#Crisis Insurance

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #35

Sep 20-27 2024

President Biden and Vice-President Harris announced new actions to curb gun violence at the one year anniversary of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The Office is the first ever White House office to deal with the issue of guns and has been overseen by the Vice-President. President Biden signed a new Executive Order aimed at combatting the emerging threat of machinegun conversion devices. These devices allow the conversion of semi-automatic firearms to a rate of fire that can match military machineguns, up to 20 bullets in one second. The EO also targets the threat of 3-D printed guns. The EO also addresses active schooler drills at schools. While almost every school conducts them there is little uniformity in how they are carried out, and no consensus on the most effective version of a drill. President Biden's EO directions the development of a research based active shooter drills, which maximize both student physical and mental safety.

President Biden celebrated the one year anniversary of the American Climate Corps and announced new Climate Corp programs. The Climate Corps has seen 15,000 young people connected to well paid jobs in clean energy and climate resilience jobs across America. The EPA and AmeriCorps announced a new Environmental Justice Climate Corps program which will connect 250 American Climate Corps members with local communities and over the next 3 help them achieve environmental justice projects. In addition HUD announced it will be the 8th federal agency to partner with the Climate Corp, opening the door to its involvement in Housing. Since its launch the American Climate Corp has inspired 14 states to launch their own state level version of the program, most recently just this week the New Jersey Climate Corps.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced that 4.2 million small business owners and self-employed people get their health insurance through the ACA marketplace. Up from 1.4 million ten years ago when President Obama and then Vice-President Biden rolled out the marketplaces. The self-employed are 3 times as likely as other Americans to use the marketplaces for their insurance, one out of every 5 getting coverage there. The ACA passed by President Obama, defended and expanded by President Biden, has freed millions of Americans to start their own businesses without fear of losing health coverage for them and their families.

The Departments of Transportation and Labor pressed freight railroad companies to close the gap and offer paid sick time to all their employees. Since 2022 under President Biden's leadership the number of Class I freight railroad employees who have access to paid sick days increased from 5% to 90%. Now the Biden-Harris Administration is pushing to finish the job and get coverage to the last 10%.

The EPA announced $965 million to help school districts buy clean energy buses. This comes on top of the 3 billion the EPA has already spent to bring clean energy buses to America's schools. So far the EPA has helped replace 8,700 school buses, across 1,300 school districts in all 50 states, DC, tribal nations, and US Territories. 95% of these buses are zero-emission, battery-electric. The clean bus program is responsible for over 2/3rds of the electric school buses on the road today.

The Biden-Harris Administration took another step forward in its historic efforts to protect the Colorado River System by signing 5 water conservation agreements with local water authorities in California and Arizona. The two short term agreements will conserve over 717,000 acre-feet of water by 2026. Collectively adding 10 feet to Lake Mead’s elevation by 2026. The Colorado River Basin provides water for more than 40 million people and fuels hydropower resources in seven U.S. states.

The Department of The Interior announced $254 million to help support local parks, the largest such investment in history. The money will go to 54 projects across 24 states hoping to redevelopment or create new parks.

HHS announced $1.5 billion to help combat opioid addiction and prevent opioid overdose deaths. The money will support state and tribal governments and help pay for mobile clinics, naloxone kits, and treatment centers. This comes as nationwide overdose rates drop for the first time since 2020, thanks to strong investment in harm reduction efforts by the Biden-Harris team.

The Department of Agriculture announced it'll spend $466.5 million in food assistance and development worldwide this year. Through its McGovern-Dole Program, the United States is the largest donor to global school feeding programs. The USDA will help feed 1.2 million children in Angola, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Malawi and Rwanda. Through its Food for Progress the USDA will help support 200,000 farmers in Benin, Cambodia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Tunisia shift to climate-smart agriculture boosting food security in those nations and the wider region.

At a meeting at the UN First Lady Jill Biden announced a partnership between USAID and UNICEF to end childhood exposer to lead worldwide. Lead exposure kills 1.5 million people each year, mostly in the developing world.

The Senate approved the appointment of Byron Conway to a federal judgeship in Wisconsin. This makes the 213th federal judge that President Biden has appointed.

