Friday, April 2, 2010
Speaking Out About Health Insurance Reform in San Francisco

This week, I was happy to return home to San Francisco to discuss the benefits of comprehensive health insurance reform for our community. While certain provisions of the health care legislation will not take effect until 2014, some benefits will start immediately. To find out how reform will specifically affect you, you can use this health care calculator.

Congresswoman Pelosi joins the congregation of the Glide Memorial Church
in San Francisco to celebrate the passage of health insurance reform.

At Glide Memorial Church on Sunday, I had the opportunity to thank Reverend Cecil Williams and Jan Mirikitani for their inspiring leadership in providing much needed health services to our city. The new health insurance reform law will provide significant funding for community health centers, enabling them to serve many more people.

On Monday, I joined Bob Trevorrow, Executive Director of the San Francisco Senior Center, Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, and AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen to discuss the impact of reform on seniors. The legislation will strengthen Medicare’s financial health by cutting waste and fraud while closing the donut hole and improving benefits for 97,000 seniors in San Francisco.

I participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new state-of-the-art Cancer Center at St. Mary’s Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon.

From education and diagnosis, to treatment and recovery, this new comprehensive cancer center will provide more San Franciscans with the tools needed to fight this disease.

With health care reform, we will reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $115 million annually in San Francisco.

Health reform is about more than just personal health; it is about the competitiveness of our country. The new law will allow people to start small businesses or change jobs without the fear of losing health insurance for themselves or their families.

Our local and national economy will have a new vitality, where our citizens have the freedom to pursue their talents, all while cutting the deficit by $1.3 trillion in the next 20 years.

As the President said, “We will measure our success by measuring the progress made by America’s working families.” On Tuesday, when he signed the improvements to the health insurance reform law, we achieved a great victory for the American people.

Please feel free to forward this information to your family and friends. To learn more about these efforts, to express your views, or to sign up for email updates, please visit my Web site.

Sincerely,

Member of Congress

There’s also an important military airport, used as a way-stop for planes crossing the Pacific.

Guam was a social powder-keg. The place was smouldering. There were serious problems between the Locals, the Islanders, and the Military.

It was decades ago that I was there, and there has been a lot of effort to ‘patch things up’.

Some reports say the efforts have had some success. Some say ‘things aren’t too bad’.

Maybe so … but there’s a lot at stake that depends on our military presence there.

Hank Johnson does not look like a dunce to me.

The good news is that we may be on a verge of a wave election where some of the dead wood is removed.

Speaking of dead wood, who is the dumbest Democratic Congressman of them all? Two recent nominees:

Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia, who is concerned that if more US troops move to Guam, the island will tip over.

For the record, Manhattan’s population density is about 100 times that of Guam. We know Manhattan is tipping left, but over? These new troops are not what Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in “The Tipping Point”.

Congressman Phil Hare of Illinois, who seems unaware that the Declaration of Independenceand the Constitution are separate documents, and that only one is the law of the land.

I do not understand why Presidents are limited to 8 years in office, but Congressmen and Senators can spend almost all of their adult lives there.

Then again, it is safer than being stationed on Guam. Real Clear Politics provides the current state of the races for the House, Senate, and Governors.

Governors races (currently 24 Republicans, 26 Democrats) are important for Congressional redistricting. Among the big states, GOP candidates are ahead in Pennsylvania Michigan, Florida, Georgia and Texas, and competitive in Ohio, California and Illinois.

In the House, Republicans are ahead in 18 Democrat-held seats, and Democrats are ahead in 2 GOP held seats.

Among the tossup races are 29 Democrat-held seats, and one GOP-held seat (Illinois 10).

Among districts that lean one way or the other (also vulnerable to a switch), are 15 Democrat-held seats, and 3 GOP-held seats.

In total, Democrats are vulnerable in 62 of their seats, and Republicans in 6 of theirs.

There are another 44 seats held by one or the other party that are considered likely to stay that way, but are potentially vulnerable in a wave year: 33 Democrat-held seats, 11 Republican-held seats.

In total. 95 Democratic held seats are in play, 17 for the Republicans.

A net pickup of 40 is required to remove Ms. Pelosi as speaker. Can that happen? I think at the moment, it is slightly more likely than not.

On that note, Speaker Pelosi and Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic Congressional campaign this year, both failed to sign the recent AIPAC sponsored letter that drew 327 votes in the House. I wonder why?

No wonder so many of the Democratic members find it easy to peel off, when the leadership is not there.
==========================
Men, it seems they are as dumb as they proclaim us to be. But they are the ones f**king up the country.

Hafa adai

Kate

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays.

These excerpts are published each year for their amusement.

Here are last year’s winners…

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of  looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in  it.

