Posted on 08/29/2009 7:47:06 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious
Beck to the Future II: Three Scary ObamaCare "Czars"
LifeSiteNews ^ | 8/28/09 | Peter J. Smith Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 4:07:25 PM by wagglebee
See Part I
By Peter J. Smith
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Germany's experience with National Socialism is one of the darker moments of human history. FOX News host Glenn Beck has taken on the challenge of applying the lessons of Nazi Germany (government-controlled health care, combined with the principle of valuing human beings based on "quality of life" and a severe economic crisis) to "question with boldness" the direction American health-care is heading under President Barack Obama and his policy advisors.
In his health-care reform special, Beck looks at three critical advisors or "Czars" in President Obama's Administration. These policy advisors manage new offices and exercise power within the Executive Branch, but are unaccountable to Congress in the way that cabinet appointees confirmed by the full Senate are.
Dr. "Zeke" Emmanuel and the Complete Lives System
John Holdren: Not Even Born Babies are Human … Yet
Cass Sunstein and Rationing by QALY
Massachusetts' Obama-like reforms increase health costs, wait times [RomneyCare]
CATO / The Detroit News ^ | 2009-08-27 | Michael F. Cannon
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 3:03:50 AM by rabscuttle385
If you are curious about how President Barack Obama's health plan would affect your health care, look no farther than Massachusetts. In 2006, the Bay State enacted a slate of reforms that almost perfectly mirror the plan of Obama and congressional Democrats.
Those reforms reveal that the Obama plan would mean higher health insurance premiums for millions, would reduce choice by eliminating both low-cost and comprehensive health plans, would encourage insurers to avoid the sick and would reduce the quality of care.
Massachusetts reduced its uninsured population by two-thirds — yet the cost would be considered staggering, had state officials not done such a good job of hiding it. Finally, Massachusetts shows where "ObamaCare" would ultimately lead: Officials are already laying the groundwork for government rationing.
The most sweeping provision in the Massachusetts reforms — and the legislation before Congress — is an "individual mandate" that makes health insurance compulsory. Massachusetts shows that such a mandate would oust millions from their low-cost health plans and force them to pay higher premiums.
The necessity of specifying what satisfies the mandate gives politicians enormous power to dictate the content of every American's health plan — a power that health care providers inevitably capture and use to increase the required level of insurance.
In the three years since Massachusetts enacted its individual mandate, providers successfully lobbied to require 16 specific types of coverage under the mandate: prescription drugs, preventive care, diabetes self-management, drug-abuse treatment, early intervention for autism, hospice care, hormone replacement therapy, non-in-vitro fertility services, orthotics, prosthetics, telemedicine, testicular cancer, lay midwives, nurses, nurse practitioners and pediatric specialists.
Moving beyond Plan B on health care reform
Denver Post ^ | 08/29/2009 | Tom Tancredo
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 4:19:46 AM by iowamark
President Obama's attempt to ram nationalized health care down the throats of the American people has met the fate it deserves. It wasn't only the astronomical cost of the Democrat plan that aroused widespread opposition. The American people revolted at the dishonesty, doubletalk and arrogance displayed by Speaker Pelosi and the Obama White House. Calling town hall protestors thugs and Nazis is an act of desperation, and main street America was not amused.
The Obama White House and the Democrat National Committee have now abandoned open town hall meetings in favor of organized political rallies, with supporters galvanized by the same interest groups that helped elect Obama. Want to attend one of these rallies? Good luck if you're not a member of the Service Employees International Union or MoveOn.org. Being on Howard Dean's rolodex helps a lot.
But this is no time for Republicans to gloat over Democrat disarray. Republicans need to seize the initiative and move the health care debate onto new ground. Instead of arguing over how much government-run health care we can afford, let's debate how to reduce healthcare costs for millions by expanding genuine competition. Let's have an open season for new ideas to fix specific problems, not another monstrous 1100-page bill full of ambiguities, deceptions and contradictions.
Democrats Eye Maine Senator (Snowe) for a Health Vote
New York Times ^ | August 28, 2009 | Carl Hulse
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 6:57:47 AM by reaganaut1
As Congress prepares to hit the restart button on the health care debate, Senator Olympia J. Snowe does not relish the prospect of becoming a Group of One.
“I certainly hope not,” exclaimed Ms. Snowe, about the possibility that she could end up as the sole Republican willing to join Senate Democrats in moving ahead on a broad change in health care.
Ms. Snowe and two Republican colleagues, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, have been privately negotiating a health care plan with three Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee in what has become known as the Group of Six.
Caving to Trial Lawyers -- It's necessary to tie any health-care reform to tort reform.
Weekly Standard ^ | September 7, 2009 | Fred Barnes
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 8:09:46 AM by reaganaut1
We've always suspected that fear of angering trial lawyers was the only reason President Obama refused to embrace tort reform as a crucial part of achieving his goal of reduced health care costs. Now we know for sure. A moment of candor by Howard Dean, the former chairman of the DNC and an enthusiastic backer of Obama's health reform initiative, confirmed our suspicions. "The reason that tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everyone else they were taking on," Dean said at a town hall meeting in Virginia last week.
So much for Obama's insistence that cutting costs is dear to his heart. He's rejected, for purely political reasons, one of the most effective tools for containing medical costs. It would upset a special interest group--well-heeled plaintiff's lawyers--that is one of the biggest funders of the Democratic party.