[thistransient]

I have a heinous sunburn, my tailbone region is bruised and abraded, my stomach issues resolved after 800mg of anti-dysentery pills, I have a newfound and passionate appreciation for hot water and paved roads, and we finally made it back to the city today. This was probably one of the most unwise yet exhilarating things I've ever done in my life. Also I saw more yaks.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Perez at Rolling Stone:

EARLIER THIS WEEK, two Democratic senators announced they have requested a criminal investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — regarding, in part, a loan for a luxury RV provided by a longtime executive at UnitedHealth Group, one of America’s largest health insurers. Thomas apparently recused himself in at least two cases involving UnitedHealth when the loan was active, according to a Rolling Stone review. Yet, he separately chose to participate in another health insurance case and authored the court’s unanimous opinion in 2004. The ruling broadly benefited the industry — shielding employer-sponsored health insurers from damages if they refuse to cover certain services and patients are harmed. Thomas’ advice to patients facing such denials? Pull out your checkbook.

While UnitedHealth was not a party to the case, the company belonged to two trade associations that filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to side with the insurers.  “As we saw so starkly this term, Supreme Court decisions can have sweeping collateral implications: If the court rules in favor of one insurance giant, for instance, it tends to be a boon for all the other insurance giants, too,” says Alex Aronson, executive director at the judicial reform group Court Accountability. “That was the case here, and it’s a perfect example of why justices shouldn’t accept gifts — especially secret ones — from industry titans whose interests are implicated, whether directly or indirectly, by their rulings.” The public had no way of knowing about Thomas’ RV loan at the time of the decision: The loan was only exposed by The New York Times last year. Senate Democrats investigating Thomas believe that much or all of the loan, for a $267,230 motor coach, was ultimately forgiven. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recently requested the Justice Department investigate whether Thomas reported the forgiven portion of the loan on his tax filings, after he failed to disclose it in ethics forms.

Meanwhile, Thomas’ health insurance opinion has had wide-ranging, long-lasting ramifications, according to Mark DeBofsky, an employee benefits lawyer and former law professor.  “It hasn’t been rectified. The repercussions continue,” DeBofsky tells Rolling Stone. “People who are in dire need of specific medical care, and [their] insurance company turns around and says, ‘That care is not medically necessary,’ and there’s an adverse outcome as a result of the denial of the treatment, or hospitalization, or service — there’s no recompense for what could have been an unnecessary death or serious injury.” Since last year, the Supreme Court has faced an unprecedented ethics crisis, with much of the focus aimed squarely at Thomas. ProPublica reported that Thomas received and failed to disclose two decades worth of luxury gifts from a conservative billionaire, Harlan Crow, who allegedly provided free private jet and superyacht trips to Thomas and his wife; bought a house from Thomas and allowed the justice’s elderly mother to live there for free; and paid for at least two years of boarding school tuition for Thomas’ grandnephew.

[...] Federal law requires Supreme Court justices to recuse themselves in any case where their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The justices decide for themselves when such a move is necessary — and when they do withdraw from a case, they rarely say why. Thomas does not appear to have explained his decision to withdraw from the two matters that directly involved UnitedHealth. Thomas did not take similar steps in Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila, a case that broadly affected the health insurance industry. He instead authored the court’s opinion, which expanded insurers’ favorite tool for limiting liability: ERISA. Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, commonly known as ERISA, in 1974 to protect employee benefits. The law is relatively vague when it comes to “welfare benefits,” and contains a broad preemption clause. The courts have filled in the blanks — including in the Aetna Health case — with distressing results for patients. Half of Americans have employer-sponsored health insurance coverage; nearly all of these plans are governed by ERISA.

Rolling Stone exposes how SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas received a $267K RV from a health insurance executive.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Teffal Mohamed Amine has given up hope on ever buying a home. "I've completely maxed out my savings and credit card that were supposed to be used for a house," he tells CTV News. "I've literally had to go without food for lack of money at times, especially recently." The software engineer was laid off from his job in December 2022. "I was on probation and a lot of people, including myself, were let go for lack of budget," he explained, adding he's been on employment insurance (EI) ever since -- but has yet to receive a single cent.

Continue Reading.

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[thoughtportal]

Debt Ceiling

[badp1l0t]

Ya’ll…I honestly dont think many people are gonna see this…but those who do, please stay and read. You dont need to reblog this post or like it or anything (and im not just saying this as reverse psychology, Im being dead serious, and I’m only adding tags so that people can see this and maybe even be inspired), just center your mind towards this blog. I have something important to share.

I understand this might be a ‘tldr’ or ‘idrc’ moment for some of yall by the way, and that’s fine. If i randomly saw this on tumblr I probably wouldn’t read it either lol. But if you could just take a few minutes out of your life to read this, i would really appreciate it.

