Posted on 08/04/2009 3:45:39 PM PDT by Cindy
THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG
THE BLOG
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips
Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things."
Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions.
In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to "eliminate" private coverage, when the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
For the record, the President has consistently said that if you like your insurance plan, your doctor, or both, you will be able to keep them. He has even proposed eight consumer protections relating specifically to the health insurance industry.
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
Here are the complete videos that Linda refers to. First from the AARP:
And then from the President's news conference:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=690820
“Baucus bill helps abortion - hurts elderly, handicapped”
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 9/23/2009 4:30:00 AM
SNIPPET: “In addition, it contains what O’Steen personally believes is the most Draconian rationing element of any bill put forward. “That’s a provision that would penalize doctors in Medicare for treating patients ‘too much,’” he adds.”
http://www.davidlimbaugh.com/mt/archives/2009/09/new_column_obam_25.html
September 24, 2009
“New Column: Obama’s Competing Waterloos”
SNIPPET: “Sen. Jim DeMint predicted that Obamacare would be President Barack Obama’s Waterloo. While that’s certainly a strong possibility, Obama has other Waterloos in the wings competing for the prize, such as his monstrous deficits and his disastrous foreign policy.
The Heritage Foundation reports that Obama’s budget would produce $13 trillion in deficits over the next decade, even more than the outrageous $9 trillion previously projected. This is nation-shattering stuff, folks, and Obama and his minions remain unflappable, intent on staying the bankrupting course, sporting Alfred E. Neuman, “What, me worry?” expressions. The fact that we know they can’t be that oblivious is what makes us wonder whether something more sinister lurks in their motives.
But Obama’s foreign policy is shaping up to be every bit as dangerous. Because he has lived in a relatively cloistered political world — surrounded and shielded by mostly fellow leftist radicals — he apparently doesn’t realize just how repugnant his appeasement policies and mantralike derision of this nation are to most Americans.
When I first heard that he was Mirandizing al-Qaida on the battlefield, I thought it was political satire. But it wasn’t, any more than his scrapping of long-range missile defense or his apparent plan to unilaterally disarm us of our nuclear weapons.
Then there’s Afghanistan...”
YES WE CAN read the bill online.
About the bill here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3200
Suggested links to read the bill here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-3200
http://docs4patientcare.org/
http://www.millionmedmarch.com/mmmNews.html
http://www.millionmedmarch.com
#
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2347899/posts
The Million Med March, Doctors to March on Washington DC October 1, 2009
Million Med March website ^
Posted on September 24, 2009 11:53:52 PM PDT by pillut48
A physician grassroots movement to re-establish honor, dignity and worth to the medical profession. That its sole mission is to protect the relationship between the doctor and the patient...
The MillionMedMarch will follow in October to remind our elected officials that we intend to keep coming back to Washington and keep marching until the doctors and the patients are the focus of the healthcare reform.
We will be joined by the Docs4PatientCare group as well as others that will be coming from all across the US. Please join us on October 1 in DC and don’t forget to sign the MillionMedMarch Petition. We look forward to seeing all of you in Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at millionmedmarch.com ...
http://townhall.com/columnists/JaniceShawCrouse/2009/09/25/does_america_need_health_care_reform
“Does America Need Health Care Reform?”
by Janice Shaw Crouse
SNIPPET: “Numerous polls indicate that most Americans are very happy with the health care that they receive. Specifically, nearly 90 percent of Americans responded to a poll sponsored by ABC News, USA Today and the Kaiser Family Foundation saying that they were satisfied with the health care coverage that they already have. Such solid information stands in stark contrast to the media hype about the necessity for health care reform and the hysteria promoted by the White House about the dire health care circumstances facing Americans.”
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2349350/posts
Health Care Promises: What Happens Next? (Our unfunded liabilities in excess of $100 trillion !!)
American Thinker ^ | 9/26/2009 | Richard L. Spencer
Posted on September 27, 2009 5:35:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In a recent WSJ interview, Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, estimated the present value of the unfunded liability of Medicare and Social Security to be in excess of $100 trillion, with actuarial reports showing them both close to insolvency.
Thus our true National debt is more than ten times its reported size and currently there is no method to paying it down. If every earned dollar were paid in taxes, it still would not cover the expenditure. For the country to survive this impending bankruptcy, it has to immediately begin to shift health insurance to the free market and to the individual in order to decrease costs across the spectrum. Otherwise, the nation is in danger of losing all that it has built.
This is not the first instance for the cost of health care insurance to rise to the level of public concern. Over two decades ago, Milton Friedman identified rising medical costs and the coming deluge of ‘baby boomers’ that would flood the national retirement and medical programs leading them to bankruptcy. Always prescient, Dr. Friedman tied a large measure of the rising health care costs to the ‘free medicine’ that was being given as a tax-free supplement to the employee.