Fact of the Day: Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Obamacare, and Death Panels
Common Sense 2020 ^ | 8/27/2009 | Ray Harvey Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 9:41:13 AM by kindred
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Obamacare, and Death Panels by rayharvey on August 27, 2009
Poor misunderstood Ezekiel J. Emanuel.
Ezekiel, if you don’t know, is the older brother of the statist Rahm Emanuel, and recently Ezekiel got his feeling hurt.
In an interview he just gave the Associated Press, Monday (August 24th), Ezekiel said this:
“I’m completely dumbfounded. I’ve been in academic disputes before, but I never thought I’d be disparaged on Sunday morning talk shows and in the papers, being distorted in ways that can only be described as willful and intentional.”
GOP senator signals fading hopes on health care
AP ^ | August 29, 2009 | JIM KUHNHENN (AP)
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:49:32 AM by Jet Jaguar
A leading GOP negotiator on health care struck a further blow to fading chances of a bipartisan compromise by saying Democratic proposals would restrict medical choices and make the country's "finances sicker without saving you money."
The criticism from Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., echoed that of many opponents of the Democratic plans under consideration in Congress. But Enzi's judgment was especially noteworthy because he is one of only three Republicans who have been willing to consider a bipartisan bill in the Senate.
ABC’s Stossel Slams Socialized Medicine ( human vs animal healthcare )
ABC via Newsbusters ^ | August 1st | Brad Wilmouth
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 11:01:48 AM by Halfmanhalfamazing
The 20/20 co-anchor summed up the importance of a profit motive for the health care industry to function adequately as he recounted that in Canada, private veterinary clinics provide health care for animals much more rapidly than the government-run system provides similar services for human patients:
JOHN STOSSEL: You want innovation and fast treatment? That often comes from people pursuing profit. And you see that in Canada because, even here, there is one area where they do offer easy access to cutting edge technology-
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VETERINARIAN: -CT Scan, endoscopy, thoracoscopy, laporoscopy-
STOSSEL: -available all the time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VETERINARIAN: -24 hours, seven days a week-
STOSSEL: Patients rarely wait.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VETERINARIAN: If I see a patient that’s torn a crusciate ligament in that patient’s knee, we can generally have that patient scheduled within probably a week.
STOSSEL: But you have to bark or meow to get that kind of treatment. Want a CT Scan in Canada? Private vet clinics say they can get a dog in the next day. For people, the waiting list is a month.
The Real Myth of Health Care
Townhall.com ^ | August 28, 2009 | Joseph C. Phillips
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 12:28:00 PM by Kaslin
One of the more pernicious myths surrounding the debate over health care is the oft repeated claim that conservatives do not want reform. Nonsense! What we do not want is the warm bucket of snake oil currently being sold to the American people by this administration. Conservatives have long argued for the need to reduce mandated benefits, reduce the reliance on third-party payers and get rid of public policies that hinder entrepreneurship and innovation. This is the kind of reform conservatives want – the right kind of reform.
Obama declares war on obesity, claims could save Medicare $1 Trillion
The Examiner ^ | 08/29/09 | J Brown
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 9:06:27 AM by Jabrown
By now many are used to the ongoing manipulation of facts perpetrated within the health care debate, but as the President attempts to regain control of his own message his claims and statistical manipulation have crossed beyond the borders of absurd. In a conference call for his campaign organization, Organizing for America (formerly the Organizing for Obama), the president backed up his claims of how he intends to fulfill the promise of cost savings within Medicare without cutting benefits. The President's solution is simply to put America on a weight loss plan. According to the President, "If we went back to the obesity rates that existed back in the 1980s, the Medicare system over several years could save as much as a trillion dollars."
Greta Talks to Sen. John Barrasso About Medicare Recipients Having to Give Up Benefits - Video
Freedom's Lighthouse ^ | August 29, 2009 | Michael
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 2:09:30 AM by Federalist Patriot
Here is video of Greta Van Susteren talking with Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso about the possibility of Medicare recipients having to give up benefits under ObamaCare. (Watch Video)
Rove: The electoral consequences of killing Medicare Advantage
HotAir.com ^ | August 27, 2009 | Ed Morrissey
Posted on Thursday, August 27, 2009 6:57:38 PM by CedarDave
Over the past few weeks, I’ve written about Barack Obama’s plan to kill Medicare Advantage, a successful public-private partnership that extends benefits and access for Medicare patients, in order to pay for the overhaul of the American health-care system. We have personal experience with Medicare before and after buying into the Advantage program (which requires monthly premiums above those of Medicare Part B and D) and understand its value. Karl Rove looks at the electoral consequences of killing the program, to which 20% of all Medicare recipients belong, and warns that it could cost as many as 23,000 votes per Congressional district:
Obama Targets Medicare Advantage (Seniors getting screwed)
The Wall Street Journal ^ | August 27, 2009 | Karl Rove
Posted on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 10:34:47 PM by St. Louis Conservative
President Barack Obama was wise to vacation this week on Martha's Vineyard. Not because it's one of the few places in America where his health-care plan is still popular, but because by getting out of Washington he gave staff time to repair his vaunted message machine, which was starting to break down.
Two weeks ago, White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod said in a now legendary "viral" email that, "It's a myth that health insurance reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits." This was sent out the day before Mr. Obama told a Montana town hall that he'd pay for health-care reform by "eliminating . . . about $177 billion over 10 years" for "what's called Medicare Advantage." And it was two days before Mr. Obama told a Colorado town hall he'd cover "two-thirds" of the "roughly $900 billion" of his plan's cost by "eliminating waste," again citing Medicare Advantage.
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