EDITORIAL: Mental illness neglected at high cost in Colorado and the U.S.

A young man used a knife to kill his 5-year-old sister and 7-year-old brother Tuesday.

"It's like it wasn't me," suspect Malik Murphy told 9News reporter Anastasiya Bolton, who visited him in El Paso County jail. Asked if he is sorry, Murphy said "extremely."

The unfathomable killings come four years after the son of a former Gazette employee used a knife to kill a 3-year-old boy and the boy's 1-year-old sister in Falcon for no apparent reason. The suspect, who took his life, had struggled with mental health disorders for years.

Whether it is senseless and gruesome local murders, or the latest mass murder, Americans routinely contend with crimes that seem prima-facie insane.

That's about the only time our culture talks about mental illness. Even then, the subject is secondary to gun control and concerns about violence in movies, video games and other media. All three discussions peter out within a week or two of the initial crime headlines.

When we have post-tragedy talks about mental health, the conversations focus on what signs people might have seen before the suspect killed. The conversations seem futile. Lots of people are depressed, bipolar or schizophrenic. Few of them kill, so how can anyone stop these random acts of violence, even with knowledge about an individual's illness?

Maybe we should focus more on improving the overall mental health of the general public, with preventative measures that keep illnesses from becoming so severe. Maybe we need fewer people reaching their teen years, or adulthood, with mental health conditions that could and should have been addressed early on.

Our government, medical providers and public schools focus a lot on prevention of drug abuse, obesity and diabetes. We don't wait until kids are fat, lethargic and physically ill before putting them into physical education. We strive to improve school lunch programs and educate about nutrition. At routine checkups, doctors monitor blood sugar, blood pressure and other vitals that detect early signs of physical ailments that will become severe if ignored.

We don't wait until children are addicted to crack before teaching the pitfalls of drugs.

"That's really the goal, to talk about mental health the way we talk about diabetes and the flu and high blood pressure - just to bring it more into the mainstream health conversation," said Kaiser Permanente spokeswoman Meredith Jones.

Kaiser recently commissioned a 50-foot spray-painted mural in downtown Colorado Springs. The mural is designed to reduce the stigma that keeps mental health discussion on the margins, reminding passersby they "are all in this together."

A Kaiser mural in Denver says "You matter. You are brave. You are enough."

"It's taboo to even discuss the subject of depression or mental health at all," said local artist Mike Fudge, who produced the Colorado Springs mural. "People suffer in silence."

Our society has largely destigmatized everything from same-sex marriages, to sex changes, to alcoholism and drug addiction. Yet, we continue struggling with old, ignorant stigmas about mental health disorders. We need to get over it, and fast.

No one asks to suffer a mental illness. No one can simply snap out of it. Mental health disorders are serious, real and no more worthy of shame than cancer.

Billboard campaigns are a start, but improving our collective mental health will take a cultural revolution no less significant than the battles waged for gay rights, gender equality and same-sex marriage. We must embrace and advocate mental wellness in media, health care, education, families, churches and public policy.

Let's not wait for another gruesome tragedy. Instead, let's put mental health front and center. Let's begin healing today.

Bipartisn ACA fix on Life Support

BY Alan fram

WASHINGTON — The authors of a bipartisan plan to calm health insurance markets said Wednesday they'll push the proposal forward, even as President Donald Trump's stance ricocheted from supportive to disdainful to arm's-length and the plan's fate teetered.

"If something can happen, that's fine," Trump told reporters at the White House. "But I won't do anything to enrich the insurance companies because right now the insurance companies are being enriched. They've been enriched by Obamacare like nothing anybody has ever seen before."

The agreement by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., on a two-year extension of federal subsidies to insurers that Trump has blocked gained an important new foe. The anti-abortion National Right to Life said it opposed the measure because it lacked language barring people from using their federally subsidized coverage to buy policies covering abortion, said Jennifer Popik, the group's top lobbyist.

Medicare, The Federal Program Covers The Elderly

U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Tim Kaine of Virginia, both Democrats, have introduced legislation to create a government-run health insurance plan that would eventually allow anyone to buy coverage under Medicare, the federal program that covers the elderly.

