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An excise tax on high-priced insurance policies might violate President Obama's pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class, House Democratic Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said last night. "I do not want to see anything jeopardize the president's promise not to raise taxes on the middle-class," Clyburn told MSNBC last night. "And that could very well get us there." The House healthcare bill to be unveiled today will not include such a tax, but the Senate bill does. Under the Senate bill, an excise tax on so-called "Cadillac" insurance policies would help pay for subsidies and expanded coverage. President...

Medical Center cutting services to poor (lost govt funding) Macon Telegraph ^ | 10/28/2009 | S. Heather Duncan Posted on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 5:37:59 AM by markomalley The Medical Center of Central Georgia is cutting hours, clinics and pharmacy offerings at its W.T. Anderson Health Center, which provides primary and specialty care to the poor. In addition, the Anderson Health Center will not be accepting new primary care patients into its CarePartners program, which provides primary and specialty care on a sliding-fee scale based on patients’ income, assets and insurance. Sick baby is turned away by doctor because mom...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is acknowleding that the health care plan he famously implemented as governor did nothing to address costs. "We were unable to deal with - and didn't have any pretense we would somehow be able to change - health care costs in Massachusetts," Romney said in an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. "We still have a fee for service, a re-imbursement system here like every other state in America. That's the way Medicare and Medicaid are structured, that's the way the insurance industry is structured." Romney said "Massachusetts is not the model"...

Negligent medical personnel of a hospital in Omsk, Russia, caused mass blindness to hospital patients. During surgeries, the doctors infected the patients’ eyes, making 13 people blind. According to Rosbalt news agency, lawyers of the affected patients are pessimistic. They do not think that it will be possible to hold the health professionals accountable...

Appearing on CNN last night, Mitt Romney conceded that the Massachusetts health care plan he signed into law did nothing to control costs. But, he now says, it was never intended to. "We were unable to deal with -- and didn't have any pretense we would somehow be able to change -- health care costs in Massachusetts," Romney said. "That's a whole different topic, which is how do we get the cost of health care down in America." The problem with Romney's account is that at the time he signed the bill, he was saying it would bring down health...

Facts are a stubborn thing. And despite the false claims of ideologues, academics and politicians, the facts tell the story of Massachusetts' remarkably successful health-reform law. The lengths that critics have gone to in their various attempts to disprove the obvious—that our state's landmark 2006 law and its implementation amount to a truly historic achievement—would be amusing if the subject were not so serious.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had two problems. How would he get the healthcare bill out of the Senate Finance Committee without revealing the glaring potential fissures in his party over the public option on healthcare? And how could he lend a veneer of bipartisanship to a one-party bill? He couldn't allow a vote on final passage out of the committee with a public option in the bill because he knew that he would lose Democrats and would have no GOP support. But real compromise was always out of the question. He wanted his public option. So...

Does HIV mean certain death? In the quarter century since the world was introduced to the idea that a new sexually transmitted virus was the cause of Aids, HIV has been generally regarded as one of the biggest killers of our time. HIV/Aids has not been the mass disease in Britain that people were led to believe in the 1980s, but the death toll from immune deficiency diseases ascribed to HIV in Africa has been staggering. The scale of death there is an ongoing tragedy that tests the moral resolve of the rich world. How much do we care? Enough...

AARP may benefit from health reform; GOP cites possible conflict of interest Denver Post ^ | 10/27/2009 | Dan Eggen Posted on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 5:17:47 AM by markomalley The nation's pre-eminent seniors group, AARP, has put the weight of its 40 million members behind health care reform, saying many of the proposals will lower costs and increase the quality of care for older Americans. But not advertised in this lobbying campaign have been the group's substantial earnings from insurance royalties and the potential benefits that could come its way from many of the reform proposals. Screwing the Seniors?...

