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SNAPSHOT: Cool; Final debate; Lynx Game 5; Lightsaber lawsuit; Where's the Mars lander? (Video)

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Today's Twin Cities weather, sports scores and schedules, conversation starters, traffic and flight information: Local weather: Mostly sunny; high of 50 Today's headlines In debate, Trump hints he might not accept losing election DFL will seek special session for health-insurance rates Minnesota Supreme Court: A BB gun isn't a firearm Pedestrian killed by car in North Minneapolis Lynx could see record crowd for Game 5 WNBA showdown Tesla announces fully autonomous driving system — but won't… Reported by bizjournals 15 hours ago.

Could the candidates truly fix – or nix – Obamacare? Six essential reads

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Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of archival stories related to the Affordable Care Act, more commonly called Obamacare. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump disagree on many, if not most, issues, and how to provide health insurance coverage for Americans is one of the most divisive. Clinton’s ... Reported by Raw Story 14 hours ago.

What Natoma's Letter Means to President Obama

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What Natoma's Letter Means to President Obama - Watch President Obama's remarks in Miama, Florida at 1:55pm ET.-

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Hanging on a wall outside the Oval Office, there’s a framed letter from a woman named Natoma Canfield. 

For years, Natoma did everything right. She bought health insurance and paid her premiums on time. But one day, the fear of so many became her reality: She was diagnosed with cancer. She fought for her health and had been living cancer-free for some time, but her insurance company kept raising her insurance rates, year after year. She needed the coverage, but she couldn't afford it. So she had to surrender her health plan and live merely on the hope that she would stay healthy. 

She shared her story in a letter to President Obama in 2009. In the following year, during the heated political fight to pass the health care law, President Obama carried Natoma’s letter with him every day as a reminder that health care reform would help change the lives of millions of people who were clinging to hope.  

*President Obama will be talking about people like Natoma today in Miami at 1:55 pm ET: the brothers and sisters, moms and dads, and sons and daughters across America whose lives have been improved, and even saved, because we worked together to pass and implement the Affordable Care Act.*

A letter from Natoma Canfield, a woman from Ohio that President Barack Obama met who didn’t have health insurance, hangs on the wall in the hall between the Oval Office and the President's Private Office in the West Wing. June 28, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

After more than six years of this landmark law, let’s look back at the progress we’ve made:

Natoma's Letter

Twenty million Americans have gained health coverage – not counting the 3 million more children gaining coverage during this period of time. More than 90 percent of Americans have health insurance for the first time ever. Up to 129 million people who could have otherwise been denied insurance because of a preexisting condition now have access to coverage – even as we have seen the slowest growth in health care prices in 50 years. And, the quality, coordination, and effectiveness of the health care we receive has improved.  

Just last year, Natoma wrote another letter. She thanked the President for the Affordable Care Act and told him that she’s remained cancer-free. Her note now joins a collection of letters to the President from people who have been helped by the law. People like Astrid from North Carolina, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was able to get the surgery she needed. Or Ann Marie from Connecticut who was able to detect an early stage of breast cancer thanks to better preventive care.

*You can read these letters and more right here.*

As someone who has worked alongside the President, I can tell you that these are the letters that inspired him to put so much work into making health care reform a reality. 

So read these letters – and tune in today to hear how far we’ve come since we passed the Affordable Care Act, and what more is needed to further improve the health of the nation.

Jeanne Lambrew is the Deputy Assistant to the President for Health Policy. Reported by The White House 11 hours ago.

Hillary Swank Made A Mere $3,000 For Her Oscar-Winning Role In 'Boys Don't Cry'

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Hilary Swank is one of Hollywood’s top actresses. With two Oscars and plenty of other awards under her belt, there’s no denying her talent. You’d think studios would pay her accordingly, but, the gender pay gap is still as alive and well in 2016 as it has been for years. 

In a new clip from Chelsea Handler’s self-titled Netflix show, Swank revealed some shocking facts about how much money she made for her now-iconic, Oscar-winning role in “Boys Don’t Cry.” (Hint: It was basically nothing, in Hollywood terms.)

“When I did ‘Boys Don’t Cry,’ I was 24 years old. I made $3,000,” the 42-year-old actress told Handler and a table of other women in Hollywood. “In order to have health insurance, you have to make $5,000, so I didn’t even know that I didn’t have health insurance until I went and tried to get a prescription filled. They said, ‘That’s $160.’ … I had an Academy Award [and] no health insurance.”

Winning the award didn’t seem to help much in the way of other paychecks, either. 

After earning her second Academy Award, for her role in 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby,” the actress described getting an offer to appear in a movie with a male lead who “hadn’t had any kind of critical success, but had been in a movie where he was hot.” 

“He got offered $10 million and I got offered $500,000.”

Our reaction: 

Swank turned down the role and revealed that “they went and found a newcomer who did it for $50,000. They made a savings of $450,000, probably to give the guy his bonuses.”

Excuse us, we’ll just be over here, shaking our damn heads. 

Don’t know what to watch on Netflix? Message us on Facebook Messenger for TV and movie recommendations from our editors! 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 10 hours ago.

Obama Explains That Only More Government Intervention Can Fix Obamacare: Live Webcast

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Obama Explains That Only More Government Intervention Can Fix Obamacare: Live Webcast In a few moments, Obama, speaking in the key battleground state of Florida, will to offer his prescription how to fixing Obamacare, also known incorrectly as the Affordable Care Act, his signature healthcare law, especially as a premium surge is expected to sweep America over the next two weeks ahead of the election. However, any remedies will be left up to his successor and the next Congress. Battling a barrage of negative headlines about rising health insurance premiums and shrinking doctor networks for people participating in the program, Obama is urging more young, uninsured people to sign up for the subsidized insurance plans offered under the law.

He also wants to encourage lawmakers to create a government-run health insurance option to help U.S. states where there is little or no competition among private insurers, also known as a "public option."  According to White House spokesman Josh Earnest "that added competition in all 50 states would, we believe, have the effect of further challenging private health insurance companies to improve their offerings and reduce their prices."

In other words, the administration proposes to fix a problem that was created due to government intervention with even more government intervention.

Also, we expect Obama to field many questions on last night's debate and the latest media outrage involving Trump, namely the admission he will only accept the election result "if he wins."

Watch it live below. Reported by Zero Hedge 9 hours ago.

Obama: Health care law 'worked,' says improvements needed

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MIAMI (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his namesake health care program, long a target of Republicans and recently criticized by some Democrats, saying millions of Americans "now know the financial security of health insurance" because of the Affordable Care Act. Obama said repealing the law, as congressional Republicans repeatedly have failed to do, won't solve the problem "because right off the bat repeal would take away health care from 20 million people" and affect millions of other health care consumers. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said this week that she expects 13.8 million people will sign up for 2017 coverage, a modest increase over the 12.7 million consumers who picked health insurance plans during open enrollment for this year. Reported by SeattlePI.com 8 hours ago.

OBAMA ON OBAMACARE: You're getting better health insurance 'even if you don't know Obamacare is doing it'

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OBAMA ON OBAMACARE: You're getting better health insurance 'even if you don't know Obamacare is doing it' President Barack Obama defended his signature healthcare law in Florida on Thursday, attacking Republicans for opposing it while touting its benefits.

Obama hit on the various benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more commonly known as Obamacare, such as the ability to keep children on their parents' health insurance until the age of 26 and preventing insurers from denying people with pre-existing conditions.

These benefits, Obama said, are good for all Americans — even if they don't know it.

"You're getting better quality coverage, even if you don't know Obamacare is doing it," Obama said.

"Thanks Obama," he added, jokingly.

Obama also defended the ACA's health insurance exchanges. They have come under recent fire for the losses insurance companies have incurred by offering plans on the exchanges, the increasing cost of premiums for exchange plans, and a lack of competition because of insurers leaving the marketplace.

Republicans, Obama said, have also been attacking the law and saying it is in a "death spiral" because of the person who passed it, not the actual realities of the law.

"So why is it still such a fuss?" said Obama. "Part of the problem is that the law was passed by a Democratic president named Barack Obama."

Republicans have long called for a repeal of the law, and have held numerous symbolic votes to do just that. Obama said that he was willing to work with Republicans on finding solutions to fix the law rather than simply repeal it.

"They can even change the name of the law to Reagancare or Paul Ryan-care," Obama said. "I don't care. I just want it to work."

Obama admitted that the law needed some fixes to keep premiums down and help people afford plans. He suggested three fixes:

1. Expand Medicaid in the 19 states where it has not been expanded. Obama said that since the funding to expand the program comes from the federal government states are laving free money on the table by not expanding it.
2. Use savings from Obamacare to fund more tax credits for those that fall above the current threshold to qualify for subsidies, which is 400% of the poverty line.
3. Start a government-sponsored public option, which he said would be a "fallback" if there are no private insurers in a given coverage area. This would be primarily for rural areas where there are not as many insurance companies competing.

In addition, there is a misinformation surrounding the law, according to Obama, and headlines focusing on the increased premiums on the exchanges or some of the struggles have lead Americans to believe that any issue with their health insurance is due to the ACA.

