Texas Budget Cutting Causes Closure Of 50 Clinics Offering Family Planning Services

Cuts to Texas' budget have caused more than 50 clinics that provide family planning services to close, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports.

The Texas Tribune: Report: Family Planning Cuts Caused 53 Clinics To Close
More than 50 clinics that provide family planning services have closed as a result of state budget cuts, according to a report published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. State lawmakers cut funding for family planning services by two-thirds in the last legislative session, dropping the two-year family planning budget from $111 million to $37.9 million for the 2012-13 biennium (Aaronson, 9/26).

Politico Pro: The Impact Of Cutting Family Planning Funding In Texas
What happens when states say goodbye to federal family-planning funding? A new analysis in The New England Journal of Medicine, focusing on Texas, finds it leads to decreased access to preventive services, clinics turning away women who can't pay and far fewer resources in impoverished areas. "We are witnessing the dismantling of a safety net that took decades to build and could not easily be recreated even if funding were restored soon," authors Kari White, Daniel Grossman, Kristine Hopkins and Joseph E. Potter write (Smith, 9/26).

In the meantime, Missouri has fined Aetna $1.5 million for failing to allow employers to opt-out of contraception coverage in their plans, and Virginia's Attorney General approves new regulations on abortion clinics --

St. Louis Beacon: State Department Of Insurance Fines Insurer For Offering Contraceptive Coverage
The Missouri Department of Insurance has announced that it has levied its largest fine in state history -- $1.5 million -- against an insurer who failed to comply with state law regarding coverage, or lack of, for autism treatment, contraception and elective abortions. Among other things, Aetna Life Insurance Co. "provided coverage for contraceptives without allowing employers to opt out of this coverage," the department says. A department spokesman noted that the provisions in question were in an 11-year-old state law, and not part of the new state law regarding abortion, contraceptive and sterilization coverage put in place following the General Assembly's action earlier this month to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto (Mannies, 9/26).

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Cuccinelli Approves Abortion Clinic Regulations
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's office Wednesday gave its stamp of approval to new abortion clinic regulations that will compel existing clinics to retrofit their facilities to meet standards for new hospital construction. Cuccinelli's certification of the regulations, approved by the state Board of Health Sept. 14, advances them to Gov. Bob McDonnell for further review. If McDonnell approves the regulations, they will be subject to a 60-day public comment period before returning to the Board of Health for final consideration, which is expected next year. The Board of Health voted 13-2 on Sept. 14 to adopt regulations that require existing abortion clinics in Virginia to be regulated like new hospitals (Nolan, 9/27).

The Drug War is killing U.S.

Brutal Riots for Freedom - Religous Intolarance - Have we learned anything?

As we watch the Middle East fall apart. We should remember the brutality we've caused to so many of our citizens in fighting for freedom.
Peter, a man who was enslaved in Baton Rouge Louisiana, whose scars are a result of a whipping by his
overseer, who was subsequently discharged by Peter's owner.
(Photo on file with U.S. National Archives and Records) A favorite form of dealing with Negroes was public lynching. The practice of

killing people by extrajudicial mob action, occurred in the United States chiefly from the late 18th century through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently in the Southern United States from 1890 to the 1920s, with a peak in the annual toll in 1892. 

Riots destroying black civilian home similar to the riots in Egypt and the rest of the Muslim Middle East.Birmingham, Alabama, would see some of the worst violence.

Just before launching to a group of his closest aids: "I have to tell you that in my judgment, some people sitting in this room today will not come back alive from this campaign."Thousands of school children took part in the marches and demonstrations in this bastion of white supremacy. But the state police showed little mercy. "So long as I'm po-leece commissioner in Birmingham, the niggers and the white folks ain't gon' segregate together in this man's town" declared police chief, Bull Conner.
America's True History of Religious Tolerance
The idea that the United States has always been a bastion of religious freedom is reassuring—and utterly at odds with the historical record. From the earliest arrival of Europeans on

America’s shores, religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the “heretic” and the “unbeliever”—including the “heathen” natives already here. Moreover, while it is true that the vast majority of early-generation Americans were Christian, the pitched battles between various Protestant sects and, more explosively, between Protestants and Catholics, present an unavoidable contradiction to the widely held notion that America is a “Christian nation.”

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Americas-True-History-of-Religious-Tolerance.html#ixzz26c07BTHs
 
It took us 236-years to get to where we are today and we're still fighting, The Middle East is just now discovering Democracy. No one told them it was messy and bloody. 

Are we cured from bigotry and religious discord?  No, but we must continue to work towards a "More Perfect Union."

Rick Scott is a threat to Children and Seniors

Late last night I received a phone call from my Aunt.  She was crying and in a panic. It took her a few minutes but she did compose herself.  She then began reading a letter she received from Medicaid.

Dear Medicaid Recipient:

The 2012 Florida Legislature made some changes in the law impacting Medicaid.  Starting August 1, 2012....

• Home health visits will be changing from four visits per day to no more than three  day....
• Office visits for some services will be limited to two per month.  This limitation is for general visits to your physician....the type of visit that will be limited id for primary care visits.
• Hospital emergency room visits will be limited to six per fiscal year.........

So there we have it Floridians!  Cuts to Medicaid! Gov. Rick Scott will leave no stoned unturned to prove the evils of government sponsored healthcare.  This did not have to happen!

Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) was the first governor to announce that he would not accept approximately $1.9 billion dollars in Medicaid funds allocated to Florida by the Affordable Care Act.  He's acted against the safety and well-being of the people of Florida at the expense of more-of-the same politics. 

Not to throw more gas to a fire but to make matters worse, there's the looming sequester (over the cliff) at the beginning of 2013.  "If this were to happen physicians would see a 2% cut in reimbursements," said Jared Bernstein, former chief economist & economic adviser to Vice President, Joe Biden. What we need is "enough grownups in the room to avoid a self-inflected wound.."   The same self-inflicted wound Scott could prevent instead he says, "The real problem with health care is that costs continue to rise."  Yes, healthcare costs are rising but so are defense cost. "It has doubled from 2001-2009," said Bernstein.

Apparently defense spending or increased fees to military retirees are a non-issue for Scott.  Why?  Those increases are paid by the Fed.  So when military retirees face increased fees to their Tri-Care healthcare insurance, Scott smiles because it's "hidden" fed dollars.

Scott doesn't know how to govern he has become a threat to the lives of millions of children, seniors and the medically needy.


by Mauricio Rosas

source:
http://www.policymic.com
Wilson Center, National Press Conference 9/10/12