QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Surely, in 2017, we can all agree that the ability to breathe clean air and live in a safe and healthy environment should be a priority?” –Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA)
HEALTH & HEALTH CARE
- New York State will retain Essential Health Benefits (EHBs), regardless of what happens with the AHCA. And any insurer that withdraws from the state exchange will be barred from participating as a Medicaid or CHIP provider. They will also be banned from contracting with state agencies and entities.
There will, obviously, be all sorts of protesting by insurance companies, but this is what they used to call “regulation.”
- Should the ACA be repealed and replaced with some version of the AHCA, it will be rural communities that suffer the most: “…taking it [Medicaid] away from 14 million people, as this bill will do, is going to devastate small communities, where Medicaid is a lifeline for rural health facilities and a source of good jobs. Rationing it will throw rural hospitals and nursing homes into a financial tailspin. It will toss kids and their parents off coverage. It will pull the rug out from seniors and people with disabilities who live independently thanks to Medicaid. It will take dollars from the Indian Health Service when IHS is already woefully underfunded. …The truth is that protections for pre-existing conditions will go right out the window in many states. An older person with limited income could see premiums go up by 850 percent.”
- The opioid crisis and its effect on how doctors think about pain.
THE ENVIRONMENT
- Mojave County officials seek to reverse ban on uranium mining in Arizona and Utah—including the Grand Canyon region. A 20-year ban on mining on a million acres around the Grand Canyon was imposed by the former administration (Ken Salazar, Sec of the Interior) in 2012, but regional interests claim this is economically harmful. Among the tribes who would be most affected: the Havasupai, at the southern rim of the Canyon.
The Guardian is starting a new series called “This Land is Your Land” to provide investigative reporting on public lands in the U.S. and their loss to the public due to rollbacks of environmental regulations and protections.
- A professional scientist-turned-high school biology/science teacher in Wellston, Ohio, comes up against some serious climate skepticism among his students.
- Flint, MI has been putting liens on the homes of those residents who haven’t paid their water bill for more than six months. This, despite the fact that three years after the water crisis involving lead-contaminated water surfaced, Flint’s water continues to be undrinkable.
So basically, they’re taking the homes of those who refuse to pay for water that nobody can drink.
Warning: Strong language in the link by an official who was forced to resign after providing his take on the issue.
EDUCATION
- Category of “You Should’ve Done This Sooner”: Illinois—now two years without a budget and approaching junk-bond status (first time ever for a state)—may have to actually do something and refuse to open schools come September, suggests Peoria state Senator Dave Koehler—this, in order to force parents to force legislators to pass a budget.
Apparently Koehler suggested the same tactic last June. What happened?
MONDAY LONG READ(S)
- The American Prospect publishes a series of 13 pieces on the white working class (h/t today’s Links in nakedcapitalism).
CATEGORY OF REMEDIAL READING
- Bi-lateral snafu probably brought about by POTUS’s reading miscomprehension: “The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has called on the British government to cancel a planned state visit by Donald Trump after being criticised in two tweets by the US president.
“Trump initially criticised Khan for his response to the London Bridge terrorist attack; though, in doing so, he misquoted London’s mayor. Khan’s office pointed out Trump’s error later but the president responded by accusing London’s mayor of making a ‘pathetic excuse’.
“Appearing on Channel 4 News on Monday evening, Khan said Trump was wrong about ‘many things’ and that his state visit should not go ahead.”
- More on POTUS’s dislike—mostly as registered in tweets—of the Mayor of London, a human rights lawyer by profession and practicing Muslim whose parents emigrated to England from Pakistan.
Frankly, this is embarrassing.
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