Free Republic

Andy Pasternak, a family doctor in Reno, Nev., has seen more than 100 new Medicaid patients this year after the state expanded the insurance program under the Affordable Care Act. But he won’t be taking any new ones after Dec. 31. That’s when the law’s two-year pay raise for primary care doctors like him who see Medicaid patients expires, resulting in fee reductions of 43 percent on average across the country, according to the nonpartisan Urban Institute. The challenge is to convince physicians not just to continue accepting such patients but to take on more without getting paid what they’re...

Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley lab researchers, along with scientists from six other national laboratories, will take part in a state-of-the-art supercomputing project designed to model, simulate and predict the effects of climate change on Earth. The 10-year Energy Department project -- Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy (ACME) -- will develop and apply advanced climate system models on cutting-edge high-performance computing machines as soon as they become available, lab officials said. "The (complex scientific) challenge simulations are not yet possible with current model and computing capabilities," Livermore National Laboratory atmospheric scientist and ACME council chair David Bader said. "But we...

Democrats running for re-election in California’s parched San Joaquin Valley are refusing to link the state’s historic drought to climate change, despite the direct connection drawn by President Obama and his chief scientist, Stanford University physicist John Holdren. Politically, most Democrats have come to see climate change as the new same-sex marriage – an issue moving irreversibly in their favor. But not in the Central Valley, where Republican climate-change denial apparently still holds sway. Amanda Renteria, a Democrat challenging freshman Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, told the Hill, “Climate change doesn’t really belong in the question, or answer.”

Venezuela, a country that takes great pride in its looks, is dealing with an issue that has the country in a major tizzy – shortages in beauty products. That means women and men so accustomed to looking their best are now having to do without shampoo, cosmetics and, hold your breath, even deodorant. The cash-strapped government has been dealing with all sorts of scarcities – from staples like milk to medical supplies – because the country has put controls on the purchase of hard currency. And while certain shortages have been more critical – like diapers and coffins – Venezuelans...

Gov. John Kitzhaber on Friday downplayed the problems that have plagued Oregon’s health insurance exchange and urged people who need insurance by Jan. 1 to fill out a paper application instead of waiting for online enrollment to work. Nobody has been able to enroll in health insurance through Cover Oregon, the state’s health insurance exchange, because software glitches have prevented the website from accurately determining whether people qualify for federal subsidies or publicly funded health care through Medicaid.

Some school districts and state and local governments are limiting part-time workers’ hours or letting them go to comply with the Affordable Care Act. And it’s not all political. This month in Delaware, which has embraced the health law, officials decided to limit all casual and seasonal employees, including substitute teachers, to fewer than 30 hours a week to save on health insurance. About 376 workers from education, corrections, and homeland security agencies could be affected. In Pennsylvania, at least 10 school districts have slashed hours or outsourced their workers, including bus drivers, food service workers, and instructional aides. In...

"Thwy wil be lined up against the wakk and shot"