COMMENTARY
 by Sandra Fluke |
Last February I testified before Congress about the need for access to affordable preventative health care for women, specifically contraceptive coverage. I told the stories of the women in my life who need contraception for medical reasons, as well as to prevent pregnancy. I shared the dire financial and medical consequences they had suffered when they were denied that insurance coverage: consequences like painful ovarian cysts, risking a dangerous pregnancy, and even the loss of an ovary.
Under the Affordable Care Act, women will never again be denied that coverage and forced to suffer those consequences. But the battle isn't over yet.
Already, pundits are debating the political winners and losers from Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling. But those things pale in comparison to what the decision means to women who can now count on that coverage—not to mention the millions of other Americans, men and women, young and old, who will be able to access affordable, life-saving health care.
Once it's fully implemented over the next few years, here's what the law will mean for women:
- Insurance companies will no longer be able to drop women’s coverage when they become pregnant or fall ill.
- Forty-five million women will be guaranteed free coverage of important and potentially life-saving preventative care, such as mammograms.
- Women will no longer be denied coverage or charged more for having supposed pre-existing conditions, such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, pregnancy, having had a C-section, or for being a victim of domestic violence.
But there's more work to be done. In Thursday's decision, while upholding the individual mandate, the Justices opened a dangerous door by ruling that individual states can choose not to expand their Medicaid programs, an expansion designed to provide crucial coverage for families whose income is around $25,000 or less, for a family of three. That means around 17 million lower-income Americans would not receive this coverage, denying them the full promise of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
There’s no good reason for any state to deny this Medicaid coverage, especially when, thanks to the new law, the federal government will chip in about 90 percent of the cost. But already there's speculation that some states might do so anyway, out of pure ideological opposition.
There's no place for politics in the health care of millions of the most vulnerable Americans. That's why governors and state legislators who might be thinking about rejecting the money need to know that we want the Affordable Care Act’s promise to be fully realized, and that we will fight to ensure that it is.
As we move forward, let's remember what today’s decision means for American women, as well as for anyone lacking access to affordable coverage: real benefits for real people that have already started saving lives and improving families’ economic and health security. And let's not quit until those benefits have been secured for everyone, no matter where they live.
Sandra Fluke graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and has served as president of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice. She has endorsed and campaigned for President Obama.
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Thank you Sandra Fluke for this article. It is both comprehensive and interesting. Keep it going girl!
yes thank you sandra. you are a wise young woman.
Janz and Billie,
we agree.
thank you Sandra. we need more young women like you.
What needs to be added is that its not just women that are affected by these issues its also the men in their lives too. Most women will marry or have children with a long term male partner. Raising a family is important because if we don't help women with their reproductive health care they will choose to have few or even no children at all. America is a very expensive place to raise a child. Anything that we can do to lighten the load for the caregivers will make them more productive both on the job and at home. The husbands and boyfriends of these women also are deeply affected when women's health care needs are not met. The decisions about raising families are also directly impacted by our dysfunctional health care system. ACA will make a lot of these concerns better but as Sandra points out only by vigilance will we reach this point in our society.
The U.S. Army is conducting basic health care in tents in rural Alabama open to the public. Army doctors, nurses, and medical personnel help uninsured civilians with basic medical needs in tents. The officers like it because its good community relations and it helps families with basic medical needs. No doubt many of the kids in these families look to the military as a career because of events like this. The Army gets training for 3rd world disasters but it doesn't need to go to a 3rd world country to do it! If this is not a social comment I don't know what is one.
Checkout the "Military provides free health services to Alabama residents" at the dvidshub website from May, 2012.
