Tag Archives: Obamacare

Dear Hobby Lobby CEO – Excuse my big BUTT

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Dear Mr. Green,

 

I wanted to reach out to you after I heard of the United State’s Supreme Court decision regarding the insurance mandate that requires you to provide coverage to your employees that includes the morning after pill.  You challenged the law as a violation of your faith. In your words your family had to  ”violate their faith by covering abortion-causing drugs or be exposed to severe penalties.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/26/supreme-court-denies-hobby-lobby-request-for-reprieve-from-health-care-mandate/#ixzz2GJ4YTt46

Just a little family planning 101 – the morning after pill changes the lining of the uterus so that an egg is less likely to implant in the uterus.  If the woman is already pregnant it does not cause an abortion.  I know…silly little fact.  Can’t let these things get in the way.  Kind of like scientific facts of  evolution vs. creation, but that’s a debate for another blog.

Back to your bad news – I understand the fines for not complying can be up to $1.3 million dollars per day.  That’s a whole lot of scrapbook materials if you ask me.

Now if you have read any of my blog posts, you know I hate guns and that includes the hot-glue kind so I haven’t been in your store much.  I did, however, go in a few months back.  I was shopping for a frame for a picture I wanted to hang in my new apartment.  My grandparents lived in an apartment. Hanging in their dining room was this Salvador Dali print of Abraham Lincoln. I was fortunate to get this print after they passed away.  Note potential art thieves  it’s a print and not an original.  My brother was blessed with the other valuable art work famously known as the dogs playing poker print.

Dali

Anyway, Abe had to be re-framed before being hung in all of his glory over my fireplace.  Off to Hobby Lobby I went.  Sure enough you had the perfect frame to match my artwork.  If you look a certain way, you can see a cross in this piece.  Of course, most people just see a woman’s tush.

My point to this long story isn’t about the artwork hanging over my fireplace, it’s that your company didn’t seem to have any problems taking my money.  Your faith wasn’t compromised in any way when I purchased my frame.  Here’s the deal – when I worked in family planning, we prescribed lots and lots of morning after pills.  I am proud to say that I helped prevent a lot of unplanned pregnancies.

 

When it comes to making the all-American profit,  your faith doesn’t seem to be an issue when it comes to doing business with women who take the morning-after pills.  I don’t recall any sort of statement saying you won’t take money from women who have had abortions or support family planning.  I read your messages on your website, even the sneaky ones that are in 4 point font.  You didn’t screen me before I came in your store to be sure I believed in your faith.  My credit card worked just fine in your store.

 

Your faith is only “compromised” when it comes to providing birth control for your employees and conveniently that is when it may cost YOU some money.  Nobody is stopping you from closing up your store, starting your own church and preaching to your own congregation.  That way you don’t have to be put in this compromising position.
Just know that you may have made a small profit from the frame I purchased at your store, but every time I look at the ass, I mean cross, that is framed above my fire-place, I’ll think of  your commitment to faith, but the bigger draw of the all-American profit.

Yours in respecting our Supreme Court,

Aimee

 

 

 

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Plan B OK for Teens – First Obama’s Re-Elected and Now This?!

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That swoosh you heard today wasn’t winter’s cold breeze blowing through the trees, it was the collective gasp from Christian conservatives all over the United States when a major pediatric group said this, “Emergency contraception should be available, and it should be available over the counter,” Dr. Cora Collette Breuner, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, told HuffPost. “Education should be provided in the pediatrician’s office …”

For someone like me who has spent the better part of my career in family planning, this is music to my ears.  Hold it..did she say “over-the-counter”?    Whoa…I can’t even get my Sudafed for my winter sniffles over-the-counter without photo ID for fear of a major meth concoction that I may be cooking in my minivan.  Do you really think our kiddos are ready to check out at CVS with Plan B?

I will have to digest the over-the-counter part, but I think I like where this is headed.  While the Christian Conservatives are currently unconscious from the mere thought of Johnnie and Suzie having intercourse and then riding their scooters to the local Walgreen’s for some EC, let’s discuss shall we?

