#Wisconsin Medicaid

[wausaupilot]

Wisconsin’s Medicaid postpartum protection lags most of the country

Wisconsin doctors say the state could help save lives by extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full year, as many states offer. But the Legislature again blocked an extension.

by Rachel Hale / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch February 27, 2024 Click here to read highlights from the story Here are highlights from the story:  Each year, at least 25 women in Wisconsin die within a year of giving birth, oftentimes from suicide and drug overdose. Advocates have been calling for years to extend Wisconsin’s Medicaid coverage to help save lives. Wisconsin’s Medicaid coverage…

[wormeats]

depression and healthcare (united states) related question

idk how to be okay or get better on my own rn i have been very depressed and it is hurting my life and idk how to get healthcare or apply or anything or find doctors rn because i just moved from florida to wisconsin and ive tried applying for healthcare but i can't rn and ive tried to find if any places help you do that and i can't find out where to start on my own im too overwhelmed and not well enough to ask for help from people in my life i already feel like im hurting by being this depressed

does anyone have advice? idk what to do or how to start. i can probably find doctors but i want to figure out having my own healthcare and i havent been able to, applying is too much for me rn ive been trying to handle work and laundry and dishes and i need a job w better hours eventually soon so i can continue to afford things and also applying everywhere is a lot rn so its been easier to just focus on exisiting rn w my current income idk

i probably should just Apply on the healthcare site or whatever but i always come across parts idk how im supposed to answer and take forever and grt overwhelmed and worried i fucked it up And Then idk how well ill be able to get together whatever needed documentation in whatever amount of time

i justttttt rlly do not know what to do but rn my.biggest inclination is to just work and sleep until i screw up life sm that i cant live but idk i dont want to do that and hurt other ppl and i also do not want to stay in a hospital for several days if im put in inpatient i have done 0 actions of concerning harm to me only my brain is really terrible to deal with and it's hard to live

idk will probably delete i just dont know how to ask for help rn and i need it

[tomorrowusa]

I keep telling everybody, you need to take more interest in state government and state politics. A whole lot more.

Abortion, gun regulation, LGBT rights, Medicaid expansion, gerrymandering, voting rights, school censorship, and law enforcement issues are being decided at the state level. Many states fully controlled by Republicans are unleashing a flood of repressive laws. They depend on citizens generally paying little attention to what goes on in state legislatures.

Clashes between Democrats and Republicans over issues like abortion and guns, which could also shape future voting laws and electoral maps, foreshadow the great debates to come in the 2024 presidential campaign. These simmering conflicts also reflect a nation divided over its cultural and political identity and show how sometimes small shifts in the balance of power can have momentous consequences.  

In Wisconsin – one of the most competitive swing states in recent presidential elections – a liberal judge won a race for a state Supreme Court seat Tuesday in a victory that could restore abortion rights in the state and lead to the redrawing of maps that the GOP had shaped to their advantage. The magnitude of her victory – by around 200,000 votes – will ring alarm bells for the GOP.  

In North Carolina, Republicans were celebrating after a Democratic state representative, who was elected by a nearly 20-point margin a few months ago, flipped to the GOP this week, giving the party veto-proof majorities in both state legislative chambers as they seek new curbs on abortion and more restrictive election laws.  

America’s tortured divide on firearms is driving an extraordinary showdown in Tennessee. Instead of working to combat mass shootings after last week’s massacre at a Nashville school, Republican state legislators want to kick out three Democrats who joined a gun control protest.  

National Democrats are, meanwhile, looking at Chicago, where Bernie Sanders-backed progressive Brandon Johnson won Tuesday’s mayoral runoff. He beat a moderate with a tough-on-crime message by making a more nuanced pitch than his previous support for calls to “defund the police.” (Johnson said during the campaign he didn’t want to slash police funding.)  

And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who says his state is a laboratory for a more conservative America ahead of his possible White House bid, signed a bill into law earlier this week allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit. The state Senate also passed a highly restrictive 6-week abortion ban Monday.  

The GOP US Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision has punted abortion law back into the hands of state governments. It also unintentionally served as a reminder of how much power each individual state has.

But political brushfires that begin in states can later rage at the national level and define future general election clashes. It’s already clear, for example, that gender and transgender issues will be a dominant question in 2024, as Republicans slam Democrats for embracing policies that they describe as “woke.” 

One of the more notorious GOP governors, Ron DeSantis of Florida, is constantly screaming “WOKE! WOKE! WOKE!” at the top of his lungs to attract far right 2024 Republican primary voters. But the worst part is that he’s getting his gerrymandered legislature to rubber stamp repressive laws to help his prospects for getting the Republican presidential nomination. One of Ronnie’s extremist positions is to ban abortion after six weeks in Florida.

The hardline abortion policy might allow DeSantis to solidify a message that he’d be a more effective conservative leader than Trump. But it’s also the kind of positioning that would offer Democrats an opening should be become the Republican nominee.

Floridians need to take names; closely monitor the votes of legislators is a must to hold them responsible for their votes – whatever the excuse given.

The first step in taking back control of state governments from extremists is to find out exactly who is representing you in the legislature.

In any state (red or blue, regardless of region) you can use this link to get the names of the people who are making laws in your name.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

Once you know who they are, start following them in the news. Keep like-minded people in your district informed about their actions, or lack of action, at your state capitol.

State politics should get just as much attention as federal and local politics.

[angelx1992]

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week.

