S.754
Please contact your Senators in support of this legislation! I called as a grandmother… this will require insurance companies to cover genetic and other medical issues. Protect the children! This will have a major impact for my youngest grand. ~ listener
Could you give us a little more idea what the bill is about, listener? The name seems to imply it is about dental care.
ReplyDelete"To provide health insurance benefits for outpatient and inpatient items and services related to the diagnosis and treatment of a congenital anomaly or birth defect."
Delete“(3) TREATMENT DEFINED.—In this section:
“(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the term ‘treatment’ includes, with respect to a group health plan or group or individual health insurance coverage offered by a health insurance issuer, inpatient and outpatient items and services performed to improve, repair, or restore bodily function (or performed to approximate a normal appearance), due to a congenital anomaly or birth defect, and includes treatment to any and all missing or abnormal body parts (including teeth, the oral cavity, and their associated structures) that would otherwise be provided under the plan or coverage for any other injury or sickness, including—
“(i) any items or services, including inpatient and outpatient care, reconstructive services and procedures, and complications thereof;
“(ii) adjunctive dental, orthodontic, or prosthodontic support from birth until the medical or surgical treatment of the defect or anomaly has been completed, including ongoing or subsequent treatment required to maintain function or approximate a normal appearance;
“(iii) procedures that materially improve, repair, or restore bodily function; and
“(iv) procedures for secondary conditions and follow-up treatment associated with the underlying congenital anomaly or birth defect.
“(B) EXCEPTION.—The term ‘treatment’ shall not include cosmetic surgery performed to reshape normal structures of the body to improve appearance or self-esteem.
It is aimed at requiring insurance companies to pay for vital care for persons born with genetic or congenital anomaly or birth defect, so covers everything from missing permanent teeth to cleft palate and more. In my family, a sibling never got ANY permanent teeth. She lived with baby teeth into her 30s until she could afford dentures and eventually got some implants and a partial denture. But with this legislation she could have gotten implants in her 20s. We have a son who is missing 4 permanent teeth and is now, in his 40s, getting implants. We also have a granddaughter who may have the same sort of issue.
DeleteClick here for the text of the bill
DeleteInsurance companies have long filed these issues under dental when it's medical! Most do not cover more than $1000 per year for dental care, if that. It's extremely insufficient.
Thanks. I will write to both my senators.
DeleteThank you so much, Alan. I am truly grateful. This is before the Senate this week!
DeleteI found myself drawn into listening to excerpts from the Jan. 6th hearings. I was particularly impressed by Trump's inability to compose a coherent sentence.
ReplyDeleteCohen, the lawyer, referred to it as Trump speaking in code. I expect that seemed like a rational explanation. My sense is that the human brain has no awareness of itself and does not notice inconsistencies with how the brains of other people seem to function. Moreover, to notice a disfunctioning brain is upsetting. So, the observing brain goes into denial.
DeleteMy mother, who lived to be ninety eight, experienced a series of periods of dementia during the eight years she lived with me. The first was very brief, probably the result of an excess of some medication, and dissipated when the medication wore off. After that, it took a couple more associated with some minor illness for me to realize that there was no gradual deterioration, but rather a sort of stop and go.
Her GP eventually explained that small blood clots in the frontal lobes were likely to blame and as the clots dissolved on their own, her cognitive faculties would return
What I concluded was that this variability would be very difficult to deal with in an institutional setting where medications might well be used to render the patient more predictable.
If Trump had not come with his inherited wealth, it is unlikely that he would have attracted so many supportive people. Also, he's a walking, talking compendium of popular culture. All of his utterances are like lines from favorite movies and TV shows.
That said, there is a truth in Georgia that he simply cannot accept. Raffensperger mentioned it again yesterday. Over 20,000 voters took ballot and failed to vote for President even though they selected candidates lower down on the ballot. Since it is unlikely that Democrats failed to vote for Biden, the logical conclusion is that Republicans took a pass. This rejection was anomalous and simply cannot be admitted. Never mind that 38,000 Georgians voted for the Libertarian woman, Jo Jergensen.
Excerpts? We have listened to every minute with wrapt attention. We taped it, too, so we can watch it all again. It's so absolutely well prosecuted! The Committee really has its act together.
DeleteRussia’s Vaunted Cyber Capabilities Were Neutered [Click] I had figured as much.
ReplyDeleteMore details [Click]
Delete
ReplyDeleteThe Time to Put Trump on Trial Is Drawing Near [Click] “Garland is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.”
More likely to be tried in Georgia. I would charge domestic terrorism. Kidnappers, the Mafia and terrorists employ the same M.O. They target innocents to extort favors from the rich or powerful.
DeleteHe had darned well better be put on trial~!!
Delete(I'd rather be damned for doing it than not doing it, and hope Garland would as well.)
Wil and I have had two serious conversations about moving to New Zealand if nothing happens to DT and he gets back in office.