So I just got this gut feeling only a couple minutes ago that I felt really deep inside me (dont take that outta context). Everything around me just disappeared, dissolved, just popped out of existence. I suddenly realized how terrible the world is, like my brain just snapped into reality…just…finally realized whats actually happening in the world. I noticed how terrible people can be, and a gut wrenching, primal rage bubbled in stomach. Moments later, I thought about what I’m doing with my life, how I’m wasting it away, just spending all of my life on my phone, ipad, TV, computer, PS5, nintendo….how i’ve never felt myself truly accomplish something or feel satisfied. I noticed how I have done NOTHING in my life except just plowing through every day without doing anything meaningful. I just felt unfulfilled…unsatisfied. I wanted to get off my phone and go outside and enjoy what life really is. The reason why I’m still on my phone here is to type this messages. What im trying to say is…you should really just put your screen down and really just enjoy life for what it is, to just enjoy life and really experience what you were made for. To just sit down and relax, go outside, look up at the sky, and just contemplate what you’re doing with your life. Just be. Be alive. Enjoy your time here.

Ik it’s kind of weird to be hearing this from helluva boss obsessed chronically online person that has terrible repetitive grammar and spelling, and I’m sure that you’ve heard this messages a hundred times, but I just feel like this is what people should experience in life. To just experience what it’s like to live.

To just…be.

I love you all 🌺❤️

[void-of-unparalled-chaos]

The Healthcare horrors persist

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[cantsayidont]

February 1961. If Lex Luthor was a teenager in Smallville when Clark Kent was Superboy, what happened to Lex's family? Jerry Siegel answered that question in a curiously roundabout way about a year later, in a story in SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE #23. Perry White assigns Lois to "write a story on witchcraft," and sends her to the New England town of Cardiff, where there were witch trials centuries earlier. In Cardiff, Lois visits the local library to learn more about the trials and notices that one of the alleged witches burned at the stake, Louella Thompsons, bore a striking resemblance to the town's current librarian, a young woman with the unusual name of Lena Thorul:

Learning that Lena was orphaned as a child, Lois soon works herself into a froth imagining that Lena is the reincarnation of Louella Thompsons, and that the accidents that killed her family might be the result of black magic. Lois then begins to think she's being watched, and experiences several bizarre events, including the mysterious disappearances of her camera and typewriter. She also narrowly avoids a car accident like the one Lena said killed her parents. Superman, as always in these stories skeptical of any kind of "superstitious magic," is convinced that there must be a scientific explanation — and since evil scientist Lex Luthor recently escaped from prison, Superman concludes there must be a connection. Locating Luthor's secret lab with Lois in tow, Superman finds that Luthor has been using remote "vision-screens" to monitor Cardiff and the Daily Planet offices, and used "super-science rays" to cause the mysterious disappearances of Lois's stuff. Superman even guesses the reason:

Superman then gets Luthor to explain the whole story:

In late 1962, Lena popped up again in the Supergirl strip in ACTION COMICS #295, which reveals that she moved to Midvale not long after her previous appearance. Lena befriends Supergirl in her guise as Linda Lee Danvers and applies for a job as an FBI secretary, but is rejected because, as an FBI official explains to Supergirl, "Our security check on Lena drew a complete blank! No one knows where she came from! There's no birth certificate! All we know is that she was found in the wreckage of a car after a serious accident, and once worked as a librarian in a small town! She's a complete mystery! A girl without a past!" Dismayed, Supergirl — who's unaware of Lois's earlier encounter with Lena — travels back in time and learns what Lex had previously revealed to Superman and Lois about his family.

That story reveals that while Lena's resemblance to Louella Thompsons was a coincidence, Lena does possess extrasensory perception. Learning that his sister has fallen in with a gang of thieves who want to use her psychic abilities for robbery, Luthor asks Supergirl for help:

Luckily, Lena actually uses her extrasensory powers to thwart the gang's attempted bank robbery. As she tells Supergirl:

From this point on, Lena became a semi-regular Supergirl supporting character. About two years later, in ACTION COMICS #317, she married FBI agent Jeff Colby and became Lena Thorul Colby. Supergirl kept her promise to Lex and didn't tell Lena about him, but in the Supergirl stories in THE SUPERMAN FAMILY #213–214 in 1981, Lena found out anyway, and was outraged that Supergirl had never told her the truth. Lena reconnected with Lex — whose concern about her wellbeing was completely genuine, if perhaps misplaced — and Supergirl expressed hope that Lena would eventually forgive her. However, THE SUPERMAN FAMILY #214 was Lena's last pre-Crisis appearance, so it seems they didn't reconcile before Kara's death in the Crisis in 1985.

Unlike in many modern stories, the pre-Crisis Luthors didn't appear to be particularly rich. Lex's comment in Lena's first appearance about their parents having "left everything" to her suggests that she might have inherited a little money, but given that she was working as a small town librarian and applying for secretarial jobs, she presumably wasn't independently wealthy.

