More Senate healthcare horrors: Starving seniors, Alzheimer's cuts

St. Petersburg Times (The Buzz) ^ | March 12, 2010 | Marc Caputo

[Brandonmark]

The Senate's healthcare proposal is barely a day old, and the senior community is sounding the alarm. Aside from the big multi-million hits to hospitals, are seemingly little cuts that have potentially big consequences: a $5 million elimination for Alzheimer's programs, and a $4 million cut to home care for the elderly.

Then there's a $7 million cut to food-for-seniors in the line item "Local Service Programs." It looks like a total elimination. Expect the senior centers in Hialeah and Little Havana to inflame Miami radio and spur the Dade delegation to do something. Also, this budget is like the past decade or so of parade-of-horribles health budgets that gin up the provider community and put pressure on lawmakers to shake more lose from the money tree. Problem is, the tree is almost bare.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Teh AARP already told their membership it’s a good bill.

[ExTexasRedhead]

First of all, seniors were “thrown off” their private healthcare when they turned 65. It was not their choice! The government created this mess.

What Pelosi et al., IMO, are creating is their perssonalized Nazi-style final solution for the elderly and the disabled. Behold the Auschwitz/Dachau of the Liberal RAT Party.

[joesbucks]

Except my mother, who is wealthy, receives medicare and contributed through the years for the benefits, bent my ear the other day about the possibility of means testing, cuts in coverage or both. And she's not alone.

There just isn't an easy solution.

[Gilbo_3]

(Alzhemers patients are not a voting constituency!)

I would hafta argue that point ... the prepaid 'trust' is a valid argument imo...

[Gilbo_3]

Im all for gutting the system, but those type cuts should be waaaaaaay down the list...

lots of easy to spike items to find 5-10 million here & there without hurting those who paid into the system...

at this point if I could opt out I would, as I wont see a dime...

[GOPsterinMA]

look at the papers from the UK - they have daily horror stories about their socialist medicine utopia.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Never forget this was planned by traitors!

[GOPsterinMA]

1,000% - all the way! both here and abroad!!!

[NC Belle]

This hits hard.
We lost my Mom last April to Alzheimers. She had been in a nursing home since 2005, but had only failed badly the last year or two. Thankfully, the nursing home she lived in was in her small town and a very small place, where she received excellent care. It breaks my heart to think that other people’s Moms won’t fare as well.
I have a school teacher friend who’s mother passed away just recently,after a very long illness and a bezillion $$ in doctor bills. My friend is a huge “0” (That’s not the letter O) supporter. If “0” had gotten his way with this health care program, while her Mom was still alive, the poor woman would have been wheeled into the corner somewhere and left to die. My friend STILL thinks the sun rises on his butt.

I don’t get it.
I’m beginning to see the attraction of IGNORANCE IS BLISS. If we didn’t know any of this “bad” stuff, it wouldn’t hurt us like it does.

[Mrs. Don-o]

---

A NEAT WAY
TO SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
FAST!

---

This is a fast, efficient, cool way to send a Letter to the Editor to EVERY newspaper in YOUR area, courtesy of a message system run by --- uh, pay attention here --- an Obamunist outfit known as democrats.org

1. Click here: http://my.democrats.org/page/speakout/posthouseLTE

2. Put in your Zip code. You will be redirected to a page where you enter all your address information.

2. Check all the boxes for all of your local papers. But DO NOT CLICK "NEXT" or you'll send a automatic pro-healthcare-Obamabot message.

3. NOW CAREFUL, THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART! STILL DO NOT CLICK "NEXT". Instead Click "Compose Letter" --- this is in the top middle of the page. This will allow you to compose your own Letter to the Editor against the healthcare bill.

4. DO NOT CLICK "NEXT". Scroll up and click "Preview letter."

5. After you've previewed YOUR letter, click "Send E-mail".

Zing. That's all there is to it. It worked beautifully for me. Of course, the Obamunists may wise up at some point and start vetting the letters, and pitching out rascals like us, but they haven't wised up yet, that I know of.

Remember, Be quick, be light, be dynamite.

[3D-JOY]

Interesting...reminds me why I send the envelopes back to postage prepaid solicitors!

[opentalk]

This sounds like some of the things Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel -has said in the past, He is the head of the rationing- death panels made into law from the stimulus bill - that had to be passed without reading.

