LOCAL / NATION
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2013
THE ITEM
A3
46 YEARS from Page A1 Nicole Butler. “I’ve been sending my daughter to (one of the Head Start locations) for two years, and I’ve really liked it.” Children, parents and staff alike had nothing but praise for the program. “I’ve been working here for 12 years,” said Charlene Hayward. “It’s very family oriented. We all get along like family. I’ve worked in the public school system before, and I’d have to say I like this much better. It’s a smaller atmosphere, which gives us time to focus on each child more often, and we have a great director who’s always had an open-door policy. She’s wonderful.” While many spoke of Mance’s efforts, she made sure to acknowledge the hard work of others during Thursday’s ceremony. “The other reason we’re here today is to celebrate 46 years of services,” Mance said. “Along with that comes acknowledging those who have been here since the beginning. Mance, who has been employed by Wateree Community Actions since 1984, said there were three people who specifically received recognition for their long-term efforts. “Artrell Brown, Nancy Wilson and Lenora Arnett have each been here since 1967,” Mance said. “That’s nearly half a century dedicated to
MATT WALSH / THE ITEM
Two children play with one of the adults helping at the Wateree Community Actions Inc. celebration on Thursday at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. Head Start director Georgia Mance gave special thanks to all the staff and volunteers that make the program such a success.
bettering the education of young children. They deserve recognition.” As those names were called out over the public announcement system set up in the church’s recreational building, every pair of hands applauded the hard work of those three employees. Even the children showed their apprecia-
tion by cheering along with the applause. The organization also took a moment to thank Morris College student volunteers and the help of Central Carolina Technical College’s nursing program. Jesse Madaris, one of the students in CCTC’s associates in nursing program, said it’s been a lot of fun working with Head Start.
“We come in and help a little bit with the classroom,” she said. “It’s mainly about health promotion. We teach them basic health and growth and development. But we’ll also do things like help the children get on and off the bus. We all enjoy it.” “It’s been a wonderful learning opportunity for the
(nursing students),” said CCTC nursing instructor Susan E. Caulkins. “It gives them a chance to watch the children grow and help them along as they learn basic pediatric care.” Judging by all the smiling faces Thursday morning, Head Start will be around to celebrate many more years of service.
Obama struggles to save his cherished health law may yet have that kind of influence on how health insurance is viewed. “An expectation that everybody should have health insurance is now a topic of conversation in families,” he says. That conversation was interrupted by news that the HealthCare.gov website didn’t work and that people with coverage were getting cancellation
notices despite Obama’s promise that you can keep your insurance. Obama maneuvered this past week to extricate Democrats from the cancellations fallout. The president offered a one-year extension to more than 4.2 million people whose current individual policies are being canceled by insurers to make way for more
comprehensive coverage under the law. This move by the White House was intended to smooth a disruption for which his administration completely failed to plan. But it also invited unintended consequences, showing how easily the law’s complicated framework can start to come loose. State insurance com-
missioners warned that the president’s solution would undermine a central goal of the law, the creation of one big insurance pool in each state for people who don’t have access to coverage on their jobs. Fracturing that market could lead to higher future premiums for people buying coverage through the law’s new insurance exchang-
es, which offer government-subsidized private insurance. That Obama is willing to take such a gamble could make it harder for him to beat back demands for other changes down the line. On the cancellations front, the president seems unlikely to break through. He may yet battle to a political draw.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama’s health care law risks coming unglued because of his administration’s bungles and his own inflated promises. To avoid that fate, Obama needs breakthroughs on three fronts: the cancellations mess, technology troubles and a crisis in confidence among his own supporters. Working in his favor are pent-up demands for the program’s benefits and an unlikely collaborator in the insurance industry. But even after Obama gets the enrollment website working, count on new controversies. On the horizon is the law’s potential impact on jobbased insurance. Its mandate that larger employers offer coverage will take effect in 2015. For now, odds still favor the Affordable Care Act’s survival. But after making it through the Supreme Court, a presidential election, numerous congressional repeal votes and a government shutdown, the law has yet to win broad acceptance. “There’s been nothing normal about this law from the start,” said Larry Levitt, an insurance expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “There’s been no period of smooth sailing.” Other government mandates have taken root in American culture after initial resistance. It may be a simplistic comparison, but most people automatically fasten their seat belts nowadays when they get in the car. Few question government-required safety features such as air bags, even if those add to vehicle costs. Levitt says the ACA
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