In post-Crisis continuity, there was initially no indication that Lex Luthor had any siblings, but his parents were still killed in a car accident, which LEX LUTHOR: THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY strongly implied that Lex arranged so he could collect on their life insurance policy.

[fanworldbuildingfun]

Tonight I have two moods:

·         Desmond angst with Bleeding Effect

·         And Desmond being reborn as Al Mualim’s surprise kid

(note of warning: these are NOT in the same universe) (Unless?)

1.       Desmond angst with Bleeding Effect

So. This one leans heavily into feeling of entrapment that never went away after Abstergo. Desmond DID technically go from being used as Animus subject to being used as Animus subject. Admittedly, he did swap the relatively comfy accommodations for relatively better company (listen. Listen I may not dig the ascetic glass-n-white style Abstergo rocks, but I can appreciate that the room looked like a good hotel room). But that negate the fact that he, technically, had no real choice in either scenario

And here, instead of learning to trust Lucy/Shawn/Rebecca, Desmond instead clings to the memories of his ancestors. After all, they have neither any way nor any reason to use him, right?

He’s amicable with the team. Jokes sometimes, has lighthearted impersonal talks – basically, treats them as colleagues at most. But whatever vulnerability there is, is shown to the people he sees during Bleeds

So leaning against where he sees a ghostly Ezio sitting on his bed, or laying on the floor where he can see barely-there shades of throw pillows and rugs that normally sit in Altaïr’s office? It’s comforting. And so is the skritch of quill on parchment as Altaïr writes… Something

To Desmond, it’s not real

But for his ancestors, from the moment they held the Apple in their hands? The shadowy form of Desmond is very much real. Ezio can feel the press of Desmond’s body against his side. Altair can see how the pillows dip under Desmond’s weight

And Desmond probably wouldn’t have said half the things he did if he realized that the ghostly Connor who was making his own arrows across from him was listening. That they all listened. And could do precisely nothing

2.       Desmond as Al Mualim’s surprise kid

This is a complete and utter crack taken seriously(-ish). No one can prove Al Mualim never had any lovers, in or out of the garden. And he is not THAT old, by our standards (the man is killed at 56. Only 56!)

But he never did plan to sire a child. There was no time nor desire had for one

Except, no one thought to tell whatever Isu-bull went on with the Temple that

So in 1174, he gets “blessed” with a child from his preferred Flower who had never, to point, had a pregnancy. Ever *thoughtfully sprinkles in some more Isu bullshit because the lady genuinely never had it be an issue*

One may think Al Mualim would be the kind of man who would be a distant parent, or just forbid anyone from speaking of him having a child. But nope. Instead, Al Mualim goes completely Rodrigo Borgia over his newborn daughter

[deus-ex-mona]

a n y w a y s listen to nagisa’s new song it’ll change your life

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dan Pfeiffer at The Message Box:

Amidst the political tumult of the last couple of months, one thing has remained constant — the economy is the top issue for voters. More specifically, concerns about elevated prices — despite declining inflation — continue to drive the political conversation. In the most recent New York Times/Siena poll of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, 22% of likely voters said the economy was the single most important issue in deciding their vote — 8 points higher than abortion and 9 points higher than immigration. Dissatisfaction with the economy helped propel Trump to a lead earlier this year despite his convictions, indictments, and involvement with insurrections. This week, Trump gave a speech in North Carolina that was billed as a major economic speech, and on Thursday, he gave an interminably long press conference at his golf club regarding high prices. Yesterday, also in North Carolina, Vice President Kamala Harris gave her first major policy speech of the campaign. She also focused on high prices. Head-to-head engagement on this issue tells us a lot of very good things about how Harris and her team are messaging on the economy. Others are more qualified than I to weigh in on the substantive merits of her proposals, but the politics are promising.

Read the full policy paper on Harris’s proposals HERE, but the major tenets include:

Lowering grocery costs with the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries;

Restoring the Child Tax Credit that provided $3,600 per child for middle and working class families;

Cutting taxes to help Americans afford health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace;

Capping the cost of insulin at $35 and out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs at $2,000 for everyone;

Calling for the construction of three million new homes to end the housing shortage in four years; and

Providing $25,000 in down-payment support for first-time homeowners.

Even though these items represent a piece of her broader economic agenda, it is impressively comprehensive for a campaign created out of thin air less than a month ago.

[...]