--If you have Alzheimer disease - I guess you are no longer worthy of the same medical care.(according to this administration) This disease has many stages. Medicines help slow it down, . Very dangerous view .

[sport]

That happened November 4, 2008, Bitsy.

While it is trur that thy will have to answer to God, it won’t do us much good if we are alreay dead.

He instilled in us alldasic intelligence. If some choose not to use, as was the case on November 4, 2008, God is not responsible.

[gonzo]

Bump! ............. FRegards

[Marty62]

Amen. And now the curtain has been pull back. Taxpayer funded ABORTION. God help us.

[GailA]

Doesn’t matter, they have to pass the SENATE version first, then it will be HAND carried to the WH for obambi to sign into law. Keep those phones ringing, even if your rep is a republican call them and tell them in no uncertain terms HELL NO to any health care bill.

Be sure to call your Republican Reps and tell the HELL NO or we vote you out in Nov.

Defeat Obamacare call list: List now contains the new MAYBES culled from FR posts.

PLEASE CALL! DC OFFICE LOCAL OFFICE State District

Code Red” - House Target List on Health Care

The National Republican Congressional Committee has published a target list on health care. In addition to continuing to contact the five Tennessee Democrat Congressmen, you can go http://www.votervoice.net/link/clickthrough/ext/94697.aspx to contact some of these targets. Much of the talk following Obama’s announcement has focused on how to defeat this second bill through reconciliation, but that is misleading because the first step to defeating Obamacare is not by concentrating on defeating the “fixer” bill but by defeating the Senate bill in the House when it goes to the floor for an up-or-down vote on Thursday, March 18th.

Rep. Lincoln Davis 202-225-6831 Columbia office: 931-490-8699
Rep. Jim Cooper 202-225-4311 Nashville office: 615-736-5295
Rep. Bart Gordon 202-225-4231 Murfreesboro office: 615-896-1986
John Tanner (202) 225-4714, Union City, (731) 885-7070, Jackson Phone: (731) 423-4848, Millington (901) 873-5690 TN (MAYBE)
Rep. Steve Cohen 202-225-3265 Memphis office: 901-544-4131
Harry Mitchell (202) 225-2190 (480) 946-2411 AZ 5th District
Gabrielle Giffords (202) 225-2542 (520) 881-3588 AZ 8th District
Ann Kirkpatrick (202) 225-2315 (928) 226-6914 AZ 1st District
Jerry McNerney (202) 225-1947 925-833-0643 CA 11th District
John Salazar 202-225-4761 970-245-7107 CO 3rd District
Jim Himes (202) 225-5541 (866) 453-0028 CT 4th District
Alan Grayson (202) 225-2176 (407) 841-1757 FL 8th District
Bill Foster (202) 225-2976 630-406-1114 IL 14th District
Baron Hill 202 225 5315 812 288 3999 IN 9th District
Mark Schauer (202) 225-6276 (517) 780-9075 MI 7th District
Gary Peters (202) 225-5802 (248) 273-4227 MI 9th District
Dina Titus (202) 225-3252 702-256-DINA (3462) NV 3rd District
Carol Shea-Porter (202) 225-5456 (603) 743-4813 NH 1st District
Tim Bishop (202) 225-3826 (631) 696-6500 NY 1st District
John Hall (202) 225-5441 (845) 225-3641 x49371 NY 19th District
Bill Owens (202) 225-4611 (315) 782-3150 NY 23rd District
James Matheson Toll-Free Number 1 (877) 677-9743 (202) 225-3011Mike Arcuri (202)225-3665 (315)793-8146 NY 24th District
Dan Maffei (202) 225-3701 (315) 423-5657 NY 25th District
Earl Pomeroy (202) 225-2611 (701) 224-0355 ND At-Large District
Steven Driehaus (202) 225-2216 (513) 684-2723 OH 1st District
Mary Jo Kilroy (202) 225-2015 (614) 294-2196 OH 15th District
Zach Space (202) 225-6265 (330) 364-4300 OH 18th District
Kathy Dahlkemper (202) 225-5406 (814) 456-2038 PA 3rd District
Patrick Murphy (202) 225-4276 (215) 826-1963 PA 8th District
Christopher Carney (202) 225-3731 (570) 585-9988 PA 10th District
Paul Kanjorski (202) 225-6511 (570) 825-2200 PA 11th District
John Spratt (202) 225-5501 (803)327-1114 SC 5th District
Tom Perriello (202) 225-4711 (276) 656-2291 VA 5th District
Alan Mollohan (202) 225-4172 (304) 623-4422 WVA 1st District
Nick Rahall (202) 225-3452 (304) 252-5000 WVA 3rd District
Steve Kagen (202) 225-5665 (920) 437-1954 WI 8th District

