Last week, the nation’s uninsured began their enrollment in the second year of the health reform law. The end of the first year offers the nation a good opportunity to review the impact of the law, without all of the reports of mistakes, the campaigns of deception and outright lies.
The Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare” was approved in 2010 and has been the subject of a sustained campaign of distortions and partisan attacks ever since. The law finally went into effect last year.
The goal of the law was to reduce the massive number of Americans without health insurance. At the time of passage, nearly 50 million Americans lacked health coverage. For those without health insurance, illness or injury can have catastrophic consequences. For example, uninsured patients are less likely to get recommended cancer screenings and are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at later stages. Uninsured women diagnosed with breast cancer are 2.5 times more likely to have a late stage diagnosis than women enrolled in private health insurance. And lack of health insurance can have tragic financial impact as well: inability to pay medical bills is a leading cause of bankruptcy in America. Read the rest of this entry »
This past Election Day, all three statewide incumbents were easily re-elected, the Assembly’s Democratic majority got bigger, but consistent with the overall Republican political tsunami seen across the nation, the Republicans took back control of the state Senate and picked up some New York Congressional seats.
Yet, in one significant way, the election in New York was worse than ever in the state’s modern political history: voter turnout was at a historic low.
As measured as the percent of eligible voters that went to the polls, only 30 percent of New Yorkers voted in the gubernatorial election. A review of data provided by the U.S. Elections Project shows that that percentage is the lowest since 1980 – the first year that the Project started tracking.
And what makes it worse is that New York ranked 43rd in the nation in turnout! Read the rest of this entry »
As the brutal election season wraps up, the nation – and the world – received another dire warning of the growing dangers of global warming. While the issue has been almost non-existent in the nation’s political debates, there is no doubt that it is the most important issue facing the world.
The experts convened by the United Nations –known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – argued in their most recent report that failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could threaten society with food shortages, refugee crises, the flooding of major cities and entire island nations, mass extinction of plants and animals, and a climate so drastically altered it might become dangerous for people to work or play outside during the hottest times of the year.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific body appointed by the world’s governments to advise them on global warming and potential solutions. The panel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its reports on the climate crisis.
The new report, “Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report” was released on November 1. It’s 175-pages long and provides a synopsis of reports that the panel has issued over the past year. It completes a five-year effort by the panel to analyze and report on the most recent scientific climate research.
It is the fifth report from the panel since 1990, each one stating with greater certainty that the climate is warming and that human activities are the primary cause. Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 is Election Day. On this year’s ballot, in addition to the candidates who are running for office, New Yorkers have the opportunity to vote on two proposed changes to the New York State Constitution and a bond act.
Here is a look at those three questions with arguments in support of and in opposition to the changes (you can see the full text of the questions at the New York State Board of Elections, http://www.elections.ny.gov/ProposedConsAmendments2.html):
Proposal One: Revising State’s Redistricting Procedure
This question has been the most controversial of the three. Under the current redistricting process, the legislature is responsible for drawing the lines and legislators constitute the majority of the commission that drafts new district lines.
Under the proposed amendment to the State Constitution a necommission is created. The amendment would prohibit certain individuals from serving on the commission, including: elected officials and their spouses, legislative staff, lobbyists, other public officials, and political party chairs. The plans developed by this new commission will be subject to approval by the legislature. However,if the legislature twice rejects the Commission’s proposal,the legislature drafts its own lines.
Proponents of the amendment argue that this will create a fairer redistricting process that bans political gerrymandering, has a clear timeline, creates new opportunities for public participation and that the legislature does not have a ‘free hand’ in amending the commission’s plans. Proponents further argue that composition of the proposed commission is a significant improvement because it prohibits those with conflicts of interest, including legislators, from serving on the commission.
Opponents of the amendment object to the fact that eight of the ten commissioners are appointed by legislative leaders, and are critical of the legislature’s power to amend the plans if they fail to achieve legislative approval after two votes. They argue that this is the equivalent of the legislature drawing its own lines since the Commission’s plans are ultimately approved by the legislature. In addition, opponents object to the proposal’s requirement that future mapmakers must consider the core of existing districts when drafting new ones. Read the rest of this entry »
As the world’s leaders prepared to hold a summit on climate change at the United Nations last week, 400,000 protestors marched through the streets of New York City demanding actions – not just words.
And their call was backed up by the latest scientific analyses.
Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that this summer — the months of June, July and August — was the hottest on record and that 2014 was on a trajectory to be the hottest year ever.
Read the rest of this entry »
