(Just a quick post to get this down for posterity, and in case you were curious.)
It certainly does strike one as odd that the federal government is requiring its citizens to buy a specific type of product—a health insurance plan—with the 2009 health-care reform. Even a fan of big guv’mint like me can, at first blush, jump back to his libertarian instincts when it’s described like that. It can really be boiled down to two questions: can they do something like that, constitutionally? And second, should they?
Real quick followup to my previous post: I poked around and discovered that, indeed, the HCR bill includes some promising provisions for expanding the use of accountable-care organizations (ACOs) like you see at the Mayo Clinic and in other communities.
We’re about to talk about abortion for awhile, so let’s start off with a precious kitty:
Except it's a baby, which reminds you of abortion. Dammit.
Okay, so. It seems like the abortion issue is one of the more bizarre aspects of the debate—and it’s been a very bizarre debate—because people have been so diametrically opposed on the facts of the matter. On the one hand, a Republican yells out “Baby killer!” (or It’s a baby killer, depending on who you believe) during debate on the bill. On the other hand, some liberal blogs I’ve read have described the bill as the “biggest step backwards in reproductive rights” in many years. So conservatives think the HCR bill loves aborting fetuses, whereas liberals believe that it firebombs Planned Parenthood clinics on its days off.
3/22 Update: One thing that my list below didn’t convey is how much of the plan will be rolled out over time; for example, the Cadillac plan tax isn’t implemented until 2018. This excellent Reuters article outlines the whole plan in chronological order:
In the interests of not exploding from near-constant frustration, I’ve deliberately avoided blogging about (or, as much I can, thinking about) the health-care debate as Congress has been even more ridiculous than usual bringing it to fruition.
To review: on November 7, 2009, the House passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act by a vote of 220-215. On Christmas Eve, the Senate passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (what’s with these names, honestly) by a vote of 60-39. In the 2½ months since, Congress has done a spectacular job getting a whole lot of nothing done, and the filibuster, that most delightful of obstructionist legislative tools, has turned into the Republicans’ new best friend:
Way to govern, amigos.
But. Despite the GOP’s most valiant of efforts… despite President Obama being surprisingly aloof through most of the adventure… despite the American public becoming justifiably fed-up with the whole affair… it’s finally come together. And even in its worst, most compromise-weakened form, it’s still the most dramatic reform of American health care since Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
First of all, just the facts. Rumors and implications and unintended consequences aside, exclusions and rejected ideas aside, what does this bill actually do? Well, a whole hell of a lot, actually. Unlike the vast majority of Congressional legislation, it’s a grab-bag of new laws, restrictions, taxes, allowances, and three or four kitchen sinks. Continue reading Health care: Okay, so what’s in the bill?→
It takes some encouragement to get me downtown to a show in the middle of South by Southwest. I’m not the most musically-inclined guy on earth, and my tastes in most things are pretty damn conventional. (Quick, ask me to name my favorite Cheap Trick song …actually, any Cheap Trick song.) So the musical side of SXSW, and the allure of wandering a crowded downtown just to see what acts I happened across, wasn’t the first thing that I felt compelled to do.
But then Ben Rector had to come along and screw it up for me.
Previously, on Why does Obama hate space: NASA designed a next-generation Apollo capsule, an awesome new rocket, and started planning a trip to the moon… until THIS GUY came along and cancelled everything.
Pictured: Neil Armstrong, moments before punching the President.
During our repeated trips out to the Kennedy Space Center, there was a palpable feeling of gloom among “the regulars” that we met, including the KSC employees, the locals, the shuttle-watching veterans. On top of the scheduled end of the Space Shuttle program, which was sure to devastate tourism in and around Cape Canaveral, President Obama had announced (mere days before) a total sea change in the budget and direction for NASA. The regulars were not happy about it.
The first four days of our Florida trip, told in three sentences:
Myself, my dad, and my stepmom road-tripped to Florida this past week while my wife and sister flew.
Overnight Saturday, we went to the Kennedy Space Center and waited for six hours in the cold, only for the shuttle launch to be cancelled at the last minute due to persistent low cloud cover.
At 9:00 on Sunday night, just as the Saints were defeating the Colts down in Miami, we drove back to the Space Center, nervously checking the weather forecasts, and worried that we’d miss seeing a launch entirely.
The first four hours of Monday morning, told somewhat longer:
The five of us have spent a decent amount of time discussing how we can best describe the shuttle launch that we saw, cold and tired, at 4:14 this Monday morning. We’ve reached the general conclusion that we can’t, and that that’s part of what makes it so special. Knowing it’s probably the final nighttime shuttle launch, the last one ever, makes it more special still.
On the advice of many shuttle-watching veterans, we didn’t even film the launch as it happened. Sorry.
Let Me Google That For You.
We did this for two reasons: first, because we were told not to let a camera lens get between us and our viewing of it. (NASA administrator John Bolden, in a press conference, even urged rookie press photographers to put their cameras down for the launch.) Second, though: there is no way, no way, that any of the YouTube videos and beautiful pictures you just Googled can convey what it looks like in person. Those are beautiful to look at, don’t get me wrong. But they’re not what we saw.
If you follow my Twitter (or are especially Facebook-addicted) then you’ve got an idea how our day has gone. But if not, here it is in pictorial form:
And now in chronological form:
Saturday 5:00: We head to the local Target to stock up for our launch-viewing tailgate party. Soft-side cooler, food/drinks, warm clothes. Folding chairs are sold out (the place is popular with tourists like us).
Saturday 6:00: We try to nap before our all-night party. We pretty much fail. Instead, we watch the NASA channel on the hotel TV; the new administrator takes heated questions from NASA fans posing as journalists about the Obama administration’s radical proposed budget changes (clicky!). We all decide we like the administrator, though.