"People will say, 'Wow, my insurance rates are going up, it must be Obama's fault,'" Obama said. He added that since over 80% of Americans actually get their insurance from their employer or government plans like Medicare, the ACA premium increases have "nothing to do" with Obamacare.

-You can watch the full speech here:-

*SEE ALSO: The future of Obamacare*

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: LIZ ANN SONDERS: The most unsettling outcome for the markets would be a surprise Trump win Reported by Business Insider 8 hours ago.

Obama: Obamacare Worked!

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President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his namesake health care program, long a target of Republicans and recently criticized by some Democrats, saying millions of Americans now know the financial security of health insurance because of the Affordable Care Act. It's... Reported by Newsmax 7 hours ago.

Barack Obama Offers Blistering Takedown Of GOP Obstructionism In Pitch For Health Care Law

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WASHINGTON ― A fiery President Barack Obama visited Miami Thursday to deliver a speech promoting the upcoming health insurance enrollment period, and he used the occasion to settle some scores with Republicans who have opposed his health care reform efforts at every turn.

At times, Obama sound frustrated and rueful that the Affordable Care Act, his signature domestic policy achievement, remains unpopular, poorly understood and the object of unending partisan fighting. He touted its successes in bringing the uninsured rate down to a historic low and guaranteeing coverage to people regardless of pre-existing conditions. He also acknowledged some consumers still face unaffordable insurance costs and offered some remedies for the law’s shortcomings.

The president, sometimes while bitterly laughing, pulled no punches when it came to portraying Republicans at the federal and state level as obstructionists who put their opposition to “Obamacare” ahead of serving their constituents.

“Why is there still such a fuss? Well, part of the problem is the fact that a Democratic president named Barack Obama passed the law,” he said.

“Now that I’m leaving office, maybe Republicans can stop with the 60-something repeal votes they’ve taken and stop pretending that they have a serious alternative and stop pretending that all the terrible things they said would happen have actually happened when they have not, and just work with the next president to smooth out the kinks,” he said.

“They can even change the name of the law to Reagancare or they can call it Paul Ryan-care. I don’t care,” Obama said.
Obama spoke at Miami Dade College; later Thursday, he was scheduled to attend a Clinton campaign rally and an event for the Democratic Governors Association.

The president repeatedly referenced the Affordable Care Act’s heritage as a conservative policy ― including the 2006 Massachusetts law enacted by then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R) ― and upbraided the GOP for the party’s single-mindedness about repealing the ACA, its portrayal of the law as a threat to American society and its failure to propose a workable alternative since this debate began in 2009.

“Early on, Republicans just decided to oppose it, and then they tried to scare people with all kinds of predictions,” Obama said, citing claims that law would destroy the job market, completely take over the health care system, ration medical care and establish “death panels” to deny treatments to the sick. Obama also faulted Republicans in state governments for impeding the law’s implementation or, at least, not facilitating enrollment of uninsured people.

“They just can’t admit that a lot of good things have happened and the bad things they predicted didn’t happen,” Obama said “So they just keep on repeating, ‘We’re going to repeal it. We’re going to repeal it and replace it something better,’ even though six and a half years later, they still haven’t shown us what it is that they would do that would be better.”

The three-month open enrollment period on HealthCare.gov and the state-run health insurance exchange marketplaces begins Nov. 1, and the effort faces significant headwinds. Premium increases for next year are considerably higher than during the first three years of exchange sign-ups, and health insurers quitting some marketplaces has significantly diminished competition, especially in states where only one insurance provider is participating in the exchanges.  

On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it expects enrollment to grow by just 1.1 million people between 2016 and 2017, reaching a total of 13.8 million.

Obama conceded ― as he has before ― that despite the successes of the ACA, affordability and lack of insurance remains a problem for a segment of the population. “There are going to be people who are hurt by premium increases or a lack of competition and choice. And I don’t want to see anybody left out without health insurance,” he said.Obama has proposed numerous amendments to the law, as he recently laid out in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, but the GOP-led Congress has not considered them, instead remaining fixated on repeal and their own vague plans to remake the health care system. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been even less clear about his health care agenda.

“We’re open to good ideas but they’ve got to be real ideas, not just slogans, not just votes to repeal. They’ve got to pass basic muster,” Obama said. “You can’t say, ‘Well, if we just plant some magic beans, then everybody will have health insurance.’”

As if to burnish Obama’s argument about GOP aversion to meeting the health care market where it currently is, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) issued a statement shortly after the president’s speech reaffirming his party’s disinterest in working to improve the health care system as remade by the Affordable Care Act and completely ignoring the ACA’s accomplishments.

“One thing is clear: This law can’t be fixed,” Ryan’s press release said. “That’s why we need to repeal Obamacare and replace it with patient-centered reforms.”

During his remarks, Obama touted three broad proposals to improve the ACA and make health insurance more affordable ― policies that are consistent with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign platform.

First is for the 19 states that have refused to take up Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion to do so, in the process covering millions more poor adults. Second is to beef up the subsidies provided to people who get their coverage from the law’s health insurance exchanges. And third is to set up a government-run public option program ― which Obama called a “public plan fallback” ― in geographic areas with the highest prices and least competition.

Obama stressed that more than 80 percent of Americans don’t get their health insurance from the exchanges, but instead from employers or government programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and thus aren’t affected by the rate hikes in the marketplaces. He also noted that the majority of exchange consumers receive tax credit subsidies that will shield them from price increases. But he lamented that there remain people who have been left behind by the coverage expansion or who can’t afford the coverage currently available.

“Just because a lot of the Republican criticism has proven to be false and politically motivated doesn’t mean that there aren’t some legitimate concerns about how the law is working now,” Obama said. “And the main issue has to do with the folks who still aren’t getting enough help.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

Health Insurance 2017, Are You Scared or Prepared: The IHC Group Teams Up with Zig Ziglar International for an Unprecedented Live Webcast to Rally Health Advisors*

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Dave Keeler, Senior Vice President of IHC Specialty Benefits and Edwin Britt, President of Sales at Zig Ziglar International to Share Cutting-Edge Sales Strategies

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) October 21, 2016

The IHC Group (IHC) announced today a live webcast with Zig Ziglar International (ZZI), to motivate thousands of health insurance advisors as they prepare for the upcoming 2017 Obamacare open enrollment, which is set to begin in just 10 days on Nov. 1, 2016. The webcast will also introduce IHC’s new fixed indemnity product, Care Access Plan.

At least 1.4 million people in 32 states in 2017 will lose the Obamacare plan they have now, according to a recent report from Bloomberg.1 With national projections forecasting that a large number of Americans will be forced to find new coverage, the opportunities expand for health insurance advisors to attract new business. That dynamic intensifies the importance of the IHC/ZZI alliance, which seeks to implement best-in-practice sales strategies to give health insurance advisors an edge on their competition.

“Having had the honor of both working with, and for, the legendary Mr. Zig Ziglar, I am extremely excited about this rare opportunity to bring our companies together to help others grow in their personal and professional lives,” said David Keeler, Senior Vice President of Business Development at IHC Specialty Benefits. “Our new Care Access Plan product that we are rolling out at IHC will truly help many others achieve their sales goals for this open enrollment period and beyond.”

“We change lives at Zig Ziglar International by transforming success into significance,” said Edwin Britt, President of Sales for ZZI and a nationally acclaimed keynote speaker. “For many years, I have consulted as an advisor directly representing The IHC Companies, and I have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Mr. Ziglar and Mr. Keeler. And so, I understand the genuine value generated by this powerful partnership.”

The IHC Group, a leader for over 25 years in administering and underwriting innovative and affordable ancillary products, offers a diverse portfolio of health products that compliment Obamacare plans for licensed health insurance producers contracted with the company, including the following:· Short term medical
· Fixed Indemnity
· Critical Illness
· Supplemental gap insurance
· Dental
· Telemedicine

This unprecedented and dynamic webcast will air live from the headquarters of ZZI in Dallas, Texas, on Oct. 27 with two time-slot options for attendees, one at 11:00 a.m. and the other at 2:00 p.m. EST. For more information on the live webcast, or to register for the event, please visit http://unbouncepages.com/ziglarihc-webcast.

· ”Advisor” – as used herein also includes licensed health insurance producers.

1) Darie, Tatiana; Doherty, Katherine; Tracer, Zachery. “More Than 1 Million to Lose Obamacare Plans as Insurers Quit.” Employee Benefits News. Oct. 14, 2016. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-14/more-than-1-million-in-obamacare-to-lose-plans-as-insurers-quit

#

About The IHC Group
Independence Holding Company (NYSE: IHC) is a holding company that is principally engaged in underwriting, administering and/or distributing group and individual disability, specialty and supplemental health, pet, and life insurance through its subsidiaries since 1980. The IHC Group owns three insurance companies (Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York, Madison National Life Insurance Company, Inc. and Independence American Insurance Company) and IHC Specialty Benefits, Inc., which is a technology-driven insurance sales and marketing company that creates value for insurance producers, carriers and consumers (both individuals and small businesses) through a suite of proprietary tools and products (including ACA plans and small group medical stop-loss). All products are placed with highly rated carriers.

