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://michellemalkin.com/2009/10/13/will-snowe-fall-again/
“Will Snowe fall again? Updated: Yes”
By Michelle Malkin • October 13, 2009 09:27 AM
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/12/massachusetts-goes-for-rationing/
“Massachusetts goes for rationing? Update: Incentivizing profit over care?”
POSTED AT 12:15 PM ON OCTOBER 12, 2009 BY ED MORRISSEY
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2361916/posts
The Baucus Bill Is a Tax Bill
The Wall Street Journal ^ | 10/13/09 | DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN
Posted on October 13, 2009 8:00:33 PM PDT by MissesBush
Remember when health-care reform was supposed to make life better for the middle class? That dream began to unravel this past summer when Congress proposed a bill that failed to include any competition-based reforms that would actually bend the curve of health-care costs. It fell apart completely when Democrats began papering over the gaping holes their plan would rip in the federal budget.
As it now stands, the plan proposed by Democrats and the Obama administration would not only fail to reduce the cost burden on middle-class families, it would make that burden significantly worse.
Consider the bill put forward by the Senate Finance Committee. From a budgetary perspective, it is straightforward. The bill creates a new health entitlement program that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates will grow over the longer term at a rate of 8% annually, which is much faster than the growth rate of the economy or tax revenues. This is the same growth rate as the House bill that Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) deep-sixed by asking the CBO to tell the truth about its impact on health-care costs.
To avoid the fate of the House bill and achieve a veneer of fiscal sensibility, the Senate did three things: It omitted inconvenient truths, it promised that future Congresses will make tough choices to slow entitlement spending, and it dropped the hammer on the middle class.
One inconvenient truth is the fact that Congress will not allow doctors to suffer a 24% cut in their Medicare reimbursements. Senate Democrats chose to ignore this reality and rely on the promise of a cut to make their bill add up. Taking note of this fact pushes the total cost of the bill well over $1 trillion and destroys any pretense of budget balance.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55398
“Finance Committee Health Bill Includes $507 Billion in New Taxes and Fees”
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
By Matt Cover
SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) – The health-care bill that the Senate Finance Committee will vote on today will cost a total of $829 billion over 10 years, with $507 billion of that cost being covered by new federal taxes and fees, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
On Oct. 7, the CBO released a report on the budget impact of the “chairman’s mark” summary of the bill that the Finance Committee is set to vote on today. Based on the document it was given, the CBO found that the bill would reduce the federal budget deficit by $81 billion over 10 years. That estimate was based on the calculation that, if enacted, the bill would bring in $480 billion in new tax revenues and $27 billion in fees.
These new taxes and fees include:”
Billions, billions, billions, hundreds of billions...
UPDATE:
“The Senate reform fraud”
By JEFFREY A. ANDERSON
Last Updated: 2:51 AM, October 14, 2009
Posted: 2:31 AM, October 14, 2009
SNIPPET: “In its second decade alone, the CBO projects, the bill’s costs would triple — to $2.8 trillion. The taxes and fines it levies would also triple — to $1.8 trillion. And its cuts to Medicare and related federal health programs would quadruple — to $1.9 trillion.
In its first two decades combined, the bill would cost $3.6 trillion and would raise taxes by $2.3 trillion.”
SNIPPET: “Furthermore, the CBO projects that, by the end of 2030, the Baucus bill would have cut spending on Medicare and other existing health programs by more than $2.6 trillion.”
Trillions, Trillions and More Trillions...
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ebl_OFEaU8
“Ten Questions for Obama from the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition”
(Added October 12, 2009)
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ-IJzRuGpA
“Robert Reich: The truth about Obamcare”
Video - AUDIO Description - Quote:
October 14, 2009
The truth back in 2007 about the direction this country and the Democrats in particular were heading.
Category: News & Politics
Tags: Obamacare Healthcare Obama Robert Reich Sarah Palin Palin
http://www.richardpoe.com/2009/09/20/medical-murder/
“Medical Murder: Why Obamacare Could Result in the Early Deaths of Millions of Baby Boomers”
by Richard Poe · September 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Reprinted from WorldNetDaily’s Whistleblower Magazine, August 2009
http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryElder/2009/10/15/health_care_reform_—_getting_less_for_more
Thursday, October 15, 2009
“Health Care ‘Reform’ — Getting Less for More”
by Larry Elder
SNIPPET: “Hawaii offered universal child health care — for seven months. Then it dropped the plan. Why? People (and employers) with private plans dumped them to ride the “cheaper” government train. One of Hawaii’s health care administrators lamented, “I don’t believe that was the intent of the program.” And Hawaii is a small state, without nearly the number of “health insurance needy” as we have on the mainland.”
SNIPPET: “Several New England states offer health care “reform,” using most of the ideas floated by the Obama administration.”
SNIPPET: “New England boasts that its number of uninsured has gone down (although not as much as predicted). But health care in New England now costs more than anywhere else in America.”
