Catherine Rampell, Reporter - Reader Supported News / The Washington Post
Stephan:
Yet more bad news about the American illness profit system, and the failure of Congress to do anything positive to improve this appallingly bad system. Fifteen million people, at a minimum, are about to lose healthcare and, of course, American children will also suffer.
An empty hospital bed at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles. Credit: Jae C. Hong / AP
Starting at midnight Saturday, the first of an expected 15 million people will be kicked off Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). At least five states — Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, New Hampshire, South Dakota — have said they will begin terminating coverage throughout the month of April.
Other states have said they will follow. The entire purge, which is completely legal, will take place over a year.
What’s behind this mass disenrollment?
The proximate cause might seem reasonable: The covid-19 public health emergency is no longer forcing states to retain every Medicaid enrollee already on the books.
Early in the pandemic, as a condition of receiving additional federal funding, states were temporarily barred from kicking anyone off Medicaid. This was intended to guarantee more people access to medical care while the coronavirus crisis was raging. Better to err on the side of […]
Lioyd Alter and Haley Mast, Design Editor and Contributing Writer - Treehugger
Stephan:
Here is some innovative excellent good news. When I say that transitioning out of the carbon power era successfully will lead to a whole new spectrum of technologies, this is the sort of thing I mean.
Solar powered refrigerated trailer. Credit Treehugger
Reefers, or refrigerated trailers, are cooled by diesel fuel, with electricity from either the tractor’s generator or an Auxilary Power Unit (APU) mounted on the trailer. An idling diesel tractor burns a gallon of fuel per hour; an APU, 4/10ths of a gallon. According to XL Fleet, which makes “electrification solutions for commercial and municipal fleets,” about 50,000 diesel-powered reefers are sold every year in the U.S.
XL Fleet recently announced it is working with eNow, which makes solar and battery systems for electric Transport Refrigeration Units (eTRUs).
“XL Fleet and eNow are collaborating on the design and development of the system that will power eTRUs, as a replacement for conventional diesel-powered systems. XL Fleet is developing the high-capacity integrated lithium-ion battery and power electronics technology that will be installed underfloor on the Class 8 trailer, providing approximately 12 hours or more of run time between charges. eNow will integrate this system into its architecture, including solar panels mounted on the roof of the trailer to maintain the battery charge […]
Here is more good news. The transition out of carbon and the internal combustion engine is underway.
Wind turbines stand in fields near Palm Springs, Calif, March 22, 2023. Electricity generated from renewables surpassed coal in the United States for the first time in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Monday, March 27, 2023. Credit: AP/Ashley Landis
Electricity generated from renewables surpassed coal in the United States for the first time in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Monday.
Renewables also surpassed nuclear generation in 2022 after first doing so last year.
Growth in wind and solar significantly drove the increase in renewable energy and contributed 14% of the electricity produced domestically in 2022. Hydropower contributed 6%, and biomass and geothermal sources generated less than 1%.
“I’m happy to see we’ve crossed that threshold, but that is only a step in what has to be a very rapid and much cheaper journey,” said Stephen Porder, a professor of ecology and assistant provost for sustainability at Brown University.
California produced 26% of the national utility-scale solar electricity followed by Texas with 16% and North Carolina with 8%.
I have been making the linkage of White supremacy, male dominance, the anti-choice movement, the incel movement, and the Republican Party for years, as regular SR readers know. Now others are beginning to see this same linkage. Here is an example.
Pro-life supporters gather on the National Mall in Washington, DC ahead of the March for Life on January 20th, 2023. Note that there is not a single woman in this picture of the crowd. This looks like an incel gathering. Credit: Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency / Getty
Efforts by Republicans and their allies to roll back abortion rights continue, with a looming federal ban on the abortion pill mifepristone, which accounts for more than half of all pregnancy terminations each year. That case is being decided by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, and was litigated by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian advocacy group that was also involved in the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision last year, which overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, has adopted various terms used by anti-abortion advocates in his comments from the case, referring to “chemical abortion” and “mail-in abortion,” for example, phrases that are widely rejected in medical professional settings. His language has led to concerns that the judge is tipping his hand to […]
I am very seriously concerned about the growing Red state trend debasing the medical care for women and girls. In Idaho, in one city, Sandy Point, a community of 9,000 people, the only hospital in that city has just stopped providing all obstetrical care. Getting an abortion is almost impossible in Idaho, and now they are trying to make it illegal for a girl under 18 to be helped to travel out of state to get one. The result, I predict, is going to be increased death of pregnant girls and women who cannot get the care they need. Frankly, if I were a fertile female I don't think I would choose to live in Idaho, and the same is going to be true in other Red states that will follow the Idaho pattern. So, I think, we are going to see increased maternal mortality in the U.S., and we already have the worst record of any nation amongst the developed nations
Protesters in support of reproductive rights rally on June 27, 2022, in Boise, Idaho. Credit: Sarah A. Miller / Idaho Statesmen / Tribune News Service / Getty
The Idaho state legislature has forwarded an anti-abortion proposal that would criminalize the transportation of minors to other states for abortion services.
House Bill 242 creates a brand new crime — abortion trafficking — that is defined as the transportation of an Idaho-based minor to another state for an abortion without their parents’ or guardians’ consent. The bill would make so-called abortion trafficking a felony offense that is punishable by two to five years in prison.
The bill was passed earlier this month in the state House of Representatives, and was forwarded this week to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it is expected to pass. Pending any amendments, the bill would then advance to Gov. Brad Little (R), who has consistently backed anti-abortion measures in the state and is likely to sign the bill into law.
