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MASS Disaster: The Bay State shows how not to reform health care
Forbes ^
| 7/29/09
| Sally C. Pipes
Posted on 07/30/2009 1:36:38 AM PDT by broncobilly
"Will Commonwealth care cost taxpayers more? No!" So wrote Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in November 2004, the economy then still in full bloom. "Neither the state nor the taxpayers can afford to pay more."
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dnc4romney; healthcare; hillarycare; massachusetts; msm4romney; obamacare; pimpromney; pimpromneyhere; rinoromney; romney; romneyantigop; romneybot4obama; romneybot4obamacare; romneybotantigop; romneybringshate; romneycare; romneyparasite; romneytruthfile; romneywhore; socializedmedicine; stenchofromney
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To: broncobilly
That guy has a lot of nerve to even show his face.
To: broncobilly
Romney is an idiot just like all socialists.
3
posted on
07/30/2009 1:48:59 AM PDT
by
Jim Robinson
(Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jimrobfr)
To: Jim Robinson
One message I get from Massachusetts is that once you force everyone into the system, and make medical care essentially “free,” no inhibition to take advantage of it for almost any ill, it will be extremely expensive. And no matter how committed to private systems, and capitalistic principles you may be, the government control and hard economics will turn it into a mess.
We have four good test cases now: England, Canada, Massachusetts, and Hawaii. That should be enough to tell the Congress something, if they will listen and forget their ideology.
To: broncobilly
Tennessee too.
Romney, son of liberal father and liberal mother, the I’m not with Reagan( said after all of Reagan’s successes, duh) is as we all know, now shape changed, into America’s Mr. Conservative.
The guy is one weird, sick dude.
5
posted on
07/30/2009 2:06:20 AM PDT
by
Leisler
("It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."~G.K. Chesterton)
To: broncobilly

"Massachusetts Universal Healthcare System Breaking Down Already
When Governor Mitt Romney instituted a universal healthcare plan for Massachusetts in 2006 he proclaimed it a conservative idea.
But has it worked? Has it been successful?
For a time, many thought it might but cracks in the system are already being seen.
These cracks are instructive as a lesson on how Obamacare will crash and burn just like Romneycare is now in the process of doing.
One of the early claims that helped push Romneycare through to law was the insistence by its supporters that Emergency Room visits would fall as more and more citizens became covered under healthcare insurance.
Since ER care is far more expensive than a doctor's care, it was thought that more people with insurance would ease the overcrowding of ERs as well as lower the overall costs of healthcare.
However, a flaw in this logic has been seen throughout the state. As more people became insured, more people demanded the care of doctors. These doctors became overloaded with patients and waiting lists for doctors got longer and longer.
As a result, ERs in Massachusetts have not seen a downturn in visits. On the contrary, it seems that ER visits are actually on the upswing in the Bay State. In fact, in 2007 they were higher than the national average by 20 percent...
"Hospital patients 'left in agony'"
"Patients were allegedly left screaming in pain and drinking from flower vases on a nightmare hospital ward.
Between 400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust over three years, a damning Healthcare Commission report said.
The watchdog's investigation found inadequately trained staff who were too few in number, junior doctors left alone in charge at night and patients left without food, drink or medication as their operations were repeatedly cancelled.
Patients were left in pain or forced to sit in soiled bedding for hours at a time and were not given their regular medication, the Commission heard.
Receptionists with no medical training were expected to assess patients coming in to A&E, some of whom needed urgent care.
Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, said there had been a "gross and terrible breach" of patients' trust and a "complete failure of leadership".
The Healthcare Commission's chairman Sir Ian Kennedy said the investigation followed concerns about a higher than normal death rate at the Trust, which senior managers could not explain.
He said: "The resulting report is a shocking story. Our report tells a story of appalling standards of care and chaotic systems for looking after patients. These are words I have not previously used in any report.
"There were inadequacies in almost every stage of caring for patients. There was no doubt that patients will have suffered and some of them will have died as a result."
