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Tag Archives: healthcare

Insulin as a luxury

31 Thursday Mar 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Ann Wagner, Billy Long, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Congress, healthcare, HR 6833, Insulin, Jason Smith, right wingnuts, Sam Graves, Vicky Hartzler

Today:

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 102
H R 6833 YEA-AND-NAY 31-Mar-2022 5:47 PM
QUESTION: On Passage
BILL TITLE: Affordable Insulin Now Act
[….]
—- YEAS 232 —

Bush
Cleaver

—- NAYS 193 —

Graves (MO)
Long
Luetkemeyer
Smith (MO)
Wagner

—- NOT VOTING 6 —

Hartzler

[emphasis added]

Profiteering is apparently a republican family value.

Billy Long (r) [2021 file photo]

Blaine Luetkemeyer (r)[2021 file photo]

Jason Smith (r) [2021 file photo]

And some don’t care enough to show up to vote for their constituents’ healthcare.

Vicky Hartzler (r) [2021 file photo].

Why are we not surprised?

Same vote, same state, same world, different takes

05 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Healthcare, social media

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

amendment 2, healthcare, initiative, Medicaid expansion, missouri, social media, Twitter

The initiative for Medicaid expansion in Missouri passed. Too damn close.

State of Missouri – Primary Election, August 04, 2020
Unofficial Results
as of 8/5/2020 6:34:43 AM

Constitutional Amendment No. 2 [Medicaid expansion] 3575 of 3575 Precincts Reported

YES 672,967 53.250%
NO 590,809 46.750%

Total Votes: 1,263,776

[emphasis added]

State of Missouri – Primary Election, August 04, 2020
Unofficial Results
as of 8/5/2020 7:21:08 AM

Constitutional Amendment No. 2 3575 of 3575 Precincts Reported

County YES NO

Boone 23,697 11,891
Clay 26,467 18,008
Greene 27,772 25,343
Jackson 41,233 25,528
Kansas City 49,350 6,938
Platte 12,567 7,810
St. Charles 40,363 38,171
St. Louis 181,501 67,906
St. Louis City 65,214 8,556

Iron 64 70

[emphasis added]

Different takes:

Blue Girl the Tenacious Teacher @BGinKC
Congratulations out-state sister-fuckers. Y’all wouldn’t vote to keep your local health centers open, you just figured you’d keep doing what you’ve been doing…coming to the city, showing up in the ER knowing we have to treat them because of EMTALA.

So we did it for you.
6:08 AM · Aug 5, 2020 from Kansas City, MO

Blue Girl grew up in rural Missouri, comes from a family with generations involved in farming, served in the military, and currently lives in Kansas City.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was passed by the US Congress in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (COBRA), much of which dealt with Medicare issues. The law’s initial intent was to ensure patient access to emergency medical care and to prevent the practice of patient dumping, in which uninsured patients were transferred, solely for financial reasons, from private to public hospitals without consideration of their medical condition or stability for the transfer….

And:

Lindsey Simmons @LynzforCongress
I’ve seen a lot of commentary from my fellow Missourians living in STL and KC discussing “rural Missouri voting against its interest.”

Here’s the thing.

Y’all have to stop talking about us like we’re stupid. You’ve got to leave your bubble + come stand with us.
6:11 AM · Aug 5, 2020

Lindsey Simmons grew up in rural Missouri, comes from a family with generations involved in farming, is the spouse of an individual currently serving active duty in the military, and lives in rural Missouri.

Lindsey Simmons is the Democratic Party nominee running in the 4th Congressional District.

Still, the vote on Amendment 2 was too damn close. Ya’ll.

Campaign Finance: on a mission for access to healthcare

23 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance, Healthcare

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

campaign finance, healthcare, imitiative, Medicaid expansion, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for the initiative to expand Medicaid on the August primary ballot:

190918 07/23/2020 Missourians for Healthcare The Fairness Project 1342 Florida Ave NW Washington DC 20009 7/21/2020 $150,000.00

C190918 07/23/2020 Missourians for Healthcare North Fund 1101 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 450 Washington DC 20036 7/21/2020 $350,000.00

C190918 07/23/2020 Missourians for Healthcare American Heart Association 460 N Lindbergh St Louis MO 63141 7/22/2020 $22,924.13

C190918 07/23/2020 Missourians for Healthcare North Fund 1101 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 450 Washington DC 20036 7/22/2020 $19,000.00

[emphasis added]

They’re not taking prisoners…

Previously:

Campaign Finance: they’re serious (July 12, 2020)

Campaign Finance: singular focus (July 15, 2020)

Campaign Finance: serious and more serious (July 20, 2020)

Campaign Finance: consistent

13 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance, Healthcare

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

campaign finance, healthcare, intiative, Medicaid expansion, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, right wingnuts

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for the right wingnut committee opposed to Medicaid expansion on the August 4th ballot:

C201344 07/13/2020 No on 2 in August Pelopidas, LLC 1034 S. Brentwood Blvd. Ste 1700 St Louis MO 63117 7/13/2020 $69,697.82

[emphasis added]

They’re consistent.

