Polarization of the Past ~ Eric Smith

The polarization of the past has become the reality of the present. There is no doubt that the coming days, weeks, and months will be remembered on the same plane of infamy as the worst days of the 1960's and the immediate lead up to the American Civil War. We must all, in our own way, prepare for the storm that is at hand and in our hearts remain steadfast & hopeful that America will both survive and be made stronger by the coming cataclysm that is destined to rock every citizen of this great nation to his/her core.

This Is Called Competition ~ Michael Hoyt

On my medicare advantage plan I have decided to switch from United Health Care to the Humana Gold plan. Both are zero premium but Humana has zero doctor co-pay ($10.00 for United,) zero co-pay for tier 1 medications ($7.00 for United) and most of the other co-pays are less including ambulance, specialist, hospital and most other tiers of medication. Humana also has a free gym membership called silver sneaker. United Health care has that also but but not on the zero premium plan.


This is called competition. This is what the ACA exchange is designed to do. Every October there will be an open enrollment period. People will be able to go in and take the best insurance they can get at the lowest prices. If they are unhappy with the insurance they took out or the company they chose they can change and they cannot be denied the change because of preexisting conditions.

You Just Followed A Different Shepherd ~ Gary Henderson

OK, the government shutdown is in its 5th day, and I am VERY disappointed (although not the least bit surprised) in my Second Amendment supporting friends.
Government tyranny is upon us. Approximately 40 members of the Tea Party have ignored this fact: The House passed the ACA, the Senate passed the ACA, and the Supreme Court upheld the ACA. It is the law of the land. These 40 or so terrorists have seized control of the GOP, and in defiance of a legally enacted law, are hell bent on destroying the country. Why? Because the corporate interests they REALLY represent don't want to pay more in taxes so all Americans can have affordable health care.
You folks have been stockpiling firearms and ammo since the Dark Lord was elected 5 years ago. The tyrannical government you warned us about is upon us (although you expected it to be blue instead of red). 
Are you going to be all mouth and no action like that has-been rock star who had promised to be dead or in jail by now? 
Never mind that to a large measure, the same people who are the loudest (and blindest) supporters of the Second Amendment are also supporters of the group that is holding the nation hostage. Forget the fact that many of those same people will be badly hurt when the Social Security checks, Medicare and VA benefits stop arriving. Principles are principles (even if you don't know what they are). 
If you aren't going to take your guns and ammo and take back your government from the people who are defying the law, hurting you and your fellow citizens in real, tangible ways...if you are going to let a group of Koch and Wall Street owned Plutocrats (look it up, Bubba) destroy your beloved country, then your hoarding weapons is no different than an adolescent hoarding porn: it fuels a rich fantasy life. 
Come to think of it, that's a pretty good analogy: both have you imagining your "equipment" is all powerful, capable of firing again and again...while in reality, the only thing you are shooting off are your mouths (and a few unarmed kids).
Time to put up or shut up. So far, you have just stood by, polishing your ordinance. The day of reckoning is at hand, and you are waiting for the NRA to tell you what to do. Well, let me predict what their instructions are going to be: "Buy more guns and ammo." 
Enjoy watching your country going down the drain, flushing you and your family along with it. You never really were a patriot, were you? Anyone watching could tell that by your battle cry:

"BAAaaaaa" 

You just followed a different shepherd. One that turned out to be the wolf you feared most of all.

[Stay tuned for more good entries by Gary Henderson]

Americans Don't Like The Shut Down ~ Ruth Ann Satchfield

The pay for Veterans and their widows ends late of Oct. The Veterans medical care may end then too. Some of those veterans and widows don't have anything else on which to live. The Tea Party Republicans have been bragging since they gerrymandered control of the house that they were going to shut the government down. Americans don't like the shut down by 72%. The 25% are celebrating like drunken sailors, just like their representatives in Congress. What was their goal. Was it to put thousands of Americans out of work? They did that. Is it to waste more tax money? They are doing that 50 million to 100 million a day, and it gets higher with every day. The Republicans want to end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Education, and Veterans Benefits. Are you for that? If not, why are you voting Republican? I had a Tea Party person tell me the government was not my nanny. Do you think these programs are nanny programs or necessary programs to take care of our citizens? Do you benefit from any of them? What would you do without them?

