March, 01 2017, 09:45am EDT
Nurses Warn Trump/GOP Health Ideas Would Accelerate Crisis
Recycled Schemes Would Deprive Care for Tens of Millions, Expanding, Strengthening Medicare Only Solution Post-ACA
National Nurses United sharply criticized the health care proposals outlined by President Trump in his address to Congress Tuesday night, warning they would deprive care for tens of millions of Americans and increase the health and economic security of millions more.
"In his speech Tuesday night, President Trump broke his promise during the campaign and before his inauguration when he pledged that no Americans now covered as a result of the Affordable Care Act would lose that coverage," said NNU Co-President Jean Ross, RN.
"Instead, the President adopted the cynical language embraced by (Health and Human Services Secretary) Tom Price in his confirmation hearing that people with pre-existing health conditions should 'have access to coverage.'
"But access to buying expensive private insurance is worlds apart from getting the coverage and care you need when you need it," said Ross. "As Sen. Bernie Sanders said to Price in that hearing, 'Has access to' does not mean that they are guaranteed health care. I have access to buying a $10 million home; I don't have the money to do that'."
"If the Republicans in control of Congress force through their obsession with repealing the Affordable Care Act, millions will lose the coverage they have gained, especially without any meaningful proposals from Congress or the administration to actually lower the escalating out-of-pocket costs." Ross cited a recent Commonwealth Fund report that 30 percent of Americans already skip needed health treatment due to the extra costs of deductibles and co-pays even when already paying for their healthcare premiums.
"Only one replacement for the ACA would guarantee everyone can get health care, lower the skyrocketing costs to families and individuals, and assure real patient choice they can go to the doctor and hospital of their choice - strengthening and expanding Medicare to cover all Americans," Ross said.
Ross also condemned other key legs of the President's health care proposals Tuesday night.
*Use of tax credits and expanded Health Savings Accounts. "That would be a devastating replacement for the ACA subsidies, and merely reinforce an already broken system largely based on ability to pay. With no restrictions on the price gouging by insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies and other healthcare corporations, fewer and fewer people could afford the cost of quality coverage, and have to settle for skeletal health plans with little protection when you get sick."
*Giving state governors "flexibility" on Medicaid. "This proposal, long floated by Price, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and other critics of Medicaid would result in a steady decline in federal funding of Medicaid, which would merely put pressure on states to slash the number of people covered or drastically cut care, by restricting eligibility, sharply cutting covered services, or making it much harder to enroll."
*Selling insurance across state lines. "Another long time conservative talking point. It would encourage insurers to be based in states with the fewest public rules and protections for coverage, depriving people in states with stronger protections of the health security they need. The result would be an ugly race to the bottom."
"As nurses know from the patients we care for every day, without health, there is no security. We cannot risk the reckless disregard for the health of our patients and our nation proposed by these heartless ideas. Nurses will continue to oppose these ideas, as we have already been doing in protests across the country, and continue to campaign for real reform, improved Medicare for all," Ross concluded.
National Nurses United, with close to 185,000 members in every state, is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in US history.
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Netanyahu Says Israel 'Will Stand Alone' as Biden Threatens to Withhold Arms
"If we have to, we will fight with our nails," the Israeli prime minister said in response to the American leader's warning against a major Rafah invasion.
May 09, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday responded to U.S. President Joe Biden's threat to withhold shipments of arms used by the Israel Defense Forces to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians by declaring that his far-right government would continue its assault on Gaza with or without American help.
"If we are forced to stand alone, we will stand alone," Netanyahu said in a video ahead of next week's anniversary of Israel's establishment in 1948, largely via the ethnic cleansing of Palestine's Arabs. "I have already said that if we have to, we will fight with our nails."
Echoing Netanyahu, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the IDF already has the "necessary weapons" to wage war, "including in Rafah," where over 1 million people forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents, all of them bracing for a full-scale Israeli invasion.
The prime minister's remarks came a day after Biden threatened to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it launches a major invasion of Rafah—even as critics noted that Israeli forces have already attacked and entered the city. Some accused Biden of walking back a previous "red line" warning against any assault on Rafah.
