Working but poor? Fear the dreaded coverage gap.

Q I’m a single, healthy, female non-smoker, age 26, living in Tennessee. According to the HealthCare.gov cost calculator, with a income of only $8,000 a year I won’t qualify for a subsidy to buy health insurance. How does that make any financial sense?  

A It doesn't! That is why the health reform law as originally written expanded Medicaid, the venerable government-run health insurance program for low-income families and disabled people, to cover everyone with an income below 133% of the federal poverty level, which includes you.
But in its 2012 ruling on the constitutionality of the new health care law, the U.S. Supreme Court gave states the option of not expanding Medicaid, and Tennessee was one of the several dozen states that decided against it.

However, the rest of the law was left untouched. Including, unfortunately, the income ranges that determine eligibility for financial help to lower the cost of premiums for private insurance. Because the original idea was to put all low-income households on Medicaid, the law confers subsidies only on households with incomes of between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. In states that aren't expanding Medicaid, this has created a "coverage gap" for people like you, who make too little to qualify for a subsidy but don’t fall into a category that’s already eligible for Medicaid. To fix this would require an act of Congress, which is unlikely given the current state of Washington politics.

So right now we are stuck with a two-tier system for the working poor. In states that are expanding Medicaid, they will enjoy free or nearly free health care. Bailey Comment: "Ain't nothing free".  In states that aren't, they will remain uninsured and unable to get subsidies to buy private insurance. For a painful contrast you only need to look next door to Kentucky, which is expanding Medicaid. They've already enrolled more than 45,000 new people into the program.
The sad and frustrating thing is that states can expand Medicaid whenever they want to. What's more, that the federal government is picking up 100% of the cost for the first two years, and 90% after that, so it's a bargain for states. According to this recent report in the New York Times, your governor is trying to get expansion done but the state legislature is balking.
You might want to get in touch with your elected representatives to ask them why they think it's a good idea for low-income working people like yourself to remain uninsured.
Got a question for our health insurance expert? Ask it here; be sure to include the state you live in. And if you can't get enough health insurance news here, follow me on Twitter @NancyMetcalf.

Health reform countdown: We are doing an article a day on the new health care law until Jan. 1, 2014, when it takes full effect. (Read the previous posts in the series.) To get health insurance advice tailored to your situation, use our Health Law Helper, below.

NBC cancels Alec Baldwin's show 'Up Late' following actor's homophobic outbursts

  NBC's Alec Baldwin experiment is over 46 days after it began.
“We are jointly confirming that UP LATE will not continue on MSNBC,” the network and actor's reps said in a joint statement to FOX411.
MSNBC had already suspended Alec Baldwin’s low-rated news program last week following an alleged gay slur directed toward a photographer outside his New York City apartment earlier this month.
Despite the actor's apologies, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) had also had enough.
“Mr. Baldwin can’t fight for equality on paper, while degrading gay people in practice,” a GLAAD rep told FOX411.
Capital One, which employs Baldwin in its “What’s in your wallet?” TV campaign, has so far done nothing to distance themselves from the hot-headed thespian. The credit card giant did not respond to multiple requests for comment from FOX411 last week regarding his status with the company.
Baldwin’s last episode of "Up Late" hit a demo low, pulling in only 101,000 viewers 25-54 against 395,000 total viewers. The demo number represented a 41 percent drop from the 172,000 adults aged 25-54 who watched the one-hour program's October 11 debut.
 Bailey Comment:  To hell With The Majority now it's only about the Minority! Even if the minority is now the majority.