It is time to think about this, because the Tea Party has launched a serious assault on these programs, and they think they are winning. They don't realize that the Republicans rating is 65% negative on social media {Reputation.com} All they hear is the echo chamber of Conservative news, and that includes small town newspapers and many local news stations. These people do not realize the Republicans are attacking these programs, which many of them use. We must get them educated. 

What will the Tea Party do when they destroy the government that they hate so much? These people are unreasonable, and uninformed. They say they are patriotic and they love their country, Do you agree? I don't. I think their actions border on treason. If they are going to end the federal government which is what they want, what do they plan to do after that? These things take a lot of thought from intelligent people, and the Tea Party has not thought their actions through to the end. No plans have been presented. It is just like their desire to destroy the ACA, with no plan for the uninsured to replace it. It is also like their attack on birth control, with no thought to the tons of children who will be born into families who cannot afford to feed them. How does any of this improve this nation?

~by Ruth Ann Satchfield

Better Use Of Tax Dollars: Shutting Down the Government or Subsidies for Healthcare Insurance? ~ Barbara J. Cobuzzi and Lynne Smith

The United States government closed down at 12:01AM EST time on October 1st.  This is a simple fact.  It is estimated that every hour the government is “closed” it will cost the American taxpayer 12.5 million dollars. (http://www.nbcnews.com/business/money-nothing-government-shutdown-costs-12-5-million-hour-8C11308802) In one 24 hour day, the cost to taxpayers will be approximately 300 million dollars.  If the government shutdown lasts a month, the cost to all taxpayers increases to 9 billion dollars.  In all fairness, this is only the cost of closing the government; it does not take into consideration the following:

• Washington D.C. will lose about 200 million dollars a day in wages and spending. (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/09/30/2706091/cost-of-shutdown/
• The 800,000 federal employees will no longer be able to pump the 1 billion dollars they earn in wages into the US Economy.  (http://whnt.com/2013/09/30/government-shutdown-possible-economic-impact/
• Reversing the Affordable Care Act would cost the US $109 Billion over 10 years.(http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/healthcare/299895-cbo-obamacare-repeal-will-increase-the-deficit ) In other words it would ADD to the deficit.

This suggests the actual losses will be far greater than simply the 12.5 million dollars per hour being used in this explanation by the end of the government shut down.

Through the years the Republicans have always called themselves the party of “fiscal conservatism.” They want “less government” and suggest that this will mean decreasing deficits and less “interference” by the government.  It is a bit confusing then to understand why they would orchestrate a federal government shut down rather than simply allowing the Affordable Care Act to become part of the American fabric.  Confusing you might ask? Certainly it is understandable, that these fiscal conservatives want to save money, you might be thinking.   That is what they say, but the facts don’t support that contention.

The median income for a family in the United States is approximately $50,000.00 per year.  (http://www.today.com/money/we-are-median-living-50-000-year-1B7879451)  This means that about half of the families in America have an income higher than this and half have an income that is lower each year.  Based on the figures projected by the Health and Human Services Department of the federal government, the retail cost of a Silver health insurance family plan through the healthcare exchange could range in cost from $584.00 per month or $7000.00 per year in Tennessee on the low end to $1237.00 per month or $14,484.00 per year in Wyoming on the high end. (http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/September/25/Federal-Exchange-Rates-Lower-Than-Expected.aspx)  Obviously, this suggests there is a significant difference in the retail costs of healthcare insurance based on where a person resides.  The Affordable Care Act was designed to insure that regardless of where a family resides, they will be able to get health insurance for the same cost, which in this case would be $284.00 per month for a median income family. The subsidies are based on the Silver policies.  The subsidies are “the great equalizer” in terms of insurance rates.  While the family living in Tennessee would receive about $3600.00 per year in subsidies, the family in Wyoming would get $11,460.00 per year when purchasing the Silver policy.  In other words a family would be responsible for approximately the same premium regardless of where they live.  [NOTE: This is based on average policy pricing.  Since different insurance companies will price their Silver plans differently, the ultimate price after the subsidies will vary a bit, based on age and whether the person is a smoker.]

