Tag Archives: obama

Health Insurance Rates Are Going Up Next Year, But It’s Nothing to Panic Over

by LazaroWorley Posted on March 30, 2014

Mother Jones

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The LA Times has a piece today about the next battleground for Obamacare: rate increases for 2015. The warnings are already coming thick and fast:

WellPoint Inc., parent of California’s leading health insurer in the exchange, Anthem Blue Cross, has already predicted “double-digit-plus” rate increases on Obamacare policies across much of the country.

…. Health insurers aren’t wasting any time sizing up what patients are costing them now and what that will mean for 2015 rates. Hunkered down in conference rooms, insurance actuaries are parsing prescriptions, doctor visits and hospital stays for clues about how expensive these new patients may be. By May, insurance companies must file next year’s rates with California’s state-run exchange so negotiations can begin.

I hope everyone manages to restrain their Obamacare hysteria over this. Here in California, we’ve played this game annually for years. Health insurers in the individual market propose wild increases in their premiums—10 percent, 20 percent, sometimes even 30 percent—and then dial them back a bit after consumer outrage blankets the media and the Department of Insurance pushes back. But even then, we routinely end up with double-digit increases. Just for background, here are the average annual rate increases requested by a few of California’s biggest insurers over the last three years:

Anthem Blue Cross: 10.7%
Aetna: 12.1%
Blue Shield: 15.4%
HealthNet: 12.0%

And this doesn’t include changes in deductibles or out-of-pocket maximums. Add those in, and the annual proposed increases are probably in the range of 15-20 percent. Obamacare, of course, limits both those things, which means that in the future insurance companies will have to put everything into rate hikes instead of spreading the increases around to make them harder to add up.

Bottom line: if we end up seeing double-digit rate increases, it will be business as usual. Insurance companies will all blame it on Obamacare because that’s a convenient thing to do, but the truth is that we probably would have seen exactly the same thing even if Barack Obama had never been born. So let’s all keep our feet on the ground when the inevitable huge rate increase requests start flowing in. It’s mostly an insurance company thing and a healthcare thing, not an Obamacare thing.

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Health Insurance Rates Are Going Up Next Year, But It’s Nothing to Panic Over

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Condi Rice In Running For 2014 Chutzpah Award

by EmanuelLashbroo Posted on March 28, 2014

Mother Jones

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Condi Rice has joined the tut tutting brigade against Americans who aren’t crazy about fighting yet another war:

“I fully understand the sense of weariness,” she told a GOP fundraiser Wednesday, according to reports. “I fully understand that we must think: ‘Us, again?’ I know that we’ve been through two wars. I know that we’ve been vigilant against terrorism. I know that it’s hard. But leaders can’t afford to get tired. Leaders can’t afford to be weary.”

….Rice said the United States has taken a step back in conflicts including Syria, Ukraine and others. “When America steps back and there is a vacuum, trouble will fill that vacuum,” Rice said.

That’s precious, isn’t it? Maybe Rice should give some thought to the possibility that Americans aren’t weary of war, but weary of dumb, poorly fought wars. Maybe if the administration she served for eight years hadn’t launched two of the dumbest, most mismanaged wars in American history, we wouldn’t all be so weary.

As an aside, I’d point out that her administration took no military action against Iran and mounted no serious international sanctions against the regime. Her administration also did nothing when Russia invaded South Ossetia. Obama, by contrast, has doubled down in Afghanistan to try and clean up the mess left over from the Bush administration; he’s forced Iran to the negotiating table by crippling its economy; he’s participated in an invasion and regime change in Libya; he’s crippled al-Qaeda via massive drone attacks; and he’s spearheaded a growing backlash against Russia’s invasion of Crimea. And when he tried to mount an attack against Syria in retalition for its use of chemical weapons, he was shot down not just by members of his own party, but by members of Rice’s Republican Party too.

Whatever else you can say about Obama, he’s hardly a peacemonger. His foreign policy might not be quite as blindly bellicose and unfocused as George Bush’s, but he sure isn’t shy about using or threatening military force when he thinks it’s in America’s interest. Rice should pay more attention. She might learn something.

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Condi Rice In Running For 2014 Chutzpah Award

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“This Is The Era of The Empowered ‘One Percenter'”

by RowenaFowles Posted on March 21, 2014

Mother Jones

The Koch brothers. Citizens United. “Dark money.” Billionaire sugardaddies. A Republican takeover of Congress.

These are a few of the 2014-themed issues that Mother Jones senior reporter Andy Kroll and ProPublica’s Kim Barker discuss on the latest episode of Moyers and Company, the popular weekly show hosted by the acclaimed journalist Bill Moyers. They talk about the 2014 midterms, which could be the most expensive off-year election cycle in history; the influence of big-money politics on Congress and the White House; and the upcoming Supreme Court decision that could obliterate yet another campaign law and send even more money rushing into our elections.

As Kroll says in the interview, this is a great time to be a fired-up millionaire or billionaire. Today, these individuals have the ability to pump unlimited sums of cash into our elections through super-PACs and anonymously funded nonprofit groups. As they do, the center of gravity in our political system shifts from the political parties to these mega-donors spending big on the Democratic and Republican side. “This is the era of the empowered ‘one percenter,'” Kroll notes. “They’re taking action and they’re becoming the new, headline players in this political system.”

