Watch VideoThe Trump administration has proposed a new rule for Obamacare.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services — proposed the rule, which would cut the health care law's open enrollment period in half.

It would also tighten special enrollment procedures that allow people to sign up for coverage after the deadline.

The goal here is to make it harder for consumers to "game the system." Insurance companies complain that people wait to enroll until they're sick then drop their coverage after they receive treatment, which drives the insurer's costs up.

And that is forcing anxious companies to either raise their rates or abandon the marketplace completely.

This week, Humana became the first major insurer to pull out of Obamacare for 2018 under President Donald Trump. And others have warned they will follow suit.

*SEE MORE: Proposed Republican Health Care Plan Allows States To Keep Obamacare*

The CMS says its proposed changes will help "stabilize" the marketplace while the government continues to consider reforming or replacing the law.

The acting administrator of the CMS said in a statement, "This proposal will take steps to stabilize the Marketplace, provide more flexibility to states and insurers, and give patients access to more coverage options. They will help protect Americans enrolled in the individual and small group health insurance markets while future reforms are being debated."

But no one knows when or if a new insurance system will be put in place. Trump promised to quickly repeal and replace Obamacare. But the GOP has hit several roadblocks in its journey to dismantle the law.

The CMS will take public comments on the proposal till March 7. The final rule could go into effect shortly after that. Reported by Newsy 5 hours ago.

Magnet Recognition is the Highest National Honor for Nursing Excellence

Mt. Kisco, New York (PRWEB) February 16, 2017

As a reflection of Northern Westchester Hospital’s (NWH) nursing professionalism, teamwork and superiority in patient care, NWH has achieved Magnet® recognition for the second time, announced by the Chair of the Commission on Magnet on Tuesday, January 31, 2017. The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program® distinguishes organizations that meet rigorous standards for nursing excellence. NWH achieved this recognition previously in 2012.

With this credential, NWH again joins the global community of Magnet-recognized organizations. Just 448 U.S. healthcare organizations out of over 6,300 U.S. hospitals have achieved Magnet recognition. NWH is also one of nine (9) hospitals worldwide that are Planetree Designated with Distinction which means that NWH is a teaching hospital and nationally recognized leader for patient-centered care, committed to fostering patient and family engagement and creating innovative programs and services that are fundamentally attentive to the needs of patients and their families. There are currently only five (5) hospitals worldwide that are both Planetree Designated with Distinction AND Magnet recognized.

“Magnet recognition provides our community with the ultimate benchmark to measure the quality of patient care,” said Lauraine Spano-Szekely, DNP, MBA, BSN, RN, Sr. Vice President Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at NWH. “Achieving Magnet recognition reinforces the culture of excellence that is a cornerstone of how we serve our community. It’s also tangible evidence of our nurses’ commitment to providing the very best quality, patient-centered care to our patients, of which we are extremely proud.” Registered Nurses at NWH are incented to obtain higher levels of education including baccalaureate preparation and certification in their specialties. Highly-qualified staff have a positive impact on patient safety.

Research demonstrates that Magnet recognition provides specific benefits to health care organizations and their communities, such as:· Higher patient satisfaction with nurse communication, availability of help and receipt of discharge information.
· Lower risk of 30-day mortality and lower failure to rescue rates.
· Higher job satisfaction among nurses.
· Lower nurse reports of intentions to leave their positions.

Magnet recognition is the gold standard for nursing excellence and is a factor when the public judges health care organizations. U.S. News & World Report’s annual showcase of “America’s Best Hospitals” includes Magnet recognition in its ranking criteria for quality of inpatient care.

The Magnet Model provides a framework for nursing practice, research, and measurement of outcomes. Through this framework, ANCC evaluates applicants across a number of components and dimensions to gauge an organization’s nursing excellence.

The foundation of this model comprises various elements deemed essential to delivering superior patient care. These include the quality of nursing leadership and coordination and collaboration across specialties, as well as processes for measuring and improving the quality and delivery of care.

To achieve Magnet recognition, organizations must pass a rigorous and lengthy process that demands widespread participation from leadership and staff. This process includes an electronic application, written patient care documentation, an on-site visit, and a review by the Commission on Magnet Recognition.

“We have achieved Magnet recognition on the heels of several other noteworthy achievements in 2016 that speak to the overarching quality of care and focus on patient and family engagement that can be found at Northern Westchester Hospital,” said Spano-Szekely. In addition to re-designation as a Planetree Designated Patient-Centered Hospital with Distinction, NWH received re-accreditation by the Joint Commission, and earned its fourth consecutive “A” Grade for Patient Safety in the fall 2016 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade.

About Northern Westchester Hospital
Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH), a member of the Northwell Health, provides quality, patient-centered care that is close to home through a unique combination of medical expertise, leading-edge technology, and a commitment to humanity. Over 650 highly-skilled physicians, state-of-the-art technology and professional staff of caregivers are all in place to ensure that you and your family receive treatment in a caring, respectful and nurturing environment. NWH has established extensive internal quality measurements that surpass the standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) National Hospital Quality Measures. Our high-quality standards help to ensure that the treatment you receive at NWH is among the best in the nation. For more information, please visit http://www.nwhc.net and connect with us on Facebook.

About Northwell Health
Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals and over 550 outpatient facilities. We care for more than two million people annually in the metro New York area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 61,000 employees – 15,000+ nurses and nearly 3,400 physicians, including nearly 2,700 members of Northwell Health Physician Partners -- are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institute. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and the School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. And we offer health insurance through CareConnect. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu.

About ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program
The Magnet Recognition Program — administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the largest and most prominent nurses credentialing organization in the world — identifies health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice. The Magnet Recognition Program is the highest national honor for nursing excellence and provides consumers with the ultimate benchmark for measuring quality of care. For more information about the Magnet Recognition Program and current statistics, visit http://www.nursecredentialing.org/magnet.

Northern Westchester Hospital Contact:
Gretchen Mullin    
Director, Marketing & Public Affairs
gmullin(at)nwhc(dot)net
914-666-1266 Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.

Here we go again. President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) say their proposals for repealing and “replacing” the Affordable Care Act will be ready really, really soon. Next month, in fact.

And they swear this won’t be like the other million times Republicans have made the same promise and failed to follow through.

Trump and Ryan made their comments at separate news conferences on Thursday, a few hours apart. Ryan’s came after a closed-door House meeting in which he and his lieutenants presented the broad brushstrokes ― again ― of what they are calling a “repeal plus” strategy.

Under this plan, they would first pass a bill stripping out the law’s funding and putting some elements of their replacement plan in place. Legislation to repeal the rest of the law and fill out the replacement would come later. At some point. Whenever.

Rank-and-file House Republicans didn’t seem to get the memo. Here’s Politico on lawmakers’ reaction to the presentation about the Affordable Care Act “replacement” on Thursday:

GOP leaders presented a menu of options for a health care alternative at the closed-door session, according to lawmakers in the room. But the lack of consensus was apparent as members left. In addition to questions over Medicaid, conservatives took issue with proposals to replace the health care law’s subsidies with tax credits to help consumers buy insurance. Many members also were lukewarm to ideas floated to fund a legislative package. ...

The continued discord seven weeks into the new Congress brought into high relief Republicans’ struggle to get on the same page to fulfill their most basic campaign pledge — a task that is turning out to be more complicated than they imagined.

There’s more of that in the Politico article, and it shows that Republicans have reckoned with few of the questions Congress and the White House need to answer in order to repeal the Affordable Care Act without completely blowing up the health care system. Apart from agreeing that “Obamacare” is a monstrosity, of course.

Congressional Republicans are so mixed up about what to do on health care that they can’t even agree on whether the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion ― which a number of GOP governors adopted in their states ― should go away, along with the rest of the law.