For an editorial promoting fiscal responsibility, The Dispatch overlooked one of the best ways to lower health costs: a public option that competes with private insurers to lower costs and keep the industry honest ("Honest accounting," Oct. 19). The newspaper called the public option "the way for a government takeover of health care," but I ask: A takeover from whom? The two insurance companies that control more than 50 percent of Ohio's health-insurance market? The insurance companies across the nation that deny care based on gender or pre-existing conditions? The insurers that place arbitrary limits on how much medical care...

In what possibly could the funniest thing said on the House floor in a long time. Rep. LaTourette mocks democrats who have been whining and crying that the Republican party is blocking health care reform. Here's the video of LaTourette. Below is the transcript. Mr Speaker. All through out history there's been the big lie. And we got the big lie going here again. And it goes like this: Republicans wont let us have health care reform. WAHHHH Republicans are the party of no. WAHHHHHH Why are Republicans stopping us from reforming health care? WAHHHHH ..We couldn't stop a one...

Rep. Bart Stupak said Speaker Pelosi is not pleased with his effort to change abortion-related provisions in the healthcare bill being crafted by the House. During an interview on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" show, Stupak (D-Mich.) said he is undeterred in trying to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not pay for abortions. Stupak, who opposes abortion rights, acknowledged that some in his party are upset with his public campaign to change the bill. "The Speaker is not happy with me," Stupak said. The Energy and Commerce subcommittee chairman said he has been working with Democratic leaders on a compromise, but they...

He makes some good points.

Washington is captivated by the Senate melodrama over the so-called public option, salivating at the ring of Harry Reid's political bell (see below). But the most important health-care questions continue to be about the policy substance—particularly those that Democrats don't want asked. Foremost among them is: How will ObamaCare affect insurance premiums in the private health-care markets? Despite indignant Democratic denials, the near-certainty is that their plan will cause costs to rise across the board. The latest data on this score come from a series of state-level studies from the insurance company WellPoint Inc. At the request of Congressional delegations...

According to CBS and other media reports, “Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) said Tuesday that he would support a Republican filibuster of a health care bill that includes a public option.� This is a serious blow to the passage of any Obamacare bill including a public option, yet the blow may not be fatal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday announced a deal and it is notable that he was not accompanied by any member of the secret team negotiating a deal on Obamacare including Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Director...

Click the link. Read the latest updates on HR 3200 from the Hill, check the hyperlinked resources, and sign the petition. Petitions to be delivered to Congress on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009.

BOSTON (AP) ― The four Republicans who held the Statehouse Corner Office for 16 years have endorsed Charles Baker for governor next year. William Weld, Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift and Mitt Romney made the announcement Tuesday during a fundraiser for the Massachusetts Republican Party.

Uncertainty over health care costs is preventing small businesses from adding jobs, part of the reason for the so-called jobless recovery, said by some to be underway. Gary Fields paints a compelling picture of the worries and doubts faced by small businesses, in the Wall Street Journal. One employer: "... cut overtime for many of his 150 employees in anticipation of facing fresh health-care costs. He's worried about getting hit by higher taxes next year, which would cut into income to pay for expansion, raises, bonuses, new product lines and delivery trucks." It is always safer to postpone spending, in...

The House Dem leadership has conducted its preliminary whip count and has tallied up less than 200 likely Yes votes in support of a health care reform bill with a robust public option, well short of the 218 needed for passage, according to an internal whip count document I’ve obtained. The document — compiled by the office of House leader James Clyburn — was distributed privately at a meeting between Clyburn and House progressives today where the fate of the public option was the subject of some contentious debate, with liberals demanding that House leaders push harder to win over...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid addressed a development, first reported by TPMDC, that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will filibuster a health care bill if it includes a public option. "Joe Lieberman is the least of Harry Reid's problems," Reid told reporters at his weekly press conference. During a Q&A session with reporters, Reid offered a fairly spirited defense of Lieberman, signaling perhaps that he doesn't believe Lieberman will ultimately be an obstacle--or at least that he doesn't want to tip his hat: "I don't have anyone that I've worked harder with, have more respect for, in the Senate than Joe...