January 19-26 2024

The Energy Department announced its pausing all new liquefied natural gas export facilities. This puts a pause on export terminal in Louisiana which would have been the nation's largest to date. The Department will use the pause to study the climate impact of LNG exports. Environmentalists cheer this as a major win they have long pushed for.

The Transportation Department announced 5 billion dollars for new infrastructure projects. The big ticket item is 1 billion dollars to replace the 60 year old Blatnik Bridge between Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota which has been dangerous failing since 2017. Other projects include $600 million to replace the 1-5 bridge between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, $427 million for the first offshore wind terminal on the West Coast, $372 million to replace the 90 year old Sagamore Bridge that connects Cape Cod to the mainland,$300 million for the Port of New Orleans, and $142 million to fix the I-376 corridor in Pittsburgh.

the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access announced new guidance that requires insurance companies must cover contraceptive medications under the Affordable Care Act. The Biden Administration also took actions to make sure contraceptive medications would be covered under Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. HHS has launched a program to educate all patients about their rights to emergency abortion medical care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. This week marks 1 year since President Biden signed a Presidential Memorandum seeking to protect medication abortion and all federal agencies have reported on progress implementing it.

A deal between Democrats and Republicans to restore the expand the Child Tax Credit cleared its first step in Congress by being voted out of the House Ways and Means Committee. The Child Tax Credit would affect 16 million kids in the first year and lift 400,000 out of poverty. The Deal also includes an expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit which will lead to 200,000 new low income rental units being built, and also tax relief to people affected by natural disasters

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted for a bill to allow President Biden to seize $5 billion in Russian central bank assets. Biden froze the assets at the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, but under this new bill could distribute these funds to Ukraine, Republican Rand Paul was the only vote against.

The Senate passed the "Train More Nurses Act" seeking to address the critical national shortage of nurses. It aims to increase pathways for LPNs to become RNs as well as a review of all nursing programs nationally to see where improvements can be made

3 more Biden Judges were confirmed, bring the total number of Judges appointed by President Biden to 171. For the first time in history the majority of federal judge nominees have not been white men. Biden has also appointed Public Defenders and civil rights attorneys breaking the model of corporate lawyers usually appointed to life time federal judgeships

[collapsedsquid]

An algorithm, not a doctor, predicted a rapid recovery for Frances Walter, an 85-year-old Wisconsin woman with a shattered left shoulder and an allergy to pain medicine. In 16.6 days, it estimated, she would be ready to leave her nursing home. On the 17th day, her Medicare Advantage insurer, Security Health Plan, followed the algorithm and cut off payment for her care, concluding she was ready to return to the apartment where she lived alone. Meanwhile, medical notes in June 2019 showed Walter’s pain was maxing out the scales and that she could not dress herself, go to the bathroom, or even push a walker without help. It would take more than a year for a federal judge to conclude the insurer’s decision was “at best, speculative” and that Walter was owed thousands of dollars for more than three weeks of treatment. While she fought the denial, she had to spend down her life savings and enroll in Medicaid just to progress to the point of putting on her shoes, her arm still in a sling.

Feels like that sort of mistake should be easily a few mil

[odinsblog]

“Over 60,000 rapes resulted in pregnancy in states w total abortion bans since Roe was overturned. The 14 states are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. That means that roughly 65,000 women have been forced to bring to term a child born from a brutal assault. Children who r poor in most of those states refused to offer food, assistance or access to Medicaid or Obamacare. Cruelty is putting it mildly. Child poverty is on the rise.”

The worst part is

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Alex Groth

COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin and across nearly half of the United States are at "high" and "very high" levels of activity at the end of the summer, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC monitors wastewater data to track the virus, which can lag a couple weeks behind current case counts. Data at the end of August showed nearly half of all states reporting "very high" levels of wastewater viral activity, although current levels of COVID-19 are still much lower now than during the highs reported at the height of the pandemic.

In Wisconsin, the CDC reported the state showing "high" levels of wastewater viral activity.

Here's a look at the data:

Levels of COVID-19 in Wisconsin wastewater currently 'high,' says CDC Wastewater viral activity levels are detecting 'high' levels of the COVID-19 virus in Wisconsin and have been increasing since early summer, according to the CDC.

While the CDC and Wisconsin Department of Health Services do not track individual COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have been increasing since the spring and were around 200 patients at the first week of September, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

What is the current COVID-19 variant in Wisconsin? The CDC estimates the KP.3.1.1 variant, part of the Omicron family, makes up about half of COVID-19 infections and the KP.2.3 variants makes up about one in 10 infections during the start of September.

"The KP.3.1.1 variant is very similar to other circulating variants in the United States. All current lineages are descendants of JN.1, which emerged in late 2023," Rosa Norman, a spokesperson at the CDC, previously told USA TODAY.

What are the symptoms of COVID-19? Typical COVID-19 symptoms can show up 2 to 14 days after contact with the COVID-19 virus. People with COVID-19 may only have a few symptoms, and can have none. Some people can have symptoms that progress about 7 to 14 days after symptoms start. According to the Mayo Clinic, COVID-19 symptoms can include:

Dry cough Shortness of breath Loss of taste of smell Extreme tiredness, also known as fatigue Digestive issues, such as upset stomach, vomiting, or diarrhea Pain, such as headaches, body or muscle aches Fever or chills Cold-like symptoms, such as congestion, runny nose, or sore throat When and where is the COVID-19 vaccine available in Wisconsin? COVID-19 vaccines in Wisconsin are administered by health care providers, local pharmacies and other community clinics. You can visit vaccines.gov to find your nearest vaccine provider.

