Posted on 09/01/2009 8:34:28 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious
Reason #9,243,543 why government is to blame for the high cost of medical care
AP ^ | 9/1/2009 | JOAN LOWY and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 3:34:26 PM by DManA
NTSB wants new rules for medical helicopters . . . The NTSB recommendations urge the Federal Aviation Administration to, among other things, require medical helicopter operators to install autopilot systems that can help solo pilots, terrain awareness monitoring to help pilots navigate in bad conditions, night-vision systems that help navigate in the dark and flight data recorders.
McCain and Martinez to hold health care forum [RINOcare is coming]
The St. Petersburg Times ^ | 2009-08-31 | Alex Leary
Posted on Monday, August 31, 2009 11:01:20 PM by rabscuttle385
Sen. Mel Martinez will hold a health care forum tomorrow in Hialeah with Sen. John McCain and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
“This is going to be a frank discussion with health care providers, patients, and other stakeholders to air concerns about the current system and what steps Congress should take to address the problems," the retiring Martinez said in a statement.
Shhhh! There's GOP alternative to Obamacare
WorldnetDaily ^ | 8/31/2009 | Herman Cain
Posted on Monday, August 31, 2009 11:50:32 PM by SeekAndFind
The Republican alternative to Democrat-care, which liberals don't want you to know about, has been hijacked. They don't want people to know about it because the Astroturf, un-American crazies might like it.
The "Empowering Patients First Act," or H.R. 3400, was introduced by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., and 27 co-sponsors on July 30, 2009, prior to the congressional recess. It was then referred to eight House committees.
Key Republican: GOP would repeal health bill if they win in 2010
The Hill ^ | 8/31/2009 | Michael O'Brien
Posted on Monday, August 31, 2009 11:46:34 PM by SeekAndFind
Republicans will repeal healthcare reform legislation if they win control of Congress because of that bill, a key Republican pledged late Sunday.
The health bill is "dead on arrival" in Congress, said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce committee, said during an interview on Fox News.
"If they somehow manage to get the votes and get enough Democrats to walk the plank and commit suicide, in the next Congress, I'll be chairman Joe Barton of the Energy and Commerce committee, and we'll repeal it," Barton said.
Dirty Secret No. 4 in Obamacare
Townhall.com ^ | September 1, 2009 | Chuck Norris
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 7:23:45 AM by Kaslin
Flying under the radar this past week was a new government report that forecasts that the national debt will double over the next decade. The White House has projected a cumulative $9 trillion deficit between 2010 and 2019, while the Congressional Budget Office estimates a more optimistic $7.1 trillion, based upon the expiration of Bush tax cuts. What this means is that Washington's out-of-control spending likely will turn the nation's already-staggering $11 trillion in debt into an astronomical $20 trillion.
But there are at least two ginormous expenses that are excluded in these projections. First, the projections from both the White House and CBO incorporate their belief that the deficit will decline quickly over the next three years, as they assume fewer bailouts are needed and the economy will grow rapidly. But isn't there also the real possibility that the economy will not recover as quickly as they hope? Every additional bailout or stimulus (large or small) and every margin of error in their three-year prospective climb out of the economic pit will inflate our nation's debt balloon even more.
Getting Real About Health Care Reform
Townhall.com ^ | September 1, 2009 | Roger Chapin
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 8:29:02 AM by Kaslin
Prior to our power-driven politicians adopting an untested and badly flawed health insurance plan that would hurt the average citizen’s quality of care and very possibly bankrupt the country, I would urge they walk before they run.
Why not formulate three different experimental approaches to health care reform? There could be the Democrats’ command-and-control plan, the Republicans’ free-market based plan, and a compromise version. To test the plans’ efficacy, three or more states could implement these respective plans on a state level. The federal government would underwrite all net costs for the participating states to implement the plans on a trial demonstration basis for at least four years. An independent, bi-partisan commission could then evaluate the outcomes of the trials and recommend a single national health care reform plan to the Congress.
Pro-ObamaCare Organizer Teaches How to Shout Down Opposition at Town Hall Meetings - Video 8/31/09
Freedom's Lighthouse ^ | September 1, 2009 | BrianinMO
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 12:32:56 PM by Federalist Patriot
Here is video of an ObamaCare Organizer telling Pro-ObamaCare supporters how to shout down anyone at a Town Hall Meeting who begins to ask a question or make a statement opposing ObamaCare.
He tells them to stand up and start shouting "Health Care Now, Health Care Now" to silence the questioner.
This was "recorded on August 31, 2009 outside Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) town hall meeting in Skokie, IL."