Senate GOP leaders warned Tuesday they will hold Democrats accountable for procedural votes during the floor debate over healthcare reform, bracing against a sneak legislative attack from the majority party. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) left no doubt they would pursue Democrats who face reelection in 2010 by considering any procedural votes on the health bill as equally important as final votes. Cobbling together the Senate’s 60 Democrats on procedural votes has emerged as a likely strategy for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). It involves a controversial legislative tactic called reconciliation...

Senate Dems Short Health Votes — For Now Lawmakers must meld the House and Senate versions of the health bills WASHINGTON - Several Democratic senators withheld their backing Tuesday as party leaders tried to nail down support from moderates for the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies as part of a sweeping health overhaul bill. Across the Capitol, Democratic leaders in the House were working to finalize the shape of a government insurance option in their version of the legislation, with many saying the effort got a boost from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to include...

Independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman said Tuesday that he would back a Republican filibuster against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care reform bill if a government-backed insurance plan remains in the package. The announcement is a blow to the Democratic leader and signals that he does not yet have the votes to advance the bill. While Reid needs just 51 votes to pass the package, he needs 60 votes to crush a filibuster. "If the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage," Lieberman told reporters... The trouble...

<p>Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill. Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid’s has said the Senate bill will. "We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now." Lieberman added that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line." .................</p>

October 27, 2009 Obamacare’s False Dawn The public option is a recycled means of pretending away Obamacare’s costs. Rich Lowry The public option is back. Its Lazarus act is hailed as a sign of how rosy the health-care debate looks for Democrats. August is but a sepia-tinged memory. Passage of a sweeping bill is now considered a lock by the wisest and most conventional Beltway pundits. And legislation may even include the most shining prize of all, the public option that liberals — no matter what the talking points for public consumption — consider a way station to the Valhalla...

Breaking News: Senator Joe Lieberman has announced that he will join the GOP in filibustering the Reid-pushed Health Care Bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is holding a series of meetings with Democratic centrists to secure the 60 votes he needs to begin the healthcare debate. Democratic leaders expect the legislation to hit the Senate floor next week or the week after. Reid appears confident that the entire Democratic Conference will vote en bloc to begin the healthcare debate, but he’s not taking any chances after losing a crucial vote last week on legislation to address Medicare payments to doctors. Nothing is certain in the wake of Reid’s announcement Monday that he would include a government-run insurance plan in...

American Life League 27 October 2009 CONTACT: Katie Walker540.659.4942| kwalker@all.org  Washington, DC (27 October 2009) – The Senate version of America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 may transform the nation’s largest abortion chain into a quasi-government entity for sex education. Section 1803, page 503, creates a National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Resource Center and states: The Secretary shall award a grant to a nationally recognized, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that meets the requirements described in clause (ii) to establish and operate a national teen pregnancy prevention resource center (in this subparagraph referred to as the ‘Resource Center’) to carry out the purpose...

Here is audio of Barack Obama as a candidate in 2007 where he said flatly "we are not going to pass universal health care with a fifty plus one strategy." Obama said "you can't govern" if you go about things in that way. But now, of course, the Democrats are contemplating the use of just such a "Nuclear Option" to ram ObamaCare through. . . . (AUDIO)

Please use the number 202-224-3121 to call the key Democratic senators and urge a no vote when Harry Reid attempts to bring Obamacare to the Senate floor next week or the week thereafter.  The idea that Reid, Chuck Schumer and Patrick Leahy are the architects of your health care for the rest of your life should be enough to move you to action.  It takes 60 votes to open debate.  Urge each office you call to tell their senator to vote "no" on the cloture motion to open debate. Start with Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, Senator Evan Bayh...

