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:
Note: Video included at link.
“Congresswoman: We’re Not ‘Promoting Sterilization’ of College Girls, We’re Just Making It Free”
By Elizabeth Harrington
March 19, 2012
SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.-Ill.), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee which has oversight over the Affordable Care Act (AKA “Obamacare”), said Monday that a new Obamacare regulation announced on Friday afternoon that requires all student health insurance plans to offer college women free sterilizations does not mean the government is “promoting sterilization.””
“Obamacare rationing panels an ‘immediate danger to seniors’: former AMA president”
BY KATHLEEN GILBERT
Thu Mar 22, 2012 14:05 EST
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http://www.lifesite.net/tag/obamacare
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http://heritageaction.com/2012/03/letter-to-speaker-boehner-and-leader-cantor-dont-muddy-the-water/
“Letter to Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor ‘Don’t Muddy the Water’”
March 16, 2012 by heritageaction
SNIPPET: “Dear Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor:
We understand the House of Representatives is scheduled next week to consider legislation–the Medicare Decisions Accountability Act (H.R.452)–to repeal Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), and we write to express our concerns with this strategy.
IPAB is an unelected and unaccountable board of 15 bureaucrats empowered to set Medicare reimbursement rates in order to control costs, and it will mean rationed health care for our nation’s senior citizens. To be clear, we adamantly support its repeal. However, we are gravely concerned that IPAB alone is being proposed for repeal and not part of a full repeal of Obamacare.
This legislation is part of a troubling trend to break off the worst portions of Obamacare for individual votes, which muddies the water in this election year between those who are adamantly opposed to Obamacare and those who want to see its implementation.
This approach is misguided at this point in our nation’s national dialogue. The entirety of Obamacare is both terrible policy and politically unpopular.
Poll after poll reveal the American people’s fundamental recognition that Obamacare is unconstitutional and will increase their premiums, lead to rationed care, and insert the federal government into their most personal medical decisions.
We cannot allow the idea to take root that the worst parts of Obamacare can somehow be “removed” when in fact the entire law must be rescinded.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304724404577289363234579868.html
Opinion
“ObamaCare’s Costs Are Soaring”
By RON JOHNSON
Updated March 21, 2012
SNIPPET: “One year after the passage of ObamaCare, this paper published an op-ed I wrote (”ObamaCare and Carey’s Heart”) about how America’s health-care system saved my daughter’s life, and describing how implementing this law will limit innovation, lead to rationing, and lower the quality of care. Now, two years out, I would like to focus on the budgetary disaster.
As a candidate, Barack Obama repeatedly claimed that his health-care plan would lower annual family health-insurance premiums by $2,500 before the end of his first term as president. But the Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported that the average family premium has increased $2,200 since the start of this administration.
Then there is the higher cost to taxpayers.”
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/study-obamas-health-care-law-would-raise-deficit-0
“Study: Obama’s Health Care Law Would Raise Deficit”
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press
April 10, 2012
SNIPPET: “WASHINGTON (AP) — Reigniting a debate about the bottom line for President Barack Obama’s health care law, a leading conservative economist estimates in a study to be released Tuesday that the overhaul will add at least $340 billion to the deficit, not reduce it.
Charles Blahous, who serves as public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security finances, also suggested that federal accounting practices have obscured the true fiscal impact of the legislation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.”
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/medicare-faces-unfunded-liability-386t-or-328404-each-us-household
“Medicare Faces Unfunded Liability of $38.6T, or $328,404 for Each U.S. Household”
By Christopher Goins
April 23, 2012
SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) – Medicare faces an unfunded liability of $38.6 trillion, according to the Medicare Trustees report released Monday.
The unfunded liability is the amount that has been promised in benefits to people now alive that will not be funded by the tax revenue the system is expected to take in to pay for those benefits. (The Medicare Trustees calculate the unfunded liability for a period of 75 years into the future.)
The $38.6 trillion in unfunded benefits Medicare is expected to pay over the next 75 years equals $328,404.43 for each of the 117,538,000 households the Census Bureau said there were in the United States in 2010.”