Campaign Finance: they’re serious

12 Sunday Jul 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance, Healthcare

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

campaign finance, healthcare, initiative, Medicaid expansion, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

As should we all be.

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission for the committee supporting Medicaid expansion on the August 4, 2020 ballot:

C190918 07/12/2020 Missourians for Healthcare Missouri Hospital Association PO Box 60 Jefferson City MO 65102 7/10/2020 $16,538.00

C190918 07/12/2020 Missourians for Healthcare North Fund 1101 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 450 Washington DC 20036 7/10/2020 $88,000.00

C190918 07/12/2020 Missourians for Healthcare North Fund 1101 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 450 Washington DC 20036 7/10/2020 $1,500,000.00

[emphasis added]

Yep, they’re serious.

Medicaid Expansion in Missouri: petition signatures submitted – for the November ballot

01 Friday May 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Healthcare

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

healthcare, initiative, Medicaid expansion, missouri

Today, from Healthcare for Missouri:

Healthcare for Missouri submits petition signatures to place Medicaid expansion vote on November ballot
May 01, 2020

At a time when access to healthcare is needed more than ever, a group of Missouri doctors and Medicaid expansion advocates on Friday submitted more than twice as many signatures from Missourians as required to put the initiative directly before voters in November.

If approved, Medicaid expansion will help keep rural hospitals open, deliver billions in economic stimulus, and help hundreds of thousands of hardworking Missourians, who have jobs that don’t come with insurance, get access to life-saving care.

That includes Missourians on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak, working essential, low-wage jobs in grocery stores, as delivery drivers, in nursing homes, hospitals and elsewhere.

They and others who would benefit fall into what is known as a coverage gap, often earning too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance.

An estimated 230,000 state residents would benefit from expansion, with eligibility for individuals limited to those earning less than $18,000 a year.

Thanks to a strong, early start in fall 2019, the Healthcare for Missouri campaign and its volunteers were able to collect voter signatures before the coronavirus outbreak shut down public life in March, submitting to the Secretary of State’s Office petitions signed by nearly 350,000 Missourians. Roughly 172,000 verified and validated voter signatures are required to qualify for the November general election ballot.

“The need for Medicaid expansion was apparent before the outbreak and only becomes more critical as the pandemic continues. It’s time to help the workers hit hardest by this crisis and bring billions of our tax dollars home to create jobs once this outbreak is under control,” said campaign manager A.J. Bockelman.

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the campaign relied on a small contingent to turn in the nearly 300 boxes of petitions safely while maintaining social distancing, and did not invite volunteers to Jefferson City, Bockelman added.

Medicaid expansion leads to more financially stable homes by reducing medical debt, medical bankruptcies and the need to borrow money to pay household bills. Studies show that when parents have insurance, their children are more likely to as well.

“This truly can be a game-changer for my family and others like me facing a lack of healthcare coverage for ourselves and our loved ones,” said Victoria Altic, a Springfield mother in the coverage gap. “We need to change this, and I say this not just for my own family. We are already facing stress and financial hardship, and now with this COVID-19 pandemic, our anxiety is at an all-time high. The opportunity to expand Medicaid coverage can save lives.”

Qiana Thomason, president and CEO of Health Forward Foundation, a Kansas City-based nonprofit, called Missouri Medicaid expansion “a critical step in removing barriers to access to public healthcare.”

“COVID-19 has shown that the virus does not discriminate in who becomes infected, regardless of one’s socioeconomic status,” she said. “For that reason alone, health and wellness must be a priority for those most in need. No disparities must remain for mental and physical health and our organization stands with Healthcare for Missouri.”

The expansion of Medicaid in Missouri would also help counter the dearth of healthcare in rural Missouri. Ten rural hospitals in the state have closed in recent years according to the Missouri Hospital Association, giving our state one of the country’s highest such closure rates.

“Over the last several years, several rural hospitals in Missouri have shut their doors and forced residents to travel further distances to receive the proper medical care. In some cases, patients wait until it becomes a life or death situation before seeking emergency care,” said Todd Ahrens, CEO of Hannibal Regional Hospital. “Now with the spread of COVID-19, medical facilities throughout Missouri could face a surge of patients who need care, and in some cases, those patients may not have health insurance. Now, more than ever, uninsured patients in Missouri need Medicaid expansion.”

