Citizen Cartwright

More Americans are expected to lack health insurance, as people with insurance face rejected claims

Six million more Americans won’t have health insurance next year because of the elimination of the individual health care mandate and other policy changes by President Trump, says a new Urban Institute report.

 

And the health of as many as 53 million insured Americans may be in jeopardy from insurance companies that refuse to cover treatments for chronic or persistent illnesses, according to a consumer survey last year.

 

So what are people who are uninsured or face denied claims to do?

 

I’ll undoubtedly be writing much more about this, but to start:

 

Here is a how-to on negotiating to get medical bills reduced, from Consumer Reports.

 

And another, from U.S. News & World Report.

 

Here is a how-to on finding out medical prices in advance.

 

And how to keep medical debt from damaging your credit score.

Also in the news

Afghan President Ghani offers talks with Taliban 'without preconditions'

 

North Korea providing equipment to Syria chemical weapons factories, U.N. report says

 

Intelligence officials: Russia compromised 7 states’ websites or voter registration systems before 2016 election

 

The Hill: House Republicans reject calls for new gun legislation

 

Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker decides against reelection bid, sticks with retirement plan

 

Supreme Court curbs rights of immigrants awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings

 

Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was disparaged by Trump, greenlights border wall project

 

White House downgrades Jared Kushner’s security clearance

 

WPost: Foreign officials sought leverage over Kushner via his business dealings, debts

 

Hope Hicks declines to answer House Intelligence Committee's questions about White House activities

 

AP investigation: New Trump campaign chief Brad Parscale lends his name to penny stock tied to felon

 

Obama alums form National Security Action group to target 'reckless' Trump foreign policy

 

Levi Strauss ramping up use of lasers to automate the way its jeans are made

 

Prescription opioids lawsuit in Ohio gets backing of Justice Department

 

Once it was overdue books. Now librarians are fighting overdoses

 

What's in the IV bag? Research shows a safer option than saline

China, America and the stall out of the trend toward greater global democracy

The surprise disclosure Sunday that the Communist Party was abolishing constitutional limits on presidential terms — effectively allowing President Xi Jinping to lead China indefinitely — is the "latest and arguably most significant sign of the world’s decisive tilt toward authoritarian governance,” says The New York Times.

 

Experts describe this “authoritarian reversion” as a global contagion that's undermined the faith that forging liberal democracies and market economies is the surest path to prosperity and equality.

 

For nearly a quarter of a century, autocratic leaders “had to play defense” against the democratizing trend that seized the post-Cold War order, says Michael McFaul, a political scientist and diplomat who, before serving as the American ambassador in Moscow from 2012 to 2014, wrote extensively about building democracies.

 

The trend toward authoritarianism, while specific to each country’s history, is rooted in insecurities and fears afflicting the world today: globalization and rising inequality, stunning and scary advances in technology, the disorienting chaos and extreme violence of civil wars like Syria’s, separatism and terror, says the Times.

 

Speaking of rising inequality, a report being released Tuesday says barriers to equality are posing threats to democracy in the United States as child poverty worsens and the country remains racially segregated.

 

The report examines the country 50 years after the report of the Kerner Commission, which was created by President Johnson in 1967 as more than 150 instances of civil unrest erupted across the United States.

 

The percentage of people living in deep poverty — less than half of the federal poverty level — has increased since 1975, says the report, titled "Healing Our Divided Society: Investing in America Fifty Years after the Kerner Report.” About 46 percent of people living in poverty in 2016 were living in deep poverty, 16 percentage points higher than in 1975.

 

In 1988, about 44 percent of African-American students went to majority-white schools nationally, compared to just 20 percent now, according to the report.

Also in the news

U.S. threatens action against Iran after Russia's U.N. veto

 

U.S. to overtake Russia as top oil producer by 2019 at the latest, says International Energy Agency

 

Senators trying to negotiate deal on gun votes this week

 

Supreme Court rejects Trump administration request to review lower court rulings on Dreamers

 

EPA to close National Center for Environmental Research

 

As tax cuts show up in Americans’ paychecks, Democrats heading into elections struggle for line of attack

 

Bernie Sanders' son launches congressional run in New Hampshire

 

Twenty states sue federal government, seeking to end Obamacare

Can savvy students slap down the NRA and get legislation?

