News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Pennsylvania senior citizens who are reviewing their Medicare plans are reminded about free assistance available through the APPRISE program, says State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).
APPRISE is a free, unbiased health insurance counseling program designed to help older residents and caregivers with answers to questions about Medicare, Medicare supplemental insurance, Medicaid and long-term care insurance, Cox said.
To learn more, contact APPRISE at 1-800-783-7067 or click here.
Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor who has boasted about how he deceived the “stupid” American people to get Obamacare passed, has been paid $5.2 million by the federal government and 12 state governments for consulting services to assist in the design and implementation of the “Affordable” Care Act, reports Breitbart.com.
Gruber certainly did deceive a lot of people who put their trust in traditional media authorities. These weren’t the conservatives though, and most of those he did successful deceive are of the “fooled me once shame on you,” types which bodes ill not just for the future of the old media establishment but for the Democrat Party itself.
November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness and National Caregiver Month. It is estimated that 280,000 Pennsylvania residents live with Alzheimer’s disease, said State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129). He said that about another 120,000 have related dementias.
Cox said that the Pennsylvania Department of Aging established an Alzheimer’s Planning Committee to study the best ways to confront this disease. The report can be found here.
The state has numerous resources to help those with the disease and their loved ones. Visit the Department of Aging’s website for information.
The discovery of a 10th captive deer to test positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) prompted a informational meeting between The Pennsylvania House Game and Fisheries Committee and officials from the state Department of Agriculture and the Game Commission, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).
CWD attacks the brain of infected deer, elk and moose, producing small lesions that eventually result in death.
The disease was first discovered on a captive deer farm two years ago. Currently, 31 captive deer farms across the state are quarantined, where deer cannot be moved on or off the properties.
There is no evidence that humans or livestock can get the disease. However, as a precaution, hunters are advised to not eat meat from animals known to be infected with CWD, Cox said. The Pennsylvania Game Commission offers to test game — for a fee — that may be infected with the disease. Information on testing can be found here.
For more information on CWD, including precautions hunters should take this season, click here.
The American Action Forum is saying that more than 214,000 physicians will not be participating in Affordable Care (sic) Act exchange plans.
It is basing the claim on an analysis of a May 2014 survey by The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), a trade group which has served administrators of medical group practices since 1926.
American Action says the big reason is a March 27, 2012 HHS regulation that exchange plans provide their customers with a 90-day “grace period” to pay bills. This makes it very possible that providers are left uncompensated for services provided in those 90 days.
Anther factor though is the discovery that ACA exchange plans are now paying sixty cents on the dollar for services. Private plans pay 100 percent , and Medicare pays 80 percent.
Further it is noted that many ACA enrollees have high deductible plans but don’t understand what a deductible is.
The MGMA study indicates 75 percent of responders said that exchange plan patients were “very likely” or “extremely likely” fo have high deductible Bronze or Catastrophic plans. American Action said their concern is that those with these plans don’t understand what a deductible is and don’t realize that they could accumulate thousands of dollars in charges before these deductibles are met.
“The fear in the provider community is that low-income patients with these plans may rush to get delayed care without the financial ability to pay the high deductible, and while the insurer continues collecting premium payments, the provider will be left uncompensated,” says American Action.
Obamacare is looking more and more like the train wreck we long said it would be.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly presented HB 803 to Gov. Tom Corbett for his expected signature on Oct. 23.
The bill allows schools to be proactive in preventing allergic reactions in students, said State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).
The legislation requires that schools may keep a supply of epi-pens, on the condition that they are in a secure location.
The bill also requires the Pennsylvania Department of Health to provide staff with training for the administration of this medicine in emergencies
The bill also provides civil immunity to those who administer this injection in good faith.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health is monitoring about 100 people for signs of Ebola, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Most are those who recently spent time in Ebola-stricken West African nations albeit three are Pennsylvania residents who shared an Oct. 13 flight from Cleveland to Dallas with a nurse who later tested positive for the virus.
None have tested positive for Ebola and that their risk of getting it is very low, according to Department of Health spokewoman Spokeswoman Aimee Tysarczyk.
She said the department is in touch with each person daily.
So kudos for Gov. Tom Corbett for staying on top of the matter.
Hat tip Bob Guzzardi
Not that Bob is going to vote for Corbett.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly has passed legislation, HB 46, that would remove a major hurdle for potential organ and bone marrow donors, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129), and the bill awaits Gov. Corbett’s signature.
Cox said the bill would reauthorize, and make permanent, a program initiated in 2006 to provide tax credits to employers who offer paid leave to workers who choose to become living donors. The ability to get paid time off work for this procedure could help save lives.
He said tax credits offered under the bill would be equal to the amount paid out in wages while an employee donor undergoes the transplant procedure and recovery – up to five days.
The bill is awaiting the governor’s signature.
For information about organ donation, including how to become a donor, click here.
Ebola Equality Political Correctness Thomas Frieden
Ebola fear is spreading, a contingency the Obama administration should have been preparing for in August if not earlier.
The big reason for the unease is leadership. Obama said it was unlikely to get here and, well, here it is.
He apparently thought he was dealing with the j.v. team of contagious disease.
Thomas Frieden, who directs our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the man who Obama tapped to deal with matters like this.
As we should have expected, Frieden was not picked for his skill in dealing with a crisis but for his fidelity to the poison of political correctness.
He was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene when called to federal service and was best known for distributing condoms to gays and banning trans-fat from New York restaurants.
His brother Jeffrey is the Stanfield Professor of International Peace at Harvard and critic of free markets.
It’s no wonder why Frieden is fighting quarantines for travelers from West Africa. Equality means Ebola equality as well, after all.
And it’s no wonder that now Frieden has been compelled to act he is proposing plans that are scaring the pants off of rubber-meets-the-road health workers.
And it’s no wonder that he is giving blame-ridden explanations without checking the facts i.e. there was no protocol to breach concerning the contagions of those who treated the late Liberian visitor Thomas Duncan.
When your skill set is political pandering that is the thing you do.
The tragedy is that Ebola doesn’t have to be scary, or anywhere near as scary anyway.
The evil, greedy Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. stopped Ebola cold at its 80,000 person rubber plantation in the middle of the Liberian hot zone, it seems and just using common sense and materials at hand.
But then those evil greedy corporate types appear to have treated the issue as crisis and not as an excuse for political posturing and laughable orchestrated photo ops.
HB 2471, which prohibits insurance companies from placing oral anticancer medications on a specialty tier, was passed by the Pennsylvania House, Oct 6, says State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).
He says the bill also prohibits charging a co-insurance payment for the medication.
The vote was 195-1 with John D McGinnis (R-79) being the dissenter.
The bill is now before the Senate.
“With more than 80,000 Pennsylvanians estimated to be diagnosed with cancer this year, this legislation would have a tremendous impact on the lives of many Commonwealth residents” said Cox. “As it currently stands, intravenous anticancer medications are typically covered under a health plan’s medical benefit, often only requiring patients to pay a minimal fixed co-payment; however, orally administered anticancer medications are covered under a health plan’s pharmacy benefit and require patients to pay a percentage of the total cost of the drug, generally between 25 percent and 30 percent. This significantly increases the out-of-pocket costs to obtain treatment for patients.”