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Subscribe to RSSRepublican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will not campaign Monday to stay at the side of his 3-year-old daughter Bella in the hospital, his campaign said.
"Rick Santorum will not hold any campaign related events on Monday so that he and Karen can remain in the hospital with their daughter Bella. The entire Santorum family is incredibly grateful for the outpouring of prayers and support," Santorum national communications director Hogan Gidley said.
Bella suffers from Trisomy 18, a chromosomal defect that claims the lives of most children born with it in their first year. The reason for her hospitalization this week hasn't been released.
Santorum is home in Virginia for the Easter holiday.
This is the second time during the campaign that Bella has needed to be taken to a hospital. Santorum canceled events in late January after Bella was rushed to a Virginia hospital when she developed pneumonia in both lungs.
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Love and best wishes to Bella and the Santorum family. The fear of losing a child is indescribable. May things be as well as can be.
I appeal to everyone - to remember that sickness comes to every family in America. Sometimes expected, sometimes not.
We must have affordable, accessible healthcare coverage when we need it. No more bankruptcy and terrible hardship for ordinary families when illness strikes. Whether rich or poor, we all need the security of preventive family care and treatment.
Particularly while the nation is recovering from the depths of this recession, the like of which we've not seen since the 1930's.
We all need the security and certainty of health care. Just a small percentage of American families have incomes like the Santorum family.
Under the Affordable Care Act ordinary Americans have access to the security and certainty we need.
Because of this law today, young folks can stay on their parents' plans till they are 26 years old no matter their situation. Seniors receive preventive screenings & pay less for medications; Millions of Americans, young and old, with pre-existing conditions must now be covered by insurance companies; No life time caps; Preventive care without co-pays, and 30 million people stand to gain health care in 2014 via exchanges.
Gradually the ACA is being implemented and will go into full effect in 2014.
Thanks for an excellent comment, Backhouse.
Best wishes to Bella for a speedy recovery.
Backhouse,
The affordable care act or Obamacare is going to bankrupt this country, PERIOD!! Even the name is a joke!! The CBO came out with a real estimate of the cost and it almost doubled from what the president told us. Now you make it sound soooo rosy, but the fact is that "young folks" would not have to be on their parents plan if they had a job and though work would have health care policy. So instead of wasting almost 2 years on this piece of garbage, the president would have been working on programs to get "young folks" back to work we would not need this piece of trash. The seniors will be taking a cut to medicare of $500 billion dollars and you say it makes it better?? Who's going to pay for all those "co pays" that the seniors don't have to pay??? let me tell you who ... it's Mr. & Mrs. middle class America, that's who. The president always says he looking out for those folks but in the real world he's just stick it to them again. You are a fool to believe that this program will help America, what it will do is send us down a road of disaster that we can't come back from. We are already 15 trillion dollar in debt and you want to throw more debt on our backs with this piece of garbage, how thoughtful!! Maybe you can afford it but America can't!! As usual you back the president who lies to your face($900 billion/1.76 trillion) and gives you the shaft and you still support him... what a fool!!
It's quite sad to me that you lack the love and respect for our seniors that many of the rest of us have. I hope those feelings aren't the result of a terrible upbringing. It might help to remember exactly who those senior citizens are: many of them are exactly what you and I are--Mr. and Mrs. America, only 20, 30, 40 years on. They're people like my mom, who started work babysitting and cleaning houses at age ten, studied extra hard to make it through a 4-year university in only 3 years, and went on to become a very gifted public school teacher. For 45 years she sparked her students imaginations, especially their love of science, reading and writing. To this day, middle-aged people, former students, come up to her in the grocery or the street, give her hugs and tell her what a difference she made in their lives. Contrary to popular belief, teachers don't just work 8-to-3 or lounge by the poolside all summer. My mom too college couses every summer for her Master's and beyond and was at work from 7-to-5 nearly every day, all while raising two biological and two adopted (special needs) kids as a single mother (she was widowed quite young). IMHO, people like her, who've worked hard and paid into the system all their lives, deserve a little consideration from the younger generation. They deserve to have the end of their lives be as tranquil and as free of suffering as possible in what can be a very hard world.
