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To: Brumar89 who wrote (1227550)	5/6/2020 7:33:05 PM
From: Brumar89	2 Recommendations Recommended By pocotrader rdkflorida2 Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1576348

FUN FACT: Trump has ordered that the border wall be painted black, at an estimated cost of at least $500 million. MontanaBeef Retweeted tens of thousands of americans dead and they’re having meetings about paint colors This reminds me of Dwight Schrute inheriting Michael Scott's office and immediately painting it black.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (1227550)	5/6/2020 11:05:38 PM
From: puborectalis	2 Recommendations Recommended By Brumar89 pocotrader Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576348

A great paradox of this pandemic is that while Covid-19 is overwhelming the health care system, health care spending is down a whopping 18 percent. This is because discretionary surgical procedures and the use of other health care services have plunged. Hospitals and doctors are suffering financially while Americans are suffering physically. But not all of the health care industry is hurting. Health insurers are doing just fine. Their revenues, based on premiums that were set in 2019, are stable. They are reporting high first-quarter profits because the drop in covered health services overall more than offset the extra cost of caring for Covid-19 patients. Indeed, their profits for the rest of 2020 are projected to be just as healthy as last year’s, which is why their stock prices are close to five-year highs. Granted, this could change in the long run, as members lose insurance after losing their jobs, and providers roar back with more elective procedures. But for now, health insurers are thriving for the same reason that Americans and health care providers are suffering. So they should do their part in this crisis. They can become heroes alongside physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists. Health insurers as heroes? It may appear that we’re being sarcastic, but insurers can take five steps to make this crisis — and the longer-term future — much better First, just as American taxpayers are providing trillions in financial relief to businesses and hospitals, health insurers should be offering financial relief to Americans. Auto insurers have provided premium rebates to customers because of reduced driving and accidents. Some health insurers have provided 60- or 90-day premium holidays, especially to small businesses. Health insurers should provide premium reductions for 2020, with larger premium relief or suspension of premium collection altogether for the next three months for low- and middle-income Americans. More than 30 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in just five weeks, and many of them will need health coverage, especially in states that have not expanded Medicaid. Insurers could offer greater leniency on coverage extensions for members who lose jobs and their health insurance — it’s feasible, because many community nonprofit insurers are already doing it. Second, many people are forgoing needed health care, including prescription drugs. The last thing we need in a pandemic is infected people not getting tested and treated, and spreading the virus to others, because they can’t afford basic care. For those who do have coverage, health insurers should make getting care cheaper. While many have waived out-of-pocket costs for Covid-19 testing and treatment, they should eliminate deductibles and co-payments for primary and preventive care and generic drugs for everyone, especially people with high-deductible plans, and remove co-payments for medications used to treat chronic disease. For those who do need emergency care or hospitalization, providing grace periods on collecting out-of-pocket costs could go a long way. Insurers should also be mailing their members masks and gloves, free of cost, by covering it as preventive care. Getting appropriate health care is hard enough with physical distancing policies; at least the financial barriers can be reduced. Third, health insurers should help primary care and other physician practices and smaller hospitals, which tend to lack deep cash reserves. With the decline in office visits and increased use of telemedicine, virtually all are losing money and many are going bankrupt. Health insurers have advanced billions to doctors and hospitals. But more substantial help is needed. Health insurers should switch from paying doctors for services rendered (the fee-for-service model) to paying them a fixed fee per patient they care for (known as capitation), with adjustments for quality provided and how sick patients are. The Hawaii Medical Services Association (the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Hawaii), did this a while ago, and guess what? Unlike doctors in other states, Hawaii’s primary care physicians are not on the brink of bankruptcy. Previous physician resistance to capitation has changed under Covid-19. The Massachusetts Coalition of Primary Care called upon state health officials to do it, but private insurers should do it too. Fourth, health insurers should work with public health officials to prepare primary care practices and others to do Covid-19 testing and contact tracing. Many health insurers now employ doctors and nurses to develop clinical protocols, identify gaps in the quality of care, share data with physician practices on how they are doing, and directly work with patients through call centers. This system could be used to increase the public health response that is critical to saving our economy. For example, health insurer call centers could assist in contact tracing. Health insurers also should be working with hospitals and physician practices to set up sites for members with Covid-19 symptoms to be tested and cared for rather than languishing at home. We don’t need more 20- and 30-somethings with strokeswaiting it out at home because they are afraid of getting Covid-19 at a hospital. Finally, health insurers should aggressively help doctors understand why fewer people are seeking care for conditions other than Covid-19, and help ensure that members get the care they need, because more of them may be dying for lack of treatment. During stressful times people are more prone, not less prone, to experience heart attacks and strokes. Yet those patients are missing from our hospitals. Health insurers know which patients take drugs for chronic conditions. They should reach out to those who delay visits or miss prescriptions to get them what they need and let them know who to call for care. Health insurers are profiting from the pandemic. While this may not last forever and some are already taking some of these recommended steps, all insurers need to step up and demonstrate their commitment to the nation’s health. They can help public health officials, health care providers and patients if they do. Then they could become heroes just like nurses and doctors. Amol S. Navathe and Ezekiel J. Emanuel are physicians who direct the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (1227550)	5/7/2020 9:03:59 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576348

