First, they’re coming for the Affordable Care Act, then they’re coming for Medicare, and they’re even coming for the VA. But regardless of how much progress they make on those fronts, or how long it takes, or how much death and suffering they cause in the process, it turns out they’re greedily eyeing your health insurance, too:
The legislation HHS nominee Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) has offered over the years include mainstays of GOP plans that would usher in a drastic change in how most people receive their health care coverage. The employer-based insurance market covers seven times more people than the individual market. "What he's getting at here, and a lot of Republicans feel pretty strongly about this, to get a functioning insurance market, you have to get away from businesses buying the insurance," explained Joe Antos, a health policy scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.
Employer-based health insurance costs money. Corporations could make a little more money if they could toss you off your plan and close up the insurance shop. If Republicans succeed, health insurance will be priced far out of reach for 99 percent of us and your only recourse, in the event of serious injury or illness, will be for you or your loved one to suffer and die as quickly and cheaply as possible.
- The crocodilians are masters of survival, breezing through at least two massive extinction events and a score of smaller ones. And now one local giant among them has gained some fame and maybe even a little bit of love.
- Only 12 humans have walked on the moon to date. The last one to do so, on Dec 14, 1972, died this week at age 82, leaving half of the original 12 moonwalkers still with us. Eugene Cernan is perhaps most remembered for his spur of the moment rendition of “I was strolling on the moon one day,” sung while he was strolling on the moon one day.
- The most backassward Orc-filled, popular vote-losing administration and extremist wackjobs to ever slide into power is now in office. These clowns aren’t just willfully ignorant, they are proudly, openly hostile to any field that values hard-won facts over more pleasing fiction. Modern science in the US, and by extension the entire world, has never been in greater danger, and it’s happening at a particularly critical moment:
From the linked blurb, last year was about 1.26°C (~2.3°F) warmer than the 1880-1920 base period. More data and tables can be found at the GISTEMP website here. This is the first time since thermometers were invented that we’ve had three consecutive years of record heat. And on the data, as if there were any doubt, NOAA concurs.