First, those ignorant of the difference between EC and RU486 – they are not the same thing.  EC does not cause abortions so chill out.  That’s right, chill out and educate yourself.  This has been a very common misunderstanding since…well since the beginning of this entire debate.  EC is very safe and effective if taken correctly.  It prevents the egg from implanting in the uterus and if you are pregnant, it will NOT CAUSE AN ABORTION!

For all my liberalness, I am struggling a bit with the over-the-counter part just because I want kids to be educated before they take this medication. It’s not like popping tictacs.  Although with EC, time is of the essence and there is not time to be wasted if you want it to work correctly.  If it stays by prescription only the only saving grace is we can all get EC with Obamacare since we will all be covered.  This of course, thanks to Obama’s re-election.

Thanks Dr. Breuner.  It takes a hell of a lot of courage to make this statement.  Now someone go wake up the Christian Conservatives, because this is happening!

A New Diet Called The GOP

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Diet Update – Add Dennys and Jimmy Johns to the GOP Diet Plan

I don’t know about you, but I am not happy about my weight.  It seems like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to cook the healthy balanced meals for my family that I want.  Not to mention the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables just keeps going up.  Like most Americans, I often rely on fast food or convenience chain-restaurants to feed my family.  What’s the result?  Ever increasing clothing sizes, less energy and sluggish health.

Now it’s time for a change.

That’s why I’m putting my family on the new diet – The GOP Diet!

The G.O.P. Diet stands for Get Off (the) Pounds.

It’s the latest thing to come out of Washington.  It’s so easy to follow.  Just follow the conservative outrage.  Just a few easy steps and you will find the pounds simply melting away.

Firs step is simply watch the news.  Yes, that’s right.  Sit yourself down in front of the TV or computer and just watch the headlines.  It seems that every day a CEO of a major restaurant chain is coming out with an outrageous statement regarding Obamacare or some “liberal agenda”.

Take for example the CEO of Papa John’s pizza chain.  He is threatening to lay off employees instead of cover their health insurance when Obamacare kicks in.

From now on, I don’t eat any more Papa John’s pizza.  Think of all the calories I’ll save and all the pounds I’ll lose!  It’s that easy.  No tricky diets to follow or complicated meal plans.  Papa John’s CEO lives in his mega mansion, but refuses to cover health care for his employees and I save hundreds of calories by not eating his pizza.

Zane Tankel, owner of over 40 franchize Applebee’s also has said he won’t hire, because of Obamacare.  http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/11/applebees-ceo-zane-tankel-says-he-wont-hire-because-of-obamacare-video/

Hey Zane, here is a win-win.  Calm down Zane (love the name BTW), because I’m not eating at your establishment anymore.  The win in all this, is I’ll end up looking fabulous by not doing so!  We all know your menu is calorie heavy, the stuff I end up ordering anyway – wings, spin dip and mozz sticks.  No more for me!  It’s so simple people.  Join me and we will all end up dropping our BMI’s in the process.

Chick-fil-A – don’t like gay marriage?  It’s on the GOP diet plan.  No more Chick-fil-A for me!

The only exercise required on the GOP diet plan is the occasional protest outside of a Chick-fil-A for marriage equality.   The complete diet plan is always changing so you never get bored.  It changes daily and will guarantee to be added to as more greedy CEOs come out claiming their “bottom-line” will be severely affected by Obamacare.  Their message will probably come from their multi-million dollar mansions as they Skype this message in from their private putting green.

The plan is so simple – follow the conservative outrage and the pounds simply melt away!

I’ll update the new diet as we hear more.  In the meantime, to follow the GOP diet, remember, no Papa John’s pizza, no Applebee’s from Zane’s franchises and no Chick-fil-A.

Here’s to a skinnier Democratic Party!