<p>After a weekend of intense consultations with fellow Democrats, Senate majority leader Harry Reid has decided he has the votes to get a health-reform bill with a public option to the Senate floor. "I believe we clearly will have the support of my caucus to move to this bill and start legislating," Reid declared at a news conference Monday afternoon.</p>

If recent reports are accurate, legislation being prepared in the U.S. Senate would cause nearly every healthy American under the age of 65 to become uninsured. Under current proposals, large employers would face a fine of up to $750 per employee if they didn’t offer health insurance. Since that is much less than employers currently spend on employee health insurance premiums, most businesses would choose to pay the fine and drop their group health insurance. Individuals who did not buy health insurance would face an initial fine of between $0 and $100. Since the biggest fine is much lower than...

Why Government Health Care Keeps Falling in the Polls The Wall Street Journal ^ | October 25, 2009 | Arthur C. Brooks Posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 5:39:23 AM by Puzzleman Regardless of how President Barack Obama's health-care agenda plays out in Congress, it has not been a success in public opinion. Opposition to ObamaCare has risen all year. --snip-- The health-care debate is part of a moral struggle currently being played out over the free enterprise system. It will be replayed in every major policy debate in the coming months, from financial regulatory reform to a cap-and-trade system...

The public option is back. Its Lazarus act is hailed as a sign of how rosy the health- care debate looks for Democrats. August is but a sepia-tinged memory. Passage of a sweeping bill is now considered a lock by the wisest Beltway pundits. And legislation may even include the most shining prize of all, the public option that liberals -- no matter what the talking points for public consumption -- consider a way station to the Valhalla of a government-controlled system. The flush on ObamaCare's cheeks, though, is not necessarily a sign of health. The return of the public...

As few as 4.7 per cent of women in England have been given the option of having their child at hospital, in a birth centre or at home, according to the National Childbirth Trust. In April 2007 ministers guaranteed all pregnant women would be able to select the place of birth where they would feel most comfortable. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, all say that they aim to do the same but have not made any time-specific promises. Research shows that women who give birth away from hospital obstetric units are more likely to have a natural...

Fearmongering First Lady Pushes Nationalized Health Care (Video) Monday, October 26, 2009 Jim Hoft Michelle Obama made a video to push for the nationalized health care this weekend. The First Lady made sure to focus on the horrors facing women in the United States under the present private system: Via FOX Nation The fearmongering First Lady pulled out all the stops to push for the dem’s government controlled health care legislation: In some states, maternity care is not covered because pregnancy can be seen as a pre-existing condition. Its even legal in some states to deny a woman coverage because...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned Senate Democratic leaders not to include a tax on high-cost healthcare plans in a bill that is expected to reach the floor in coming days. Trumka dismissed the notion that Democratic leaders could placate the powerful union by raising the threshold on plans that would be subject to the tax. Under the Senate Finance Committee’s bill, plans costing more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families would be hit with a 40-percent excise tax. “Working families struggling to pay for healthcare should not be required to pay even more in the form of a...

Just in from the Senate Majority Leader’s press shop: Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will hold a press conference this afternoon to give an update on the merger of Senate health insurance reform proposals. Today, Monday, October 26, 2009, at 3:15 p.m. Practically every report agrees that Reid will deliver a bill to the CBO today for scoring, and that it will include a public option with the potential for states to opt out.

WASHINGTON – In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up." But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones. Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of...

A top White House economic adviser will make the case for healthcare reform this afternoon while taking shots at Bush administration policies. In a speech to the liberal Center for American Progress, Christina Romer, Director of the Council of Economic Advisers, will argue that the actions of the Bush administration--and not stimulus spending--were largely responsible for the current deficit. According to excerpts released by the White House, Romer will cite a study concluding that "roughly half of the long-run deficit is due to the policy actions of the past 8 years," while "just 3 percent of the long-run fiscal problem...

Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com yesterday that he has organized a group of “about 40 likeminded Democrats” who will vote to kill the health-care bill if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) does not allow a floor vote on his amendment to prohibit federal funds from going to insurance plans that cover abortion. Under Stupak’s plan, the approximately 40 Democrats in his camp would join with all House Republicans in voting to defeat the special House “rule” that would set the terms for debating and amending the health-care bill on the House floor when it is brought up for a...