Julie Bailey, 47, was so concerned about the care being given to her 86-year-old mother Bella at Stafford Hospital that she and her relatives slept in a chair at her bedside for eight weeks.
She said: "We saw patients drinking out of..."
"Paramedics told: 'Let accident victims die if they want to' in new row over patient rights (UK)"
Health Service paramedics have been told not to resuscitate terminally-ill patients who register on a controversial new database to say they want to die.
It has been set up by the ambulance service in London for hundreds of people who have only a few months to live so that they may register their 'death wishes' in advance.
It is believed to be the first in the country, but other trusts around the country are expected to follow suit to comply with Government guidelines which state that patients' wishes should be taken into account, even at the point of death.
Patients' groups and doctors have welcomed the scheme, but it has met opposition from pro-life groups who say it violates the sanctity of life.
The system would come into play if a cancer patient, for example, was in serious pain and rang 999 for help to alleviate the suffering.
But if the paramedics arrived and the patient was close to death, he or she would not be resuscitated if such a request was registered on the database.
This would also be the case if a patient on the database was being transferred between hospitals, and had a heart attack.
Dominica Roberts from the Pro-Life Alliance said: 'This is very sad and very dangerous. It's another step along the slippery slope, at the bottom of which is euthanasia as we see in Holland. 'Paramedics should be there to save lives. They should not be there to let patients die. The medical profession should not agree with someone's belief that their life is worthless.'"
"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood."
"Three years ago, the former Massachusetts Governor had the inadvertent good sense to create the "universal" health-care program that the White House and Congress now want to inflict on the entire country.
It is proving to be instructive, as Mr. Romney's foresight previews what President Obama, Max Baucus, Ted Kennedy and Pete Stark are cooking up for everyone else.
In Massachusetts's latest crisis, Governor Deval Patrick and his Democratic colleagues are starting to move down the path that government health plans always follow when spending collides with reality -- i.e., price controls.
As costs continue to rise, the inevitable results are coverage restrictions and waiting periods. It was only a matter of time.
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006.
What really whipped along RomneyCare were claims that health care would be less expensive if everyone were covered.
But reducing costs while increasing access are irreconcilable issues.
Mr. Romney should have known better before signing on to this not-so-grand experiment, especially since the state's "free market" reforms that he boasts about have proven to be irrelevant when not fictional.
Only 21,000 people have used the "connector" that was supposed to link individuals to private insurers."
A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay States Grand Experiment Fails [RomneyCare]
"The Daily News Record, Harrisonburg, Va. - 2009-03-31 "
"For folks increasingly leery of President Obamas plan to radically overhaul Americas health-care system,
or 17 percent of the nations economy, all this could hardly have come at a better time
that is, fiscal troubles aplenty within Repubican Mitt Romneys brainchild, Massachusetts grand experiment in universal health care."
"Initiated on Mr. Romneys gubernatorial watch in 2006, this experiment has fallen on hard times, and predictably so.
Even though the Bay State commenced its program with a far smaller percentage of uninsured residents than exists nationwide,
RomneyCare is threatening to bankrupt the state. Budgeted for Fiscal Year 2010 at $880 million,
or 7.3 percent more than a year ago, this plan, aimed at providing low- or no-cost health coverage to roughly 165,000 residents,
has caused Massachusetts overall expenditures on all health-related programs to jump an astounding 42 percent since 2006.
So what does Mr. Romneys successor, Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, propose as a remedy for these skyrocketing costs?
Well, whaddya think? The standard litany of prescriptions (no pun intended) price controls and spending caps, for a start, and then, again predictably, waiting periods and limitations on coverage.
As in Europe and Canada, so too in Massachusetts. And, we feel certain, everyone from Mr. Romney to Mr. Patrick said, It would never happen here.
But then, such things are inevitable when best-laid plans, with all their monstrous costs, run smack-dab into fiscal reality.
