Tag: administrative costs

Will you get insulin-cost relief from the inflation bill? Not if you have private insurance

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Will you get insulin-cost relief from the inflation bill? Not if you have private insurance

But an out-of-pocket cap identical to that for Medicare was stripped from the bill for those with private insurance because Democrats are trying to pass the bill by a simple majority through the reconciliation process. That requires Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to vet the provisions. She said most of the health-related features were fine, but the insulin proposal for those who have private insurance, not Medicare, violated the Byrd provision, which says that issues “extraneous to the federal budget” cannot be passed by simple majority through reconciliation.

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Out-of-pocket spending for those with Part D Medicare drug coverage will be capped at $2,000 a year.

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In 2024, a 5% coinsurance payment that now kicks in after someone reaches the catastrophic drug spending level of $7,050 in Medicare will end. Because drug companies set their own prices, 5% on expensive drugs can be a lot of money.

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Ukraine Aid Package Puts America Last + Some Notes on the astroturfed Heritage Action for America

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Ukraine Aid Package Puts America Last

Today, Heritage Action, a conservative grassroots organization with two million grassroots activists, released a statement from Executive Director Jessica Anderson ahead of the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote on a $40 billion Ukraine aid package.

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The legislation does not include several important measures – there are no spending offsets, no accountability for where each dollar will be spent, and no guarantees for equal contributions from European neighbors. Additionally, the aid package only lasts through September of this year, meaning Congress will be expected to reconsider the legislation after only about three months.

They claim to be a grassroots organization but they were created by Heritage Foundation!? That’s astroturfing! Who’s policies are they advocating for?! Theirs?! I highly doubt that it’s for the working class (see below, for just one example)!!

Recognizing that elected leaders are more responsive to adopting policy solutions when they know the American people already support them, Heritage created Heritage Action for America. Heritage Action works with lawmakers to implement Heritage Foundation solutions while it also organizes nearly 20,000 Sentinel activists and more than 2 million local grassroots activists around the nation to push for their adoption. Heritage Action ensures that citizens are speaking up and their elected officials hear their voices.

About Heritage

They push for private school choice and are anti-union (I’m not arguing for school closures, with the below quote, but showing it as an example of their views)!!

The only way out of this mess is to free families from the clutches of the teachers’ unions. Funding students directly would empower families to access educational alternatives. The good news is that the unions’ political games could further the movement to fund students instead of systems, which already enjoyed significant growth in 2021.

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Her continued push to keep schools closed may be just what wide-spread school choice needs to become reality—and to rescue a generation from misguided and politicized COVID policies. In this sense, the power-hungry teachers unions might just destroy their own empire.

More COVID School Closures Spell the End of Teachers Unions Empire

School Choice Cons:

Three big problems with school ‘choice’ that supporters don’t like to talk about

The hidden downsides of school ‘choice’

Anyway, in three months, Congress will probably vote on another aid package for Ukraine (doesn’t matter who wins between Russia and Ukraine, they’ll still send Ukraine money, whether it’s for weapons or reconstruction)! 🙄