Bear in mind that outside the US you can only get Medicare benefits in the Metro Manila area, where there is a Public Health Service hospital on the US Embassy grounds. Canada makes it nearly impossible for retirees from foreign countries to gain permanent immigrant status because it is assumed they would make use of the public health system without having paid into it. NZ might have similar policies. House prices are sky-high in and near the cities, although I seem to recall there are very economical deals for new permanent residents in semi-rural areas. It occurred to me that NZ is roughly at the antipode of Vermont; checking my globe it looks like the antipode of Vermont is a bit south of Perth.
DeleteTiny New Zealand town with 'too many jobs' launches drive to recruit outsiders [Click]
DeleteFrom that small town one ought to be able to see the aurora australis from time to time, I think.
DeleteWe'd want to be on the North Island to be near friends of ours. It's a bit warmer there than in Vermont. I'd say it's more like New Jersey or southern Oregon weather. They do get snow on the mountains, of course. But they've just passed into Winter and it's 60's by day and 50's by night still. I think the hardest thing would be having the seasons backwards to the holidays. Flowers for Christmas, and Snow in June. The article about the little town in NZ is from 5 years ago. Hopefully they've filled those jobs. I think we could bear the cost of healthcare, if we had to. We did for YEARS before Wil took his last job that offered benefits. But, yeah. We probably won't be doing it. But it sure is tempting. If Vermont would just join Canada!
Delete
ReplyDelete[More Than] Half Russian separatist force dead or wounded - UK [Click]
Has Russia Really Lost 33,800 Soldiers in 4 Months? [Click]
Cancel Zoning [Click] “If we want to fix the housing-affordability crisis, segregation, and sprawl, zoning must go.” Japanese cities don’t have zoning, and they work just fine, in my observation. Granted that they often have good public transportation.
ReplyDeleteMuch of U.S. zoning regulation has evolved out of segregationist interests, rather than to promote the health and welfare of residents and preserve natural resources.
DeleteMore recently I have concluded that because property rights are the only rights explicitly protected by the Constitution, people are clinging to ownership (of real and mobile property [chattel]) as their last best hope for some autonomy.
When GWB said "we are an ownership society," it was in the context of promoting home ownership in advance of the 2008 collapse, but the issue is broader than that. Civic participation was initially restricted to property owners, who were, for about 200 years presumed to be males. Remember the agitation of male heads of household being replaced by single mothers? Women were supposed to be married and having pledged to "honor and obey" the husband. Universal suffrage and lowering the age of emancipation to 18 had the inadvertent consequence of women demanding equality. Putting that genie back in the bottle has been a half century effort with little success. Now, if something happens to Joe Biden, we will have a woman President.
Oh, and when Justice Jackson takes her seat, there will be four women on the court. Who's going to vote with the ladies? That the near parity has not been discussed is telling.
Locally, zoning is a way to preserve woodlands and views, keeping development to designated areas. For many years, folks couldn't build on less than 10 acres here. Now folks are allowed to add residential buildings to their properties and more affordable housing is being encouraged...but in the town centers, not just everywhere.
DeleteVermont still does not allow billboards.
DeleteNational incident declared over polio virus findings in London sewage [Click]
ReplyDelete😵💫
DeleteIt seems that what they found is the virus in the live virus (oral) vaccine. The Salk (killed virus) vaccine remains more effective, but is given by injection. I was given the Salk vaccine because that was the only kind there was at the time.
DeleteWil and I got the oral form...in little paper cups when we were young.
Delete"The inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) was available first, given as a shot, in 1955. A more convenient form, called oral polio vaccine (OPV), was given as liquid drops via the mouth. It was developed in 1961. OPV was recommended for use in the United States for almost 40 years, from 1963 until 2000."
Reference link
I was in 5th grade when they loaded us onto the school buses and took us down to the Veterans Hall to get the Salk vaccine. I remember one girl coming out with blood running down her arm.
Delete“In the past 24 hours, there has been an uptick in the number of violent threats against lawmakers on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and all lawmakers on the committee are likely to receive a security detail,” the Washington Post reports.
ReplyDeleteThis would seem to indicate that the DTers aren't "getting it" from the Hearings.
DeleteCan we move them all to TX and FL, then give TX to Mexico and FL to Cuba?
Sounds like a most excellent suggestion to me.
DeleteWell, Anonymous was Susan.
DeleteI figure rising sea levels will do for Florida and Houston. California will have a sea in the Central Valley. Or maybe a Central Sea instead of a Central Valley. But it's a little early to submit a bid for the boating concession.
DeleteOdd weather today; completely gray sky and windy in the morning--looked like winter but it was warm. by mid day the clouds had all disappeared, and we liberated apricots from a neighbor's tree (they were exactly right to harvest-- will make our share into jam in a couple of days). Traded a jar of plum jam for them, to be followed by apricot jam. Most years we would make kumquat jam, but neither of our friends who have kumquats had a good crop this year. I had to replace a pop-up geared lawn sprinkler that busted--only lasted about 27 years. Took me a while to figure out how to adjust it, but I did.
ReplyDeleteWow--not quite 10PM here, and we are having light rain, lightning flashing among the clouds, and thunder!
ReplyDelete