Thank You Rex for both of your insightful and informative comments. It breaks my heart to see the pervasive indifference of too many of our people who just don't give a damn about those who are poor or have fallen into misfortune. Millions of American's have been driven into poverty, even though they have worked full time jobs. This was before the economic meltdown of 2008. For more then 30 years, as corporate private union busting tactics succeeded in dismantling the Unions, workers wages have stagnated and those that did grow, grew at an anemic rate of 4.7%. This rate of wage increase doesn't even meet the rise in cost of living increases. During the same 30 year period CEO pay grew by 725%. To deny any working individual a living wage ( 1 1/2 x the Federal poverty amount) is to rob the entire country and it's children off economic prosperity and opportunity. Corporate America has betrayed our country and every worker and citizen who participated in their wealth creation. We need Federal Legislation on a living wage and the guaranteed right of workers to form private sector unions.
A ceo hires a 1000 people? yet today ceo's are not hiring they are firing while taking a bonus of 100,000,000$ with the company taking free government money
Wrong again Bob, I want to tax both, you see anyone who makes that much should pay more in taxes than someone who makes 10,000$ per year. I notice how you avoided the fact that CEO's are not hiring, even though you have said they were. A movie star will hire more this year alone that will Chase or Sachs or any other Wall Street crook
What are you some sort of commie? LOL. Make as much as you can, just pay your freakin taxes
No fighting, I call it debating, and you seem like a solid debate person, which is EXTREMELY rare to find on the internet. --- I think it was over CEO's and Hollywood
OMG!....she got the health care she wanted and she is still not happy....
It will never be enough with Democrats.
No tax will be too high.
99 weeks of unemployment bennies is not enough...
millions on food stamps....
still it's not enough....Geez.
Troll
Yet you think no tax is low enough, you think anyone on food stamps is a leech, you think corporations are real people, you think people should not get the payout on insurance when it is valid(that is what unemployment is an INSURANCE, yet you feel we should deny these people their right to collect the insurance they purchased)
Yes, she has the coverage she wanted. But she wants to make sure that all Americans get the same coverage. How unreasonable of her!
You're a champion, Sandra!
Hello Cycllists,
Just caught y'all for the first time.
Do not be disheartened by a slow start. So what, if the format is not different. Four folks sitting around a table, with occasional guests, discussing world problems. The telling points are: Who are the Folks around the Table (y'all are wonderfully bright, gifted and informed), who the guests are (having Greg Abbot on to show the absurdity of the Healthcare in Texas, was good planning), and the discussions (which as far as I can tell are winning viewers). So, keep on comin' on !
As for the Healthcare in Texas - I'm a Texan, who when caught in between jobs with cervical and unteran cancer was bankrupted. Then, six years ago (while once again teaching, and building up my coffers) was accidentally badly injured by one of my high school students. I got stuck on the Workers Comp Insurance (out of innocent trust and doing what the front office told me to do), making my insurance with the scholl null and void, due to aome terrible torte reforms which took place in the latter 1990's, and putting at the mercy of a very dysfunctional system.
When my doctors would say that I needed back surgery and possible hip surgery, the Insurance company said no, and picked every procedure and treatment to pieces with one litigious hearing after another. I bacame a litigant - not a patient.
Six years later, more crippled and diminished physically (I used to walk jog five miles every day, hiked, biked kayaked, rode horses and helped with equine therapy programs after school and on the weekends....none of which i can now do), and greatly missing the quality of life and finances that I once enjoyed, becuase I am still fighting with the Texas Workers Comp System to be Fixed. Not doped up, in order to mask the terrible pain I struggle with and meditate upon every moment of the day in order to keep the pain "at bay", not put off, not run off by one delay and one hearing after another. But to be Fixed - to be Healed. Fix me and I will do the rest.
But, oh no, I am caught within their very inhumane, unjust and unethical system - a cripple, who has gotten weaker and poorer with every passing year, and less and less able to take of myself.
It's been a horrible experience. and then to have to sit there and listen to that "vastly out-of-touch" man say what he did about the Affordable Healthcare Act (an Action which brought tears of joy to my eyes yesterday) was a most untenable moment in time.
Ms. Crystal, you handled the situation well. Thank you.
