Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Let's see if we can have a reasoned discussion about end-of-life counseling. We might start by asking Sarah Palin to leave the room. I've got nothing against her. She's a remarkable political talent. But there are no "death panels" in the Democratic health care bills, and to say that there are is to debase the debate. We also have to tell the defenders of the notorious Section 1233 of H.R. 3200 that it is not quite as benign as they pretend. To offer government reimbursement to any doctor who gives end-of-life counseling -- whether or not the patient...

Steve Miller, a fellow CFP contributor sent out an email blast last night. In his note he included examples of the HR3200 language including a link to the copy available through the library of congress. That’s one of things I really appreciate about Steve, he is dogged when it comes to research. No wonder the powers that be incessantly work to silence him. HR3200 is a beautifully woven web of governmental Orwellian doubletalk. For those under the age of 40, that is a reference to George Orwell’s novel 1984. Check it out and cross reference it to Obama’s last few...

The heated debate over health care reform continued Monday in Wayne County. Democratic Congressman Chris Carney held a town hall meeting with hundreds at the Wayne County courthouse in Honesdale to address some of the rumors and concerns. Carney spent most of the town meeting debunking what he calls mis-information about a proposed health care reform bill. "I understand that there is a part of this bill that it says the government is going to have a say in how my children can raise their children because they are paying for the health care," commented Ruth of Matamoras. Carney told...

(I received this in my inbox.) To provide you with a clear understanding ... PLEASE PASS IT ON. TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PLANS BEING PROPOSED: Healthcare: Questions and Answers (regarding: H.R. 3200, Americas Affordable Health Choices Act): 1-QUESTION: Will health reform force all Americans out of their private insurance plans and into a government-run plan? Answer: No. You will always have a choice. If you like your insurance, you can keep it. H.R. 3200 builds on the employer-based coverage we have today. If your employer offers health insurance, you will continue to get your coverage...

SAME CRAP... DIFFERENT TERMINOLOGY It is Absolutely a Ruse! Dick Morris has been very clear that Obama will stop at nothing to push this bill through. See http://www.dickmorris.com Also Michael D. Tanner writing in an article posted on the CATO Institute website www.cato.org article at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10440 points out that the Government of the Obama Administration has no difficulty whatsoever in stretching definitions into utter deception. “The “compromise” health-care reform being negotiated by six members of the Senate Finance Committee is shaping up as a classic warning of the dangers of bipartisanship without principles: It looks like they’ll keep the worst...

Reading Guide—Democrat Health "Reform" August 6, 2009 In order to assist Members, staff, and interested parties seeking to read and review the health "reform" legislation (H.R. 3200) introduced by House Democrats, the Republican Conference has compiled a list of important page numbers and provisions in the 1,018-page "America’s Affordable Health Choices Act:"Page 19—Section 102(c) prohibits the sale of private individual health insurance policies, beginning in 2013, forcing individuals to purchase coverage through the federal government Page 30—Section 123 establishes a new board of federal bureaucrats (the "Health Benefits Advisory Committee") to dictate the health plans that all individuals must purchase—and...

Remember all the shrieking over the Patriot Act? The concern over privacy? How could the government snoop? Well, HR3200 will have the government in our bank accounts, in all of our medical records, and my understanding is that they won't even be required to keep our medical records private. There will be a national ID, for sure, and I know that's a big concern. Where are the liberal on this devastating loss of privacy? Where are the cries of excessive snooping now? Oh, if Obama and his side of the issue were being straight with his own people, this thing...

Section 1233 would have Medicare pay doctors to counsel seniors on "end-of-life" matters once every five years - or more if the patient's health is dicey. Obama's supporters have forwarded to me links to Politifact.org and FactCheck.org, which have examined Section 1233 [of HR 3200], and conclude nothing sinister is in the bill. Several facts are missing, however. The man who wrote Section 1233, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., advocates euthanasia or, as he calls it on his Web site, "Death with Dignity." In 2005, as the Bush administration challenged Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law, Blumenauer issued a statement criticizing the...

I haven't found this language in HR3200 yet. But it does exist in the as yet un-numbered Senate version of the socialized medince bill. The Senate Version Of The Socialized Medicine Bill Exempts Congress From Socialized Health Care 84rules August 14, 2009 If anyone can find where a Congressional exemption exists in HR3200 (Section and page number), please post it. Thanks.