"Dem Congresswoman Admits Obama Health Care Plan Will Destroy Private Health Insurance Industry"
"Romneys mistreatments a sick man, as Gov. Mitt Romney meets a medical marijuana patient"
Thousands of patients with terminal cancer were dealt a blow last night after a decision was made to deny them life prolonging drugs.
The Government's rationing body said two drugs for advanced breast cancer and a rare form of stomach cancer were too expensive for the NHS.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is expected to confirm guidance in the next few weeks that will effectively ban their use.
The move comes despite a pledge by Nice to be more flexible in giving life-extending drugs
to terminally-ill cancer patients after a public outcry last year over 'death sentence' decisions."
"Patients Forced To Wait Hours In Ambulances Parked Outside A&E Departments
"An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has found that thousands of 999 patients are being left to wait in ambulances in car parks and holding bays, or in hospital corridors in some cases for more than five hours before they can even join the queue for urgent treatment.
Experts warn that hospitals are deliberately delaying when they accept patients or are diverting them to different sites
in order to meet Government targets to treat people within fours hours of admitting them."
"Cancer survivor confronts the health secretary on 62-day wait (UK Socialized Medicine)
WAITING times for cancer treatment need to be cut, the Scottish Government was told yesterday.
..Cancer experts later said that patients elsewhere in Europe would be "outraged" by having to wait two months to start treatment, with most being seen within two weeks.
The current target of 62 days from urgent referral by a doctor to starting treatment has still not been met in Scotland, despite that originally being the target figure for 2005."
"Hospital patient so shocked at dirty ward she climbed out of bed to clean it herself
After 12 years cleaning care homes and private houses, no one is better qualified than Tereza Tosbell to say whether a room is spotless.
So hospital bosses should take heed of her opinion after she spent four days on a 'filthy' ward.
The mother-of-one said during her stay there was a single, brief visit from a cleaner who left dusty curtains, dirty bedframes and a messy floor.
Disgusted at the conditions, she grabbed the antibacterial fluid dispenser at the end of her bed and some hand towels from the bathroom.
She then set about cleaning her four-bed ward, at one point dropping to her hands and knees to sanitise the floor as she dragged her drip trolley behind her.
'It was shameful to see how sloppy the cleaners were while I was there. I was not prepared to put up with such conditions,'
said Miss Tosbell, a 48-year-old divorcee who was admitted to Colchester General Hospital in Essex with an abscess in her neck.."
"Kidney cancer patients denied life-saving drugs by NHS rationing body NICE (UK Socialized Medicine)
Thousands of kidney cancer patients are likely to lose out on life-prolonging drugs.
The NHS rationing body, NICE, has confirmed a ban on three out of four new treatments.
.. 'Families will be denied time together and doctors will be unable to give patients the best treatment.'."
"Girl, 3, has heart operation cancelled three times because of bed shortage (UK Socialized Medicine)
A three-year-old girl awaiting heart surgery has had her operation cancelled three times this month because of a shortage of beds.
... A hospital spokesman said that procedures would be reviewed, but the case highlights a growing problem of cancelled operations in the NHS.
More than 57,000 surgeries were postponed for non-clinical reasons, including a lack of beds, last year 10 per cent more than the previous year."
6
posted on
07/30/2009 2:11:49 AM PDT
by
Diogenesis
("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
To: broncobilly
That would be both MA and HI. (reminds me of a sound bite from the three stooges)
Both State Health care systems fail, but our “reps” don’t seem to care.
7
posted on
07/30/2009 2:17:48 AM PDT
by
This_far
To: broncobilly
The disaster in Massachusetts PROVES that carpetbagger,
backstabber (****) Romney, also a dog abuser, belongs
in the DNC, far, far, far away from Conservatives.
(***)

The McCain/Palin ticket was up 8 pts. days prior to September 18th.
Obama was losing until the DNC played their October surprise on the economy
and the RomneyTeam attacked Gov. Palin and her children to throw Election2008.
David Frum: "Frum was indeed a critic of Palin, calling her nomination a "huge mistake" during an October 13 Early Show appearance."