That’s right: There are Republicans who aren’t sure whether they want to get rid of a literal government-run entitlement program that redistributes wealth to the poor in the form of health coverage.

As America has plainly seen since Congress reconvened post-election, the GOP is finally facing down a reality it had the luxury to ignore when Barack Obama was president.

The Affordable Care Act provides health coverage to more than 20 million previously uninsured people. The law also changed expectations about what health insurance should do and who it’s for ― especially when it comes to guaranteeing access to coverage for people who have pre-existing conditions that would have locked them out of of the insurance market before the law.

Trump and Republicans in Congress have made noises about making sure no one loses coverage, except when they won’t guarantee that, or when they promise merely that people covered now won’t lose it right away, but at some future date instead.

They’re still stuck between their promises that health care after Obamacare will be “much less expensive and much better,” as Trump put it, and the reality that upending the Affordable Care Act inevitably will result in millions of people being worse off, while some unknown number of people might be better off.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) doesn’t seem to be doing anything at all on health care right now. And there’s a showdown in the making between conservatives in both chambers of Congress who want to burn Obamacare to the ground, never mind the consequences, and Senate Republicans who think maybe it’s not a great idea to smash the health care system with the largest available hammer until they have a notion of what they might build out of the wreckage.

But hey! Maybe this time they’ll pull it off. Maybe Trump’s White House ― not exactly making a reputation as a laboratory of innovative policy ideas ― and Ryan’s leadership team ― not exactly renowned for having its finger on the pulse of the GOP caucus ― is just a couple weeks from figuring out how to keep their promise to kill off that evil Obamacare without screwing anyone (or at least not anyone they care about).

Don’t bet the kids’ college fund on it, though.

Here’s what we do know: During Thursday’s meeting, House Republican leaders circulated a briefing paper outlining the GOP strategy for health care reform. It was basically the same as what Ryan and the leadership outlined over the summer with “A Better Way” proposal.

It calls for replacing the Affordable Care Act with a much weaker set of insurance regulations and tax credits that are based on age, rather than income. It also proposes phasing out the expansion of Medicaid, and then transforming the entire low-income health program by giving states more control and reducing federal funding.

Like the Better Way proposal, this new paper doesn’t include specifics, such as the value of those tax credits, or the actual formula for calculating Medicaid funds. Ryan, in his press conference, said his leadership team had submitted proposals to the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation to evaluate how the proposals will affect insurance coverage and the budget.

That could mean Republicans have agreed on the numbers and aren’t making them public yet, or perhaps that they are close and just fine-tuning them.

It could also mean that, once again, Ryan is trying to create the illusion of progress, as he and other Republican leaders have been doing now for six years, 11 months and counting.

-- 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 3 hours ago.

NEW YORK (AP) " Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Thursday:Molina Healthcare Inc., down $10.71 to $49.18The health insurance company had a weak fourth quarter as its government health care exchange business struggled.TripAdvisor... Reported by New Zealand Herald 39 minutes ago.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than 20 million American consumers took advantage of the benefits offered by health savings accounts (HSA) in 2016, according to a survey conducted by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Since the introduction of HSAs in 2004, enrollment has grown steadily. Over the last decade, HSA participation has grown from just 3.2 million in 2006 to 20.2 million in 2016. On average, plans surveyed in 2015 and 2016 enrolled an additional 648,000 consumers, an average Reported by Business Wire 57 minutes ago.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to lead the government's major health insurance programs says maternity coverage should be optional for patients. Reported by CNSNews.com 1 day ago.

The health insurance company had a weak fourth quarter as its government health care exchange business struggled. The rental car company disclosed weak earnings and revenue as rental volume and pricing didn't meet its projections. The direct seller of cosmetics announced weak results as revenue fell, the number of sales representatives decreased and bad debt costs rose. Reported by SeattlePI.com 1 day ago.

*Business Wire India*

· *From a locksmith’s workshop to a global technology company*
· *Voith President and CEO Lienhard says: “There are enormous opportunities for Voith.”*
· *Throughout 2017, 19,000 employees at 160 global locations will be celebrating the event *
· *Ceremonial Act with guests from around the world at the headquarters in Heidenheim in the summer.*
· *Voith will support 150 charitable and social projects around the globe *

Voith, a family owned company, is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2017. On January 27, 1867, Friedrich Voith took over the locksmith’s workshop owned by his father, Johann Matthäus, which was located in Heidenheim on the river Brenz. That was the beginning of the family-owned company’s global success story. “We don’t know what Friedrich Voith imagined at the time,” says Dr. Hubert Lienhard, president and CEO of Voith, “but today we see what became of his ideas and dreams as a result of hard work, passion, and the dedication of generations of Voith employees: a global technology company with around 19,000 employees in more than 60 countries, which has made industrial history in many of its markets over the last 150 years. A family-owned company with strong values and a unique company culture.”
 
*Welcome to the next 150 years!*
 
“We are proud of our rich, successful history. But in our anniversary year, we will primarily be looking to the future,” says Voith CEO Lienhard. “That is what we mean when we say ‘Welcome to the next 150 years.’ Friedrich Voith saw the major opportunities in his time and seized them decisively. We have preserved this entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit. We want to take a decisive role in shaping the fourth industrial revolution in the 21st century following the example of our grounding father Friedrich Voith, who was one of the pioneers of the first industrial revolution.”
 
The company is targeting an additional expansion in 2017, in particular through digital applications. For this end, the company built the new Voith Digital Solutions Group Division in which the company brings together its activities in the fields of IT, automation, software and sensor technology.
 
“In our founding year, 1867, electricity, paper and mobility were restricted to a limited number of people. The world was a different place. Since that time, Voith technologies have helped to change things,” Lienhard says. “Today, we are on the threshold of major new opportunities. The world of industry is becoming a digital one. We are looking forward to that. The people at Voith are at home with change – there is no other way to grow that old.”
 
*The Voith story – innovations, internationality and sustainable corporate leadership*
 
As a visionary and courageous entrepreneur, Friedrich Voith recognized the enormous opportunities that industrialization offered in the second half of the 19th century. With innovations like the wood grinder and the refiner, Voith made paper available as a mass-market product for the first time. The first complete paper machine was shipped as early as 1881. By 1899, Voith was already delivering the first paper machine to the then czardom of Russia. At the same time, Voith became known as a global pioneer in hydropower. The first Voith turbine left the factory in 1870. In 1903, the company shipped what was at the time the world’s largest turbine for a hydropower plant in Niagara Falls. In 1910, Voith constructed China’s first hydropower plant. Voith started its business in India in 1911 with the delivery of the first generators for the Khopoli hydropower plant, culminating in the inauguration of the new factory for hydropower plant equipment in Vadodara in 2010.
 
The company’s innovative power and internationalization continued into the 20th century, when groundbreaking innovations like the Voith Schneider Propeller (marine propulsion), the Kaplan turbine, developing the hydrodynamic principle (Föttinger principle) for countless applications in the field of short-distance public transport and in industry as well as the deinking process that made it possible to use scrap paper in paper manufacture, are inseparable from the Voith name and are now considered industry standards.
 
Aside from technological milestones and international growth, the name Voith has also stood for corporate social responsibility since the company’s foundation. Under Friedrich Voith, the company was one of the first to introduce health insurance for its employees. For more than 100 years, Voith was a pioneer in dual education programs and today provides training based on the German vocational training model in many locations, such as in Brazil and China.
 
Today, the Voith technology group is active in five markets: Energy, Oil & Gas, Paper, Raw Materials, and Transport & Automotive. With approximately 4,000 active patents, the company is the technological leader in many fields of industry.
 
