Our health is [nothing more than] a political football

Found this sitting in my inbox:

 

Here's some big news that's going to affect millions of women.

On Friday, the Obama administration announced that soon women won't have to pay out of pocket for birth control: Starting August 1st, many insurance plans nationwide will be required to fully cover contraception without co-pays or deductibles. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more women can make health care decisions based on what's best for them -- not their insurance company -- all while saving hundreds of dollars every year.

Think about how different that is from what the candidates on the other side would do. They've all vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and Mitt Romney even said he would have signed a constitutional amendment in Massachusetts to define life as beginning at conception, similar to the notorious state-level 'personhood' amendment that could ban many forms of contraception, and even IVF.

That's why, right now, we need to show that millions of Americans are standing with President Obama on his commitment to women's health -- add your name today.

This news is just one more way the Affordable Care Act ensures that being a woman will no longer be considered a pre-existing condition. Critical preventive services like mammograms and other cancer screenings are now free, and an estimated 1.1 million young women are now covered by their parents' health plans.

But at the same time, our opponents have been waging a war on women's health -- attempting to defund Planned Parenthood, overturn Roe v. Wade, and everything in between.This news is just one more way the Affordable Care Act ensures that being a woman will no longer be considered a pre-existing condition. Critical preventive services like mammograms and other cancer screenings are now free, and an estimated 1.1 million young women are now covered by their parents' health plans.

But at the same time, our opponents have been waging a war on women's health -- attempting to defund Planned Parenthood, overturn Roe v. Wade, and everything in between.

The President has stood firm against these attacks on women's health, but if we're going to protect our progress -- and have the chance to take even more steps forward -- we need to show we have his back now, when the heat is on.

Add your name to show your support for women's access to health care today: 

 http://my.barackobama.com/Protecting-Health-Care-for-Women

Thanks,
Stephanie

Stephanie Cutter
Deputy Campaign Manager
Obama for America

 

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When I get these emails, I often wonder who in the heck these people are.

 

Stephanie Cutter [left] is a longtime adviser to the Kennedy family, and was communications director of the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign.

 

Cutter ... worked for Bill Clinton as Deputy Communications Director at the White House during his administration and as Associate Administrator for Communications at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Then she served as Communications Director for Senator Edward M. Kennedy and in July 2003 was named Communications Director for the Democratic National Committee. In November 2003, she was named communications director for the John Kerry campaign.

In June 2008 she was appointed as chief of staff to Michelle Obama for the 2008 Presidential general election campaign. She served as the Chief Spokesperson for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. She served as Timothy Geithner's counselor. In May 2009, she was appointed to serve as adviser to President Obama in the Supreme Court nominations. In 2009 GQ Magazine named Cutter one [No. 49] of the 50 most powerful people in Washington.

"She rehabbed Michelle's angry-black-woman image and refined Geithner's brittle wonkspeak. ("The moment she got her hands around our economic messaging," says one senior White House official, "we got better.") For her second encore, Cutter stage-managed a gaffe-free performance by Sotomayor during her confirmation hearings. When someone needs to look good in front of the cameras, she's the one they call."

In 2010, Cutter was named Assistant to the President for Special Projects, charged with managing the communications and outreach strategy for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In [January] 2011, Cutter was named Deputy Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama.

 

Last month, Cutter moved to Chicago to become a deputy manager in Obama's reelection campaign.

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

"She rehabbed Michelle's angry-black-woman image." Apparently, Cutter's work as a rehabber leaves something to be desired. Just a week ago, Michelle told CBS that people were still trying to "paint" her as an angry black woman. Maybe the First Lady should hire a new rehabber.

[t1klish]

I don't understand the point she makes a couple times that being a woman shouldn't be a pre-existing condition. What does that mean? So if you don't think women should get preferential free medical care now according to her that means you think being a woman is a pre-existing condition? Huh? I mean, why should only women get birth control without a co-pay? It's actually anti-man to give only women birth control without a co-pay. Don't they have birth control for men these days? And don't men in particular get prostate cancer? So maybe they should get those screenings without a co-pay? And they can certainly get testicular cancer, so that screening should be without a co-pay too. And everyone gets heart disease, so shouldn't everyone get those screenings without co-pays? I mean seriously. Just women should get free medical treatment? Why? This whole Obamacare thing scares the daylights out of me. I thought they wanted socialized "free" medical care paid by high taxes, but instead the plan is to force everyone to buy medical insurance. And I wish they'd quit calling it "health care." People don't need to buy medical insurance in order to have health care. One is actually allowed to pay the doctor directly on the occasion that one actually needs to go to a doctor. I've had $100 worth of medical care in 30 years. I sure as hell am not spending my rent money to buy medical insurance. Good grief.

[Yael]

Kelly?