“IHC” and “The IHC Group” are the brand names for plans, products and services provided by one or more of the subsidiaries and affiliate member companies of The IHC Group (“IHC Entities”). Plans, products and services are solely and only provided by one or more IHC Entities specified on the plan, product or service contract, not The IHC Group. Not all plans, products and services are available in each state.

About Zig Ziglar International.
Zig Ziglar International (ZZI) builds champions by taking the time-tested knowledge of Zig Ziglar to create your transformational journey.

Zig Ziglar, was the most prolific and catalytic salesman, leadership trainer and motivator for generations, influencing more than 250 billion people during his lifetime. He founded the Zig Ziglar Corporation in 1977 and ended up authoring 33 books, including the bestseller See You at the Top, which has sold nearly two million copies.

Today, this torch of inspiration has been passed to ZZI President and CEO Michael Ray Newman, who leads a global team delivering cutting-edge wisdom to the highest achievers on Wall Street and Main Street. ZZI calls Michael’s secret sauce the “Ziglar Edge.” Reported by PRWeb 21 hours ago.

Latino Immigrants Are Changing the Politics of … Nebraska!

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If the winds of political change are starting to blow in Nebraska, the center of the storm is a third-floor office on 24th Street in South Omaha. There, huge maps of eight targeted precincts in Ward 4 line the walls of the Heartland Workers Center (HWC), covered in red dots for all the people organizers have spoken with over the past six months. Little stickers highlight the key issues in each neighborhood. 

Every afternoon on weekdays, and all day on weekends, a row of reconditioned iPhones sits on a table next to clipboards holding signup lists and Spanish-language voter-education brochures. Rain or shine, young Latino organizers climb the stairs to pick up their packets and then fan out into the streets. 

This is not an old-fashioned paper-based effort, though. Derek Ramirez, HWC’s data cruncher, has loaded voter information derived from the Voter Activation Network database onto the iPhones. This allows precinct walkers to know house by house whom they’re talking to, and to immediately input the information they receive—updating the office’s database in real time.

“We do 20 houses a night, and I go to every house,” says Lucero Aguilar, who was born in Campeche, Mexico. She’s been an organizer here for two years. “Sometimes people don’t open the door, but the last house I visit always opens to me. We have a good conversation and I get that person registered to vote. That’s where the magic happens. I know the next day I’m going to try again.”

Another organizer, Stephanie Zambrano, came to Omaha with her parents as a child from Guadalajara. “Community members get happy when they see youth knock on their doors, and want to talk with them,” she says. “They’re surprised we want to ask about housing or voting or issues in our community.”

Zambrano came into the workers center after helping win a battle against Nebraska’s former governor, Dave Heineman. Three years ago, Heineman ordered the state’s Motor Vehicles Department to deny drivers’ licenses to young people who gained temporary legal immigration status under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Last year, the HWC, Young Nebraskans in Action, and other groups convinced state legislators to enact legislation overruling his order. “We have gained so much momentum,” she enthuses. “It’s getting out there so that we can make a difference.”

As Zambrano senses, Latinos in Nebraska—many of them drawn to the area by the jobs in meatpacking plants—have the potential to shift the balance of political power. That shift is already starting in Omaha, but is also spreading through small towns throughout the state where immigration has changed population demographics.  

(Photo: David Bacon)

Isidro Rojas Garcia, an immigrant construction worker from Mexico, registers to vote for the first time after having been a U.S. citizen for 16 years. Helping him is Abby Kretz, an organizaer from the Heartland Workers Center.

Nebraska has three congressional districts, each of which has one electoral vote, given to the candidate winning the district plurality. Two other electoral votes are given to whichever party wins statewide. Obama won Omaha’s Second Congressional District in 2008, and lost it in 2012. South Omaha, where fear of Donald Trump is palpable, may play a big role denying District 2’s vote to Republicans this November. And beyond November, Nebraska’s demographic shifts, combined with grassroots organization, may make longer-term political changes possible elsewhere as well.

Omaha’s immigrants confront rising poverty and a history of exclusion, as well as an entrenched elite that has made the city one of the country’s most corporate-dominated municipalities. Nevertheless, changing demographics are a fact of life here. Change is sweeping not just through Omaha, but also through small rural communities where meatpacking plants process the beef and pork for dinner tables across the country. The Heartland Workers Center’s mission is to organize the potential created by this increasingly diverse population.

 

*IN THE DECADES LEADING* up to World War II, railroads and meatpacking plants made Omaha one of the most important industrial centers of the Midwest. Waves of European immigrants got jobs in the factories, and a Democratic political machine rose to power on their votes. In the 1930s, the city’s meatpacking workers joined one of the most radical unions of the decade’s labor upsurge, the United Packinghouse Workers. Black workers moving out of the South broke through color lines, and then used their power at work and in the union to fight discrimination in housing, bars, and employment.

Yet Omaha remains one of the country’s most segregated cities. One census tract has a white concentration of 98.1 percent. In another in North Omaha, the city’s black neighborhood, white residents make up only 5.9 percent. According to the 2010 Census, black residents are 13.7 percent of the population, while the Latino population, mostly in South Omaha, makes up 13.1 percent. “There’s a clear delineation. There’s North and South Omaha, then there’s Omaha,” commented one observer quoted by Patrick McNamara in his study “Collaborative Success and Community Culture.”

At the top of the city’s power structure sit representatives of large corporations. To counter the old Democratic machine, they organized the Knights of Aksarben (Nebraska spelled backwards) as early as 1895. Over the years, another corporate group, Heritage Services, has largely supplanted Aksarben, but the power of the Omaha elite has remained constant.

Omaha’s most famous corporate figure is Warren Buffett, who founded the Berkshire Hathaway investment fund and made millionaires of those Omaha investors who got in early. Other corporate leaders have included Pieter Kiewit, founder of the construction giant that bears his name, and John Gottschalk, publisher of the Omaha World Herald. The inner core of power includes executives from Union Pacific Railroad, Mutual of Omaha, TD Ameritrade, Valmont Industries, Northern Natural Gas, and the America First Companies.

“We are a large small town,” one observer told McNamara. “The power structure here knows each other and basically supports each other. We can call the mayor or governor and we'll actually get a call back.” Said another, “Generally, over the years, the major community decisions have been made by people in the corporate sector, the Captains of Industry. It’s the gang of six or ten or whatever.”

The corporate elite has transformed the downtown, now brimming with office towers, condominiums and a redeveloped Old Market tourist mecca.  A suspension bridge for pedestrians spans the Missouri River from a sculpture-studded expanse on one side to a new stadium on the other. 

Corporate domination has failed to transform the lives of Omaha’s working-class families for the better, however. Hometown meat conglomerate ConAgra Foods was given acres of prime Missouri riverfront property for its corporate headquarters in the 1980s, along with large tax breaks. In 2015, it abandoned the city for Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, eliminating 1,500 jobs.

Black poverty in Omaha averages 32 percent. Latino poverty isn’t far behind, climbing from 20.4 percent to 27.6 percent in the last decade. Poverty among white families is less—8.6 percent—but even this is 66 percent higher than it was in 2000. Forty-two percent of the city’s residents are renters, 11 percentage points higher than the national average. 

 

*BEFORE BEGINNING VOTER* mobilization efforts, HWC organizers first assessed the impact of this economic structure in South Omaha neighborhoods. They began by analyzing census data, and then went out into the community to survey residents and look for leaders. They visited 2,306 homes, collected more than 600 surveys, and found almost 250 leaders.

(Photo: David Bacon)

Schuyler, Nebraska

At a community congress last November, they reported their results. Nearly half of the residents they spoke with reported that their households had to sacrifice on essentials, including utilities and food, in order to cover housing costs. A third said that at least one household member who could work was unemployed, and that they had no health insurance. Potholes and crime were concerns as well.

The main source of the poverty was “wages not adequate to cover housing expenses,” the report stated, adding that “unemployment and underemployment likely contribute to this poverty.” Latinos in South Omaha are concentrated in meatpacking, manufacturing, and construction. When the recession began in 2008, all three industries lost jobs. The Nebraska Department of Labor reports that meatpacking wages for those who were still in the plants in 2013 had fallen by 8 percent from wages three years earlier.

Meatpacking has been the magnet drawing Latinos to Omaha, and to Nebraska generally. Beginning in the 1970s, this industry was restructured with the development of boxed beef. Prior to that, animals were slaughtered in urban packinghouses by the then-giants Armour, Swift, Wilson, Cudahy, and others. Quarters of meat were shipped to markets, where skilled butchers cut them into pieces for consumers.

Companies like ConAgra changed that system drastically. After slaughter, animals are now cut apart on fast-moving disassembly lines, where an individual worker might cut out just one bone, hundreds of times a day. Boxes of meat sliced into consumer-sized chunks are then shipped to markets. 

Corporations in the restructured industry built new plants in small rural towns, closer to the farms where animals are raised. To keep wages low, they brought in workers. “In the small towns where they located,” says Lourdes Gouveia, retired sociology professor at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, “they created a whole new labor force.” Companies sent recruiting teams to Los Angeles and other established immigrant communities, and even placed advertisements on radio stations along the Mexican border.