Congress

Iran

Arizona high school student suspended after fight over Confederate flag

An Arizona teenager is protesting his school's decision to punish him after getting into a fight with another student over a Confederate flag displayed on his truck.
Jacob Green, a junior at Millennium High School in Goodyear, tells MyFoxPhoenix he was suspended for five days after defending himself against a classmate who confronted him about the flag, which has flown his truck for six months.
"I've done nothing wrong," Green told the station. "I've flown a flag on my truck. Somebody fought me because of it. I didn't fight him."
In an email to parents following the incident, school officials explained that both students were suspended and that Jason was prohibited from bringing the flag on campus.
"Open display -- bringing it in -- it has been proven to be patently offensive to certain groups and the courts recognize that," Agua Fria Unified School District Superintendent Dennis Runyan told MyFoxPhoenix.com.
Jacob said he has researched the flag's history and didn't find it offensive. His parents believe the student who attacked their son committed a hate crime and are considering filing a police report.
"The flag means basically more independence, less government. It didn't mean racism, it didn't mean slavery, it didn't mean any of that," Jason said. "It basically meant what they were fighting for was their right to be independent and not have the government control them."  Bailey Comment: "Lets be honest with this subject, cruising around America one will see lots of different flags of other nations being displayed". One example is the flag of Mexico, yet there is no outcry over it.The Confederate Flag is part of America's history, so what do you want to do hid it or change history to fit your own ideas?  Below is a site you should visit before making that judgement.

 http://www.usa-flag-site.org/

WHAT DOES A FLAG MEAN?

1. I am the property of, or responsible for, the entity that this flag represents. (Example: flag at the entrance to a national park.)

2. I am subject to the laws of the entity that this flag represents. (Example: flag on a US merchant ship at sea or in a foreign port.)

3. I am an official representative of the entity that this flag represents (Examples: flag on a US Navy warship or on a US government office.)

4. I owe allegiance to the entity that this flag represents. (Example: a citizen flying the US flag on his house.)

5. I have an emotional or cultural attachment to the entity that this flag represents. (Example: a person of Polish ancestry flying the Polish flag on his house.)

6. I wish to show my respect for the entity that this flag represents. (Example: flying the British flag to commemorate the Queen's birthday.)

Missouri high school under fire for teacher-led prayer sessions from the American Humanist Association

A Missouri school district has vowed to "vigorously defend" itself after a secular organization announced it had filed a lawsuit to prevent alleged teacher-sponsored school prayer sessions in high school classrooms.  
The legal arm of the American Humanist Association filed a complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, claiming that prayer sessions held at Fayette High School violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which says the government may not establish an official religion. 
The lawsuit alleges a math teacher led the weekly Christian devotional prayer sessions for several years in her classrooms after buses arrived in the morning and before classes began. The suit said she would urge students to pray for sick or injured students and joined the students in saying "amen." The school's former principal made an announcement over the public address system to remind students about the meetings.
The teacher violated a school district policy that states school employees "are to be present solely in a nonparticipatory capacity at any student-initiated religious activity held at school and will strictly observe a policy of official neutrality regarding religious activity," the lawsuit says.
The suit also said the teacher told students during her math class that God would punish them if they are not good and prominently displayed the book "God's Game Plan" in her classroom.
The teacher and principal left the district at the end of the 2012-13 year, but the association believes the prayer sessions are continuing this year, said Monica Miller, an attorney for the group. She said it's unclear whether a teacher is participating in them.
"What we are challenging is that the district has established a policy of allowing teachers to pray with students," Miller said, adding that the suit seeks to keep that from happening in the future.
Miller said that a student plaintiff is still attending the school. The student that originally reached out to the group about the prayer sessions recently left the school over concerns the school was promoting a religious environment, KOMU.com reported.
In a statement obtained by the station, the school district declined to comment on the allegations specified in the complaint but said it would "vigorously defend against any claim that the district has taken actions which violate any person's First Amendment rights."
Carl Esbeck, University of Missouri law professor, told ColumbiaTribune.com that an important distinction is whether the prayer sessions took place while the teacher was "on the clock."
"Outside their clock hours, they're private citizens like anybody else," Esbeck said.

What the American Humanist Association is all about.