"This bill creates a true public option, which I believe we should have passed with the Affordable Care Act," Bennet said in a call with reporters.

The plan, called "Medicare-X," would be available initially in areas that lack competition - including 14 mostly rural counties in Colorado with only one insurance option - and would roll out nationwide by 2023. Participants could qualify for the same tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments available under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

A short-term health deal by senators — with Trump's blessing

WASHINGTON — Republican and Democratic senators joined in announcing a plan Tuesday aimed at stabilizing America's health insurance markets in the wake of President Donald Trump's order to terminate "Obamacare" subsidies. Trump himself spoke approvingly of the deal, but some conservatives denounced it as an insurance company bailout, making its future uncertain.

The agreement followed weeks of negotiations between Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington that sought to address health insurance markets that have been in limbo following GOP failures to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The talks took on added urgency when Trump announced last week that he would end monthly "cost sharing reduction" payments the government makes to help insurance companies reduce costs for lower-income people.

Related:

Hickenlooper slams Trump's health care cuts as 'cruelty without benefit'

Without that money, premiums for some people buying individual health plans would spike, and some insurers would flee the markets, industry officials warn.

The Alexander-Murray deal would continue the insurer payments for two years, while establishing new flexibility for states under former President Barack Obama's law.

"This would allow the Senate to continue its debate about the long term of health care, but over the next two years I think Americans won't have to worry about the possibility of being able to buy insurance in counties where they live," Alexander said in announcing the deal after a closed-door lunch where he presented it to GOP senators.

"This agreement avoids chaos. I don't know a Republican or Democrat who benefits from chaos," he said.

Alexander said the president had encouraged his efforts in phone calls over the past two weeks. And at the White House, Trump responded positively, expressing optimism that Republicans would ultimately succeed in repealing Obamacare, but until then: "For one year, two years, we're going to have a very good solution."

Trump's position may seem contradictory in that he himself ordered an end to the payments, calling them a bailout, but is now encouraging legislation to reinstitute them. Indeed White House officials had said they would want more in exchange than the additional state flexibility offered in the Alexander-Murray agreement.

Just minutes before Alexander announced the deal, White House legislative director Marc Short emerged from the Senate GOP lunch saying that "a starting point" in exchange for restoring the cost-sharing payments "is eliminating the individual mandate and employer mandate" — the central pillars of Obamacare.

That suggested some disagreement within the administration on the issue. If so, it does not bode well for ultimate passage of Alexander-Murray, since the president's full support will be crucial in persuading Republicans to get on board.

Initially as president, Trump continued making the payments though resisting, but he declared last week he would pull the plug. The payments, which cost around $7 billion this year, lower expenses like co-payments and deductibles for more than 6 million people. But discontinuing them would actually cost the government more money under Obamacare's complicated structure, because some people facing higher premiums would end up getting bigger tax subsidies to help pay for them.

The Alexander-Murray deal does include a host of provisions allowing states faster and easier access to waivers that would allow them to shape their own marketplace plans under Obamacare. It also would provide for a new low-cost catastrophic coverage insurance option for all consumers.

Reaction from the GOP was decidedly mixed. For many conservatives it's practically unthinkable to sign off on federal payments that would arguably prop up a law they've been vowing for seven years to destroy.

Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee in the House, quickly denounced the deal over Twitter: "The GOP should focus on repealing & replacing Obamacare, not trying to save it. This bailout is unacceptable."

Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, who's been at work on a proposal of his own, was slightly more positive, calling the Alexander-Murray bill "a good start" but saying much more work needed to be done.

GOP leaders in the House and Senate have also been cool to the Alexander-Murray negotiations, the more so since after their failures on Obamacare they are eager to turn their full attention to tax overhaul legislation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was noncommittal, telling reporters: "We haven't had a chance to think about the way forward yet."

Alexander said he and allies including Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., would spend the next several days trying to build up support with the goal of formally introducing legislation later this week. If the legislation does pass, it would almost certainly be as part of a larger package including must-pass spending or disaster relief bills and that might not be until the end of the year.

Murray lauded the effort, saying, "When Republicans and Democrats take the time ... we can truly get things done" for the American people.

