Rory Reid promised to disclose his plans to solve Nevada’s budget woes once a study panel revealed its recommendations. Now that the panel has suggested raising taxes, Reid has yet to offer his opinion. The clock is ticking.
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Tea Party Express recently endorsed Sharron Angle, and in the process the group promised a strong independent expenditure campaign to run radio and TV ads across the state.
Last week the Tea Party Express released their first radio ad, highlighting Sharron Angle as a serious conservative contender in the GOP primary race for U.S. Senate in Nevada.
By Phillip Moyer and originating at Nevada News Bureau
U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden, who has recently come under for her comments on negotiating with physicians for health care costs, today received some support from Dr. Kevin Peterson, who said negotiating is a realistic option for patients if they do so before the medical services are provided.
Petersen, who runs a Las Vegas practice called No Insurance Surgery that often negotiates with outside providers to help lower patients’ health care costs, did not directly address Lowden’s much-derided comments about trading chickens or painting houses for medical care.
However, he said on Nevada Newsmakers today that if patients are willing to pay using cash or credit card instead of going directly through their insurance company, they can call up doctors or hospitals before the medical service is needed and will likely be able to negotiate an appointment at a lowered cost.
“What I recommend doing is to look on the internet, find out what the Medicare going rate is for the type of service they’re looking for, and then kind of use that as a base for what their target is for negotiating the price,” said Peterson.
“For example, if a patient is willing to pay 20 percent more than what Medicare pays them for an office visit, that’s a pretty reasonable price,” he said.
Petersen said that a lot of such bargaining does take place in the medical world and is necessary for patients who don’t have insurance companies negotiating lower prices for them.
“Patients need to have access to health care and to surgery, and when there’s an open, free market for this sort of thing, it tends to drive prices down,” he said.
“With competition, doctors and hospitals can’t just charge whatever they want to charge – they have to charge a reasonable rate, one that patients can afford, and one that makes sense,” he said.
WSJ also reporting: Lowden’s Medical Barter Idea: Not So Nuts After All?
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By Elizabeth Crum and originating at Nevada News Bureau
Following this Tuesday’s news that he will represent Nevada on the Colorado River Commission, former state Senator Mark Amodei today decided to throw his hat in the ring for Republican state party chairmanship.
Amodei said he called the party’s Vice Chair, Sherry Dilley, to inform her of his intentions this morning, and that he will soon be formally requesting consideration from the GOP’s credentialing committee.
Amodei said he decided to seek election as state party chair because he believes that in tough political and economic times, active engagement is always the best answer.
“No matter what party or political viewpoint, there is plenty for everyone to gripe about right now,” said Amodei. “I’ve always been the kind of guy who says, if you think there is a problem, going home and locking the door is not the answer.”
Amodei acknowledged that if elected to the chairmanship, there will be plenty of challenges in the time between now and the November 2 general election.
“It’s a dynamic election cycle, there is a lot on the line right now,” said Amodei. “There is the potential for great gains and great losses.”
Amodei said he does not anticipate any difficulty balancing his new appointment to the Colorado River Commission with the party chairmanship, should he be elected at party’s planned central committee meeting in Reno in mid-May.
“The Commission meets only eight to ten times a year,” said Amodei. “Some on the commission are also political office holders, so clearly it’s manageable.”
Amodei noted that the state party chairmanship is a non-paying position and joked that even if elected, “a guy still has to work for a living.”
“I’ll still be doing some consulting and practicing some law,” said Amodei.
Amodei served in the Nevada Assembly from 1996 to 1998 and in the Nevada State Senate from 1999 through his resignation from that office yesterday.
As part of his legislative service, Amodei has also served on the Public Land Committee, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Legislative Oversight Committee, and the Legislature’s Western Regional Water Commission Oversight Committee.
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The following is an article authored by Karri Bragg, Nevada State Director, Balanced Education for Everyone Campaign
“Mommy’s SUV Kills Polar Bears”: What Exactly are Clark County Schools Teaching Our Kids?
