Free Republic

As the Obama administration pushes for a national health care plan, studies show that most Americans are overwhelmingly happy with their own health care -- but they are dissatisfied with the country's overall system, because most Americans who have insurance believe that those who don't have it are not receiving care. Those same studies, however, show that a surprisingly large 70 percent of the estimated 46 million Americans who don't have insurance say they do, in fact, receive health care, and that a vast majority of them are satisfied with it. A survey conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation,...

A new report issued today by the Congressional Budget Office, which analyzed the Kennedy plan coming from the Senate, found that to move just 16 million of the people in this country who are claimed to be without health care coverage into some form of government-provided health insurance will cost the nation 1 trillion dollars over ten years. The CBO also estimates total costs to move all who aren’t currently being covered by some form of insurance into the government’s new plan to be over 3 trillion dollars. We ask the question again: Who out there believes this will be...

LOS ANGELES COUNTY - Figures from the Department of Public Social Services show that children of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County collected more than $21 million in welfare and more than $22 million in food stamps in March 2009 -- an increase of $1 million from the previous month, according to a news release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. Annually the cost of illegal immigration to Los Angeles County taxpayers exceeds one billion dollars, which includes $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $500 million in welfare and food stamps allocations, according to...

Much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I must report the shocking facts. Medical care is medical care. Nothing more and nothing less. This may not seem like a breakthrough on the frontiers of knowledge, but it completely contradicts what is being said by many who are urging universal health care because so many Americans lack health insurance. Insurance is not medical care. Indeed, health care is not the same as medical care. Countries with universal health care do not have more or better medical care. The bottom line is medical care - but the rhetoric...

Much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I must report the shocking facts: Medical care is medical care. Nothing more and nothing less. This may not seem like a breakthrough on the frontiers of knowledge. But it completely contradicts what is being said by many of those who are urging "universal health care" because so many Americans lack health insurance. Insurance is not medical care. Indeed, health care is not the same as medical care. Countries with universal health care do not have more or better medical care. The bottom line is medical care. But the...

Photo by Matthew RatajczakWEST PALM BEACH — Victor Leon is alone in the hospital most days. The 26-year-old was paralyzed nearly three years ago when he fell from the roof of a three-story building in Palm City while working for Jupiter-based Altec Roofing. Since then, Leon has been mired in a legal battle to get workers' compensation benefits or legal damages from Altec. Leon is an illegal immigrant. His status puts him at the crux of a legal debate over what rights, if any, illegal workers have after being injured on a job for which the American government says...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is considering a plan to make veterans use private insurance to pay for treatment of combat and service-related injuries. The proposal would be an about-face on what veterans think is a longstanding pledge to pay for health-care costs that result from their military service. In a White House meeting Monday, veterans groups apparently failed to persuade President Barack Obama to take the plan off the table. “Veterans of all generations agree that this proposal is bad for the country and bad for veterans,” said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America....

Budget crunch cuts illegal immigrants' health care By JULIANA BARBASSA Associated Press Writer SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Graciela Barrios, an undocumented immigrant with few resources, has long relied on the county health clinic for the advice, medication and tests that have kept her diabetes under control. But next month, Barrios and thousands like her will be on their own, and many more people across the nation face the same fate.

Washington bureaucrats hoped something wouldn't see the light of day until it was too late. Buried in the stimulus bill is the framework for rationing medical care to the elderly. The part Obama and his cohorts are talking about publicly -- electronic medical records -- sounds great: no more having to fill out annoying paperwork at the doctor's office or hospital when you are ailing. But according to the provision's author, former Health and Human Services director nominee (and tax cheat) Tom Daschle, there's much more, including the newly-created bureaucracy of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. What will...

January 30, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Daschle CareTo save money, House Democrats want the government to decide how to ration medical care. By Michael F. Cannon The $819 billion “stimulus bill” passed by the House includes $1.1 billion that has nothing to do with economic growth and everything to do with letting government control your medical decisions: House Democrats propose to spend taxpayer dollars researching which medical services work best. The need for such “comparative-effectiveness research” is tremendous, and this work could benefit the economy—but not if it’s done the way the Democrats propose. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that...