My weekly list: hybrids, eyebrow waxing, Pro-Life and Julia Roberts

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So I’m sitting in a coffee shop writing my blog. This is a first. I feel so cool just by association.  I’m really just killing time waiting to meet some friends for dinner.  Of the six people in here on a Friday night, I could have birthed about 4 of them.  This is just fueling my fire and now Adele just started to play.

Perfect time to get a few things off my chest.  When I was thinking about what to write, there were too many things swimming through my brain to limit it to just one subject so I thought I would compile a Friday list of things.  Strap in..it’s going to be a wild and random ride:

1.  My liberalmobile lied to me.  A few months back I gave up my gas munching SUV for an environmentally friendly hybrid.  My sky-blue baby even has a little earth on the dashboard that lights up with an ivy halo when I reach peak environmentally friendliness.  You can only drive one of these if you are a card-carrying member of the Democratic party.  Now I find out that Hyundai lied to me about gas mileage.  It was an “oversight” said Hyundai.  Sure – if I forget to pay my car payment this month, I’ll blame it on an “oversight”.  Now, Republicans tell me again how government oversight is a horrible thing for businesses?  Turns out I will be getting a refund for false advertising.  Damn those government regulations.  Those bad, bad government regulations that keep businesses honest by making them actually tell consumers the truth.

2.  This little study that came out earlier this month that studied if women were given FREE birth control – that means access to any birth control, including IUDs and implants what would happen.  Turns out the abortion rate GOES DOWN.  Did you read that – the ABORTION RATE GOES DOWN.  My blood pressure continues to escalate when I try to figure out how people can be pro-life and anti-obamacare.  I absolutely, positively don’t get this one.  Check out this incredibly cool video below.  I hope people watch this before Tuesday and vote these radical, pro-life extremists OUT of office.  They just don’t make any sense!

3.  This is a random one, but one that the ladies out there will understand.  I have been getting my eyebrows waxed since I was 14 years old.  Yes, 14 years old.  These days, eyebrow waxing for preteens is something we only see on Toddlers and Tiaras.  We are outraged when we see it now, but remember, this was the 80s when seat belts were just becoming mandatory and cold medicine for kids was given in mass quantities, sometimes even just to put Jr. to sleep.  Anyway, my mom told me at the time that the more years I had it done the less it would hurt.  That’s right – the more years I had it done, the less it would hurt.  It has been 26 years later and it still hurts like hell.  She lied.  I”m still working through this.  It never gets any easier.  As much as I love my mom, I’ll admit I’m still kinda pissed.

4.  This election is almost over.  If I’m getting tired of it and I’m a political addict, you know it’s been bad.  I’m already looking for things to fill my time after Tuesday.  I’ve decided to go on a spiritual journey.  That means I’m getting ready to join a synagogue.  I’m thinking my spiritual journey will be like Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love.  I’ve never seen the movie, but I fantasize that my journey will take me to far away places where I will meditate with Russel Brand, eat gourmet meals with Gwyneth Paltrow and pray with people like Madonna.  The realistic journey is I will get my tush down to the local synagogue and pray.  This should be interesting.  More to come with this one.  It definitely can’t hurt and if anything may help me to be a little more pleasant and possibly a little less eccentric.  God, I hope you are listening to this.  Get ready.

Have a great weekend.  Remember to vote.  Please vote for Obama, but if you must vote for Romney – we can still be friends.  Just vote.  One thing is for sure, Tuesday night I will either be cheering or sobbing, but the world will keep on turning.  Wednesday will still come far too early and we will get up and get on with our lives putting one foot in front of the other.  America will survive and the same issues will be debated for generations to come.

Gov. Brownback may miss deadline to pick insurance for KS

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Governor Brownback,

 

I know you are really, really busy.  I’m sure you are busy with governor stuff like cutting some school funding, slashing more arts spending, or possibly even praying in our government buildings, but if I can just interrupt for a quick second.

http://www.kansas.com/2012/01/09/2168849/brownback-others-pray-for-guidance.html

See there is a deadline looming that I think you are aware of.  September 30th is the deadline where states need to decide what health insurance coverage it is going to provide based on a federal mandate by the Affordable Care Act:

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/06/3800625/kansas-insurance-commissioner.html

If you don’t pick something by September 30th the federal government will do it for you.  I think we all know how you and fellow Republicans feel about state’s rights.

