Have you ever wondered if the doctor who saw you in his office would recognize you if you met at the grocery? He or she might not, and it's not just because you're in street clothes. It might be that, with new health care regulations for computerized data gathering, he spent most of your annual checkup facing the computer …
Tag: Obamacare
Ideological purity no help to the body politic
Most of us probably find ourselves somewhere around the center of contemporary political thought, whether it's to the right of center or left of center. Our movement in elections often determine outcomes, and we're usually out of touch with outliers in both parties. We are unsettled by a Congress now with an increasingly hollowed out center, …
Continue reading Ideological purity no help to the body politic
What will it take to fix ACA?
When President Obama back in 2010 said of the flawed Affordable Care Act, pass it now, fix it later, perhaps he never dreamed of the extent to which politics would have paralyzed the U.S. Congress. In the past, with major laws like Medicare and Social Security, legislators took an engineering model approach. Pass it. Test …
Headlines to hope for in 2014
Each year, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial page editor Tom Waseleski prepares for the New Year an aspirational list of headlines. For several years, I have shamelessly borrowed the idea and herewith present my own suggestions, with precious little expectation that we will see them atop newspapers, magazines or teasing newscasts in 2014. Please send your own in the …
If ACA is a turkey, then Obama’s a lame duck
The talking heads are calling this year's snafus in the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act Obama's Katrina, likening it to the FEMA debacle in responding to the deadly 2005 hurricane that wasted Louisiana. I think the handling of the ACA roll-out is worse. Katrina is a code word for an epic bureaucratic screw-up, a failed response to …
Continue reading If ACA is a turkey, then Obama’s a lame duck
Clock ticks as extremists carry the day
The Red Sox move on to the ALCS, Gronkowski may play for the Patriots on Sunday, a Newton-based foundation is poised to save Boston's First Night Festival, the school buses are rolling in Boston after an illegal one-day strike, so all's right with the world. Not so fast. Even these positive headlines can't compensate for …
Headline wishes for 2012
My friend and colleague Tom Waseleski, editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, always prepares for New Year’s Day an aspirational list of headlines from which many of us could benefit. Here, with my own imprint, are the headlines I’d like to see in 2012.National Jobless Rate Drops Below 7 PercentThose Benefiting from New Health …