In the week since 17 students and teachers were gunned down at a Florida high school, surviving students have launched a movement that's reshaped the gun control debate almost overnight and may influence the midterm elections, says Reuters.

 

What may be different about the Florida students is their almost instantaneous mobilization and the power of social media, where their speeches have gone viral, experts say.

 

And so lawmakers return to Washington on Monday after a week-long recess facing intense pressure from the public and a call from a bipartisan group of governors to break their decades-long gridlock on gun control.

But even as members of both parties say it might be difficult for Congress to stay on the sidelines after the Florida school massacre, lawmakers have no clear consensus on even incremental changes to gun restrictions, let alone more sweeping legislation, The New York Times says.

 

Republican leaders in the House and Senate have been mostly silent on gun legislation, a reflection of the obstacles to passing even modest measures this year.

Many Republicans fear primary challenges from the right in the midterm elections this fall and don't want to be pushed into hard votes. Democrats aren’t eager for legislation they consider too incremental. And with lawmakers of both parties looking to wrap up their work to focus on their campaigns for re-election, the time to pass significant legislation is short.

But governors in Washington for their annual winter meeting have warned of the risks of inaction. Democratic governors say candidates will pay a political price for opposing new gun regulations, and some of their Republican counterparts concede that the pleas of voters can no longer be ignored as they increasingly abandon the party.

 

Meanwhile, Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott and top state lawmakers proposed on Friday the most significant move toward gun control in Florida in decades, backing new limits that defy the National Rifle Association but fall short of demands from survivors of last week’s shooting.

 

The plan would raise the minimum age to buy any firearm, including semiautomatic rifles, from 18 to 21. Scott also pledged to strengthen rules to keep weapons away from people who have mental health problems or injunctions against them for stalking or domestic violence.

 

Student protesters who had rallied at the Florida capitol on Wednesday demanded a complete ban on military-style assault rifles. On Friday, the students said they were disappointed, if unsurprised, that Scott had stopped short of a ban, but vowed to keep pushing for one.

 

Over the weekend, the NRA and state of Florida faced a growing backlash, as companies cut ties to the gun industry following the school massacre and the student survivors called for tourism boycotts of their home state until gun control measures are enacted.

 

As scrutiny increases over the NRA’s clout, the Times reports that its direct contributions to candidates are small. The organization gets its influence from its electioneering machine — fueled by tens of millions of dollars’ worth of campaign ads and voter-guide mailings — that scrutinizes candidates for their views on guns and gets members to the polls, the Times says.

Also in the news

China paves way for Xi Jinping to remain leader for years with proposal to abolish presidential term limit

 

Trump announces harsh new sanctions against North Korea

 

AP Review: Trump’s red tape cuts slicing into transportation safety rules

 

House Intelligence Committee Democrats release redacted Russia probe memo countering GOP narrative

 

Rick Gates, Trump campaign aide, pleads guilty in Mueller investigation, will cooperate

 

AP: Latest Mueller indictment could be trouble for bankers, too

 

Citi to refund $330 million to credit card customers after charging too much interest

 

Beware of old tax scam with a troubling new twist

 

Most sunscreens can harm coral reefs. Avoiding non-biodegradable sunscreen is one solution

 

FDA to expand access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid addicts

 

Why the pharmacist can’t tell you a $20 prescription could only cost $8

 

FDA warns heart patients about risks of antibiotic clarithromycin (brand name Biaxin)

 

For women, blocked arteries aren’t the only trigger for heart attacks

Cleaning your house may be hazardous to your health

When I was young, I decided that I wanted to understand as much as I could about the big forces and issues circumscribing our lives, as opposed to spending much of my time cleaning house as my female forebears had.