Now rumor has it you are dragging your feet, because you feel strongly that The Affordable Care Act will be repealed when Mitt Romney is elected President.

“Brownback has been a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act and said he wants to wait until after the Nov. 6 election before making any decisions. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has vowed to repeal the act if he is elected. Last year, Brownback sent back a $31.5 million federal grant to set up a health insurance exchange.”

With all due respect Governor Brownback, Romney isn’t having a stellar week or entire campaign for that matter.  Might I suggest not putting all those eggs in that basket?

If you don’t want the Department of Health and Human Services dictating insurance benefits for Kansans, let’s not have a “wait and see” approach to who is going to become our next President.

I don’t want to be accused of witchcraft, but I think the tea leaves are reading pretty clear on this one-   Romney is not going to be elected as our next President.  In case you haven’t noticed, his campaign is in a tailspin.

I totally understand the disappointment you must be feeling.  I feel that way all the time living as a liberal in a conservative state like Kansas.  Lots and lots of disappointment is part of the territory.

Swallow your pride, do what is right and pick what coverage is best for Kansans.  The Insurance Commission is waiting.

Since you are such a strong believer in the power of prayer, I believe Romney could use all you have right now.  Just do me a favor and if you are going to pray for Romney, do it somewhere other than at the Capitol.

 

Thanks,

Aimee

Papa John’s pizzagate – the outrage

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Hold on to your deep dish, the founder and CEO of Papa John’s pizza made an announcement that his pizza costs are going up.  Why the spike in your cheese and pepperoni pizza?   Healthcare reform is causing Papa John’s to be forced to offer health care insurance to their employees.  It’s Obama’s fault that the cost of your pizza is going up.

Now the perks of a Papa John’s delivery drive are already too numerous to list.  You may not know this, but Papa John’s employees have many more perks besides receiving excellent, base-level pay delivering pizzas to the American dinner table.   Offering employees health insurance is just icing the cake for Papa John employees that already have the following lesser known benefits:

  • Each employee receives a company car.  Every time I answer my door for my delicious Papa John’s pizza I am frequently blinded by the glare of the brand new Merecedes that each driver has parked in front of my house.  Papa John’s offers only the finest fleet of top-of-the-line automobiles to each of their drivers.
  • All employees are always dressed in their finest Papa John’s pizza uniforms.  Similar to our Olympic athletes, each employee is styling  in the latest Ralph Lauren designs when they deliver my large veggie combo.
  • How many pizza chains can claim they offer a chauffeur for their delivery drivers?  Papa John’s drivers don’t drive; they sit in style as a chauffeur drives them from hungry house to hungry house again in those beautiful Mercedes.
  • Since each employee stands on their feet all day making our favorite pizza pies, Papa John’s brings in masseurs to keep our pizza makers in tip-top shape with regular, on-site massage.
  • Each employee also already receives sessions with financial planners who help them make wise, offshore  investments with their plentiful salaries.  One can’t just deposit millions in salaries in a regular bank.  Each employee is set up with offshore bank accounts in exotic locations all over the world.

With all of these perks, how can Papa John’s be expect to offer yet another benefit like health insurance?  Obama, how dare you force this American business to offer a benefit that allows each worker to seek out medical care without financial bankrupting them?  Covering health insurance means that each employee and their families can go to their doctor when needed.   I sympathize with Papa John’s for this outrageous request.  Thanks Papa John CEO for pointing out this outrageous requirement.  I may be able to afford the extra few cents increase to my pizza so employees can have health insurance, but I may have to stop ordering Papa John’s pizza just so I can send a strong message to Obama.  American businesses can’t be bullied like this.   I guess I’ll just have to order my pizza from another pizza restaurant so that Papa John’s can continue to prove their point about this out-of-line request on a business owner.   That will show Obama for causing pizzagate.  Shame on you Mr. President.