For people who claim they are "not organized" but true grassroots activists, they look awfully "Astroturf" here to me. . . . . (Watch Video)
Study Raises Questions About Cost Savings From Preventive Care
Washington Post ^ | September 1, 2009 | Lori Montgomery
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 12:44:44 PM by La Lydia
Preventive services for the chronically ill may reduce health-care costs, but they are unlikely to generate the kind of fantastic savings that President Obama and other Democrats have said could help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health system, according to a study being published Tuesday. Using data from long-standing clinical trials, researchers projected the cost of caring for people with Type 2 diabetes as they progress from diagnosis to various complications and death. Enrolling federally-insured patients in a simple but aggressive program to control the disease would cost the government $1,024 per person per year -- money that largely would be recovered after 25 years through lower spending on dialysis, kidney transplants, amputations and other forms of treatment, the study found.
Baucus under fire for bipartisan healthcare efforts
One News Now ^ | 9/1/2009 | Jim Brown
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 1:03:58 PM by IbJensen
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) says his longtime friend and colleague Max Baucus (D-Montana) is feeling the heat from the White House and fellow Democrats who want to go it alone on healthcare reform instead of reaching a bipartisan compromise.
Senator Grassley is among three Republicans -- Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) -- and three Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee attempting to draft a compromise healthcare bill in the committee chaired by Max Baucus.
Something New On Health Care: Deal-Breakers From The President (Obama will offer his own plan)
theatlantic.com ^ | Sept. 1, 2009 | Marc Ambinder
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 1:48:05 PM by Free ThinkerNY
This time, the President is going to be specific. Next week, President Obama is going to give Democrats a health care plan they can begin to sell.
He plans to list specific goals that any health insurance reform plan that arrives at his desk must achieve, according to Democratic strategists familiar with the plan. Some of these "goals" have already been agreed to, including new anti-discrimination restrictions on insurance companies. Others will be new, including the level of subsidies he expects to give the uninsured so they can buy into the system.
Obama will also specify a "pay for" mechanism he prefers, and will specify an income level below which he does not want to see taxed.
It's Still Government-Run Healthcare Without Public Option
Columbia Conservative Examiner ^ | Sept. 1, 2009 | Anthony G. Martin
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 2:04:09 PM by Welshman007
It's time for Patriots of all stripes to gear up for the second round of battles over healthcare.
In spite of getting their hands slapped by voters back home, proponents of the Obama-backed version of 'healthcare reform' are now renewing the push to approve the legislation using 2 key tactics--they are dropping the so-called 'public option' of a government corporation that would offer low-cost insurance, and they are using the name of deceased Senator Ted Kennedy to push the bill.
Both tactics are separate parts of a 'Trojan Horse.' The goal is still a government takeover of healthcare.
Public Option Will Lower Private Health Insurance Premiums...to Zero
Washington Policy Center ^ | AUgust 2009 | Paul Guppy
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 4:22:33 PM by MarMema
Responding to the concern that setting up a government-run public option insurance plan would inject politics into American health care, public option backers are saying, “Right. And that’s a good thing.”
A recent Washington Post article reports, “Economists in this [pro-public option] camp say a public option would not under price insurers so as to drive them out of business; political pressures from medical providers would restrain Congress just as it is restrained today from limiting Medicare rates too much.” The article adds, “And the [public] option's pricing powers would be limited by political pressures against driving too hard a bargain on providers.”
This is a novel argument; bringing “political pressures” into the private marketplace makes the market more efficient. I'd sure like to know the names of the economists in the public option camp who say lobbying Congress is a form of healthy market competition. Ample real-world experience shows the opposite. Massive government intervention distorts markets, reduces the benefits of competition, and leads to waste, inefficiency and cronyism, not lower prices and better service.
Is health care the next 'bonusgate'? House asks 52 companies who makes more than $500K a year
CNN ^ | September 1, 2009 | Jennifer Liberto
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 5:50:13 PM by 2ndDivisionVet
Earlier this year, public outrage boiled over with news of eye-popping pay to top executives on Wall Street.
White House officials later acknowledged they had misjudged the velocity and volume of furor triggered by "bonusgate," which raised the profile of corporate executive pay.
Could that happen now in health care?
Some of the known salaries are pretty big. Last year, the head of Cigna (CI, Fortune 500) made $11 million and the head of United Health Group (UNH, Fortune 500) made $9.4 million, according to the Corporate Library.
Fifty-two health and accident insurance companies have until Friday to turn over salary details on employees who make more than $500,000 a year.
Graham: Democrats need GOP on health care [McLame's poodle wants to "collaborate" with Democrats]
The Daily Journal, Seneca, SC ^ | 2009-09-01 | Greg Oliver
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 6:35:55 PM by rabscuttle385
CLEMSON — U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has earned a reputation for reaching across the aisle with Democratic colleagues on various issues, said President Barack Obama and the Democratic controlled Congress should adhere to that same bipartisanship concerning health care.
