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US

Biden leaves White House for 1st time since getting COVID-19

Biden leaves White House for 1st time since getting COVID-19

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — Ending his most recent COVID-19 isolation, President Joe Biden on Sunday left the White House for the first time since becoming infected with the coronavirus last month, settling in for a meeting with first lady Jill Biden in their home state of Delaware.

The president tested negative Saturday and Sunday, according to his doctor, clearing the way for him to emerge from an isolation that lasted longer than expected because of a rebound case of the virus.

“I’m feeling great,” Biden said before boarding Marine One outside the White House.

The Bidens were expected to spend the day in Rehoboth Beach, a popular vacation destination.

Biden originally tested positive on July 21, and he began taking the anti-viral medication Paxlovid, which is intended to decrease the likelihood of serious illness from the virus. According to his doctor, Biden’s vital signs remained normal throughout his infection, but his symptoms included a runny nose, cough, sore throat and body aches.

After isolating for several days, Biden tested negative on July 26 and July 27, when he gave a speech in the Rose Garden, telling Americans they can “live without fear” of the virus if they get booster shots, test themselves for the virus if they become sick and seek out treatments.

But Biden caught a rare rebound case of COVID-19 on July 30, forcing him to isolate again. He occasionally gave speeches from a White House balcony, such as when he marked the killing of an al-Qaida leader or a strong jobs report.

He continued to test positive until Saturday, when he received his first negative result. While the president was isolating in the White House residence, the first lady remained in Delaware.

The Bidens are scheduled to visit Kentucky on Monday to view flood damage and meet with families.

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US

In wake of floods, typical barbs at Kentucky political event

In wake of floods, typical barbs at Kentucky political event

FANCY FARM, Ky. (AP) — While Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was consoling families displaced by historic flooding in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, Republicans at the state’s premier political event on the other side of the state were campaigning to oust him from office in 2023.

GOP candidates speaking at the Fancy Farm picnic in western Kentucky bashed the Democratic governor’s record earlier in this term, especially his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. But they also offered support for recovery efforts that Beshear is leading in the wake of historic flooding and tornadoes.

While his challengers aimed zingers at him, Beshear spent the day meeting with families displaced by flash flooding that swamped the Appalachian region more than a week ago, killing 37. Beshear visited two state parks where some of the suddenly homeless took refuge.

“Today I’m at our state parks, spending time with our eastern Kentucky families who have been displaced from the catastrophic flooding,” Beshear posted on social media. “These Kentuckians have been through the unimaginable. My priority is being there for them.”

Last December, deadly tornadoes tore through parts of western Kentucky. The political speaking at the annual Fancy Farm picnic — the traditional start of the fall campaign in Kentucky — took place about 10 miles (16 km) from Mayfield, which took a direct hit from a tornado.

Living up to the event’s reputation for edgy attacks, Republicans wanting to unseat Beshear took aim at restrictions that the governor imposed on businesses and gatherings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor has said his actions of him saved lives at a perilous time when vaccines were not available. The state’s GOP-dominated legislature reined in the governor’s virus policymaking power in a case settled by the state’s Supreme Court.

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Ryan Quarles referred to Beshear as the “shutdown governor.”

“He shut down our economy,” said Quarles, the state’s agriculture commissioner. “I’ve shut down our ‘mom and pop’ stores. He killed countless jobs and kept the big box stores open.

“Folks, just because we lived through a global pandemic doesn’t mean that our rights, our freedoms and liberties should be tossed out the window,” he added.

In his speech, Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Colmon Elridge came to the defense of Beshear, who consistently receives strong approval ratings from Kentuckians in polls. Elridge praised Beshear’s efforts in leading recovery efforts in tornado-ravaged western Kentucky and said he’ll do the same for flood victims in the state’s Appalachian region.

“Once again, our governor is showing through his actions how we show up in moments of devastation and embrace our fellow Kentuckian, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Kentuckians,” Elridge said.

The governor is highlighting his management of the state’s economy in asking voters for a second term. Kentucky has posted records for job creation and investments during his term and recently posted its lowest-ever unemployment rates.