3. Harris’s Economic Message

Because his fake persona as a business tycoon was imprinted on the American psyche via tabloids and reality television, Trump has always had an advantage on the economy. That advantage was magnified this cycle because he associated himself with the economic stability and lower prices during the pre-pandemic era. The best thing the Trump economy achieved was not massively fumbling all of the work Barack Obama did to rebuild the economy after the Great Recession — but I digress.

Kamala Harris’s message on the economy is what America needs.

[br1ghtestlight]

i love to say "if california wasn't so expensive" as if where im living right now isn't both more expensive and less accessible than ANY city in california or almost the entire country of america

[theeternalwombtarot]

We need to talk about healthcare and financial crises. There are a lot of us who wholeheartedly believe that there are cures to everything but that our illness is a form of profit for our country, especially within the United States. Just like the fact that instead of having fruit and vegetables and herbs be readily available and accessible for us, we’ve got to go buy them and as inflation increases, the price tags on healthier food choices increases. In the United States, you can get fined for not having insurance, but when you do have insurance you have to pay a fee to have it, large chunks of our pay checks are eaten up and taken from us as well as tax dollars. We not only have issues in the health care system regarding racial bias and discrimination but we also have a problem with the maternal mortality rate, especially in women of color, and especially in regards to black women.

We know who is most likely to get sickle cell anemia and who is most affected by it, and we know who is going to have a hard time affording a 2.2 million cure for sickle cell anemia. We know a large quantity of individuals with chronic illnesses or life threatening illnesses that require intensive medical care and medication are people or color or minorities. We know that people of color and minorities have historically been and systematically been financially unstable, have been paid more, or have been offered the lowest standard of care and resources. Why are we creating cures and services that we know a large percentage of our population cannot afford or does not have access to? And now, we have a case where even a larger percentage of our population cannot afford healthcare and services due to the economic state of our country.

We’re continuing to have children, especially as women, when we need to advocate for better healthcare and support. Women worldwide need to start setting better requirements for when they’re going to have children and how. As someone whose been interested in midwifery for years and has been reading up on midwifery and birthing practices and what is absolutely necessary and essential in order to give a woman a chance at having a smooth, healthy, and safe pregnancy. Vast majority of women who are having children don’t realize that today’s practices for birthing children or preparing you for labor and delivery are less than the bare minimum. Women need access to good food and need to be able to eat well and have a nutritionally balanced diet, women need to be able to participate in physical activity and exercise throughout their pregnancy (yoga, Pilates, walking, etc.) and especially with trained professionals and staff who are educated on what type of physical exercise would best benefit a woman throughout her pregnancy and what will ultimately help her out when it’s time to deliver, they need access to good environments and practices that are created to benefit them and make their experiences easier, safer, and more comfortable. And they absolutely do not need to be required to pay an arm and a leg in hospital fees to have a child in the United States.

We need better health care that better accommodates women in the process of conceiving, women going through their pregnancy, women who are laboring and delivering, and women who are still alive during post partum healing. All these things should be requirements. All of these things should be covered by insurance. The issue is so large that women are having to travel outside of the United States to give birth to their babies and come back so that they could have better care and a better recovery and overall survival rate. It’s expensive to hire a midwife, let alone a dula for spiritual guidance and support. All women should have access to midwives and dulas and there needs to be more women in the birthing industry. We know that traditional midwifery practices and practices that were created to better aid women and were more effective and atomically accurate have been let go of or replaced.

Children are expensive, motherhood is expensive, and at this current moment we have mothers who are going through their pregnancies and post partum without proper resources and care and we have children coming into this world constantly and repeatedly to environments, parents, circumstances, etc. that aren’t financially, emotionally, or physically fit or stable to give them good lives. We need to stop having children at such a rate whilst we shift our focus to advocating for better health care and support for our women. Having a child is a privilege, some people may not agree, but just because we love them does not mean that we should all be having them because at this time we do not have the proper resources to bring them into this world correctly or provide for them.

There’s a lot going on here and a lot we need to advocate for. And those who are chronically ill or have been intense physical ailments and pregnant women who are giving birth to babies are just the tip of the iceberg. This isn’t even including the chronically mentally ill or those with developmental disabilities whose families have to pay thousands of dollars just to get them what they need. Since we’re changing the world and there is a shift happening, it’s time we start having the right conversations at the right time. There’s no time to change the world like today.

[nymphofstars]

How pissed do you think Apollo is when every single domain has been screwed over by capitalism?

the healthcare system with insurance companies

Artists and animators being replaced by ai and laid off

Fast fashion

Climate change making the suns rays hurt more

[nando161mando]

Millionaire stops cosplaying as poor person when he realizes it’s super hard to exist with health issues and no insurance or money