*At the heart of the festivities: the employees*
 
“In the anniversary year, we would like to celebrate with the people who have made and continue to make significant contributions to Voith’s success story: our employees,” says Voith CEO Hubert Lienhard. “I want the celebrations to be just as international and diverse as Voith itself.” Between February and the end of July, the company is planning around 260 employee events and family days worldwide for employees from all of the company’s approximately 160 locations. Guided by the motto “Welcome to the next 150 years,” the local celebrations will be organized to fit each location.
 
On February 10, the employee event in Hyderabad India kicked off the celebrations for the whole Voith Group worldwide. Members of the Voith family, the Chairman of the Management Board of Voith Digital Solutions, Dr. Roland Münch, Dr. Uwe Knotzer, the Chairman of the Management Board of Voith Turbo, and of course the management team of our Indian companies celebrated together with all employees from Voith Turbo. About 250 employees will witness this historic moment.
 
On the following day February 11, the employee event for the approximately 330 employees took place in New Delhi India. This event was the largest ever celebration in India; the Chairman of the Management Board of Voith Digital Solutions, Dr. Roland Münch and Uwe Wehnhardt, Chairman of the Management Board of Voith Hydro, joined the celebration together with the local Indian management team: “Celebrating 150 years of Voith is celebrating our work, our contributions and the success of generations of Voithians! That is why it is a great pleasure to us to host our employee events”, said hosts for the events Mr. Debashis Basu, Managing Director of Voith Turbo, Hyderabad, as well as Mr. Ravi Kalra, Managing Director & CEO, Voith Hydro India and Mr. Krishna Kumar, President, Voith Paper India.
 
The next employee event of Voith in India will be held in Kolkata, Friday, February 17. In total, around 3900 employees will gradually hold celebrations in more than 40 locations in APAC in the next few months.  
 
In summer 2017, the festivities to mark the company’s 150th anniversary will reach their high point in Heidenheim, Germany, where Voith was founded and still has its headquarters: On July 14, the event for the approximately 4,500 employees who work at the location will take place. On the following day, July 15, the employees will have the chance to show their families around where they work. The Ceremonial Act in summer forms the conclusion of the anniversary and will focus primarily on the future of industrialization. Guests from the worlds of politics, business, and culture are expected to celebrate the company’s 150-year history and its future at the Heidenheim congress center.
 
*Supporting 150 social and charitable projects around the world*
 
For 150 years, the Voith company has been owned by the Voith family. A key element of Voith’s history was, and still is, its strong focus on values and adoption of sustainable corporate leadership. “Voith has been and is a good neighbor at all its locations around the world,” according to Lienhard. “During the anniversary year, it is important to us to give something back to the communities and locations that Voith has called home, in some cases for many decades.”
 
That is why the company will further expand its traditionally strong support for cultural, social and sporting activities at its locations during the anniversary year. With the motto “150 Good Causes” in mind, Voith will support 150 local projects in the areas of culture, schools, education and research, as well as sport. This support will be provided at every location by Voith employees.
 
As the first location in Asia Pacific region where the employee event is held, Hyderabad in India also takes the lead in supporting “150 Good Causes” projects in the areas of schools and education, such as: provide science lab equipment and furniture to local schools, build a toilet facility in a school and sponsor hearing aids to deaf & dumb children. In Hyderabad, Voith donated INR 100.000 to the Cherish Foundation. At the same time, New Delhi also focuses on “150 Good Causes” projects in the areas of schools and education, such as: provide stationary & infrastructure for the public school to be used by poor students, set up a library in the classroom for underprivileged children and arrange lunch and sports events.
 
In addition to these activities, a total of 150 sporting events will be held for a good cause at the locations, which employees will organize based on their favorite sports. Voith will donate €1 for every kilometer over the distance traveled during these events combined, up to a total of €150,000, to an international education project. 
*About Voith
​*
For 150 years, Voith technology has been inspiring customers, business partners, and employees around the world. Founded in 1867, Voith is now one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe, with around 19,000 employees, €4.3 billion in revenues, and locations in over 60 countries. As a technology leader, Voith sets the standards in the Energy, Oil & Gas, Paper, Raw Materials, and Transport & Automotive markets.
 
Welcome to the next 150 years.

Social Media Handles –

*Twitter:* @voithgmbh Reported by Business Wire India 18 hours ago.

Arriving in Wichita from India at age 16, Abdul Arif had no clue what “diversity” meant. It wasn’t until he started law school in his 40s that he began to understand the importance of diversity and inclusiveness. In 2010 when thousands of Wichitans lost their jobs and health insurance in the economic downturn, Arif had a “Road to Damascus” moment when meeting with a distressed client who needed to file for bankruptcy. Unable to erase his client’s image from his head, Arif invited his… Reported by bizjournals 14 hours ago.

Dr. Kathy Nieder Electronic health record physician liaison and staff physician, Baptist Health Medical Group Years in current job: 10 with Baptist; six months as the physician liaison Ye ars employed in the health care industry: 35 Most people agree that health care costs are out of control. What can be done about that? My daughter has $5,000 deductible health insurance. When she tried to determine a procedure cost she was told “it depends.” Procedure cost — $800. Biopsies — one to 10… Reported by bizjournals 14 hours ago.

By Valerie Bogart, Director, Evelyn Frank Resources Program, New York Legal Assistance GroupThere is much we do not know –- and won’t know for months- – about what comes next now that Congress has taken initial steps toward the apparent repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). What we do know is that the ACA has improved the lives of millions of Americans, and its repeal –- along with proposals to block grant Medicaid — will affect vulnerable Americans from all age groups and populations.

It is estimated that 18 million people could lose insurance in the first year after repeal of the law, and the number will increase to 27 million the following year. Those affected would include low- and middle-income people enrolled in private plans through the ACA’s online insurance marketplaces as well as those who have taken advantage of expanded access to Medicaid. The repeal would also mean higher costs and fewer protections for people who receive insurance through their employer, or are covered under Medicare.

Since the ACA took effect 16 million Americans have gained coverage through expanded access to Medicaid. A recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services looks at the impact of Medicaid expansion under the ACA in the 31 states that have adopted it. Their findings show that the expansion states have seen a reduction of 9.2 per cent in the number of uninsured adults. There has been increased access to primary care and a greater increase in the use of preventive services. What is more, expanded Medicaid coverage has improved the financial stability for enrollees, who have a reduced likelihood of bankruptcy and a 10.5 per cent decrease in the number of people having trouble paying medical bills. No, the ACA is not perfect. Like all huge programs, improvements are needed. But wholesale elimination without a comparable replacement will be catastrophic.

One particularly vulnerable population that gained coverage either through the marketplaces or Medicaid expansion are adults age 55 to 64 -– an estimated 4.5 million people who would lose coverage nationwide. Before the ACA, these older individuals were caught in a double bind: they were too young to receive Medicare but were barred from Medicaid in most states, no matter how poor, if they were not disabled and if they no longer had young dependent children at home. (New York was one of the few states that provided coverage for this population before the ACA.) With the potential repeal of the law, these “singles and childless couples” under age 65 will lose coverage and have no way to pay for health care while they wait for years, literally, to be determined disabled or until they reach age 65 and become eligible for Medicare. They are also the first who will face pre-existing condition exclusions if those ACA protections are repealed from private health insurance coverage.


The repeal of the ACA without a comparable replacement would put at risk all the gains we’ve made in expanding health coverage to a greater share of people and in strengthening the nation’s health care system.

The ACA has increased funding for home-care services, allowing more older people and those with disabilities to stay in their homes and age in their communities. If the law is repealed, more people will be forced into nursing homes, while the loss of financial protections for married couples would mean spending more out of pocket to keep their loved one at home.