What’s the effect of all that money on our democracy? Watch the entire episode above or over at BillMoyers.com to find out. Throughout the weekend, you can catch the interview on your local PBS affiliate.

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“This Is The Era of The Empowered ‘One Percenter'”

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US Lawmakers Fight Russia on Twitter: "I Guess This Means My Spring Break in Siberia Is Off"

by JeremyRedmond Posted on March 20, 2014

Mother Jones

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On Thursday, shortly after President Obama expanded sanctions against Russia for its role in the Ukraine crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry released its own list of nine US officials and lawmakers who will be targeted by sanctions. The list includes three White House aides—deputy national security advisors Ben Rhodes and Caroline Atkinson, and senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer—as well as six US lawmakers: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)â&#128;&#139;, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)â&#128;&#139;, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)â&#128;&#139;, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)â&#128;&#139;, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.)â&#128;&#139;, and Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.)â&#128;&#139;.

Many of the Sanctioned 9, none of whom will be allowed to visit the Russian Federation or attend Valdimir Putin’s birthday party (assuming it is held in the Russian Federation), took to Twitter to win the morning show their strength and solidarity.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.)â&#128;&#139;

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)â&#128;&#139;

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.)

Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), to senior White House advisor Dan Pfeiffer

“What did you do during the war, daddy?”

“Twitter, mostly.”

Continued:  

US Lawmakers Fight Russia on Twitter: "I Guess This Means My Spring Break in Siberia Is Off"

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Progressive Groups Take Obama to Task for Violating Voting Rights Law

by JanisBurrell Posted on March 20, 2014

Mother Jones

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After months of quiet lobbying, civil rights groups and progressive organizations are now coming out publicly against the Obama administration for failing to enforce a voting rights law that applies to the Obamacare health insurance exchanges.

The 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), commonly known as the “Motor Voter” law, requires DMVs and other state agencies that provide public assistance to also help voters register. The Obama administration has acknowledged that Obamacare exchanges are covered by the law. But the federally-run exchange, which serves residents of states whose Republican governors refused to establish their own insurance marketplaces, isn’t doing much to fulfill its Motor Voter obligations, beyond embedding a link to the federal voter registration site in the online insurance application.

The law requires covered agencies to go much further and treat voter registration the same as the application process for other services. In the case of Obamacare, this means the navigators hired by HHS to walk uninsured Americans through the insurance sign-up process should also offer to guide applicants through the voter registration process. But Republicans have decried plans to apply the Motor Voter law to exchanges, saying it would create a “permanent, undefeatable, always-funded Democrat majority,” since the uninsured are disproportionately low-income people and minorities—groups that tend to vote Democratic. Following the outcry by the GOP, the Obama administration decided last year to hold off on full implementation of the Motor Voter provision. But now 32 progressive organizations and unions—including the NAACP, United Auto Workers, and the National Council of La Raza—are calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to start requiring navigators to help register voters immediately.

“There is no question that the ACA the Affordable Care Act must meet the requirements of the NVRA, as your administration has acknowledged,” the groups said in a letter to the HHS last week. “As staunch supporters of voting rights, we believe that it is critical for the ACA to meet these legal requirements now and offer voter registration to the millions of Americans who will be shopping for insurance on the exchanges in the coming months and years.”

The letter comes on the heels of a public campaign in January led by the voting rights organizations Demos and Project Vote to get HHS to fall in line with Motor Voter.

The 24 million mostly low-income and minority Americans who are expected to buy insurance through the exchanges by 2017 are far less likely than other citizens to be registered to vote, although Motor Voter has helped lessen the disparity. Some 140 million people have registered to vote through the program since it was enacted. Lawrence Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, told Mother Jones in January that the reason HHS “has really dropped the ball” on the Motor Voter issue is likely quite simple. “This looks like the administration is running from a political fight,” he says.

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Progressive Groups Take Obama to Task for Violating Voting Rights Law

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Obama’s Approval Rating Is Remarkably Steady No Matter What Happens

by SteveRRJpfpgjce Posted on March 19, 2014

Mother Jones

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Jonathan Bernstein writes today that President Obama’s approval rating has pulled ahead of George Bush’s approval rating at this point in his presidency. “This is not to say Obama is doing well,” he warns. “Unless his recent improvement gathers steam, he’s going to be a drag on Democrats in November, though he won’t be as big a drag as Bush was for his party in the 2006 midterms.”

This prompted me to click the link and check out Obama’s approval rating in the HuffPollster’s polling average. This may not be a surprise to any of you, but I don’t follow Obama’s polls very closely and I was a bit startled by how consistent his ratings have been. The chart below shows Obama’s average approval over the past four years. It hovers around 47 percent, and it hasn’t moved more than four points above or below that in the entire time. Right now he’s about three points below his long-term mean, and as usual, he’s reverting to it after sinking a bit during his annus horribilis of 2013.