“There will be some in the Democratic Party that will want to do it alone and that would be a mistake,” Graham said during a speech at the Clemson Rotary Club’s weekly Monday meeting. “Health care is one-sixth of our economy, and this needs to be passed with support from both (Houses).”
Graham said both parties should collaborate on ensuring that tort reform and insurance reform is a part of a future health care plan and that the private sector, rather than a government option, is included.
“My Democratic colleagues have a bad idea to a real problem,” Graham said. “If you have a government option, no one else can compete.
“Let’s cover everybody, but let’s let the private sector do it.”
HYPOCRITE CHARLIE RANGEL: PUNISH TAX SLIP-UPS BY TAKING AWAY THEIR HEALTHCARE
Right Voices ^ | 9/1/2009
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 7:52:40 PM by SeekAndFind
Even as he fends off accusations about his own failure to pay taxes and fully disclose his financial dealings, Rep. Charles Rangel had quietly slipped into the health-care bill broad new provisions cracking down on taxpayers in proceedings with the IRS, The Post has learned.
The changes approved by the House Ways and Means Committee that Rangel chairs would strip away legal defenses and pile higher penalties on corporate and individual taxpayers facing IRS proceedings for what they claim are unintentional mistakes, experts said.
CBS Poll: More Wary of Obama on Health Care (Another new low for ObamaCare)
CBS News ^ | September 1, 2009 | Staff
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 7:56:18 PM by St. Louis Conservative
(CBS) President Obama's approval rating on health care has dropped six points since July to 40 percent, and now more Americans, 47 percent, disapprove of his handling of health care, according to a new CBS News poll taken between Aug 27 - 31.
As the president's poll numbers sink on the issue, two-thirds of Americans remain confused about the health reform proposals on the table.
Meanwhile, Mr. Obama's overall approval (56 percent) and handling of the economy (53 percent) are not much changed from last month. (Read more here.)
Americans are not only skeptical of Mr. Obama's handling of health care, but also of the effectiveness of reform. Americans are more apt to say the middle class and small business would be hurt, not helped, by the plans currently under consideration.
White House: Obama may detail health plans soon
AP via Breitbart ^ | Sept. 01, 2009 | CHARLES BABINGTON
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 8:42:48 PM by Jet Jaguar
President Barack Obama, increasingly impatient with Senate negotiations over health care, is weighing a plan to offer more details of his goals for overhauling the nation's health system, the White House said Tuesday.
The president is considering a speech in the next week or so in which he would be "more prescriptive" about what he feels Congress must include in a bill, top adviser David Axelrod said in an interview. The speech might occur before the Sept. 15 deadline that was given to Senate negotiators to seek a bipartisan bill, said Axelrod, who suggested that two key Republicans have not bargained in good faith.
Congress reconvenes next Tuesday after an August recess in which critics of Obama's health proposals dominated many public forums.
AFL-CIO won't back health care reform without public option
Solon.com ^ | 9/1/09 | Alex Koppelman
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 10:46:27 PM by listenhillary
WASHINGTON -- The AFL-CIO, a key ally of the White House on healthcare reform, won't support legislation unless it includes a public insurance option.
"Let me be as clear as I can be -- it's an absolute must," Rich Trumka, the labor group's secretary-treasurer, and its next president, told reporters at a briefing Tuesday morning. "We won't support the bill if it doesn't have a public option."
ObamaCare Versus the Old ClintonCare: A Major Step Backwards(Plus: Mortality-Behind the Baby Count)
Examiner.com ^ | August 31, 2:34 PM | DC Health Care Examiner Howard Smith
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 11:08:43 PM by fight_truth_decay
On September 22, 1993, President Clinton, in an impassioned address to a joint session of Congress, unveiled his Health Security Act to the American people. He laid out six principles: security, simplicity, savings, choice, quality and responsibility, and explained in unambiguous language how each of these principles were embodied in the Health Security Act.
GOP readies wave of objections to stall healthcare bill in Senate
The Hill ^ | 09/01/09 | Alexander Bolton
Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 11:12:34 PM by kingattax
Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate.
Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told The Hill in a recent interview that Republicans will wage a vicious fight if Democrats try to circumvent Senate rules and use a budget maneuver to pass a trillion-dollar healthcare plan with a simple majority.
The death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) leaves Democrats with 59 Senate seats — one shy of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. That, combined with the pushback from Republican negotiators, has prompted Democratic leaders to look more closely at using budget reconciliation to push a healthcare overhaul through.
From Mark Levin:
“Gore says in memory of Teddy, pass this health care bill. I say in Reagan’s memory kill ObamaCare!”
http://twitter.com/marklevinshow
From my email from Michele Bachmann:
“Republican alternatives that the media just aren’t talking about: Health Savings Accounts, Association Health Plans, tort reform, tax code changes, insurance reforms, my very own Health Care Freedom of Choice Act, and more.”
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