A response to Senator Jerry Moran’s Common Sense Blog

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Dear Sen. Moran:

I am a faithful reader of your Common Sense blog post that I receive via email.  Since I am a Kansan, I take a moment out of my day to read your post to find out what is going on Kansas from Washington.  I read today your response to the SCOTUS decision on the Affordable Care Act.  Read the post here.

You and I agree that a law can be constitutional and still a bad idea.  Take my example of conceal and carry, or for that matter the entire second amendment,  I am no fan, but it is constitutional for an American to own a firearm.  Like I have said in previous posts, since it is constitutional, I don’t want politicians wasting a ton of time jamming up our legislative system or courts trying to find ways for Americans not to have guns to hunt.  I just don’t want one and will not encourage my fellow Americans to own a gun.

From Common Sense, July 2, 2012: “I continue to believe that the health care reform law jeopardizes access to quality health care for many Americans and stifles our country’s job growth through higher taxes and burdensome regulations. In rural states like Kansas, this law is particularly damaging because it will create shortages of doctors, nurses, and other health care providers due to severe cuts to Medicare and budgetary gimmicks – threatening the survival of small towns, where a higher proportion of Medicare patients receive their care.” 

Senator Moran, I wasn’t aware that ACA is causing a shortage of doctors. I’m not following your logic on this one.  How is ACA preventing people from going to medical school?  If the demand for medical care goes up, I would argue that need has been there all along, people just weren’t privileged enough to seek it out.  Does it “jeopardize access” to the rich?  Is it rich people you are worried about?

If it’s the rich you are worried about, I would encourage you and other politicians to find ways to get young people to medical school, especially in the area of rural health.  Maybe we can all find a way to curb ridiculous medical school costs as a start to meet the demand?  You may take it one step further and get these future docs to go into boutique medicine so the rich can be taken care of.  I’m sure your political donors will be thrilled.

The claim that there is a huge cut to Medicare because of ACA is simply not true.  Politico is running a truth-o-meter check on this claim: click here to read.  Even if there was a major cut to medicare –  ”threatening the survival of small towns,”  Seriously? Cue the dramatic music…there is a lot more threatening the survival of small towns-Walmart, no manufacturing, farming issues, boredom… 

I’m not saying that ACA is going to cure the health care problem in this nation, but please don’t spend all your time working to overturn it.  You don’t have to like it.  If you are looking to reduce taxes, might I suggest defense spending?  That might offset this tax/fine/mandate or whatever the buzz word will be this election season.

Thanks and great name for your posts – Common Sense.  I wish I would have thought about about that.

Love to Kansas!

Aimee

The Day After

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Some might think I am talking about the day after the historic Supreme Court decision on health care reform, but I’m actually talking about the season final of Real Housewives of Orange County. No..just kidding.  That will be my next blog post for all you Bravo fans out there like me.

I have post, shock, surprise, happiness hangover today after the Supreme Court decision yesterday to uphold almost all of Obamacare.  I totally admit that I was ready to write about my anger, frustration, disappointment when I expected the decision to come out that they were going to defeat Obamacare.  Let’s face it, most state, local, national legislation and elections don’t generally come out on my liberal side.  I am from Kansas…have you noticed who my governor is.  But I’ll be damned, we finally won one.

I haven’t combed through the analysis for all of the pros and cons being thrown out there from both sides.  I did hear a headline this morning already that the GOP was already working on legislation for how they can enact legislation to overturn to the ruling.  I want to make this clear to both sides (let me live in my fantasy world that everybody, including President Obama, VP Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Romney and all of the GOP, reads my blog) just stop and accept the ruling.

As much as the GOP believes the founding fathers wanted us to pray in school, have a Christian based society, carry our guns in our purses to the grocery store and bury our money in the backyard, I believe they wanted us to respect the system of government that they invented.