Beshear was already a committed no-show for the state’s premiere political event. The governor initially planned a visit to Israel that coincided with the Fancy Farm picnic. I canceled that trip after the massive flooding hit eastern Kentucky.

The Fancy Farm stage was dominated by Republican officeholders — reflecting the GOP’s electoral dominance. The event is a rite of passage for statewide candidates, who are tested in stump-style speeches in the August heat while facing taunts and shouts from partisans from the other party.

The political attacks were punctuated by calls for continued public support for people rebuilding from tornadoes and facing the same daunting task in flood-ravaged areas.

“We might be sharing a few laughs today, but whether we’re Republican or Democrat, know that we are with you,” said GOP gubernatorial hopeful Daniel Cameron. “When natural disasters strike, we take off our partisan hats and we root for each other. We help repair and we help rebuild.”

Cameron then shifted into promoting his candidacy. I have touted his endorsement from former President Donald Trump and his work from him as the state’s attorney general in defending Kentucky’s anti-abortion laws and fighting Biden administration policies in court.

“I am the best candidate and the only candidate that can beat Andy Beshear next fall,” Cameron said.

Two other GOP gubernatorial candidates also made pitches to the crowd and a statewide television audience that watched — state Auditor Mike Harmon and state Rep. Savannah Maddox.

The still-emerging 2023 governor’s race is already overshadowing the state’s top-of-the-ticket race this year — the contest between Republican US Sen. Rand Paul and Democratic challenger Charles Booker. Paul was unable to attend the picnic because of Senate duties.

Also missing from the political speaking Saturday was Kentucky’s most powerful Republican, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. A picnic mainstay for decades, McConnell relishes the verbal combat but also missed the event because of Senate duties. In a Senate speech Saturday, McConnell said the federal role in the long recovery for flood-damaged areas in his home state will grow once the rebuilding begins.

“Soon I’ll visit the region myself to meet with flood victims and listen to their concerns,” McConnell said. “Then I’ll take what I hear from my constituents back to Washington and ensure we stand by their side as we rebuild bigger and better than before.”

Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to hard-hit Kentucky counties.

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Categories
Entertainment

Celeste Barber wants to make people laugh by ‘taking the p***’ out of celebrities

Celeste Barber wants to make people laugh by 'taking the p***' out of celebrities

Celeste Barber wants to make people laugh by “taking the p***” out of celebrities.

The 40-year-old social media star rose to fame by parodying A-listers on Instagram and explained that her work is a look at the “multi-billion dollar body shaming industry”.

She said: “I realized that there were all these kinds of images being put out there, that were sold off as being normal and every day.”

The 40-year-old social media star rose to fame by parodying A-listers on Instagram and explained that her work is a look at the “multi-billion dollar body shaming industry”.
Camera IconThe 40-year-old social media star rose to fame by parodying A-listers on Instagram and explained that her work is a look at the “multi-billion dollar body shaming industry”. Credit: Supplied

“When you bought a magazine you knew, oh that’s Cindy Crawford being Cindy Crawford but on social media, it got sold as, ‘this is what everyone looks like,’ and I was like, ‘no, I don’t reckon that’s how people really look,’ or ‘I know I don’t look like that,’ so I did ap***-take on it.

“It’s a look at celebrity culture, the beauty industry, the fashion industry, the multibillion-dollar body-shaming industry so it’s just kind of nice to cut through that a bit.”

The comedienne – who has garnered almost 10 million followers online and has impressed the likes of Naomi Watts, Bella Hadid, Halle Berry, Gwyneth Paltrow and Drew Barrymore with her videos – explained that Hollywood stars realize that she is commenting on a “bigger” issue when she creates a parody of them and is able to “cut through” industry norms with her photos.

She told the New York Times’ Page Six column: “They understand it’s a look at something bigger than the individual. The world that they’re in… it’s cutting through the industry, you’re not taking it too seriously.”

“But I think the success that I’ve had is that I’m funny … My goal is first and foremost to make someone laugh. You make someone laugh and then we all kind of even out. That’s always been my goal, to make people laugh.”

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Categories
US

Senate parliamentarian OKs most of Dems’ drug price controls

Senate parliamentarian OKs most of Dems' drug price controls

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate parliamentarian narrowed Democrats’ plan for curbing drug prices but left it largely intact Saturday, Democrats said, as party leaders prepared to start moving their sprawling economic bill through the chamber.

Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s rules arbiter, also gave the green light to clean air provisions in the measure, including one limiting electric vehicle tax credits to those assembled in the US, Democrats said.

The nonpartisan official’s rulings came as Democrats planned to begin Senate votes Saturday on their wide-ranging package addressing climate change, energy, health care costs, taxes and even deficit reduction. Party leaders have said they believe they now have the unity they will need to move the legislation through the 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote.

MacDonough said provisions must be removed that would force drugmakers to pay rebates if their prices rise above inflation for products they sell to private insurers. Pharmaceutical companies would have to pay those penalties, though, if their prices for drugs bought by Medicare rise too high.

Dropping penalties on drugmakers for increasing prices on private insurers was a clear setback for Democrats. The decision reduces incentives on pharmaceutical companies to restrain what they charge, increasing costs for patients.

Erasing that language will cut the $288 billion in 10-year savings that the Democrats’ overall drug curbs were estimated to generate — a reduction of perhaps tens of billions of dollars, analysts have said. But other restrictions on rising pharmaceutical costs survived, including letting Medicare negotiate costs for the drugs it buys, capping seniors’ out-of-pocket expenses and providing free vaccines.

The surviving pharmaceutical provisions left Democrats promoting the drug language as a boon to consumers at a time when voters are infuriated by the worst inflation in four decades.

“This is a major victory for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in a statement. “While there was one unfortunate ruling in that the inflation rebate is more limited in scope, the overall program remains intact and we are one step closer to finally taking on Big Pharma and lowering Rx drug prices for millions of Americans.”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that while he was “disappointed” the penalties for higher drug prices for privately insured consumers were dropped, “the legislation nevertheless puts a substantial check on Big Pharma’s ability to price gouge.”

The parliamentarian’s decision came after a 10-day period that saw Democrats resurrect top components of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda after they were seemingly dead. In rapid-fire deals with Democrats’ two most unpredictable senators—first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginiathen Arizona centrist Kyrsten Sinema — Schumer pieced together a broad package that, while a fraction of earlier, larger versions that Manchin derailed, would give the party an achievement against the backdrop of this fall’s congressional elections.

The parliamentarian signed off on a fee on excess emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas contributor, from oil and gas drilling. She also let stand environmental grants to minority communities and other initiatives for reducing carbon emissionssaid Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Thomas Carper, D-Del.

She approved a provision requiring union-scale wages to be paid if energy efficiency projects are to qualify for tax credits, and another that would limit electric vehicle tax credits to those cars and trucks assembled in the United States.

The overall measure faces unanimous Republican opposition. But assuming Democrats fight off a nonstop “vote-a-rama” of amendments — many designed by Republicans to derail the measure — they should be able to muscle the measure through the Senate.

House passage could come when that chamber returns briefly from recess on Friday.

“What will vote-a-rama be like. It will be like hell,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said Friday of the approaching GOP amendments. He said that in supporting the Democratic bill, Manchin and Sinema “are empowering legislation that will make the average person’s life more difficult” by forcing up energy costs with tax increases and making it harder for companies to hire workers.

The bill offers spending and tax incentives for moving toward cleaner fuels and supporting coal with assistance for reducing carbon emissions. Expiring subsidies that help millions of people afford private insurance premiums would be extended for three years, and there is $4 billion to help Western states combat drought.

There would be a new 15% minimum tax on some corporations that earn over $1 billion annually but pay far less than the current 21% corporate tax. There would also be a 1% tax on companies that buy back their own stock, swapped in after Sinema refused to support higher taxes on private equity firm executives and hedge fund managers. The IRS budget would be pumped up to strengthen its tax collections.

While the bill’s final costs are still being determined, it overall would spend more than $300 billion over 10 years to slow climate change, which analysts say would be the country’s largest investment in that effort, and billions more on health care. It would raise more than $700 billion in taxes and from government drug cost savings, leaving about $300 billion for deficit reduction — a modest bite out of projected 10-year shortfalls of many trillions of dollars.

