Healthcare
Within an hour of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), I was privileged to be on Rhode Island Public Radio’s Political Roundtable. For about ten minutes, Ian Donnis, Scott MacKay, Maureen Moakley, and I batted around health care, politics, and our state.
There are aspects of this David Brooks column in the New York Times with which I’d very much like to agree. (I’m much more inclined toward moderation than folks ’round here seem to perceive me to be, except naturally those farther to the right.) But a couple examples of… what? wishful thinking? the sloppiness that…
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion. Upholds Individual Mandate as a tax under Congress’ taxing powers. Apparently a complicated opinion. Others are more equipped (and have the time) to analyze, but feel free to comment! ADDENDUM (snarky version): Roberts joined with the courts liberals, so it was 5-4. Not quite the 5-4 decision anyone anticipated,…
Doctor-assisted suicide isn’t an issue that I’ve spent much time with. From where I sit, right now, suffering from nothing more burdensome than a week-long sore throat brought on (I’d guess) by the change in the weather and post-nasal drip, I’d be extremely hesitant to tell somebody with excruciating pain that they must endure it.…
In my usual perusing various news sources for anything interesting, I fell upon this article about a doctor in Oregon. He was someone who campaigned for and helped to get a Death with Dignity law passed in his state. Then last week, he used that law for his own benefit, at the age of 83…
Have you thought much about your final days, final minutes or even thereafter? I, probably like most other people have already attended more wakes and funerals than I’d ever want to. But as the great philosopher Yogi Berra said, “You should always go to other peoples’ funerals or else they won’t go to yours.” Then…
With the ongoing controversy between the Obama Administration and religious institutions–particularly the Catholic Church–as to whether the health care plans offered by the institutions should cover items they deem inconsistent with their religious tenets (ie; contraception, etc.), Paul Rahe writes that the support given to various progressive causes by the institution of the Catholic Church,…
The Washington Post has collected a spectrum of religious reactions to the Obama administration’s “compromise” — apparently announced as such without first consulting with the parties implicitly involved in the negotiations (a sure sign that Obama is more concerned about appearing to compromise than actually doing so). Religious leaders and others concerned about religious liberty…
Yes, the story isn’t as simple as a gut reaction allows, but broken down into a summary, this story feels like a cautionary tale of the leviathan state: David Whitaker’s cooperation with the Google investigation was called extraordinary several times during his sentencing [for Internet fraud crimes] in U.S. District Court in Providence. Assistant U.S.…
So, the Obama administration has given Rhode Island another $58 million to work on its government-run healthcare exchange, along with compliments for being so resourceful as to skip the legislative process in its implementation. At this point, the federal government shuffling around money that it doesn’t have is hardly news, nor is the Obama administration’s…