As I said before, good luck to all of y'all. Y'all have wonderfully Enllightened and Dynamic Minds and Points-of-View (Yes, even you Ms. S.E. - I will always listen to your views, whether I agree with them or not). And kudos to you, Ms. S.E. for taking up for the Students of America.
Mr. Steve and Toure, I have always enjoyed hearing y'all on other spots as well. And impressed with your Thoughts, Ideals and Expressiveness.
Thank y'all for all of the hard work y'all do to get the news and views of the news "out there'.
OMG @ Henry....Not all women who need birth control sleep around you idiot! And besides it is none of your business who sleeps with who. Go back to the Fox board!
Maybe you should-you'd really be comfortable there. And we'd be comfortable with you there.
Yet Henry you sound EXACTLY like fox news, who knew?
You certainly shouldn't ASSume that because women need birth control that they are sleeping around. Besides it really honestly is none of your business why a woman needs birth control. Wouldn't you rather have someone be on birth control that add to thousands of unwanted children in this country. Talk about tax dollars. All those kids that are in foster homes because their parents are messed up on drugs and don't want to get clean to take care of them because they would rather party.
Oh trust me I know my husband and I pay over $400 a month with just one of us working I have been looking for work, but can't seem to find a job and that is a lot of money coming out of a check with only one income. So I do understand. I got laid off for the same reason they moved my call center to india. I apologize for calling you and idiot though. I just get so mad with people not wanting women to have access to birth control. I need it for a condition that I have.
good luck to you too....Wow... I went from $15 to 0 and no more unemployment. Have a good day yourself!
Henry said "i just dont want to have to help pay i pay enough for my own med and dont want more of what little i have left to be taken up with taxes" ------- Let me ask you Henry, why do you feel that I do not have the same right to say how my tax dollars are spent?
Yet you want me to care about your feelings about how tax money is spent. I feel our tax money should not go to waste in the military in places like Japan and Korea.
USPS runs on their own budget not the Federal Government. They sell items, notice how the Federal Government does not.
The high court’s ruling leaves in place 21 tax increases in the health care law costing more than $675 billion over the next 10 years, according to the House Ways and Means Committee. Of those, 12 tax hikes would affect families earning less than $250,000 per year, the panel said, including a “Cadillac tax” on high-cost insurance plans, a tax on insurance providers and an excise tax on medical-device manufacturers.
“This is a clear violation of the president’s pledge to avoid tax hikes on low- and middle-income taxpayers,” said a statement from the panel, which is chaired by Rep. Dave Camp, Michigan Republican.
On the campaign trail four years ago and since taking office, Mr. Obama has been fond of saying that middle-class families will not see their taxes rise “a single dime” under his leadership.
washington times
wow 675,000,000,000$ over ten years but wait what is the budget for the Pentagon in one year OH that is right 1,000,000,000,000$ jeepers I guess we not as broke as we thought. That trillion per year ends up in places outside the USA, the health money STAYS in the USA, except for the 20% profit of the insurance companies, WHICH GOES TO CHINA AND JAPAN, so what you favor is USA money going to foreign lands and that the USA people who pay that money should just simply go without any health-care and then when those uninsured go to a hopital emergency room all of us who have insurance pay for it.
That is the absolute truth. What these dipsticks don't realize is that we all pay for uninsured people when they get sick and are treated in emergency rooms for free. That is one of the reasons that medical care in this country is so costly for the rest of us. I'm sorry about your problems, Henry. My late husband was "downsized" at the age of 57. He had to take a job paying so little that he still qualified for a supplement from unemployment. He had worked for that company for 39 years. I get a widow's pension of $455.30 per month. I try not to spend it all in one place. You are not the only person with problems. I think you should suck it up and stop whining.
