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.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/23/house-health-care-exceeds-trillion/
(AP)
“House Health Care Bill Exceeds $1 Trillion”
SNIPPET: “The health care plan taking shape in the House carries a price tag of $1 trillion over the next decade, significantly higher than the target the president has set.”
October 23, 2009
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=510150
“Stealth Socialism”
Posted 10/23/2009 07:30 PM ET
SNIPPET: “With or without a government-run option, the Democrats’ radical transformation of the greatest health care system in the world still means reams of new regulations on private insurers, including the likely end of anti-trust protection.
It means fines for those — especially the young — who won’t buy what will become high-priced insurance. It may slap uncooperative employers with an 8% payroll tax. And it may impose a $460 billion, 5.4% income tax surcharge sure to kill private sector jobs.”
Oh alrighty then. Since Communictions Director Linda Douglass says so and not Communications Director Anita Mao Tse Dunn.
Is Linda one of Anita's subordinates?
Commentary:
http://lifenews.com/bio2987.html
“Rationing and Death Panels: End of Life Care Should Not End Life”
by Ken Connor
October 23, 2009
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2369703/posts
The Middle-Class Health Tax Heist Of 2009
IBD Editorials ^ | October 23, 2009 | SALLY C. PIPES
Posted on October 23, 2009 5:31:41 PM PDT by Kaslin
Poring over the details of the 1,501-page health care bill that came out of Sen. Max Baucus’ Finance Committee, it’s clear that the financing is so full of smoke and mirrors that one has to wear a respirator and hard hat to get through it.
But by the time one gets to the end of the bill, estimated to cost $829 billion over 10 years, clarity emerges — the Democrats plan to finance their expanded government care on the backs of America’s middle-class taxpayers.
Baucus and company have decided to tax what the press calls “Cadillac” health plans. Prior to hitting the fine print, this indicates that only excessive, gold-plated plans found in the executive suites would be hit.
Baucus’ “mark,” however, shows that it’s more likely the janitor who will be paying the tab.
Included in the bill is a confiscatory excise tax of 40% on “Cadillac” health plans that cost more than $8,000 for an individual or $21,000 for a family. This appears reasonable, as today most plans are well under these limits.
However, it’s not actually health plans that are taxed at 40%, but the aggregate benefits that relate to health care that employers offer, regardless of whether they are funded by the employee or employer. The limits apply not only to employer-sponsored medical care but also to vision and dental plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2371789/posts
Treating seniors as ‘clunkers’
NY Post ^ | October 27, 2009 | BETSY MCCAUGHEY
Posted on October 27, 2009 4:09:17 AM PDT by Scanian
Everyone knows that if you don’t pay to maintain and repair your car, you limit its life. The same is true as human beings age. We need medical care to avoid becoming clunkers — disabled, worn out, parked in wheelchairs or nursing homes.
For nearly a half century, Medicare has enabled seniors to get that care. But ObamaCare is about to change that, by limiting what doctors can provide their aging patients.
The Senate Finance Committee health bill released last week controls doctors by cutting their pay if they give older patients more care than the government deems appropriate. Section 3003(b) (p. 683) punishes doctors who land in the 90th percentile or above on what they provide for seniors on Medicare by withholding 5 percent of their compensation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2373273/posts
NO GOVERNMENT OPTION
Me ^ | October 28, 2009 | Cindy
Posted on October 28, 2009 4:37:49 PM PDT by Cindy
Note I sent to my elected representatives today:
Dear xxxxxx,
NO GOVERNMENT OPTION.
No matter what it is called, government option, trigger, personal choice, opt out — NO GOVERNMENT OPTION.
Please vote NO on the health care bill package President Obama is trying to push on America. We can’t afford it and neither can the future generations.
My husband and I would like to see:
1. tort reform.
2. the ability to purchase insurance in any state.
3. the deductible (high or low) of our choice.
4. medical savings account.
Growing up in a low-income home, I do know that there are many options for people who cannot afford health care. There were then; there are now.
Thank you for reading this.
Cindy xxxxx
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2373210/posts
Ann Coulter: I’LL PASS ON “OPTING OUT”
AnnCoulter.com ^ | October 28, 2009 | Ann Coulter
Posted on October 28, 2009 3:08:14 PM PDT by RonDog
I’LL PASS ON ‘OPTING OUT’
October 28, 2009
The Democrats’ all-new “opt out” idea for health care reform is the latest fig leaf for a total government takeover of the health care system.
Democrats tell us they’ve been trying to nationalize health care for 65 years, but the first anyone heard of the “opt out” provision was about a week ago. They keep changing the language so people can’t figure out what’s going on.
The most important fact about the “opt out” scheme allegedly allowing states to decline government health insurance is that a state can’t “opt out” of paying for it. All 50 states will pay for it. A state legislature can only opt out of allowing its own citizens to receive the benefits of a federal program they’re paying for.
It’s like a movie theater offering a “money back guarantee” and then explaining, you don’t get your money back, but you don’t have to stay and watch the movie if you don’t like it. That’s not what most people are thinking when they hear the words “opt out.” The term more likely to come to mind is “scam.”
While congressional Democrats act indignant that Republicans would intransigently oppose a national health care plan that now magnanimously allows states to “opt out,” other liberals are being cockily honest about the “opt out” scheme.
On The Huffington Post, the first sentence of the article on the opt-out plan is: “The public option lives.”
