Salon.com > health insurance

The Republican fantasy

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:40:00 +0000

One of the ways to differentiate liberals and conservatives today is to consider their respective caricatured sci-fi visions of the future. In cartoon terms, the liberal caricature is a "we're all in this together" utopia of communitarian kumbaya, while the conservative caricature is basically "Back to the Future II" -- a Biff Tannen-dominated dystopia of moral and economic decay whose only unifying ethos is thinking of -- and violently protecting -- oneself. Thus, liberals generally support stuff like universal social insurance and the social safety net, while conservatives tend to get fired up against gun control, taxes and a social safety net, and for massive military budgets.

At the rank-and-file voter level, this is, of course, a cartoon version of ideologies; many self-described liberals are hardly dreaming of turning America into a giant kibbutz while many self-described conservatives just want the government out of their face. However, at the elected official level in Washington, the conservative cartoon in particular is no comedic caricature: As Rep. Paul Ryan's new House Republican budget shows, it is an actual worldview, with specific legislative proposals in tow.

Democratic lawmakers: Getting birth control should be as easy as “ABC”

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:32:00 +0000

While the White House and the Catholic Church continue to slug it out over whether private, for-profit companies like Hobby Lobby should have to provide their employees with federally mandated birth control, two Democratic lawmakers are hoping to ease one roadblock to women's access to contraception: Pharmacists.

In an effort to standardize pharmacies' procedures for filling prescriptions for birth control, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) have reintroduced the “Access to Birth Control (ABC) Act." It's the same bill the politicians tried to get through previous legislative sessions, but these two are clearly Charlie-Brown-and-the-football types, and are optimistically giving it another shot.

Arizona bill would require immigration checks in hospitals

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 21:28:00 +0000

Republicans have long claimed that there’s no such thing as an uninsured patient in America since anyone can just go to the emergency room for their health care. Sure that's inefficient and expensive, but a proposed Arizona law might reduce some of those costs by making clear to undocumented immigrants that they’re not welcome in the state's hospitals at all.

The latest in the Arizona's proud tradition of “up yours” legislation, H.B. 2293 would require that to would require hospitals to check the immigration status of patients and report undocumented patients to the authorities. Republican State Representative Steve Smith, who’s sponsoring the bill, said that it’s a way to gauge how much Arizona is spending on care for non-Americans:

The local ABC affiliate reported: