|
TOTAL GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL OF HEALTH CARE SHOULD BE AVOIDED
From AAPS News Letter 3/9/2010
Putting Tyrants in Control of Health CareBy Lawrence R. Huntoon,...
|
ALTERNATIVES TO GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED HEALTH CARE SHOULD BE PRESERVED
|
|
| | | |
|
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE DEMOCRAT'S STRATEGY TO REFORM OUR HEALTH CARE
From the AAPS News Letter 3/9/2010
ALERT: Senate bill cannot be fixed if House votes for it.CLICK HERE...
|
UNIVERSAL TAX TO FINANCE VOLUNTARY ABORTION COULLD REMAIN IN THE BILL
|
|
| | | |
|
SOME DISCOUNT HEALTH CARE PLANS UNDER INVESTIGATION
Discount medical plans come under state scrutiny
Regulators report more complaints as companies target a larger uninsured population.
By Emily Berry, amednews staff. Posted March 8, 2010.
"States, including California and Massachusetts, recently have announced new rules and regulations for discount medical cards and limited benefit plans. Regulators are hoping to keep consumers from signing up for what they believe is real health insurance, but what regulators say is often far from it.
State insurance regulators say they are fighting a wave of fraudulent and misleading marketing by companies targeting a growing uninsured population.
Many of those people are anxious to have coverage but can't afford a comprehensive plan, said Kim Holland, Oklahoma's insurance commissioner and secretary-treasurer of the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners.
"People are really desperate financially to save where they can," she said. "They can be easily misled to believe they can get something for nothing."
Holland and other commissioners have stepped up enforcement efforts, including strict enforcement of licensure requirements.
Since 2005, California's Dept. of Managed Health Care has ordered 18 companies to stop selling in California and has licensed one medical discount plan and two dental discount plans.
Citing the trouble its physician members have had dealing with some discount insurance plans, the California Medical Assn. called for the state to quit "legitimizing" the plans with licenses and instead treat them as illegal.
Andrew LaMar, CMA spokesman, said the poor economy, which has left California with a 12% unemployment rate and millions of uninsured residents, has only worsened the problem.
Since 2005, California has ordered 18 companies to stop selling discount health plans.
"Unfortunately many people are looking for any possible option they have and in large numbers turned to these plans," he said. "Doctors are put in the awkward and uncomfortable position of getting a discount card and saying, 'No, we have no agreement with them. We don't do this.' "
Holland said discount plans can take physicians and their staffs by surprise because it's sometimes hard to know which plans are legitimate just by looking at a card, she said....."
The CMA wants the state to close all of these companies rather than trying to make them play by the new licensure rules...."
|
AMA CONCERNED ABOUT COVERAGE PROMISED BY THE PLAN
|
|
| | | |
|
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE FAILS WHEREVER IT IS TRIED
As the late Adrian Rogers said, "you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
This man is truly, a genius!
Email received by HCREI 3/6/2010
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A...
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else...
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that.
Author Unknown
|
LET'S FIX OUR SYSTEM RATHER THAN REPLACE IT
|
|
| | | |
|
SOME DEMOCRAT VOTES LOST BECAUSE OF TAX MONEY FOR ABORTIONS
UPDATE 2-US Democrats would kill healthcare over abortion
Thu Mar 4, 2010 3:26pm EST
addImpression("10036173_Related...
|
PRESIDENT DEFYING MAJOR CHURCHES ON THIS ISSUE
|
|
| | | |
|
HEALTH CARE REFORM VOTE COULD OCCUR TODAY
From AAPS News Letter 3/4/2010
ALERT: The End Game Is Now!
According to our D.C. intelligence, the House would be in session this evening voting on the Senate-passed “healthcare reform” bill—if Speaker Pelosi had the votes.
She is likely to call the roll immediately if she gets them, so as to not allow time for introspection or reconsideration. The Leadership does not want Congress to go home for Easter break without having it “done”—lest wavering congressmen get exposed to their constituents.
According to the latest CNN poll, only 25% of Americans favor current legislation; 73% want Congress to stop, or start over.
Today, Obama gave another talk, repeating his mischaracterizations of the bill, asserting Americans could keep their current plan, and that costs would decrease. In fact, within 5 years, all plans would be defunct if they weren’t approved by the federal Health Choices Commissioner. The Congressional Budget Office finds that premiums would increase.
While Obama claimed that Republican ideas had been “incorporated,” Rep. Michael Burgess, M.D., pointed out that Republican amendments that had been passed in committee all got stripped out of the final bill, without explanation. The only Republican ideas from the Feb 25 summit that Obama liked were very weak: putting a few more dollars, amounting to “budget dust,” into pilot programs on tort reform, and Sen. Tom Coburn’s idea of deploying undercover investigators to find Medicare fraud.
According to an Associated Press survey, 10 Democrats have not ruled out switching their ‘no’ votes to ‘yes’ on Obama’s plan. :
Fot more information: www.aapsonline.org
|
PRESIDENT IN A HURRY BECAUSE CONGRESS GOES HOME FOR EASTER AND WILL FACE THEIR CONSTITUENTS
|
|
| | | |
|
ANOTHER'S OPINION ON CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE HEALTH CARE REFORM DEBATE
From the Director;
This letter arrived this morning. It speaks to a critical question in the Health care reform debate. 3/3/2020
"...Confusion between costs and prices add to the Alice in Wonderland sense of unreality.
What is called lowering the costs is simply refusing to pay all the costs, by having the government set lower prices, whether for doctors' fees, hospital reimbursements or other charges. Surely no one believes that there will be no repercussions from refusing to pay for what we want. Some doctors are already refusing to accept Medicare or Medicaid patients because the government's reimbursement levels are so low.
Similarly, if it costs a billion dollars to create one new pharmaceutical drug, then either we are going to pay the billion dollars or we are not going to keep on getting new pharmaceutical drugs produced. There is no free lunch.
Virtually everything that is proposed by those who are talking about bringing down the costs of medical care will in fact raise those costs. Mandates on insurance companies? Why are insurance companies not already doing those things that new mandates would require? Because those things raise costs by an amount that people are unwilling to pay to get those benefits.
If not, it would be a slam dunk for the insurance companies to add those benefits to the policies and raise the premiums to cover them. What politicians want to do is look good by imposing mandates, and then let the insurance companies look bad by raising the premiums to cover the additional costs.
It is a great political game, but it does nothing to lower medical costs.
Politicians who want a government monopoly on health insurance can easily get it, just by making it impossible for private insurance companies to charge enough to cover the costs mandated by politicians. The "public option" will then be the only option -- which is to say, we will no longer have any real option."
---Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. Web site is www.tsowell.com.
|
THE DOCTOR DEALING DIRECTLY WITH THE PATIENT WILL REDUCE THE COST OF HEALTH CARE
|
|
| | | |
|
DOCTORS VOICE CONCERN OVER PARTS OF THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
From the AAPS NEWS LETTER 3/2/2010
1. ObamaCare: The Threat to Physician Autonomy by Richard...
|
PROTECTION Of THE NEED OF THE DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP IS ESSENTIAL FOR GOOD HEALTH CARE
|
|
| | | |
|
PRESIDENT PLANNING SMALLER VERSION OF ORIGINAL HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
From Drudge Report 3/1/2010
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will offer changes to his...
|
IS THIS AN ATTEMPT TO FIX RATHER THAN REPLACE OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM?
|
|
| | | |
|
WHAT WISE MEN SAID MANY YEARS AGO
"It has been said the greatest volume of sheer brainpower in one place occurred when Jefferson dined alone..." John Kennedy
HOW DID JEFFERSON KNOW??????
Especially read the last quote from 1802.
And pass these on to your children and grandchildren!!
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. Thomas Jefferson
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. Thomas Jefferson
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Thomas Jefferson
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. Thomas Jefferson
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'
'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.' Mark Twain |
From the Director: this was sent to me by an unknown website visitor
|
|
ARE WE DEDICATED ENOUGH TO CORRECT SOME OF OUR MISTAKES?
|
|
| | | |
|
DOCTOR SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT'S HEALTH CARE REFORM
Pictured below is a young physician by the name of Dr.? .... His short two-paragraph letter to the...
|
TIME FOR RE-EVALUATION OF THE PUBLIC'S OBLIGATION
|
|
| | | |
|
FINALY-TALK OF FIX RATHER THAN REPLACE
From Sacramento Bee 2/27/2010
Small health care shifts sought
LITTLE MOMENTUM SEEN FROM SUMMIT FOR MAJOR OVERHAUL
BY DAVID LIGHTMAN dlightman@mcclatchyde.com
WASHINGTON - Congress was expected to consider health cue legislation on two tracks, tackling smaller issues that are likely to have strong support while trying to craft a comprehensive package that's likely to provoke partisan disagreements.
President Barack Obama has tried to create momentum for the broader package this week, but there was little evidence on Capitol Hill that his 71/2 hour bipartisan summit on Thursday had accomplished much. "I don't think the summit changed anything," said Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., one of 54 members of the House of Representatives Blue Dog Coalition of moderate-to-conservative Democrats. "We still have a problem.
The summit was a recitation of talking points on both sides, and there was no new information." What the moderates liked - as do many Republicans - is a series of popular changes. The first came earlier this week when the House overwhelmingly approved stripping health insurance companies of their antitrust exemption. The next could permit children to remain on their parents' insurance policies through their mid- to late 20s.
The major Democratic focus,though, will be on the larger package. The Senate and House passed different versions of health care legislation late last year, but it's languished as the two houses have been unable to compromise. Democratic leaders Friday said they were newly optimistic."I think we're ready now for the big game. We're ready for the finale," said House Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. "What the summit did is -give us a little more spine," added Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said that Obama's health care plan, released Monday, addresses several key House Democratic concerns. Among them: changing the Senate plan to tax high-end policies, although that wouldn't take effect until 2018 and would apply only to premiums of more than $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families.
Passing any legislation, though, will be difficult; not only because of centrist hesitation, but because it's unlikely that Senate Democrats can muster the 60 votes that are needed to cut off debate.
Senate leaders are considering using a process called reconciliation to pass the health legislation because that would require only 51 votes and Democrats control 59 seats. But that would limit the scope of what could be passed. Call
David Lightman, McClatchy Washington Bureau, (202) 383-6101.
|
THE CITIZENS VOICE STILL HAS THE POWER IF WE USE IT
|
|
| | | |
|
OBAMA HEALTH CARE REFORM WILL ADD 18 MILLION AMERICANS TO THE MEDICAID LIST
THE AAPS NEWS LETTER 2/26/2010
[American Association of Physicians and Surgeons]
Lessons from the Healthcare Summit
In case you missed the media extravaganza from Blair House on Feb 25, John Goodman sums up the most important lesson: “Under no circumstances do you want to give any of these guys power over your health care.”
Obama himself spoke for 119 minutes, longer than the 110 minutes used by Republicans from whose ideas he purportedly wanted to learn. (Other Democrats spoke for 114 minutes.) But as Obama said, he can go overtime: “I’m the President.”
Out of the 40,000 letters the president receives everyday, “I get 10 letters…for me to take upstairs to the residence and read every single night,” Obama said. Sometimes five of the letters will be about healthcare.
In addition to the platitudes, sad stories, and “I” statements, Obama’s opening remarks contained a key truth: “Almost all of the long-term deficit and debt that we face relates to the exploding costs of Medicare and Medicaid. Almost all of it. That is the single biggest driver of our federal deficit. And if we don't get control over that we can’t get control over our federal budget.”
So the Plan dumps 15 to 18 million more people into Medicaid, and extends the “Cornhusker Kickback” to all the states.
READ MORE AND COMMENT: http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00837
|
MEDICARE AND MEDICAID GOOD PLACES TO START THE FIX--AND NOT REPLACE THE WHOLE SYSTEM
|
|
| | | |
|
DOCTORS AND HOSPITALS JOINING FORCES TO DEAL WITH INSURERS
February 25, 201012:01 AM PST
Alwyn Cassil (202) 264-3484acassil@hschange.orgAlexandra...
|
THIS IS SIMILAR TO THE OLD DAYS--KAISER HEALTH THEIR CHIEF COMPETITOR
|
|
| | | |
|
"WHAT PRESIDENTIAL HEALTH CARE REFORM MEANS TO YOU"
|
From AAPS NEWS LETTER 2/23/2010
What Presidential Healthcare Reform
Means to You
Three days before the Feb 25 media event, where chosen representatives can say their last words before the nuclear option is set off, The President’s Proposal on “healthcare reform” was released.
These 11 pages do not start with a blank sheet of paper, as Republicans recommended, but with the 2,000-page Senate bill. They are getting a disproportionate amount of commentary, but amount to little difference.
The $100 billion added to the price tag, the total net worth of 100,000 millionaires, is but one-tenth of the total $1 trillion. This is not real money residing in a Lock Box in Washington, or even in the bank accounts of currently living taxpayers. It will be created out of nothing, so lack of a Congressional Budget Office pronouncement on it doesn’t matter much.
READ MORE & COMMENT: http://www.aapsonline.org/23newsoftheday/00830 |
|
INCREASED GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH CARE
|
|
| | | |
|
THREE STATE PROGRAMS SEND"WARNING NOTICES" ABOUT OBAMA HEALTH BILL
From Greg Scandlen Newletter 9/11/2009
Arizona
Writing in the Camp Verde Bugle Nancy Barto, Chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee in the Arizona House of Representatives, says, "Can we achieve health care solutions without Obamacare? Absolutely!" She cites several things that show it can be done:
- The growth of Health Savings Accounts
- Relaxing mandated benefits, as Arizona has done
- Reforming medical liability, as Arizona has also done.
- Allowing interstate competition
She writes, "Nearly one in five Arizonans lacks health coverage largely due to government's failure, not market failure, to correct the perverse incentives and over-regulation that drive up costs in both."
Camp Verde Bugle
Maryland
An article by Kelly Brewington in the Baltimore Sun begins, "Even if lawmakers can agree on how to overhaul the nation's health care system, the hope of universal coverage could crumble if individuals can't afford their share." She goes on to describe a program in Howard County that was designed to extend medical care to the uninsured for as little as $50 a month, and notes that, "Less than five months into (the) innovative program, nearly one in 10 participants is at risk of being cut off because they can no longer afford the cost."
She sees a cautionary note for Congress, "If the (federal) subsidies fall short, millions of Americans could continue to struggle without health insurance, say advocates for the uninsured. Besides, if people in Howard County - among the richest localities in the nation - can't manage $50 a month, how could those struggling elsewhere afford the plans under consideration in Washington that would require a much higher out-of-pocket cost?"
She goes on to quote Dr. Peter Beilenson, one of the foremost advocates of health care reform in the state, as saying, "I'm totally for universal health care, but these are working people who are asking themselves, 'How in the world can I afford this?' The bottom line is there will be insurance reform and, I think, a modest expansion. But unless the subsidies are significantly ramped up to deal with real-life families, it's not going to be even close to universal coverage."
One important note: The article says, "For $50 to $85 a month, depending on income, enrollees receive primary care, access to specialty doctors, subsidies for prescription drugs, and a personal health coach." What kind of program is it that pays for a professional "personal health coach," but not for surgery or hospitalization? These priorities are upside down.
SOURCE:
Baltimore Sun
Massachusetts
The Cato Institute's Michael Cannon had an op-ed published in the Detroit News that begins, "If you are curious about how President Barack Obama's health plan would affect your health care, look no farther than Massachusetts. In 2006, the Bay State enacted a slate of reforms that almost perfectly mirror the plan of Obama and congressional Democrats."
He says that the state succeeded in reducing the numbers of uninsured by two-thirds, but the costs are "staggering," so "Officials are already laying the groundwork for government rationing." Because state officials must define what is acceptable coverage to meet the mandate requirement, providers and disease advocates have vociferously lobbied to get specific services covered, including," prescription drugs, preventive care, diabetes self-management, drug-abuse treatment, early intervention for autism, hospice care, hormone replacement therapy, non-in-vitro fertility services, orthotics, prosthetics, telemedicine, testicular cancer, lay midwives, nurses, nurse practitioners and pediatric specialists." The legislature is considering including 70 additional specific services.
While the numbers of uninsured have dropped, Mr. Cannon says, "Yet that achievement carries an exorbitant price tag: at least $2.1 billion this year, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a figure that doesn't even include the cost of the additional coverage discussed above. Since Massachusetts has covered just 432,000 previously uninsured residents, the cost of covering a previously uninsured family of four - at least $20,000 - is well above the average cost of an employer-sponsored family policy (about $13,000)."
SOURCE:
Cato Institute
|
"FIXING WHAT WE HAVE" IS RAPIDLY BECOMING THE BEST IDEA
|
|
| | | |
|
CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER TO HAVE HIS SURGERY IN THE US of A
N.L. Premier Williams set to have heart surgery in U.S.
Kenyon Wallace, National Post Published: Tuesday,...
|
CHOSE AN AMERICAN SURGICAL EXPERT TO DO HIS SURGERY
|
|
| | | |
|
BRITISH NHS MATERNITY SERVICE OVERWHELMED
From MAIL-ON LINE ,UK News
Wednesday, Aug 26 2009 This Evening 17°C Tomorrow Morning 21°C 5-Day Forecast
The babies born in hospital corridors: Bed shortage forces 4,000 mothers to give birth in lifts, offices and hospital toilets
By Jenny Hope and Nick McdermottLast updated at 8:36 AM on 26th August 2009"
Maternity crisis: Women are giving birth in lifts and even toilets
Thousands of women are having to give birth outside maternity wards because of a lack of midwives and hospital beds.
The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk as births in locations ranging from lifts to toilets - even a caravan - went up 15 per cent last year to almost 4,000.
Health chiefs admit a lack of maternity beds is partly to blame for the crisis, with hundreds of women in labour being turned away from hospitals because they are full.
Latest figures show that over the past two years there were at least:
63 births in ambulances and 608 in transit to hospitals;
117 births in A&E departments, four in minor injury units and two in medical assessment areas;
115 births on other hospital wards and 36 in other unspecified areas including corridors;
399 in parts of maternity units other than labour beds, including postnatal and antenatal wards and reception areas.
Additionally, overstretched maternity units shut their doors to any more women in labour on 553 occasions last year.
Babies were born in offices, lifts, toilets and a caravan, according to the Freedom of Information data for 2007 and 2008 from 117 out of 147 trusts which provide maternity services.
One woman gave birth in a lift while being transferred to a labour ward from A&E while another gave birth in a corridor, said East Cheshire NHS Trust.
Others said women had to give birth on the wards - rather than in their own maternity room - because the delivery suites were full.
Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley, who obtained the figures, said Labour had cut maternity beds by 2,340, or 22 per cent, since 1997. At the same time birth rates have been rising sharply - up 20 per cent in some areas.
Mr Lansley said: 'New mothers should not be being put through the trauma of having to give birth in such inappropriate places.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209034/The-babies-born-hospital-corridors-Bed-shortage-forces-4-000-mothers-birth-lifts-offices-hospital-toilets.html#ixzz0PJYbPvNM
|
"Labour had cut maternity beds by 2,340, or 22 per cent, since 1997."
|
|
| | | |
|
UPDATE ON "WHO ARE THE MEDICALLY UNINSURED"
Who Are the 40+ Million Uninsured?
Most of the 45% of 40 million uninsured who are without health coverage for less than 4 months are between jobs. Nearly half are eligible for retroactive COBRA coverage for 3.5 months before a premium is due. It is expensive; why pay if it's not necessary? Of the remainder, 4-5 million are actually enrolled in Medicaid but undercounted, according to the Congressional Budget Office. There are also millions who can apply for Medicaid any time they need a significant medical service, and receive retroactive coverage. Between 25% to 43% of the uninsured population are illegal aliens; the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that 75% of the increase in uninsurance over the past 15 years results from immigrants and their children. Medical care is available without insurance; besides EMTALA, a Google search for "free medical care" turned up 275 million Web sites, including 13,500 in Maine. Only 2,000 previously uninsured individuals, of a claimed 135,000 uninsured, bothered to sign up for Dirigo Health, notes Gerard Gianoli, M.D. (ENT Today, January 2009}
For more information on this report: www.aapsonline .org
|
MORE EVIDENCE THE CURRENT SYSTEM NEEDS FIXING NOT REPLACING WITH A LOSER
|
|
| | | |
|
NEW OBAMA HEALTH CARE PLAN MAY NOT GET THE VOTES?
A Reminder from the Director: REPLACING OUR CURRENT HEALTH PLAN WOULD BE LIKE ABANDONING A GOOD AUTOMOBILE...
|
"MASSIVE GOVERNMERNT TAKEOVER...THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY REJECTED"
|
|
| | | |
|
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S NEW HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Monday, February 22, 2010 As of 6:12 PM EST¡¡
By LAURA MECKLER Trying to revive...
|
PLANS TO SEEK PASSAGE WITH SIMPLE MAJORITY VOTE
|
|
| | | |
|
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S NEW PLAN FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
|
From: AAPS NEWS LETTER 2/22/2010
Pres. Obama Releases Proposed Changes to Healthcare Bill
Undeterred by public rejection of "comprehensive healthcare reform," today President Obama released an 11-page report outlining his healthcare proposal. He claims it "contains new ideas from both parties" and that it will "give the American people and small business owners more control over their health care choices."
The reality is that his new deal, (according to our friends at Freedomworks.org) contains price controls, tax hikes, and "sweetheart deals" for everyone.
Here are some resources for a look at what is really in his proposal:
Freedomworks.org:
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/max/obamas-new-health-care-deal-tax-hikes-price-contro
Heritage Foundation:
http://blog.heritage.org/category/health-care/
CATO:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/02/22/obamas-best-idea-rationing-care-via-clinton-esque-price-controls/
Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704454304575081264262957600.html
Democrats are planning to try to push through the president's plan, after a show summit with Republican leaders on Feb 25. They apparently plan to bend to their purposes a tricky maneuver called "budget reconciliation" (a trillion-dollar bill does affect the budget) - which is aptly called the "nuclear option." It blasts away the usual defenses such as hearings, debates, or filibustering. It would also turn traditional American medicine and insurance into a smoldering ruin—not the objective they advertise!
The first two rails of total government control have already been laid, observes long-time AAPS member Lee Vliet, M.D., in the "stimulus bill." These are computerized medical records and comparative effectiveness research. The third rail, the one that powers the train by controlling the money, is called "insurance reform." Read full article by Dr. Vliet: http://www.takebackmedicine.com/news/obama-cares-lethal-third-rail-shock-to-come.html . |
|
Click here for more...
|
|
| | | |
|
STATES TAKING STEPS TO AVOID MANDATORY HEALTH INSURANCE
State bills target
U.S. mandate for
health insurance
BY DAVID A. LIES Associated Press
JEFFERSON...
|
THIS IS NOT A FIX OF THE CURRENT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM-THIS IS A BLOCK AGAINST FEDERAL CONTROL
|
|
| | | |
|
FEB 25-OBAMA'S FINAL PUSH FOR HIS HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
POLITICS
Obama, GOP ready for TV health plan faceoff
DEMS SEEK TO FIND AREAS OF ,AGREEMENT...
|
A REMINDER- "BETTER TO FIX IT RATHER THAN REPLACE IT"
|
|
| | | |
|
DEMOCRATS DETERMINED TO PASS A HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL---ANYWAY
White House: Dems near accord on health care bill
Feb 18, 1:15 PM (ET)By CHARLES BABINGTON...
|
THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL SPOKE ON THE CONDITION OF ANONYMITY TO DISCUSS PRIVATE NEGOTIATIONS"
|
|
| | | |
|
THIS DISCOVERY IN CANCER TREATMENT COULD HAVE DRAMATIC EFFECTS
Red Flag’ Gene Marker May Take Guesswork From Cancer Treatment
By Ellen Gibson
Feb. 18...
|
A BETTER MEASURE OF TREATMENT EFFECT COULD SAVE LIVES TIME AND COSTS
|
|
| | | |
|
TOWARD A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHERE THE MONEY GOES
|
| |
|
From Health Affairs 2/18/2010
Unexpected Reasons For Medicare Spending Increases, 1987-2006
|
| |
|
Bethesda, MD - An article published today by Health Affairs finds that the causes of Medicare spending growth have changed dramatically over the past two decades. Twenty years ago, most of the increases were due to inpatient hospital services, especially for heart disease, but recent annual increases are the result of outpatient treatment of chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, and kidney disease.
Chronic Conditions Account For Rise In Medicare Spending From 1987 To 2006
By Kenneth E. Thorpe, Lydia L. Ogden, and Katya Galactionova
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.2009.0474
Thorpe, Ogden, and Galactionova are affiliated with the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Ogden is on assignment from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This study analyzed data about disease prevalence and about level of and change in spending on the ten most expensive conditions in the Medicare population from 1987, 1997, and 2006. The data were drawn from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES), and the 1997 and 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
Among the key findings: heart disease ranked first in terms of share of growth from 1987 to 1997. However, from 1997 to 2006, heart disease fell to tenth, while other medical conditions -- diabetes the most prevalent -- accounted for a significant portion of the rise.
Furthermore, the authors postulate that increased spending on diabetes and some other conditions results from rising incidence of these diseases, not increased screening and diagnoses.
Conclude the authors: "The changing mix of medical conditions driving the rise in Medicare spending had consequential effects. More than half of the beneficiaries are treated for five or more chronic conditions each year. System fragmentation means that chronically ill patients receive episodic care from multiple providers who rarely coordinate the care they deliver, and chronic disease management programs are notably absent in traditional fee-for-service Medicare. As Congress, the administration, providers, insurers, and consumers debate reshaping the U.S. health system, they must address these changed health needs through evidence-based preventive care."
From the Director: The patient's Primary Care Physician should be the one to coordinate and oversee the diagnosis, care and follow-up of the patient's health care. A properly trained and compensated professional would do better and cost less than a government agency with a computer. "Let the fix begin ." |
|
PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS SHOULD OVERSEE/COORDINATE CARE OF THE CHRONICALLY ILL
|
|
| | | |
|
NEW SIGNS OF DOCTORS FIGHTING TO PROTECT THEIR PATIENTS FROM BAD HEALTH CARE REFORM IDEAS
From the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS NEWS LETTER 2/16/2010
Don’t...
|
DOCTORS GETTING A WAKE UP CALL--SAVE AND FIX THE CURRENT SYSTEM
|
|
| | | |
|
AAPS URGES DOCTORS TO DEAL DIRECTLY WITH PATIENTS WHO WANT PERSONAL CARE
|
From AAPS NEWSLETTER 2/16/2010
AAPS members and friends are entitled to a FREE profile on MediBid.
MediBid is a portal where cash-paying patients can go to find you. They are looking for physicians in all specialties.
The concept of MediBid is simple: it matches cash-paying patients up with the physicians and facilities they need to take care of their medical needs, without the involvement of middlemen like insurance companies and Medicare.
Every day, patients are registering at MediBid and requesting procedures. Once you create your free MediBid profile, you will get an e-mail every time a patient requests a procedure that matches your specialty. View their request and decide for yourself if you would like to offer a bid with a custom price quote. If you want to place a bid on providing that service, only then will you need to create a paid account with MediBid.com.
This free profile allows you to receive e-mail alerts when a patient makes a Request that matches your procedures. Only registered Bidders can view the full Request and make a custom price quote for the patient.
AAPS does not have a financial interest in Medibid.
For more information www.aapsonline.org |
|
A "PAY AS YOU GO PLAN" FOR THOSE PATIENTS WHO WANT IT
|
|
| | | |
|
WATCH YOUR SALT INTAKE--IT MAY IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH
Cutting salt cuts heart disease risk
Even a minimal reduction can benefit cardiovascular health,...
|
READ LABELS ON FOOD CONTAINERs FOR SALT [SODIUM] CONTENT BEFORE ADDING MORE
|
|
| | | |
|
NEW DISCOVERY TO HELP IN TREATMENT OF HIV/AIDS INFECTION
Scientists say crack HIV/AIDS puzzle for drugs
Sun Jan 31, 2010 1:00pm EST
addImpression("10036173_Related...
|
United Nations data for 2008 show that 33.4 million people had HIV and 2 million people died of AIDS.
|
|
| | | |
|
NEW ESTIMATE OF VICTIMS OF SWINE FLU PANDEMIC?
H1NI virus hits
about 57 million
in U.S. since April
THIRD WAVE NOT RULED OUT, BUT FLU IN RETREAT
BY DAVID BROWN Washington Post 2/13/2010
WASHINGTON - About 57 million Americans, or slightly more than 18 percent of the population, have contracted pandemic H1N1 influenza since April, federal public health officials said Friday.
About 11,690 people have died from the viral infection, also known as swine flu. Nearly 260,000 have been hospitalized. Adults ages 18 to 64 have been hit much harder than either children or the elderly. They account for 58 percent of the infections and hospitalizations and 76 percent of the deaths.
This demographic profile of the H1N1 pandemic is markedly different from that of seasonal flu, in which 60 percent of hospitalizations and 90 percent of flu-related deaths occur in people 65 and older.
Epidemiologists believe the pandemic virus is distantly related to a strain that circulated more than 40 years ago. People alive then who were infected with that strain might have partial immunity to the new one.
New estimates, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cover the period from the swine flu's emergence in Mexico and Southern California in late April through mid-January. In addition to effects of the H1N1 virus so far, the estimate clearly shows the new strain is in retreat. Only 2 million cases, and just more than 500 deaths, occurred between Dec. 11 (the date of the last estimate) and Jan. 16.
A CDC survey released last month found that about 70 million Americans have been vaccinated against the virus. That means that potentially 127 million of the nation's 309 million residents - 41 percent of the population - might now be immune.
The percentage will be lower, however, if many people who got pandemic flu shots in the past few months were already immune because they'd unknowingly contracted the virus before that.
The fraction of infections that caused no symptoms - a crucial variable in calculating "population immunity" - is not known.
A recent study from France estimated that only about 20 percent of people with evidence of HiNI infection in their blood stream went to the doctor, suggesting that a large fraction of swine flu cases are extremely mild.
There have been two waves of H1N1 virus - a small one in late spring and a large one in the fall, peaking in late October. How much of the population is now immune to the virus - either through infection or vaccination - is one of the variables that determines the likelihood of a third wave this winter. Public officials have not ruled out that possibility.
|
SEE OTHER BULLETINS THAT FOLLOW FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THIS PANDEMIC
|
|
| | | |
|
H1N1 FLU VACCINE DISTRIBUTION RAISES CONCERNS
H1N1 vaccine problems prompt government to review emergency preparedness
Physicians raise concerns about distribution procedures that left practices in some parts of the country unable to vaccinate patients.
By Christine S. Moyer, amednews staff. Posted Dec. 14, 2009.
West Virginia family physician Stephen Sebert, MD, is waiting for vaccine that may not arrive.
In early October, his multispecialty practice received influenza A(H1N1) vaccine for about 100 employees who interact with patients. But that was it. His patients still need to be immunized, and Dr. Sebert wonders if he will get another shipment of vaccine.
"We were telling patients, 'Get [the vaccine] any place you can.' But now I don't think anyone has it," he said.
Similar scenarios of vaccine shortages and distribution woes have played out from New England to the West Coast as the H1N1 virus spread nationwide. Even as the epidemic begins to wane and states prepare to lift restrictions on H1N1 vaccinations, some physicians lack supplies of vaccine.
The government has taken note. On Dec. 1, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called for a review of the federal government's system for handling public health emergencies.
H1N1 vaccine distribution is managed by state and local health departments.
In a speech to the AMA's National Congress on Health System Readiness in Washington, D.C., she told several hundred physicians and public health experts that the nation's outdated vaccine technology is a "fundamental problem" and that gaps exist at every stage of the vaccine development process. The goal, she said, is to modernize production to improve stockpiling and manufacturing, and to create more advanced distribution practices.
The government review -- expected to be completed in early 2010 -- will examine all aspects of public health emergencies, including terrorist attacks and natural disasters. But the catalyst for the call to action was H1N1, said Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, who is leading the review.
Dr. Lurie urged physicians and the public not to expect sweeping reform immediately.
"In four months we can't fix everything. ... But we can take a systems perspective, look at where the most vulnerable points in the system are, and look at the kinds of policies and investments we need to make to address those things," she said in an interview.
Vaccine distribution gaps
HHS was expecting 189 million doses of H1N1 vaccine to be created and delivered. As of Dec. 7, 63.9 million doses had been shipped to the states; another 72.6 million doses are available and waiting for state orders, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The remainder is still in production.
Although vaccine production and distribution has increased in recent weeks, the CDC remains short by millions of doses. Government officials point to a virus that grew too slowly in outdated egg-based vaccine technology.
64 million does of H1N1 vaccine had been shipped by Dec. 7, 2009.
The shortage was no surprise to John J. Lanza, MD, PhD, MPH, director of the Escambia County Health Dept. in Florida..."
"Most of us were saying to ourselves, 'This [projection] is too good to be true. They're never going to be able to get it out this quickly,' " said Dr. Lanza, noting that manufacturers were swamped by balancing production of vaccines for both seasonal flu and H1N1.
From the Director:
The H1N1 Swine Flu Event was declared a national epedemic,as a result, testing for the virus was suspended.
Researchers found the number of cases exaggerated and the number of deaths lower than predicted.
Though millions of doses of the H1N1 vaccine were promised shortages and questionable/poor distribution, throughout the nation, occurred.
Should this experience raise doubts about the governments attempt/ability to take control of the nation's health care delivery system?
Other bulletins on this subject are presented below.
|
GOVERNMENT ACTION IN NATIONAL EMERGENCY A MATTER OF CONCERN
|
|
| | | |
|
THE EXPECTED ANNUAL FLU SEASON MAY NOT ARRIVE THIS YEAR
Swine Flu Means Killer Winter Influenza May Not Come (Update1)
By Tom Randall
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg)...
|
SWINE FLU MAY HAVE BEEN A BLESSING IN DISGUISE?
|
|
| | | |
|
SWINE FLU EPIDEMIC APPEARS TO BE ENDING
Swine flu's spread pales, study finds
RESEARCHERS SAY IT ISN'T AS CONTAGIOUS AS OTHER PANDEMICS
Associated Press
How contagious is swine flu? Less than the novel viruses that have caused big world outbreaks in the past, new research suggests.
If someone in your home has swine flu, your odds of catching it are about one in eight, although children are twice as susceptible as adults, the study found. It is one of the first big scientific attempts to find out how much the illness spreads in homes vs. at work or school, and who is most at risk.
The study was done by outbreak specialists from Imperial College London and from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results are in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
Swine flu has sickened an estimated one-sixth of Americans since the novel virus was first identified in April.The second wave of cases now seems to have peaked, and health experts do not know if another surge lies ahead.
People with swine flu are advised to stay home for at least a day after their fever goes away by itself to avoid spreading illness. That puts family members at risk, but who is vulnerable and to what extent has not been known.
About 60 percent of swine flu cases have been in children, but researchers wondered: Are they truly more likely to get swine flu, or just more likely to be taken to a doctor and tested for it? Are they more likely to spread the virus than adults are?
To find out, researchers studied infection patterns in 216 people - half of them children - with swine flu from around the United States and 600 people living with them.
Respiratory illnesses that researchers assumed were swine flu developed in 78 of the 600 household members, or 13 percent. However, 10 percent had symptoms more specific to flu. That's less than the spread rate during earlier flu pandemics in 1957 and 1968, when 14 percent to 20 percent of household members were infected.
Less is known about spread in the 1918 pandemic, but households and lifestyles were very different then. In an ordinary flu season, the virus spreads to 5 percent to 40 percent of household members, various studies have shown.
Children were twice as susceptible to catching swine flu as adults were, and even more so if they were younger than 4, said one of the researchers, Lyn Finelli, surveillance chief for the CDC's flu division.
"It fits with what I'm seeing clinically," said Dr. James King, chairman of the American Academy of Family Physicians' board of directors and a family medicine doctor in Selmer, Tenn.
Nearly three-fourths of households in the study managed to avoid spreading the illness to any family members.
The study was funded by several public and private health-related groups in England and the United States, including the Bill &Melinda Blake Foundation
From the Director: See an earlier bulleting devoted to the Swine Flu Epidemic. Studies showed that many patients diagnosed as having Swine Flu were misdiagnosed, Partly because the CDC stopped performing requested tests. See below
|
SOME RESEARCHERS FEEL THAT MANY CASES WERE MISDIAGNOSED
|
|
| | | |
|
WHO ACTION CONCERNING H1N1 FLU EPIDEMIC TO BE REVIEWED
WHO to review its handling of H1N1 flu pandemicJonathan Lynn GENEVA Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:06am EST
Related...
|
SEE OTHER ARTICLES ON THIS WEBSITE REPORTING H!N1 FLU PANDEMIC?
|
|
| | | |
|
OVERSUPPLY OF FLU VACCINE UNDER QUESTION
Flu vaccine glut raises criticism
BY ANDREA GERLIN Bloomberg News
LONDON - The influenza...
|
WERE FEARS OF SWINE FLU PANDEMIC EXAGGERATED?
|
|
| | | |
|
IS WHO ON THE DEFENSIVE CONCERNING PANDEMIC CALL FOR H1N1 SWINE FLU?
World health official defends HIN1 warnings
BY ROB STEIN Washington Post 1/15/2010
WASHINGTON - "A...
|
AMERICA'S AVERAGE AGE NEAR FIFTY--"HARD TO CONVINCE ALL THESE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME"
|
|
| | | |
|
NEW FACTS ABOUT SWINE FLU VIRUS H1N1
From the Director: Worth Reading again
CBS News Investigates Oct. 21, 2009
Swine Flu Cases Overestimated?
CBS News Exclusive: Study Of State Results Finds H1N1 Not As Prevalent As Feared
By Sharyl Attkisson
H1N1 Flu Still a "Young Person's Disease" (CBS) If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.
In fact, you probably didn’t have flu at all. That's according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation.
The ramifications of this finding are important. According to the Center for Disease Control, CDC, and Britain's National Health Service, once you have H1N1 flu, you're immune from future outbreaks of the same virus. Those who think they've had H1N1 flu -- but haven't -- might mistakenly presume they're immune. As a result, they might skip taking a vaccine that could help them, and expose themselves to others with H1N1 flu under the mistaken belief they won't catch it. Parents might not keep sick children home from school, mistakenly believing they've already had H1N1 flu.