The ACA has provided a stable safety net for millions of Medicaid recipients by strengthening the partnership in which the federal government shares with participating states the actual costs of the program. If that fiscal partnership falls away and is replaced by a block grant scheme, states will receive a fixed amount of federal funds annually based on past costs instead of a percentage of actual costs incurred. With a cap on federal spending regardless of need, states would be left unprotected if costs were to go up because of a public health crisis (think Zika or the opiod epidemic), the rising costs associated with an aging population, or the impact of a natural or manmade disaster.

The repeal of the ACA without a comparable replacement would put at risk all the gains we’ve made in expanding health coverage to a greater share of people and in strengthening the nation’s health care system. Let us hope that the enormous outpouring of support from around the country for maintaining the provisions of the ACA and the voices of concern raised about the enormous human and economic costs associated with reversing it will be heard in Washington in the days ahead.

For more information on advocacy to preserve Medicaid, please find up-to-the minute analyses from Justice in Aging, Community Catalyst, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the National Health Law Program, and Families USA. On related efforts to preserve Medicare, please visit the websites of the Medicare Rights Center, AARP, and the Center for Medicare Advocacy.type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related... + articlesList=58988ef3e4b02bbb1816bcbf,588a52f4e4b06558f8e94f12,5878ff08e4b09281d0ea7ccf

-- 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.

Creating healthy Black futures requires attention and action to protect the environment in the spaces we call home. The environment greatly influences health status and outcomes, especially for communities of color where many are already overburdened by experiences of injustice that have health, social, and economic consequences. For a healthy future, we need environmental practices and health policies that strengthen our ability to be and stay healthy.   

Unfortunately, the current political climate doesn’t bode well for the environment or our health. In the first two weeks of this new U.S. presidential administration alone, Trump has advocated for the Dakota Access Pipeline to move forward, lead the ongoing Republican denial of climate change, met with pro–land transfer groups who advocate selling federal land currently used for public purposes, and attempted to silence and halt the normal activities of the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies tasked with protecting and promoting human health. The administration’s very first executive order, which seeks the “prompt repeal” of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), would effectively eliminate financial access to healthcare for millions of Americans and increase racial disparities in health insurance coverage which are currently declining. This is a lose-lose scenario for communities of color and Black folks who are likely to be hit the hardest.

This whirlwind of activity is ripping through the human rights of global citizens like a tornado and leaving in its wake a landscape in which environmental and human harm are common and government sanctioned.


Environmental racism is the problem. Environmental justice can be the solution.

During and after the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, a predominantly Black city where the water supply was changed as a cost-saving measure, we saw how environmental sabotage can have negative health, social, and economic consequences for those affected. In late 2014, it was discovered that the water was unsafe to drink due to bacteria and high lead levels. As of January 2017, lead levels were reported to be within the federal limit, but Flint residents rightly remain skeptical. Flint wasn’t the first time economic gains have been sought at the expense of Black health and lives. But, it should be the last.

Dr. Robert D. Bullard, father of environmental justice and Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University, wrote in an email to the author: “If a community happens to be Black or of color, poor or physically live on the ‘wrong side of the tracks,’ it is likely to receive less or no protection. In the real world, some people have the ‘wrong complexion for protection.’ Black communities, black health, and black lives have never mattered. That is why the civil rights and environmental justice movements were born.”

Environmental racism – discrimination where communities of color are forced to live in close proximity to and more exposed to environmental hazards – is the problem. Environmental justice – the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in environmental action and policy – can be the solution.

Our health and lives are at stake.

The deaths of twelve people are suspected to be connected to the contaminated water in Flint. Human life is the highest cost of environmental sabotage, but there are other grave health consequences. Lead poisoning is dangerous for people of all ages and can cause pain, mood changes, seizures, hearing loss and difficulties with memory and cognition.

Maternal and child health is an area where environmental issues and health collide with tragic effects. Lead poisoning, and other environmental toxins, can cause reproductive challenges such as low sperm count and increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, or pre-term birth. Black families are already disproportionately more likely to experience miscarriage, stillbirth, pre-term birth, low birth weight, and maternal and infant mortality than their white counterparts. For example, Black mothers are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white mothers. These disparities are thought to be due in part to the chronic stress of simply living while Black in America.


Environmental, reproductive, and economic justice are all critical for healthy Black futures.

Researchers at Brown University describe the combination of chronic stress caused by racism and exposure to environmental toxins as a “double jeopardy,” where chronic stress may make people more susceptible to adverse health effects even with lower exposure to environmental toxins. A 2010 report by The Bronx Health Link compiles information on how various environmental toxins – from air pollution and lead to pesticides and flame retardants – are connected to maternal and child health outcomes, and calls out the disproportionate exposure to toxins that Black and Latino families living in the Bronx experience. For these reasons, environmental justice is highly relevant specifically to reproductive justice as well.

When considered in conjunction with the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act, environmental justice becomes even more important because of the potential economic ramifications. How will people get the care they need to mitigate the harm caused by environmental sabotage? While the Affordable Care Act has expanded health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, Black people are still more likely to lack health insurance coverage than white people. Rolling back the Affordable Care Act would only make things worse. For many people, accessing healthcare without health insurance is simply unaffordable.

Moreover, illness from environmental toxins has economic consequences, which include medical bills and expenses from ongoing treatment, lost productivity and wages from time spent at home sick themselves or caring for sick family members, and possible unemployment. Rolling back access to healthcare is never a good idea, and it certainly isn’t now. Instead, the government should be seeking to improve financial access to healthcare. Here’s to wishful thinking.

Still, the fight for health and environmental justice must continue. These dark and dire times require it. Efforts like Black Lives Matter are helping to move the needle on environmental justice even in the face of opposition. In a solidarity statement, Black Lives Matter connected the crisis in Flint to state violence and named the environmental racism taking place. They also proposed specific action for elected officials to take to redress various environmental injustices taking place around the country.

Black Lives Matter is also resisting in solidarity with Native American advocates protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, recognizing we have to protect what is sacred to communities of color whether it be our land or our bodies that are directly affected.

Environmental, reproductive, and economic justice are all critical for healthy Black futures.

Now is the time to ramp up our collective action to protect our futures and those of our children, grandchildren and descendants to come. As Dr. Bullard aptly states, “Efforts to dismantle environmental, health and civil rights laws must be resisted at all cost. We must fight with laser focus to protect the most vulnerable in our society – our children – since they can’t vote, demonstrate, march or file lawsuits. We must prepare our young people for this fight, because it’s their future that’s at stake.”

We have a future, and despite these dark times, we know it is bright.

This post is part of the Black Futures Month blog series brought to you by The Huffington Post and the Black Lives Matter Network. Each day in February, look for a new post exploring cultural and political issues affecting the Black community and examining the impact it will have going forward. For more Black History Month content, check out Black Voices’ ‘We, Too, Are America’ coverage.

-- 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 9 hours ago.

The Dow Jones "Industrial" Average is suffering one of its worst intraday declines in weeks as a result of a 3.6% drop in UnitedHealth shares, which are down 3.6% on the day after news that the DOJ joined a whistleblower lawsuit against the insurer filed by a former executive claiming the country's largest health insurer overcharged Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars.

The company denied the allegations, with UnitedHealth spokesman Matthew Burns saying in a statement that "we reject these more than five-year-old claims and will contest them vigorously." 

Alleging insurance fraud, the lawsuit which was filed in 2011 and unsealed on Thursday, claims UnitedHealth Group overcharged Medicare by claiming the federal health insurance program's members nationwide were sicker than they were, according to the law firm Constantine Cannon LLP. Overnight, the DOJ also joined in allegations against WellMed Medical Management Inc, a Texas-based healthcare company UnitedHealth bought in 2011.