Even more than other aspects of the law, the cost-sharing payments have been in dispute ever since the Affordable Care Act became law. House Republicans sued in 2014 to block the payments, arguing they were illegal because Congress, which has power over government spending under the Constitution, had never specifically authorized them. The Obama administration tried unsuccessfully to get the GOP lawsuit dismissed, but the Republicans won favorable rulings from lower-court judges, putting the payments in legal jeopardy even before Trump won the White House.

___

AP reporter Ken Thomas contributed.

Trump Backs Away From Bipartisan Health Care Deal

By Alison Kodjak

My fourth health care plan has died!!!!

Article by Michelle Malkin, Opinion article:

Cue the funeral bagpipes. My fourth health insurance plan is dead.

Two weeks ago, my husband and I received yet another cancellation notice for our private, individual health insurance coverage. It’s our fourth Obamacare-induced obituary in four years.

Our first death notice, from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, arrived in the fall of 2013. The insurer informed us that because of “changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA),” our plan no longer met the federal government’s requirements.

Never mind our needs and desires as consumers who were quite satisfied with a high-deductible preferred provider organization that included a wide network of doctors for ourselves and our two children.

Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. But this can't be done alone. Find out more >>

Our second death knell, from Rocky Mountain Health Plans, tolled in August 2015. That notice signaled the end of a plan we didn’t want in the first place that didn’t cover our kids’ dental care and wasn’t accepted at our local urgent care clinic.

The insurer pulled out of the individual market in all but one county in Colorado, following the complete withdrawal from that sector by Humana and UnitedHealthcare.

Our third “notice of plan discontinuation,” again from Anthem, informed us that the insurer would “no longer offer your current health plan in the state of Colorado” in August 2016.

With fewer and fewer choices as know-it-all Obamacare bureaucrats decimated the individual market here and across the country, we enrolled in a high-deductible Bronze HSA EPO (Health Savings Account Exclusive Provider Organization) offered by Minneapolis-based startup Bright Health.

Now, here we are barely a year later: Deja screwed times four. Our current plan will be discontinued on Jan. 1, 2018.

“But don’t worry,” Bright Health’s eulogy writer chirped, “we have similar plans to address your needs.”

Riiiiight. Where have I heard those pie-in-the-sky promises before? Oh, yeah. Straight out of the socialized medicine Trojan horse’s mouth.

“If you like your doctor,” President Barack Obama promised, “you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”

Is pathological lying covered under the Affordable Care Act?

Speaking of Affordable Care Act whoppers, so much for “affordable.” Our current deductible is $6,550 per person—$13,100 for our family of four. Assuming we can find a new plan at the bottom of the individual market barrel, our current monthly premium, $944.86, will rise to more than $1,300 a month.

“What’s taking place is a market correction; the free market is at work,” says Colorado’s state insurance commissioner, Marguerite Salazar. “[T]his could be an indication that there were too many options for the market to support.”

This presumptuous central planner called federal intervention to eliminate “too many” options for consumers the free market at work. Yes, friends, the Rocky Mountain High is real.

This isn’t a “market correction.” It’s a government catastrophe.

Premiums for individual health plans in Virginia are set to skyrocket nearly 60 percent in 2018. In New Hampshire, those rates will rise 52 percent.

In South Carolina, individual market consumers will face an average 31.3 percent hike. In Tennessee, they’ll see rates jump between 20-40 percent.

Private, flexible preferred provider organizations for self-sufficient, self-employed people are vanishing by design. The social-engineered future—healthy, full-paying consumers being herded into government-run Obamacare exchanges and severely regulated regional health maintenance organizations—is a bipartisan big government health bureaucracy’s dream come true.

These choice-wreckers had the arrogant audacity to denigrate our pre-Obamacare plans as “substandard” (Obama), “crappy” (MSNBC big mouth Ed Schultz), and “junk policies” (Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa).

When I first called attention to the cancellation notice tsunami in 2013, liberal Mother Jones magazine sneered that the phenomenon was “phony.” And they’re still denying the Obamacare death spiral. Liberal Vox Media recently called the crisis “a lie.”

I don’t have enough four-letter words for these propagandists. There are an estimated 450,000 consumers like us in Colorado and 17 million of us nationwide—small business owners, independent contractors, and others who don’t get their plans through group coverage, big companies, or government employers.