Sadly, if you bother to reply, I expect you'll most likely refer to me as a "libtard" or something of the sort (I actually have many conservative friends, and while I may not share all their opinions, we're still able to have a conversation without childishness or animosity), or tell me to go pick up my welfare check (like my mom, I started work at age 10 and have worked ever since; I've been a corporate trainer at a credit union for the past 23 years). Actually, it doesn't really matter what you say--I'm an adult, and stuff like that doesn't really bother me. What I would ask you to remember to remember is that those seniors, those poor people you despise so are REAL. When they're ill, homeless, hungry, they suffer, just as you and I would.
And on that note, despite my hated liberalness, I would like to send my very best wishes to Mr. Santorum and his family. It's an awful thing for any parent to go through a child's serious illness. Little Bella will be in my prayers.
Is it 2014 already? Obamacare has yet to be fully implemeted and has yet to show that it will be affordable.
What we do know though is that obama grabbed at least $500 billion over 10 years from our seniors medicare to pay for obamacare. So much for his looking after our elders.
Like others I wish the santorum family well regarding this health issue.
@Maxx Power, Liberals protest war. Conservatives protest health care.
The Affordable Health Care Act Disinformation Bunnies are out today. No surprise.
The Congressional Budget Office still found that the health care law (ACA) would REDUCE the Federal budget Deficit over the next decade - a year after the act was passed.
This week a new report finds:
1. Cost of coverage wll be lower by $50 Billion from 2012 - 2021 (compared to last year's estimates)
2. Private health insurance premiums will be 8% lower in 2021 than was predicated by CBO last year.
Those who want to take away our health care are using this to say the costs of the law have increased, but that is wrong.
Their math fails to use the SAME TIME PERIOD to compare old & new estimates and does not adjust for population grown, or account inflation and it is not complete - and ignores provisions in the ACA that save dollars over time.
The naysayers are trying to compare a 10-year estimate to an 8-year extimate
The non-partisan CBO says the ACA will be fully paid for.
Happy Easter! May all Americans have health care coverage and be treated like decent human beings -
JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE DEVELOPED WORLD, SOME WHO HAVE HAD UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE NOW FOR DECADES.
Happy Easter! Do you claim to be religious?
Do you have a conscience about people young and old who desperately need health care? Good folks who have gotten sick, or been in accidents, or inherited diseases, or just unlucky.
Other developed countries have had universal health care for DECADES.
I sit in Florida with a special needs child and listen to a governor supported by the tea party, who would have cut off life saving meds to transplant patients. I listen as people who have never experienced a devastating illness claim they can make it without help by pulling up their boot straps....they are clueless.
I watched as Santorum said a cheap cancer drug for children shouldn't be made because there was not enough profit in it.....And while I hope his daughter gets the best treatment possible, I doubt very much this man thinks about the rest of the children out there without insurance, without meds.
The governor of Fl pays less than 50 dollars a month for his entire family to have health care. At the same time a young man died in my state for lack of treatment....all because of an abscess tooth. Whats wrong with this picture?
Tammy 1, all the best to you from my family.
Please go to this link to hear stories from other families and information of all kinds, timeline and updates about the ACA. The website may appreciate hearing your story as well. http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform
ON FLORIDA GOVERNOR SCOTT:
"Today, the former executive pays just $30 a month for health care—and lets taxpayers cover the rest.
The governor, a proud bearer of the Republican Party's deregulation standard, has spent his first half-year in office decrying government waste: He's laid off thousands of Sunshine State employees, slashed their benefits, turned down (most of) the federal government's health care dollars, and put extra financial pressure on Florida retirees and Medicaid recipients.
But Scott and his dependents pay one-fifth what a janitor in the state Capitol pays for health insurance…and less than 3 percent of what a retired state trooper pays for life-saving coverage.
When asked about the double standard, a spokesman for Scott declined to comment, calling his family's cheap state coverage "private matters."
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/rick-scott-pays-360-year-state-health-insurance
I totally agree. Even though I don't agree with Santorum's politics I know, as a father myself, how he must feel. Nothing is more important than one's family and it is right and proper that he should be with his little girl. Speedy recovery to the child, as much as she can. Perhaps a miracle is in order.