The lawsuit by whistleblower Benjamin Poehling, a former UnitedHealth executive, has been kept under seal in federal court in Los Angeles while the Justice Department investigated the claims for the past five years. Constantine Cannon posted the lawsuit online when it was unsealed on Thursday.  No total damages were specified in the lawsuit.

UNH's drop is the biggest contributor to the DJIA's intraday slide, accounting for nearly 80% of the total point loss in the index.

Despite the lawsuit, Wall Street's sellside analysts - most of whom are bullish on the company - have quickly come to its defense, via Bloomberg

*Oppenheimer (Michael Wiederhorn) *

· DOJ claims center on UNH’s efforts to improve coding, date back to 2011
· While headlines aren’t positive, these processes take a long time and “typically result in manageable settlements”
· Expects UNH will get past this overhang, sees weakness as buying opportunity
· Rates UNH outperform, PT $186

*Leerink (Ana Gupte) *

· Risk is overblown; recommends buying UNH, Humana, WellCare and other Medicare Advantage (MA) stocks on weakness today
· Expects Trump administration will favor private MA plans with deregulation and more industry-friendly policies
· Rates UNH outperform, PT $195

*Credit Suisse (Scott Fidel) *

· DOJ joining whistleblower case is negative headline, especially since market has been bullish for prospects for MA under Republican leadership
· Even so, regulatory scrutiny isn’t new issue and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has said MA revenue should benefit from more accurate risk coding
· Rates UNH outperform, PT $180

*Evercore ISI (Michael Newshel) *

· While DOJ joining case adds to risk, complaint doesn’t have “any particularly damning new evidence”
· Believes many of coding optimization practices described are common to industry
· Rates UNH buy, PT $185

The unsealed lawsuit is below: Reported by Zero Hedge 8 hours ago.

Erie County Medical Center has launched a new legal service in partnership with the Center for Elder Law & Justice aimed at patients with breast cancer, at-risk for the disease as well as palliative care patients. Working from offices at ECMC, the MedLaw Cancer Partnership will offer a range of legal services ranging from access to public benefits and health insurance, to questions around housing and utilities, employment, legal status and end-of-life planning. Attorney Rachel Baldassaro will direct… Reported by bizjournals 7 hours ago.

One of the most Republican arguments during a multi-year blitz against the Affordable Care Act has been that the exchanges set up by the law — on which people who do not get insurance through an employer or Medicare/Medicaid can get coverage — are in the midst of a potential "death spiral."

The idea is reasonably simple. The increase in premiums has led healthier people to drop out of the exchanges, leaving a sicker group of people signing up. Sicker people are more expensive for insurance companies to cover, so the insurers sustain losses.

Since the insurance companies don't like to lose money, some of them leave the exchanges, the theory goes. The remaining insurance companies on the exchanges jack up premiums to make up for losses, and since there are fewer options left, average people have to accept the hikes. Since the prices are even higher, more people leave the exchanges — and so the pattern goes.

Republicans have pointed a plethora of factors to suggest the "death spiral" is happening: the decrease in enrollment from the most recent period that wrapped up on January 31, insurers leaving the ACA exchange markets, and increasing premium costs.

Even some insurance CEOs have caught onto the terminology. Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said the exchanges were in a "death spiral" on Wednesday (though that may have something to do with his mega-merger with rival Humana getting rejected).

But the "death spiral" attack is contrasted by new evidence from Matthew Fiedler, the former chief economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama and current fellow at the Brookings Institution. He analyzed state-level data from the most recent open-enrollment period and found that premium increases are not having a significant effect on sign-ups.

Simply put, for a "death spiral" to be existent, data would have to show declining participation in the exchanges as premiums increase — since healthy people would be more likely to drop out and simply pay the fine rather than get coverage.

As a chart from Fielder shows, that's not happening yet.

Based on state-level data from the just-concluded enrollment period, state-level sign-ups compared to the previous year were not affected by the average rate of premium increases. Fielder said this indicates there is no death spiral.

"As shown by the black dashed line, there was essentially no relationship between premium changes and sign-up changes, which implies that premium changes had little or no effect on sign-ups," Fielder wrote in a post on Brookings. "By contrast, for the individual market to have faced a death spiral, premium increases would have needed to cause large reductions in enrollment, akin to the relationship depicted by the red dashed line."

Technically, anyone can opt out of signing up for health coverage and pay a fine — this year, the full fine under the law will go into effect at $650. But most people thought that even with higher premiums, health insurance was worth paying for instead of the fine.

According to Fiedler, the slight decrease in sign-ups was to be expected, given the fact that most enrollees receive tax credits that increase along with premiums. (In fact, HHS estimated over 70% of people on the exchanges could get coverage for less than $75 a month.) But for those that do not receive tax credits, the increases had minimal effects.

"And for enrollees who are not eligible for tax credits, pre-ACA research on how consumers’ insurance enrollment decisions depend on premiums implied that enrollment would decline only modestly when premiums rose," Fiedler wrote.

"Similarly, the observed relationship between premium changes and enrollment growth during the ACA’s first few years also implied that any adverse effects of premium increases on enrollment — whether on the Marketplace or in the individual market as a whole — would be limited."

As other health policy experts have noted, the recent premium increases have only brought these costs up to the level projected by the Congressional Budget Office in 2009 for the 2017 plan year.

Fiedler is not as sure about the future. Republicans and President Donald Trump's administration could issue new laws and regulations or induce enough uncertainty into the exchanges to cause more insurer exits and consumer apprehension. Or they could repeal the law altogether.

In fact, in Fiedler's opinion, most of the decline in enrollees for 2017 was due to the decrease in outreach by the Trump administration — supported by the fact that sign-ups fell off a cliff following his inauguration.

-You can check out Fiedler's full analysis over at Brookings»-

*SEE ALSO: A Trump order led the IRS to make a small change on Obamacare that could have a big effect on its future*

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'It's a lie': Jake Tapper calls out Trump during a fiery interview with Kellyanne Conway Reported by Business Insider 6 hours ago.

The 2013 theft led to legislation that required health insurance companies to use encryption software to protect its consumers' information. Reported by NJ.com 5 hours ago.

Here’s what to ask Because your primary care doctor is at the center of your health care experiences, your choice of a personal physician is among the most important decisions you make in determining the quality of medical care you will receive. Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook’s ratings of doctors include reports on how primary care physicians were rated by their surveyed patients. For both primary care physicians and many types of specialists, patients are the best source of information on many aspects of quality, including how well physicians listen, explain things, help patients coordinate care among other physicians and health care providers, and make themselves available for appointments and advice. Checkbook also offers information on top physician specialists and, for surgeons, the first-ever nationwide ratings based on rates of death and other adverse outcomes including surgical complications and hospital re-admissions. Does the doctor work with you to coordinate your care, checking on your progress, telling you about test results, following up with specialists, hospitals and other providers, and making sure that you have the help and information you need at each stage? Does the doctor help you figure out and follow through with realistic exercise, diet, and other prevention plans and with programs to manage chronic conditions? Whether the doctor is accepting new patients — specifically patients from your health insurance plan and how well costs will be covered by your insurance. Whether the doctor’s office uses an electronic health record system to enter orders for lab work, X-rays and prescriptions, and whether you’ll have access to your records. The Chronicle is partnering with Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org, a nonprofit consumer group that helps consumers get the best service and lowest prices. Reported by SFGate 9 minutes ago.

House Republicans, looking for ways to pay for their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, are considering changing the special tax treatment for employer-provided health benefits. Reported by Wall Street Journal 20 hours ago.

