Health

McConnell’s Calculation May Be That He Still Wins by Losing | The New York Times

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When it comes to managing Republicans’ best interests, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, rarely loses.

So it is possible that Mr. McConnell views the potential failure of a hastily written health care bill as an eventual boon.

His presentation on Thursday of the Senate’s health care measure to Republican colleagues — after the White House and key lobbyists got a peek the night before — was met with something other than unbridled enthusiasm.

According to lawmakers who were at the unveiling, members from the left and right ends of the party’s spectrum were deeply critical of the effort.

Source: McConnell’s Calculation May Be That He Still Wins by Losing – The New York Times

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Why Medicaid Is Worth Dying For | Pacific Standard

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This morning, ADAPT, America’s leading direct-action disability rights group, seized the hallway and staged a die-in outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

There was literally blood on the floor. The images of disabled men and women being dragged from in front of McConnell’s office took over the Internet, just hours after the GOP revealed its health-care bill.

Source: Why Medicaid Is Worth Dying For – Pacific Standard

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Trumpcare secrecy: The Senate’s new AHCA health care bill is being written behind closed doors, unlike the ACA | Quartz

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.. None of these critical features of democratic lawmaking—public education about the health care system, public debate between politicians over how to fix it, or basic knowledge of the political arrangements that drive lawmaking—are present now as the Senate prepares to vote on its health care bill.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has announced there will be just ten hours of debate on a bill that will affect the health of hundreds of millions of Americans, before a vote next week to meet the arbitrary deadline of a summer holiday.

This is no way to make policy.

And it would take just three of McConnell’s Republican colleagues to reveal what is happening behind closed doors.

Source: Trumpcare secrecy: The Senate’s new AHCA health care bill is being written behind closed doors, unlike the ACA — Quartz

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Dems see surge of new candidates | TheHill

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A high number of candidates doesn’t necessarily guarantee electoral victory, especially for Democrats. Not only has history not served them well with a glut of candidates, but quantity does not necessarily mean quality.

The party’s previous high at this point in the calendar came in 2013, when the Democrats had 220 new candidates registered ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. The party lost 13 House seats that year.

Source: Dems see surge of new candidates | TheHill

Five things to watch in Senate GOP’s ObamaCare repeal bill | TheHill

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ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion has long been one of the thorniest issues for Republicans in their push to repeal the law.

GOP senators from states that took the expansion, and their governors, don’t want to see their residents lose coverage.

The Affordable Care Act gave states that expanded Medicaid extra money to do so, and lawmakers from those states worry ending this funding too early could be problematic.

Source: Five things to watch in Senate GOP’s ObamaCare repeal bill | TheHill

The future of smart cities and the role of Wi-Fi | ITProPortal

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With 34 billion devices expected to be connected to the Internet within the next three years according to market analyst reports, applications are continuously being innovated to transform the way services are delivered.

Approximately $6 trillion is being invested in the development of these applications in what is referred to as the “next Industrial Revolution.”

The vision is to create cities where everything around us is seamlessly connected into one manageable framework. Using integrated urban information for better city management and optimization of resource consumption, smart city technology aims to increase productivity and reduce costs, to improve the lives of citizens and visitors.

Source: The future of smart cities and the role of Wi-Fi | ITProPortal

Why the world needs to get smarter about water consumption

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Water infrastructure is often overlooked when smart cities are considered or discussed. This seems strange when water services are so crucial for human health and well-being. But water is often seen as an “invisible utility” which is taken for granted. The industry has also been slow to harness the power of new technology.

One thing is certain though – water should be a key element of the smart city concept. And there are two major ways in which smart water technologies will be coming soon to a city near you.

Source: Why the world needs to get smarter about water consumption

Waking Up Early For Work Could Quite Literally Be Killing You | GovExec.com

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The key to this theory is the idea that each person doesn’t just have a single body clock but rather a complex network of billions of cellular clocks found throughout the body. In humans and other mammals, there is a master clock within a region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) and many peripheral clocks found elsewhere.

In most individuals, the master SCN clock is set to the planet’s natural cycle of light and dark. The SCN clock then synchronises the peripheral clocks by controlling the rhythms of nerve activity, hormone secretion, body temperature and behaviour such as sleep-wake cycles. By synchronizing the peripheral clocks, the SCN maintains the harmony of the entire body’s rhythms.

Source: Waking Up Early For Work Could Quite Literally Be Killing You – Promising Practices – Management – GovExec.com

What’s Keeping the United States From a Clean Energy Economy? | Pacific Standard

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The Trump administration’s promises to revive the coal industry and reinvigorate the fossil fuel industry more broadly are not the only things standing in the way of renewable energy.

A new report released today from the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee outlines several market and policy barriers:

  1. Subsidies Keep Fossil Fuel Prices Below Their True Cost
  2. A Lack of Funding for Clean Energy Research
  3. Energy Infrastructure Is Built for Fossil Fuels
  4. America’s Clean Energy Companies Are at a Disadvantage to International Ones
  5. Policy Uncertainty Discourages Investment

Source: What’s Keeping the United States From a Clean Energy Economy? – Pacific Standard

Is the Senate Considering Deeper Cuts to Medicaid? | Pacific Standard

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The Senate GOP is reportedly considering using a different index—the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (the CPI-U), which tracks the price of a comprehensive basket of goods and services (including, but by no means exclusive to, medical care) that a standard urban consumer might need—beginning in 2025 to calculate the rate of growth for federal per-capita Medicaid payments.

This change may seem like a wonky detail, but it could have big effects on federal support for the Medicaid program. Because the price of medical care has been growing at a much faster rate in this country than the prices of other goods and services, indexing the federal government’s Medicaid payments to the CPI-U instead of the Medical Care CPI would almost certainly result in dramatically lower payments in the future.

Source: Is the Senate Considering Deeper Cuts to Medicaid? – Pacific Standard