Backhouse, thanks for the well wishes. Scott absolutely terrifies me. If he is re-elected, which I doubt....I will move out of the state. I live in fear that one day he will decide to cut treatment for children like my daughter.
I was at a special Olympics when he declared we need to do more for these kids ect. Two hours later he was signing a bill that would cut the aid that helped them live independently and place them in nursing homes when they got older. It saved no money, in fact it cost more to place them in nursing homes. But his friends in the nursing home business would have made out like bandits. Luckily, many agencies came out to make his actions public and it spurred outrage.
I will check out the website, thanks!
Despite my liberal politics I want to wish the Santorum family well, and hope little Bella is well.
While I wish the Santorum family well, I also wish they could feel the added anxiety and trepidation of the millions of his fellow citizens who are one episode such as this from losing their entire life savings, lively hood, home and hearth.
Unless, of course, that's liberal, nanny-state, bourgeois, big government, socialist redistributionism. Then let's not have that.
O is a socialist can't anyone see that?
What do you base that on? I hear conservatives say that but they can never give a reason.
All U.S. Presidents work for a free market economy.
Ironically, President Obama actually has to work AROUND the filibuster in the Senate to get anything done for businesses....17 tax cuts for small businesses so far.
The Jobs Act passed last week was for businesses. The government does not create jobs, but creates the conditions for business growth and hiring. If the President had not done worked tirelessly to do so in the face of GOP obstruction for the last 3 years, our economy would not have turned around.
HOW IS THIS "SOCIALISM" ???
Not one American actually knows what Socialism is at all. None of us have ever experienced it, and never will. Ask any real European what Socialism is and they will tell you it's not what Americans think. It may work for them, but it will never work for us. Why? For one, we don't have the mental capacity to understand how it works. Two, this country is governed by the Almighty Dollar so it can never work.
As for people who believe the ACA will bankrupt the country. Look at Canada, and Europe. They've had it for decades and it didn't bankrupt them. They are only hurting now because the rest of the world is hurting. And only that.
Do some more research with your own mind instead of letting onesiders at They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named tell you what to fear.
Get well!
Personally, I think Rick Santorum is a political idiot, but I do wish his family and daughter peace over this holiday weekend. I wish the best for Bella.
I personally think Rick is out of touch and is extremely dangerous for our country. His views are ancient and divisive, that being said I wish the utmost best for his family in this time of great anxiety.
To those who support the affordable care act: As someone who has read the entire bill over a period of time, be afraid - be very afraid. I as as a senior have already been thrown under the bus. And there are things in it that you supporters will not like when and if it goes into affect. It will affect all aspects of society and yes illegals are going to be covered.
I'd like to know specifically how you've been "thrown under the bus". And I'd like to know specifically why we should "be very afraid", 'cause I'll tell you, as someone who's done everything right (worked hard, paid my taxes, not gone in debt) what scares me is not having universal health care. And I'd like to know if you think that bankrupting this country for Bush's unfunded wars and unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy was something to not be afraid of, and if your answer is yes, then why.
Guenavere, in case you havent figured it out...we all pay when illegals go to the ER. And it's not just illegals its everyone without insurance. In case you havent noticed, those numbers are on the rise. As a senior youve been thrown under the bus???? really????? they just closed the doughnut hole so that seniors can get meds without that gap in coverage.
I am a senior. And I haven't been thrown under the bus. Yet. But if Romney gets elected I will be. I have no clue where you are getting your facts, Guenaver. (But I can guess)
Good posts, Laura and and Tammy.
In a way it is rotten to throw politics into the mix of a suffering child, but yet again Santorum spoke of his child and has already taken a draconian stance on health care.
I do wish this innocent child well. And I do wish for universal health care for everyone. Especially children.
While I am a lifetime Democrat, and an ardent Obama supporter, my heart goes out to the Santorum family and best wishes for a full and complete recovery for little Bella.