COVID-19 vaccines are free at Milwaukee Health Department immunization clinics to the following individuals:

Children (18 and younger) with Badgercare/Medicaid or uninsured Adults (19 and older) who are uninsured How to treat COVID-19: People with COVID-19 usually can recover at home, and some require additional medical care. Mayo Clinic recommends the following medications to help with symptoms:

Fever reducers Pain relievers, such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen Cough syrup or medicine For those who are at high risk of severe COVID-19, your doctor may prescribe medicine such as Paxlovid and Lagevrio. These medications stop COVID-19 from replicating, which reduces the risk of severe COVID-19.

What is long COVID? Symptoms for long COVID can last weeks, months or years, according to the CDC. General symptoms include tiredness or fatigue, symptoms that get worse after physical or mental effort, fever. You can find a full list of symptoms on the CDC's website.

Most people with long COVID see improvement after three months, and other people may see improvement up to six months after the virus, according to the CDC. Long COVID symptoms can result in disability.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Gabriel Scheffler and Daniel Walters at Can We Still Govern?

Why is the federal government so unpopular? For many Americans, the answer to this question appears self-evident—the government is unpopular simply because it does a bad job. As law professor Peter Schuck writes, “across many different policy domains, the public perceives poor governmental performance – and generally speaking, the public is correct in this view.” Another prominent perspective focuses on ideological movements, primarily (though not exclusively) on the political right, that for decades have worked to sow distrust in government through anti-government rhetoric and actions designed to undermine government’s effectiveness. Although there is some truth to both of these perspectives, they do not tell the whole story. Another major factor is that even when the government is effective in providing benefits or addressing social problems, few Americans understand its achievements. For instance, consider President Joseph R. Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which delivers historic investments in combatting climate change, curbs prescription drug prices, and expands subsidies to obtain health insurance. These are undeniably important achievements. Yet public opinion surveys have consistently shown that most Americans have no idea what this law does or how it will benefit them. Nor is this an isolated incident. For years, polling found a lack of awareness of President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which represented the largest expansion in health insurance coverage since the enactment of Medicaid and Medicare and drove America’s uninsured rate to historic lows. It was only when Republicans came close to repealing the ACA in 2017 that enough public support emerged to save the law—barely. Government also succeeds in other quotidian yet important ways, ranging from protecting Americans from airline and traffic accidents to ensuring clean air to funding the infrastructure and investments that enable the local weather report. Yet most of us tend to take these achievements for granted or to overlook them entirely. Why are more Americans not aware of the ways that government succeeds? And why does the government not do more to make the public aware of its successes?

As we argue in a recent article in the Wisconsin Law Review, an important part of the explanation is that Americans are not tuned into where most of the work of government is being done: the collection of agencies known as the “administrative state.” The administrative state comprises the agencies that deliver or oversee public benefits and services—for example, the Postal Service, the Social Security Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—and the agencies that regulate industry to promote safety, health, and welfare—such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission.

[...] Second, agency actions themselves are often designed or implemented in ways that obscure what agencies are doing or what role they are playing. For instance, despite numerous government initiatives designed to encourage agencies to use simple and straightforward language, many regulations (and accompanying explanations of these regulations) are still incomprehensible to the general public. This is in part due to the incentives created by administrative law, which places no limits on the information parties can submit in the regulatory process. This creates incentives for both agencies and affected interest groups to flood the rulemaking process with excessive information. 

[...] Yet, we believe agencies can and should do more to inform the public about their substantive expertise, the benefits they provide, and how to participate in administrative processes. New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps once employed millions of Americans and built infrastructure all around the country that is still in use today proudly branding such projects as the work of government agencies. Tellingly, recent research suggests that such programs had a greater political impact when the government directly hired workers, making the programs more traceable to the government, than when they merely subsidized private companies’ hiring of workers.

Today, at the very least, agencies can reduce their reliance on private contractors, write regulatory preambles in ways that are easier for the public to understand, and do more to proactively solicit the public’s participation in the regulatory process. Congress and the judiciary should also consider scaling back some of the legal constraints that prevent agencies from communicating effectively with the public or that encourage agencies to make their actions less salient and traceable. These efforts could include revisiting and perhaps repealing laws targeting agency “propaganda,” which in some cases are arguably overbroad, as well as more general administrative law doctrines that have the effect of chilling agency communications. If the Supreme Court is unwilling to abandon the major questions doctrine altogether, it could, at the very least, cease relying on agencies’ communications to the public as indicia of “majorness,” which has the effect of incentivizing them to downplay their own actions. Outside groups such as the American Bar Association can do more to reward civil servants’ accomplishments and to inform the public about the non-political nature of the work they do.

Gabriel Scheffler and Daniel Walters co-wrote in Dan Moynihan’s Can We Still Govern? Substack about how Americans are often unaware of the full benefits of government agencies and administrative policy.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dave Whammond

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 23, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 24, 2024

In the past two days, the Biden-Harris administration has announced a wide range of new rules to protect ordinary Americans. 

Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the administration has finalized two new rules affecting patients in nursing homes and receiving home care, as well as the workers who care for them. The first sets minimum staffing requirements for facilities funded by Medicare and Medicaid, and the second concerns how home healthcare companies account for Medicaid funding. 

In a speech at the Hmong Cultural and Community Agency in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Harris noted the extraordinary value of healthcare workers. She also explained that about 1.2 million Americans live in federally funded nursing homes, which make up about four fifths of the nursing homes in the country. But the majority of those homes—about 75% of them—are understaffed. This is dangerous and isolating for patients and demoralizing for workers, who have high rates of burnout and turnover.  