I back him because he did everything that was required of him and more. You liberals would have sat on your hands and hugged a Chinese communist in solidarity with them, worrying about political correctness, instead of shutting flights down and engaging the whole of government and corporations to respond to the virus. He's done all any man could. In the mean time, Democrats have used this as an opportunity to trample on Americans' Constitutional rights and engage in Gestapo tactics. Note that as usual, the Democrats are more concerned about the rights of guilty people in jail, instead of the rights of innocent people who are put in jail in violation of their Constitutional rights. Democrats are proving not just to be totalitarian (as I've shown with their censorship of the freedom of speech) but also now just plain evil. They want bad people out of jails and good people thrown in jails. ------ Top Texas officials denounce Dallas salon owner’s jail sentence for defying orders to close Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton said the seven-day jail sentence was excessive. Paxton called for her immediate release. by Cassandra Pollock May 6, 2020 Updated: 17 hours ago Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton said Wednesday that the seven-day jail sentence a Dallas salon owner received for defying orders to keep her business closed was excessive — with Paxton calling for Shelley Luther's immediate release. “I find it outrageous and out of touch that during this national pandemic, a judge ... would jail a mother for operating her hair salon in an attempt to put food on her family’s table,” Paxton said in a statement, calling state district Judge Eric Moyé’s order to jail and fine Luther, owner of Salon a la Mode, “a shameful abuse of judicial discretion.” Paxton also penned a letter to Moyé demanding he immediately release Luther, arguing that a community that had already "voluntarily reduced its 'jail population ... by about one thousand people' due to" the coronavirus pandemic "can certainly stand to release one more." Paxton also pointed to Abbott's latest directive, which will allow hair salons and barber shops to reopen Friday under certain guidelines, arguing that it was "unjustifiable" to confine Luther "well after she could be operating her business and providing for her children." Paxton’s letter to Moyé comes less than a week after a top lawyer in his officemade clear to county judges that Abbott's executive order at the time to reopen certain Texas businesses did not include places like barbershops and hair salons. That clarification came soon after a few local officials questioned whether Abbott’s order actually excluded such businesses. Soon after Paxton's statement Wednesday, Abbott issued one that said he disagreed “with the excessive action” by the judge and suggested that "there are less restrictive means" than jailing Luther while ensuring public safety during the pandemic. Abbott did not indicate in his statement whether he plans to commute Luther's sentence, which a number of hard-line Republicans have called on him to do since Luther's sentencing Tuesday. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Wednesday after Abbott's statement that the Luther sentencing is "unacceptable" and offered to take her place by being in house arrest for a week "so she can go back to work." Patrick also said he had not yet talked to the governor about the situation. "I have to look at the law, if he's able to act in the manner, or pardon for that local issue," Patrick said on a tele-conference call with reporters. "Right now, if [Luther] hasn't had the money, I'll step up and pay the $7,000 fine, and if there's already some money raised, I'll make the difference to get us to $7,000." Luther reopened her salon days after Dallas County issued a stay-at-home order in March. She continued to operate her business despite a cease-and-desist letter from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and a temporary restraining order Moyé signed that told Luther her business must remain closed. Luther said she kept her salon running out of necessity — "I need to feed my family, and my stylists could not feed their families," she said Tuesday — and that she only recently received the federal loan she applied for. Moyé found Luther in contempt of court, sentencing her to a week in jail and ordering her to pay thousands of dollars in fines. Similar violations against stay-at-home orders have been reported in other parts of the state, though they have not generated the amount of drama that the Luther case has in recent days. In Laredo, for example, two women allegedly violated the community's emergency management plan for offering beauty and cosmetic services from home. Both were arrested last month and charged with violating the plan, which the Laredo Morning Times reported carried a punishment of up to 180 days in jail, a $2,000 fine or both. As the Dallas situation has intensified, Luther has become a galvanizing figure for some Republicans who have rallied around the salon owner, arguing that individual liberties have been infringed. Elected officials have weighed in on social media, calling the issue " beyond ridiculous" and " absolute lunacy." "This is crap," state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, tweeted Tuesday. " @JudgeClayJ - you are a good man. No doubt about your sincerity. But you should be ashamed of yourself for allowing this to take place in Dallas County. Steward and lead. Don’t rule!" A number of Democrats, meanwhile, emphasized that Luther violated multiple orders and argued that the "outrage" over the salon owner was a double standard to the state's criminal justice system. "Salon owner sentenced to 7 days in jail = outrage," state Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat, tweeted Tuesday. "Ignoring the plight of thousands of inmates in jails and prisons in TX = business as usual. I’m growing weary of the righteous indignation of folks who never once gave a second thought to the incarcerated. #txlege" State Rep. Chris Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat who chairs the House Democratic Caucus, tweeted similar sentiment Wednesday: "To all who are distraught over proud lawbreaker Shelley Luther getting 7 days in jail, I'd like to introduce you to Crystal Mason. Sentenced to 5 YEARS in prison for erroneously casting a provisional ballot while on probation." Warren Norred, Luther's attorney, told Dallas radio host Mark Davis before Abbott's statement Wednesday that he was working on submitting legal filings to secure her release before the end of her sentence. "We're going to ask the Supreme Court to spring her," said Norred, who is also a member of the State Republican Executive Committee. "There are rules for these kinds of things. ... This is not about wanting a haircut — it's about livelihood." Moyé's office and Luther's lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Alex Samuels contributed to this report.