Democrats are using special procedures that would let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate.

It is the parliamentarian’s job to decide whether parts of legislation must be dropped for violating those rules, which include a requirement that provisions be chiefly aimed at affecting the federal budget, not imposing new policy.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

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Categories
Australia

Splendor in the Grass attendees are being urged to be alert for meningococcal. Here are the symptoms to watch for

A computer generated image of blue bacteria on a black background.

NSW Health has put out a public health alert after meningococcal disease was identified in two people who attended the Splendor in the Grass music festival a fortnight ago.

One of those cases, a man in his 40s, has died with the disease.

NSW Health says the disease is uncommon, but it’s urging people who went to Splendor in the Grass at the North Byron Parklands to watch for symptoms and act immediately if they appear.

What are the symptoms of meningococcal?

Perhaps one of the best-known symptoms is a rash with dark red and purple spots, but the Department of Health says that comes at the later stages of infection.

The meningococcal rash doesn’t disappear with gentle pressure on the skin like other rashes might, NSW Health says.

Not everyone with meningococcal disease gets a rash.

NSW Health says meningococcal symptoms are non-specific and may not all be present at once.

People with the disease might notice leg pain, cold hands and abnormal skin color before the onset of the typical symptoms, which may include:

  • sudden onset of fever
  • headache
  • neck stiffness
  • joint pain
  • a rash of red-purple spots or bruises
  • dislike of bright lights
  • nausea and vomiting

Symptoms for young children may be less specific.

Here’s what to watch out for:

  • irritability
  • difficulty waking
  • high pitched crying
  • refuse to eat
A lopsided SITG logo in the mud at Splendor In The Grass.
Splendor in the Grass was held at the North Byron Parklands a fortnight ago. (Russell Privett/triple j )

What is meningococcal?

It’s a serious bacterial infection that can be fatal.

People with the disease can become severely unwell quite quickly, with the Department of Health urging people with a suspected infection to see a doctor immediately.

“It can kill within hours, so early diagnosis and treatment is vital,” the Department of Health website says.

“Do not wait for the purple rash to appear as that is a late stage of the disease.”

Usually, meningococcal causes blood poisoning and/or meningitis — which is inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.

It can also result in severe scarring, loss of limbs and brain damage.

What is the meningococcal fatality rate?

Between five and 10 per cent of patients with the disease die.

How does meningococcal spread?

Meningococcal bacteria is passed on through secretions from the back of the nose and throat.

Typically, it needs close and prolonged contact to be passed from one person to another.

Meningococcal bacteria don’t survive well outside the human body, with NSW Health saying the disease isn’t easily spread by sharing food, drinks or cigarettes.

NSW Health says people in the following groups are at higher risk of contracting the disease:

  • household contacts of patients with meningococcal disease
  • infants, small children, adolescents and young adults
  • people who smoke or are exposed to tobacco smoke
  • people who practice intimate (deep mouth) kissing, especially with more than one partner
  • people who have recently had a viral upper respiratory tract illness
  • travelers to countries with high rates of meningococcal disease
  • people with no working spleen or who have certain other rare medical conditions

Is there a meningococcal vaccine?

And it is.

A vial of a Meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine on a desk with a stethoscope and a pen.
NSW Health says people should watch for symptoms even if they’re vaccinated against meningococcal.(AFP: Science Photo Library)

The Department of Health says meningococcal vaccines are recommended for:

  • infants, children, adolescents and young adults
  • special risk groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, individuals with certain medical conditions, laboratory workers who frequently handle Neisseria meningitidis, travellers, and young adults who live in close quarters or who are current smokers

But anyone who wants to protect themselves against meningococcal should talk to their doctor.

Adolescents are offered the shot via school vaccination programs.

You can check to see if you’re vaccinated by viewing your immunization history statement through Medicare.

But NSW Health says routine childhood vaccines don’t protect against all strains of the disease, so even vaccinated people should still be alert for symptoms.

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Categories
Australia

Melanomas are rising rapidly and older men in rural and regional Australia are most at risk

Farmer and melanoma survivor standing by a gate with cattle in the background

John Seccombe had regularly checked his skin and even had small cancers on his face removed, but nothing prepared him for the moment when the right side of his face went numb.

