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Get Ready for Your Health Care ‘Re-Education’
Pajamas Media ^ | September 14, 2010 | Paul Hsieh

Posted on 09/14/2010 4:50:25 AM PDT by Kaslin

Kathleen Sebelius' chilling, Orwellian order that insurers not blame ObamaCare for rising rates was just the start. We must stop the re-education in November

After Congress passed ObamaCare, senior Democratic leaders predicted that public opposition would fade and voters would reward congressional supporters in the November elections.

However, the exact opposite has occurred. Opinion polls show that ObamaCare remains deeply unpopular with the American people, because it will limit their freedoms, reduce their access to quality medical care, and raise their health care costs.

Democratic congressional candidates now regard health care as toxic for their re-election chances. Those who had voted for ObamaCare are running away from that fact, whereas the few Democrats who voted against ObamaCare now use it as a selling point in their campaigns.

But rather than acknowledging that their health care plan is fundamentally flawed, the Obama administration is trying to pretend that the problem is merely one of bad public relations. Hence, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has stated that “we have a lot of re-education to do.”

This Orwellian re-education program has now begun, directed against three major targets: the voting public, doctors and patients, and health insurance companies.

The first target of the “re-education” campaign is the voting public.

Prior to its passage, ObamaCare supporters repeatedly claimed that the plan would “bend the cost curve” down. However, detailed analyses instead show that ObamaCare will actually raise health costs, while reducing patient choices. Hence, ObamaCare supporters are now attempting to sell a different message.

As Politico’s Ben Smith reported:

Key White House allies are dramatically shifting their attempts to defend health care legislation, abandoning claims that it will reduce costs and deficit and instead stressing a promise to “improve it.”

In other words, they’re hoping that the voters will be too stupid to notice this abrupt about-face.

The second target for “re-education” is doctors and patients.

Liberal media outlets like National Public Radio are now trumpeting the supposed virtues of the “medical home,” where primary care doctors and specialists theoretically coordinate their expertise to provide comprehensive, integrated care for patients. Even the phrase “medical home” has a warm-and-fuzzy feel. But under ObamaCare, “medical homes” will instead likely be used to control costs by using primary care doctors as gatekeepers to restrict access to expensive tests such as MRI scans, or to specialists such as cardiologists and orthopedic surgeons.

Patients will be herded into these new “medical home” plans under ObamaCare laws, which will start limiting employers’ ability to continue offering their current health plans.

Similarly, the government will nudge doctors into working for “medical homes” via a combination of financial rewards and penalties. Once there, the government will specify how doctors must practice and what “quality” measures they must meet in order to get paid.

Hence, under ObamaCare “medical homes” will be more like “medical government housing projects.”

Finally, the most Orwellian rhetoric is being directed against health insurance companies.

Under ObamaCare, insurers must now offer dozens of services for “free,” including various forms of cancer screening, vaccinations, and AIDS testing. But of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch — instead the costs must be shifted to other customers. Hence, many insurers have started raising their rates, explaining that it is due to these new regulations.

In a chilling response, Secretary Sebelius has just ordered insurance companies not to blame their rate hikes on ObamaCare. She warned that she would show “zero tolerance” for any insurers spreading such “misinformation.” Companies that objected could be banned from the new government-run “insurance exchanges” where millions of Americans will be obliged to purchase their health plans starting in 2014.

In effect, the government is saying: “Let’s pretend we never said ObamaCare would lower costs — even though that’s how we sold it to the public.” “Let’s push patients into restrictive health plans — and call it a ‘medical home.’” “Let’s label it ‘misinformation’ when insurers tell the truth about how our laws raise their costs — and then punish them if they complain about it.” And as the problems of ObamaCare deepen, we can expect such “re-education” efforts to intensify.

Fortunately, we can stop this. Last spring, when Obama demanded that Congress pass his health care bill he said that if Americans didn’t like it, “then that’s what elections are for.”

Well, the 2010 election is nearly here. Soon, it will be our turn to have our say. And unless we want to be on the receiving end of perpetual “re-education” from our politicians, we must re-educate them about our commitment to basic American freedoms.

This November, let’s teach every politician who supported ObamaCare a lesson. And let’s make sure it’s a lesson they never forget.


TOPICS: Government; Health/Medicine; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 09/14/2010 4:50:27 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The Health Care Witch is at it again.


2 posted on 09/14/2010 4:52:34 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (counter revolutionary)
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To: screaminsunshine

In a sane country, she’d be charged with a crime and sentenced to prison for threatening private citizens.


3 posted on 09/14/2010 4:54:33 AM PDT by CitizenUSA
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To: CitizenUSA

Indeed


4 posted on 09/14/2010 5:02:25 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

I love Pajama’s media.


5 posted on 09/14/2010 5:04:07 AM PDT by corlorde (New Hampshire)
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To: Kaslin

I don’t know how to post this but they just said on TV that the woman being held in Iran has just been released. They are working on confirming it for sure as of now.