Why the uncertainty about who has and who hasn't had H1N1 flu?
CBSNews.com report on H1N1
In late July, the CDC abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1 flu, and stopped counting individual cases. The rationale given for the CDC guidance to forego testing and tracking individual cases was: why waste resources testing for H1N1 flu when the government has already confirmed there's an epidemic?
Some public health officials privately disagreed with the decision to stop testing and counting, telling CBS News that continued tracking of this new and possibly changing virus was important because H1N1 has a different epidemiology, affects younger people more than seasonal flu and has been shown to have a higher case fatality rate than other flu virus strains.
CBS News learned that the decision to stop counting H1N1 flu cases was made so hastily that states weren't given the opportunity to provide input. Instead, on July 24, the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists, CSTE, issued the following notice to state public health officials on behalf of the CDC:
"Attached are the Q&As that will be posted on the CDC website tomorrow explaining why CDC is no longer reporting case counts for novel H1N1. CDC would have liked to have run these by you for input but unfortunately there was not enough time before these needed to be posted (emphasis added)."
On Aug. 4, CBS News asked the CDC for e-mail communications to states and other documents regarding the guidance and its rationale. When CDC did not provide us with the documents, such as state-by-state numbers prior to halting testing and tracking, we filed a Freedom of Information request with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). More than two months later, the request has not been fulfilled.
(CBS)
It’s unknown what patients who tested negative for flu were actually afflicted with since the illness was not otherwise determined. Health experts say it’s assumed the patients had some sort of cold or upper respiratory infection that is just not influenza.
With most cases diagnosed solely on symptoms and risk factors, the H1N1 flu epidemic may seem worse than it is. For example, on Sept. 22, this alarming headline came from Georgetown University in Washington D.C.: "H1N1 Flu Infects Over 250 Georgetown Students."
H1N1 flu can be deadly and an outbreak of 250 students would be an especially troubling cluster. However, the number of sick students came not from lab-confirmed tests but from "estimates" made by counting "students who went to the Student Health Center with flu symptoms, students who called the H1N1 hotline or the Health Center's doctor-on-call, and students who went to the hospital's emergency room."
Without lab testing, it's impossible to know how many of the students actually had H1N1 flu. But the statistical trend indicates it was likely much fewer than 250.
CDC continues to monitor flu in general and H1N1 through "sentinels," which basically act as spot-checks to detect trends around the nation. But at least one state, California, has found value in tracking H1N1 flu in greater detail.
"What we are doing is much more detailed and expensive than what CDC wants," said Dr. Bela Matyas, California's Acting Chief of Emergency Preparedness and Response. "We're gathering data better to answer how severe is the illness. With CDC's fallback position, there are so many uncertainties with who's being counted, it's hard to know how much we're seeing is due to H1N1 flu rather than a mix of influenza diseases generally. We can tell that apart but they can't."
After our conversation with Dr. Matyas, public affairs officials with the California Department of Public Health emphasized to CBS News that they support CDC policy to stop counting individual cases, maintaining that the state has the resources to gather more specific testing data than the CDC.
Because of the uncertainties, the CDC advises even those who were told they had H1N1 to get vaccinated unless they had lab confirmation. "Persons who are uncertain about how they were diagnosed should get the 2009 H1N1 vaccine."
That's unwelcome news for a Marietta, Georgia mom whose two children were diagnosed with "probable" H1N1 flu over the summer. She hoped that would mean they wouldn't need the hastily developed H1N1 flu vaccine. However, since their cases were never confirmed with lab tests, the CDC advises they get the vaccine. "I wish they had tested and that I knew for sure whether they had it. I'm not anxious to give them an experimental vaccine if they don't need it."
Speaking to CBS' "60 Minutes," CDC Director Dr. Frieden said he has confidence that the vaccine will be safe and effective: "We're confident it will be effective we have every reason to believe that it will be safe."
However, the CDC recommendation for those who had "probable" or "presumed" H1N1 flu to go ahead and get vaccinated anyway means the relatively small proportion of those who actually did have H1N1 flu will be getting the vaccine unnecessarily. This exposes them to rare but significant side effects, such as paralysis from Guillain-Barre syndrome.
It also uses up vaccine, which is said to be in short supply. The CDC was hoping to have shipped 40 million doses by the end of October, but only about 30 million doses will be available this month.
The CDC did not respond to questions from CBS News for this report.
From the Director; I believe our President has designated the Swine Flu epidemic to be a national emergency and as directed by the Patriot Act now directs our nation's health care delivery system
More information can be found on www.google.com,
search Health Care and the Patriot Act
|
THE PATRIOT ACT CALLS FOR PRESIDENTIAL CONTROL IN THE EVENT OF A DESIGNATED NATIONAL EMERGENCY
|
|
| | | |
|
WHO RESPONDS TO CRITICS OF SWINE FLU PANDEMIC
WHO slams swine flu critics as 'irresponsible'
WHO says critics who claim swine flu is fake pandemic are 'irresponsible'
By Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer , On Monday January 25, 2010, 8:23 am
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization on Monday slammed as "irresponsible" critics who claim swine flu is a fake pandemic created for the benefit of drug companies.
The U.N. health agency said the outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 influenza in North America last year had all the scientific characteristics of a pandemic, adding the WHO was never improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry that has benefited from huge government orders for vaccines and anti-viral drugs.
"The world is going through a real pandemic. The description of it as a fake is wrong and irresponsible," the WHO said in a strongly worded statement Monday.
A WHO spokesman declined to spell out who the World Health Organization was responding to in its statement, saying only that "this applies to anyone who believes it is not a real pandemic."
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog based in Strasbourg, France, recently recommended that the EU investigate WHO's swine flu pandemic declaration to see if the health agency acted under undue influence. WHO officials are due to meet Tuesday with the Council of Europe, which is not an official European Union body and has no power to act against WHO.
According to a WHO tally dated Jan. 17, more than 209 countries and territories have reported laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu, including at least 14,142 deaths. This is far fewer than would be expected to die each year from seasonal flu, but the figure is likely to exclude many unreported cases, according to WHO.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the relatively low number of confirmed deaths from swine flu didn't mean the virus wasn't a pandemic.
"A pandemic has nothing to do with severity or number of deaths," he told The Associated Press. "A pandemic literally is a global spread of a disease."
He said WHO was "always very measured and sober in what we said and we always described the virus as causing overwhelmingly mild disease. "We cannot control how people react to this information," he added.
In its statement, WHO said it had put in place numerous safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest among its advisers, including requiring them to provide a signed declaration detailing any professional or financial interest that could affect their impartiality.
"WHO takes allegations of conflict of interest seriously and is confident of its decision-making independence regarding the pandemic influenza," it said.
|
ONLY FAIR TO PRESENT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION
|
|
| | | |
|
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE REVIEW OF CALIFORNIA'S HMOs
State: HMOs improve, work still needed
BY BOBBY CAINA CALVAN bcalvan@sacbee.com ,2/10/2010
Most of the state's largest HMOs posted improvements in customer satisfaction, but California's latest Health Care Quality Report Card shows others still fall short on some measures.
The annual report released Tuesday by the state-run Office of the Patient Advocate evaluates California's nine largest health maintenance organizations, which serve about 12 million enrollees, and more than 200 medical groups across the state.
Western Health Advantage, which began as a partnership between the University of California, Davis, and Catholic Healthcare West, was among three HMOs garnering the top, four-star ranking in customer satisfaction. PacifiCare of California and Kaiser Permanente's Southern California region were the others. Kaiser's Northern California operations received a three-star rating, as did Health Net, Anthem Blue Cross and Aetna.
The two Kaiser divisions, north and south, were the only HMOs to receive four stars in meeting national standard of care standards. The Woodland Healthcare medical group and several Northern California groups under the banner of Kaiser Permanents and Sutter Health received top ranking.
Detailed ratings can be found online at www.opa.ca.gov. The Web site allows users to compare health plans based on survey data. It does not, however, provide information on cost.
"For the 18 million Californians who rely on HMOs for their health care, knowing how their health plan rates on various indicators will help them make better health care decisions," said Sandra Perez, director of the Office of the Patient Advocate.
Ratings were compiled from clinical quality measures, based on criteria from a national accreditation agency. Some key areas that need work, according to the report:
- Nearly half of privately insured children wrongly receive antibiotics for conditions that the drugs are ineffective in treating, such as sore throats.
- Only about 60 percent of those needing continuous mental health service receive follow-up care.
- Screenings for chlamydia, most commonly spread through sexual contact, is being performed more frequently, but the screening rate is still below 50 percent.
Call The Bee's Bobby Caina Cal-van, (916) 321-1067
|
ANNUAL REVIEWS ARE A WISE AND NECESSARY FUNCTION TO MAINTAIN THE QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY
|
|
| | | |
|
NURSE ACCUSATION AGAINST DOCTOR ON TRIAL
Is There Accountability for Malice?Today a jury in West Texas is hearing evidence that a nurse, acting...
|
"IT IS THE FIRST CASE IN MEMORY TO ENFORCE THE LAW AGAINST THE THE MISUSE OF THE COMPLAINT PROCESS"
|
|
| | | |
|
DOCTORS SAYING "STOP THIS MERRY GO ROUND?"
From AAPS News letter 2/9/2010
Doctors Tell Congress: Just Stop It
The 2,000-page "Obamacare"...
|
WE NEED UNITY TO SAVE OUR PROFESSION
|
|
| | | |
|
PRESIDENT OBAMA TO HAVE OPEN MEETING WITH GOP ON HEALTH BILL
AP – President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting in Washington,
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 8, 6:30 pm ET
WASHINGTON – "Could this turn into something more than political theater? President Barack Obama's televised dialogue with Republican lawmakers on health care, promised for later this month, has the makings of an entertaining exchange. But the differences between the basic Democratic and GOP ideas are stark — and the two sides have increasingly hardened their positions in this election year.
Yet, in a story with more twists than a soap opera, Obama's invitation to congressional leaders of both parties to attend a Feb. 25 meeting can't be dismissed as a mere diversion. Although many Americans have doubts about the Democrats' sweeping plans to cover the uninsured, Republicans can't afford to be perceived as oblivious to the health care insecurities of middle-class families.
"My expectations? Probably below 50 percent, but not zero," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., a moderate who serves as president of the Democratic freshman class. "At some point, the public is going to demand that Republicans participate like mature adults, and not just say 'no' to everything."
It's the Democrats' big-government approach — not Republicans — that's the problem, insisted Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., author of the House GOP bill. "The president has got to show that he has heard what the American people are saying. He's got to make clear we are not going to start off with the current bill...."
|
WISDOM AND EXPERIENCE NEEDED TO FIX A HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM NEAR ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD
|
|
| | | |
|
INCREMENTAL CHANGE IN GOP PLAN FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
Frrom Sacramento Bee 2/9/2010
GOP to tout tax incentives in health debate
PARTY'S IDEAS NOT LIKELY TO EXPAND COVERAGE MUCH
BY ROBERT PEAR AND DAVID M. HERSZENHORN New York Times
WASHINGTON -When Republicans take President Barack Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care. To do this they emphasize tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net
It is not clear that Republicans and the White House are willing to negotiate seriously with each other, and Obama has rejected Republican demands that he start from scratch in developing health care legislation. But congressional Republicans have laid out principles and alternatives that provide a road map to what a Republican health care bill would look like if they had the power to decide the outcome.
The different approaches will be on display Feb. 25, when lawmakers from both parties are scheduled to go to Blair House, across the street from the White House, fora televised clash of health policy ideas.
The Republicans rely more on the market and lesson government. They would not require employers to provide insurance. They oppose the Democrats' call fora big expansion of Medicaid, which Republicans say would burden states with huge long-term liabilities.
While the Congressional Budget Office has not analyzed all the Republican proposals, it is clear that they would not provide coverage to anything like the number of people - more than 30 million - who would gain insurance under the Democrats' proposals.
But Republicans say they can make incremental progress without the economic costs they contend the Democratic plans pose to the nation. As one way to encourage competition and drive down costs, Republicans want to make it easier for insurance companies to sell their policies across state lines, an idea included, in a limited form, in the Democratic bills.
Republicans would offer federal money as a reward to states that achieve specified reductions in premiums or in the number of people without insurance.
Republicans would provide federal money to states to establish and expand high-risk pools, for people with chronic illnesses who cannot find private insurance at an affordable price. But they would not cap premiums, so some people could still find insurance too expensive.
Republicans also contend that changes in state medical malpractice laws could lower costs and slow the growth of premiums.
In contrast to the bills passed by the House and the Senate, which would remake the health care system, Republican leaders favor a more modest approach.
Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said he and his colleagues were skeptical of "grand legislative policy schemes" and favored "a step-by-step approach" focused on lowering health costs for families and businesses.
Republicans want to expand the use of health savings accounts to cover routine expenses for people who enroll in high-deductible health plans. Democrats denounce such accounts as a tax shelter for higher-income people.
Many Republicans want to expand the role of private insurance companies in Medicare. Insurers already manage Medicare's prescription drug benefit, and Republicans see that as a model.
Republicans agree on the need to slow the explosive growth of Medicare, but say the savings should be used to shore up Medicare, not to help finance a new entitlement program.
Democrats said the Republican proposals would do little to solve the crisis in health care. Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said, "If the Republicans' health care plan was a plan fora fire department, they would rush into a burning building, and they would rush out and leave everybody behind."
|
ONE BILL NOT APPROPRIATE/ABLE TO FIX THE FINEST SYSTEM THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN
|
|
| | | |
|
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR LOWERS QUALITY OF MEDICAL CARE FOR SENIORS
1. CMA Files Lawsuit Against Governor for Condoning Violations of State Scope of Practice...
|
I DISAGREE WITH THE GOVERNORS DIRECTIVE BASED ON 50 YEARS OF SURGICAL EXPERIENCE
|
|
| | | |
|
PRESIDENT ADMITS HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL TO BE POSTPONED
Obama admits health care overhaul may die on Hill
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer – Fri Feb 5, 6:20 pm ET
WASHINGTON – "No, maybe he can't. President Barack Obama, who insisted he would succeed where other presidents had failed to fix the nation's health care system, now concedes the effort may die in Congress.
The president's newly conflicting signals could frustrate Democratic lawmakers who are hungry for guidance from the White House as they try to salvage the effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and hold down spiraling medical costs. Obama's comments Thursday night came hours after Republican Scott Brown was sworn in to replace the late Edward M. Kennedy, leaving Democrats without their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and Obama's signature health legislation with no clear path forward.
"I think it's very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let's go ahead and make a decision," Obama said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.
"And it may be that ... if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," the president said. "And that's how democracy works. "There will be elections coming up, and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns...."
|
"There will be elections coming up, and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns..
|
|
| | | |
|
SENATE COMMITTEE EXPRESSES FRUSTRATION OVER PRESIDENT'S REQUEST re:HEALTH CARE BILL
Al Franken lays into David Axelrod over health care bill
Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration’s...
|
SEN FRANKEN D.MINN, WANTS HELP FROM WHITE HOUSE
|
|
| | | |
|
LOWER COST FOR CONSUMER CONTROLLED HEALTH CARE ARE NOW CONFIRMED
From Greg Scandlen Newsletter #210 [2/3/2010]
www.gmscan@comcast.net
|
CIGNA CDHP Results
Cigna has released the latest of its reports on the experience of its Consumer Driven health plans. It issued a press release saying, "As overall medical costs continue to increase by double digits annually, medical costs for individuals in account-based consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) went down 26% over four years." And it adds that this happened, "while levels of care for their preventive medicine, chronic disease management and evidence-based treatments were higher than their counterparts in traditional PPO and HMO health plans."
More specifically the study of 655,000 Cigna enrollees found:
- Immediate and sustainable cost savings: CDHP medical costs are 14% less than traditional plans the first year, cumulative cost savings rise to 19% in the second year, 23% in the third year and 26% in the fourth year.
- Higher levels of care: People with CIGNA Choice Fund received recommended care at compliance rates that were similar or better than those covered by traditional CIGNA health plans. Key indicators such as use of preventive care, evidence-based care and disease management program participation were measurably better among those in CIGNA CDHPs than those in PPOs and HMOs.
- Less cost for those with chronic conditions: Medical cost trend was substantially less for CIGNA Choice Fund customers with hypertension (27% less), joint disease (21% less), and diabetes (15% less), than for individuals with either of those diseases in traditional CIGNA health plans. According to the study data, these cost savings were achieved without sacrificing care.
The press release quotes Chris Policinski, President and CEO of Land O'Lakes, Inc., as saying, "Offering consumer driven health plans to Land O'Lakes employees is helping to keep health care costs in check, while maintaining or improving care quality. For Land O'Lakes, this approach supports our commitment to employees, while at the same time ensuring that we remain highly cost efficient." Eight out of ten workers at Land O'Lakes are choosing the CDH plan over traditional managed care plans.
SOURCE:
|
|
THE "IDEA" THAT INDIVIDUALS CAN'T TAKE BETTER CARE OF THEMSELVES "CHEAPER" MUST END
|
|
| | | |
|
AND PRIVATE SERVICES WITH PUBLIC SUPPORT GETS RESULTS
Public, Private Investments In Community Health Centers Have Paid Off For Patients New study...
|
THESE COOPERATIVE EFFORTS IMPROVE HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR AND UNINSURED
|
|
| | | |
|
WHEN WILL WE GET A RECOUNT OF THE MEDICALLY UNINSURED?
From www.amednews.com [American Medical News]
Florida's health plan for the uninsured has few takers
A lack of public knowledge about Cover Florida and the plans' limited coverage have hampered the private insurance program, underwriters said.
By Doug Trapp, amednews staff. Posted Feb. 1, 2010.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist didn't establish a specific enrollment goal for Cover Florida, the state's unsubsidized private insurance program for the uninsured, when he announced the start of enrollment in January 2009. But in a state with approximately 3.8 million uninsured adults, the fact that only 5,246 people signed up for one of the 27 plans in the program's first 11 months appears to have defied all expectations.
Crist and others championed Cover Florida in 2008 as a low-cost private insurance program to fill a gap in the insurance market. The plans are designed for Florida adults who don't qualify for public programs and who have been uninsured for at least six months. Adults become eligible more quickly if they lose coverage because of a divorce, job loss or spouse's death. The plans also are portable.
"When we passed it, everybody was high-fiving themselves," said Rep. Ed Homan, MD, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of South Florida College of Medicine.
But Cover Florida plans' sign-up rate has been severely hindered by a lack of public awareness, limited benefits and the plans' small sales commissions compared with other plans, insurance underwriters said.
Cover Florida plans cost as little as $50 a month, but their coverage is less comprehensive than many individual market plans that cost just a little more, said Steve Israel, spokesman for the Florida Assn. of Health Underwriters. "I've sold about half a dozen of them. And I sell them only as 'better than nothing.' "
82% of Cover Florida subscribers picked plans with catastrophic coverage.
Cover Florida premiums also vary by age, gender and home address.
Six health insurance companies offer Cover Florida plans, including two firms offering statewide plans. The authorizing legislation instructed participating insurers to offer at least two types of plans: one with catastrophic and emergency department coverage, and one without. The latter, "preventive" plan generally has less costly premiums than the catastrophic plans. But 82% of subscribers picked catastrophic plans.