The conjunction of humanist and Islamic worldviews will threaten to destroy America from within throughout the 21^st century.  Indeed, there is a war of worldviews raging in America, with secular humanism and Islam as co-belligerents on one side and Judeo-Christian America on the other. 
The worldview war
The worldview war is spiritual in origin.  The Bible states in Ephesians 6:12 that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."  Worldviews incorporate theology and therefore reflect spiritual beliefs.  Life in America as we know it is at stake in this war.
A worldview is a comprehensive framework of ideas and beliefs from which an individual interprets his surroundings and circumstances.  It is this view of reality that consequently directs the decisions and actions of the individual, and also of nations.  According to Dr. David Noebel, worldview expert, worldviews are composed of ten different disciplines: theology, politics, economics, philosophy, biology, history, ethics, law, sociology, and psychology.
There are primarily six worldviews contending for the 6.9 billion people on Earth, with Islam, secular humanism, and Christianity chief among them.
The Islamic threat to America has historically been primarily a war of words, as characterized by S.A.A. Maududi in 1939, when he said, "Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and program of Islam. Islam requires the earth - not just a portion, but the whole planet."  Maududi influenced Sayyid Qutb, the leading theologian of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and '60s and author of Social Justice in Islam.  Qutb had a significant influence on bin Laden and Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
The rise of secular humanism
Secular humanism increasingly supports the Islamists' position in the battle against the Judeo-Christian worldview.  Secular humanists currently dominate the government, education, the media, and the legal institutions in the United States.
Secular humanism may be the fastest-growing worldview in America.  It has also been declared a religion by the U.S. Supreme Court; the American Humanist Association has been given an IRS religious tax exemptionⁱ_.
Why are humanists and Islamists united in their opposition to the Judeo-Christian worldview?

• Humanists and Islamists share the primary goal of removing Christianity from public life so that their worldview can gain power.

• They both seek government solutions to accomplish utopia on earth.  The humanists desire a one-world government that perfects man on earth (via the United Nations, EU, etc.), while Islam seeks a one-world caliphate and a sharia legal system that perfects man on earth.

• Both use each other in attacking the Constitution.  The Muslim uses humanist doctrine (separation of church and state) in attacking the Constitution through judges, etc. to open the door for Sharia, food regulation, sanctioned prayer, and state suppression of Christian expression.  The humanist uses the Islamists to counter Christian "oppression" and attack the Constitution.

• Both use each other in a "termite strategy."  Termites destroy a house slowly and then suddenly.  By the time you see them, it may be too late.

The history of Islamists joining efforts with humanists is longstanding.  The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem allied with Hitler's Germany to annihilate the Jews.  The Ayatollah Khomeini aligned with Russia against Christian America shortly after taking power in Iran^iv_.
Islamic and Humanist totalitarianism cause religious persecution.
Estimates of Christians persecuted worldwide have reached 200 million.  Seventy-five percent of worldwide religious persecution is perpetrated against Christians, yet Christianity represents only approximately 30% of the world's population.  According to Open Doors International, the top ten oppressors are Islamic or humanist countries.  North Korea (humanist) is the most religiously oppressive country, followed by the Islamic countries of Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Yemen, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and (humanist) Laos.
If Islam is peaceful, what about jihad?
Many Muslims and Humanists will assert that Islam is peaceful and that jihad is only an internal struggle to find peace with God.  A textual analysis of the Bukari Hadith indicates that 97% of jihad references are to physical (combat) jihad, and only 3% to spiritual jihadⁱⁱ.  Further, the Islamic doctrines of taqiyya (deception) and hudna (breaking treaties when circumstances are favorable to Islamic objectives) clearly illustrate a strategy to deceive the ignorant and credulous.
Jihad is a successful strategy.
Muhammad had approximately 150 converts to Islam after ten years of his efforts in Mecca.  However, after journeying to Medina and becoming a physical (combat) jihadist, he acquired 100,000 converts over the next ten yearsⁱⁱⁱ.  Moreover, the first hundred years after Mohammed's death gave rise to the physical jihad of his disciples, who destroyed or converted approximately 3,200 churches via plunder and conquest until Islam was defeated at the Battle of Tours in 732 A.D.
Effects of worldview.
Detroit used to be an all-American city with the highest per capita income in the 1950s.  However, the advance of unions (private and public), growing corruption of secular interests, and significant growth in the Arab-Islamic population have resulted in the collapse of a once-great city.
Great Britain is the best international example of humanist-Islamic cooperation.  Great Britain was the leading empire in the 19^th century, and the British pound was the world's reserve currency.  But Great Britain is now a shadow of its former self.  Will America follow the secular humanist model of Great Britain and experience a similar decline?
Samuel Huntington summarized the problem in his classic tome, titled The Clash of Civilizations, when he said, "Islam's borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power."
There are evil, incompetent, and indifferent combatants in this worldview war.  Evil combatants (radical Islamists and secular humanists) do bad things on purpose.  Incompetent combatants (secular Christians) do bad things by accident.  Indifferent combatants (majority of Americans) don't care whether others do good or bad as long as their personal peace and prosperity is not disturbed.  The evil combatants use the incompetent and indifferent to accomplish their goals for society.
What, then, should we do?
Judeo-Christian believers must educate themselves (and others) and engage the culture (schools, churches, synagogues, families, government, and communities) to reverse secular humanism and slow the progress of Islamic cultural and physical jihad in the U.S.  We must focus our efforts on the incompetent and indifferent population within the U.S. if we are to defeat those who are evil combatants.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/the_worldview_war.html#ixzz2lTYSX1T3
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Kids, parents fight back after humanist group threatens another school over Christmas toy drive

