The health care reform bill, Affordable Health Care for America Act, would provide all Americans with access to quality and affordable health care under insurance reform legislation. The bill passed in the House on Nov. 7 by a vote of 220-215. It represents Pres. Barack Obama’s goals for health care reform, which include: slowing the growth in out-of-control costs, creating competition in the health care marketplace, protecting people’s choice of doctors, planning to keep them affordable and ensuring Americans to equal and stable access. The total cost of the plan comes to about $900 billion over 10 years, which would cover 36 million uninsured Americans, according to the federal Committee on Education & Labor’s blog, available at http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/10/affordable-health-care.shtml.

The health care reform debate is running rampant in town halls throughout the United States, and Hollywood is no exception. The buzz is being felt from celebrities across the spectrum. More specifically, celebrities have been coming from right and left to weigh in on the debate and share their two cents in press releases and online postings.

Chuck Norris
In a column titled “Dirty Secret No. 1 in Obamacare” on TownHall.com, Chuck Norris has expressed his perspective and strong opposition to the proposed health care reform. Norris remarked, “Obamacare is about the government’s coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development. . . . The bill says that the government agents, ‘well-trained and competent staff,’ would ‘provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional and motor domains. . . . Are you kidding me?! With whose parental principles and values? Their own? Certain experts’? From what field and theory of childhood development? As if there are one-size-fits-all parenting techniques! . . . Are we to assume the state’s mediators would understand every parent’s social or religious core values on parenting? Or would they teach some secular-progressive and religiously neutered version of parental values and wisdom?”

While Norris brings up valid points about each child requiring specialized and individualized attention relating to his or her social and cultural background, it can be argued that many parents and children require this attention. Child protective services is already a government entity that has the potential to be involved in the life of every family, and before drastic intervention is required for many families and children in the future, the bill could provide the concern necessary from the beginning.

Mark Hoppus

Taking another approach to the health care reform, Blink 182’s bassist, Mark Hoppus, is a strong supporter of the bill. He recently wrote an editorial for the political news site The Huffington Post, stating that “When a person’s best option to pay for health care is to take to the Internet and ask for small donations from strangers, bold changes need to be made. . . . Mr. President, members of Congress, hospitals, doctors and insurance companies, there has to be a better way.”

Moby

The famous musician Moby posted a story on his blog bringing to light the health of his deceased mother that makes it hard to not support the health care reform plan. Moby described how in 1996 his mother complained to her HMO about breathing and other health problems after she had quit smoking. The doctors didn’t take X-rays or perform any other tests and sent her on her way. Three months later, as her respiratory problem worsened, her insurance company allowed her to have X-rays and saw that she had advanced lung cancer. About six months later, she died from lung cancer, and Moby remains an avid supporter of health care reform as a result.

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/moneyinvesting/news/celebrities-sound-health-care-reform

Written by Jasmine Abrams, 2L Staff Writer

By Timothy Sutton, 1L

Just recently, Chuck Norris filed suit against NBC, claiming “Law” and “Order” You’ll Get a Kick Out Of This! are trademarked names for his left and right legs. One of the world’s biggest celebrities, Norris is good at one thing and one thing only: kicking butt. Therefore, in 1990, Norris founded the Kick Drugs Out Of America KickStart program. The focus of the program, which currently operates in more than 44 Houston, Texas, area schools, is to prevent teenage drug use and deter teenagers from joining or forming gangs.

The overall mission of KickStart is to change and save children’s lives. Resiliency is enhanced through the values and philosophies taught through the martial arts. Norris uses his incredibly effective roundhouse kick to ensure that gangs and drugs get “the boot” in Houston. The star of “Walker Texas Ranger,” Norris uses the training of martial arts to alleviate the peer pressure of high-risk behaviors. Since it began, the program has graduated more than 6,300 successful students, many who continued on to college. Others have stayed behind, attempting to master the roundhouse kick.

The true social benefit of the program can be seen in the cost comparison of incarcerating a teenager estimated at $50,000, with the mere $550 it costs to participate in the KickStart program. The “science-based” evaluations that measure the effectiveness of the program returned some staggering results: The KickStart program attracts girls and boys in nearly equal percentages. The program attracts students in all ethnic groups.

Seventy-five percent of the students who begin the program in sixth grade continue, voluntarily, to enroll throughout middle school. KickStart students who participated in the program for the three years finished middle school with higher grades and better attendance records than those who did not participate. Ninety-six percent of KickStart students graduate from high school. KickStart students who participated in middle school have a lower dropout rate and higher grades during high school. Survey results suggest the KickStart students are more likely to refrain from engaging in drug-related activities, and are further along in understanding problems associated with drug use. Survey results also suggest that KickStart activities and participation boost students’ self-confidence, enhance the respect students receive from their peers and help them view their overall school experience positively.

Eighty-five percent of KickStart students’ families attend KickStart school functions, compared to an average of 8 to 10 percent at PTA meetings or other school functions. KickStart students’ parents reported that their children have more self-control and self-confidence because they participated in the program. Participating school campus administrators are enthusiastic about the impact of the program at their campuses, and they commentted that instructors are productive members of the campus community. Houston, Dallas and Galveston Independent School District studies show that drug- and gang-related peer pressure is the worst at the 6th-grade level.

There are three ways to donate to KickStart: a single donation via PayPal, a monthly pledge of various amount, and a yearly student sponsorship. For more information, you can visit www.kick-start.org/donate.