As literally hundreds of research studies of Medicaid expansion in other states show, Medicaid expansion also makes strong fiscal sense.

One such research study at Washington University in St. Louis shows that Medicaid expansion would save Missouri more than $1 billion by 2026 by bringing our tax dollars home from Washington and reducing many of the healthcare costs the state currently pays.

Thirty-six other states have already expanded Medicaid, including neighboring Arkansas, where officials reported using savings from the expansion of more than $400 million during the last three years alone to cut state income taxes and reduce payments previously allocated to the uninsured.

The Missouri border states of Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska and Iowa have also opted for Medicaid expansion.

Every state that has expanded Medicaid has chosen to keep the program in place – in part due to its positive economic outcomes. In Michigan, for example, the billions of dollars returned to the state from Washington have generated nearly $800 million in new state and local revenues and saved the state more than $1 billion on mental health programs.

Beyond its many individual supporters, nearly 200 organizations have endorsed the Healthcare for Missouri campaign, with many more anticipated to sign on in the coming months.

The right wingnut controlled Missouri General Assembly will find some way to kill it.

Campaign Finance: Something’s always up, eh?

03 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

campaign finance, healthcare, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, PAC

Yesterday at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C010014 12/02/2019 Health Care Issues Committee of the Missouri Hospital Association Southeast Health 1701 Lacey Street Cape Girardeau MO 63701 12/2/2019 $13,200.00

C010014 12/02/2019 Health Care Issues Committee of the Missouri Hospital Association BJC HealthCare 4249 Clayton Avenue, Suite 310 St Louis MO 63110 12/2/2019 $173,745.00

C010014 12/02/2019 Health Care Issues Committee of the Missouri Hospital Association Mercy Accounts Payable Shared Services PO Box 10386 Springfield MO 65808 12/2/2019 $128,287.50

C010014 12/02/2019 Health Care Issues Committee of the Missouri Hospital Association St. Luke’s Hospital 121 St. Luke’s Center Drive Chesterfield MO 63017 12/2/2019 $43,725.00

C010014 12/02/2019 Health Care Issues Committee of the Missouri Hospital Association Hannibal Regional Healthcare System, Inc. PO Box 551 Hannibal MO 63401 12/2/2019 $13,365.00

C010014 12/02/2019 Health Care Issues Committee of the Missouri Hospital Association St. Luke’s Hospital 121 St. Luke’s Center Drive Chesterfield MO 63017 12/2/2019 $7,260.00

C010014 12/02/2019 Health Care Issues Committee of the Missouri Hospital Association Saint Luke’s Health System 901 E. 104th Street Mailstop 900N Kansas City MO 64131 12/2/2019 $67,980.00

[emphasis added]

That’s a total of $447,562.50. You could send a lot a mail for that kind of money. Maybe buy a few minutes of air time, even.

Campaign Finance: The Healthcare

16 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance, Healthcare

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

healthcare, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, Washington University

Yesterday at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C190918 11/15/2019 Missourians for Healthcare The Washington University 7425 Forsyth Blvd St Louis MO 63105 11/15/2019 $250,000.00

[emphasis added]

They use their powers for good…

So, why hasn’t Medicaid Expansion happened in Missouri?

31 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Healthcare, Missouri General Assembly, social media

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ACA, Chris Kelly, General Assembly, healthcare, Kip Kendrick, Medicaid, Medicaid expansion, missouri, social media, Twitter

Good question.

From Representative Kip Kendrick (D):

Kip Kendrick @Kip_Kendrick
Missourians represent at least a quarter million of these individuals.

Kaiser Family Foundation @KaiserFamFound
Nationally, 2.5 million poor uninsured adults fall into the “coverage gap” that results from state decisions not to expand Medicaid.
They earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to…

3:09 PM – 30 Mar 2019

Rep. Kip Kendrick (D) [2019 file photo].

The human toll, from the Kaiser Family Foundation:

Table 1: Uninsured Adults in Non-Expansion States Who Would Be Eligible for Medicaid if Their States Expanded by Current Eligibility for Coverage, 2017

State Total Currently Eligible for Medicaid Currently in the Coverage Gap (<100% FPL) Currently May Be Eligible for Marketplace Coverage (100%-138% FPL**)

Missouri 232,000 13,000 124,000 95,000

[emphasis added]

And:

[….]

The ACA Medicaid expansion was designed to address the high uninsured rates among low-income adults, providing a coverage option for people with limited access to employer coverage and limited income to purchase coverage on their own. In states that expanded Medicaid, millions of people gained coverage, and the uninsured rate dropped significantly as a result of the expansion. However, with many states opting not to implement the Medicaid expansion, millions of uninsured adults remain outside the reach of the ACA and continue to have limited options for affordable health coverage. From 2016 to 2017, non-expansion states saw a significant increase in their uninsured rate, while expansion states saw a decrease.

