Thursday, January 6, 2011

What is the future of healthcare law?

What is the future of healthcare law?

The future of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform will be at stake after Republicans take charge of the House of Representatives on Wednesday following their gains at midterm elections last year.Here are some questions and answers about the political and legal challenge to healthcare reform.

WILL CONGRESS REPEAL THE WHOLE LAW?
Republicans will be in control of the House but not the Senate, limiting their power to overturn the healthcare law. House Republicans will hold a vote on repeal on Jan 12, before Obama's State of the Union address, and are set to win it.
This is likely to be little more than a symbolic vote given Democrats could block repeal in the Senate, and Obama could veto it if he needed to.
It will be easier for Republicans to chip away at parts of the law such as the individual mandate, given the opposition they will face in the Senate. Obama has said he would veto any bill repealing parts of the healthcare law.
Republicans also can try to withhold money needed to administer and enforce the law, and likely will work to at least delay the funding.
Reid Cherlin, a White House spokesman, has said: "The President is confident about defending the healthcare bill."

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IN THE COURTS?
A U.S. judge in Virginia last month declared a key part of the healthcare law unconstitutional, in the first major setback to the reform. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson backed the state of Virginia's argument that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to start buying health insurance in 2014 or face a fine.
A federal court in Florida is also hearing a multi-state lawsuit opposing the plan on much the same grounds as Virginia's and the judge has said a decision will come soon. Wisconsin recently joined the challenge, bringing the total number of states in the lawsuit to 21.
Constitutional scholars expect one of the two dozen lawsuits filed since the law was enacted to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, most likely the multi-state lawsuit or Virginia's.

WILL OBAMA PUT THE PLAN ON HOLD DURING COURT PROCESS?
Senior White House officials said after the Virginia ruling that Obama will continue implementing the healthcare reform while the court challenges play out.
The administration has the latitude to do so because the part of the law ruled unconstitutional, known as the individual mandate, will not come into force until 2014. Already, provisions allowing states to review increases in health insurance premiums and sending money to community health centers have moved forward.

HOW ELSE CAN STATES AFFECT HEALTHCARE'S FUTURE?
Many of the provisions in the healthcare law were given to the states to implement, which has set them scrambling to start programs or expand existing ones at a time when revenues are low and some are unable to meet basic spending pressures.
Only a few provisions gave them funds to hire additional staff or change computer systems. Adding to the confusion is the process under which the law made it out of Congress, known as reconciliation, which required lawmakers to use an early draft of the bill. By the time the law was signed, many of the legislated deadlines states had to meet had already passed.
Some states have already decided not to establish or run health insurance exchanges, an open market where individuals can buy insurance. Others are putting off expanding Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor run by the states with federal reimbursements.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a leader in the Republican Party, and others have issued statewide orders to only implement parts of the plan that are mandatory and not to participate in the optional programs.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Jeremy Pelofsky and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Vicki Allen)

WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 4, 2011 12:35pm EST
(Reuters)

Chinese artists find new creative freedom in Berlin

Chinese artists find new creative freedom in Berlin


Berlin has long been a magnet for international artists but in recent years a growing number of artists from China are making it their new home, combining Western European influences with traditional Chinese imagery.


The 2006 sale of Xu Beihong's work "Slave and Lion" set a new world record; sold for $6.9 million (5 million euros), it was the most expensive piece of Chinese art and started a wave of popularity surrounding art of Chinese origin.

As Xu died in 1953, he is not profiting from his fame. The next generation of Chinese artists is, however, and many of them have discovered Berlin as an increasingly attractive hot spot for art students.

One of those is Duan Yafeng, who has lived in Germany's capital for a year. After studying Chinese art in Beijing, she relocated to Germany where she enrolled in the liberal arts program at legendary design school Bauhaus.

"I think every artist has to come here at some time or another," she said, "We have so many more opportunities here than anywhere else, so many galleries and so many people who are making some really fantastic works."

Duan is extremely animated when talking about the creative possibilities afforded her from Bauhaus; an all-encompassing alternative arts course, it's a world away from the education she received in Beijing.

"I studied Chinese art, but something was missing," she said, "At Bauhaus we learn about how museums work, what kind of exhibitions you can present, how you can use performance in your work - so many different aspects of art."

New look at traditions

While Duan is just one of many young artists currently studying in Berlin, she's by no means the first.

During the 1920s and 30s, Berlin boasted a vibrant Chinese art scene populated by figures who had re-located Paris, which had become increasingly expensive. Even Xu Beihong spent time in Berlin in the 20s.

The rise of the Nazi regime in the early 30s put and end to this lively Chinese art scene - the largest outside of China at that time - as many fled Germany.  
   
"Western art plays an important role in China and I think that's the attraction of these works," said Berlin gallery owner Zhu Ling, "All of my artists studied traditional Chinese painting before they came to Germany and here they studied Western oil painting and in their works I see an effort to combine these two traditions. It's an interesting phenomenon that Chinese people, only after they have left China, begin to reflect on their own traditions."

More than 70 years after Berlin's first wave of Chinese artists left the city, Zhu is one of the next generation of artists to take up residence. Her gallery on Motz Strasse is dedicated to the promotion of Chinese art.

"It's only in the last 10 or 20 years that Chinese people have been allowed to go abroad," she explained, "So these artists are generally very young and they are at the start of their careers. I think these people need a platform to present their works."

Accidental freedom

Current census records show that there are around 6,000 Chinese people living in Berlin and, while not all of them are artists, the figures make for a vibrant Chinese community. While recent media reports suggest that Berlin's cheap rents are the main reason for this influx of Chinese artists, Zhu thinks this is a trivial excuse and that the real reason is a sense of freedom not available to them under the Communist rule in the People's Republic of China.

Communist control runs deep in China's educational system, adding that independent thinking was never promoted in schools and universities.

"From my experience, I think [Berlin's Chinese artists] did not consciously reflect on the political restrictions in China before they came to Germany, but once they arrive here they can feel the difference," commented Zhu. "They have more freedom to develop their own individuality than in China but before they came here they didn't even know what it was like, so you can't say they made the conscious decision to seek more freedom."

Duan Yafeng mentions neither politics nor cheap rent when asked why she decided to make Berlin her new artistic residence. Her answer is simple: "Here I have the right people to work with and the right audience who understands my work. Now I know who I am and what I am doing. I know which direction I am going in."

Author: Neale Lytollis
Editor: Kate Bowen