The costs, headaches, and disruption in our lives caused by Obamacare’s meddling meddlers are real and massive.

But we’re puzzles to corporate media journalists who’ve never had to meet a payroll and don’t even know what is the individual market.

We’re invisible to late night TV clowns who get their Obamacare-at-all-costs talking points from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

We’re pariahs to social justice health care activists and Democrats who want us to just shut up and subsidize everyone else’s insurance.

And we’re expendables to establishment Republicans who hoovered up campaign donations on the empty promise to repeal Obamacare—and now consider amnesty for immigrants here illegally and gun control higher legislative priorities than keeping their damned word.

We’re the canaries in the Obamacare coal mine. Ignore us at your peril, America. You’re next.

Health Insurance Rates To Soar

By the New York Times

In sharp contrast to the soaring health insurance premiums in many Affordable Care Act marketplaces, the cost of coverage for the vast numbers of people who get insurance through their jobs rose relatively little this year, continuing a period of remarkable stability in the employer market, according to a national survey released Tuesday.

The annual premium for family coverage rose an average of 3 percent to $18,764 this year, according the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit group, which conducted the annual survey of employers. That is the sixth straight year that employer-provided policies have increased by well under 5 percent, according to the survey. Employers paid the bulk of the costs, the survey found, with workers shouldering an average of $5,714, a year for a family policy.

About 151 million people are covered through an employer, and the insurance environment for many of those companies is characterized by “a remarkable stubborn stability,” said Craig Garthwaite, a health economist at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

The exception is the smallest companies, which are still finding it challenging to afford insurance for their workers. In recent years, a growing number of smaller companies have stopped providing health benefits, according to the Kaiser data. Over the last five years, the percentage of businesses with under 50 workers offering coverage has fallen from 59 percent to 50 percent. In 2001, two thirds of those employers offered benefits.

Health costs remain an issue even for families with stable employer coverage. This year’s modest rise still outpaces both overall inflation and the increase in workers’ earnings. “The sticker shock for people is still very real,” said Drew Altman, the Kaiser foundation’s chief executive.

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But it is a calm environment compared to the marketplaces where individuals shop for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. While fewer than 20 million Americans buy their own insurance, the tribulations of the individual market have captured most of the public’s attention. The average cost of a benchmark plan in the individual market rose 20 percent this year, according to Kaiser, as insurers tried to stem their losses.

The combination of political uncertainty over the future of the health law and insurer unrest may result in a similar jump in individual premiums for 2018. Insurers must make their final decisions where to sell and what to charge in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces by the end of the month.

Early results from another employer survey, conducted by Mercer, a benefits consultant, indicate that businesses expected to see health benefit costs increase 4.3 percent for 2018 after making changes like switching insurers or raising plan deductibles. “Our take away from this is that the trend for employers remains stable, and it remains low,” said Tracy Watts, a senior partner at Mercer.

As a result, employers may not feel the need to make any drastic changes. “What I see in our renewals is very predictable and very steady,” said Lisa Trombley, benefits manager for Kelly Services, the Troy, Mich., staffing company.

Overall, health care costs have increased at historically low rates in recent years, said Matthew Fiedler, a health economist at the Brookings Institution. “We’ve got lots of indicators, across a constellation, that the health care trend is pretty low,” he said.

While employers credit their efforts to slow down costs, others, including Mr. Fiedler, say some of the changes enacted under the Affordable Care Act have also contributed. The federal law reduced what Medicare pays for care, which allows private payers to strike better bargains, he said, and the government has been encouraging experiments in how to pay doctors and hospitals in new ways that may reduce spending.

CO Financial Help Still Available for 2018

Financial Help Still Available for 2018

Contrary to what you may have heard, financial help is still available for 2018. You may have also heard that the current administration has decided to end Cost-Sharing Reduction payments. These payments are reimbursements to health insurance companies. It does NOT affect Cost-Sharing Reductions for our customers who receive them.  In fact, many customers receiving financial help through Connect for Health Colorado will likely pay less in 2018 than in 2017. They will see the premium that they pay (full premium minus the Premium Tax Credit amount) go down by 20% on average in 2018.