6 posted on 09/14/2010 5:04:30 AM PDT by flaglady47 (When the gov't fears the people, liberty; When the people fear the gov't, tyranny.)
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To: Kaslin

“This November, let’s teach every politician who supported ObamaCare a lesson. And let’s make sure it’s a lesson they never forget.”

Ok, so lets just assume that O-care gets repealed, as it should.

The question that should be vexing conservatives is: “Then what?”

How do you lower the cost of medical care so more people can afford to pay for it in a way that suits them best?

Conservatives are mistaken if they repeal Obamacare and think that everything will be fine. The repeal of O-care is not the holy grail.

If there is not a follow-on flurry of activity that results in lower costs for medical care, then this will be a short-lived victory.

If the costs continue to spiral - and does anyone really expect anything else - what happens to conservatives that fought for repeal of Obamacare?

We better have an answer folks.....and it better not be more of the same bureaucratic fingerpointing BS.


7 posted on 09/14/2010 5:04:36 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: Kaslin

ObamaCare will reduce care.

Eugenics often does.


8 posted on 09/14/2010 5:09:57 AM PDT by Le Chien Rouge
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To: Kaslin
Hey, Zero, get ready for your 're-Education'

Liar = Obama.

Cheater = Feds.

Thief = Congress.

Con artist = Piss-Stream Media.

Throw 'em all out.

IMPEACH-OBAMA-036

9 posted on 09/14/2010 5:17:54 AM PDT by BobP (The piss-stream media - Never to be watched again in my house)
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To: Kaslin
We must stop the re-education in November

DE voters need to think of that when they go to polls today and decide whether to go "purist" and hand the Senate seat to the Dem, thus assuring a return of Harry Reid as Majority Leader.

10 posted on 09/14/2010 5:21:52 AM PDT by ScottinVA (The West needs to act NOW to aggressively treat its metastasizing islaminoma!)
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To: screaminsunshine

Back to Topeka and sooner the better.


11 posted on 09/14/2010 5:33:43 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: Kaslin
Speak out against against Islam: INFIDEL! Off with your head!
Speak out against ObamaCare: INFIDEL! Off with your head!

..and no wonder why folks think he is a Moslem.

12 posted on 09/14/2010 5:52:17 AM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.....)
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To: Kaslin
Kathleen Sebelius has stated that “we have a lot of re-education to do.”

Voters: "we will have a lot of re-education to do to do with congress in November".

13 posted on 09/14/2010 5:58:18 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Remember in November. Clean the house on Nov. 2. / Progressive is a PC word for liberal democrat.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

Does that mean I finally get to sent to “camp”? Camp...woo Hoo!


14 posted on 09/14/2010 6:15:22 AM PDT by hal ogen (1st amendment or reeducation camp?)
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To: Kaslin

Kathleen would have been losing her run for Senate here in Kansas and ending her Governorship had she not bolted for D.C. I suspect Daschle would have been the same, but Sebelius’ is pretty scary being in charge of Health Care. On behalf of Kansas I’m sorry she ever got this much power. I was always vocal against her.

Kansas, at least, is about to get Sam Brownback as Governor and I expect as soon as he wins the election and is inaugurated that he will file a lawsuit to stop Obamacare and join the other states. The Democrats here are on their ropes, as they lost traction.


15 posted on 09/14/2010 7:18:47 AM PDT by Mozilla
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To: RFEngineer
The question that should be vexing conservatives is: “Then what?”

Then what is called TORT REFORM.

16 posted on 09/14/2010 9:18:21 AM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Disambiguator

“Then what is called TORT REFORM.”

I hope so. Democrats will fight this tooth-and-nail.

We’ll need Democrat help and/or uncharacteristic GOP leadership to appear on the issue.

That one will take a while.

In the meantime, medical costs continue to escalate, insurance costs rise another 50%. The drumbeat for a return to socialized medicine will get stronger and louder from the masses that cannot afford medical care or insurance. We need to be able to rightfully blame the democrats when this happens.

Again...GOP leadership is required to get this done. We have none.

I’m very pessimistic - the focus on “repealing Obamacare” is not the end. It is the beginning of a long and difficult political struggle for free markets and the soul of our country.

Who’s going to lead and be able to steamroller over Democrat party opposition?

If I’m a scheming democrat, I’d say “let ‘em repeal obamacare, we’ll force the costs to go through the roof, and then we’ll pick up the pieces on the back end and implement our social agenda, the centerpiece of which is socialized medicine”

If I’m a GOP leader, I’m thinking I’m going to avoid giving democrats that opening....I’m going to say “........” oh, wait....we have no leaders that have actually taken a stand on vigorously opposing democrats and their true agenda.

It’s a shame, really.


17 posted on 09/14/2010 9:44:16 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: Disambiguator

Obamacare is tort reform. You can’t sue any government Obamacare doctor. You die? too bad.


18 posted on 09/14/2010 9:53:30 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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