David Frum: "Two of our most plausible candidates for president in 2012 are leading Mormons: Mitt Romney and Utah governor Jon Huntsman."
David Frum: "I have a lot of regard for Mitt Romney as a man and politician.
Let me say for the record: If Romney emerges as the Republican nominee, I will support him without qualm."
Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers, some of whom are currently working for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin's bid for the White House,
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide, now working for McCain-Palin.
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
He's in charge on November 5th.'"
The Prowler added: "Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."
The Romney supporters in the McCain campaign had access to internal polling which indicated well in advance of the November 4 election that McCain had no chance to win.
So they began working to position their man Mitt for a run in 2012. Just two days after the election,The Palmetto Scoop reported:
"One of the first stories to hit the national airwaves was the claim of a major internal strife between close McCain aides and the folks handling his running mate Sarah Palin."
"Im told by very good sources that this was indeed the case and that a rift had developed, but it was between Palins people and the staffers brought on from the failed presidential campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney, not McCain aides."
"The sources said nearly 80 percent of Romneys former staff was absorbed by McCain and these individuals were responsible for what amounts to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."
These aides loyal to Romney inside the McCain campaign, said The Scoop, reportedly saw that Palin would be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016, which made her a threat to another presidential quest by Romney.
Erick Erickson, who organized Operation Leper, said:
"Heres what I think: I think there are some staffers on the McCain campaign who seriously screwed up the roll out of Sarah Palin, to which Governor Palin herself objected.
These staffers are now out trying to finish her off thinking, as typical D.C. types do, that if they dont do it to her, shell do it to them. They just never understood who Palin is or what she is about."
"Likewise, I do think there are some staffers and others who expect Mitt Romney to run again in 2012,
they decided McCain could not win, and decided to undermine Sarah Palin and her chances hoping it would ingratiate themselves with Mitt Romney."
"Who's the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign? (Mark Wallace, Romney pimp)
National Review Online The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin
appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign.
... the source of the Diva leak was Nicolle Wallaces husband."
Who benefits most from Sanford meltdown? Californian (that's right) Mitt Romney
"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"
"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"
"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"
"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"
"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"
8
posted on
07/30/2009 2:23:42 AM PDT
by
Diogenesis
("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
To: Leisler
I think it is self defeating to get all worked up about dumping on people.
Now is the time to objectively, calmly take advantage of all the good information circulating around right now and try to articulate what we want in medical approach in the country.
I have learned a lot from a stream of excellent, insightful articles and listening to people like Rush and Mark Levin and especially listening to some of their callers from the medical and insurance fields.
The issue has become a lot clearer to me lately.
You can vent your emotions about Romney if you want, but I would rather identify what he did right and what he did wrong and learn from it.
My opinion of Romney will depend not so much on what mistakes he made, but how he himself evaluates what he has done. I now want to hear his analysis of Mass. Is he once burned and twice learned, or is defending what happened?
To: broncobilly
Damn. all this clear cut evidence that the idiots in Government couldn't run a garage sale. Like Social Insecurity, the Post Office, Mediscare, Medicaid, Welfare, Amtrak, etc,,,; And now they have seized the Financial sector, the American auto industry and they want to “fix” Health Care which is not broken.
The high cost of Health Care is because of all the ambulance chasing Attorneys that have driven lawsuit after lawsuit because one person out of a million got a rash or an erection lasting more than 4 hours from some drug they took at their own risk.
The insanity here is directly the related to the American people don't have the courage to stand up to this worthless government, or the attorneys that have ruined the greatest system on Earth.
10
posted on
07/30/2009 2:25:48 AM PDT
by
PSYCHO-FREEP
(Give me LIBERTY or give me an M-24A2!)
To: Diogenesis
I see you like red.
Personally, I consider that shouting in one’s face.
I never read red items.
To: broncobilly
You DONT care what Romney did to the people of Massachusetts?
HOW ROMNEYBOT is THAT?
YOU DONT CARE about Romney’s BIGdig coverup or his usurpation
of the Mass Constitution to impose gay marriage without a
vote.