Before we begin, two quick notes. That subtitle above isn't ours, but when we heard what CNN's Brian Stelter called the hot mess we saw yesterday, we had to agree it was the perfect description. Stress conference indeed! Secondly, our opening metaphor to describe our own personal reaction is going to need a rather roundabout explanation, just to warn everyone in advance.

In Silicon Valley, there's a pretty common interview question that is supposed to test whether a techie job candidate is capable of creative (or "outside the box") thinking. The question: If you were standing in front of a rather tall multi-story apartment building and (for some unspecified reason) had to know its exact height -- but all you had to work with was a barometer -- how would you go about doing it?

There's one fairly obvious answer, but in reality it'd require an incredibly precise barometer. Since a barometer measures change in air pressure, take a reading from the sidewalk, then take it up to the roof and take another reading, and figure the height from the differential in air pressure.

There are many more creative (and less obvious) answers to the problem, however. Such as: Go buy a long rope, head up to the roof, tie the barometer to the rope and lower it to the sidewalk. Mark and measure the length of the rope used. Our favorite was always the most pragmatic and non-mathematical answer possible: Go find the building's supervisor or manager and offer him or her a swell barometer if they'll tell you the exact height of the building. Problem solved, and you get the exact height rather than an approximation!

But there's one possible answer to the problem which sprang to mind after Donald Trump's press conference yesterday: Go up to the roof and drop the barometer to the sidewalk. Count the seconds before impact, and then use the formula for the acceleration of gravity to figure out the correct height.

That's the image that Trump's use of the phrase "fine-tuned machine" brought to mind -- a fine-tuned machine, tumbling to Earth, to inevitably be shattered into a million pieces.

It's pretty easy to understand why Trump is so visibly frustrated. All his life he's surrounded himself with yes-men and yes-women, and as president he's now got a lot of people telling him: "No." As in: "Sorry, you can't do that, it's illegal and unconstitutional," or: "Well, things don't really work that way, you can't just sign a piece of paper and make it happen," or: "The judge ruled against you," or even: "Thanks a bunch for offering me the job you just fired a guy from, but somehow it doesn't seem all that tempting an offer."

The frustration is getting so bad, Trump is going to retreat into his comfort zone and hold a campaign rally. Because that's all he really wanted in the first place -- crowds of supporters cheering his every word, no matter how unhinged from reality it was. Maybe Mike Pence can run things while Trump goes on an endless campaign tour, who knows? With Trump, anything's possible.

Because (as is becoming the new normal) there was so much political news this week, we're going to have to run through it all rather quickly. Everyone can play along at home, counting the seconds until the fine-tuned machine Trump insists his White House truly is smashes to the ground. To the sound of music, no less, but we're getting way ahead of ourselves. Everyone ready? Start counting....

The whole concept of Trump's fine-tuned machine was utterly dismantled by the folks over at the Washington Post, which has a pretty extensive list of why it's a laughable concept. The last bullet point on their list:



Of the 696 government positions that require Senate confirmation, Trump has nominated 34 people, 13 of whom have been confirmed, leaving 662 positions where no one has even been nominated.



The funniest bit was what one commenter had to say, however:



I grew up in farm country. I've seen those fine-tuned machines, they hang on the back of wagons and are used to spread smelly stuff on the fields.



Couldn't have put it better!

The scariest quote from the Trump presser, to our ears at least, was the following:



You know what uranium is, right? It's this thing called nuclear weapons. And other things. Like lots of things are done with uranium. Including some bad things.



Hoo boy. That may have topped all the inane things George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and Ronald Reagan ever said combined.

Here's the inevitable fact-checking article, in case anyone out there can actually handle the truth. We wrote our column yesterday on the most easily-disprovable lie Trump uttered, but if that's not enough for you, the Post also has a helpful article explaining (contrary to Trump's claim) that drugs aren't actually cheaper than candy bars. Just in case you were wondering.

A few other obvious non-fine-tuned idiocies from the past week, in what might be called "adventures in creative spelling." Betsy DeVos wasted no time in proving to every critic that questioned her fitness for office that they were absolutely right (not that there was any real doubt). The Department of Education tweeted out a quote this week, from "W. E. B. DeBois." When it was pointed out to them that they'd misspelled his name (should be "W. E. B. Du Bois"), they tweeted a correction, with the text: "Post updated -- our deepest apologizes for the earlier typo." Wow -- DeVos just started, and they already can't tell the difference between a verb and a noun? In a tweet where they were supposed to be correcting a typo? Wow, that's just... wow.

This follows the news that a poster from Trump's inauguration had to be pulled from the shelves because it read: "No dream is too big, no challenge is to [sic] great. Nothing we want for the future is beyond our reach." This was advertised as a photo that "captures the essence of Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency of the United States." Oh, we'd have to agree.

The Republican Party got in on the fun as well, by tweeting out a fake Abraham Lincoln quote for his birthday! Maybe next time they'll just stick to Lincoln's words: "For score and seventh years ago...".

Spelling idiocy aside, there was plenty of other grinding noises coming from Trump's "well-tuned machine" this week -- which started with a disastrous round of interviews for Stephen Miller on the Sunday shows. His most jaw-dropping line was that Trump's powers "are beyond question" on the whole Muslim ban issue. By week's end, however, the White House had thrown in the towel and announced it would not fight the Ninth Circuit Court's order any more, instead choosing to issue a new Muslim ban next week. Maybe the second time's the charm, eh?

In other fine-tuned news, Trump's choice for Labor secretary had to withdraw in shame, after a dozen or more Republican senators indicated they wouldn't be voting to confirm him. This followed the firing of Trump's national security advisor, earlier in the week. After Michael Flynn was fired, it was revealed that he had indeed lied to the F.B.I. about that phone call to Russia where sanctions were discussed. Lying to the F.B.I. is supposed to be a felony, but we're not exactly holding our breath waiting for Jeff Sessions to bring charges any time soon, if you know what we mean.

Trump tried to quickly replace Flynn, but the first guy he offered the job to turned him down cold, confiding in a close friend that Trump's offer was nothing more than "a shit sandwich." And topping all the week's personnel problems was the news that six White House staffers were suddenly shown the door when they failed their background checks. The door hit their hindquarters on the way out like a fine-tuned machine, one assumes.

What else? A national security crisis broke out when North Korea test-launched a ballistic missile, which Trump responded to by holding a secure meeting in the midst of a roomful of diners who had no security clearances at all. This was followed by a hastily-arranged press conference where Trump merely stated America was "100 percent behind Japan" -- nothing like leading from behind, eh? Russia buzzed an American destroyer this week with some military jets, and Trump also did absolutely nothing in response. And word leaked out that Trump likes his national security briefings to be on a single page, with short bullet points, and lots of maps and graphics ("The president likes maps") -- because who doesn't prefer looking at pretty pictures over reading boring text?

In other military news, a memo draft surfaced with a new plan to use 100,000 National Guard troops in 11 states to round up all those immigrants Trump doesn't approve of. See, we knew that "deportation force" would pop up sooner or later! In a fine-tuned way, of course.

Trump's job approval rating sank below 40 percent in multiple polls this week, which is probably a big reason (big-league reason?) that he's heading back out on the campaign trail -- which is so much more fun than doing the job. Hmm, that reminds us... didn't Trump once have a few words to say on the subject? Actually, he wouldn't shut up about it last year -- here's just one random example:



I watched Obama yesterday. Why isn't he working? Why isn't he working instead of campaigning for crooked Hillary? Why? Why? Unbelievable. Who's paying for that big plane that comes in? I just wonder.



But now that Trump's president, it is no longer an issue -- because he's not just having fun using the plane, he's also going to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in extra security costs. He's gone to his Florida resort three times already, which "have likely cost the federal treasury about $10 million." And that doesn't even count the extra money it takes in local security and traffic (which Palm Beach officials want reimbursement for). Guarding Trump Tower in New York City is going to cost us all over $180 million per year, too. Oh, and when Eric Trump took a trip to Uruguay, it cost $100,000 in hotel bills alone for the security detail. Boy, don't you miss the old Trump who used to worry about taxpayer money getting squandered?