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/71-percent-top-companies-could-drop-insurance-under-obamacare
“71 Percent of Top Companies Could Drop Insurance Under Obamacare”
By Matt Cover
May 3, 2012
SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) – A report from the House Ways and Means Committee finds that 71 of the nation’s top 100 companies would find it far more economical to drop their health care plans and simply pay the penalty for not complying with the Obamacare employer insurance mandate.
The report, published May 1, surveyed 71 of the 100 companies in the Fortune 100 list of large corporations and finds that all of them would save considerable amounts of money by dropping their health care coverage instead of complying with the Obamacare insurance mandate.”
NOTE The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2984022/posts
Federal Rule (Obamacare) Limits Aid to Families Who Can’t Afford Employers’ Health Coverage
NY Times ^ | 1/30/13 | ROBERT PEAR
Posted on January 31, 2013 4:46:46 PM PST by Libloather
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration adopted a strict definition of affordable health insurance on Wednesday that will deny federal financial assistance to millions of Americans with modest incomes who cannot afford family coverage offered by employers.
In deciding whether an employer’s health plan is affordable, the Internal Revenue Service said it would look at the cost of coverage only for an individual employee, not for a family. Family coverage might be prohibitively expensive, but federal subsidies would not be available to help buy insurance for children in the family.
The policy decision came in a final regulation interpreting ambiguous language in the 2010 health care law.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Thanks a heap milady!
You’re welcome ducttape45.
http://www.nationalreview.com/human-exceptionalism/341402/death-panel-advocacy-ithis-weeki
“Human Exceptionalism
Life and dignity with Wesley J. Smith.”
“Death Panel Advocacy on This Week”
By Wesley J. Smith
February 24, 2013 12:05 P.M.
SNIPPET: “Liberals screamed when Sarah Palin warned about “death panels” during the run up to the passage of Obamacare. But many really want health care rationing based on invidious methods of medical discrimination–as I have repeatedly reported here. I was just watching This Week and Steve Rattner–former adviser to Obama Treasury Dept. who has written in favor of death panels–alluded to them again. In a discussion on medical spending and cost control, he said (my transcription:)
Rattner: Here is a small question for the country…Right now most Americans do not see price in deciding whether to use healthcare…When people go on Medicare, they really don’t see price, they tend to consume more than they otherwise would. Twenty-six percent of all Medicare spending is last year of life. We don’t know how much of that is really efficacious spending. These are really tough moral questions for the country but we are going to have to deal with them.
Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal caught the reference:
Strassel: What you are getting to though is the fundamental question: Are you going to let consumers make those choices about end of life decisions, or are you going to have Medicare make a decision about what procedures you can have and how much they will pay, and government make those choices. That’s the moral question.”
The Brief - Copy - Link:
http://www.lc.org/media/9980/attachments/brief_opening_supplemental_sc_obamacare_022713.pdf
#
http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14102&AlertID=1559
February 27, 2013
“Liberty Counsel Files Appellate Brief in the Most Comprehensive Challenge Pending to ObamaCare”
www.LC.org
SNIPPET: “Following the Supreme Court’s directive to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia regarding ObamaCare, Liberty Counsel today filed its brief in the case of Liberty University v. Geithner. Liberty Counsel represents Liberty University and two private individuals in this case.
While there are other legal challenges to the employer contraceptive/abortifacient mandate, Liberty Counsel’s challenge is the most comprehensive challenge pending in the country.”
www.cms.gov/Medicare/Health-Plans/MedicareAdvtgSpecRateStats/Downloads/Advance2014.pdf
#
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-administration-plans-cut-medicare-advantage-reimbursements
“Obama Administration Plans to Cut Medicare Advantage Reimbursements”
March 14, 2013
By Matt Cover
SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration is planning new cuts to Medicare, a federal regulatory filing reveals, cuts that could mean higher premiums or seniors losing their coverage altogether.
The new cuts come in the form of a planned reduction in the reimbursement rates the government pays to insurance companies that operate Medicare Advantage plans, which are services administered by private for-profit or non-profit providers that offer additional services than can be found in traditional Medicare.
In a Feb. 15 regulatory filing, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the surprised rate cuts of 2.3 percent – meaning it would pay health care providers 2.3 percent less for providing services to patients.”
bttt
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