HOW ROMNEYBOT is that?
12
posted on
07/30/2009 2:26:54 AM PDT
by
Diogenesis
("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
To: broncobilly
The color red BOTHERS you?
Does red remind you of your time living up that anus of Willard "Myth" Romney, and licking him clean?
HOW ROMNEYBOT is that?

Romney: "Thank ME that my faithful, blind, stupid, RomneyBOT broncobilly
keeps working, and lying, and demeaning women and real Conservatives FOR ME
from wet, dirty basements, for ME, subverting honest Americans, and lurkers and FReepers
all to cover up my scurrilous, carpetbagging, record, my fake endorsements,
my fake troopers,
sporting fake badges, illegal security tactics, bizarre staffers,
hatred of the military, release of unrepentant murderers, receipt of AIG Contributions in 2008 ,
my imposition of gay marriage by usurping the Mass. Constitution,
my infliction of socialized medicine without a vote to impose European "healthcare" (except for me),
my abuse of Seamus violating Massachusetts's animal cruelty laws,
most say were uncalled for
for making me a presidential candidate of distinction in many ways leading to
TIME's 200 comments from readers complaining of animal cruelty
which did unfairly expose me,
like the Globe about my Belmont illegal alien sanctuary,
or so many about my team secretly criticizing and attacking Gov. Palin
and the other GOP candidates who otherwise might have won."
13
posted on
07/30/2009 2:29:16 AM PDT
by
Diogenesis
("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
To: Diogenesis
What Massachusetts got, they demanded.
I do not feel sorry for them.
Same with their continually voting for Barny Frank and Ted Kennedy.
They got what they deserve.
Let them sink in their self dug hole until they get tired and change their ways.
To: Diogenesis
Could you imagine the outcome if the GOP picks Romney to run again this time?
that WILL be the final nail in this countries’ coffin! Obama and Axelrod will smoke him like a dead Immanuel fish, with the track record and skeleton filled closet that Romney has shackled to his ankle.
15
posted on
07/30/2009 2:33:33 AM PDT
by
PSYCHO-FREEP
(Give me LIBERTY or give me an M-24A2!)
To: broncobilly
To hell with Romney. He’s a damned socialist.
16
posted on
07/30/2009 2:34:42 AM PDT
by
Jim Robinson
(Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jimrobfr)
To: broncobilly
Imagine.....voters like that.....picking the kind of leaders like Frank, Kennedy and Romney.......
Is that little snapshot really all that hard to figure out who and what ROMNEY is?
Or are you simply brain dead or have you had some reaction to an erection that lasted more than 4 hours?
17
posted on
07/30/2009 2:37:42 AM PDT
by
PSYCHO-FREEP
(Give me LIBERTY or give me an M-24A2!)
To: Diogenesis
You remind me of the possessed man of Df Gergesenes.
Matt. 8:24-34.
To: broncobilly
The guy went to Stanford, Harvard MBA and Law. How stupid would you have to be to support Romneycare? Obviously, he isn’t stupid, in a formal way.
You write as if there wasn’t already enough performance facts, world wide. Or if conservative/libertarians/Austrian economic types hadn’t driven truckloads of philosophical tomes through the illusion of socialist programs for decades.
So, factually, historically, and philosophically .....Mitt threw that all out the window.
It was an information problem. There was NO problem with that.
It was a moral/ethical problem. Mitt knew and didn’t care. It was his ticket to the White House.
Mitt’s done. A one term, unremarkable, boring stiff with his major accomplishments a bailout of Utah, an proposed bailout of Detroit, and Romneycare.
19
posted on
07/30/2009 3:15:12 AM PDT
by
Leisler
("It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."~G.K. Chesterton)
To: broncobilly
Broncobilly, you remind me of sociopaths who defend liars, child rapists, dog abusers,
Constitution usurpers, backstabbers, and those who impugn children.

20
posted on
07/30/2009 3:15:34 AM PDT
by
Diogenesis
("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
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