This is an emergency book review. Before you do anything else, make a note to read "The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care" by Sally C. Pipes. It might literally save your life, by checking the political stampede toward a government-controlled medical profession— usually presented politically as "universal health care." It is one of the painful signs of our times that millions of people are so easily swayed by rhetoric that they show virtually no interest at all in finding out the hard facts. Any number of other countries already have government-controlled medical professions. Yet few Americans show any...

The immigration debate isn't just on Capitol Hill; documentation woes are hitting home-and hospitals-as well. Recently, a North Carolina judge ordered the release of medical records for an investigation involving an undocumented immigrant. The woman allegedly used a deceased person's social security number to obtain medical care, a crime more commonly known as medical identity theft. But in addition to serving as evidence for criminal charges, the medical record also raises a red flag for deportation because the woman has no documented permission to reside in the country. While lawmakers have long been grappling over immigration issues, this case draws...

Attorney General Jerry Brown and Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kathy Kneer are among those sounding the alarm over a regulation proposed by the Bush administration that, if adopted, could mean California could no longer compel Catholic Charities and medical centers to include certain kinds of contraception in health coverage for their employees. [[JBrown082708.jpg]]The proposed federal regulation, which would permit physicians and other medical professionals to refuse to participate in federally-funded abortions for reasons of conscience, was released for a 30-day public comment period on Aug. 21 by the Department of Health and Human Services. It was immediately applauded by the US...

WASHINGTON - Americans who go without health insurance for any part of 2008 will spend $30 billion out of pocket for health care and they will get $56 billion worth of free care, according to a report released on Monday. Government programs pay for about three-quarters, or roughly $43 billion, of the bills for these uninsured people, Jack Hadley of George Mason University in Virginia and a team at the Urban Institute reported. "Physicians' donated time and forgone profits amount to $7.8 billion. After government payments to hospitals are subtracted, private philanthropy and profit margins are responsible for at least...

The same California Supreme Court that created a "right" to homosexual "marriage" earlier this year has now ruled that the state may force healthcare professionals to provide services that support an immoral and physically dangerous lifestyle. California's highest court was unanimous in its decision on Monday that Christian doctors may not refuse to perform artificial insemination for homosexual patients. (See "California court says no religious exemption for doctors") Attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), reacts to the ruling. "This is a clear violation of the fundamental rights of individuals to live and practice their faith," he...

When amateurs outperform professionals, there is something wrong with that profession. If ordinary people, with no medical training, could perform surgery in their kitchens with steak knives, and get results that were better than those of surgeons in hospital operating rooms, the whole medical profession would be discredited. Yet it is common for ordinary parents, with no training in education, to homeschool their children and consistently produce better academic results than those of children educated by teachers with Master's degrees and in schools spending upwards of $10,000 a year per student— which is to say, more than a million dollars...

Yeah but the guy probably did a job no American would do. So sit down and stop your xenophobic, racist, hate-filled sputtering. It's a frickin' melting pot and sometimes you get a piece of gristle in your stew. Think that's bad? This hospital administrator in Florida was just getting warmed up.

WASHINGTON -- Government-run health care has been debated in the United States for years and has become a flashpoint during the 2008 presidential race with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama advocating some type of nationalized plan like in both Europe and Canada. But there's also a growing movement in opposition to having those individual health decisions made by Washington bureaucrats, and Europeans and Canadians who lived with – or perhaps survived is a better word – their national health-care systems are helping that effort. A series of videos is being released telling horror stories that have emerged under a...

My lad is in America waiting for a visa to live there and marry a lovely American lass. He was taken ill and went to hospital where an appendectomy was performed. The bill is $28,000 minimum. We think he has medical cover but we don't know the datils ...is ths figure about right? Anyone out there with any advice?

Brotman Medical Center, a key healthcare provider serving Los Angeles' Westside, is expected to seek protection from creditors in Bankruptcy Court as early as next week, according to three executives familiar with the matter. Administrators at the 420-bed hospital in Culver City have tried for months to avoid filing a bankruptcy petition but have continued struggling to pay its growing debt. Brotman became the center of a firestorm last month when state health inspectors released a report finding that doctors and nurses failed to provide proper care to a mentally disabled woman, who died after a series of medical mistakes....