You’re not helping. Not at all. Flint is a city that is slowly working to crawl its way out of the crater left behind when automakers left and the manufacturing sector imploded. Bit by bit, one step at a time, city leaders are bringing the city back with a strong vision for the future. Then stuff like this happens: Flint […]

Since the day that the ACA (aka Obamacare) health insurance exchanges launched on October 1st, I’ve been tracking the number of applications, enrollments and Medicaid/SCHIP expansion signups at ACASignups.net. Obviously the first few weeks were, shall we say, rocky. In addition to the now infamous website problems, reporting on the numbers was all over the map as well, with many “serious” […]

They think their pensions are OK, too This guest post is by Roger Kerson, a Michigan-based media consultant for labor unions, environmental groups, and non-profit organizations. He was director of public relations at the United Auto Workers during the GM and Chrysler restructuring. As an associate of the Arlington, Virginia-based firm PRWRK, he has provided strategic counsel to the Transport […]

It’s a good gig if you can get it See updates below. The Snyder administration recently gave three of its investment experts massive pay raises, making them some of the highest paid members of his administration. One of them, chief investment officer, Jon Braeutigam, makes more than the Governor and the Lt. Governor combined! The State of Michigan quietly increased […]

As a perpetual optimist, I’m pretty sure this is the low point for what I consider to be the greatest victory for the middle class since Medicare/Medicaid — the Affordable Care Act. Approval of President Obama and the law are at new lows. Still, as The Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent keeps pointing out, support for repeal is still a minority […]

Remember this number: 94.3% Michigan Republicans love to pass laws with “immediate effect”. It avoids the whole “gotta wait until 90 days after the close of the current legislative session” thing and the laws they pass go into effect immediately. They love it so much that, when I last did my analysis in early September, they had passed 94.3% of […]

“When one gains, another loses.” There is one very unfortunate aspect to the roll out of the Affordable Care Act. The tiny percentage of people who are being forced into new policies happens nearly all at once and at the very start of the roll out. The overwhelming benefits of having more Americans insured and covered by decent health care […]

I’ve officially enrolled in coverage through the marketplace. It was easier than I expected — and will save me about $10,000 a year. I just got covered under Obamacare. I already had insurance, but it was breaking my piggy bank. Now I have coverage with almost identical benefits, for less than half the price I’m paying right now. Even better, […]

The most progressive part of the Affordable Care Act is working the best. There’s no doubt that the craptacular launch of Healthcare.gov will go down in history with the vice-presidential nomination of Sarah Palin as one of the early 21st century’s great unforced errors. Calling it Obama’s Katrina is absurd, but we can’t ignore the fact that people will die […]

Something very dangerous is going on in America: People are taking Republicans’ concern trolling about health care seriously. Of course, I have a lot of sympathy for people who are finding that their health insurance plans are cancelled and they’ll have to pay more to get the coverage they have. But I have no sympathy for those who are pretending […]

Cor·po·rat·ism (noun) – \ˈkȯr-p(ə-)rə-ˌti-zəm\ – The organization of a society into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and exercising control over persons and activities within their jurisdiction. [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] After I reported on NERD Fund donor CVS Caremark receiving a multi-million dollar prescription drug benefit contract with […]