If it seems like there is nothing else going on in Washington, that's because there isn't. The long saga of Republicans being absolutely incapable of coming up with a replacement plan for Obamacare continues (seven years and counting!), although so far few have noticed their continuing inability to write a single word of actual legislation. This is going to be a bigger deal next month, so stay tuned!

And finally, a bit of cheerful news. The Morning Joe program -- one that Trump regularly watches -- has bitten the bullet and just flat-out banished Kellyanne Conway from their studio. Here's what Mika Brzezinski had to say about their reasons for permanently disinviting Conway:



We know for a fact she tries to book herself on this show. I won't do it, because I don't believe in fake news or information that is not true. And that is -- every time I've ever seen her on television, something's askew, off or incorrect.



Here's what co-host Joe Scarborough had to say about Kellyanne:



She's in none of the key meetings. She goes out and books herself often.... I don't even think she's saying something that she knows to be untrue. She's just saying things, just to get in front of the TV set and prove her relevance because behind the scenes -- behind the scenes, she's not in these meetings.



Looks like the fine-tuned machine slipped a rather noticeable cog, there!

 

We have three *Honorable Mention* awards to give out this week, both for amusing quotes.

Al Franken hinted that a few Republican senators think Trump has mental health problems: "It's not the majority of them, it's a few. We all have this suspicion that he... that he lies a lot, that he says things that aren't true. That is not the norm for a president of the United States, or actually for a human being."

Not to be outdone, Bernie Sanders made a similar case last Sunday morning:



We have a president who is delusional in many respects, a pathological liar.... It is very harsh, but I think that's the truth. When somebody goes before you and says that 3 to 5 million people voted illegally -- nobody believes that. There is not a scintilla of evidence to believe that. What would you call that remark? It's a lie. It's a delusion.



He later followed up on Twitter: "I disagreed with President Bush all the time. I never called him a pathological liar. He was just conservative. But Trump lies all the time." Good point, Bernie!

Trump told some falsehoods about both Elijah Cummings and the Congressional Black Caucus, right before he asked an African-American reporter to set up a meeting with them (more on that later, down in the talking points). Cummings quickly called Trump on his nonsense, but the C.B.C. decided to use Trumpian language in their response on Twitter: "Hi, @realDonaldTrump. We're the CBC. We sent you a letter on January 19, but you never wrote us back. Sad!" They included a link to the letter, which requested a meeting -- which the White House hadn't responded to as of yesterday, when Trump was seemingly informed that they even existed, by a black reporter. Gotta love that "Sad!" at the end....

But the *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week* award goes to Representatives Jared Polis and Earl Blumenauer. If it weren't a partisan award, we would also give out two others -- to Republicans Dana Rohrabacher and Don Young.

These four House members just formed the "Cannabis Caucus" this week. Like all other issues-oriented caucuses (caucii?), it will be dedicated to one single subject: reforming the Draconian (and almost antediluvian) federal marijuana laws.

Up until very recently, the formation of such a caucus would never been even remotely possible. The times they are a changin', though, and getting cannabis policy right at the federal level has never been more important. With state laws clashing with federal laws, and with a new president and attorney general who seem to be salivating over ramping up a bigger and fiercer Drug War than ever, now is indeed the crucial time for politicians -- of any party -- to stand up and interject some sanity into the conversation.

In fact, we'd strongly urge people not only to use the link at the bottom, but also to contact your own congressional representatives and ask them why they aren't in the Cannabis Caucus yet. There are a lot of single-issue voters on this subject, and it is time to make their own voices heard.

It's also worth mentioning where we heard about this effort, if you'd like to participate a different way. Tom Angell, our favorite marijuana reform advocate, has begun a daily newsletter covering all marijuana news items. You can sign up to receive this newsletter at MarijuanaMoment.net, if you'd like such news in your inbox every day. Here's an example to check out -- yesterday's newsletter, with links to the live-streamed press conference announcing the Cannabis Caucus. We intend to become regular readers of this newsletter, so we don't miss such important marijuana/political news in the future!

We also hope to see the Cannabis Caucus grow... well, like a weed (couldn't resist). Seriously, though -- for bravely taking this pioneering step in Congress, this week's *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week* awards go to Earl Blumenauer and Jared Polis. Keep up the good work, guys, and hopefully you'll soon have lots of company in those caucus meetings.

[Congratulate Representative Earl Blumenauer on his House contact page, and Representative Jared Polis on his House contact page, to let them know you appreciate their efforts.]

 

This week's *Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week* is going to be a generic award, given out to clueless Democrats everywhere.

The vote for Democratic National Committee chair is going to be held in a week. The contest may be a close one, and may signal which direction the party heads in the near future. But there is still a lot of rampant denial among the party bigwigs over what Donald Trump's victory meant, and additionally over what the movement Bernie Sanders led means for the changing priorities of the electorate.

To be blunt, many Democratic leaders still have their heads in the sand. They firmly believe that they lost the 2016 election because they just didn't have a great message. No policy adjustments are necessary, just better framing. To shift metaphors, this isn't just missing the forest for the trees, this is bending over intently to look at an acorn while smacking your head into an oaken tree trunk. Think this is too harsh? Here's a shocking quote from a Democratic Party insider:



A former aide to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama cautioned the Democratic Party against "moving policy to the left" in response to the wave of public protests targeting President Donald Trump, telling MSNBC: "You are wrong to look at these crowds and think that means everyone wants $15 an hour."

"I actually think the real energy is not just with the base. These are apolitical people that are turning out," Jennifer Palmieri said in an appearance on Chuck Todd's show last week. Palmieri served as communications director for both the Obama White House and Clinton's presidential campaign.



This is stunning in its shortsightedness and inability to see what is happening out there. But what was even more disheartening was hearing what some top Democrats had to say to Bernie Sanders in a recent leadership meeting. Senator Joe Manchin was the one who leaked the story, but it's impossible to say who exactly he was talking about:



"They basically explained to Bernie, it looks like you could be the person that could calm down and make sure their energy and all this enthusiasm is directed in all the right proper channels," Manchin said. "Bernie has a voice, and if [protesters] want to be active, then direct them to where the problem may be or where they anticipate a problem."



Got that? Bernie Sanders has a following of robots, who do exactly what he tells them to do. Because why else would anyone be out there protesting? They still want to see Bernie beat Hillary in the primaries, or something.

Sheesh.

The Democrats are facing a wave of public anger. So far, the anger has mostly been directed at Donald Trump and his Republican enablers. This has been so successful that Republican officeholders are running scared from the entire concept of facing their constituents in town hall meetings. There's something happening out there, in other words, that could grow into a force as potent as the Tea Party was on the right.

But some Democratic leaders seem to think the protesters are all nothing short of just being Bernie's useful idiots. Manchin didn't say who led this boneheaded request, merely using the generic "they." As well as Manchin and Sanders, the group also included Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Patty Murray, Debbie Stabenow, Elizabeth Warren, Mark Warner, "among others." So absent another leak, we have no idea which of these Democrats deserve this week's *MDDOTW* award. Which is why we're giving it to every Democrat who just fundamentally does not understand that there's a grassroots movement out there, that it could be a very powerful political force which could help the Democratic Party out immensely, and that Democrats need to lead, follow, or get out of the way.

If Democrats truly believe that these throngs don't really care about things like a $15-an-hour minimum wage, then they are just as delusional as Republicans who insist (without one tiny shred of evidence anywhere in the entire country, of course) that every progressive protester is somehow on the payroll of George Soros.

