2013 Alden Days Parade,…click on the play button (below) and then click on the timeline to the 5:10 minute mark on the YouTube video,…see our local Jim Gurr and his tractor pulling Triston Cole’s hay wagon for our entry!!!
Thanks to State Representative Greg MacMaster for the pocket Constitutions which Maryanne Jorgensen and Patty Niepoth helped pass out with free American Flags followed by Bill and Priscilla Miller who kept them coming!!!
[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/XRY0B_1EBhs”]
At our monthly meeting on Monday, July 15th, 2013 of it’s paid members and it’s Executive Committee, the Antrim County Republican Party accepted a motion that was seconded and discussed, which was followed by a voice vote.
Said motion was a resolution to reject the Expansion of Medicaid per the pending legislation HB 4714 (Substitute H-3), which passed UNANIMOUSLY (without one No vote).
Said passed resolution is being formally drafted and will be presented at our next monthly meeting, Monday, August 12th, 2013 and approved for submission to our State Representative – Greg MacMaster, our State Senator – Howard Walker, our Governor – Rick Snyder and the Michigan Republican Party.
The Antrim County Republican Party does NOT support the Expansion of Medicaid per HB 4714 (Substitute H-3) or any other legislation which expands the eligibility or funding of Medicaid, nor the implementation of any Healthcare Exchange or Partnership associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as “Obamacare”) here in the State of Michigan.
LANSING, Mich. – Today Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, introduced the first of two bills to enact a patient-centered healthcare plan to provide a free market alternative that expands access to quality care without expanding government.
SB 459 provides the regulatory infrastructure that would enable a low cost, high quality care, free market environment within the confines of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The second bill, which will be introduced shortly, would convert current Medicaid enrollees to low cost, high quality Qualified Health Plans featuring Direct Primary Care Services and High Deductible Health Plans wrapped within a Health Savings Account. The net impact of both of these bills will be to lower healthcare costs for everyone in our state while promoting better quality of care.
Colbeck will discuss the legislation with the Senate workgroup on Medicaid expansion on Thursday, July 18. Colbeck’s patient-centered solution would be enacted in place of expanding government provided healthcare.
“We need to stop talking about expanding a government program that doesn’t work and start talking about ways to expand affordable care to all of our citizens,” Colbeck said. “The plan that I’m putting forth would allow us to capitalize on our free market system and provide better quality, less expensive healthcare to Michigan’s residents while boosting our economy.
“We can use this as an opportunity to put in place a free market based system that will not only accomplish the stated objectives of Obamacare but will also establish Michigan as a destination state for employers seeking quality, affordable healthcare for their employees. If we can provide quality services at a greatly reduced cost, we can draw patients from other states and countries that are looking for better access to quality care while creating new healthcare jobs in Michigan. Wouldn’t it be nice to be expanding our medical centers in Detroit due to out of town visitors at a faster rate than we are expanding our casinos?” Colbeck concluded.
Bonnie M. Nothoff, 71, of Kewadin, passed away at home on July 9th, 2013.
She was born on May 28, 1942 in Flint, MI. She was the daughter of Reinhart “Rad” and Evelyn (Christensen) Radke.
Bonnie graduated from Flint Central in 1960 and went on to attend MSU and later Delta College in Saginaw, MI where she graduated with her AAS in dental hygiene. She married her high school sweetheart, Jim Nothoff, in 1969 in Flint, MI.
As an RDH, she achieved numerous prestigious awards and helped many people in need. For many years, Bonnie was a clinical instructor educating the future generations of dental hygiene. In 2005, she formed Nothoff Legislative Research and Consulting, LLC, which allowed her to advance legislation for the dental hygiene profession in Michigan. Bonnie was also the President of the MDHA, (the Michigan Dental Hygienists Association), Chair of the Antrim County Republican Party, and the Antrim County Republican Women, among other leadership positions.
Bonnie was also an active tennis player, jogger, boater, and sang in the church choir with her close friends.
Bonnie inherited the best from both of her parents; a keen business sense, charm, grace, and poise. She was loved dearly by her colleagues, friends, and family, whom she also loved. She came alive in the presence of people and people came alive with her. She would light up a room when she entered it!
She is survived by her sister Carol and brother-in-law David Symons, son Jay and daughter-in-law Marie Olivier, husband Jim, sister-in-law Peg and brother-in-law Don Smith, brother-in-law Tom Nothoff, and many nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents, father-in-law Henry Nothoff, mother-in-law Helen Nothoff, and brother-in-law Robert “Bob” Nothoff.
Visitation will be held on Sunday, July 14, 2013 from 4 to 8 pm at Covell Funeral Home in Elk Rapids.
A funeral service will be held on Monday July 15, 2013 at 11am, with visitation one hour prior, at the First Presbyterian Church in Elk Rapids, with Rev. Andrew Martinez residing.
Memorial contributions may be directed to the MDHA PAC or American Cancer Society. Arrangements have been entrusted to Covell Funeral Home of Elk Rapids.
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is delaying a major provision in the health care overhaul, putting off until 2015 a requirement that many employers offer health insurance.
The announcement was made late Tuesday by the Treasury Department, at the beginning of the holiday week while Congress was on recess. It comes amid reports that the administration is running into roadblocks as it prepares to implement ObamaCare.
The change in the employer mandate is arguably the most significant concession the administration has made to date.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., a critic of the law, seized on the delay as a “clear admission” that the law is “unaffordable, unworkable and unpopular.”
“It’s also a cynical political ploy to delay the coming train wreck associated with ObamaCare until after the 2014 elections,” he said.
The law requires companies that employ 50 or more workers to offer coverage or face fines. The Treasury Department and the White House said that, based on complaints by employers that the system for reporting the coverage was too onerous, they would simplify that system and give employers an additional year to comply.
“We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” Mark J. Mazur, the assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, said in a statement posted online
. “We have listened to your feedback. And we are taking action.”
The mandate was originally set to kick in for 2014, but will now start in 2015.
The decision effectively means that penalties that would have been assessed against non-compliant businesses will be delayed until 2015. The administration encouraged employers to provide insurance anyway.
While the employer mandate is being delayed, the so-called individual mandate — the requirement that individuals obtain health insurance — presumably remains on schedule for 2014.
The administration also still plans to open up a new marketplace for government-regulated insurance plans on Oct. 1, to take effect on Jan. 1. And a sprawling set of subsidies would also remain in place.
The delay of the employer mandate, though, raises questions about whether more elements of the law might be delayed in the coming months.
White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett explained that, on the employer mandate issue, the administration was making two changes.
“First, we are cutting red tape and simplifying the reporting process,” she wrote on the White House blog. She cited concerns that the law would have required companies to set up new data collection systems on employee access to health care. She said: “Some of this detailed reporting may be unnecessary for businesses that more than meet the minimum standards in the law.” So, she said, the administration plans to figure out a “smarter system.”
Second, she said, the administration would delay the roll-out and penalties since they were overhauling the reporting system.
“This allows employers the time to test the new reporting systems and make any necessary adaptations to their health benefits while staying the course toward making health coverage more affordable and accessible for their workers,” she said.
Randy Johnson, senior vice president of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits at the Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News that with its decision, the administration has “finally recognized the obvious.”
“Employers need more time and clarification of the rules of the road before implementing the employer mandate,” he said. “We will continue to work to alleviate this and other problems with ObamaCare.”