Cover Florida offers several coverage options, but the main difference with other plans is that people with preexisting conditions are eligible for Cover Florida, said Dale Maloney, co-chair of the Florida Assn. of Health Underwriters' legislative committee.
Plan subscribers, however, must wait 12 months before their preexisting conditions are covered. Also, insurers balance the risk of covering such conditions by setting benefit limits as low as $25,000 each year and $50,000 in a lifetime for catastrophic plans, for example.
A year is a long time to wait, said Erin Moaratty, chief special projects officer at Patient Advocate Foundation, which counsels people with chronic conditions on their health coverage options. "Most people who reach out to our foundation, they're looking for something that's going to cover them almost immediately."
Also, commissions for selling Cover Florida plans don't compare with those offered by standard private plans, Dr. Homan said. Israel said Cover Florida might offer underwriters a single $25 fee for each sale, compared with the standard rate of 20% of premiums for the first year.
3.8 million Floridians are uninsured.
More important, Israel said, the Cover Florida legislation did not include any funding for an advertising or public awareness campaign. Israel said this is one of the main reasons enrollment has been low.
Some stakeholders had little to say about Cover Florida and its enrollment. The Florida Medical Assn. has no comment, according to FMA spokeswoman Erin VanSickle.
United HealthGroup -- one of the two companies offering statewide Cover Florida plans -- does not know why plan enrollment has been low, said spokesman Roger Rollman.
From the Director: many bulletins on this subject have been reported by HCREI. Search Medically uninsured on this website for more information
|
WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE OF 45 MILLION MEDICALLY UNINSURED?
|
|
| | | |
|
HEALTH CARE WORKERS STRIKE INCREASES COST FOR HOSPITAL CARE
From Sacramento Bee 11/20/2009
Roseville hospital pact awaits union vote
BY MARK GLOVER
Sutter...
|
SOME HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATORS SAY 60% OF COSTS GOES TO HEALTH CARE WORKERS
|
|
| | | |
|
FLIGHTS OUT OF HAITI WITH THE SICK AND INJURED TO BE RESUMED
Florida gov: Flights continue out of Haiti
AP – Patients rest...
|
HEALTH CARE IN EARTHQUAKE AREA LIMITED
|
|
| | | |
|
VIOLENCE IN HAITI PROLONGS STARVATION
2 weeks after Haiti quake, food aid falls short
if(!YAHOO){var YAHOO = {};}
...
|
HAITIANS DEPRIVING THEIR OWN
|
|
| | | |
|
Donations Requested
If you like what we're doing:
HCREI is asking for website visitor donations to cover our on going expenses. We have no sponsors or income other than your donations.
Send checks or money order [sorry,no credit cards] to HCREI, 1995 MaryRose Lane, Lincoln, Ca. 95648.
Donations are Federal and State tax deductible.
Tax ID: EIN 94-3400899
|
Donations are tax deductible
|
|
| | | |
|
52 MILLION ABORTIONS REPORTED OVER 37 YEARS
|
WE DON'T/CAN'T KNOW HOW MANY MORE WERE PERFORMED MEDICALLY AND PRIVATELY
|
|
| | | |
|
SOME MEMBERS OF CONGRESS NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THE PRESIDENT'S AGENDA
From Sacramento Bee 1/27/2010
Democratic anger goes public in prime time
AP foreign, Thursday January...
|
SOME MEMBERS CONGRESS REALIZE THAT HEALTH CARE REFORM IS A PROCESS NOT A SPECTACULAR POLITICAL EVENT
|
|
| | | |
|
NOW-LET'S TRY TO FIX OUR PRESENT SYSTEM RATHER REPLACE IT WITH A LOSER
The Sacramento Bee I Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Democratic leaders
now in no hurry
on...
|
WOULD YOU GET RID OF A FINE AUTOMOBILE BECAUSE IT HAS A FLAT TIRE?
|
|
| | | |
|
SOME DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS MEMBERS ARE DESPERATE TO GET A HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL PASSED
Democrats place new roadblock to health care bill
AP – House...
|
GOOD HEALTH CARE REFORM SHOULD BE AN INTELLEGENT PROCESS NOT A SPECTACULAR POLITICAL EVENT
|
|
| | | |
|
POLLS SHOW MAJORITY OF CITIZENS WORRIED/CONCERNED ABOUT FAST CHANGES TO THEIR HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM
Poll shows growing fears on health care overhaul
if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new...
|
HUMAN ABUSE OF AND LIFE STYLE ARE THE WEAKEST LINKS IN ANY SYSTEM OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY
|
|
| | | |
|
WHY SHOULD WE FIX WHAT WE HAVE?
|
FROM THE DIRECTOR
TURNING BACK TO FIND THE FUTURE |
|
A majority of the American people are outraged by the "immoral conduct" in the corporate world, the "excessive" profits in the Pharmaceutical Industry and the "rising costs" and salaries reported by "privately operated" Managed Health Care Plans--as they watch their retirement plans "vanish"; find it "impossible" to afford life-preserving medicines and are expected to settle for a "diminishing quality "and quantity of the health care "provided" when they are in need.
Truth is, they supported the growth of a "private enterprise" managed health care system. The promise of "better health care at a lower cost" failed to materialize. In short, the new system put into place failed to deliver, They know they must look for an alternative.
With polls showing a majority [70%?] of Americans favor a Single Payer Health Care System [such as exists in Canada?] the federal government could take control of health care delivery with the formation of a new bureaucracy or with the current system in place but financed and controlled by government regulation..
In the event that a National Health Service is their choice, State Governments could function in an essential but subsidiary role. Quality Control issues would then be returned to Physicians now that it is apparent that cost control can only be achieved by a reduction in the utilization of services, the quality of the Providers who deliver that service and of the materials made available to them. In other words through "Rationing of goods and services".
A national health service might choose to function by expanding the existing Medicare structure to cover all age groups while using the State Agencies in place or the facilities of the private health Insurance Industry as it currently exists. Delivery of care, at the community level, would be under the direction of regional and local committees composed of consumers and provider who would be guided by federal regulation and a limited budget.
Comments that suggest "the Government doesn’t want it" should be dismissed. Federal Bureau records expressing the belief that Government control is needed to solve the nation’s health care delivery problems have been heard since 1972. [ref: Forward Plan Of Health, FY 1978-82, US Department of HEW, page 1, publ. August 1976
Providers [Doctors, Hospital Workers and other health care professionals] who would have resisted a takeover, then, are more likely to welcome it, now, as they become increasingly concerned with their financial survival rather than the provision of quality patient care.
This new health care system would try to avoid the errors committed by existing national systems, but if history is to be our guide, it's not likely that we would fare any better. The reality is that blood is red no matter where it’s spilled and pain is the same no matter when you get it or how you say it. All sick people are the same and so too is the help they require.
After visiting several nations to study their health care delivery systems, those in existence are very much alike as are the problems they encounter/create. The outstanding similarity in all is promptly delivered, non-emergency care of good quality is available, only, outside of the system, in private offices or hospitals, for cash or supplemental private health insurance. Formerly,this service was readily avaiable in all but one nation I visited, Canada. However, in 2006. a Canadian Provincial Supreme Court Ruling mandates that Canadian Citizens be allowed to purchase private health insurance, in addition to taxes, if they wish.
Wherever private health insurance is available the result is the creation of the "two tier system of health care that was expected to become unnecessary. One for the poor who cannot afford anything else and another for those who will pay additional money [beyond taxes] for better care. Should we expect it to be any different here in America?
"Corporate Care", now dominating our health care scene is proving to be unacceptable because of its primary concern with profit on the provider side competing with the demand for prompt and total care on the consumer side. In America, delivering health care with profit in mind or withholding needed services for budgetary reasons is unpalatable when dealing with sickness and dying ---even more so today when so many American feel that immediate access to high quality health care is their right.
Health care costs would continue to increase during a transition to any new system as patient enrollment increases and more sophisticated methods of diagnosis and treatments are discovered. In addition, under a National Health Service more administrative levels become necessary, some nations have nine, and each requires a budget that can be expected to increase every year. As a result, less money becomes available for patient care, waiting lines begin to form. This, the most visible form of rationing, is accompanied by other less visible forms of rationing currently in use by the, only twenty years old, "Corporate Care" model. Examples are longer waiting periods for necessary care by requiring pre-authorization or possible denial of necessary medicines and surgery, shorter hospital stays and, in the not too distant future, the likely denial of services because of unhealthy life styles, obesity, smoking and substance abuse].
Points for discussion
Traditionally, a "fee for service" system flourishes in a democratic society that is economically sound. Today, as both individual and corporate economic security decline demand for less costly health care intensifies without any less intensity in the belief that access to total health care is a right that should be guaranteed to all regardless of ability to pay. It is precisely this concept, "equal care for all regardless of ability to pay" that is causing many hospitals to close their doors, for lack of funds. It's effecting physicians as well. Many have been forced to look for salaried positions rather than continue in, or open an office for, the private practice of medicine.
A return to the era of the private practice of medicine, as I knew it, is unlikely in the near future, if at all, in light of the massive changes in Hospital and Medical Clinic design; reimbursement schedules that discourage solo private practice and the greater understanding of the cause and treatments of many diseases. Today, diagnosric procedures are better, yet more expensive to provide and treatment of disease more promising, yet more expensive to obtain. With this knowledge in mind, no matter what health care delivery system we choose slogans that suggest "Something for nothing" or "It will be better and cheaper" should be ignored.