He was a fair-skinned boy who grew up on a farm.

Later in life, he managed a cattle station and a feedlot at Gurly Station, south of Moree in north west New South Wales, before becoming the chair of Casino Food Co-op, the largest meat co-op in the country.

He was aware of the danger of skin cancers, regularly went to the dermatologist, and had a squamous cell carcinoma removed in his 30s.

But the disease returned, and this time, it was a “rampant” cancer that was heading into his brain stem, crushing a facial nerve.

According to his doctors, it was a death sentence.

“I had to under go radiation for two years, at the end of that it was still growing and they gave me 12 months to live and said ‘go home and hug your children’,” Mr Seccombe said.

Farmer standing in a paddock with land in the background
Skin cancer death rates for farmers over 65 are double that of other Australians.(Supplied: John Seccombe)

That was 22 years ago.

Mr Seccombe was saved by radical experimental surgery that involved three operations on his face.

“I had to have three lots of craniotomies, where they enter your face through the skull base,” he said.

“They removed as much damaged tissue as they could but it left my right eye left in a precarious position so I had to have another one, removed my eye, and I basically lost the right side of my face.”

Check your skin

Images of different melanomas
Melanomas can be extremely serious, but there are ways of identifying them.(Supplied: Melanoma Patients Association)

Mr Seccombe is now living on a farm on the north coast of New South Wales and is the chairman of Melanoma Patients Australia, a charitable organization that advocates and supports people diagnosed with melanoma.

He is urging men in regional and rural areas to check their own skin.

That is because the statistics in those parts of Australia, often a long way from the beach, are shocking.

The death rates in farmers over 65 from skin cancer are more than double the rate of other Australians, while the total disease burden rate in remote Australia is 1.4 times as high as in major cities.

And it is expected to get worse.

About 8,000 Australians in regional areas were diagnosed with melanoma last year, and that is forecast to rise to over 11,000 annually by 2030.

That is because the population is ageing, and men are twice as likely as women to die of melanoma due to complacency about sun safety, according to the Cancer Council.

Early detection is critical.

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Categories
US

Minnesota jury: Woman wasn’t entitled to morning-after pill

University instructor charged in shooting death of student

AITKIN, Minn. — A jury on Friday ruled that a central Minnesota pharmacist did not violate a woman’s rights when he refused to provide her emergency contraceptives more than three years ago.

Andrea Anderson, a mother of five from McGregor, sued under the Minnesota Human Rights Act after the pharmacist, based on his religious beliefs, refused to accommodate her request. State law prohibits discrimination based on sex, including issues related to pregnancy and childbirth.

The ruling comes amid national political debate about contraception under federal law, with the US House passing a bill that would guarantee the right to contraception. House Democrats are worried that a conservative US Supreme Court that already erased federal abortion rights could go further and limit the use of contraception.

Leaders with the group Gender Justice, which represented Anderson, said they plan to appeal, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

“The testimony was so clear that she received lesser services than other customers because what she was going there for was emergency contraception. And so we believe that, by law, that’s discrimination in Minnesota,” said Jess Braverman, legal director for the advocacy group.

Anderson brought her prescription for a morning-after pill to the Thrifty White pharmacy in McGregor in January 2019. Longtime pharmacist George Badeaux told her he could not fill the prescription based on his beliefs.

Anderson eventually got her prescription filled at a pharmacy in Brainerd, making the round-trip of more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) in winter driving conditions.

Attorneys for Badeaux did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Categories
US

Democrats’ big package: What remains in and what’s out?

Democrats' big package: What remains in and what's out?

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s nowhere near the $4 trillion proposal President Joe Biden first launched to rebuild America’s public infrastructure and family support systems but the compromise package of inflation-fighting health care, climate change and deficit reduction strategies appears on track toward Senate votes this weekend.

The estimated $740 billion proposal, struck by two top negotiators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and holdout Sen. Joe Manchin, the conservative West Virginia Democrat, includes some hard-fought party priorities. But the final touches came this week from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who put her handiwork on the latest revisions.

