Saturday, March 15, 2014

Via Edge on the Net: New Health Insurance Rights for Same-Sex Couples



Acting to expand health insurance access for same-sex couples, the Obama administration said Friday that plans offering benefits for heterosexual couples must also provide coverage for married couples who are of the same gender.

The policy, posted online by the Department of Health and Human Services, takes effect next year and applies to plans offered in the new health insurance exchanges, as well to many - but not all - individual and employer plans offered outside that marketplace.

The administration acted after gays and lesbians complained that they’re not sure how the rules of the new insurance exchanges apply to them - particularly in states that do not recognize same-sex marriage.

The department said it was moving to clarify those rules and make coverage "more accessible and equitable for married same-sex couples." It’s part of a government-wide effort to codify the rights of same-sex spouses in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and opening the way for same-sex spouses to receive government benefits.
The new HHS policy says that if an insurance company offers spousal coverage to heterosexual couples, it must also provide that benefit to same-sex couples who were legally married in a jurisdiction that recognizes marriage between people of the same sex.

http://www.edgeonthenet.com/news/national/News//156626/new_health_insurance_rights_for_same-sex_couples

Wasla Band - El salam (peace) | فريق وصله - السلام


Courage – Quotes on Living Exceptional Lives, from Lao Tzu, Pema Chodron, T.S. Eliot and Others


Here are some great quotes from past and present philosophers, writers, and spiritual leaders on the qualities of courage we all carry inside.
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. (Lao Tzu)
– Only we can hold ourselves back. Only we can set ourselves free.
 
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.(Andre Gide)
– Adventure may be dangerous, but so can staying in one place forever.
 
Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth. (Pema Chodron)
– It is said that the only mistakes on the road to wisdom are not starting, and not going all the way – keep walking.
 
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. (T. S. Eliot)
– Teachers can show us the path, travelers can tell us how to walk it, but only the individual person can journey on it.
 
It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult. (Seneca)
– How often do we make obstacles larger in our minds than they really are?
 
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. (Eleanor Roosevelt)
– Fear can be a great, liberating, powerful experience when we use it to grow.
 
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. (C. S. Lewis)
– All good deeds in our lives come down to courage – the bravery required to make the right choice even when the right choice is unpopular.
 
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. (Mark Twain)
– Bravery is never a sudden enlightenment or magic power – rather it is the humble effort to keep moving forward in the face of uncertainty.
 
To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals – this alone is worth the struggle. (William Penn)
– What else is life, but an effort to do something worthwhile? Do what challenges you and makes you feel afraid.

Please take the jump here to read the original posting

Vi Daily Dharma:


Boundless Compassion | March 15, 2014

Traditional Buddhism describes boundless love and compassion as liberations of the heart that free us from ill will, cruelty, and indifference. They are called divine dwellings because those who practice them radiate holy wishes for the welfare, happiness, and security of all beings. Given, however, the gravity of the crisis that confronts us today, it is questionable whether the merely inward cultivation of such virtues is sufficient. If love and compassion don’t find expression in concrete action, they could remain purely subjective states, lofty and sublime but inert, unable to exert any beneficial influence on others.
 
—Bhikkhu Bodhi, “The Need Of The Hour”
 

Dra Yang Project " Namo Buddhaya, namo Dharmaya, namo Sanghaya "