Recipients spent more time figuring out the price of their McDonald’s lunch than their health care costs as they were freed of personal and financial responsibility through the third party payer system that evolved. These systems ultimately fail as the first and second parties become separated from their personal relationships by the third party payer’s financial interests. The public school system is often used as another example of third party failure.
Friedman’s solution was simple: unleash the powerful forces of the American entrepreneurial class by separating health insurance from the employer and thus returning the individual to his rightful place as the first party participant. Employees would have their present salaries increased by the amount the employer has been paying, and they would then be responsible for purchasing their own insurance. Those that wanted to remain with a health plan provided by the employer could do so with an imputed tax liability for its cost.
Since the prevailing cost per employee and his family is approaching $12,000, the employee would soon want control of his health insurance money as he could buy a tailored policy for about a third of that number. The vast majority of Americans would opt for a catastrophic policy with large deductibles, and that would return the patient/doctor relationship to its rightful place with personal choices and without government interference leading to the bureaucratic rationing of services.
The free market thrust for the health insurance dollars of over 300 million citizens would be enormous and prices would be competitively adjusted. Reductions would begin the minute a national policy of citizen responsibility for his health insurance was announced. The entire medical field would be in competition and have no choice but to change its pricings structure, for they will want and need your business. As in all free market situations, the citizen is now in control of his expenditures and that is a powerful mitigating factor against run away costs. You pay, they play!
Assuming Mr. Fisher is correct in his bank’s analysis of the unfunded liabilities for national retirement and healthcare benefits, then we as a nation are at a crossroad for our financial future. That alone makes the present debate to add more liabilities to already unsustainable programs upside down. It would seem that a more sensible debate would revolve around correcting this “deep financial hole” that is leading to an impending national bankruptcy. Where do we go except to free markets?
— Richard L. Spencer, Ph.D., Lt.Col. Ret. USAF
http://www.heritage.org/LeadershipForAmerica/health-care.cfm
HERITAGE FOUNDATION: “Health Care”
#
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=701832
“Baucus’ proposal contains ‘hidden consequences’”
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 9/29/2009 7:40:00 AM
SNIPPET: “A healthcare expert says the healthcare bill drafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) creates new taxes and cuts to the Medicare program to reduce the cost to the federal government, but does nothing to reduce the cost of healthcare in the family budget.
The Wall Street Journal says the Baucus bill would break all 50 state budgets by permanently expanding Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for the poor. The bill would for the first time make Medicaid available to childless adults and also extend healthcare insurance subsidies to people up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
Under the senator’s plan — known as “America’s Healthy Future Act” — individuals who fail to pay the $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance could be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 fine.
Dennis Smith is a senior fellow in healthcare reform at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Health Policy Studies. He says that penalty is just one of the many “hidden, unknown consequences” in the legislation.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2351150/posts
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http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=507421
VIEWPOINT
“Americans Dislike Universal Care, So Why Isn’t Congress Listening?”
By ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
Posted 09/29/2009 06:11 PM ET
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2352271/posts
#
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0930/p09s01-coop.html
OPINION
“Health care in Massachusetts: a warning for America
The Bay State’s mandatory insurance law is raising costs, limiting access, and lowering care.”
By Paul Hsieh
from the September 30, 2009 edition
We should all report every blog we can think of to their stupid tip line. They can sift through blogs about dogs, knitting, Gay Rodeo Clowns with MS, Graphic Artists for for more graphic art or whatever other inane subjects that populate the internet looking for eeevviiil right wing dissidents.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54911
“La Raza President Wants Health Care Reform for ‘Everyone,’ Including Illegal Aliens”
Friday, October 02, 2009
By Matt Cover
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/10/08/spin-doctors-for-obamacare-by-michelle-malkin/
“Spin Doctors for Obamacare”
by Michelle Malkin
(October 8, 2009)
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2359738/posts
A dangerous secret to the Baucus health bill
Fortune ^ | October 9, 2009 | Shawn Tully
Posted on October 10, 2009 5:13:01 PM PDT by neverdem
Two in a series: Hidden in the Senate’s health-care bill are huge incentives for corporate America to stop covering their workers. If that happens, the deficit could skyrocket.
Now that the Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the health-care bill proposed by Sen. Max Baucus will shrink the federal deficit over the next ten years, its champions are heralding the legislation as a model of fiscal responsibility.
But the CBO’s comforting analysis relies on a big assumption that’s highly questionable, an assumption that virtually no one on either side of the debate — politicians, pundits, even economists — is even challenging.
The assumption is that America’s employers will keep providing coverage for their workers. But, in fact, the Baucus bill severely undermines the employer rationale for offering insurance. Economist Michael Tanner of the conservative Cato Institute points out two main reasons.
First, the Baucus bill would substantially increase the costs of coverage, for example by requiring rich benefits packages and coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions at far less than their actual expense. At some point, employers will decide that the appeal of offering insurance as a tool for recruiting and retaining employees no longer compensates for its soaring cost.