South Omaha’s Latino community expanded as a result of this flow of migrant labor into the state. Today, foreign-born Latino immigrants make up a third of the total population of 32,362 in HWC’s eight targeted precincts. About 10,261 people in the precincts are foreign-born Latinos, while more than 15,000 people speak Spanish at home, meaning that many Latino families now include children born here. The voter engagement project has registered about 1,500 people in Ward 4, and voter turnout here increased by 26 percent between 2010 and 2014.

“Twenty or thirty years ago, when people first began arriving, they thought of home as their hometown in Mexico or Central America,” says Sergio Sosa, HWC’s executive director. “As they’ve had children, and as those children have grown, many people now see they’re not going to return. Home for them now is here. That gives them a big motivation to become citizens and participate. Children born here are also getting old enough to vote now, so the voting population is growing.”

 

*SERGIO SOSA’S OBSERVATIONS APPLY* to himself as well. Sosa was a church activist in Huehuetenango in Guatemala, a believer in liberation theology, at a time when radical priests organized movements for social change during that country’s counterinsurgency war. He fell in love with a woman from Nebraska who worked in church programs in Guatemala, and together they eventually decided to come to the United States.

In South Omaha, Sosa was hired as an organizer for Omaha Together One Community by Father Damian Zuerlein, a priest at Guadalupe Church, just a stone’s throw from the HWC office today. Together the pair spent a decade organizing the neighborhood’s Mexican and Central American immigrants, and worked with the United Food and Commercial Workers to form unions in the city’s meatpacking plants. In 2006, Sosa helped organize perhaps the largest march in Omaha’s history, when more than 20,000 Latinos filled the streets to protest immigration raids and call for pro-immigrant reform.

(Photo: David Bacon)

Sergio Sosa, the executive director of the Heartland Workers Center, and Lucia Pedroza, HWC's senior organizer

“After the march, the leaders I’d been working with asked me to help them become a more permanent organization,” he remembers. “They promised they’d raise the money to pay my salary, and together we set up the Heartland Workers Center.” The center today has a health and safety training institute, educates workers about their labor rights, and advocates for better labor and immigration laws.

When Sosa and senior organizer Abbie Kretz began developing a strategy for turning demographic change into political power, the center’s funders were skeptical. The duo went to the organization’s leadership base. Workers committed themselves to raising the first $3,000 to develop a civic engagement program based in the immigrant community of South Omaha.

Over time, they’ve convinced funders and local political leaders that greater political power for Latinos will have an impact. “The population of eligible Latino voters is growing year by year,” says Heath Mello, senator for South Omaha in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature and now candidate for mayor in 2017. “In the last election cycle we really saw that they’re engaging people using the model, ‘I vote for my family.’”

That influence has been growing for several years. “Nebraska is the only red state that stopped a voter-ID bill twice, in the post-Arizona, show-your-papers period,” Mello says. “Once we defeated the dog-whistle politics, we set the stage for the DACA drivers’ license bill.” In Nebraska’s Republican-majority legislature, “we have people who want a more welcoming state, who believe in social justice. But this changing dynamic creates a political force so strong that other officeholders have to engage as well.”

The Sherwood Foundation, headed by Warren Buffett’s daughter Susan Buffett, has funded the Heartland Workers Center for seven years. “We’ve seen what happened when they came together on the DACA bill,” says Kristin Williams, the foundation’s director for community initiatives. “We didn’t have to take the baby steps—the young people were a force to be reckoned with.  If this continues, Latinos will have a place at the table.”

Sherwood also funds the Office of Latino and Latin American Studies (OLLAS) at the Omaha campus of the University of Nebraska, founded by Gouveia. Today, its director is Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, son of California farm workers. Under Benjamin-Alvarado’s leadership, OLLAS has become a primary source of the young Latino organizers who walk the South Omaha precincts, as well as a think tank for the research base of HWC’s strategy. “The two [HWC and OLLAS] together are a powerhouse,” Williams asserts.

           

*FOUR YEARS AGO, HWC ORGANIZER* Abbie Kretz went back to her hometown, Schuyler, a small meatpacking town an hour west of Omaha. There, she and Sosa began pulling together Latino community activists. From their meetings emerged the Comite Latino.

When the Cargill beef plant opened in Schuyler several decades ago, it processed fewer than 2,500 animals per day. Over the years, production has more than doubled to 5,500, and the town’s population has increased accordingly. Today, 70 percent of Schuyler’s roughly 7,000 residents are Latino. The same demographic change has transformed rural meatpacking towns throughout Nebraska—Lexington, Grand Island, Madison, and many others. The Comite Latino and the changes it has brought to Schuyler, therefore, portend transformations far beyond Schuyler’s borders. 

The town’s changes began long before Kretz’s return home. Twenty-one years ago, Victor Lopez came from Mexico and got a job in the local plant. In 2006, he helped organize one of the immigrant marches that swept across the country. In Schuyler, it drew 3,000 people—a remarkable turnout for so small a town. Today, Lopez heads the Comite Latino, and owns a small auto repair shop.

“People here aren’t really immigrants anymore,” he says, “and their children certainly aren’t. Our purpose, therefore, is to try to open their eyes about their rights, and urge them to look out for their own needs. If you think you’re going back home, you have no interest in the things that affect you here. But we’re in Schuyler now, and not going back. So what we’re looking for is equality, to integrate our people into the community, and make people respect us. We want to feel like we belong.”

Part of that equation is voting. When the Comite began in 2013, the town had 900 Latinos eligible to vote, but only 14 actually voted. Within one election cycle, they got the number up to 136. Now, there are two Latino candidates running this November, one for city council and one, Mynor Hernandez, for the Colfax County School Board.

Hernandez came to Schuyler to go to high school in 1996, and now is the Comite’s fulltime staff. One of the group’s first efforts was to convince the school district to set up a dual-language program. “Kids that go to it are better off in the long term and more of them go to college,” he asserts. “In our country as a whole, if you speak two languages, you open a lot of doors.”

In the coming election, the Comite is also informing Latino voters about the local state Senate race. The incumbent, a Republican, nevertheless voted for the DACA drivers’ license bill. A more conservative Tea Party Republican opposes him (the Nebraska legislature is formally nonpartisan, which creates many Republican-versus-Republican contests), with the support of Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, former chief operating officer of TD Ameritrade. Ricketts vetoed the DACA bill, intended to overturn previous Govenor Heineman’s ban on drivers’ licenses for young immigrants. The legislature then voted to override Ricketts’s veto. The Comite collected petition signatures to support drivers’ licenses for DACA recipients. “It’s important for our people to know who’s running and what they stand for,” Hernandez says.

(Photo: David Bacon)

Schuyler, Nebraska

Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy has scared Schuyler’s (and Nebraska’s) Latinos, particularly because of his threat to deport all undocumented immigrants. Many meatpacking workers still have no legal immigration status. Although the undocumented population fell nationally in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, in Nebraska it increased. Hernandez tells the story of his son’s white friend: “He went home and told his mom, ‘Don’t vote for Trump—he wants to deport all my friends!’”

“But people are still afraid here,” Lopez cautions. “They feel uncertain about what will happen to them. They don’t buy a house or a car, and sometimes don’t even go to school, because they have to give information and feel vulnerable. They drive because they have to get to work, but can’t get a license and are terrified they’ll be stopped. Our plan is to try to help get people legal status where we can, and support reform legislation.”

Kretz is now starting a new effort, this time in Nebraska City, another meatpacking town near Omaha. On one recent night, she helped a local resident register to vote. Sixteen years after becoming a citizen, he registered just to be able to vote against Trump.

Kretz and HWC organizers are careful not to campaign for or against candidates, which would jeopardize the organization’s tax status. But when people register and get involved, their motivation is often fear of the political climate in the current campaign. “Many young people, and even whole families, register because of the hate they’ve seen,” Sosa says. “People fear they’ll wake up the day after the election and their families will be separated by mass deportations.”

Nebraska City’s nascent committee is mostly Guatemalan, so convincing people to get active faces another barrier as well. “In Guatemala, the war is supposedly over, but there’s still a lot of violence,” one committee member says. “There are often threats by people involved in politics, that something bad will happen to you if you don’t vote the right way. Here, there is fear, too, although not at the same level. There’s a lot of disinformation. People don’t understand the process or even know they have to register in order to be able to vote.”

Carolina Padilla, executive director of Omaha’s Intercultural Senior Center, is another Guatemalan immigrant who finds the same reaction. “We come from countries where political participation doesn’t exist because of the corruption, so people wonder what the point of participation is here as well,” she explains. “The person with the money will always win. It’s hard for the older generation to change, but now we have a new generation. They’re saying, we want to participate and our vote counts.”

           

*LUCIA PEDROZA, HWC’S *other senior organizer, belongs to this new generation. She was born in Guatemala, and remembers when her mother, who’d gone to work in the United States, was deported back home. Later, her mother returned to the United States and sent for Lucia and her sister Gaby, who were then 12 and 10 years old. Her story of crossing the border as a child recalls those of the unaccompanied Central American children who’ve made headlines arriving in the United States in the last three years. 