Now, nursing homes that receive federal funding will have to provide at least 3.48 hours of nursing care per resident every day, less than the 4.1 hours the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services advocate but enough to require the hiring of about 12,000 registered nurses and 77,000 aides, at an annual cost of almost $7 billion. 

Consumer organizations and labor unions pushed for the new rule, but nursing home operators strongly oppose the new mandate, saying it will force facilities to close because of a shortage of nurses. In response, Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra told Tami Luhby of CNN that no one should live in facilities that are unsafe or should receive inferior care. Luhby noted that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in September launched a $75 million campaign to increase the number of nurses in nursing homes.

The second rule the vice president announced had to do with home health aides. Medicaid currently pays about $125 billion a year to home healthcare companies, which employ hundreds of thousands of workers providing services for elderly and disabled Americans. These companies have never been required to report how that money was being spent. Now they will be required to spend 80% of the federal dollars they receive on workers’ salaries rather than administrative overhead.

Also yesterday, the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a final rule that strengthens the HIPAA medical privacy rule for people from states that ban abortions who seek reproductive health care in states that permit them. In response to threats by Republican state officials to charge women who cross state lines to obtain abortion, contraception, or fertility treatments, the new rule prohibits health care providers, health plans, and other entities from disclosing patients’ reproductive health care records to state officials when they are being sought to investigate or charge patients, doctors, or others.  

Today, the Labor Department announced a new rule that would guarantee that salaried workers who make less than $59,000 a year are compensated fairly for overtime work. The Trump administration set the salary threshold for those who did not have overtime protections at $35,568. As of July 1, 2024, the threshold will be $43,888, and on January 1, 2025, it will rise to $58,656. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, said the change could affect 4 million workers.

“Too often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay,” acting secretary of the Department of Labor Julie Su said. “That is unacceptable. The Biden-Harris administration is following through on our promise to raise the bar for workers who help lay the foundation for our economic prosperity.”

Also today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted 3–2 along party lines to ban the noncompete agreements that prevent workers from minimum-wage earners to top executives from changing jobs within the industry in which they work; senior executives can still be bound by such agreements. Initially used to protect trade secrets, noncompete clauses have expanded to cover what the FTC estimates to be 30 million people—one in five U.S. workers. They take away workers’ ability to improve their wages and conditions by quitting their jobs and moving to another company or starting their own. The FTC estimates that the end of such clauses could add almost $300 billion a year to workers’ wages. 

“Robbing people of their economic liberty also robs them of all sorts of other freedoms,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said. Neil Bradley, head of strategic advocacy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, countered: “If they can issue regulations with respect to unfair methods of competition, then there’s really no aspect of the U.S. economy they couldn’t regulate.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to sue over the rule. 

A CBS News/YouGov poll released Monday found that, although Biden and Harris have made addressing climate change a centerpiece of their administration, only 10% of the people who say they think climate change is a very important issue had heard or read a lot about what the administration has accomplished, and 49% said they had read not much or nothing about it. When told some of the things the administration has done, a strong majority of those who care about addressing climate change support those policies. 

“Even people who feel the administration has done too little on climate change support these policies,” reporters for CBS News note. They conclude that the disconnect “may be more about Mr. Biden needing to get his message out there than having to convince this ‘climate constituency’—those who call the climate issue very important—of the substance of his policies.” 

Meanwhile, today is the fourth anniversary of the press conference in which former president Donald Trump suggested injecting disinfectant to get rid of Covid, prompting the maker of Lysol to warn people not to use their disinfectant cleaning products internally. Four years later, Trump spent the day in a Manhattan courtroom, where his former friend David Pecker, who ran the company that published the National Enquirer tabloid magazine, testified for the prosecution. 

Legal analyst Lisa Rubin summarized Pecker’s testimony, noting that the big takeaways were that Trump and Pecker were transactional friends for decades and that “the agreement they struck in 2015 went way beyond the ‘catch and kill’ aspect of the scheme that has been known for years.” Together, they not only killed stories damaging to Trump, but also pushed fake stories about Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio, who were running against him for the 2016 Republican nomination, as well as Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

As the trial grabs headlines, Trump’s power seems to be diminishing. He is demonstrably not in power in the courtroom, where he must do as the judge tells him and reporters say he has often fallen asleep, and none of his family members have shown up to support him.

Trump seems aware that his power is waning. Early yesterday, he called for supporters to “RALLY BEHIND MAGA,” but only a handful of people gathered outside the courthouse. Today he claimed that the turnout was low because police had “completely CLOSED DOWN” the streets around the courthouse. That was a lie: the streets, the sidewalk, even the courthouse have remained open to the public. 

Pennsylvania’s primary election today revealed Trump’s real electoral weakness. He won about 83.5% of the Republican votes, but Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race in early March and has not campaigned since, won 16.5%. In the suburbs of Philadelphia, the so-called “collar counties,” Haley won closer to 25% of the Republican vote. 

Biden, meanwhile, took the fight against MAGA Republicans to Trump’s home state of Florida. There, an extreme abortion ban signed into law by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis will take effect on May 1, but in November, Florida voters will have the option to add protections for abortion before fetal viability to the state constitution, returning the state to the standards it had before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That measure is expected to energize Democrats in the state.

And then, tonight, by a vote of 79–18, the Senate passed the $95 billion national security supplemental bill that provides funding, mostly for military supplies, to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific and humanitarian aid for war-torn countries; requires the sale of TikTok; and permits confiscating Russian assets. MAGA Republicans are still adamantly opposed to aid for Ukraine, but a strong bipartisan majority has finally gotten the chance to weigh in.