SNIPPET: “”Reformers” point to the “unfair” number of claims turned down by private insurers. But Medicare, as a percentage of claims filed, actually turns down more than do non-government carriers. According to the American Medical Association, Medicare turns down 6.85 percent of claim lines, followed by Aetna at 6.8, Anthem at 4.62, Health Net at 3.88, Cigna at 3.44, Coventry at 2.88 and UHC at 2.68. All private carriers combined averaged a denial rate of 4.05 percent, making Medicare’s rejection rate 170 percent higher!
Hold on to your wallets.”
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin?v=app_2347471856
Sarah Palin
Good Intentions Aren’t Enough with Health Care Reform
Yesterday at 8:57pm
Now that the Senate Finance Committee has approved its health care bill, it’s a good time to step back and take a look at the long term consequences should its provisions be enacted into law.
The bill prohibits insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and from charging sick people higher premiums. [1] It attempts to offset the costs this will impose on insurance companies by requiring everyone to purchase coverage, which in theory would expand the pool of paying policy holders.
However, the maximum fine for those who refuse to purchase health insurance is $750. [2] Even factoring in government subsidies, the cost of purchasing a plan is much more than $750. The result: many people, especially the young and healthy, will simply not buy coverage, choosing to pay the fine instead. They’ll wait until they’re sick to buy health insurance, confident in the knowledge that insurance companies can’t deny them coverage. Such a scenario is a perfect storm for increasing the cost of health care and creating an unsustainable mandate program.
Those driving this plan no doubt have good intentions, but good intentions aren’t enough. There were good intentions behind the drive to increase home ownership for lower-income Americans, but forcing financial institutions to give loans to people who couldn’t afford them had terrible unintended consequences. We all felt those consequences during the financial collapse last year. Unintended consequences always result from top-down big government plans like the current health care proposals, and we can’t afford to ignore that fact again.
Supposedly the Senate Finance bill will be paid for by cutting Medicare by nearly half a trillion dollars and by taxing the so-called “Cadillac” health care plans enjoyed by many union members. The plan will also impose heavy taxes on insurers, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, and clinical labs. [3] The result of all of these taxes is clear. As Douglas Holtz-Eakin noted in the Wall Street Journal, these new taxes “will be passed on to consumers by either directly raising insurance premiums, or by fueling higher health-care costs that inevitably lead to higher premiums.” [4] Unfortunately, it will lead to lower wages too, as employees will have to sacrifice a greater percentage of their paychecks to cover these higher premiums. [5] In other words, if the Democrats succeed in overhauling health care, we’ll all bear the costs. The Senate Finance bill is effectively a middle class tax increase, and as Holtz-Eakin points out, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation those making less than $200,000 will be hit hardest. [6]
With our country’s debt and deficits growing at an alarming rate, many of us can’t help but wonder how we can afford a new trillion dollar entitlement program. The president has promised that he won’t sign a health care bill if it “adds even one dime to our deficit over the next decade.” [7] But his administration also promised that his nearly trillion dollar stimulus plan would keep the unemployment rate below 8%. [8] Last month, our employment rate was 9.8%, the highest it’s been in 26 years. [9] At first the current administration promised that the stimulus would save or create 3 to 4 million jobs. [10] Then they declared that it created 1 million jobs, but the stimulus reports released this week showed that a mere 30,083 jobs have been created, while nearly 3.4 million jobs have been lost since the stimulus was passed. [11] Should we believe the administration’s claims about health care when their promises have proven so unreliable about the stimulus?
In January 2008, presidential candidate Obama promised not to negotiate behind closed doors with health care lobbyists. In fact, he committed to “broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are. Because part of what we have to do is enlist the American people in this process. And overcoming the special interests and the lobbyists...” [12] However, last February, after serving only a few weeks in office, President Obama met privately at the White House with health care industry executives and lobbyists. [13] Yesterday, POLITICO reported that aides to President Obama and Democrat Senator Max Baucus met with corporate lobbyists in April to help “set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups, that has played a key role in bolstering public support for health care reform.” [14] Needless to say, their negotiations were not broadcast on C-SPAN for the American people to see.
Presidential candidate Obama also promised that he would not “sign any nonemergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House Web site for five days.” [15] PolitiFact reports that this promise has already been broken three times by the current administration. [16] We can only hope that it won’t be broken again with health care reform.
All of this certainly gives the appearance of politics-as-usual in Washington with no change in sight.
Americans want health care reform because we want affordable health care. We don’t need subsidies or a public option. We don’t need a nationalized health care industry. We need to reduce health care costs. But the Senate Finance plan will dramatically increase those costs, all the while ignoring common sense cost-saving measures like tort reform. Though a Congressional Budget Office report confirmed that reforming medical malpractice and liability laws could save as much as $54 billion over the next ten years, tort reform is nowhere to be found in the Senate Finance bill. [17]
Here’s a novel idea. Instead of working contrary to the free market, let’s embrace the free market. Instead of going to war with certain private sector companies, let’s embrace real private-sector competition and allow consumers to purchase plans across state lines. Instead of taxing the so-called “Cadillac” plans that people get through their employers, let’s give individuals who purchase their own health care the same tax benefits we currently give employer-provided health care recipients. Instead of crippling Medicare, let’s reform it by providing recipients with vouchers so that they can purchase their own coverage.
