Posted on 07/02/2008 4:55:53 AM PDT by Zakeet
Senator Edward M. Kennedy's office has begun convening a series of meetings involving a wide array of healthcare specialists to begin laying the groundwork for a new attempt to provide universal healthcare, according to participants.
The discussions signal that Kennedy, who instructed aides to begin holding the meetings while he is in Massachusetts undergoing treatment for brain cancer, intends to work vigorously to build bipartisan support for a major healthcare initiative when he returns to Washington in the fall.
Those involved in the discussions said Kennedy believes it is extremely important to move as quickly as possible on overhauling the healthcare system after the next president takes office in January in order to capitalize on the momentum behind a new administration.
Kennedy was an early endorser of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who is also a member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which Kennedy chairs.
Obama's Senate staff has attended the roundtable discussions. If Obama is elected, Kennedy's effort to identify points of agreement among senators could smooth the way for the new administration to press ahead on universal healthcare, which Obama has promised to implement within four years.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
His early support of Obama is a quid pro quo for his desire for Socialized Medicine.
Ok, look at this picture.
we haven't fixed SSI, Medicaid, Medicare and GWB's Senior Drug Program is another budget busting entitlement, and they want to add one more?
At the same time they won't drill or build windmills off Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard.
We are royally screwed...
Oh well, this will really effect the only bright spot in the Detroit Regional Economy, Canadians coming over for care they can't get with their screwed up socialized medicine. Now they will have no where to go....
Oh well, Poland and the Czech Republic are looking better every day....
Under his plan , the same crowd running the driver’s license dept would have told him that he was fat, alcoholic, and too old to spend limited resources on . Instead, he racks up a 500,000-600,000 bill by getting air lifted to a Boston hospital for ER surgery. The nerve of this learjet leftist to use his diseased body as a PR Prop to peddle limited care when he demands the best at any cost.
I've found two books to be especially helpful in combating those who support government-run healthcare (and that's what it is, regardless if you call it single-payer, affordable, or universal healthcare — it is all socialist by design and run by the government).
The first book is, “Your Doctor is Not In” by Dr. Jane Orient. This paints a great picture of the effect of national and state regs on the local doctor.
The second book is, “Lives at Risk” by Goodman, Musgrave, and Herrick. This book, though a bit deep in detail, paints an impressive and exacting picture of how government-run healthcare in other countries has failed miserably and the effect that that failure has had on both patients and the medical field.
No, I have no positive feelings whatsoever for this particular Kennedy, and relatively few such feelings about any of the others.
I was at my Cardiologist’s yesterday and he was telling me about a patient he had just seen. He said it was a 76 year old man from England. He needed a pacemaker and because he was 76, they would not give him one, so he and his family came to America to get one. I asked my Doc if he was going to get one. He replied that he had just arranged it. Being 70, I don’t look forward to dying on a gurney in a hallway... even if it is FREE!!
If Americans had the kind of health care 'Senator' Kennedy receives, we'd be dead.
Ours would mirror Canada's where a cancerous tumor sufferer is given a year before treatment can be administered and lives ten months.
America must fight this complete descent into socialism with tooth and nail.
Yesterday the Governor signed a $1.00/pk extra tax on cigarettes to pay for MA mandatory health care....
It’s for the illegals.
Why isn't the mainstream media screaming about this affront to the elderly and the veterans?
From the MOAA websites...
“They had months to work out a relatively simple deal to prevent a 10.6% cut in Medicare payments from taking effect on July 1 and to prevent cutting off Medicare coverage for hundreds of thousands of Medicare-eligible speech and physical therapy patients on that date.
But they chose to play political chicken with seniors’ care, and their collective hard-headedness prevented anything from getting done. Having failed in timely action, Congress took a week’s vacation over Independence Day and promised to fix things when they return....
Medicare payments to doctors will be cut 10.6% starting July 1. Also as of July 1, speech, physical or occupational therapy patients for whom Medicare has already paid at least $1,810 for therapy in 2008 will have further Medicare payments for that care stopped....
This isn’t the first time Congress has failed to stop a Medicare payment cut. In 2006, Congress missed the deadline...”
Converting to socialism, one bad idea at a time.
If we had a national health care plan in place as envisioned by Sen. Kennedy, do you think someone his age and physical condition and having the same brain cancer would have been able to receive under the plan the sophisticated brain surgery the good Senator just received or even had the choice of going to a specialist in another state?
“This is Ted’s Legacy and Swan Song.”
EXACTLY.
And they will use his exit as the stage to launch it. Probably name it after him. And the MSM will not whisper a word of the decidedly NON-universal healthcare that Ted sought in his waning months.
“Abortion, but no guns, fences, school or health care choices for you peons!”
Ted Kennedy and the rest of your social, economic and political superiors
Considering his health....he shouldn’t be attempting an legislation...IMO.
Remember the Kennedy sponsored education bill “No child left behind?” Let’s hope “No patient left behind” is just as successful. Sarcasm now turned off.
No kidding, and to expect him to return to Congress in the Fall, ridiculous.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.