Pedroza’s uncle took her through Mexico and sent her off with a group crossing the border at Nuevo Laredo. “I had my Bible with me, and I thought, I have faith,” she remembers. “They took us to a part of the desert, and at night we all began to walk. I thought it would only be a couple of hours, but we walked all night. We were going to see my mom, so we packed our favorite clothes. You’re supposed to have dark clothes that aren’t visible, but Gaby wore her best bright white pants in the middle of the desert. The group had to huddle around to hide her, but there was a sense of unity, that they had to protect the kids. After walking, we had to cross the river, and took off our clothes to wade through the water.  One of my shoes was swept away, and a lady gave me hers.  Then we had to run, and at the end her feet were all cut up. But we were so glad we made it!”

Pedroza went on to high school and college, and during one summer her father got her a job in a meatpacking plant. “I’d never worked in a job like that, but I learned,” she laughs. “I worked on the kill side, packing intestines, starting at six in the morning and working till six at night.” Later she worked for two years in another plant. “I was pregnant and it was hard, but I had to keep on working. I had to make a living. It was a union plant, though, so we were treated a little better. After that I worked in other plants too.”

When Pedroza looks at the young organizers coming into the HWC office from university campuses, she knows that almost all of their families share the same work and migration experience. “It’s important for them to understand it and know what people are going through,” she says, “even if they haven’t lived it themselves.”

It took Pedroza some time before she was able to get her legal residence status, and now she plans to become a citizen. “But whether we’re undocumented, resident, or citizen, the main thing is that we’re all human. We all have the power to do something great if we stick together and work collectively.”

Since becoming a fulltime organizer two years ago, “our work has changed our whole state,” she declares. “Our purpose is to build a community that works for all, even though now it only works for some. In five years we could have better schools, better homes, better jobs, and better streets. It depends on who we elect, and on people staying engaged beyond election time. We don’t really understand how the system functions yet, how money is distributed. We have to have a better education on how things work. But we cannot disconnect ourselves. Everything is related, and we’re all affected by everything we do.” Reported by The American Prospect 19 hours ago.

Reflections Recovery Center Announces New Website Redesign

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Reflections Recovery Center launches new website to improve site experience for prospective and existing clients.

Prescott, Arizona (PRWEB) October 21, 2016

Reflections Recovery Center has launched a brand new website designed to inform and encourage individuals struggling with addiction to reach out for the help they need. The new website will serve as an online access point for those in Arizona and surrounding states. The website will address the conditions, therapies, and information prospects and clients need to make informed decisions about their health and futures. As the website replaces the older version, the company invites all interested individuals to explore https://reflectionsrehab.com/ to learn more about the program.

Company Expects Improved Outcomes From Newly Designed Website

The path to recovery starts with information and support. In a highly digitalized world, Reflections Recovery Center recognizes the potential impact website content may have on those in need. Company spokesperson, Adam Bartholomew, describes the goals of the new website, saying, “More people are turning to their mobile phone, laptops, and tablets to find help. Whether they access our new website from a smartphone or a desktop computer, our audience will have the same easy-to-use experience. We think this new user experience can enhance the admissions and recovery processes.”

Instead of searching through several menus, the website showcases new navigation. Site visitors will easily find information about the admissions process, health insurance benefits, alcohol and drug addiction therapies, treatment programs, and contact information. Seamless information transitions will reflect the Center’s mission to completely address addiction issues and set clients on a permanent path to recovery.

The Role Of Diversified Treatment In Overcoming Addiction

Reflections Recovery Center’s newly designed website highlights the customized treatment programs available onsite. Those interested in learning more about the Center will find information on several different therapies designed to enhance addiction treatment. Each addiction therapy pairs with relevant mental health therapies, which allows treatment providers to create a permanent solution to the long-term addiction recovery journey.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT focuses on transforming a client’s thought patterns. Those who struggle with addiction often struggle with co-occurring mental health difficulties. CBT teaches individuals to challenge negative thought patterns, recognize fallacies, and replace them with positive thought patterns. Over time, this practice can effectively “rewire” the brain for long-term benefits.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

In conjunction with CBT or on its own, DBT teaches skills that allow individuals to confront negative reactions and defuse intense emotions. The therapy instills skills such as mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness to give clients the power they need to move past panic, fear, anger, and frustration.

Experiential Trauma Therapy/Emotional Transformation Therapy (ETT)

ETT uses eye movement patterns, psychotherapy, and the strategic use of light to change negative thought processes. Used primarily for individuals with mood disorders, this therapy can ease negative memories and improve addiction recovery responses.

Psychoeducation Rehab Treatmen

Through education, clients can better understand their own internal struggles and the therapies that may provide long-lasting relief. This treatment activity empowers addicted individuals to play an active role in their recovery process.

Addiction Recovery Focused Meditation

Meditation improves an individual’s ability to focus on the present. Avoiding negative thought spirals can decrease the risk of drug abuse relapse and reinforce the concepts behind other therapies, such as CBT and DBT.

Individual And Group Therapy

Both one-on-one and group therapy sessions give clients perspective on their own recovery journeys. Individually, they can focus on personal goals, struggles, and thought patterns. In a peer setting, clients often feel supported and part of a community. Group therapy teaches interpersonal communication skills while revealing insights an individual may not otherwise understand.

Other Therapies

In addition to these highly successful therapies, the Center offers motivational interviewing – therapist-driven sessions focused on change, validation, and solutions. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing helps those who suffer from trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder overcome painful memories. The therapy uses targeted physical stimulation to desensitize an individual’s experience with a negative memory. Trauma Informed Care focuses on the link between addiction and traumatic memories. During this therapy approach, clients work through and resolve traumatic memories.

Reflections Recovery Center’s New Website Links Care With The Client

Every page of the newly designed website reinforces the Center’s approach to addiction care and recovery treatment. Each client receives a customized therapeutic schedule designed to improve rehabilitation outcomes. The company looks forward to bringing information, insights, and motivational stories through its new digitalized approach.

About Reflections Recovery Center

Reflections Recovery Center is an addiction rehabilitation facility located in Prescott, Arizona. The Center holds a Joint Commission National Quality Approval seal. Treatment providers use a clinical background and an individualized approach to create the right therapy regimen for each client. Both clients and family members receive the skills they need to overcome addiction and related disorders permanently. Visit https://reflectionsrehab.com/ to see the newly designed website and find out more about Reflections Recovery Center. Reported by PRWeb 16 hours ago.

Obamacare Premiums Up 30% In TX, MS, KS; 50% In IL, AZ, PA; 93% In NM: When Does The Death Spiral Blow Up?

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Obamacare Premiums Up 30% In TX, MS, KS; 50% In IL, AZ, PA; 93% In NM: When Does The Death Spiral Blow Up? Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

*Obamacare premiums are skyrocketing out of sight. A jump of a mere 30% looks like a good deal compared to jumps of over 50% in six states, and 93% in New Mexico.*

Congratulations are in order for those living in a handful of states whose premiums only rose 20%.

The Wall Street Journal reports Rate Increases for Health Plans Pose Serious Test for Obama’s Signature Law.



Finalized rates for big health insurance plans around the country show the magnitude of the challenge facing the Obama administration as it seeks to stabilize the insurance market under the Affordable Care Act in its remaining weeks in office.

 

“The situation is serious,” said Alissa Fox, senior vice president of the Office of Policy and Representation for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. “The reason the premiums are where they are is that the people we are covering have serious conditions and they’re using a lot of medical services because of their chronic illnesses. That’s clear. And there’s not enough young, healthy people to balance out those costs.”

 

In Minnesota, for example, Blue Cross Blue Shield is pulling its preferred provider organization plans from the state’s online exchange, MNSure, and the narrow network product has been approved for an average rate increase of 55%.

 

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton told local reporters that the law is “become unaffordable for many Minnesotans, a growing number with these rate hikes” and that federal and state action is necessary.

 

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, has gone further and said the insurance markets are already in a “death spiral,’” and that “we’re going to have to change this thing.”

 

The danger for insurers and supporters of the law now is that high prices and limited choices further deter low-risk people from signing up, and that the increases continue and become irreversible.



-*Approved Hikes*-

· Approved Hikes Just Under 20%: Colorado, Florida and Idaho
· Approved Hikes 20% to 29%: Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland
· Approved Hikes 30% to 49%: Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Mississippi, Texas
· Approved Hikes 50% to 92%: Arizona, Illinois, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee
· Approved hikes 93%: New Mexico

-*Just a Transition*-

President Obama calls this a “transition” because insurers aggressively priced too low to get healthy people to sign up.

It’s a transition all right, to hell, for those watching rates skyrocket.

Meanwhile, young and healthy millennials have decided it is ridiculous to overpay for healthcare with $5,000 deductibles to support chronically ill smokers with cancer.

-*Obvious Death Spiral*-

I have been writing about the Obamacare death spiral since the legislation first passed. Some are now just catching on.

Please consider Now, Even Democrats Can see the ObamaCare Death Spiral.



Another day, another Democrat finally owning up to the fact that ObamaCare is a disaster. And another state facing the implosion of its health insurance market.

 

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton — once one of the Affordable Care Act’s most enthusiastic champions — is the latest Democrat to publicly eat crow for that support.