Tired of wading through thousands of pages of legislation? Worried that the government will of necessity (that’s “perforce” to budding wordsmiths) begin rationing health care?? Sick of the whole “health care is a right” crowd??? Fugeddaboudit!!! FReeper MaggieCarta offers her modest proposal to effectively “reform Health care as we know it” in less than 140 characters. See the proposal in comment #1.

Concerning the "Death Panels" Share Today at 8:55pm Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these “unproductive” members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve health care. The President made light of these concerns. He said: “Let me just be specific about some things that I’ve been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor that’s been circulating a...

Quite often a President, or the leading party (if they are not the same), may push for some initiative that encounters serious opposition. That is how a free government is meant to work. Such is the beauty of democracy that it allows for a healthy debate and eventually a more amenable bill is hammered out and passed. President Obama, like his predecessors, is also encountering some rough waters just as he thought there would be smooth sailing since his Democrats command a comfortable majority in both houses of Congress. The opposition, however, is far more vocal on the streets than...

Not that anybody, anywhere at any time is saying that H.R. 3200 (the edifice belched out of Henry Waxman’s Energy and Commerce Committee) will be the final plan that will come out of conference between the Senate and the House when Harry Reid uses reconciliation to force through a deeply unpopular health care, uh…I mean, health insurance reform plan, but I wouldn’t bet against it. What’s cool about all this is that I’m finding more and more that many people are actually taking the time to read and get some analysis done on just what the plan known as “ObamaCare”...

The Senate Finance Committee will drop a controversial provision on consultations for end-of-life care from its proposed healthcare bill, its top Republican member said Thursday. The committee, which has worked on putting together a bipartisan healthcare reform bill, will drop the controversial provision after being derided as "death panels" to encourage euthanasia by conservatives. "On the Finance Committee, we are working very hard to avoid unintended consequences by methodically working through the complexities of all of these issues and policy options," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. "We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way...

When standing against Big Brother's disinformation and marketing of ObamaCare, it helps to be armed with facts. Here are 3 articles that provide useful data. You may want to print these for use at town hall meetings. ObamaCare: The Trojan Horse Revealed Provides details on HR 3200, alternative solutions, and a download link to the bill. The HR-3200 Bill in its Own Words Asks questions. Answers with quotes from the bill and offers an explanation. ObamaCare's Real Price Tag Explains the costs of government-run health care.

It’s hard not to notice that many of the most vocal ObamaCare protesters are senior citizens. And senior citizens remain the largest challenge for ObamaCare. Not in political terms, but in terms of resource management. Senior citizens are likelier to require medical care than younger workers, and contribute little or nothing to the system. From the perspective of socialized medicine it becomes all too easy to contemplate “cutting the waste” by reducing the care given to senior citizens, the disabled, infants with birth defects, the mentally retarded and anyone else who fails the system’s “Productivity in Practice or Potential” test....

If you liked the first list of questionable items found in HR3200, you are going to love the new list. It is longer and more comprehensive and was compiled by Liberty Counsel, a Civil Liberties Law Firm. More Items Found In HR3200, The Socialized Medicine Bill 84rules August 13, 2009

I would like to be able to read the bill so that I know what questions to ask.

In terms of savings for you as a Medicare recipient," President Obama told a town hall attendee yesterday, "the biggest (change) is on prescription drugs, because the prescription drug companies have already said that they would be willing to put up $80 billion in rebates for prescription drugs as part of a health care reform package." Then the president said, "Now, we may be able to get even more than that.” That sentence -- seemingly an aside -- could be significant. Because it may indicate that President Obama does not consider himself bound by an agreement upon which the pharmaceutical...

What does the bill, HR 3200, short-titled ‘‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,” actually say about major health care issues? I here pose a few questions in no particular order, citing relevant passages and offering a brief evaluation after each set of passages. This bill is 1017 pages long. It is knee-deep in legalese and references to other federal regulations and laws. I have only touched pieces of the bill here. For instance, I have not considered the establishment of (1) “Health Choices Commissio0ner” (Section 141); (2) a “Health Insurance Exchange,” (Section 201), basically a government run insurance scheme...