For simplicity’s sake let’s simply average these two subsidies for the purposes of discussion.  The total of the subsidies paid to the family in Wyoming and Tennessee is equal to approximately $15,000.00, divided by two suggests an average tax incentive of $7500.00 for families who make the median salary of approximately $50,000.00 per year.

Why is this important?  Currently the US government has been shut down, by the Republicans, at the cost of $12,500,000.00 per hour supposedly because the Affordable Care Act is too expensive (even though repealing the ACA will cost $110 Billion) along with several other claims that have proven to be false and will not be reviewed here. However, the cost of the Affordable Care Act to taxpayers is far LESS than shutting down the government.  Consider this:

Using the average tax incentive of $7500.00 per year to a family making $50,000.00 per year, each hour that the government is closed could have paid the tax incentive for 1,667 American families.  40,000 families could receive their subsidies or their health insurance in what it takes for the government to be shut down for a twenty four hour period.  If the government stays closed for one week, that money could have been used to provide 280.000 families as a subsidy. And finally, if the government remains closed down for one month, the money could have been used to provide 1,120,000 families in the US a tax incentive or tax break to help them pay for health insurance.

This analysis does not even take into account the damage caused to the economy from the 800,000 federal employees who will no longer be able to pump their paychecks into the US Economy.  The question is then what is more fiscally conservative in these two scenarios? The answer is simple.   Clearly, it would be a better use of taxpayer dollars to simply allow American families to have these subsidies than shutdown the government which puts a strain on the workers who were furloughed, the economy of the local areas in which the federal employees reside, as well as services to the American public as a whole.  Undoubtedly, there is NO fiscal explanation or data that suggests shutting down the government is a better use of taxpayer dollars than acknowledging the Affordable Care Act as the law of the land that offers tax payers significant tax incentives or tax cuts. The Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2009, approved by the Supreme Court in 2012, and WILL result in a significant number of American families getting a tax subsidy to pay for their 2014 health insurance and at the same time improve the quality of so many American’s health, lives and financial futures.

About the Authors: By: Barbara J. Cobuzzi, MBA, CPC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPC-I, CENTC, CPCO and Lynne Smith, MSSW. Barbara is an industrial engineer with an MBA. She worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years before moving into the healthcare industry where she had a company where she provided top quality coding, compliance and revenue cycle management services for physicians. She has since moved into full time consulting for physicians. Barbara is a nationally known expert known for her education, consulting and expert witness services. Lynne has dedicated her career to helping others. She has experience as a social worker in a rural county, an administrator in a large hospital network and as a College Professor. She uses the skills she developed over the years as an advocate in a variety of areas including her most recent venture serving as a Healthcare Advocate. Together, Lynne and Barbara own the ACA Healthcare Advocates consulting firm and are available to individuals, families and businesses to help them meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act in order to meet the specific needs of the client while optimizing the fiscal considerations.  Please direct your questions and/or inquiries to askcobuzzi@gmail.com

How Stupid Do They Think We Are? ~ by Ruth Ann Satchfield

Today is a very special day for me. It is a day when most people, especially those who have been needing insurance for years can get it. I have been one of the lucky ones. Except for a few years, I had insurance most of my life, either through my employer, my husband’s employer or my father’s.

About the year 2000 I lost a very special friend. She had a job and had worked most of her life. She also managed to raise two sons on her own. She was diagnosed with cancer. Since she did not have insurance, she had to apply to a hospital that would provide free care. By the time she got it, it was really too late. They tried to help her, and I was with her when they told her there was nothing more they could do. During that time, she had a granddaughter, and of course wanted to spend as much time as she could with her. Since she needed help, I would go over every day, and help her with the baby. I don’t need to tell you it was bitter sweet. She should have been able to spend many years loving that child, and teaching her so many new things. Instead she lost her life. Had she had insurance, she might have lived. That is what I have been thinking all the time we were pushing for President Obama to win, so we could have health care for most, if not all. I wish we could get it for everyone, so there would be fewer children growing up without their grandmothers, grandfathers, parents, brothers or sisters.