 

With good reason: Tens of thousands of Minnesotans are losing their coverage next year. And premiums on individual plans — which enroll 250,000 North Star State residents — will rise an average 50 percent to 67 percent.

 

“The reality is the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable for increasing numbers of people,” Dayton admitted last week, calling the situation in his state “an emergency.”

 

This just a week after former President Bill Clinton blasted ObamaCare as “the craziest thing in the world,” adding that “it doesn’t make sense.”

 

An S&P Global Ratings forecast warns that, for the first time since ObamaCare got rolling, participation in the program will actually shrink by up to 8 percent.

 

Ever-higher premiums are keeping younger, healthier Americans — the ones whose premiums were supposed to subsidize insurance for everyone else — away in droves.

 

And what President Obama intended as his signature domestic achievement is well on the way to becoming his biggest failure.



-*Obamacare About to Collapse*-

Rep. Michael Burgess M.D., Rep. Tom Price M.D., and Rep. Phil Roe M.D., all doctors, say ObamaCare is About to Collapse.



ObamaCare is collapsing. Its utter failures become more obvious by the day.

 

We all remember the promises of ObamaCare, chief among them that the “Affordable Care Act” would lower health care costs. The opposite has occurred.

 

In his 2008 campaign for president, then-candidate Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly promised to cut annual health insurance premiums by $2,500. When he took office in 2009, annual family premiums for employer-provided coverage, the most common of private insurance coverage, cost $13,375 according to Kaiser. In 2016, those premiums are $18,142. That’s an increase of $4,767.

 

Back in 2010 just before ObamaCare became law, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services forecast there would be 24.8 million individuals in the exchanges by 2016. The actual figure at the end of 2016 according to Avalere Health will be 10.1 million.

 

Not only are premiums skyrocketing, but individuals are also left with fewer choices in the ObamaCare exchanges.

 

The dwindling number of ObamaCare supporters repeatedly point to the fact that 20 million more Americans have coverage now than before ObamaCare.

 

The vast majority of those 20 million, however, have been dropped into a failing Medicaid program. Patients under our broken Medicaid system struggle to find doctors who see Medicaid patients.

 

It is a top-down system that has Washington dictating terms to the states that ignore the diverse needs of communities across this country. That is not a recipe for success, and studies have shown that Medicaid’s impact on the health status of enrollees is negligible.

 

Regardless, 31 states expanded their Medicaid programs under Obamacare. However, it is not going as promised. According to Dr. Brian Blase at the Mercatus Center, there are 50 percent more enrollees at a cost of 50 percent more per person than originally projected. These massive, unanticipated costs will only become more unaffordable in the coming years.

 

Those governors and state legislatures that rejected the Medicaid expansion have been vindicated.

 

Hillary Clinton’s solution is to double down on ObamaCare with more government involvement in health care. She believes the fundamentals of the law are sound and it simply needs more taxpayer subsidies.

 

Her other scheme is to add a so-called “public option” plan even though we’ve already seen the disastrous ObamaCare co-op experience – the original compromise to a public option in the ACA.

 

Finally, as if ObamaCare’s total collapse is not imminent enough, Clinton also wants to add illegal immigrants to ObamaCare at the same time that America’s veterans aren’t getting the care they deserve.

 

One column is not nearly enough space to chronicle all of ObamaCare’s failures. Additional dishonorable mentions include the president’s illegal bailouts of big health insurance companies, as well as a finding by the Government Accountability Office that 100 percent of their investigators with fake documents were able to fraudulently enroll in ObamaCare.

 

You can’t make this stuff up.



*Related Articles*

April 15, 2016: Obamacare Death Spiral: Insurers to Drop Plans Unless Premiums Rocket, “Something’s Got to Give”

April 20, 2016: United Health Will Dump Obamacare Offerings in 29 of 34 States: Death of Obamacare?

May 17, 2016: As Insurance Losses Mount So Do Refusals: “Sorry, We Don’t Take Obamacare”

June 29, 2016: Health Care Costs Rising Sharply (And It Will Get Worse)

September 8, 2016: Record 29% Say Obamacare Hurt Their Finances; Overall Only 44% Positive on ACA

September 14, 2016: 17th Obamacare Co-Op Exits Due to “Hazardous Financial Condition”, Only 6 Left

*Anyone who did not see this coming is blind.* Reported by Zero Hedge 15 hours ago.

Judge Sides With Planned Parenthood Over Mississippi Abortion Law

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federal judge on Thursday sided with women’s health provider Planned Parenthood in a lawsuit aiming to block a Mississippi law that barred medical providers that perform abortions from participating in the state’s Medicaid program.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan III is the latest in a string of rulings striking down similar laws elsewhere in the country against the women’s health provider.

Jordan’s two page order noted a ruling from the 5th U.S. District Court of Appeals that rejected a similar law in Louisiana, saying “essentially every court to consider similar laws has found that they violate” federal law.

Medicaid is a health insurance program for the poor run jointly by the federal government and individual states.

Planned Parenthood said in its complaint that the law, which went into effect in July, unconstitutionally limited patients’ rights to choose the healthcare provider of their choice and would have stopped it from serving low-income patients.

“Yet another court has said it is unacceptable for politicians to dictate where women can go for their health care,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards said in a statement. “Planned Parenthood will fight for our patients at every turn.”

Mississippi’s Republican Governor, Phil Bryant, expressed disappointment with the ruling, saying in a statement on Facebook: “I believe the law was the right thing to do and I will continue to stand with the legislature and people of Mississippi who do not want their hard-earned money going to the largest abortion provider in the nation.”

Mississippi was among many states adopting new abortion laws as conservatives have sought to chip away at the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

In August, a federal judge prevented Ohio from cutting federal taxpayer funding from 28 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state, setting back the governor’s hopes of stopping the women’s health services group from providing abortions.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.

EXCLUSIVE: Fast-growing Cincinnati firm replaces CFO

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Horan, which is one of Greater Cincinnati’s largest employee benefit firms as well as a leading money manager, has hired James Hendricks as chief financial officer. “Jim brings a deep background in problem-solving, strategic planning and analysis and is also experienced in acquisition valuation,” said Terence Horan, CEO of the Kenwood-based company which specializes in life and health insurance as well as wealth management. Hendricks had been CFO of OneCommand Inc., a Mason-based software… Reported by bizjournals 14 hours ago.

Fighting For All: A Century Of Progress With Planned Parenthood

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Stephanie, a college student without health insurance, visited her local Planned Parenthood for a check-up she could afford. Imagine her surprise and fright when told her Pap test results were abnormal. With empathy and compassion Planned Parenthood staff guided Stephanie through a biopsy and a screening that proved her to be cancer-free.

Rachel's mom and grandmother were both teen mothers. Wanting a different life, Rachel turned to her local Planned Parenthood clinic for help to avoid an early pregnancy. Nurse practitioners provided her with counseling, information, and contraception. Now a graduate of Florida International University, Rachel is pursuing a career as a health educator.

This month, as we honor Planned Parenthood's 100th anniversary, we think of Stephanie, Rachel and the millions of grateful patients who have relied on its services over the years.

In fact, at some point in her lifetime, one in five American women will turn to Planned Parenthood for care. With more than half of its facilities in rural and under-served areas, millions of people rely on Planned Parenthood as their best source for healthcare. Each year Planned Parenthood performs 270,000 Pap tests, 360,000 breast exams, and 4.2 million STD tests. It detects early cancer in thousands of women, and prevents approximately 579,000 unintended pregnancies.

Planned Parenthood perseveres as a powerful health care advocate for both women and men. May the next century bring more progress for the wellness of all people.


Over the last century, Planned Parenthood along with other women's health leaders has led massive changes in women's health and civil rights, including the legalization of birth control, improved sex education, and access to safe and legal abortion.

With all that said, the organization has become a political pawn for the opponents of legal abortion and women's access to full health. Many Republicans in Congress have repeatedly threatened to shut down the government unless federal funds are withheld. Recently, some tried to prohibit Planned Parenthood from providing high quality health care to individuals impacted by the Zika virus. As if that weren't enough, House Republicans created a special panel to attack Planned Parenthood and intimidate scientists who are involved in life-saving research. After complete cooperation and providing thousands of documents to the Committee, no wrongdoing has been found, yet this partisan witch hunt goes on.

Today, Planned Parenthood perseveres as a powerful health care advocate for both women and men. On behalf of the Stephanies and Rachels of the world whose lives improved significantly because of their connection to Planned Parenthood, I say thank you to all who have worked with or for this premier organization. May the next century bring more progress for the wellness of all people and an end to the persecution of Planned Parenthood by those politicians who abuse their power.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 12 hours ago.

Dating App Donated $1 To Planned Parenthood For Every Instagram Like On This Photo

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This isn't a political post. Our team is a mixing pot, some of us are republicans, some are democrats, some are independents, and some aren't even from America, but every single one knows how important it is for women to have safe and affordable healthcare. At the end of the day, women's rights are fundamental human rights. This campaign ends at 3 pm EST today, and we will post the check to Instagram stories so you know when it comes to women's issues, we aren't playing around.

A photo posted by Bumble (@bumble) on Oct 20, 2016 at 8:58am PDT



The Bumble Hive stands with Planned Parenthood.