As soon as the measure passed, Biden issued a statement, saying: “Tonight, a bipartisan majority in the Senate joined the House to answer history’s call at this critical inflection point. Congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: we stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[demgraphics]

Republicans complain about "cancel culture" while attempting to ban anything and everything they don't like.

A likely response to this graphic is disbelief, so here is some supporting documentation to help with any discussions:

Abortion:

https://truthout.org/articles/senator-republicans-will-100-percent-pass-abortion-ban-if-they-win-congress/

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-privately-favors-16-week-national-abortion-ban-new-york-times-reports-2024-02-16/

Affordable Healthcare:

https://apnews.com/article/trump-obamacare-health-care-biden-c2b1f5776310870deed2fb997b07fc2c

https://ballotpedia.org/Republican_and_conservative_proposals_to_repeal_the_Affordable_Care_Act_(Obamacare)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/28/fact-sheet-the-congressional-republican-agenda-repealing-the-affordable-care-act-and-slashing-medicaid/

Gay Marriage:

https://www.vox.com/23274491/senate-republicans-same-sex-marriage-bill-respect-for-marriage-act

https://time.com/6240497/same-sex-marriage-rights-us-obergefell/

Birth Control:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/birth-control-is-next-republicans-abortion.html

Books:

https://newrepublic.com/article/175372/banned-books-republican-right-wing-war

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-04-22/book-bans-soaring-schools-new-laws-republican-states

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/republican-book-bans-censorship-free-speech

Minorities Voting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_efforts_to_restrict_voting_following_the_2020_presidential_election

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/23/659784277/republican-voter-suppression-efforts-are-targeting-minorities-journalist-says

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-01-19/republicans-block-voting-rights-bill-again-triggering-action-on-filibuster-reform

Muslims:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-muslim-ban-immigration-2024-1234730150/

Protests:

https://www.npr.org/2021/04/25/990710251/republicans-push-wave-of-anti-protest-bills-in-alternative-universe-backlash

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/gop-anti-protest-bills

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tennessee-republicans-trying-expel-democratic-lawmakers-supported-gun-rcna78103

Refugees:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-republicans-asylum-limits-funding-bill/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/house-republicans-pass-new-asylum-seeker-restrictions-as-title-42-ends-biden-promises-veto

Trans People:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-republican-transgender-laws-pile-up-setting-2024-battle-lines-2023-05-18/

https://apnews.com/article/transgender-health-care-republican-legislatures-5d98832c0234de079263672c738e0631

Unions:

https://truthout.org/articles/republicans-say-theyll-go-after-labor-movement-if-they-take-control-of-house/

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/22/new-senate-bill-targets-national-labor-law-and-port-union-workers.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/collective-bargaining-ban-in-wisconsin-under-attack-by-unions-after-supreme-court-majority-flips/

Words:

https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-dont-say-gay-ban-684ed25a303f83208a89c556543183cb

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a37804650/wisconsin-legislature-police-speech-schools-critical-race-theory/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/11/republican-new-climate-change-strategy-ban-words-climate-change

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/heres-the-long-list-of-topics-republicans-want-banned-from-the-classroom/2022/02

https://apnews.com/article/sarah-huckabee-sanders-politics-united-states-government-arkansas-hispanics-4f23386e609acd8206d2396719c17cab

[wausaupilot]

Medicaid enrollees required to renew eligibility

The Medicaid renewal period is underway and will continue through May 2024.

WAUSAU – Aspirus Health reminds community members that states have started the process of checking everyone’s eligibility for Medicaid for the first time in three years. A federal provision that previously suspended Medicaid renewal (enrollment) requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic ended as of March 31. The Medicaid renewal period is underway and will continue through May 2024. State…

[uboat53]

Well, election day is now in the bag and, though many results are yet to be settled such as who will control each of the houses of Congress, there's quite a bit that we can say for sure. I'll mostly skip over the big headline stories as I imagine you've seen those already and focus on smaller ones that I consider interesting, prepare for a LONG RANT (TM).

THE BIG STORIES

All right, just to get this out of the way, the predicted "red wave" did not happen. Republicans did okay and they're on track to control the House and have an outside shot at the Senate, but it wasn't supposed to be this close. A combination of bad candidates, skewed polling (a lot of Republican-allied pollsters released a ton of polls in the final stretch, seemingly skewing the averages), and some generally unpopular leaders and policy positions have put them in a position where this might just be the best midterm result for a party that controls the Presidency since 2002.

In the Senate, Democrats won the Senate races in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and New Hampshire where Republicans had made a push while Republicans won the races in Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Ohio where Democrats had made a push. The races in Arizona and Nevada are still uncalled (the Democrat leads in AZ and the Republican in NV) while Georgia's race will go to a runoff because no one got over 50%. Of the three races that are yet to be decided, the party that wins two of them will control the Senate.

As far as governorships, Democrats held Wisconsin, Michigan, and Kansas and flipped Maryland and Massachusetts which had had moderate Republican governors as a holdover from the Obama years. Republicans held Florida, Georgia, and Texas where Democrats made a push. Meanwhile, Arizona and Nevada are both uncalled at this point, in AZ the Democrat leads and in NV the Republican does, both of which would represent a flip if those leads hold.

