&RIDAY .OVEMBER
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HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL
Cities in red states push federal insurance plan Local officials working to sign up residents HOUSTON (AP) – The scene in a city-owned building may look like a hurricane has swept through Houston: Nurses giving vaccine shots, people scurrying around with files and papers and officials leaning over computers helping blearyeyed parents fill out forms as their children munch on free pretzels. But this is no hurricane. Instead, it is Houston’s offensive to reach more than 1 million people across 600 square miles who don’t have health
insurance and connect them with the new federal health insurance program that began accepting applications this month. The push is happening in one of the nation’s reddest states, an example of the gap between the vitriolic political opposition to President Barack Obama’s signature initiative in some conservative bastions and the actual response to it by local officials. “This is the same strategy we use to respond to hurricanes and public health disasters,� said Stephen Williams, director of Houston’s Department of Health and Human Services, who has organized an effort to sign up as many unin-
sured people as possible. Republican governors and legislatures in about two dozen states are refusing cooperation with the roll-out of the health overhaul, but some local governments are trying to fill the gap, working with nonprofit organizations, hospitals and churches leading the outreach. After receiving only about $600,000 in federal grant money, Williams put together a 13-county coordinating group with other organizations so they could pool funds, resources and data. He also invested about $600,000 from his own budget. “If you live in Harris County and in the city of
Houston you are footing the bill for people that don’t have insurance,� Williams said. “Regardless of all the rhetoric that is going on, people have better access to care when they are insured.� In Harris County, which paid $585 million this year to treat the uninsured in public hospitals and clinics, about 300 county employees have been trained to assist in the enrollment process. The city has provided staff, office space, laptops, air cards and cellphones. A seven-person call center partly funded by the city fields questions about the program, which aims to register recipients by Dec. 15.
AP
Yazmin Fuentes (center) works at a call center in Houston, in a photo taken Oct. 24. In Houston, which paid $585 million this year to treat the uninsured in public hospitals and clinics, about 300 county employees have been trained to assist in enrollment in the new federal health insurance program.
BUDGET BATTLE
Rep. Ryan strikes collaborative tone Hopes to restore public confidence
future – is he maneuvering for a House leadership position or for a 2016 presidential campaign? The 43-year-old Wisconsin congressman’s remarks and actions in coming weeks also could signal which side of the ideologicalpragmatic divide he favors – or whether he can straddle both sides – at a time U.S. Rep. of deep rifts Paul Ryan within the R-Wis. Republican Party between tea party conservatives and more business-friendly, establishment Republicans. As he usually does, Ryan is warning against drawing any political inferences from his words or actions. “A lot of people just don’t understand me,� Ryan said recently in an interview with The Associated Press. “Look, I am not sitting in my home or in my office thinking about ‘How does this help my personal political career years down the road?’ I am literally thinking about what’s the best way I can do my job today.�
WASHINGTON (AP) – To hear Rep. Paul Ryan tell it, a bipartisan group of congressional negotiators has the chance to take the first steps toward fixing a serious problem: a debt-ridden federal government facing an onslaught of retiring baby boomers draining entitlement programs. If successful, “we’ll restore confidence in Washington,� Ryan said this week at the start of House-Senate budget talks. “The bar is pretty low right now. Let’s see if we can clear it.� The 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee seemed to suggest a collaborative approach as he started formal talks with Democrats intended to reach a budget agreement by mid-December. The panel could be pivotal in avoiding another government shutdown in January when money is slated to run out again and a debt default in February. From now until a deal is reached, how Ryan comports himself could offer clues about his political
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