Op-Eds and Blogs

<b>Originally printed in The Washington Post, April 25, 2014 </b> We recently visited Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova. In each country, our allies want a stronger immediate response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its ongoing subversion of Ukraine. They also believe, as we do, that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest acts of aggression require an enduring strategic response from the United States, Europe and NATO. It should be clear to all that Putin’s Russia has taken a dark turn. There is no resetting this relationship. We cannot return to business as usual. Western countries had high hopes for our relationships with Russia after the Cold War and acted on that basis. We provided billions of dollars to help Russia’s transition from communism. We created new mechanisms for consultation. We expanded trade. NATO committed not to deploy significant military capabilities onto the territory of new alliance allies, even as it expanded. In short, the West sought to include Russia in the promise of a Europe whole, free and at peace — a vision we still believe would benefit all participants.

The die-hard backers of Obamacare insist the Affordable Care Act is a success because more than a million people signed up for insurance coverage who didn’t previously have health insurance. A story from the New York Post reminds us that being covered by insurance isn’t the same as receiving health care, however. Margaret Figueroa, 49, was forced off the insurance plan she chose by Obamacare regulations. She found new coverage on New York’s state-run Obamacare exchange. She was assured it covered her doctors and medications. She found out otherwise at the pharmacy. “When she went to order medication, the pharmacists said her name wasn’t in the system. And she said her doctors were not included in her new medical plan. “ ‘They just don’t have enough doctors. Two of them are full to capacity, and the others aren’t even in my radius. There are some who don’t even speak English,’ the Arden Heights resident said.”