STATE LEGISLATURES

Now, onto the less "headline" stuff. People don't pay a ton of attention to state legislatures, but they're super important. Most of the governing that actually matters to real people happens in the states, many state legislatures have been gerrymandered to the point where they no longer truly match the opinions of the voters, and many other states are simply so far in one column or the other that there's not a real competition. That said, two swing states defied their gerrymandering and tilted toward the Democrats (none went to the Republicans).

Michigan held its first election under new district maps ordered by the courts after they found that the previous were so gerrymandered as to infringe on the rights of voters to choose their own representatives. The result is that Democrats will now control the State Senate and the State House is currently 53-53 with 4 races too close to call (Democrats currently lead in 3 of those 4 districts). Since they held the governorship these results would give the Democrats total governing control of the state which is impressive for a state that featured total Republican control as recently as 2018.

In Wisconsin the Democrats did not win enough seats to take control, not even close, but they were able to overcome one of the most severe gerrymanders in the country to prevent the Republicans from obtaining a supermajority in the state legislature. With a Democratic governor, this will allow Democrats to sustain his vetoes and prevent the Republican legislature from simply overriding him and governing alone.

MEDICARE, ABORTION, AND THE MINIMUM WAGE

I'll talk about other ballot measures in a bit, but I wanted to look at these three in particular because they share two features in common. (1) All three are generally supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans and (2) all three are very popular when put to a popular vote.

South Dakota this election voted to expand Medicaid which makes it the seventh state to expand Medicaid via ballot measure after the governor and legislature refused to do so. In fact, this particular question has never failed in any state when brought to a vote. There are now only 11 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), it will be interesting to see how many of them continue to hold if ballot measures are offered.

Nebraska this election increased its minimum wage, voting to increase it to $15 an hour by January 26th. In the last six years there have been 8 ballot measures to increase the minimum wage in states as politically diverse as Maine, Arizona, and Arkansas. All have passed fairly convincingly. In fact, you have to go back to 1996 to find the last time that a minimum wage ballot measures failed.

Abortion was also on the ballot in five states this election. California, Vermont, and Michigan enshrined the right to abortion in their state Constitution and voters in Kentucky and Montana rejected measures that would have restricted abortion. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, no state has passed a ballot measure restricting abortion and many have passed measures protecting abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, even states ordinarily considered to be extremely pro-life in their politics like Kentucky and Kansas.

OTHER BALLOT MEASURES OF INTEREST

As far as other ballot measures go, five states had ballot measures to legalize Marijuana and two of those passed. Pot will soon be legal in Maryland and Missouri, but not in Arkansas or South Dakota (or North Dakota probably, but they're still counting). That will make 21 states where pot is fully legal for medicinal and recreational use.

Unions had a bit of a mixed bag. Illinois passed a measure to protect union membership while Tennessee passed a "right to work" measure. It's probably a net positive for unions given that they're gaining in Illinois and nothing really changed in Tennessee (which already had right to work laws approved by the state legislature), but it's definitely a sign that their arguments aren't breaking through everywhere.

Arizona made a huge step toward limiting medical debt. They just passed a measure that limits interest on medical debt to 3% and limits the ability sieze property and wages for medical debt. Also in the southwest, New Mexico passed a measure to improve pre-K childcare with money from the state's sovereign wealth fund. Both of these are kind of sleeper issues that seem to cross partisan lines so definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Finally, on a more personal note, California passed a measure to increase spending on arts programs at public schools. As the spouse of a music teacher, I approve of this.

CONCLUSION

Overall the results paint an interesting picture of the politics of the country. We are overwhelmingly in favor of some things that Democrats support, but we're pretty split as far as the parties themselves. Candidate quality did end up mattering quite a bit, it's easy to imagine an alternate reality where Republicans won the Senate seats in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania quite easily with better candidates, and so did major issues like abortion that were kept forefront in some voter's minds despite economic headwinds. The stars aligned this time around to prevent the blowout that usually happens in a President's first midterm (Trump lost 40 seats in the House and Obama lost 60), but we probably won't have full Democratic control of Washington come January.

Keep an eye on the issues, though, I have a feeling that we're going to be seeing more direct democracy and it will be interesting to see how the voting publics even in states that are pretty solidly in one part or the other differ from the expressed opinions of their representatives.

Hope you enjoyed this or at least found it interesting!

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

During his Tampa visit, the President will contrast his commitment to protecting and strengthening Medicare and Social Security and lowering prescription drug prices, with Congressional Republicans’ plans to cut these programs President Biden has taken action to strengthen Medicare and protect Social Security – bedrock programs that Americans have paid into and that tens of millions of seniors depend on to support their livelihoods. Congressional Republicans, however, have a different record. For years, Republican Members of Congress have repeatedly tried to cut Medicare and Social Security, move toward privatizing one or both programs, and raise the Social Security retirement age and Medicare eligibility age. And just last week, House Republicans introduced legislation to repeal President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which would give tens of billions of dollars in subsidies back to Big Pharma, raise seniors’ prescription drug prices, and raise taxes on an estimated 14.5 million people – all while increasing the deficit. In Tampa, Florida today, President Biden will highlight the work his Administration is doing to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, while Republican Members of Congress continue to push plans that would undermine these programs and the economic security of millions of their constituents. CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS’ LONG RECORD OF WORKING TO CUT MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY:

• Senator Mike Lee said: “One thing that you probably haven’t ever heard from a politician: it will be my objective to phase out Social Security. To pull it up by the roots, and get rid of it.”

• In November, John Thune, the number two Senate Republican in leadership, declared that Social Security and Medicare benefits should be slashed.