What’s in, and out, of the Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” as it stands now:

LOWER PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS

Launching a long-sought goal, the bill would allow the Medicare program to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, saving the federal government some $288 billion over the 10-year budget window.

Those new revenues would be put back into lower costs for seniors on medications, including a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap for older adults buying prescriptions from pharmacies.

The money would also be used to provide free vaccinations for seniors, who now are among the few not guaranteed free access, according to a summary document.

HELP PAY FOR HEALTH INSURANCE

The bill would extend the subsidies provided during the COVID-19 pandemic to help some Americans who buy health insurance on their own.

Under earlier pandemic relief, the extra help was set to expire this year. But the bill would allow the assistance to keep going for three more years, lowering insurance premiums for people who are purchasing their own health care policies.

‘SINGLE BIGGEST INVESTMENT IN CLIMATE CHANGE IN US HISTORY’

The bill would invest nearly $374 billion over the decade in climate change-fighting strategies including investments in renewable energy production and tax rebates for consumers to buy new or used electric vehicles.

It’s broken down to include $60 billion for a clean energy manufacturing tax credit and $30 billion for a production tax credit for wind and solar, seen as ways to boost and support the industries that can help curb the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. The bill also gives tax credits for nuclear power and carbon capture technology that oil companies such as Exxon Mobil have invested millions of dollars to advance.

The bill would impose a new fee on excess methane emissions from oil and gas drilling while giving fossil fuel companies access to more leases on federal lands and waters.

A late addition pushed by Sinema and other Democrats in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado would designate $4 billion to combat a mega-drought in the West, including conservation efforts in the Colorado River Basin, which nearly 40 million Americans rely on for drinking water.

For consumers, there are tax breaks as incentives to go green. One is a 10-year consumer tax credit for renewable energy investments in wind and solar. There are tax breaks for buying electric vehicles, including a $4,000 tax credit for purchase of used electric vehicles and $7,500 for new ones.

In all, Democrats believe the strategy could put the country on a path to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030, and “would represent the single biggest climate investment in US history, by far.”

HOW TO PAY FOR ALL OF THIS?

The biggest revenue-raiser in the bill is a new 15% minimum tax on corporations that earn more than $1 billion in annual profits.

It’s a way to clamp down on some 200 US companies that avoid paying the standard 21% corporate tax rate, including some that end up paying no taxes at all.

The new corporate minimum tax would kick in after the 2022 tax year and raise some $258 billion over the decade.

The revenue would have been $313 billion, but Sinema insisted on one change to the 15% corporate minimum, allowing a depreciation deduction used by manufacturing industries. That shaves about $55 billion off the total revenue.

Money is also raised by boosting the IRS to go after tax cheats. The bill proposes an $80 billion investment in taxpayer services, enforcement and modernization, which is projected to raise $203 billion in new revenue — a net gain of $124 billion over the decade.

The bill sticks with Biden’s original pledge not to raise taxes on families or businesses making less than $400,000 a year.

The lower drug prices for seniors are paid for with savings from Medicare’s negotiations with the drug companies.

WHAT’S CHANGED IN RECENT DAYS?

To win over Sinema, Democrats dropped plans to close a tax loophole long enjoyed by wealthier Americans — the so-called “carried interest,” which under current law taxes wealthy hedge fund managers and others at a 20% rate.

The left has for years sought to increase the carried interest tax rate, hiked to 37% in the original bill, more in line with upper-income earners. Sinema wouldn’t allow it.

Keeping the tax break for the wealthy deprives the party of $14 billion in revenue they were counting on to help pay for the package.

In its place, Democrats, with Sinema’s nod, will impose a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks, raising some $74 billion over the decade.

EXTRA MONEY TO PAY DOWN DEFICITS

With some $740 billion in new revenue and around $433 billion in new investments, the bill promises to put the difference toward deficit reduction.

Federal deficits spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic when federal spending soared and tax revenues fell as the nation’s economy churned through shutdowns, closed offices and other massive changes.

The nation has seen deficits rise and fall in recent years. But overall federal budgeting is on an unsustainable path, according to the Congressional Budget Officewhich put out a new report this week on long-term projections.

WHAT’S LEFT BEHIND

This latest package after 18 months of start-stop negotiations leaves behind many of Biden’s more ambitious goals.