Open Enrollment is right around the corner

Open Enrollment is right around the corner. If you are like most folks, fall is all about football, leaf peeping (and raking) and Halloween costumes. Between touchdowns and pumpkin picking, make sure you either renew or select a new health insurance plan for 2018. This year’s Open Enrollment Period is November 1, 2017, through January 12, 2018. You must enroll before December 15 to avoid a gap in coverage.   If you bought your 2017 health and/or dental insurance plan through us, there are a couple of options for renewal depending upon the availability of your plan for 2018. Soon, you will receive a notice by mail or by email, as well as in your online account, letting you know your options for renewal, which could include one of the following three options: A. Your current plan is being offered to you for 2018. If you want to continue with this plan, arrange to pay the new monthly premium for January no later than December 25, 2017, and you will be automatically renewed. You are welcome to shop for a different plan; but you must enroll before December 15 to avoid being automatically enrolled in your current plan. or B. Your current plan is not offered to you for 2018. In some cases, we will suggest a new plan that is most like your current coverage. If you are satisfied with the suggested plan, you must select and enroll in this plan – by December 15. We will not automatically enroll you. You are welcome to shop for a different plan; but you must enroll in a plan before December 15 to ensure that you are covered beginning January 1. or C. Your current plan is not offered for 2018 and you will need to shop for a new plan. You must enroll in a new plan before December 15 to ensure that you are covered beginning January 1.

Beginning November 1, you will be able to browse all 2018 health plans. Be sure to review plan benefits and confirm your preferred healthcare providers and prescriptions are covered by your 2018 plan selection. Open Enrollment is right around the corner. If you are like most folks, fall is all about football, leaf peeping (and raking) and Halloween costumes. Between touchdowns and pumpkin picking, make sure you either renew or select a new health insurance plan for 2018. This year’s Open Enrollment Period is November 1, 2017, through January 12, 2018. You must enroll before December 15 to avoid a gap in coverage.   If you bought your 2017 health and/or dental insurance plan through us, there are a couple of options for renewal depending upon the availability of your plan for 2018. Soon, you will receive a notice by mail or by email, as well as in your online account, letting you know your options for renewal, which could include one of the following three options: A. Your current plan is being offered to you for 2018. If you want to continue with this plan, arrange to pay the new monthly premium for January no later than December 25, 2017, and you will be automatically renewed. You are welcome to shop for a different plan; but you must enroll before December 15 to avoid being automatically enrolled in your current plan. or B. Your current plan is not offered to you for 2018. In some cases, we will suggest a new plan that is most like your current coverage. If you are satisfied with the suggested plan, you must select and enroll in this plan – by December 15. We will not automatically enroll you. You are welcome to shop for a different plan; but you must enroll in a plan before December 15 to ensure that you are covered beginning January 1. or C. Your current plan is not offered for 2018 and you will need to shop for a new plan. You must enroll in a new plan before December 15 to ensure that you are covered beginning January 1. Beginning November 1, you will be able to browse all 2018 health plans. Be sure to review plan benefits and confirm your preferred healthcare providers and prescriptions are covered by your 2018 plan selection.

Mental Health Condition for Children

About one of four children are diagnosed with a mental health condition every year. That’s why knowing the warning signs is so important, says licensed therapist Jennifer Gentile. Read Dr. Gentile’s tips for spotting mental illness in children and how using LiveHealth Online may help.

Ex-Obama officials begin health insurance sign-up campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Obama administration officials are undertaking a private campaign to encourage people to sign up for coverage next year under the Affordable Care Act.

With the start of open enrollment on Nov. 1, the Trump administration has slashed the Obama health law's ad budget, as well as grants to outside organizations that are supposed to help people sign up. Although Republican attempts to repeal the law have proven futile so far, President Donald Trump hasn't changed his view that the program is a "disaster."

The former Obama officials said their campaign, set to begin Wednesday, will focus on young adults and try to encourage people to sign up for government-backed private health insurance because of subsidies available to cushion the impact of rising premiums.

The effort is headed by Lori Lodes and Joshua Peck, who directed outreach and sign-up efforts during much of former President Barack Obama's second term. Joining them are Andy Slavitt, who ran federal health insurance programs for Obama, activist-actors Alyssa Milano and Bradley Whitford, social commentator Van Jones and insurance industry veteran Mario Molina.

