Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Great read from Health Stew...

John McDonough provides consistently high quality analysis of current health care reform issues. Today's column, "The Politics of Spite" is a terrific read.

An excerpt:

Spite. Defined by Merriam-Webster as "petty ill will or hatred with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart," here are two new examples:
First, on June 27th, McConnell and his Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) wrote to the head of the National Football League -- and to the heads of all major sports leagues, including NASCAR -- to urge them to do nothing to help publicize the new health insurance benefits available in January 2014 for millions of uninsured Americans.
The model McConnell fears is the key role the Boston Red Sox played in promoting new insurance benefits available in Massachusetts after our state's 2006 health reform law. It mattered because so many Red Sox fans, in Fenway Park and on TV, are young and uninsured males. Left out of the McConnell letter is any acknowledgement that Massachusetts reform was the model for the ACA?s coverage expansions.
McConnell's efforts will work -- the N.F.L. has already been spooked into denying any interest in educating fans of their new coverage options. Add to this House Republicans' refusal to fund ACA implementation, and add to that public threats against U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for encouraging private contributions to Enroll America, the national non-profit educating Americans about the new benefits -- and you have a clear pattern. Republicans will do anything and everything to hinder ACA implementation so that they can later declare the law a failure.

I encourage you to click through and read McDonough's full article and follow his blog regularly...

Source: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/health_stew/2013/07/the_politics_of_spite.html

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