• Florida Senator Rick Scott is championing a plan to put Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security on the chopping block every five years, which would put the health and economic security of 63 million Medicare beneficiaries, 69 million Medicaid beneficiaries and 65 million Social Security beneficiaries at risk. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin proposed sunsetting these laws every year.

• The Republican Study Committee – which includes a majority of House Republicans – released a formal budget that, according to Politico, included “raising the eligibility ages for each program, along with withholding payments for individuals who retire early or had a certain income, and privatized funding for Social Security to lower income taxes.”

• And in 2015, most House Republicans, including Speaker McCarthy, Rep. Scalise, and a host of others in current leadership, voted to raise the retirement age to 70, which would cut Social Security benefits for tens of millions of seniors who paid into the system for years.

REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAVE PROPOSED MAKING HEALTH CARE AND PRESCRIPTION DRUGS MORE EXPENSIVE: Last week, Republicans in the House proposed repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, including its health care provisions. And, just yesterday, Republicans on the House Budget Committee floated a proposal to repeal the health care provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. Here’s what that would mean for working families across the country and in Florida: • A 62-year-old in Tampa earning $55,000 would see their premium increase by $7,000 per year.

• 14.5 million Americans nationwide will pay higher health insurance premiums and see a tax increase.

• Everyone with Medicare will see higher drug prices if Medicare cannot negotiate the price of drugs.

• Tens of billions of dollars will go right back to Big Pharma, which will increase the deficit.

• 3.3 million Medicare beneficiaries who use insulin will no longer have the peace of mind of knowing that their insulin is capped at $35.

• Millions of seniors will no longer be able to get recommended vaccines for free.

• Drug companies could go back to increasing drug prices faster than inflation with no accountability, which happened for 1,200 prescription drugs last year.

PRESIDENT BIDEN HAS CALLED FOR PROTECTING MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY, AND LOWERING HEALTH CARE COSTS FOR WORKING FAMILIES:

In this week’s State of the Union, President Biden vowed to protect Social Security and Medicare and build on the progress we’ve made in lowering health care costs for millions of seniors and American families. Through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act:

• Seniors are paying no more than $35 per month for an insulin prescription. If this law had been in effect in 2020, over 90,000 Floridians would have saved an average of $476.

• Seniors are able to get recommended vaccines for free, saving many seniors hundreds of dollars.

• Seniors’ out of pocket prescription drug costs will be capped at $2000 per year – benefitting over a million Medicare beneficiaries and cancer patients paying skyrocketing prices for prescription drugs each year.

• An estimated 14.5 million Americans are saving on health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act. Over 3.2 million Floridians signed up for coverage this year.

• Drug companies will have to pay Medicare a rebate if they raise their prices faster than inflation. Today, the Department of Health and Human Services is announcing next steps for implementing this key provision of the President’s prescription drug law, which will lower drug costs for millions of Americans.

And President Biden wants to build on this historic progress. In his State of the Union Address, the President has called on Congress to:

• Commit to taking cuts to Social Security and Medicare off the table.

• Expand the insulin cap in the Inflation Reduction Act, so all Americans can benefit from insulin being capped at $35 for a month’s supply.

• Make permanent the ACA tax credits that – thanks to President Biden’s prescription drug law – are lowering health insurance premiums for an estimated 14.5 million people, and close the Medicaid coverage gap to benefit more than 1 million Floridians.

[tacticalhimbo]

Second Period Anti-trans Legislative Risk Map of 2023; Courtesy of Erin Reed (aka: ErinInTheMorn)

[Image ID: A color-coded map of the United States of America, with the states varying in colors.

The map’s symbolic key is unlabeled, but shows two symbols. The first is a light green circle with a white plus in the middle, and is representative of 'Imminent potential to lower risk category'. The second is a yellow triangle with a white exclamation point in the middle, and is representative of ;Imminent potential to raise risk category'.

The map's color key is labeled ‘Anti-trans Legislation Risk’.

States that are dark red are labeled 'Worst Active Anti-trans Laws’, and include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

States that are red are labeled 'High Risk Within 1 Election Cycle’, and include Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. States in this category that are at an imminent potential to raise their risk category include Kentucky, Idaho, Indiana, North Dakota, Montana, and West Virginia.

States that are orange are labeled 'Moderate Risk Within 1 Election Cycle’, and include Alaska, Georgia, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Wyoming. States in this category that are at an imminent potential to raise their risk category include Kansas.

States that are light teal are labeled 'Low Risk Within 1 Election Cycle’, and include Arizona, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. States in this category that are at an imminent potential to lower their risk category include Maryland, New Mexico, and Minnesota.

States that are teal are labeled 'Safest States With Protections’, and include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington D.C. / END Image ID]

More information below the cut, or on Erin’s Substack (which can be accessed by clicking the headline/title of the post).

The Worst States These states have passed the worst anti-transgender legislation or enforced existing laws against transgender already. The worst laws appear in these states. Texas is home to the weaponization of DFPS against transgender people, and 34 anti-trans bills proposed this cycle. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah have all also passed gender-affirming care bans for trans youth. Tennessee recently passed a bill banning drag in public that could even target pride. Oklahoma currently has the most anti-trans bills of any state proposed. Florida has banned medicaid coverage for trans adults and has some of the worst anti-trans bills proposed right now - including one that would allow the kidnapping of trans kids.