Andrew Sullivan gloats on his blog, “Imagine Republicans in state legislatures having to argue and posture against an affordable health insurance plan for the folks, as O’Reilly calls them, while evil liberals provide it elsewhere...”
CLICK HERE for more
ADDING to post no. 307:
...and another name..”Public Option.”
To be perfectly clear, NO PUBLIC OPTION.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=745436
“No ‘closed rule’ will block abortion bill”
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 10/30/2009 5:00:00 AM
SNIPPET: “A national pro-life group is warning members of Congress that a vote in favor of the 1,990-page House healthcare bill is a vote to establish a federal government program that would directly fund abortion on-demand with taxpayer dollars.
Page 110 of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, authorizes a new government health insurance program to pay for all elective abortions. Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, explains.
“This is a federal agency, a federal program. Of course it’s going to spend federal funds. That’s the only kind of funds it’s got,” he notes. “So all of these assurances that some prominent Democrats, including President Obama, have given that there won’t be federal funding for abortions, that’s not what’s in the bill.”
Johnson warns that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to ram the bill through without representatives having a chance to vote on a single amendment. However, in order to use that “closed rule” procedure, a majority of House members have to agree to the move. The legislative director is urging members to vote “no” on a closed rule.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/obamacares_scary_october_surpr.html
October 31, 2009
“ObamaCare’s Scary October Surprise”
By Robert Knight
SNIPPET: “Stung by a rising tide of resistance and a closing window of opportunity, House Democrats have unleashed a new version of ObamaCare, weighing in at 1,990 pages and with a $1 trillion price tag. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promises to ram it through quickly, exhibiting a disdain for her countrymen that makes Marie Antoinette look like a populist.
The Democrats are going for broke, which means we’ll all be broke if this is not stopped. The “Affordable Health Care for America Act” (HR 3962) is so comprehensive that it even micromanages restaurant menus and vending machines. That’s a clear signal that this is not about health care. It’s about whether the people of the United States will allow power-mad Washington politicians to plunge us into the kind of top-down socialism that is strangling Western Europe and has devastated economies and destroyed freedom wherever it is imposed.
President Obama promised “transparency” and that any bill would be written in public. That was a lie. This monstrosity was hatched behind closed doors. He promised that it would not “add a dime to the federal deficit,” which he has already tripled since taking office. It was another lie. No one can honestly believe that a gargantuan takeover of the nation’s $2.5 trillion health care industry will save taxpayers money. No government program results in savings.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2375725/posts
“ObamaCare: Insurance Premiums Soaring Up, Up, and Away”
Biggovernment.com ^ | November 1. 2009 | by Capitol Confidential
Posted on October 31, 2009 10:47:56 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/56447
“Sen. Hatch Questions Constitutionality of Obamacare: If Feds Can Force Us to Buy Health Insurance ‘Then There’s Literally Nothing the Federal Government Can’t Force Us to Do’”
Monday, November 02, 2009
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief
SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) - Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has served in the Senate for 33 years and is a longtime member of the Judiciary Committee, told CNSNews.com that he does not believe the Democrats’ health-care reform plan is constitutionally justifiable, noting that if the federal government can force Americans to buy health insurance “then there is literally nothing the federal government can’t force us to do.”
Both the House and Senate versions of the health-care reform plan would force all individuals who are citizens or legal residents of the United States to buy health insurance. President Obama has endorsed this provision.
Hatch said if the federal government starts ordering Americans to purchase specific products without being able to plausibly justify that mandate through the Commerce Clause of the Constitution which empowers Congress to regulate interstate commerce, it will mean “we’ve lost our freedom, and that means the federal government can do anything it wants to do to us.””
http://www.iwf.org/files/8811f929032d3a1395d34efc6af5b701.pdf
http://www.iwf.org/files/c7df9fe1e1e5ae37013dc836f1856e4a.pdf
#
http://www.iwf.org/news/show/22253.html
“JUST RELEASED NEW POLL: HEALTHCARE THROUGH WOMEN’S EYES
What Women Want, Think Should Be Done and at What Cost?”
October 28, 2009
SNIPPET: “A new poll released Wednesday by the Independent Women’s Forum shows that only 16% of women believe that health care should be Congress’s top priority and that a majority (51%) is unsatisfied with what they have read, seen, or heard about the proposals being considered today. The poll, conducted by WomanTrend, a division of the polling companyTM inc., surveyed 800 women registered to vote and was conducted between October 19-25, 2009.”
####
####
Hat Tip:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=746694
“Public cuts through healthcare rhetoric”
Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 11/2/2009 6:40:00 AM
SNIPPET: “A recently released poll on healthcare shows that women are skeptical when it comes to a government-run system.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/conversation_with_my_teenager_1.html
November 02, 2009
“Conversation with my teenager”
Randall Hoven
That’s deserving of it’s own stand alone post...
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2377084/posts?page=3#3
To: SeekAndFind
This should be on the front page of every newspaper in America —in large bold letters. This was a “letter to the editor” on August 29th sent to a Jackson, MS newspaper.
Starner Jones, MD
Dear Sirs:
“During my last night’s shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate tattoos, a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B tune for a ringtone. Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid. She smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer.
And our Congress expects me to pay for this woman’s health care? Our nation’s health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture — a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. A culture that thinks “I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me”. Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow.
Don’t you agree?
STARNER JONES, MD
Jackson , MS
3 posted on November 2, 2009 6:48:33 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
Yes, there’s a thread going on it on FR already.
YES YOU CAN read the BIG PDF bill here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/house_bill_102909.pdf?sid=ST2009102902154
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