90 CCSD Schools Polled on Earth Day Activities
When most of us were in grade school, we thought of Earth Day as a fun break from the classroom. Our teachers would take us outside to “enjoy the earth”- or simply participate in outdoor activities such as competitive races, planting flowers, and even learning about how to recycle. That was all before big, bad global warming came on the scene.
Since Al Gore presented his alarmist theories on global warming a few years back, the innocence of Earth Day may have been replaced with more menacing lessons for young children. Parents share stories of teachers warning children that leaving lights on too long or running water to brush your teeth is killing baby polar bears in the North Pole. The documentary Not Evil, Just Wrong shows British school children who bring home crayon drawings of the Earth as it is being destroyed by humans- bleeding animals and a flaming globe are among the images that young children are dreaming up. It’s hard to believe that type of fear-stricken behavior is the result of mild and balanced teaching practices in the classroom.
Some people won’t read any further because they’ll think- “yeah, so what if my kids learn that? That’s the truth and they need to know what human activities are doing to our planet!” Simply, the jury is still out on the theories of man-made global warming. There is evidence piling up on a daily basis that creates large cracks and holes in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. So, what about the rest of us who believe there is more to the story? What are we supposed to think about fear mongering and bully-pulpit preaching in the classroom?
A local activist named Heather decided that since Earth Day was around the corner, she would like to know what our local Clark County schools are teaching children on this most-Green day of the year. In a matter of days, Heather contacted and spoke with representatives from 90 schools in the Clark County School District, from elementary to high school s. What type of response did she get from the ever-transparent and always-the-model-of-excellent-education schools in our county? A great deal of stonewall responses and unreturned calls.
Representatives at Beatty Elementary & Allen Elementary both responded simply that they had no need for any outside information about global warming. Basic High School and Chaparral High School were among many of the schools which chose to not even respond to Heather’s inquiry. The number one response reported among the schools that chose to answer the question or call back said that they were unaware what was taking place in individual classrooms and that teachers had individual reign over the curriculum.
There were a few diamonds in the rough. Cully Paul Elementary & Cox Clyde Elementary both accepted educational resources to share with their faculty. A representative from Cimarron High School reported that she emphasized the difference between man-made and natural global warming.
What does this response mean for the taxpayers, parents, and concerned citizens who are anxious to know what is going on inside the walls of Clark County School District? Many administrators seem to think that “none of your business” is an appropriate response to questions about curriculum. Given that CCSD is frequently ranked very low in national education reports, and Nevada’s education system continues to lag behind other states, this should cause even greater alarm for Nevada parents.
There is something that can be done to shed some light on what’s happening in our schools. Parents, you must ask questions. Concerned grandparents, aunts & uncles, that goes for you too. If we want to know what our children are being told, we must call our kids teachers and simply say, “What is it that goes on in your classroom?” You do have a right to know.
The Balanced Education for Everyone campaign taking place in Nevada is not about causing an uprising or telling children that recycling a plastic bottle is evil. It’s about getting parents involved. It’s about ensuring that our children, who enjoy the fruits of a free society, have access to ALL of the information and research available so that they might make an educated decision about what effect they believe mommy’s SUV to have on melting ice caps. It’s about being responsible with the malleable and innocent minds of young children. It’s what we as adults must do to protect them from nonsense.
Karri Bragg is the Nevada State Director for the BEE Campaign. For more information about the campaign, please visit www.balanced-ed.org.
By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – With federally mandated health insurance now the law of the land barring a successful legal challenge, some state lawmakers say it is more urgent than ever to create competition among insurance providers by allowing Nevada residents to buy polices from out of state companies.
Assemblymen Ty Cobb, R-Reno, and Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, also say it is time to reduce the many mandated coverages required for an insurance company to offer a policy in Nevada to further lower the cost of premiums.
Other states, including Arizona and Georgia, have seen bills this year to allow for the purchase of policies from outside the state. The idea has been championed for years at the federal level by Rep. John Shadegg, R-AZ.
Nevadans now can only buy health insurance from companies licensed to do business in Nevada by the state Insurance Commissioner. While 723 companies are licensed to sell insurance in the state, suggesting that there is already competition, the Division of Insurance reports that many of the companies have limited offerings or may not currently be offering policies at all.
