Planned Parenthood is attempting to get hormonal birth control classified as a preventive medicine under the new healthcare bill. If this were to happen, insurance policies would be required to pay the entire cost, as customers under new plans must have all preventive care covered (this law does not apply to existing plans). Although birth control is not considered preventive by groups such as the Centers for Disease Contril, the new healthcare bill gives Health and …
It appears that Sharron Angle’s star might be fading. She’s not going down without a fight, though, throwing punches at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for being “personally responsible for what is happening in our nation,” and President Obama for not recognizing Nevada’s problems.
Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle on Friday denounced Majority Leader Harry Reid as a “desperate man” who was distorting her conservative record while ignoring a state that leads the nation in joblessness, foreclosures and bankruptcies.
A day after President Obama delivered a mocking indictment of her candidacy at a rally in Las Vegas, Angle accused the president and Reid of pushing billions of dollars in stimulus spending while Nevada struggles with “an economy that is a disaster.”
She called for repeal of the health care overhaul, lower taxes and disbanding federal agencies, including the Education Department, that she said had responsibilities that can be handled at the state level.
Ouch. The thing is, Angle seems to be of the mindset that liberals want to pay higher taxes and have everything from health care to the production of breakfast cereal be controlled at the highest level of government. This is patently ridiculous, and Barack Obama called her out on it.
A new study by the New York Academy of Medicine shows that pregnant women in New York state have some of the highest death rates in the United States. The overall rate for New York was 16 deaths per 100,000 live births, while the city of New York fared even worse, with 23 deaths per 100,000. Minority women are more likely to die in childbirth due to lack of insurance, poverty and obesity (49% of deaths between 2001 and 2005 were obese patients).
Black women are the most likely to die as they, “are more likely to be obese, and they are more likely to be uninsured, and they are more likely to live in communities where the environment does not promote healthy decisions (domestic and sexual violence also contributed to maternal mortality, with Blacks and Latinos particularly vulnerable).” The study also showed that women with insurance, whether private or Medicaid, were far less likely to die than the uninsured, regardless of income.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has caved into the ominous presence that’s presented by cosmetic surgeons. Previously, it was stated that a 5% levy would be set against cosmetic procedures. After much deliberation, it’s been removed from the bill. In its place? A 10% tax on indoor tanning sessions.
The American Medical Association among other large entities stated that taxing cosmetic procedures was discrimination against women, being that statistics show that women are the primary patients of elective cosmetic surgery.
I think it’s interesting (read: expected) that the “Bo-Tax” has been abolished; cosmetic surgery is a large vat of bread and butter for far too many physicians — even consultants for elective “plastic” surgery have cried out against receiving their own form of kickbacks.
As the former “Bo-Tax” left provisions for medically-necessary cosmetic surgery (i.e., reconstruction after mastectomy), the new Tan-Tax will allow wiggle room for necessary tanning procedures or as the AMA calls it, “photo-therapy.”
While I think it’s kind of cheesy that the Senate backed away from what was surely a large adversity, I still think it’s a good thing that tanning will be taxed instead. Far more women can spare the $5 or $10 or $25 dollars that a tanning salon requires to fry their skin and innards — the likelihood of making more money (despite a smaller chunk of change) off of this procedure is a bit higher.
Yes, a lot of women go under the knife and it’s a matter of choice, but with the exception of cases such as the former Argentinian model who died of complications, it’s a much less invasive practice than, say, locking yourself in a UV ray-filled capsule and sauteing your skin for thirty minutes at a clip — it’s much more dangerous than a lot of people acknowledge it to be. I, myself, had a skin scare not too long ago.
I was always a sun-worshipper. I never wore sunblock; to the contrary! I’d find the best home-remedies out there for amping my tan up as best I could. Crisco, iodine and olive oil were my favorites to blend together. It ensured maximum bronze-ness. However, after going on holiday to the Dominican Republic, I noticed some (okay, a lot) of white spots on the back of my right shoulder. After visiting the doc and asking what it could be (looked like Vitiligo a’la Michael Jackson, to me), it was found that I had beyond burned my skin — it was even further gone than sun poisoning.
Well, needless to say I gave up tanning that year. The spots never went away and I am unhappy. But yet, I’m much happier that I had a good enough scare that skin cancer had yet to leave its horrid mark on me.
Go Healthcare Bill, go!
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