I don’t really have a point to make here. I’m just surprised that his numbers have been so steady for so long, so I thought I’d share.

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Obama’s Approval Rating Is Remarkably Steady No Matter What Happens

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White House to Introduce Climate Data Website

by Myrna Posted on March 18, 2014

President Obama and two advisers will inaugurate a website on Wednesday that will try to turn scientific data about global warming into mapped digital presentations. Continue reading: White House to Introduce Climate Data Website ; ;Related ArticlesBy Degrees: Scientists Sound Alarm on ClimateObservatory: A Chickadee Mating Zone Surges NorthRetro Report: The Battle Over the Medfly ;

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White House to Introduce Climate Data Website

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Playing Political Games With Surgeon Generals Is Nothing New

by KaliWallwork Posted on March 18, 2014

Mother Jones

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Vivek Murthy, President Obama’s nominee as surgeon general, supports regulations on gun use. This has earned him fierce opposition from the NRA and seems likely to sink his nomination entirely. Paul Waldman comments:

In the calculations over whether Murthy could get confirmed, it’s notable that everyone assumes, almost certainly correctly, that every Republican in the Senate will, of course, vote against the nomination. George W. Bush appointed only one surgeon general, Richard Carmona. He was confirmed by a vote of 98 to 0. But those days are gone — what do you expect Republicans to do, examine a nominee’s qualifications and vote to confirm if he’d obviously do a fine job? Please. The default used to be that a president will get the nominees he chooses unless there’s something really egregious in their past or what they’re likely to do if confirmed, but when it comes to this president and this Congress, that has been turned upside down. Now the Republican position is that every nominee should be rejected, unless there’s some kind of a deal that allows them to get something in exchange.

I’ve made similar kinds of comments in the past, so I can’t really object to seeing them repeated here. Still, it’s worth remembering a little history. First: although President Obama’s initial choice for surgeon general, Regina Benjamin, ran into some Republican opposition when her nomination came to the floor, she was confirmed unanimously within a few days, just like Richard Carmona, Bush’s first surgeon general. Second: after Carmona’s term expired, Bush’s next nominee for surgeon general, James Holsinger, ran into a buzzsaw of Democratic opposition based on a paper he had written in 1991 which argued that “homosexuality isn’t natural or healthy.” When the Bush White House suggested it might install Holsinger via a recess appointment, Harry Reid kept the Senate in pro forma sessions to prevent it. Eventually Holsinger’s nomination died.

There was more going on with Holsinger, including his refusal to answer written questions, but basically his nomination was killed because of his anti-gay views. He insisted that his 1991 paper no longer represented his current views, but it didn’t matter.

So do Murthy’s problems demonstrate the strength of the NRA? Sure. But Holsinger’s problems demonstrated the strength of liberal LGBT views among Democrats. There’s nothing very new going on here.

In fact, I half wonder if opposition to Murthy is partly payback for Democrats killing Holsinger’s nomination. I’d be curious to hear about this from reporters who cover the conservative movement. Down in the bowels of email lists and Sarah Palin fan clubs, do tea partiers still hold a grudge over Holsinger’s defeat? Or has that long since been forgotten?

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Playing Political Games With Surgeon Generals Is Nothing New

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Short Takes: "The New Black"

by Aale Harry Posted on March 18, 2014

Mother Jones

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The New Black

PROMISED LAND FILM

The black voters who turned out for Barack Obama in November 2008 also have been blamed for nudging California’s gay-marriage ban—since nullified by the Supreme Court—to victory. To explore changing black perspectives on gay rights, director Yoruba Richen follows Maryland’s 2012 same-sex marriage referendum, introducing us to people like 24-year-old activist Karess Taylor-Hughes and Pastor Derek McCoy, president of the Maryland Family Alliance—thought leaders on opposite sides of the issue. Backed by an outstanding gospel soundtrack, The New Black is a story of passion, conviction, and the evolution of long-held attitudes. It’s likely to move you, whatever your belief.

This review originally appeared in our January/February issue of Mother Jones.

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Short Takes: "The New Black"

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An Endorsement From Barack Obama Might Be the Kiss of Death This Year

by AngelPQKQbialro Posted on March 12, 2014

Mother Jones

A friend just emailed me with a gloomy outlook for Democrats in this year’s midterm elections. I don’t really have an outlook myself yet, though obviously Democrats suffer from a difficult electoral map, the traditional 6-year blues, and their usual problem turning out voters in off-year elections. But as long as we’re being gloomy, here’s something else to add to the bonfire. It’s an extract from a Washington Post poll graphic showing how voters react to congressional candidates being associated with the Obama administration. It’s not a pretty picture.

Now, if you want some good news, all you have to do is take a look at some of the other numbers in the poll, which makes it clear that most people have no idea what really makes them more or less likely to vote for someone. At the very bottom, for example, you’ll see that virtually no one is willing to fess up that they’re more likely to vote for an incumbent, despite mountains of research showing that incumbency is the single most powerful predictor of electoral success there is. So maybe this is all just a bunch of hooey. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

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An Endorsement From Barack Obama Might Be the Kiss of Death This Year

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