Guillermo Denis Gonzalez was released from prison in Florida in 2004 after serving 12 years for murder. By the end of 2006, he owned a health care business officially licensed by Medicare. This August, the Miami Herald reported that Gonzalez pled guilty to filing $586,953 in phony Medicare claims for supplies that were never given to any actual patients -- but this was only after he was arrested for murdering and dismembering another victim, to which he also confessed. While it's shocking that government policing efforts are so lax for Medicare that even a convicted murderer can be granted a...

We are nominating Sen. Baucus' health care reform bill for the Pulitzer Prize — for fiction. Like works of great fiction writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Conrad and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the story line of the Baucus bill is not what it seems and is in fact a clever subterfuge of what health care reform will mean for the American people. Hiding behind this facade is another story about a massive power grab by the Washington political establishment. The bill is loaded with fiction. To begin with, it purports to reduce the deficit. This is really an Enron-style scam...

Democrats are pushing Senate leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year. The most significant changes to the health care system wouldn’t kick in until 2013 – two election cycles away. With Republicans expected to make next year a referendum on health care reform, Democrats are quietly lobbying to push up the effective dates on popular programs, so they'll have something to run on in the congressional midterms. Democrats are anxious to mix...

Democrats are pushing Senate leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year. The most significant changes to the health care system wouldn’t kick in until 2013 — two election cycles away. With Republicans expected to make next year a referendum on health care reform, Democrats are quietly lobbying to push up the effective dates on popular programs, so they'll have something to run on in the congressional midterm elections.

Health Care Moves from IF to When October 26, 2009 Rick Klein Remember when "triggers" and "opt-outs" were dangerous to play with? It hasn't happened slowly or easily -- and maybe it's too soon to say it's happened at all -- but the debate over the public option, and health care reform more broadly, appears to have shifted in a subtle but important way. The newfound air of inevitability around health care has been driven by a sense that compromises are taking hold. It means, ultimately, that all Democrats will be left short of being totally thrilled -- but also...

Since the option to go private with NHS funding was introduced in April last year, almost 10,000 patients have sought diagnoses and waiting list operations in private hospitals - the majority of them in the past year. While it is up to individual hospitals whether to take patients at NHS prices, almost all have now opted to do so given the drop in people willing to pay themselves for private healthcare in the recession, and in private healthcare insurance takeup. According to Bob Ricketts, director of system management at the Department of Health, 2,100 hospitals were registering a month in...

Worst Case: Choosing Who Survives in a Flu Epidemic (Obamacare primer) NY Slimes ^ | 10/25/2009 | Sheri Fink MD Posted on Sunday, October 25, 2009 6:58:17 AM by markomalley New York state health officials recently laid out this wrenching scenario for a small group of medical professionals from New York-Presbyterian Hospital: A 32-year-old man with cystic fibrosis is rushed to the hospital with appendicitis in the midst of a worsening pandemic caused by the H1N1 flu virus, which has mutated into a more deadly form. The man is awaiting a lung transplant and brought with him the mechanical ventilator...

The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel headline for Sunday, October 25th screams:  "Swine flu a national emergency." Oh, really. Looks like President Obama has gone ahead and declared that the swine flu outbreak is indeed a national emergency.  And we know that Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel,  has stated in the past that "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."   Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius now has more power and authority to bypass federal rules regarding the operations of hospitals and alternative care sites.   And the government has taken another step towards grabbing more power in controlling the population of America because of Obama's...

Regardless of how President Barack Obama's health-care agenda plays out in Congress, it has not been a success in public opinion. Opposition to ObamaCare has risen all year.--snip--The health-care debate is part of a moral struggle currently being played out over the free enterprise system. It will be replayed in every major policy debate in the coming months, from financial regulatory reform to a cap-and-trade system for limiting carbon emissions. The choices will ultimately always come down to competing visions of America's future. Will we strengthen freedom, individual opportunity and enterprise? Or will we expand the role of the state...