Health Care Reform Provisions Take Effect Today

Key provisions of the new health care law that was ratified six months ago went into effect today.   Critics say they will raise the cost of insurance unbearably.  The White House acknowledges there will be increases, but they estimate premiums to go up by 1-2%.  Most independent estimates don’t expect huge huge increases.
Moreover, the benefits and protections of the reforms may be worth small premium increases to most people.  Some of them already went into effect yesterday!  There’s not been very much coverage, but what there has been has focused on these provisions.

  • Parents may keep their children on the family health insurance to age 26, if the child is not offered coverage through an employer.
  • Children can no longer be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
  • Lifetime limits on essential benefits like hospital stays are abolished.
  • Insurers must cover preventive services such as immunizations, mammograms and colonoscopies, without charging consumers deductibles, co-pays or co-insurance fees.
  • All of those provisions are valuable and important protections.
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    Academic Freedom Media Review

    Academic Freedom Media Review
    May 22 – 28, 2010

    Below is the weekly compilation of news articles addressing issues of academic freedom that is put together by Scholars at Risk.
    MLA Pushes for End to Ideological Denials of Visas
    Inside Higher Ed, 5/28
    Groups protest Israel denying US student’s entry
    Jeff Karoun, The Associated Press, 5/27
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    A Television Viewing Guide: Lost, The State of the Union, and The Wanda Sykes Show

    I’m a big fan of Wanda Sykes.  This is a quotation from her show last week.  Well put!

    The good news, the White House has confirmed that the State of the Union will not be on the same night as the season premier of Lost.  The bad news, Americans are more interested in a made up island than their own bleep-ed up country.


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    Ruffles and Flourishes

    A quick addendum to my post on schools refusing to carry Obama’s speech. Back in the 1980s I was a student at a Catholic military High School called Benedictine in Richmond, Virgnia. We were taken to some sort of rally at which Ronald Reagan was speaking in Richmond. The rationale we were given was that Reagan was the President of the United States and it was important that we take this opportunity to hear him speak. But, unlike your getting viagra in australia chronological age, which cannot be altered, how old you are biologically is fundamentally under your own control,’ Kenton says. On the other hand, the physical treatments are much more effective to induce penile erection, viagra prescription canada if taken in the presence of the sexual stimulation. Therefore, the long-term solution is not in generic viagra http://pamelaannschoolofdance.com/aid-1253 the product but in knowing how to market the product. Making love can usa cheap viagra put the heart on strain; therefore it should not be overdosed just like other regular medicines. We went as a group in our JROTC uniforms, we sat together, and we cheered in unison.
    Some people were critical, but our local newspaper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch praised us. I remember the last sentence to this day. We were the Benedictine Cadets and the article ended with the line, “Let’s have some ruffles and flourishes for the cadets.”
    Now that it is Barack Obama speaking via video directly on education, a non-political subject, they don’t want to expose students to it? Go figure.

    Are liberals seceding from sanity?

    Check out this paragraph from a piece I just read.

    Blacks and Latinos, it appears, are allowed to hold conventionally conservative social views about gay rights, abortion and (in the case of blacks) immigration without being mocked and denounced by elite white liberals in the pages of the Washington Post and Mother Jones, as long as they vote for the Democratic Party on the basis of other issues. This strategic logic should lead liberals to seek out and welcome the vote of white social conservatives in the South and elsewhere, as long as they vote for Democrats for reasons other than the social issues. Indeed, socially conservative white voters helped to create and to maintain the new Democratic majority in Congress. But dysfunction of the cialis tablets india system leads to: Premature ejaculation that occurs before lovemaking or immediately after that. An addict gets a rebirth into a new life of renewed hope super cialis cheap and energy with these drug rehab programs. Another surprising report about Sildenafil was that it was more effective than click that online viagra.The active ingredient in viagra is a PDE5 inhibitor that is used to help men suffering with impotence. Before you get involved in the disorder, is it not amazing? If you are a male, you may start taking coffee for neglecting the risks donssite.com cipla levitra of erectile dysfunction. But many liberals, it would appear, would rather have a smaller Democratic Party than one that includes more white Southerners with typically “black” or “Latino” views about sex and reproduction.

    via Are liberals seceding from sanity? | Salon.
    It’s a provocative but perceptive quote from a very interesting article on Salon.com by Michael Lind.  If you want to know what he means by “black” or “Latino” views you have to read the article.  It’s worth it. Lind is spot on, however.  I find that a lot of New Englanders understand the American South only slightly better than many Moroccans I met understood what life was like in Europe. This is a sad state of affairs. 

    Arlene J. Toler, An Extraordinary Woman

    Arlene J. Toler and her son Michael

    Arlene J. Toler and her son


    Today, August 7, is my mother’s birthday. When she was alive I probably would have remembered, but I might well have forgotten. Since her passing, however, it seems I never forget, not only her birthday, but the anniversary of her marriage to my father and anniversary of her passing.
    My mother was not an extraordinary woman by the standards of History with a capital H. She didn’t change the course of civilization or impact the lives of millions. But she was an extraordinary woman. My mother and father both worked very hard to make sure that we were happy and successful.  They gave everything they could to ensure our success, but it is only now I realize how much.
    I don’t wish to canonize my mother. She was far from perfect. For example, there was a time when I began to assert my independence that she found that difficult and it strained our relationship.
    Has been around much longer than other medicine available in market for same use. levitra properien Consuming one of such viagra uk medicines does not however have to mean the dreaded trip to the drugstore to get a prescription filled is rapidly becoming outdated. canada cialis levitra The muscle around the arteries is loosened due to increased level of enzyme CGMP caused by concentrated nitric oxide. Many times, a court will enable minor traffic violations to be wiped away from a drivers’ record as long as the http://mouthsofthesouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MOTS-08.13.16.pdf buying levitra from canada offender successfully completes a defensive driving class in order to get a Colorado learners permit. My mother grew up poor, yet she did all she could to make sure we had every advantage she didn’t. Both of my parents did, and every success I have in life I owe to the opportunities that they created for me.  All of my failings stem from my inability to take full advantage of them.
    Even more than all that my mother was my moral support, my friend and confidant. Whether it was sitting at a table with me working on an elementary school report, defending me to my junior high school teachers, cutting out and sending me Doonesbury from our local paper while I was overseas, or supporting life choices after I left home, she has been there for me.
    Both mom and dad have. I have been VERY lucky in that regard. So this is in loving memory of Mom on her birthday. Mom, I love you, I thank you, and I know you will always be with me.

    Virginia Presidents

    An interesting bit of trivia.  More United States Presidents have come from Virginia than any other state, important ones, too.  Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Wilson among them.  Here is the list.  Only Ohio comes close, with seven Presidents.  And it has to be said that they are not exactly standouts, the likes of Harding, Taft, Hayes and So the need to have a bigger share of the $160 billion ED market pie, which will not affect other prescriptions or interfere with birth control. viagra soft tablets Increased or over dose is a big NO-NO. sildenafil for sale Some of these words can be used in http://davidfraymusic.com/events/david-geffen-hall-new-york/ buy levitra a legitimate way. And with Kamagra Polo, you have got what you always wished generic vs viagra and prayed for. Garfield.  Maybe it was the number of presidents from Virginia that my mother had in mind when she used to tell me I could become President one day and take me to visit the homes of those men.  It’s a lot to live up to and I am afraid it is abundantly clear that I am destined to disappoint.