Bart Stupak (202) 225 4735 MI (MAYBE)
Brian Baird (202) 225-3536, Vancouver, (360) 695-6292. Olympia, (360) 352-9768, (MAYBE)
senator mark begich (202) 224-3004 toll free. (877) 501 - 6275 just became a MAYBE
Jason Altmire 202-225-2565, Aliquippa, 724-378-0928,
Natrona Heights, 724-226-1304 (MAYBE)

On the Bubble (Major developments from the “yes” and “no” columns in the House)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2467046/posts

[GailA]

Be sure to call your Republican senators and reps and tell them to get on LOCAL TV and tell about the cut and gut to Medicare/SS and the over 65 retired Military’s health insurance. National MSM isn’t going to do so...local TV might. All politics start locally.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” ~~ President Ronald Reagan

We The People, Ray Stevens (obamacare) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_-L4fyLUo

OBAMANOMICS—TRICKLE DOWN DESTRUCTION of the economy
Bambi doesn’t keep his promises...so buyer beware!

SET THEIR LOCAL AND DC LINES ON FIRE!

PLEASE ASK THEM TO REPEAL THE BIG NEW FEES in TRICARE for Life, the retired Military over 65 secondary health ins. which they passed in a DOD bill. They promised our Military these benefits, and our Military have earned them.

Sen Scott Brown’s number is 202-224-4543
Capitol Hill switchboard is 202-224-3121

Lots of local demwit phone numbers on this thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2408217/posts

Rename, repackage, rewrite it a tad smaller, and sell another pig in a poke. NO COLAs for granny, retired Military or retired fed employees. BIG NEW fees for Tricare for Life retired over 65 Military’s secondary health ins. (DOD bill already passed, delayed but goes into effect 2011 NEEDS TO BE REPEALED!
..............................

OBAMA’s WAR ON SENIORS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2433867/posts/

New Dem mantra: Woof, woof eat dog food granny....ala let them eat cake.

Obama Puts Social Security on the Chopping Block (this is a commie rag)
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/obama-puts-social-security-chopping-block

Obama says slight fix will extend Social Security, http://townhall.com/news/us/2010/02/19/obama_says_slight_fix_will_extend_social_security

Health Care Rationing for Seniors Another Problem in New Obama Plan http://www.lifenews.com/bio3058.html

Medicare tax may apply to investment income (ObamaCare tax hike)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2460988/posts

Obama: No reduced Medicare benefits in health care reform
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/28/obama.health.care/index.html

Will healthcare reform mean cuts in Medicare for seniors?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/1017/will-healthcare-reform-mean-cuts-in-medicare-for-seniors

Health Reform’s Hidden Victims Young people and seniors would pay a high price for ObamaCare.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306303720472842.html

Defaulted Loans May Haunt Seniors (Cuts SS CHECKS)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2467213/posts

Obama to outline $313 billion in Medicare, Medicaid spending cuts
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/14/nation/na-obama-radio14

A trip to the grocery store Tuesday saw cost of food skyrocketing again.
http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/SocialSecurity/2009/20090629-SenCitMayNotGet.htm

Report: Bill would reduce senior care Medicare cuts approved by House may affect access to providers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/14/AR2009111402597.html

Unions Cut Special Deal on Health Taxes (Healthcare cost for seniors going up to pay for unions)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704281204575003040695279432.html

Mayo clinic
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=517004

Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care (Money, Death Panels and The Duty to Die)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/health/23ucla.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=all
Seniors’ coverage options dwindle as Medicare Advantage programs close shop
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-advantage_22bus.ART.State.Edition1.3c912a9.html

Screwing the Seniors? AARP to Make Millions Off of Obamacare
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2009/10/screwing-seniors-aarp-to-make-millions.html

Health Care Rationing for Seniors Another Problem in New Obama Plan
http://www.lifenews.com/bio3058.html

Balch calls that “genuine chutzpah” because the Obama plan makes that claim “even as it imposes what will be ever-increasing rationing on senior citizens.”
The Senate health care bill already contains provisions that threaten to ration lifesaving medical treatment for seniors.