By definition, people in the coverage gap have limited family income and live below the poverty level. They are likely in families employed in very low wage jobs, employed part-time, or with a fragile or unpredictable connection to the workforce. Given limited offer rates of employer-based coverage for employees with these work characteristics, it is likely that they will continue to fall between the cracks in the employer-based system.

It is unlikely that people who fall into the coverage gap will be able to afford ACA coverage, as they are not eligible for premium subsidies: in 2019, the national average unsubsidized premium for a 40-year-old non-smoking individual purchasing coverage through the Marketplace was $478 per month for the lowest-cost silver plan and $340 per month for a bronze plan, which equates to nearly eighty percent of income for those at the lower income range of people in the gap and more than a third of income for those at the higher income range of people in the gap.

If they remain uninsured, adults in the coverage gap are likely to face barriers to needed health services or, if they do require medical care, potentially serious financial consequences. Many are in fair or poor health or are in the age range when health problems start to arise but lack of coverage may lead them to postpone needed care due to the cost. While the safety net of clinics and hospitals that has traditionally served the uninsured population will continue to be an important source of care for the remaining uninsured under the ACA, this system has been stretched in recent years due to increasing demand and limited resources.

Most people in the coverage gap live in the South, leading state decisions about Medicaid expansion to exacerbate geographic disparities in health coverage. In addition, because several states that have not expanded Medicaid have large populations of people of color, state decisions not to expand their programs disproportionately affect people of color, particularly Black Americans. As a result, state decisions about whether to expand Medicaid have implications for efforts to address disparities in health coverage, access, and outcomes among people of color.

[….]

From former State Representative Chris Kelly (D):

Chris Kelly @repckelly
And virtually all of them are working.
Props to @Kip_Kendrick for articulating this serious problem.
7:31 AM – 31 Mar 2019

But, the right wingnut republican majority in the Missouri General Assembly can’t believe this problem has adverse affects on rural Missourians? Right.

Fake News Flash – Roy Blunt wins healthcare awards.

11 Wednesday Jul 2018

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

AfPA, Alliance for Patient Access, ALSIC, American Life Sciences Innovatoin Council, Champion of Health Care Innovation award, Champion of Medical Access award, healthcare, Lobbyists, Medical indusstries, missouri, Pharmaceutical industries, Roy Blunt

Yesterday I wrote about how gobsmacked I was to receive two glossy mailers asking me to thank GOP Senator Roy Blunt for “being a champion of Medicare access,” and for “being a 2018 champion of Health Care Innovation.”  My reaction was due to the fact that Blunt  has been a reliable foot-soldier in the GOP war against expanding healthcare access, including, as I noted,  mumblecore disavowals of pre-existing conditions protections. He’s also expressed his distaste for Medicare in the past.

The next question is just who is trying to help Senator Blunt pull the wool over Missourians’ eyes? The mailers state that they are paid for by the American Life Sciences Innovation Council (ALSIC) and the Alliance for Patient Access (AfPA) respectively. So who do these groups represent? Not too hard to figure out when one consults the InterWebs:

AfPA.jpg

The Alliance for Patient Access, featured in the brochure above, is a straight-out big pharma controlled entity that uses unwitting journalists and greedy or insecure politicians to push “platforms that help drug companies’ bottom lines”:

The AfPA offers cover for lawmakers who carry out the pharmaceutical industry’s agenda, some observers say. In one striking example, the group accepted $7.8 million in 2014 and 2015 to give Medicare “Patient Access Champion” awards to members of Congress, according to its IRS disclosures for those years. The AfPA annual report shows that 50 awards were presented. The awards appear to be a way to thank cooperative legislators while also pressuring them and others to enact the AfPA’s policy agenda. […]

Some say those awards […] shielded lawmakers from criticism for voting against Medicare cost controls, such as an independent rate-setting board and other measures.

 

ALSIC.jpg

The American Life Sciences Innovation Council, which awarded Blunt a similar “healthcare champion” award, isn’t the  501(c)(3) charitable, non-profit educational organization that it seems to be, but instead works to influence “the effects of government regulation on key factors that drive life science innovation,” which is to say,  the bottom line of the medical and pharmaceutical companies whose creation it undoubtedly is. It spends the bulk of its income on activities such as robo-calls touting he “winners” of their awards, as well as mailers like the one above or newspaper ads pushing the same message (There have been several of these ads in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in recent months; I’d bet good money that they’ve appeared in other newspapers around the state.)

Upshot? It’s all fake. Senator Blunt is no healthcare hero or defender of Medicare. He’s just another good ol’ boy wallowing in the swamp.

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