On Thursday morning, feminist-leaning dating app Bumble posted a picture to Instagram that read: “For every like this post gets, Bumble will donate a dollar to Planned Parenthood.” The post received 28,747 likes by the time the campaign ended at 3pm on Thursday.

“This isn’t a political post,” the caption reads. “Our team is a mixing pot, some of us are Republicans, some are Democrats, some are Independents, and some aren’t even from America. But every single one of us knows how important it is for women to have safe and affordable healthcare.” 

The dating app, which only allows women to send the first message, has been hailed as a “feminist Tinder.” A spokesperson for the female-created and led company told The Huffington Post that the post was inspired from the discussion of late-term abortion during Wednesday night’s presidential debate. 

The spokesperson said that Bumble’s team is primarily made up of women, who understand and value the fundamental rights of women. While the team’s opinions vary regarding the presidential election, they all agree on the vital importance of Planned Parenthood: 

We feel strongly that having access to reproductive and female healthcare is very important. One team member pointed out that Planned Parenthood saved her life in college, as she did not have access to health insurance and used planned parenthood for her yearly exam. They detected early stages of cervical cancer, and were able to change the course of her health. It’s too often that women will go years without exams because they can’t afford to be seen, and Planned Parenthood is accessible and affordable healthcare for women. 

Below is a mock illustration of Bumble’s check for $28,747 to Planned Parenthood that the dating app posted in a blog Thursday afternoon.According Bumble’s blog post, the check will be posted on Instagram stories so people can be sure the team isn’t “playing around.”

“We feel Planned Parenthood is a natural extension of empowering women to take care of their bodies, giving them the right to accessible health care, as well as the ability to make the best choices for them,” the Bumble spokesperson said. “This isn’t about one particular women’s health matter, it’s about providing women with access to all of the proper healthcare ―  reproductive healthcare included ― that they need.”

Women helping women helping women? All we have to say is:  
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 8 hours ago.

Republicans respond in fury to Obama's Obamacare defense: 'It's a disastrous failure'

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Republicans respond in fury to Obama's Obamacare defense: 'It's a disastrous failure' Republicans roundly criticized a Thursday speech from President Barack Obama in which he defended the Affordable Care Act, his administration's signature healthcare law that is better known as Obamacare.

During the speech Obama said that the law was working but needed adjustments and that Republicans were criticizing the law only because he was the one who passed it.

"So why is there still such a fuss?" Obama said. "Well, part of the problem is the fact that a Democratic president named Barack Obama passed the law."

Obama also said Republicans could rename the law "Reagancare, or they can call it Paul Ryan-care," as long as they agreed to make changes and not repeal it.

Republicans were quick to respond to Obama, saying the law was not working as the president described but rather was failing Americans.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement that he was "not sure what healthcare law he's talking about."

"He wondered out loud why there's been such a fuss," Ryan said. "It's no secret: It's because of Obamacare. That's why we've seen record premium hikes. That's why millions of people — including millennials — have lost their plans or been forced to buy plans they don't like. That's why we've seen waste, fraud, and abuse. And at this point, one thing is clear: This law can't be fixed."

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse also criticized the speech and pointed to many of the same issues as Ryan: rising premiums and millions of Americans having lost their plans.

"There's a 'fuss' about Obamacare because it's a disastrous failure," Sasse said in a statement.

The Nebraska senator continued: "There’s a 'fuss' because millions of families have already lost their plans and millions more will this year. There's a 'fuss' because premiums have gone through the roof. There's a 'fuss' because more than half of the CO-OPs failed and now big insurance companies are scrambling for the exit. There's a 'fuss' because even Democrats know it's 'crazy.'"

Sasse was alluding to statements from Bill Clinton, who early this month referred to Obamacare in a speech as the "craziest thing" and said the current health-insurance system "doesn't make any sense." He later clarified his position that he supported Obamacare, but his comments have continued to be highlighted by Republicans.

Kevin Brady, the head of the House's Ways and Means Committee, told Business Insider in a statement that Republicans would continue to reduce regulation on healthcare and criticized the speech from Obama.

"President Obama's answer to his law's clear failures is to double down on the same misguided approach that led to higher health-insurance premiums and fewer choices," Brady said. "That's hardly the antidote workers and families are looking for as they struggle to find quality insurance options, pay for care, or visit the doctor of their choice."

Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado used Twitter to express his disagreement with Obama's speech:



Obamacare is anything but affordable for tens of thousands of Coloradans facing average premium increases of 20.4% on the individual market

— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) October 20, 2016




Instead of having access to "affordable health care," Coloradans have seen their plans cancelled, premiums increased, and choices restricted https://t.co/mzilTKvoFB

— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) October 20, 2016


While it is true that many people have been forced to shift to different plans because of insurers leaving the marketplaces set up under Obamacare, the law has resulted in a net addition of 20 million insured people. The uninsured rate is also at its lowest level ever.

Premiums, however, have skyrocketed for those on the exchanges, with some states seeing rises as high as 60%. About three out of four Americans receive coverage from their employer or a government program such as Medicare or Medicaid, however, so these hikes would not directly affect their premiums.

*SEE ALSO: OBAMA ON OBAMACARE: You're getting better health insurance 'even if you don't know that Obamacare is doing it'*

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NOW WATCH: LIZ ANN SONDERS: The most unsettling outcome for the markets would be a surprise Trump win Reported by Business Insider 9 hours ago.

AIS, 3M Partner on Nov. 1 Webinar on Medicaid Value-Based Care Initiatives

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This complimentary webinar from Atlantic Information Services and 3M Health Information Systems will explain what technological, cultural and organizational changes plans can make to implement new Medicaid payment and delivery reform strategies.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) October 21, 2016

Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) and at 3M Health Information Systems are pleased to announce “How Health Plans Can Maximize Medicaid Value-Based Care Reforms,” a complimentary Nov. 1 webinar. In this hour-long program, Dr. Barbara DeBuono, vice president, market development, 3M Health Information Systems, will explain how new Medicaid value-based care initiatives change the way plans are paid, and will also provide an in-depth look into the different types of state reform initiatives, pointing out the challenges and opportunities each one presents.

Webinar participants can expect to obtain valuable perspectives on key questions, including:· How should plans manage the organizational, cultural and technology changes that come along with payment and delivery reform?
· How do they design provider incentives that are effective at encouraging physician change?
· How can plans evaluate the validity of measures and instill stakeholder confidence in the data?
· How should they scale payment models so they address large enough populations to encourage physician engagement?

Visit https://aishealth.com/sponsored/3M-webinar-1116 for more details and registration information.

About 3M
3M Health Information Systems works with providers, payers and government agencies to anticipate and navigate a changing healthcare landscape. 3M provides healthcare data aggregation, analysis and strategic services that help clients move from volume to value-based health care, resulting in cost savings, improved provider performance and higher quality care. 3M’s innovative software is designed to raise the bar for computer-assisted coding, clinical documentation improvement, performance monitoring, quality outcomes reporting and terminology management. For more information, visit http://www.3Mhis.com/vbc or follow on Twitter @3MHISNews.

About AIS
Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the healthcare industry for nearly 30 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals and health systems, health insurance companies, medical group practices, purchasers of health insurance, pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, databases, websites, looseleafs, strategic reports, directories, webinars, virtual conferences and training programs. For more information, visit http://www.aishealth.com. Reported by PRWeb 9 hours ago.

What Doctors Want Politicians To Know About Abortion

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At the third and final debate last Wednesday, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump drew a lot of criticism for his medically inaccurate and emotionally charged description of late-term abortion.

Trump described a procedure that rips the baby out of the womb in the ninth month of pregnancy — a shocking characterization that medical experts have denounced and refuted as a gross distortion of the procedure. Here’s what he said:

If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. Now, you can say that that is okay and Hillary can say that that is okay, but it’s not okay with me. Because based on what she is saying and based on where she’s going and where she’s been, you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb. In the ninth month. On the final day. And that’s not acceptable.

In a blog post, obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Jennifer Gunter linked Trump’s statements to a general medical literacy problem in politics, particularly among those who wish to curb women’s access to safe abortions. This got us thinking: *What do more doctors and researchers who care for women wish policymakers knew about abortion?*

We surveyed OB/GYNs, family planning doctors and reproductive researchers to ask what they wish politicians would understand about a person’s decision to end a pregnancy. Read on to learn more about abortion in the U.S., how doctors view the procedure and what policymakers should know about abortion access. 

** * * * * *

“Abortion is healthcare ― and any attempt by policymakers to separate it from the rest of medicine is artificial.” ― Dr. Daniel Grossman

Every year, more than one million women in the U.S. have an abortion. Excluding miscarriages, 21 percent of all pregnancies in the U.S. ended in abortion, according to a 2011 study. Says Grossman: 

The thing that I wish were better appreciated is that abortion is healthcare ― and any attempt by policymakers to separate it from the rest of medicine is artificial.  Women are more sure of their decision to have an abortion than are patients who go through other comparable medical procedures. In terms of safety, abortion is at least as safe or safer than similar clinic-based procedures that are not regulated as stringently as abortion. Like other healthcare, health insurance, including Medicaid, should cover abortion care, as is done in most other countries where abortion is legal. And finally, abortion training needs to be a part of medical and nursing education everywhere ― because it’s healthcare.

