Good News on HCR in Vermont, Bad News on Birth Control in Texas
Posted: May 26, 2011 Filed under: Health care reform, Women's Rights | Tags: Birth Control, single payer, Texas, Vermont 16 Comments
Vermont goes single payer! Via ConsumerReports.org:
Vermont has a plan for single-payer health care
Vermont made history today when Governor Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, signed into law a plan to create the nation’s first state-run “single-payer” health system. If fully implemented, every Vermont resident, including those on Medicare and Medicaid, would be entitled to enroll in the state’s own insurance plan, Green Mountain Care. Private insurers would still be allowed to operate in the state.
Meanwhile in Texas, efforts to eliminate funding for birth control are afoot. Via RH Reality Check:
Report from Texas: Will Legislature Eliminate Access to Birth Control?
A colleague of ours working in the Texas legislature and wishing to remain anonymous has sent a report detailing efforts to eliminate funding for birth control in the state.
The colleague writes:
The Texas Legislature has been meeting since January to debate a grim budget prospective for the next two years. In a session where money is tight and there are many losers, women are losing the most.
According to reports, anti-choice groups in the state and the Republican party are working to ensure that it will be “next-to-impossible for low-income women to have access to healthcare and contraceptives through state-funded family planning services.”
As Andrea Grimes reported last month:
RH Reality Check editor Jodi Jacobson adds this note from her colleague reporting out of Texas:
“If you believe that women have a right to control when they have a child and to access birth control–if you believe women are human beings with human rights–please call your State Senator & State Representative. Your voice will make a difference. Calls must be made before this Friday, May 27, 2011. To find out who your State Senator & State Representatives are go to http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/“
Here’s wishing Vermont the best of luck with their road map to healthcare that makes sense and hoping they can pave the way for the rest of us, especially those of us living in states like Texas, where Gov. Goodhair and his ilk seem hellbent on making healthcare a privilege of the rich instead of a right for us all.
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
If men could get pregnant, birth control would be handed out on corners free of charge.
And the evening news would be filled with at least as many birth control ads as Cialis ones
Speaking of Cialis, I saw one of those “bad drug” law firm commercials. They said Rogaine (and those other hair restoration drugs) causes erectile dysfunction.
Go Vermont! Sounds like a place I might want to move to.
It’s gorgeous, but the winters are long and harsh with lots of snow.
I know. 😦 I would love the scenery and the maple syrup and I got used to harsh winters living just southeast of Chicago, but now I’m spoiled by the relatively milder climate of coastal New Jersey.
The penalty for voting for ideology over competence is the state of Texas legislature.
Asshats.
We are so f#$%ed.
Hillary 2012
I’m moving to Vermont.
OT: Michelle Malkin and Keith Olbermann are fighting on twitter… there seems to be a lot of…um…tension…
Malkin:
Olbermann:
Olbermann is a neanderthal, although I suspect I’m maligning neanderthals by that comparison.
Vermont is quite beautiful been there many times. Great winter sports for those who are fit. Great people. Even though I live north of the border, Vermont is a place we Canucks visit often – Maine too, but Canucks are used to harsh weather. Was discussing that today with my local shopkeeper, and we both agreed that weather is our favorite topic and complaint session. Mind you, after the Joplin, MO situation, our weather is a piece of cake.
P.S. we also go for the hiking trails and great campgrounds and wonderful people in the summer – we really are not all about polar bears and snowshoes.
He sounds about 8 years old (with apologies to 8 year olds):
I have a friend in St. Johnsbury who does complain about their taxes. HOWEVER when they tell me what social services their elderly mother gets…it’s amazing.
imagine getting something for taxes! ?
It is gorgeous, but I think the hard weather has something to do with them getting this health care,because you have to be fit to live there in the first place ! lol
Go VT Go!
Something besides war for taxes…sounds like a dream!
Just read (newstime.com) where Ralph Lang of Marshfield, Wisc. planned on going on a killing spree at Family Planning……….was planning on using a magazine clip and off some women, and doctors.
However, as he was in his hotel room, loading the clip it went off, and the police were called, and busted his nuts.
I hope they don’t let him out, and everybody can thank the GOP for mustering up the men folk.
I hope they really did it… ‘busted his nuts’.
I live in a pretty liberal state, but Vermont is sounding nicer and nicer, if I could only get over the winters (and get my parents to move out there too). Good luck with that!
They also have towns which have passed food sovereignty laws, saying that people in the town have the right to trade, buy and consume the food they want, even if the FDA and USDA have ‘outlawed’ it (i.e. raw food, raw milk and more). Maine has a couple of towns which have done this, and I think MA has one.