When a national humanist organization threatened to sue SkyView Academy for collecting toys for needy children, students at the Colorado charter school decided to fight back.
Officials at SkyView Academy announced earlier this week that they were dropping its participation in Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse. The project involves stuffing toys, candy and hygiene items to disadvantaged children around the world.
But the American Humanist Association said the school’s participation in the program violated the U.S. Constitution and sent a letter demanding they cease and desist.

Some critics have tried to compare the humanists to Ebenezer Scrooge – but that’s really unfair. Even Scrooge had a heart.

A small charter school in South Carolina received a similar letter last week and complied with the AHA’s demands.
Even though the project at SkyView was student-initiated and student-led, school officials determined they could not afford to pay for a court battle. The school’s board said they were disappointed by the humanists’ threats.
“We know this is a bullying tactic,” parent Kendal Unruh told me in a telephone interview. “We know that they target small schools that don’t have a budget to defend themselves. In lieu of a fist, they use a letter. We don’t have the money to invest in a long, costly legal battle.”
Unruh said it’s not coincidental that the South Carolina charter school received the exact same letter.
“Because they don’t like the message that we convey under our religious liberty, they have to shut us down and that is a tactic of bullying,” she said. “They don’t believe in equal access. They believe in shutting down anybody who doesn’t comply with their view of what society should be – and that is completely godless.”
And while the South Carolina school completely shut down their Operation Christmas Child project, the students at SkyView decided to defy the humanists.
On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of students and parents and well-wishers staged a grassroots act of defiance. And while they meant to send a message to the humanists – it was really about making sure poor children had toys on Christmas day.
“The young people weren’t concerned about the politics of it,” Unruh told me. “They were asking, ‘what about the kids?’”
Instead of collecting the shoe boxes inside the school – the students just moved their entire operation outside – on a public sidewalk.
Volunteers loaded shoe boxes into trucks and vans, while students held a religious liberty rally – hoisting signs condemning the humanists.
“Humanists hate kids,” read one sign. Another declared, “You won’t steal Christmas from children.”
Unruh said yesterday’s rally was a great life lesson for the young students.
“You stand up to bullies,” she said. “You don’t stand down. You stand up for your belief system.”
Kimberly Saviano, a member of Humanists of Colorado, defended the national organization’s attack on the school.
“The school was promoting it and they were using school resources to get it together,” she told the newspaper. “By promoting it during school time, it gives the air of authority to it, as if the administration endorses the religion.”
But Unruh said Operation Christmas Child was student-organized and student-led – and based on what happened Wednesday – they aren’t going to be scared away by a bunch of non-believers.
“It’s the right thing to do,” she said. “It’s the merciful thing to do, the compassionate thing to do.”
Some critics have tried to compare the humanists to Ebenezer Scrooge – but that’s really unfair. Even Scrooge had a heart.
I’m not sure why the humanists want to take toys away from impoverished children. Maybe they suffered some sort of psychological crisis as young children. Maybe Santa gave them a pair of underwear instead of a Rock-Em, Sock-Em Robot.
In fairness, nobody likes getting Fruit of the Loom on Christmas Day.
But even worse than that, nobody likes a humanist who gets their underwear in a bunch over American school kids trying to make sure poor children have a merry Christmas.
In the words of the Grinch, “pucker up and kiss it,” humanists.