High-Risk States This list includes states that have seen proposed anti-trans bills last year that nearly passed, states that have already seen proposed bills that may pass this year, or states that otherwise have shown a willingness to target transgender people. Many states on this list are currently proposing bills that will send them into the ranks of the “worst states.” Mississippi, South Dakota, and Utah all moved off this list because of laws passed in those states. The Rocky Mountain West has seen extreme bills moving through at breakneck speeds. Montana has multiple bills that would make it very hard to exist as a transgender person, such as drag bans, healthcare bans, and bans defining transgender people out of the law entirely. Similar legislation is moving through other states in this region, with Wyoming being a notable exception - Wyoming is no longer in this risk category because it defeated the worst of its anti-trans legislation. Appalachian and Midwestern states are also seeing movement, with some states at imminent risk of moving up a risk category level. West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana all have medical bans and other broad reaching bills moving through the legislature. Kentucky’s HB470, for instance, is one of the harshest bills moving through a state legislature in the entire United States. This bill would ban name changes for trans youth. Other states on this map like Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa have healthcare bills moving through committee, though they have not passed a full legislative chamber vote as of the time of the making of this map. Virginia is also at high risk, even though it’s anti-trans bills were beaten this cycle. That is because Glen Youngkin is using the powers of the governorship to directly target transgender youth. Recently he released model anti-trans school policies that will result in forced outing of trans students, bathroom bans, pronoun bans, and more should they be adopted.

Moderate-Risk States This list of states has grown by one - Wyoming defeated most of its anti-trans laws and moves down into a moderate risk category. The rest of the states on this list represent special circumstances that make them hard to predict. North Carolina’s anti-trans medical care ban did not even get a committee hearing last year, and it was the site of the famous bathroom ban, which has made them hesitant to pass further legislation. There are bills that are moving there, and the veto override margin is very tight, should the Democratic governor veto them. Georgia is Republican controlled, but candidates have failed heavily on anti-trans stances. New Hampshire has a Republican majority, but one that has been more liberal than other states and has stayed away from passing anti-trans laws. Alaska has been relatively quiet on this front as well. Kansas has a Democratic governor, but the veto margin is similarly small there. Kansas deserves a special mention though as well as an exclamation point because several anti-trans bills have passed at least one legislative chamber there. This makes the state particularly risky, especially if any of the bills get sent to the governor.

Low-Risk States These states have a low risk of enacting extreme anti-transgender legislation within a single election cycle. Still, these states are unified by a lack of the strongest transgender protections. States like New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Delaware all lack major healthcare protections for transgender people and are not currently considering refugee bills protecting trans people who are fleeing the aforementioned unsafe states. Some states like Minnesota maintain strong cultural acceptance of transgender people but still lack the legal protections of safe state laws and full medical coverage that the top states have, and a right-leaning election cycle could change the tide. Some states like Arizona and Wisconsin saw positive election results that make them likely low risk as Democratic governors have taken over. Three states - Minnesota and Maryland - are potentially next in line to move to the “Most Protective States” category if they successfully pass their landmark transgender protection bills. Minnesota currently has a bill that would protect transgender refugees and providers fleeing from other states. Maryland is considering a bill that would give those on Medicaid coverage for FFS, hair removal and more. If these bills pass, they will be elevated into the “most protective states” category. New Mexico is considering a bill that would protect the right to gender-affirming care.

Most Protective States Transgender people in these states are better protected culturally and legally than in other states. States like Hawaii, Colorado, and Washington maintain explicit transgender healthcare policies that cover surgeries that often go without coverage in other states. Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California are currently considering policies or have passed policies that protect transgender refugees fleeing from other states. Other states in this category like Illinois, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont maintain a strong history of transgender protections and show yearly legislation proposals to further protect transgender residents.

Many of the policies these states introduced are discussed by Erin on her Substack, so I seriously recommended subscribing (whether free via email or paid; Substack has both options) if you’re trans* or consider yourself an ally. Erin puts incredible work into tracking legislation and helping the community stay informed.

I’ve posted materials from her before, and cannot recommend them enough.

[iamnathannah]

This is why you vote in municipal and state elections; without Janet Protasiewicz embarrassing Daniel Kelly last year in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court race, we wouldn't have been able to turn back the legal Twister game the former 4-3 conservative majority (which is now a minority soooo sad that they can't get their way any longer) that was trying to justify the banning of voting drop boxes in Wisconsin, and abortion rights are a lot better than when Dobbs was overturned because the court said 'no, this cruel abortion law from 1849, when the 'brand new' state capitol building could barely be called 'habitable' and women only had the same rights as the family dog, really can't be enforced', and my local Planned Parenthood can help give women medication abortions again.

We also got fair maps, and for the first time since 2011 it's very likely we'll have an Assembly and Senate next year not ruled by gerrymandered Republicans who can't be arsed to listen to anyone but Moms for Liberty, Americans for Prosperity and the worst and most obnoxious lobbyists like Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, who tried to scare a nearby village's school board from enforcing anti-bullying rules against students (and their parents) bullying trans kids. It'll be nice to get in my flag and Blue Book requests (and...other lawmaker things) to someone who cares for me and doesn't note me as 'disgruntled' for merely disagreeing with them on Twitter.

And if you're a Wisconsinite here, please vote no on all the amendments on the back of your ballot that are pretty much the GOP crying because Tony Evers is a good guy who wants to distribute money fairly, not because Robin Vos needs more and more power to keep down things this state wants like Medicaid expansion, legal weed and fair school revenue and drunk driving laws with actual teeth to them.

Things that Minnesota got because they got fair maps, fair representation and a trifecta that got them so many other things like free school lunch for all and enshrined abortion rights. The Vikings, Gophers and Twins might be our hated rivals, but Tim Walz is a good man like Tony who serves the public good.