No matter who wins the D.N.C. chair position next week, we sincerely hope they are a little more in tune with what is going on out there. Because the Democratic Party is never going to win until they start to listen to the anger brewing. Even if that means "primarying" a few of them to get the point across.

[With such a vague group of winners, we cannot provide accurate contact information so you can let them know what you think. Instead, we would suggest joining in the nearest protest march and tell them out in the streets! Maybe eventually they'll hear the message.]

 

*Volume 425* (2/17/17)

Last week in this space, we bemoaned the lack of a better label for what some journalists were beginning to call "the Tea Party of the left" -- the swelling wave of protest and political activism that is sweeping the country in opposition to Trump. We asked for suggestions for a better label to use, and we got a pretty good response to the contest.

Since that time, however, we've been informed that there is at least one motivating force behind the movement, the Indivisible Guide website which lays out concrete steps progressive citizens can take to make their voices heard. So we do apologize for not using the Indivisible name, which (so far) seems to be what people are increasingly beginning to call the movement as a whole.

Indivisible meets the criteria for any good political label, in that it is short and snappy, and reaches for a lofty goal. All that is to the good, and we promise we'll be using "the Indivisible movement" ourselves in the near future.

But we still think any political movement can't have enough snappy slogans and rally cries, so we're actually expanding the contest this week to challenge people to come up with what they'd like to see either chanted at Republican town halls (such as the now-famous "Do your job!" for Jason Chaffetz) or soon appearing on a large banner at a protest rally near you. What should the Indivisible movement's rallying cry be? As we said, the more the merrier, really, so let everyone know your thoughts in the comments this week, and we'll put together a list of our favorites next Friday.

OK, with that out of the way, let's get to this week's talking points for Democrats everywhere to use profusely.

 *   Blacks don't actually all meet at Oprah's house every month*This was one of the most cringe-worthy moments from Trump's presser.

"What planet is Donald Trump from? What is it with white people who seem to sincerely believe that all African-Americans in the entire country know each other personally, perhaps from those famous monthly 'all the black people' parties at Oprah's house? Do you even realize how stupid that makes you sound? When Trump told an African-American reporter to go ahead and set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, it was offensive on multiple levels. That woman is a national political reporter, and is definitely not your appointments secretary, Mr. Trump! It is simply not her job to schedule meetings for you -- which you might realize if you had even the faintest idea of what a journalist actually does."

 *   Some good news*In the midst of all this fine-tuned chaos, there was one bright bit of news.

"The yearly ranking by historians of our past presidents just came out -- the first one to include Barack Obama on the list. Here's how recent presidents measure up, according to the professionals. George W. Bush moved up three places, from 36th to 33rd (out of 44). His father ranked significantly better, in 20th place. Bill Clinton beat both Bushes out in 15th place. But the real news is that Barack Obama, in his first appearance on the list, placed an impressive 12th-highest out of all our past presidents. That's a legacy he can be proud of!"

 *   If it's Tuesday...*Trump isn't the only one moving at top speed, it seems.

"The flood of scandals spewing forth from the Trump administration is likely to set historical records. We're only four weeks in, and investigations are becoming necessary for all sorts of things. Just last Tuesday alone news was made on three of these -- Kellyanne Conway shilling 'buy Ivanka!' on television, the 'room situation' of a national security crisis being handled in full view of diners down at Mar-a-Lago, and how the Russian influence investigation is moving forward. That's all just one day in the Trump administration. folks! It's gonna be a long four years, that's for sure."

 *   Cartoongate*Of course, not everyone is pulling their weight in this respect.

"Jason Chaffetz, who chairs the governmental oversight committee in the House, is apparently more interested in investigating cartoon characters than anything the Trump administration has been doing. The Centers for Disease Control was going to have the PBS children's television cartoon character Sid the Science Guy help raise awareness of the Zika virus, which doesn't seem all that controversial to me. But Chaffetz has sent them a letter demanding to know what's going on. As the Washington Post brutally put it: 'Sid, for readers not familiar with PBS children's programming, is a preschool cartoon character. Like President Trump, Sid is orange. Unlike Trump, he is highly inquisitive.' This article raised many other unanswered questions for Chaffetz to probe, including: 'Does Snuffleupagus really exist?' and 'Are Ernie and Bert just friends?' We realize that once Donald Trump took office, Washington was going to take on a rather cartoonish tone, but at some point the joke isn't all that funny anymore. Chaffetz doesn't have time to investigate Russian involvement with our elections or the Trump administration, but he's got time to probe a cartoon character? Wow."

 *   Problem solved!*Echoes of the past....

"It seems that people are showing up at Republican town halls to let their duly-elected representatives have an earful about the Republican agenda -- especially the whole business about leaving people out in the woods to die rather than allowing them to have health insurance. Donald Trump had a rather unique perspective on this in his presser, saying: 'I mean, they fill up our alleys with people that you wonder how they get there, but they are not Republican people that our representatives are representing.' Not sure what 'alleys' he's talking about, but it's pretty clear that, according to Trump, people in Congress are supposed to only be there to represent, quote, Republican people, unquote. That's rather frightening when you think about it. But the Republicans have an even better answer -- they're just not going to listen to anyone, because they're running scared from the whole idea of town halls -- in fear of such protests. Yeah, that's the way to get re-elected -- ignore your constituents!"

 *   Competency tests for all!*Calling for Trump to have his head examined is only the beginning....

"The Republican Congress moved with blinding speed on what is obviously one of their biggest priorities -- making sure that mentally incompetent people have full access to guns. You just cannot make this stuff up, sadly. The Obama administration moved to add people who had been judicially deemed to not be competent enough to manage their own affairs to the list of people who probably shouldn't be able to buy a gun, but the Republicans in Congress just overturned this sane idea. Every time some right-wing nutjob shoots up a crowd full of people, Republicans fall back on the 'he was mentally ill' excuse, which is why it is stunning for them to be making it easier for mentally incompetent people to acquire firearms. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Democrats will be reminding them of this when the next preventable tragedy strikes, you can be sure of that."

 *   A flibbertigibbet, a will-o'-the-wisp, a clown*The hills are alive... with the sound of a fine-tuned machine hitting the sidewalk and smashing into a million tiny pieces. OK, how many seconds did that take? Did everybody count? Heh.

The following comes from a real news story, published by the Palm Beach Daily News. It is not satire from a late-night comedy show, sadly enough. Any of these quotes can easily be used as a Democratic talking point, for obvious reasons.



Patrick Park is an avid fan of The Sound of Music. You might say he's obsessed with it. "Really, I've seen it like 75 times," the concert pianist/industrialist said. "I know every single word and song by heart. I've always wanted to live in the Von Trapp house." Well, if he can't live there, at least he'll be close enough to visit. Park has received unofficial word from President Donald Trump -- well, as unofficial as a handwritten note saying "on to your next chapter, Ambassador!" can be -- that he is the president's choice to be U.S. ambassador to Austria. The president said he thought it would be a good match for Park because it is steeped in musical culture....

Park said he's already started boning up in order to be ready if and when the call comes. "I had a chance to talk to the Swiss and Hungarian ambassadors at the Red Cross Ball and at the diplomats' dinner the night before," he said. "They want me to visit them in Washington, and the Austrian ambassador in Washington said he wants us to go for lunch. See? I'm already working!" First thing on his unofficial to-do list? "I'm flying to Vienna to check out the embassy, and then I'm going to Salzburg to see if the Von Trapp house is for rent," he said, laughing. "And then I'm going to learn to like schnitzel and sachertorte."



 

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Little-known health insurance law means some EU citizens have been denied residency documents. Reported by BBC News 15 hours ago.