NRLC says state commissioners of the new health insurance exchanges created by the bill would be given significant power. They could deny people who are trying to obtain policies in the exchange the option of choosing health plans less likely to deny treatment, by limiting what they would be allowed to pay for such policies.
Related web sites:

National Right to Life Committee - http://www.nrlc.org

Obama: No reduced Medicare benefits in health care reform
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/28/obama.health.care/index.html

Will healthcare reform mean cuts in Medicare for seniors?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/1017/will-healthcare-reform-mean-cuts-in-medicare-for-seniors

Health Reform’s Hidden Victims Young people and seniors would pay a high price for ObamaCare.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306303720472842.html

Repeal Obamacare? Unlikely
http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidHarsanyi/2010/03/10/repeal_obamacare_unlikely
Obama spent last week campaigning for health care reform, at one point getting some college-age fans worked up about all the free stuff — “free” preventive care and “free” checkups and so forth — they would receive if his version of health care reform passed.
……………………………………..
Slashing Medicare to pay for healthcare reform an ugly shell game
Dr. Stuart M. Shapiro,
July 27, 2009
http://www.mcknights.com/slashing-medicare-to-pay-
for-healthcare-reform-an-ugly-shell-game/article/140656/

If the cost is by cutting Medicaid and Medicare, then taxpayers are in for a rude awakening when millions will retire without money to pay for their healthcare. Ransoming seniors’ long-term care for immediate, large-scale health reform is more politically beneficial for its supporters in the short-term than it is reasonable for everyone in the long run.

In fact, even in the short-term, one could argue that taxpayers, including the elderly, are looking at an old-fashioned shell game from Washington. No sooner was the ink dry on the federal stimulus package, which provided millions of dollars to support care for the elderly in Pennsylvania, before Congress and the administration began to propose major cuts in Medicare to finance healthcare reform. Because Medicare payments support quality care in our nation’s nursing homes, the proposed cuts nationally approaching $50 billion in Medicare payments for the care of the elderly is guaranteed to undercut the quality gains of the past decade. In Pennsylvania, if the proposals currently on the table are enacted, these policies would result in an almost 10% reduction in cumulative payments over 10 years, or more than $2.1 billion.

None of the answers on healthcare, Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare is easy. But there is one thing we do know: Our population is growing older, and doing so rapidly. Cutting money from the programs that finance care for Pennsylvania seniors is seriously flawed. There is no simple or single solution. But there is a wrong way, and taking money from the care for American seniors is deeply flawed.

Stuart H. Shapiro, M.D., is the president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association

.....................………………………..

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE THREAD http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2469301/posts

........................…………………………..

MILITARY & Retired MILITARY

Veterans’ G.I. Bill benefits MIA
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2464680/posts

TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:

http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/05/tricare-for-life-is-obama-trying-to.html

This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.) http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf

Pushing Veterans Toward the Grave
http://www.christianpost.com/blogs/opinion/2009/08/pushing-veterans-toward-the-grave-31/

Congress plans to block Tricare fee increases
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w/

By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Oct 7, 2009

Tricare fee increases imposed last week by the Defense Department will be repealed by a provision of the compromise 2010 defense authorization bill unveiled Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators.

The fee increases were announced on Sept. 30 and took effect on Oct. 1, but the defense bill, HR 2647, includes a provision barring any fee increases until the start of fiscal 2011.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Matz, president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, said the announcement of fee increases was shocking considering that the Obama administration promised earlier this year to hold off on any new fee Tricare fee increases until fiscal 2011.

“President Obama and DoD assured NAUS and the entire military family earlier this year that there would rightly be no increases in any Tricare fees” in fiscal 2010, Matz said. “We took them at their word, and I can’t believe that a co-pay increase like this was allowed to go forward,” he added.

[gitmo]

Problem is....author doesn't know hte difference between lose and loose.

Your criticism might have more impact if you spelled "the" correctly.

[Humal]

Thanks, Mrs. Don-o. Passing this along. Ironically, I had a request just today for this information.

[Humal]

Have you, or anyone, heard about the government cutting reimbursement to Medicare by 21% this year and another 21% next year and so on? I was at the doctor’s last week, and his office was hostile over this. I checked, but couldn’t find it this is a proposal or if it has been passed. The doctor’s assistant said the doctors in our area will just quit accepting Medicare patients even if we have an additional insurance policy.