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Strollerderby
Those who opposed healthcare reform are suddenly grateful for it.
A Los Angeles area woman who was recently diagnosed with stage three breast cancer has this to say to President Obama about the healthcare reform law he signed into law and what she and many others derisively called “Obamacare”: I’m sorry.
That’s right. Spike Dolomite Ward is sorry.
Why? Well, when the 49-year-old mother got a cancer diagnosis, her family hadn’t had health insurance for several years. Not because they’re selfish freeloaders who thought they were invincible … no, not at all. Her family had to make a choice that millions of Americans make every year: health insurance or their house. Continue reading »
Nanny state, baby safety state or police state?
That’s the question on the minds of British parents this week, after an arm of the National Health Service system released a draft version of guidelines strongly recommending home safety inspections for all families with children under the age of five.
The inspections would cover everything fro
m making sure smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are in place, to installing temperature controls on faucets to keep water at safe temperatures and prevent scalding injuries.
British officials say they are simply trying to keep children safe, and cut into the nation’s bill for treating the two million boys and girls under the age of 15 who visit the hospital emergency rooms and medical clinics with injuries that occurred at home every year. But everyone from parents to privacy advocates are crying foul, saying the government is going too far. “This is a landmark expansion of government intervention in home life. It must be regarded with great concern,” said Simon Davies, founder and president of the Privacy International, the international watchdog group devoted to protecting, you guessed it, our ever decreasing expectation of privacy. Continue reading »
According to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, 90% of parents want their children to be taught to abstain from sex until after high school. He says they don’t want comprehensive sex education in schools because teaching kids how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy only serves to “normalize teen sexual activity.”
I don’t know where he got that statistic, but I don’t buy it. And clearly, President Barack Obama doesn’t either. As part of his recent health care reform efforts, $375 million was earmarked over five years to fund the new PREP for Personal Responsibility Education Program in schools. This program, while encouraging students to abstain, will also include education about safe sex, healthy relationships, financial literacy and other important life skills.
“Kids 1, Insurance 0.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibb’s tweet sums it up nicely. Insurance companies have assured the Obama administration that they will accommodate the new law requiring them to cover children under 19 with preexisting conditions.
The New York Times “Well” blog has uncovered lots of little known provisions in the health care bill, including one that’s going to be outstanding news for working and nursing mothers and their advocates.
According to the blog, employers are now required to provide breaks for nursing mothers to express milk as often as neccessary, and better yet, to provide space for them to do so that isn’t a bathroom. Continue reading »
Attention fast food lovers: your days of blissful ignorance about the calories in that McShake are numbered.
A provision in the health care reform bill will require fast food restaurants to post prominent calorie counts next to all their menu items. At more than 200,000 fast food drive thrus and chain restaurants, we’ll have to swallow the calorie numbers before biting into our fries.
Hallelujah…health care reform has passed. While the process of instituting the changes will no doubt be a long and tedious one, several adjustments will take place almost instantaneously…within the next 6 months. Which ones benefit your little ones the most? Continue reading »
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