Blog For Arizona

Abortion access returns to Flagstaff, which displeases LifeSiteNews

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Planned Parenthood of AZ announced the good news this morning:

Planned Parenthood Arizona – Flagstaff Health Center In 2011, Planned Parenthood Arizona was forced to stop providing abortion care at a number of our health centers due to legislation that made the provision of this care nearly impossible. Our health center in Flagstaff was one of them.

For the past two and a half years, women living outside of Pima and Maricopa County have encountered miles of travel, days of wages lost, and several nights away from loved ones in order to access this safe and legal medical procedure. These barriers, created by politicians who have no business interfering with a woman’s personal medical decisions, were faced and overcome by many women – but not all.

Maricopa County Judge tells anti-Medicaid expansion litigants to pound sand

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

No standing. That’s the verdict of Maricopa County Superior Court to the whiny cast of idiots suing the state to block the Medicaid expansion. Judge Katherine Cooper handily dispatched with all their baseless arguments.

Happy Obamacare Day

By Michael Bryan

To the critics of the ACA here in Arizona, I present this story, published yesterday, from the NYT:

Kathy Hornbach of Tucson is not wasting any time before using her new health insurance coverage, which took effect on New Year’s Day. Ms. Hornbach, 57, has an appointment with a cardiologist on Thursday for a stress test.

“I’ve had some heart palpitations, and my mom’s side has a history of heart problems starting early,” she said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “So it’s mostly just to double-check that everything is O.K.”

Ms. Hornbach, who has had breast cancer and retired early from the technology industry, said that insurance companies in Arizona had refused to cover her until about two years ago, when she got a policy with monthly premiums of $285 and a deductible of $5,500 a year. Last month, using the federal insurance exchange, she bought a midlevel silver plan with lower premiums and deductible.

“It’s a better policy — lower out-of-pocket, more choice of doctors,” she said. “This is a very happy day.”

The insurance system is now working better - far from perfect - but better, for a real person with real health challenges. That's what the ACA was designed to do; and it's actually doing it.

Obamacare was always designed as a pragmatic approach to reducing the worst abuses and problems of the private insurance system, and to expand our current jury-rigged mixed system of health insurance to millions who could not afford it - or to those who were not ideal customers to the pre-ACA industry.

It's working. It's not perfect - far from it. But it's working for Ms. Hornbach, and millions of others. I now invite Arizona's Republican Congresscritters to explain to Ms. Hornbach and those like her how Obamacare is so terrible we needed to shut down the government rather than allow those millions to benefit? That's exactly the question that needs to be asked of every single Republican running for reelection to Congress in 2014.

Saturday Editorial August 4th, 2012

In the flurry of news and opinion gusting out of our computer screens and smart phones, it is easy to become 'news blind' - so focused on the flakes and flurries that we forget where we are headed. We stumble confusedly ahead with no map to our destination. It's easy to get lost in the storm.

I personally read almost every news source in Arizona - and keep up with national reaction to our politics, as well - in bringing to readers of BlogForArizona the Arizona Donkey Feed, which appears on our right-hand sidebar every day (you may also have the Feed emailed to you daily). So I, too, often find myself in that blizzard without a map.

I decided I might like to sit down once a week and take some time to look around, and identify what I think are the most significant landmarks around where we stand now. It might not be a map that will tell us where we are headed, but maybe I can get some idea of where we are. Over time, perhaps it will become a map of sorts. You can even look back to all the editorials I have done so far, which isn't that many, yet...

I would also like to let you all know that Cam Juarez, candidate for Tucson Unified School Board, will be guest-host at Drinking Liberally in Tucson. Come down to the Shanty of 4th Avenue this Wednesday at 6pm and enjoy a beer with Cam.

This week, I write about:

An excellent peice of must-see political television presided over by Jim Nintzel,

The Chik-Fil-A culture war comes home to Arizona,

Brewer's decision on Medicaid expansion will be a matter of life and death for Arizonans, and

The Best New Thing in Arizona Politics has something to do with Ben Quayle... 

See it all after the click...

Saturday Editorial July 28th, 2012

In the flurry of news and opinion gusting out of our computer screens and smart phones, it is easy to become 'news blind' - so focused on the flakes and flurries that we forget where we are headed. We stumble confusedly ahead with no map to our destination. It's easy to get lost in the storm.

I personally read almost every news source in Arizona - and keep up with national reaction to our politics, as well - in bringing to readers of BlogForArizona the Arizona Donkey Feed, which appears on our right-hand sidebar every day (you may also have the Feed emailed to you daily). So I, too, often find myself in that blizzard without a map.

I decided I might like to sit down once a week and take some time to look around, and identify what I think are the most significant landmarks around where we stand now. It might not be a map that will tell us where we are headed, but maybe I can get some idea of where we are. Over time, perhaps it will become a map of sorts. You can even look back to all the editorials I have done so far, which isn't that many, yet...

I would also like to let you all know that Betts Putnam-Hidalgo, candidate for Tucson Unified School Board, will be guest-host at Drinking Liberally in Tucson. Come down to the Shanty of 4th Avenue this Wednesday at 6pm and enjoy a beer with Betts.

This week, I don't have a big post for you all. I just finished my 2012 Ballot Prop Voter Guide, and that's about all I want to say today. I will just leave you all with the Best New Thing in Arizona Politics this week: Russell Pearce in the Bunker! See it after the click...