Second, the bill is based on perverse incentives that no one is even discussing. The subsidies it offers to citizens are so rich that if companies were to drop their plans, the majority of workers would get the same lavish coverage, and extra cash in their paychecks to boot. “Those two factors will change the equilibrium,” says Tanner. “With the government providing huge credits, employers will feel a lot less guilty about dumping their plans.”
In fact, the Baucus bill is practically inviting employers to do just that: It imposes a fine of just $400 per employee on companies that...
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2359852/posts
Hospital patients are dying because of [EU] restrictions on doctors’ hours, say surgeons
The Telegraph ^ | 10/10/2009 | Laura Donnelly
Posted on October 10, 2009 10:15:22 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
New restrictions on medics’ working hours brought in by the European Union.
Since August doctors have not been allowed to work more than 48 hours a week, under rules laid down in Brussels.
A survey of surgeons today reveals that two-thirds believe patient care has suffered since the changes were introduced, with almost half fearing basic safety has been put at risk.
The head of the Royal College of Surgeons, which organised the poll, said its members had reported safety incidents, including those resulting in patient deaths, which they believed were caused by the new system.
Attempts by hospitals to reduce doctors’ working hours to meet the restrictions of the EU’s Working Time Directive have forced many surgeons into short shifts, some of as little as four hours, significantly increasing the number of handovers between those in charge of patients’ care.
Prof John Black, the College president, said the lack of continuity of care was putting lives at risk: “Every handover is an accident waiting to happen. The new system means the number of handovers has increased hugely. On top of that, our members are warning us that there are very thin layers of cover on the wards,” Prof Black said.
Most surgeons, especially those working in emergency care, spend much of their time diagnosing and monitoring patients to see whether they should undergo surgery, and whether they are recovering properly.
The European Working Time Directive includes hours “on call” in the weekly limit. As a result, doctors who used to spend a day on the wards, followed by a night on call, spend even fewer of the hours they work actually seeing patients.
The college’s survey of almost 900 surgeons – one in eight of the UK surgical workforce – found that 64 per cent thought quality of care
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Video:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/video/President-Obama-Hosts-Doctors-for-Health-Reform/
Video description - quote:
President Obama Hosts Doctors for Health Reform 8:42
The President welcomes dozens of doctors from all over the country to the White House, and commends doctors in general as those “who know the health care system” and for being “some of the people who are most supportive of reform.” October 5, 2009. (Public Domain)
blog:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/disposable_people_1.html
October 10, 2009
“Disposable People”
By James Lewis
NOTE: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2360971/posts
Pensioner ‘left to die in hospice after doctors wrongly diagnosed him with cancer’
Mail Online ^ | 12 October 2009 | James Tozer
Posted on October 12, 2009 5:10:59 PM PDT by underthestreetlite
UK - A grandfather who beat cancer was wrongly told the disease had returned and left to die at a hospice which pioneered a controversial ‘death pathway’. Doctors said there was nothing more they could do for 76-year-old Jack Jones, and his family claim he was denied food, water and medication except painkillers. He died within two weeks. But tests after his death found that his cancer had not come back, and he was in fact suffering from pneumonia brought on by a chest infection
To his family’s horror, they were told he could have recovered if he’d been given the correct treatment. Today, after being given an £18,000 pay-out over her ordeal, his widow Pat branded his treatment ‘barbaric’ and accused the doctors of manslaughter. Mr Jones was being cared at a hospice which was central to the contentious Liverpool Care Pathway under which dying patients have their life support taken away, although the hospice claims it wasn’t officially applied in his case. The scheme is now used by hundreds of hospitals and care homes, and is followed in as many as 20,000 deaths a year. Supporters say it brings dignity to a patient’s final hours, but critics fear that some are placed into it incorrectly.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2360970/posts
Soldier dies after receiving smoker’s lungs in transplant (Socialist health care fail)
CNN ^ | 2009-10-12 | Stephanie Busari
Posted on October 12, 2009 5:06:07 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
LONDON, England (CNN) — A leading UK hospital has defended its practice of using organs donated by smokers after the death of a soldier who received the cancerous lungs of a heavy smoker.
Corporal Matthew Millington, 31, died at his home in 2008, less than a year after receiving a transplant that was supposed to save his life at Papworth Hospital — the UK’s largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital, in Cambridgeshire, east England.
Papworth Hospital released a statement saying using donor lungs from smokers was not “unusual.”
The statement added that the hospital had no option but to use lungs from smokers as “the number of lung transplants carried out would have been significantly lower,” if they didn’t.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/13/new-york-times-baucus-bill-breaks-obama-promise/
“New York Times: Baucus Bill Breaks Obama Promise”
Posted October 13th, 2009 at 1.41pm in Health Care.
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