The American people elect our legislatures.  The legislatures write laws that represent what the people want.  The President signs or vetos the law.  If the law is questionable, there is a right to challenge the law in our courts all the way to the Supreme Court.  If they rule that it is Constitutional, the law stands.

Here’s the deal Dems and Reps, if you don’t want to have “politics as usual” in Washington, don’t waste our time trying to figure out ways to repeal this ruling by the Supreme Court.  I hate conceal and carry legislation, but I don’t want my politician spending hours upon hours trying to find a way to repeal conceal and carry if the people voted for conceal and carry.

No more politics as usual.  Accept that sometimes we win and sometimes we lose.  I had to do a lot of that during the Bush Administration.  Our great system is a checks and balances type of system for a reason.  That is why our founding fathers were so great.  Not because they wanted us all to pray in school or arm our muskets.  I foresee a lot of problems with Obamacare that will have to be worked out.  I don’t love the legislation.  In fact that I read there is a bunch of money for abstinence based education tagged on in the legislation.  Seriously!?  Talk about government waste.  Don’t get me started…

 

Healthcare ruling and why it matters to me

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“Obamacare” is being decided this week.  Is it constitutional?  If so, is all of it constitutional? If it’s not constitutional, then what?  How many people lose their insurance?  Where does that leave this country and the uninsured?  There are so many unanswered questions and such anticipation over this ruling that I have a stomach ache.  But wait, I can’t go to the doctor because I have terrible insurance.

Just kidding…well kind of.  The decision this week is huge politically.  That is obvious.  If Obamacare is upheld, Obama wins in November.  Romney just isn’t that good to overcome a win like that.  If Obamacare is overturned, we have a race on our hands for the presidency and Romney is a solid contender.  Either way, neither campaign headquarters will be sleeping from now until the ruling and probably days after.  They have spin set up to react to the ruling at the ready.  Legal analysts at the news stations are high on life from all of the air time they are receiving this week.

Politics aside, why is this decision so important to me?  I am not one of those Americans that goes to the doctor once a year for a physical and then only when I suffer from the yearly flu.  I am an American who has medical conditions that require regular care.  I have made career decisions solely on medical insurance.  I started my own business, but abruptly had to stop it when a divorce suddenly found me with my medical insurance benefits stopping.  I had to go to work for an employer where I could get benefits.  So much for the entrepreneurial, American spirit.  I love my job, but it’s unfortunate that I had to make a career decision based on benefits.

From 8/30/2011 to 6/20/12 I spent $3,433.77 in medical costs on myself.  This amount doesn’t count my child or my ex-husband  That is just in doctor visits, medications and a few copays to a hospital.  This is with good medical insurance coverage.  I am not disclosing what my conditions are, because I don’t have to.  What I will tell you is that one of my medications is $121/month for a 30 day supply.  I am on 5 medications per month.  Now, I am a single woman, with a single income with joint custody of my child with medical insurance that has a big deductible to meet before my benefits kick in.  I am very worried about where I am going to get the money to even meet my deductible.  This keeps me up at night.  Just maintaining my health will have me pushing my budget to the limit, God forbid should I get really sick or need surgery.

This ruling doesn’t affect me directly, but if I lose my job I could easily become uninsured in America.  I need benefits or I could easily become one of those Americans that seek out our nation’s emergency rooms as my source of healthcare.  I am already researching ways to save on my medications and I make decent money.  Without my medications I probably couldn’t work.  Without benefits I have no medications.  Leave it to the states to decide?  Really?  What if by the luck of the draw I am in the wrong state just like I ended up the wrong DNA that caused me to need the medications I currently am on?

I will keep my fingers crossed, not only because I think Obama is a better candidate than Romney, but because my health depends on it. The direct impact of this ruling may not be about me at this time, but the long term impact of this ruling could very much be about me and everyone in this nation at some point.  Maybe I disclosed too much in this blog, but I feel if we don’t start telling our personal stories about our nation’s healthcare crisis, our candidates, media, insurance companies, Supreme Court, President, etc. won’t really understand that these aren’t just statistics, there are people behind the numbers.