American civilization in the Republican robe is old man who refuses new and kill him to living in the old robe
so when Sen. Grassley calls the president 'stupid' as he killed American civilization for living in old robe
if he truly loved his family like he claims to he would drop out of this race and spend every second with his daughter while he can. He doesn't stand a chance of winning so lets see you act like a Father and do the right thing. I know thats hard for someone like yourself Rick I mean why stay by your daughters dying side when you can continue to travel around the country on someone elses dime.....Loser
ACA will reduce the deficit. Seems to me if you care about the deficit, then you should favor the act. The mandate is the same kind of mandate you deal with as a driver. SInce there is not the will to deny emergency medical care to those who have no coverage, all who can afford coverage should be required to carry it. It is time to be PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE rather than allow those who can afford coverage to sponge off those of us who do pay for coverage. One of the reasons insurance is so expensive is that the insured are paying for everyone else. ACA will reduce bankruptcies. 51% of bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. ACA's removal of the cap on coverage will, along with the mandate, help unclog federal courts.
I heard no attack on SCOTUS from POTUS. He simply said he felt secure in the constitutionality of the ACA, that it had been duly passed by Congress, and he did not believe SCOTUS would engage in what the GOP has long accused them of-"judicial activism" and lacking "judicial restraint". That is not an attack, but an expression of confidence in SCOTUS.
Sen Grassly needs hearing aids. He also should not call POTUS "stupid"-because the POTUS who engaged in these kinds of epithets was GOP- that is BUSH 43. I would not call any POTUS, even Bush 43, stupid. Nor will I call the Sen stupid. He is however, indiscreet, and he does himself and his party no favors, and garners them no respect by his behavior.
I hope the TP challenges every moderate GOP candidate this year, so they can get slammed by the Dems in Nov.
People have had enough of this right wing attack on our rights instead of getting jobs moving.
The refusal of Congress to consider stimulus and states to find other ways to cut budgets has led to vast local govt layoffs that are holding back the recovery.
The GOP has led this parade, and they are going t lead it to perdition in the fall.
Women will be very happy to send them into the obscurity they deserve.
Tea Partiers, you have been taken for a ride by the Koch Bros. I suggest you look for better company-try OWS......before they take the country away from its citizens.
wayback, you may not have put that in the most eloquent way, but I do have to agree. I think about my own daughter and when we nearly lost her. My husband lost his job because he refused to let her be in a hospital without him. Through 2 brain surgeries, you could not get me out of that room....ever. Let alone half way across the country. Makes you wonder.
Usually, with most insurance today, the amount the insurer pays the docs is already agreed upon. If you have insurance B, then it doesn't matter which doctor you go to, insurance B will pay the same. Only thing you can shop around is the health insurance check "Penny Health" for health insurance ideas to save money.
While I wish nothing but the best for this poor little soul, it does strike me as ironic that so many resources are going into the continuance of her suffering, while many can't even afford simple medications or procedures to make them whole. What quality of life could this poor baby expect for the future, besides more more of the same?
Sparrow, some children do survive. While they do have disabilities, they are none the less very special kids who have beat the odds. If it were your child would you give up?
My daughter had a stroke at birth and I was told she would never walk or talk and would be very limited in her mental abilities. Today, she competes in the special olympics, adds, subtracts, reads ect and I cant get her to shut up or sit down.
As a parent, you never give up or give in. For the life of me, I cannot wrap my head around what Santorum is doing.
Tammy, I'm glad you didn't give up and your little one is well. But, a stroke is a bit different that a chromosomal disorder.
I have doubts that trisomy 18 children would survive past childhood. This disorder is a bit different and yes, if my child were suffering, with no chance of any normalcy, I would most likely allow nature to prevail. I can't watch suffering and though I love my children, this syndrome is not much more than torture, which I wouldn't choose to prolong.
I hope no public funds are used for his medical issues, since he is hell bent onpreventing ohters from obtaining affordable health care
Don't mean this in a cold way but.....stay with Bella....she needs you more than we do!!
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Although Rick Santorum isn't my pick for the Republican candidate to run against Obama.....I sincerely send my thoughts and prayers to his beautiful lil one and the rest of the family during this scary time! I pray she will get better and be the exception to the rule fighting this horrible disease she is fighting!!!