that it also demonstrates leadership on environmental and social issues in the materials it uses.

Add your voice. Together, we can move the fashion industry forward.

Chrsty_TS_HS_New.pngFor the forests,
Christy Tennery-Spalding
http://www.ran.org/

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Progressive Breakfast: 13 Questions: About Greece, Europe, Austerity – and Us


Richard Eskow

13 Questions: About Greece, Europe, Austerity – and Us

Every day brings more headlines in the European debt drama: “Greece elects anti-austerity government.” “Greek Finance Minister says he won’t negotiate with the ‘Troika.’” “Anti-austerity movements gain ground across Europe.” What’s behind these stories? What does the future hold? What, if anything, are the implications for the United States?

Capital & Main Takes On Inequality

California news site Capital & Main launches month-long series on “how economic inequality is transforming California, and what can be done to rebuild our vanishing middle class.”

Greece v. Europe

Europe squeezes Greece. NYT:“The central bank decided that it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral for loans, saying that it was not confident the country could meet its bailout requirements. The move raises the stakes for Greece, indicating that the European Central Bank, at least, is not prepared to bend its rules to accommodate the country’s newly elected government.”

Greece doesn’t budge. Bloomberg:“The government ‘remains unwavering in the goals of its social salvation program, approved by the vote of the Greek people,’ according to a Finance Ministry statement issued overnight.”

House GOP v. Senate GOP

Party split over immigration and funding Homeland Security. Politico:“What has caused the most consternation among top Republicans is a palpable fear that their party could incur a political backlash if the impasse causes a shutdown of an agency so essential to national security if no deal is reached before the Feb. 27 deadline … [But a]nything less than a full-fledged battle would spark a revolt from the right.”

“Democrats feel they have political leverage and have shown no sign of backing down,”reports The Hill.

Can Republicans even agree on a budget? WSJ:“Rep. Tom Price (R., Ga.), who heads the House Budget Committee, has promisedto offer a proposal that balances the budget in 10 years, which would require much deeper spending cuts than what many Democrats—and possibly those Republican senators who face re-election next year—will agree to…”

Trio of Republicans propose actual replacement for Obamacare. NYT:“[The bill] would halt the expansion of Medicaid and scale back subsidies for middle-income people to buy private insurance … [It would] reduce federal regulation of insurance policies [and] no longer require insurance policies to include coverage for maternity care … Their plan includes a potentially explosive proposal: Workers would have to pay federal income tax on the value of employer-provided health benefits that exceed certain annual thresholds — $12,000 for individuals and $30,000 for families.”

Nothing new from Jeb. W. Post’s Jim Tankersley:“…Jeb Bush’s speech on Wednesday before the Detroit Economic Club … was the highest-profile example to date of a Republican presidential hopeful embracing economic inequality and middle-class stagnation as problems that define America. What it was not — at least on its face — was a break with orthodox conservative thinking about the economy.”

Conservatives In States Target Workers

IL Gov. Bruce Rauner aims to weaken labor. NYT:“[Gov. Rauner] said on Wednesday that the state should ban some political contributions by public employee unions and allow local ‘right to work’ laws … reporters tried repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, to get the longtime Assembly speaker, Michael J. Madigan, to voice a firm opinion about the governor’s suggestions on right-to-work laws.”

TN legislature rebuffs GOP governor who wanted to expand Medicaid. The Hill:“[Gov. Bill] Haslam, a Republican, failed to garner enough support among members of his own party. Only three of the 10 Republicans on the [Senate] Health panel voted for the plan; the final vote was 7 to 4 against expansion.”