Daniel Grossman is a professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at University of California, San Francisco. He is also director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.

** * * * * *

“The public approaches the decision of abortion with sympathy and sadness regardless of the situation.” - Dr. Laura Laursen

The majority of Americans (53 percent) do not want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in at least the first trimester. That figure comes from a 2012 Gallup poll, the most recent year this question was asked. A more recent, similar survey from Gallup in 2016 found that twenty-nine percent of Americans think abortion should be legal under all circumstances, while 50 percent say it should be legal under certain circumstances. According to Laursen: 

The public approaches the decision of abortion with sympathy and sadness regardless of the situation. Women chose abortion in order to improve the lives of themselves and those they care about. Instead of shaming women, intentionally or unintentionally, we should be empowering and celebrating all women who make decisions that are right for themselves and their families.

Laura Laursen is a family planning fellow at the University of Chicago Medical Center. ** * * * * *

“I want policymakers to understand that a woman carrying a pregnancy to full term confers more risk than an abortion.” - Dr. Jennifer K. Hsia

Abortions have a high-risk reputation, but they’re actually safer for a woman than a full-term pregnancy, underscoring the need for women to understand the potential risks and benefits of any reproductive choice they make. Women have an increased risk of stroke, heart attack and death during pregnancy and in the postpartum period compared to women who are not pregnant. Hsia: 

I want policymakers to understand that a woman carrying a pregnancy to full term confers more risk than an abortion, most significantly when abortion occurs in the first trimester. Keep in mind that 90 percent of abortions occur in the first trimester.  

I want policymakers to know that abortions remain safe in this country due to evidence-based practices based on rigorous and robust research. Abortion will only continue to remain safe in this country when there is protection of the access that women have to safe abortion services. People need to know that abortion providers, whether they are specialists, OB-GYNs, Family Medicine providers or advanced practice providers, do not “have fun” or “enjoy” performing abortions ― we perform abortions because it is a fundamental human right to make decisions about one’s reproductive health. We are passionate about defending that right.


Jennifer K. Hsia is a clinical fellow in family planning in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, Davis. 

** * * * * *

“So many incorrectly think that abortions are a one-size-fits-all experience for women.” - Dr. Julie Hein

Women of all ethnicities, ages and economic strata have abortions, and their reasons for having an abortion range from education and career goals to relationship problems, lack of funding to be a parent, and a new child’s potential to interfere with their ability to care for dependents they already have. It’s a point Hein emphasized: 

My biggest frustration about the abortion debate in today’s political climate is that so many incorrectly think that abortions are a one-size-fits-all experience for women. Not only are actual abortions quite varied ― they range from medications to surgical procedures ― but most importantly, the reasons that a woman chooses to have an abortion couldn’t be more diverse. In my career, I’ve cared for women who became pregnant as a result of rape, women with serious medical problems for whom pregnancy would be life-threatening, and women who discovered late in pregnancy that their baby could not survive after birth. Some of these women decide to end their pregnancies and some do not, but the point is that they have the right to decide. For all of these women, and for all women, abortion must remain a safe and legal option.

Julie Hein is an OB/GYN in a university setting in Southern California.

** * * * * *

“I wish that policy makers understood that poor women are thinking of their current children when they have an abortion.” - Dr. Valerie French

A Guttmacher study from 2008 found that 61 percent of women who had an abortion had at least one child, and Slate reported in 2011 that the proportion may have increased since the recession; that number is now 72 percent, according to the National Abortion Federation. Wrote French: 

I wish that policy makers understood that poor women are thinking of their current children when they have an abortion. Many of the women I see are living day-to-day to get food for their families. They work hard to ensure their children have food/clothes/a place to live. When Medicaid and other insurance companies don’t pay for women to have abortions, children go without necessities. If we want to lift families out of poverty, we should cover their healthcare needs, including abortion care.

Valerie French is an assistant professor at the University of Kansas. ** * * * * *

“Less than 1.5 percent of abortions are performed after 20 weeks gestation in the United States.” - Dr. Sarah Horvath
Only 1.3 percent of abortions take place at or after 21 weeks, pointed out Horvath, and the majority are conducted because the fetus has severe birth defects: 

Less than 1.5 percent of abortions are performed after 20 weeks gestation in the United States. Many women seek these later abortions for fetal structural abnormalities. These malformations of the brain, heart and other organs are very often not compatible with life and cannot be diagnosed until the “anatomy ultrasound,” which is performed at 18-20 weeks gestation. Women who live in the 15 states with 20 and 22 week abortion bans are unfairly burdened by the increased cost of travel, time away from work and family, child care and stigma.
Sarah Horvath is a family planning fellow.

** * * * * *

“Law does not mean access.” - Dr. Zevidah Vickery

Even though American women have a constitutional right to an abortion, state governments also have the power to limit access to the procedure. They do this by passing laws that force women to have ultrasounds, counseling, or mandatory waiting periods before getting the procedure. Other laws target providers and say doctors need hospital admitting privileges, or that the clinic should have certain structural features. These measures mostly result in limited access for teens, rural and poor women. The American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology notes that more than one third of U.S. women live in the 89 percent of counties that don’t have an abortion care facility, and that in 2008, 17 percent of women who had an abortion had to travel over 50 miles to get it. According to Vickery:

Women are referred to another city an hour and 15 minutes away by car. Women who have only bus for transportation, who have small children to bring with them, whose two-day procedures will require an overnight stay in a hotel they do not have money for. Most of these women are forced to carry to term and have a baby they do not want, cannot care for, know will drain already limited family resources. Law does not mean access.
Zevidah Vickery is a doctor in New York.

** * * * * *
 “The majority of women present for abortion care are nervous and have guilt about talking to a doctor about abortion, but that a majority of them feel relief once the abortion is over.” - Dr. Kristyn Brandi

The overwhelming majority of women do not regret their abortions, Brandi pointed out. A 2015 study of 667 women who had abortions found that 95 percent of women felt that abortion was the right choice for them, when asked every year for three years. Brandi explained: 

I think one thing to know is that the majority of women present for abortion care are nervous and have guilt about talking to a doctor about abortion, but that a majority of them feel relief once the abortion is over. There are a lot of misconceptions (as evident in the debate) about what abortion is, the risks, and how it will feel for a women going through it. This creates a lot of stigma around the procedure and the care they get (often I’m told “you are much nicer to me than I thought you would be” because these women expect to be treated poorly). I would want policymakers to know that it is important to understand that laws restricting abortion develop a stigma that hurt women.

Kristyn Brandi is a family planning fellow in the OB/GYN department of Boston Medical Center and the Boston University School of Medicine. 
** * * * * *“I wish that policymakers understood that legal and financial barriers to abortion do not end abortion, but only make it more burdensome and dangerous.” - Dr. Rebecca Cohen

Abortion rates in the U.S. rose immediately after Roe v. Wade, but have been steadily declining since the 1980s. Now, abortion rates are at a historical low in developed countries, mostly thanks to increased use of contraceptives. But making abortion illegal again will not decrease the number of procedures; instead, it could increase the number of deaths from botched abortions. In the eight years after Roe v Wade, deaths from abortion declined fivefold. Said Cohen: My greatest frustration about discussion of abortion in the public sphere is the lack of diversity of women’s perspectives and experiences. Anti-choice advocates have a very simple narrative: every pregnancy is a blessing, and every abortion is bad. My patients’ lives are so complex, and women end pregnancies for so many reasons, from the heartbreaking to the mundane. I wish that policymakers understood that legal and financial barriers to abortion do not end abortion, but only make it more burdensome and dangerous.

Rebecca Cohen is a doctor. 

** * * * * *
“My biggest frustration is that the debate centers around this one small procedure.” - Dr. Anna Glezer

About one in eight women experience postpartum depression after giving birth, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Factors that increase a woman’s risk for PPD include stress, low social support, being a teen mom, having a baby with a birth defect or disability and pregnancy and birth complications. It’s a concern for Glezer: 

My role as a reproductive psychiatrist is to treat women who are suffering from conditions like depression during pregnancy. I also see those who have to make a difficult termination decision due to fetal anomalies, for example. 

My biggest frustration is that the debate centers around this one small procedure, and yet we have not nearly enough debate on how to treat those who continue their pregnancies and struggle postpartum, [as well as] the families who suffer with so many different psycho-social issues.


Anna Glezer is a perinatal and reproductive psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco. She is also the founder of Mind Body Pregnancy.

** * * * * *

“She alone walks in those shoes, and I trust her to decide.​” - Dr. Siripanth Nippita

As a physician who provides abortions, I have observed that every single woman who comes to me for this care wishes things were different. That there weren’t a lethal fetal anomaly affecting her pregnancy, or that there were still a heartbeat. That she did not have to live with the memory of a sexual assault. That she had the time, energy, and resources to be the best parent she could be at this very moment, because that would change everything. She alone walks in those shoes, and I trust her to decide.​

Siripanth Nippita is the director of the Ryan Residency Training Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an instructor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 6 hours ago.
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