While Congress did pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill for highways, broadband and other investments that Biden signed into law last year, the president’s and the party’s other key priorities have slipped away.

Among them is a continuation of a $300 monthly child tax credit that was sending money directly to families during the pandemic and is believed to have widely reduced child poverty.

Also gone, for now, are plans for free pre-kindergarten and community college, as well as the nation’s first paid family leave program that would have provided up to $4,000 a month for births, deaths and other pivotal needs.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

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Categories
Business

Bupa dispute with Ramsay Health Care leaves patients in limbo

Woman with hands on table

Sick or injured Australians may have to pay more in up-front costs at hospitals as patients become a bargaining chip in negotiations between two multi-billion-dollar medical firms.

Hospital giant Ramsay Health Care formally ended its long-standing deal with private health insurer Bupa and its 3.9 million members on August 2 when the pair failed to agree on hospital costs for patients.

There is now a 60-day window, which expires on October 2, before Bupa customers have to pay more at Ramsay’s 72 private hospitals across the country.

‘I feel sorry for anyone else’

Bupa customer Liz Havriluk from Coolum on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast said she felt lucky her surgery would still be covered.

She just made the company’s deadline for her nasal surgery next month at Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital.

A sign on a building reads Bupa
Bupa customers will likely pay more if they try to be treated at certain hospitals.(ABC News: Nic MacBean)

Ms Havriluk said she felt for others who would be left with mounting hospital costs.

“Ramsay hospitals are just about all we have up here, so I feel sorry for anyone else,” she said.

Ramsay Health Care has four of the five major private facilities on the Sunshine Coast, including Noosa Hospital, Caloundra Private Clinic, Selangor Private Hospital at Nambour and Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital.

Ms Havriluk has been a member of Bupa health insurance for 22 years and her partner since 1953.

The pair pay $195 a fortnight for their cover.

Hospital with gardens
Ramsay Health owns Sunshine Coast University Private Hospital.(Supplied)

GP says patients sold ‘false promise’

Sunshine Coast Local Medical Association president Roger Faint said he was already having to comfort and advise patients in similar situations to Ms Havriluk, who were feeling lost because of the stalemate between the two giant health companies.

A man standing in a surgical waiting room
Roger Faint says patients face uncertainty in the wake of the dispute.(Supplied: Roger Faint)

Dr Faint said they could need to look further afield.

“It puts them in a difficult financial situation — where there was a certainty there’s now uncertainty,” Dr Faint said.

He said older people would be affected by the fallout.

“These people don’t want to travel to Brisbane, or they can’t travel to Brisbane because transport is difficult and they may or may not have family,” he said.

signage of hospital outside entry with person walking in background
Bupa customers with treatment booked at Ramsay Health Care facilities may have to pay more.(ABC Gold Coast: Steve Keen)

Dr Faint said patients might not realize they were affected until they became sick or injured.

“And they’ve paid their premiums which are thousands of dollars a year, in some cases for a very long time, then they can’t get the service they thought they were paying for,” he said.

“It’s almost been like a false promise as well, isn’t it?”

Hospital spat will ‘ring alarm bells’

Australia Medical Association president Steve Robson said the dispute would make people question why they should bother with private health cover.

“I think people around the country who have private health insurance are looking at this with some trepidation and saying, ‘Why are we in a situation where our health fund and our hospital can’t agree on things,'” Professor Robson said.

A man in blue medical scrubs smiles at the camera.
Steve Robson says customers will be left questioning why they bother with health insurance.(ABC News: Dave Sciasci)

He said hospitals were under pressure with staff shortages and supply issues while insurers spent less because so many surgeries were cancelled.

“I would think there’d be an enormous pressure on Bupa to actually do the right thing by the people who paid them so much money, and for them to have the care that they need,” he said.

“And I think it’s going to ring alarm bells around the country if it’s not resolved quickly.”

In statements, Ramsay Health Care said Bupa’s offer was below inflation and did not cover the increases in its costs.

Bupa said it would not accept a deal that would significantly push up premiums for its members.

Bupa said it would continue to pay some of the costs for care, even at Ramsay, but that the hospital may decide to charge more without a deal in place.