As she asked around for the name of a really good dentist, a colleague recently commented that it’s easier to find a great auto mechanic these days!

Lots of dentists advertise via direct mail and on the radio, but they’re not necessarily the best ones — and the old-school ones with 10-year-old tools and techniques may not be such a great choice either.

While I like my dentist just fine, the remark led me to wonder what I would do if I had to find someone to replace her. Asking for recommendations is a good start, but what would I be looking to learn?

I called Michael Apa, DDS, who practices with the Rosenthal Apa Group in New York City and teaches at the New York University College of Dentistry for Aesthetic Advantage, to ask how he would choose a dentist.

Beyond the obvious — someone who comes highly recommended, has good academic credentials, is convenient, personable and, of course, covered by your insurance plan (if you are lucky enough to have dental coverage) — he gave me some great insider secrets to evaluate whether a dentist really is as good as people say …

Clue Number One: What modern tools and toys are on display? Dental techniques and the equipment they require change so rapidly that few offices have everything out there.

So you shouldn’t expect the moon and the stars — this is expensive equipment and few dentists can afford all of it.

However, the dentists who are most likely to provide high-quality care will have at least some standard equipment available, says Dr. Apa…

Many dental offices now use digital X-rays, which are easier to read and therefore more accurate and — importantly — require less radiation than those of old.

For 21st-century teeth cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning instruments use sound waves to break up and remove plaque and tartar, including that which has accumulated under the gums. This makes cleaning teeth faster, more efficient and, for most people, more comfortable.

Lasers are now used to trim soft tissue such as gums and other areas around the mouth, with benefits that include less bleeding than traditional procedures, often no stitches or discomfort, and faster healing.

Some offices even have laser equipment to cut hard tissue — i.e., your teeth. With laser “drilling” you no longer have to hear that high-pitched whine, and since it doesn’t hurt, you don’t need anesthesia either.

Many offices now have a Cerec machine, which Dr. Apa calls a “miracle tool.” It uses a technique called CAD-CAM (computer-assisted design-computer-assisted manufacture) to create fillings, crowns, veneers and so on in just one patient visit.

The Cerec scans a tooth, takes measurements and then precisely carves the needed item from a ceramic block. Since it creates digital “impressions” of the tooth, there’s no need to create putty impressions either.

Clue Number Two: He/she examines your mouth for clues about your overall health. Dr. Apa says that today’s best dentists consider it their job to monitor your mouth for other problems beyond cavities and receding gums.

More and more studies reveal dentists to be the new health-care generalists, on alert for many health problems that may reveal themselves in the mouth — among them TMJ, circulatory problems, inflammatory disease, sleep apnea, precancerous lesions and oral cancers.

All dentists should routinely perform visual examinations of the mouth, and many now do this with a special light that changes color if it lands on suspicious tissue.

Clue Number Three: Who’s in the “in crowd”? When an unusual oral problem presents itself, you need an expert in treating that particular issue — this comes down to who your dentist knows

. As Dr. Apa says, not everyone can be good at everything, and to become really excellent requires lots of experience and specialized training.

Ask dentists for their lists of patient-referral specialists, and expect to find names of endodontists (for root canals and tooth implants)… periodontists (for gum disease)… TMJ specialists (for headache and jaw pain)… and dental surgeons (for tooth implants).

Yet another area where it is best to work with an expert is cosmetic dentistry — today it has turned into a sophisticated practice that few general dentists are trained to do.

Clue Number Four: Lab work is done locally, not off-shore. Many dentists now outsource lab work for such things as veneers, crowns and bridges to China, Mexico or other foreign countries.

While this may not be a terrible practice, it’s not optimal, says Dr. Apa. He explained that offshore labs typically do “good enough” work, but when dentists have a personal relationship with lab owners, they are more likely to get a level of excellence that helps assure the best product, and this is more likely with US labs.

Clue Number Five: According to Dr. Apa, graduating from even the finest dental school is just the start of a dentist’s education. He suggests asking “so, how’s school these days” to see what your dentist has to say — paying attention not only to what he/she says, but also to the comfort level in discussing it.

The only way for dentists to stay on top of their profession is to regularly attend conferences and workshops offering continuing education (CE) credits.

Nearly all states require CE credit hours, but the range is wide — from 15 to 100 hours, depending on the state.

And Dr. Apa told me that good dentists take many more credits than that each year.

The best dentists commit themselves to a lifetime of learning to stay current and keep their skills sharp, he said — and that sounds like the kind of dentist we all want to find.

Source(s):

Michael Apa, DDS, practices aesthetic and restorative dentistry in the Rosenthal Apa Group in New York City and is an instructor at the New York University College of Dentistry for Aesthetic Advantage.