Now is the time to make your voices heard before it’s too late. If we don’t fight for the market-oriented, patient-centered, and result-driven reform plan that we deserve, we’ll be left with the disastrous unintended consequences of the plans currently being cooked up in Washington.
- Sarah Palin
[1] See http://tinyurl.com/yjs3mgf
[2] See http://tinyurl.com/yfuw3k3
[3] See http://tinyurl.com/yfxq8ca
[4] See http://tinyurl.com/ykefsk6
[5] See http://tinyurl.com/ygf42fj
[6] See http://tinyurl.com/ykefsk6
[7] See http://tinyurl.com/lkvgsp
[8] See http://tinyurl.com/nx4nh6
[9] See ibid.
[10] See http://tinyurl.com/yhhr56v
[11] See ibid.
[12] See http://tinyurl.com/yhzhkvg and http://tinyurl.com/lhyr9o
[13] See http://tinyurl.com/yksd6h3
[14] See http://tinyurl.com/yl9gg27
[15] See http://tinyurl.com/yknpxd6
[16] See http://tinyurl.com/d2k5hb
[17] See http://tinyurl.com/yf8qmfh
Updated 3 hours ago
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=724156
“Dems’ healthcare ideas ‘all increase the deficit’”
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 10/16/2009 6:00:00 AM
SNIPPET: “But Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) says all the Democratic proposals take the country’s healthcare system in the wrong direction. “We should be trying to cut the deficit,” he says. “This Senate Finance Committee bill, like all the other comprehensive healthcare proposals coming out of the Democratic Congress, they all increase the deficit.”
Wicker suggests a number of ways to improve the healthcare system.”
Well yes, eventually...maybe...we will be able to read this NEW bill.
SNIPPET:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-1796
S. 1796:
111th Congress
2009-2010
An original bill to provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the...
Navigation
> Overview
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Track S. 1796
This feed includes all major activity on this bill and its amendments, references in the Congressional Record, and relevant upcoming committee meetings.
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Personalize your Tracked Events page by selecting trackers.
See S. 1796 on THOMAS for the official source of information on this bill or resolution.
An original bill to provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.
Overview
Sponsor:
Sen. Max Baucus [D-MT](no cosponsors)
Text:
The text of this legislation is not yet available on GovTrack. It may not have been made available by the Government Printing Office yet.
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2367065/posts
The Doctors Are Out
IBD Editorials ^ | October 20, 2009 | INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff
Posted on October 20, 2009 5:32:12 PM PDT by Kaslin
Health Reform: A recent IBD/TIPP Poll showed two-thirds of physicians opposing Congress’ proposed reforms, and warning of dire consequences. Now, a forum of prominent doctors has amplified those concerns.
Of 1,376 doctors responding in late August, 65% opposed Congress’ reform plans; 45% said enactment would make them consider leaving their practice or take early retirement; and 67% expected fewer students to apply to medical schools.
Some 65% also felt seniors would end up with lower-quality care under a government plan; 71% didn’t think it possible for the government to cover 47 million more people and cut costs while also delivering better quality care; finally, 60% of physicians didn’t think that under a government plan, drug companies would have incentives to continue developing as many lifesaving new medicines.
America’s doctors know their patients better than politicians do. And the hostility seen in these poll results was mirrored by virtually all of the 15 esteemed physicians from the New York metropolitan area gathered by former New York state Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey for a Forum on Medical Excellence Monday evening.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was vilified by Washington politicians for coining the term “death panels” to describe the government bureaucracies that would intrude in life-and-death decisions regarding the allocation of resources under the proposed government takeover of our health system.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
"Of 1,376 doctors responding in late August, 65% opposed Congress’ reform plans; 45% said enactment would make them consider leaving their practice or take early retirement; and 67% expected fewer students to apply to medical schools.
Some 65% also felt seniors would end up with lower-quality care under a government plan; 71% didn’t think it possible for the government to cover 47 million more people and cut costs while also delivering better quality care; finally, 60% of physicians didn’t think that under a government plan, drug companies would have incentives to continue developing as many lifesaving new medicines."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2367848/posts
The Major Incurable Disease - Tort Terror
FREE CONGRESS FOUNDATION - Free Congress Foundation Commentaries ^ | October 21, 2009 | By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.
Posted on October 21, 2009 2:15:35 PM PDT by Cindy
(PDF Format)
Free Congress Foundation Commentary
The Major Incurable Disease – Tort Terror
By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.
October 21, 2009
Unlike other countries, our Federal system and many of our State judicial systems encourage litigation against physicians and hospitals. The practice of medicine is almost unimaginatively sophisticated, as applicable knowledge continually becomes more complicated and more extensive.
(Excerpt) Read more at freecongress.org ...
YES WE CAN read S.1796:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-1796
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:s1796pcs.txt.pdf
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