Lodes said the campaign has a modest budget for now, meaning that targeted internet advertising is probably all it can manage, at least initially.

About 10 million people are signed up for subsidized private insurance plans through HealthCare.gov and state-run insurance markets. That figure is well below projections when the law was passed in 2010. An additional 11 million or so have signed up for Medicaid in states that took advantage of the law's expansion of the program to serve more low-income adults.

Under Trump, the open enrollment period for 2018 has been shortened by about half. It now runs through Dec. 15. That's the last day when people can sign up to get coverage that will be effective on Jan. 1.

Some Democrats say that's another indication that Trump is trying to "sabotage" insurance markets. But health insurers, with a vested interest in enrolling people, say a shorter, focused sign-up season period may actually be more manageable.

Returning customers will be automatically re-enrolled unless they shop around and pick another plan.

Health care consultant Dan Mendelson, president of data-tracker Avalere Health, said in an interview that he expects enrollment will remain relatively stable.

"If you think about it, most of the people who are enrolled need the insurance," he said. "They are heavily subsidized and they are going to show up because they need insurance for themselves and their families. I think there will be a base stability to enrollment, but I wouldn't be looking for any major expansion."

Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., are trying to negotiate a limited bipartisan deal to stabilize state-level markets for individual health insurance policies. People covered under the health law represent about half of those who purchase individual policies.

John McCain owns Obamacare

Don't call it Obamacare. President Barack Obama served his country and quietly left office.

The Affordable Care Act survives as the legacy of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He led the charge against repealing the law in July and pledges to defeat another repeal this month.

He won't let anyone stop the failed health care law, so long as the left rewards him for defending it. He offers no ideas for improving access and lowering costs.

Call the failed system McCain Care, after a man who values media adoration above all.

McCain was in a political dogfight last fall for what would become his sixth consecutive six-year term.

Just as the November election reached the final stretch last October, the Department of Health and Human Services announced staggering Obamacare premium hikes averaging 25 percent for midlevel benchmark plans. The report said 1 in 5 Obamacare consumers would have only one plan to choose from.

For Arizona, the news was much worse. Hit hardest by Obamacare, the government said monthly premiums for a typical Arizona 20-something with a benchmark "silver" plan would increase 116 percent in 2017. The price would go from $196 to $422.

No one was quicker to feign outrage than McCain, who needed to win an election. He angrily called the Affordable Care Act a "failure." He pledged to lead an effort to repeal the law in the coming congressional session.

"Arizona families are demanding affordability, accessibility and choice when it comes to their health care - not the expensive, restrictive and poor quality care that has been forced upon them by Obamacare," McCain said.

The senator sanctioned a TV ad with a voiceover and written text that said "John McCain is leading the fight to STOP Obamacare." The ad ended with "I'm John McCain and I approved this message."

After winning re-election as the man who would in all caps "STOP" Obamacare, McCain returned to his role as the media's go-to anti-conservative "Republican."

He marched onto the Senate floor July 27 to make a pronounced thumbs-down spectacle when voting against an Obamacare repeal bill President Donald Trump promised to sign. With McCain it would pass; without him it would fail.

Liberal MSNBC anchor Brian Williams gushed, calling McCain a "profile in courage." Liberal MSNBC correspondent Kasie Hunt credited McCain's vote to his "long legacy as a war hero." Less creative pundits rolled out "the maverick" moniker while looping video of McCain's "thumbs down" protest of repeal.

Swarmed by media after the vote, McCain did not exude the body language of someone who had made an agonizing decision to betray a promise. He smirked like a man basking in a hero's parade, sorry for nothing.

The Affordable Care act hurts people, in a manner best described by working-class advocate and former President Bill Clinton.

"You've got this crazy system where all the sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half," Clinton said in October. "It's the craziest thing in the world."

That was only days before McCain learned premiums would more than double for his constituents.

At 81, "the maverick" probably won't seek another term. In Washington, 2,300 miles from Phoenix, McCain cares more about the media's crush on him than the constituents he blatantly deceived.

When premiums double again, don't blame Obama. Call it McCain Care, for the Republican who led a fight to sustain it.