Posts by: Luke Brockmeier
We have an uphill battle to get voters to blame Kasich for local government cuts. It’s a risky strategy because it cuts against a number of longstanding cultural biases that Republicans have exploited for a generation. The FitzGerald campaign (and progressives in general) will need radical tactics to create a facsimile of responsible party government in Ohio over the next 18 months.
Responsible party government is a government wherein voters know what elected officials are doing, and the results of those policies. For example, let’s say Party A wants to reform the state tax code without losing revenue. They pass [...]
Full Story... →The right wing has, for months, demanded that progressives talk about the Gosnell case. I’ve held off, because a) he hadn’t been convicted and b) before you can talk about Gosnell, you have to talk about absolutely everything else.
After all, unsafe illegal abortion is the raison d’être for the movement to legalize abortion.
Sometimes women get pregnant, and they don’t think they can have the baby.
Maybe it’s an ectopic pregnancy, and having the baby would kill both. Perhaps a complication (gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, infection, depression) will threaten the woman’s health. Sometimes women are raped and become pregnant, [...]
Full Story... →The federal Department of Health and Human Services has released the final draft of the Obamacare application, and it is a work of nerdy art. It clocks in at 3 pages and requires no additional forms to be submitted. Your SSN and income information are verified with other agencies, so there’s no need to send them the dead tree.
If you earn less than 138% of poverty, this form will also enroll you in Medicaid. Correction: if you earn less than 138% of poverty and don’t live in Ohio, this form will enroll you in Medicaid.
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Full Story... →The Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that there are rumblings to put the Medicaid expansion on the ballot as a constitutional amendment.
Yes, please! I’ve been overly optimistic about the GOP going ahead with the Medicaid expansion, mainly because this referendum would be a bigger political disaster for them than SB 5.
I’d say “it’ll be a bloodbath”, but that’s wrong. It’ll be a landslide. The bloodbath would be to deny health care to 350,000 Ohioans, leading to hundreds of preventable deaths every year.
The language will be stronger and surer than anything the GOP passes. To satisfy the sadists in their [...]
Full Story... →Ed FitzGerald wrapped up his “three-C tour” at the Hamilton County Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting, where he announced his candidacy for governor.
After some warm-up parliamentary procedure*, FitzGerald took the stage with his family. He spent a good deal of time attacking Kasich’s record.
I was worried that FitzGerald wouldn’t get to a positive vision for his governorship. He allayed those fears.
A big test for FitzGerald is to take activists who don’t know him and get them more fired up to elect him than they are to unseat Kasich. Last night was a very good start.
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Full Story... →Every Republican voted to pass a state budget that won’t add jobs, but will add to the infant mortality rate. It’s simply too Orwellian to call it a “Jobs Budget” when they’re spending a billion dollars to shut down 27,000 jobs.
In 2009, the state government issued a 7-point plan to reduce Ohio’s infant mortality rate. On Thursday, the Ohio House passed a budget which specifically undermines each of those 7 points. If they don’t expand Medicaid, the Pregnancy and Parenting Program will increase Ohio’s infant mortality rate–particularly if family planning is defunded.
Infant Mortality in Ohio
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Full Story... →In a unilateral disarmament of his best campaign issue, Gov. Kasich seems to have given up entirely on his Medicaid program.
If Kasich really wanted to expand Medicaid, he would give a press conference saying: “I will veto any budget bill that doesn’t cut income taxes by 10% and expand health coverage to the working poor.”
That would put him in a very strong position moving into 2014. By protecting his income tax cut, he would outflank the House on the right; by expanding Medicaid, he would take away a slam dunk issue for the Democrats.
Instead, [...]
Full Story... →The Ohio House GOP has released their budget, and it’s a doozy. They defund Planned Parenthood, set up the “Parenting and Pregnancy Program” (I’m going to assume this is funding for crisis pregnancy centers), and cut the Medicaid expansion against the wishes of more than 3/4 of the House.
Speaker Batchelder says that there are too many questions about Medicaid to go forward, so he’s denying health care to 350,000 Ohioans.
That’s so ludicrous that the Speaker should resign immediately. Obamacare was passed before the GOP controlled the Ohio House of Representatives. He has had 3 years to seek [...]
Full Story... →The weekend brought troubling reports that the Ohio House is going to introduce their own version of the Medicaid expansion, and last night the Dispatch reported that they were dropping it altogether (despite having 40 GOP votes in favor).
The leaks to the Dispatch and Plain Dealer (nothing in the Enquirer, natch) are the most troubling aspect, though, because Obamacare already does the things the GOP wants to do.
Barbara Sears reportedly wants to use the Medicaid funds to purchase private coverage for qualified individuals. Yes, let’s do that! And let’s call it “managed care”.
Does Rep. Sears really not [...]
Full Story... →Ohio conservatives are demanding the the Ohio House spend $1 billion in the biennium to deny the Medicaid expansion on the grounds that it increases the federal deficit. You know what else increases the federal deficit? Not expanding Medicaid in Ohio.
The federal government will spend around $1.3B annually to expand Medicaid coverage in Ohio. Without expansion, the there will still be another $0.9B in federal spending, as detailed below.
The proposal, then, is to reduce the federal deficit by $400 million while throwing the Ohio budget $500 million out of balance.
This is a [...]
Full Story... →News outlets are reporting that Obamacare will cause an increase in premiums on the individual market. This is garbage.
The study comes from the Society of Actuaries. I would link to the study, but it isn’t online! Even the SOA homepage only links to the AP article about the study.
Republicans are saying that the study says premiums will increase by 32%. This is not true: the study says insurance companies will pay out 32% more benefits.
They say that because of those benefits, people in the individual market will face higher costs. This is ridiculous: there won’t be an individual [...]
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