On Friday, Bupa competitor HCF confirmed it had made a five-year deal with Ramsay that “recognizes the increased costs hospitals are facing.”

Ms Havriluk said she was still facing out-of-pocket costs of $2,500 for her September surgery to address her sleep apnea, despite having gold-class membership.

“Bupa only covers only 85 per cent of the very first nasal procedure and then the other side I get 50 per cent, then 25 per cent for a third surgery,” she said.

“When you think about all the money you’ve spent, it’s pretty lousy.”

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Categories
US

Indiana lawmakers vote to keep exceptions from abortion ban

Indiana lawmakers vote to keep exceptions from abortion ban

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A deeply divided Indiana House voted Thursday to keep exceptions in cases of rape or incest in a bill that would ban nearly all abortions in the state.

The Republican-dominated House voted 61-39 to defeat an amendment that would have removed those exceptions, with a majority of GOP members wanting their removal.

The House vote displayed a similar division among Republicans seen in the state Senate over exceptions for rape and incest, which remained in the bill when an attempt in the Senate last week also failed to strip those exceptions.

Republican Rep. Karen Engleman sponsored the amendment, arguing that even a child conceived in a rape or incest attack deserved a chance at life.

“The intentional ending of human life has no place in medical practice,” Engleman said.

The Indiana proposal follows a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to the state from neighboring Ohio to end a pregnancy. The case gained wide attention when an Indianapolis doctor said the child had to travel to Indiana because a new Ohio law bans abortions if cardiac activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.

Democratic legislators questioned Engleman on whether that girl’s abortion would be prohibited if her amendment was adopted. Engleman, who said she had a child as an unmarried teenager, responded that doctors could still determine whether the pregnancy threatened the life of a young girl.

Republican leadership said earlier this week that they support exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Republican House Speaker Todd Huston and GOP Rep. Wendy McNamara of Evansville, who is sponsoring the bill in the House, both said Monday that they favored allowing those exceptions.

McNamara said Monday that the law needed to be “conscious of those people who experienced trauma in rape and incest situations.”

While 39 House Republicans voted Thursday to strip the rape or incest exceptions from the bill, 32 Republicans joined all 29 House Democrats in keeping them in the bill. With a likely unified Democratic opposition to the full bill, Republican opponents of the exceptions will have to vote in favor of the bill for its passage. That vote could come Friday.

The Republican-controlled state Senate narrowly passed its abortion ban Saturday, 26-20, securing the minimum 26 votes needed to send it on to the House.

The House on Thursday also rejected, largely on party lines, a Democratic proposal that called for placing a non-binding question on the statewide November election ballot: “Shall abortion remain legal in Indiana?”

The proposal came after Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have allowed the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten abortion restrictions or ban the procedure outright. The vote was the first test of voters’ feelings about abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

McNamara spoke against the ballot question, pointing out that Indiana law doesn’t provide for statewide referendums. The only such statewide votes are on proposed constitutional amendments after they’ve been endorsed by two separately elected Legislatures.

Democratic Rep. Sue Errington of Muncie argued that Indiana voters want the chance to express their view on whether abortion should be legal.

“I don’t know if it will come out like it did in Kansas,” Errington said. “I hope it does, but I don’t have that guarantee.”

Last week, thousands of demonstrators on all sides of the abortion issue filled Statehouse corridors and sidewalks around the building as the Senate debated the bill. More than 100 people testified during an approximately nine-hour House committee hearing Tuesday. Only a handful of demonstrators watched Thursday’s debate from outside the chamber and in its gallery.

A House committee on Tuesday moved forward its version of the Senate-approved bill. The House bill would allow abortion exceptions for the physical health and life of the mother, as well as if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly. It also adjusted the time frame when abortions would be permitted in cases of rape and incest.

The Senate voted to allow abortions up to 12 weeks post-fertilization for those under 16 and eight weeks for those 16 and older. The House version, instead, would create a blanket ban after 10 weeks post-fertilization on abortions in cases of rape and incest. Victims would also no longer be required to sign a notarized affidavit attesting to an attack.

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Arleigh Rodgers is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers

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