Common Dreamsreported Tuesday that Biden is delaying shipments of two types of bombs to Israel in order to send a message that the president's tolerance for what he called Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gazan civilians is waning.
However, observers noted that Biden recently signed off on $14.3 billion in emergency armed assistance for Israel atop the nearly $4 billion the key ally already receives from Washington each year. The Biden administration has quietly approved more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October 7, while pushing for billions of dollars worth of additional deals, including advanced fighter jets.
Biden has also repeatedly bypassed Congress to fast-track weapons transfers to Israel as it wages what the International Court of Justice in January called a "plausibly" genocidal war that's killed, injured, or left missing more than 124,000 Palestinians—mostly women and children—since October 7.
The U.S. administration also provides diplomatic cover for Israel's policies and practices in the form of United Nations Security Council vetoes.
Despite all this support—which comes as most election-year voters supporting Biden's Democratic Party believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza—Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday tweeted, "Hamas ❤️ Biden."
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'Disgusting': Israeli Minister Rebuked for 'Hamas ❤︎ Biden' Post
"When Biden, far too late, pushes back just a little, this is how the far right responds," said one analyst. "There is no appeasing these murderous fanatics."
May 09, 2024
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was sharply condemned on Thursday for lashing out at U.S. President Joe Biden after the American leader threatened to withhold weapons if Israel scales up its ongoing assault on Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the war with or without outside assistance, Ben-Gvir—who rose to his current post despite being convicted of incitement to racism and supporting an anti-Arab group that Israel classifies as a terrorist organization—took aim at the U.S. president on social media, writing, "Hamas ❤️ Biden."
Hamas—which Ben-Gvir and Biden's governments consider a terrorist group—has governed Gaza for nearly two decades and led the October 7 attack that sparked Israel's retaliatory and "plausibly" genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave. In just seven months, Israeli forces have killed at least 34,904 Palestinians there, wounded another 78,514, destroyed civilian infrastructure, and repeatedly displaced survivors.
Once Biden threatened to cut off weapons to Israel on Wednesday, reporter Emma Vigeland predicted responses along the lines of, "Biden is an antisemite who loves Hamas." After Ben-Gvir's post on X, formerly Twitter, she said, "Update: This is not even a parody tweet anymore."
Journalist Mehdi Hasan also seemed unsurprised by the news, writing: "Yep, now Biden is Hamas too. Can't make this stuff up."
Biden has faced growing backlash from critics of the war for not already cutting off U.S. arms to Israel—particularly given that he previously called an attack on Rafah a "red line," which didn't stop Israeli tanks and warplanes from targeting the city overwhelmed by refugees this week.
Some of the responses to Ben-Gvir's post stressed the U.S. president's strident support for the Israeli war since October.
"Biden has staked a good chunk of his reelection chances on his absolute support for Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza," noted foreign policy analyst and writer Mitchell Plitnick. "Israel has responded by continually pushing the envelope, and when Biden, far too late, pushes back just a little, this is how the far right responds. There is no appeasing these murderous fanatics."
Attorney Aaron Regunberg similarly said that "Israel's national security minister posted this because Biden, who's (disastrously) done everything the Israeli government's asked of him, took the first step towards a more rational policy. This is not how a [government] that wants to maintain a 'special relationship' with the U.S. acts."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pointed out that "this disgusting tweet comes from Israel's extremist national security minister, who was convicted by an Israeli court of racist incitement and supporting terrorism."
"This is the government waging war against the entire Palestinian people. We cannot be complicit in Ben-Gvir's war," added Sanders, who also spoke on the Senate floor and put out a statement about Rafah.
"President Biden is right," Sanders said in the statement. "The United States cannot continue to provide more bombs and artillery shells to support Netanyahu's disastrous and inhumane war policies."
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'Indomitable' Gaza Journalist Bisan Owda Awarded Peabody for War Coverage
"We rise simply to document the genocide happening to our people," said the Palestinian reporter who dedicated her award to protesters around the world speaking out against Israel's military assault.
May 09, 2024
"It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm still alive."