Indeed we all have problems, my late friend always said she felt lucky b/c there were so many that had it worse than she did, she was born with Prader-Willi Syndrome. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002572/
Amazing that S.E. Cupp and the rest of the right wing thugs are furious that other American Citizens can now have health insurance. They figure that if each American Everyman/woman gets sick and dies, then the very wealthy will inherit the earth--just as they've been promised by god. S.E. Cupp believes that the only time non-wealthy, non-right-wing, non-republican women should have a doctor near by is when those women are being subjected to invasive, immoral, degrading, republican government mandated procedures. Though S.E. has always had health insurance, paid for by her Mommy and Daddy, insurance that paid for her GYN exams, birth control, her BREAST CANCER EXAMS, and her anti-HPV vaccine to prevent cancer of the cervix, she's adamant that the average American woman should do without.
She thinks those huge glasses make her look more intelligent. It'll take a H*ll of a lot more than that! She needs to start with a brain first.
Fluke has no glasses on in this picture, thus showing you MJB are simply repeating the hate you have heard and hoping that some other crazy person confirms your hate. Fluke is one tough person who is attending Georgetown U. The folks who lack intelligence are those who say a pair of glasses makes someone smart and not actual knowledge.
My apology, MJB, if you meant S E Cupp.
He did.
Yes Jason, I meant S.E. And Chris, who are you calling a "he"? :)
LOL, I just saw this S E Cupp person, have seen her before but didnt know what her name was. Wasn't she on foxnews for a spell? Like their feeble attempt at humor?She is one of the most predictable people on tv.
99% of the crap on this board is from NUT Jobs that watch MSNBC ...the lowest propaganda network in history..You drink the OBAMA Koolaide..because he is a smooth talking brother!!! He said : this is not a tax on the middle class...Lie again...Thanks to FOX (btw the KING of all Networks whether u like it or not) for showing clips of OBAMA in '09, '10 directly saying to the middle class this Affordable healthcare act (OBAMA CARE) is not a tax... Yeah its nice that 9 Million are getting healthcare but the middle class will pay for it..
Troll
How can you tell when a republican is lying? His/her lips are moving. All of these right wing nut job claims about ACA are wholly false and misleading. Sure, Justice Roberts labeled the mandate as a "tax" but he did so only because when a person who can legitimately pay for health care coverage fails to do so, that person is assessed a penalty and it is the IRS that is responsible for levying that penalty. Also, no one who currently has health insurance will lose their current coverage. As for you saying that President Obama is a smooth talking brother and thereby a liar, you are revealing yourself to be an abominable racist. If you want to keep a record of lies being told in this campaign, look only as far as Romney. The man hasn't told the truth yet. He's the one who can't be trusted here. He's the one who will sell this country down the river in a heartbeat. Romney has claimed outright that in his first two years as president, he'll be worth another $200,000,000 because of his abilty to manipulate the system to his financial advantage. Just what we need: another corrupt CEO of the USA. God Bless President Barack Obama.
Is a speeding ticket a tax? Is a jaywalking ticket a tax? Roberts did what he could to make sure the insurance companies got all of the federal money for the coverage and made sure his right wing buddies had that word tax added to the mix, even though it is not a tax it is a penalty, just like a speeding ticket is. Don't speed = no ticket, get insured = no ticket
Also LBJ said the white racist votes will now go to the other party and here we are today.
I missed the answer through your ignorance, but is a speeding ticket a tax? Yes or No?
Also the health care law is not a tax b/c if I have insurance I am not ticketed. No speeding = no ticket, have insurance = no ticket
So, OK, we at least agree the AHA is not a tax but penalty. That quote from LBJ, Ill take your word that is what he said, was/is disgusting and sadly was the way people spoke about other people in that day and even more sad is that the same sort of thinking still prevails today. I am no LBJ fan, he was not ready to take over, like a VP is supposed to be.
That is a valid concern, just as I am concerned today that Medicare will "die on the vine" as the gop wants. People that have paid 40-50 years into Medicare deserve to have it there for them.