It is very difficult for me to understand the cruelty of political party, the Republicans to not want everyone to have health care. How can you vote for anyone who has no empathy for the people of this country?  Now that same political party has shut the government down, throwing many out of work, and denying services to others. For the Republicans to be partying and celebrating when they were shutting the government down, shows just how selfish and self-centered they are. Now it will be even longer for the injured veterans to wait before they can get proper medical care, because those registration services were closed. I hear they are blaming the Democrats, and President Obama for the government shut down, after they have been bragging to their supporters for months, that they were going to do just that.

How stupid do they think we are? If someone just wants to block government, they are not supporters of this country. If some one does not wish to solve problems and make things better for the citizens of this country, they do not belong in Washington, or any state capital. If you are voting for these destructive representatives, you are not being a good citizen. Before we go to the polls in the future, we need to ask ourselves what we want our country to be for our children. If all you want is for the 1% to get more wealth, whether the insurance industry, the banks or the energy companies with no regard for the destruction of the earth, vote Republican. If you want our country to be at peace in a world we protect, spending our tax dollars to achieve the greatness it once had, with education, health care and opportunities for all of our citizens, vote Democratic.

No political party is perfect, and I know we will never get everything we need, because in politics you must compromise. Just remember the selfish and childish behavior of our representatives on the right, and send them home. When I think of my friend, who would probably still be alive, if she had insurance, it can’t be fast enough for me!

The Bad Witch Of The North ~ Malina Lobel-karimi

Well, the bad witch of the north, south, east and west has guided me onto Google+. Yes, of course I'm talking about the tireless, impeccable and indefatigable Laurel M Davila. I AM COMPUTER STUPID, make no mistake. I am not proud of this factoid, but it is what it is. Yet, I have managed to navigate with her help and now am ready to do whatever needs to be done in defeating these right-wing terrorists. Yes, they are domestic terrorists under the guise of elected politicians. (Sorry, but Hitler was also democratically elected). When a group is doing its damnedest to defeat a middle class that not only blossomed after WW II but created these vast corporations by being consumers (and there isn't another country out there whose people buy two of everything whether they need it or not) by shrinking incomes; making every attempt in denying our RIGHT to healthcare; claiming to want "Smaller government" but as we've seen these last few years, the small government they speak of is meant to fit in a woman's vagina only; when they are against same sex marriage or equality; blocking ANY path towards citizenship: These people are terrorists sans a bomb but instead using their minions who are clueless overall. Having Fox News as your information provider is much like having Helen Keller as your chauffeur. (Too soon for Helen Keller comic relief?). 

The bottom line is to take them out before they take us, the middle class completely out. It has been systematically dismantled these last thirty five years (thank you Ronald Reagan and "Trickle Down Economics") but it has accelerated at a dangerous speed commencing with the election of a black man. Whatever President Obama has done right, they have taken credit for. Whatever President Obama has done wrong, they have vilified him for. I've been curious for some time how any other human being...rephrase that, politician (they are only half human at best), especially a republican would have handled every attack levied at him with the dignity that Obama has. Being called a "liar" during his State of the Union Address comes to mind immediately. How would a Chris Christie have handled that? The Jersey way, by telling the offender to f*** off? While that may be what I would do, a statesman does not. And that's what President Obama is; a statesman. Thugs, playground bullies and
terrorists; that's what this current crop of republicans occupying the halls of Congress are and certainly not worthy of any title much less that of Senator or Representative. 

Democrats are notoriously lazy in showing up at midterms. I give you the special recall election in Co where two democrats were recalled for voting their conscience regarding anti-gun legislation. Democrats failed to show up in person and the NRA won a small victory. 

PLEASE folks, let's do whatever we can whether financially or by donating our time to ensure a democratic victory starting this November with Terry McAuliffe VS Ken Cuccinelli in Va.; the latter being an extension of Gov Ultrasound, Bob McDonnell. 

If the U.S. had not gotten involved back in WW II, we may all be speaking German today. I don't really want to speak redneck for the rest of my life...or my children's lives...or their children's.