 

And now, at last, science has seconded that emotion.

 

European researchers who examined the lungs of more than 6,200 women and men over 20 years found that women who cleaned as little as once a week had an accelerated lung decline risk. 

 

In fact, they said using cleaning products — whether sprays or other liquids — for 20 years is equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 10 to 20 years for women. Men who cleaned didn’t experience the same decline.

 

"The take home message of this study is that in the long run cleaning chemicals very likely cause rather substantial damage to your lungs,” the researchers write. "These chemicals are usually unnecessary; microfiber cloths and water are more than enough for most purposes.”

 

Another take home message: Get a guy to do it.

 

The study is published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Here is the PDF, which I consider suitable for framing.

Also in the news

Putin ally said to be in touch with Kremlin, Syrian officials before his mercenaries attacked U.S. troops in Syria

 

Justice Department to prioritize prosecutions for lying on federal gun background check forms

 

NPR: Trump appears to read from NRA's script hours after gun lobby chief's speech to CPAC

 

Election security official being replaced at behest of Ryan, White House

 

Immigration services agency eliminates description in its mission statement of U.S. as 'a nation of immigrants'

 

Clinton, lawmakers denounce State Department for cutting language on women's rights from upcoming report

 

Mueller files new fraud charges against Paul Manafort, Rick Gates

 

NYTimes: People being thrown through closed vehicle sunroofs during crashes, but there are no sunroof safety rules

 

Billy Graham to be 4th private citizen to lie in honor in U.S. Capitol Rotunda

The pressure on Trump, Florida GOP to do something about guns

So what might actually happen after grieving high school students met on Thursday with President Trump at the White House and state leaders at Florida’s capitol — as students from California to Washington, D.C., held walkouts in solidarity?

 

Trump promised to be “very strong on background checks,” says The Associated Press. And he suggested he supported allowing some teachers and other school employees to carry concealed weapons to thwart intruders, an idea he’s endorsed in the past.

He also said he planned to go “very strongly into age, age of purchase” and was committed to working on mental health.

 

On background checks, Trump has suggested he’s open to a bipartisan bill put together in response to a mass shooting at a Texas church. It would penalize federal agencies that don’t properly report required records and reward states that comply by giving them federal grant preferences.

 

In the Florida House and Senate, lawmakers said they were working on bipartisan gun-related legislative proposals that could be introduced Friday or earlier.

GOP state Sen. Bill Galvano said the Senate's proposal likely would involve raising the age to purchase semiautomatic rifles to 21 from 18; introducing a three-day waiting period to purchase such guns; banning “bump stocks”; and expanding the power of law enforcement to restrict the actions of mentally ill people under Florida’s Baker Act.

 

The National Rifle Association rejected any talk of raising the age for buying long guns to 21.

“Legislative proposals that prevent law-abiding adults aged 18-20 years old from acquiring rifles and shotguns effectively prohibits them for purchasing any firearm, thus depriving them of their constitutional right to self-protection,” the NRA said in a statement.

 

Students at the Florida capitol denounced the Legislature for voting down on Tuesday a proposal to consider banning assault weapons. “The people around us failed us,” said Delaney Tarr, a student at Stoneman Douglas High School. “And if they continue to fail us, then they will no longer be in office because soon we will have the ability to vote, and we will vote them out.”

Also in the news

Amnesty International report: 'Hate-filled rhetoric' by leaders is normalizing discrimination against minorities

 

Free speech under fire in Lebanon, one of Arab world’s ‘freest environments’

 

Trump supporters, conservatives angry over Twitter's Russian bot purge

 

Pennsylvania Republicans ask Supreme Court to block new congressional map drawn by state’s top court

 

Federal Reserve officials say the economy is ready for higher interest rates

 

ACLU report details the 'criminalization' of private debt

 

Got an exorbitant medical bill? Kaiser Health News/NPR invite you to send it for their ‘bill of the month’ feature

 

Billy Graham, pastor who filled stadiums and counseled presidents, dies at 99