Except henry is lying again, LBJ said if the civil rights act goes through it would give democrats the black vote for a 100 years, it was not LBJ's war on poverty. henery is repeating Reagans 5 greatest talking points which are just a bunch of words put together to ensure that the emotional thinkers would have a fake outrage. What tells me that because it was Reagan who told the dunder heads it was their tax dollars and as any 5th grader can tell you taxes are the dues you pay for services the government provides cheaper then a private business. The GOP privatization crap is just that crap, case in point my city went to a private trash collecting service in order for the city to save money, trash collecting went from $35 to $87 the first year, it just hit $187 this month, 2 years after the city privatized. So yeah henry is full of lies and misinformation.
187 from 35 in just 3 years, THIS IS WHAT PRIVATIZATION LOOKS LIKE. Why should we pay haliburton 10,000$ per hour to peel potatoes instead of having a private who makes 10,000 per year?
I have no doubt a Texas pol like LBJ spoke that way. I agree 100% that the infighting so to speak, just like in sports, has it's place. That said, that place should be controlled and meaningful, with respect being a common practice.
I agree with you Henry about the infighting amongst us poorer people, but not with getting booted from this board, might get some minor blow back, but that is not new for me, I have plenty of liberal friends whom I debate with all the time.
Agreed, the idea that 41 is a majority over 59 disgusted me, the dems rolled over and let the corporations win, again.
Hope to see you again. Thanks
I agree it will continue to be an uphill battle to make sure that all portions of the Affordable Health Care Bill are implemented but well worth it. Romney Care in Mass. is working extremely well with almost all of its residents insured so we know it works. The GOP is composed of individuals who do not like change so they will continue to fight it. In time, since this was originally a conservative idea, it will be accepted. Seeing what it has done for others, the citizens of states where their governor is resisting its implementation, people will DEMAND that their state also follow suit. If they still don't, the people will find a way to elect someone who really has their back and it will be done.
Thank you, Sandra, for taking leadership on this isuse. This is what the NAACP did recently with respect to another very important issue.
We at Easter House Press congratulate NAACP President Ben Jealous and his board of directors for bravely stepping up on May 21, 2012, and taking leadership in confronting the most serious issue of our day: same-sex marriage specifically and gay rights generally. We salute the NAACP for confirming that Gays Rights are Civil Rights that should be protected by us all.
Author Will Gibson deals with this issue in his just-released novel THE REVEREND VIOLA FLOWERS, whose heroine is conflicted about what position she and her church should take on the issue. Rev. Flowers’ cherished dream is to lead her gospel church to respectability in mainstream religious circles. Every day her religious views are evolving, but are they evolving fast enough for issues like homosexuality and same-sex marriage? Would her evangelical congregation follow her? Even before she was born, her grandfather, the founder and bishop of their church, had taught his flock not to wander too far a field because the secular world was a dangerous place for real God-fearing people like them, and he distrusted mainstream churches. Also has Rev. Viola Flowers evolved enough in her personal life to handle the fact that she might still be in love with a man other than her husband? This book THE REVEREND VIOLA FLOWERS is available on Amazon.com.
Knowing the black community like we do, we believe it is safe to say that the NAACP as an organization had to wrestle with this selfsame issue before evolving enough to take that historical vote endorsing Gay Rights. Now it’s time for all Americans, particularly African Americans, to evolve on this issue, especially the Black Church.
Again, thank you Sandra.
Fluke 2016
As for this crazy must buy food BS, IF they were to mandate you eat broccoli, THAT would be a double tax, b/c the broccoli is already taxed at all levels, from seed to poop.
henry: Independents think independently. Yet you're carrying the right wing republican message for them. And you regimently stay on message - lock step with Fox quotes by guests, commentaries and hosts. Yes, I watch Fox that's how I know. But with an open mind, you can watch anything you want without being brainwashed and sucked into their views. There are no independent thinkers on Fox - they have to tow the party line. If you're not a republican, you're sure hanging onto their shirt-tails as they breeze through life on everybody's money - except there own.