health care

Today when Congress returns to Capitol Hill, Republicans will argue the new health law could stretch the nation's already-thin bottom line. The Congressional Budget office says getting rid of health care will add $230 billion to America's debt. Republicans have the votes to repeal the new health care bill in the House, but probably not in the Senate, certainly not enough to override a Presidential veto. 

The House passed a historic health care bill Sunday evening, but specific provisions for LGBT Americans were not included. The final vote for the health care bill was 219-212. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) said that not included in the bill were her additions banning discrimination against LGBT people, the Early Treatment for HIV Act, ending taxes for gay workers whose partners are covered under their work health insurance and launching a program to study LGBT health and discrimination.

Writer and lesbian culture guru Diana Cage weighs in on the fight of the century that is health care reform. From town hall meetings to hysterical rightwing talks shows including Rush Limbaugh, the GOP's racism and classism in battling Barack Obama's push for health care for all.

Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law, LGBT Leaders Cheer

After having been slandered by Rush Limbaugh for her congressional testimony on women’s health and contraception, Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke is being lambasted by other right-wingers for supporting insurance coverage of LGBT-specific health needs, such as gender-reassignment procedures.

Tea Party members protesting health care reform in Washington DC on Saturday, hurled insults at several congressmen, including openly gay Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank. Tea Partiers called Frank a "Fa**ot" and civil rights movement hero John Lewis a "ni**er."

The New England Journal of Medicine cites easier access to health care as the primary reason.

fter an extensive national search, the Trevor Project named health care administrator Abbe Land as its new CEO on Tuesday.

Christina Santiago, who worked as manager of programming for the Lesbian Community Care Project at the Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago, was killed Saturday in the concert stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair that severely injured her partner, Alisha Brennon. According to a statement from the Howard Brown Health Center, Santiago, 29, worked at the LGBT health care organization for almost six years and was instrumental in the expansion of women’s health services. She received the highest award for a staff member last year and was named to the Windy City Times’ 30 Under 30 list in 2007.

Since the days of Jimmy Carter and Anita Bryant, Lyon-Martin Health Services has provided affordable health care to the Bay Area’s marginalized lesbian community. Now, 32 years after gay rights pioneers Phyllis Lyon (left) and partner Del Martin (right; who passed away in 2008) opened the center, the San Francisco institution is struggling to survive.

When I was young and perhaps a little naïve, I thought then when someone said they were a Democrat it meant they were pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-worker, pro-access to health care . . . you know for all the things that meant being socially progressive.

Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland announced this week that state employees will now be able to designate same-sex spouses as dependents, the Washington Post is reporting. Through this designation, the spouses are entitled to receive health-care, as well as many other benefits that are already afforded to husbands and wives of heterosexual state employees.

The wunderkind creator and star of HBO’s break-out series Girls, Lena Dunham, has released a new video in which she discusses her “first time” – voting that is. And her first time was with Barack Obama four years ago. She offers up an argument as to why other first timers should follow her lead and go with the President suggesting that you should do it with “a guy who really cares about women, a guy who cares whether you get health insurance, specifically whether you get birth control.”

Sarah Palin released a video statement Wednesday in which she accused the media of "blood libel" for blaming heated political rhetoric for the Tucson shooting that killed six and critically wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday. Palin was among those criticized in the hours after the shooting, particularly for a map from her SarahPAC last year that featured gun crosshairs over the districts of Democrats, including Giffords, who voted for the health care overhaul. Her video statement reported by CBS News called the shooting the work of "a single evil man."