The line has become familiar to social media users and viewers of the Al Jazeera Media Network's show of the same name, hosted by Palestinian journalist and activist Bisan Owda. On Thursday the show was lauded by the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors as it awarded Owda one of journalism's highest honors.
"Despite a lack of clean water and the increasing scarcity of food, she draws on her indomitable spirit to keep the world informed," said the board. "For showing bravery and persistence in the midst of imminent danger, and for carrying a heavy journalistic burden as the entire world looks on, It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive is honored with a Peabody Award."
Since Owda first broadcast from her bombarded home of Gaza in early November, less than a month into the Israeli onslaught that has now killed at least 34,904 Palestinians, she has given viewers a glimpse into how civilians across the enclave are impacted by air and ground attacks.
Her first broadcast—opening with the words: "Good morning, everyone. This is Bisan from Gaza. I'm smiling because I'm alive"—documented the makeshift tent encampment Owda was living in at Al-Shifa Hospital, after fleeing her home in Beit Hanoun with her family.
Since then Owda has interviewed her neighbors and documented the spread of disease at overcrowded shelters; the plight of families forced to leave northern Gaza due to Israel's total blockade on aid, pushing them toward starvation; and her family's experience marking Ramadan "in the rubble" left by relentless Israeli airstrikes.
On Thursday, Save the Children International featured Owda's reporting on Israel's takeover of the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border as it invaded the city of Rafah this week.
"No people can evacuate to a safe place, no humanitarian aid trucks entering," she said in the video. "Now I am in the middle of Rafah, and these people behind me are trying to gather their stuff. Their mattresses, some food. And they're taking now their stuff again to be displaced again after living [here] for months."
The situation in #Gaza is devastating.
The takeover by Israeli forces of the #Rafah crossing means no aid can enter.
Due to the rise in violence & evacuation orders, families are fleeing again, despite there being nowhere safe to go.
Bisan reports from Rafah👇#CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/5vISDNweOl
— Save the Children International (@save_children) May 9, 2024
Accepting the Peabody, Owda said she and other journalists in Gaza "rise simply to document the genocide happening to our people."
"The victory of the Palestinian cause was never just for Palestinians," she said. "It is rather a victory for humanity."
She dedicated the award to people around the world who are helping to defeat "one of the [Israeli] occupation's strongest tools": dividing people "so we can never support one another."
"I dedicate this award to all the college students who are protesting," she said. "To all the people who took to the streets. To all the people at home who are participating in boycotts. To all the people worldwide, regardless of their religion, color, and ethnicity. Regardless of what makes them different, they're united in one mission: in their demands for a free Palestine. You deserve this award. And so do we."
Bisan Owda has just won one of broadcast journalism’s highest honors – the Peabody Award – for her work with AJ+.
Bisan is currently facing intense Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the occupied Gaza Strip. This is her message to the world: pic.twitter.com/rFTV7jjBIN
— AJ+ (@ajplus) May 9, 2024
"And one day, this genocide will end," she continued. "And Palestine will be free. And we will welcome you here on Gazan soil. All of you... Thank you so much for this award and for always supporting us, standing by us, and for continuing to do so until we reach our demands: an end to the genocide, a cease-fire, and a free Palestine."
Tony Karon, editorial lead at AJ+, which has collaborated with Owda since Israel's onslaught began, applauded Owda's "heroic storytelling."
"We strive to tell the human story from where the missiles land, to elevate the human spirit and the hope that it brings for better days, to shine a light on places and stories those in power would rather keep shrouded in darkness," he said.
Zahira Jaher, a professor at University of Sussex in the U.K., said Owda and other journalists in Gaza "are rewriting how reporting is done... She is the future of Palestine."
The award was announced days after the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a "special citation" for all journalists covering Israel's attack on Gaza—without giving recognition to those who are reporting from the frontlines, more than 100 of whom have been killed by Israeli forces.
"No one deserves this award more than Bisan, who is risking her life to ensure that the world bears witness to Israel's atrocities," said writer and foreign policy analyst Tariq Kenney-Shawa. "But no award will bring back the over 100 Palestinian journalists Israel has killed over the last seven months."
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