I believe that American citizens cannot swallow the idea of RATIONING or PROFIT when it comes to health care. To support my position I read in this morning’s paper that a major hospital chain has agreed to treat two children with a rare immune disease. The only known treatment is experimental, will cost 600,000 dollars and will not cure the disease. The treatment carries a 30+ % mortality rate. In the same issue, an editorial writer argues that Medicaid [welfare] patients should have access to name brand medicines despite the increased cost. News obtained on the Internet reported a 13 percent increase in premiums, for employer-provided health care insurance, which will force some employers to discontinue providing that insurance unless they can demand that their employees pay more, such as a higher co-pay, when they use the insurance .
Traditionally, extra money made by hospitals, was used to guarantee their ability to make available to all of their occupants, "regardless of ability to pay", the very best care, when needed. Doctors were allowed to charge a generous fee for their effort to deliver "up to date and high quality care" to all of their patients, regardless of race, creed or religion, at any time of day or night when it was needed. In recent years, however, the Doctors and the Hospitals are portrayed as outrageously profit oriented.
The public demanded that changes be made and they are taking place. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, changes in such significant social services, as a nation's health care delivery system, are slow in their development. Our traditional system had been functioning, as such, for near one century. It cannot be changed overnight. Researchers who study such social phenomena tell us that three decades of trial and error are needed to place a new system. They describe an 80+ year cycles to find, use and then discard a total system. Interestingly, the USA and Great Britain are at a similar place but on different sides of a cycle [circle]. They, from my observation, are moving away from a National Health Service as we appear to be moving toward one.]
My Conclusions:
1. As the years pass, the public's demand for quality health care for all, regardless of one's ability to pay, diminishes as the rising cost coupled with an oppressive tax structure weakens their concern for the needs of the poor.
2. National health care systems employ a large number of citizens, estimated to be more than 5 million people in Great Britain. Though this may appear attractive, at first glance, it can later become the obstacle that makes the system impossible to change or remove when proven unsatisfactory [where else would you employ all those people?].
3. As the tax burden enlarges should the efficiency of the system decline, the private fee for service, practice of medicine returns [that's paying twice for the same thing]. For example, despite a U.S. Postal Service, UPS, Federal Express and other delivery services have become profitable..
4. Great societies reinvent the wheel when enough time passes for us to forget what a wheel looked like. For example: new "Corporate" health Planners are hiring Doctors and Hospitals to cover subscribers despite the fact that Blue Cross/Blue Shield and others were performing that function. Why didn't we fix what was in place, then, by demanding a reduction in premiums with a guarantee of coverage for everyone.
5. We are/were not spending more for health care than other major nations. They spend it differently and some had fewer Seniors, for many years, as a result of lives lost during WWII. Germany, Japan and Great Britain report that health care costs are rising rapidly.
6. I see an irony in the fact that many Americans act as if the Medical Profession invented the concept of greater personal satisfaction and financial reward for hard work and intellectual achievement. These rules of achievement have always been, and will never cease to be amongst the basic foundation stones of a free society operating in a free enterprise system. If such a nation chooses to abandon such principles it will be only a short period of time before they reappear.
Finally, the American public did enjoy the benefits of the greatest health care system that man has ever devised. Too many, however, have lost sight of that fact and are demanding that changes be made, and quickly. This is occurring despite the realization, by many health care professionals,that inordinate demands will soon be placed upon any new system we choose. Many of our younger citizens seem bent on their own destruction through poor nutritional habits, cigarettes, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and failure to protect themselves from deadly sexually transmitted diseases.
Ignoring these developments our nation continues to be more concerned with reducing the cost of health care and getting rid of incompetent, greedy and dishonest Doctors. Pity if it doesn't turn out that way. For if we don't do it right, we will pay more, get less, and bad Doctors like bad people, won't go away either.
I believe "He who fails to learn from history is doomed to repeat it".
Why, then, do so many of us who hear those words act as if "they must be meant for someone else.?"
From :Chapter 10, "Health Care Reform--Facts and Fiction"
by: Vincent W. Cangello, M.D.,FACS,FACOG,FRSM, [Publ.1998]
Former Clinical Professor of Health and Medical Sciences,
University of California, Berkeley .
In Private Medical Practice 1959-2003,
.
|
|
IT'S THE BEST IN THE WORLD---LET'S HANG ON TO IT FOR DEAR LIFE
|
|
| | | |
|
WE MAY NEED TO START OVER TO REFORM HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA
From Sacramento Bee 1/22/2010
House won't pass Senate's health bill, Pelosi says
BY DAVID LIGHTMAN...
|
WE MUST DO IT RIGHT OR WE WILL BE PAYING MORE FOR LESS
|
|
| | | |
|
HOUSE SPEAKER PELOSI EXPRESSES HER FEELINGS ON THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
Pelosi Says House Lacks Votes for Senate Health Plan (Update3)
By James Rowley and Edwin Chen
Jan....
|
A BILL PASSED NOW COULD BE EXPANDED LATER?
|
|
| | | |
|
TRUE FACTS ABOUT HEALTH CARE IN ENGLAND [UK] AND CANADA
By CAI. THOMAS, Sacramento Bee [7-10-2009]
Look hard at Britain, Canada before rushing health change
Most of us are familiar with the old expressions: Look before you leap; a stitch in time saves nine; if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. These phrases remind us to think before accepting anything as fact. And never have they been more applicable than now, as the Obama administration attempts to re-fashion the healing arts.
Before buying a car, a shopper might be expected to ask people who own the same brand how they like theirs, or at least consult Consumer Reports. Before we buy the biggest transformation of health care in history and its consequences, shouldn't we first look at countries where government makes most health care decisions to see how things are working for them?
Britain's National Health Service was created in 1948. As with America's Medicare, British politicians said the cost would never exceed their projections. But within the first year, according to "The Problems With Socialized Health Care" (www.liberty-page.com)
issues/healthcare/socialized. html), NHS operating costs "were 52 million pounds higherthan original estimates, as Britons saturated the so-called free system."
Canada established a single-payer system in 1984. To ensure a government monopoly, "Canadian provinces outlawed private health insurance." Last month, the Canadian Supreme Court struck down that law, but the damage will take a long time to repair.
British and Canadian newspaper headlines over several years fore-tell what Americans might face should the Obama administration and a Democratic Congress prevail with their version of socialized medicine. And make no mistake, it may not start out that way, but with government undercutting private insurance, it will end up putting much, if not most, of the private sector out of business, leaving government as the dominant player - perhaps the only player - deciding who receives care and who does not based on an arbitrary value assigned to each life.
Here is what Britons face: "Kidney Cancer Patients Denied Lifesaving Drugs by NHS Rationing Body NICE" (Daily Mail, April 29), "Girl, 3, Has Heart Operation Cancelled Three Times Because of Bed Shortage" (Times online, April 23), "Our Cancer Shame: Survival Rates Still Lag Behind EU Despite Spending Billions" (Daily Mail, March 20), "1,000 Villagers Wait for a Dentist After Just One NHS Practice Opens" (Daily Mail, March 10). This may explain the headline "Number of Children Going to Hospital To Have Teeth Pulled Soars by 66 Percent Since 1997" (Daily Mail, April 12).
In Canada, which has far less access to advanced medical technology than the United States, waiting for treatment is also a common occurrence, as reflected in these headlines: "Surgery Postponed Indefinitely for 1,000 Kelowna Patients" (Globe and Mail, April 8, 2008), "Majority of Quebec Dentists Quit Health-Care System" , March 27, 2008), "Why Ontario Keeps Sending Patients South," (Globe and Mail, Feb. 22, 2008) and "Will Socialized Medicine in the U.S. Kill Canadians?" (Acton Institute, March 3, 2008).
What the United States faces is what Canadians and Britons already experience. To quote another headline, it is a case of "Dogma Trumps Truth in Health-Care Issues" (Ontario Business News, July 7, 2005).
The Obama administration is promoting dogma at the expense of truth. If the government effectively runs health care in this country, there will be no turning back, at least not fora generation or more. Why should government be trusted to put our houses in order when it can't put its own house in order? Look at the debt being rolled up by the federal and state governments. California is issuing IOUs. Other states are facing similar financial challenges. Do we want government telling us what type and quality of health care we can have? Should government decide whether your grandmother ought to die because her recommended treatment is "too expensive"? Will tolerance for euthanasia follow the acceptance of abortion after another category of humanity is deemed unfit, unwanted and too expensive to maintain?
We'd better think seriously about this before a health care bill is rushed through Congress. Its members will never have to use the new system, but the rest of us will.
|
WE MUST NOT IGNORE THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED HEALTH CARE
|
|
| | | |
|
WHY WE SHOULD FIX OUR SYSTEM--NOT REPLACE IT
From Scansdlen News Letter #187 7/24/2009
As much as I admire Louisiana Governor Bobby...
|
OUR VIEW; LET'S FIX IT--THE PROPOSED SOLUTION FAILS EVERY WHERE IT'S TRIED
|
|
| | | |
|
IF THEY GET A FOOT IN THAT DOOR NOW--THEY CAN GET MORE LATER
Toughest test coming up for health care overhaul 9/19/2009
AP – Senate...
|
DIRECTOR: THE INTENT, I BELIEVE, IS THE EVENTUAL GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF OUR NATION'S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
|
|
| | | |
|
CANADA CANCELLING SURGERIES DUE TO SHORTAGE OF FUNDS
Thousands of surgeries may be cut in Metro Vancouver due to government underfunding, leaked paper
By...
|
LEGALIZING SALE OF PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE CAN HELP
|
|
| | | |
|
MEDICAL CARE IS NOT A TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS FOUR BUSINESS
November 12, 2009
Contact:Christopher FlemingSocial Media Manager301-347-3944cfleming@projecthope.org
Health...
|
WHEN DEALING WITH HUMANS TWO PLUS CAN EQUAL 3 OR 4 OR 5
|
|
| | | |
|
CANADIANS CAUTION AMERICA AGAINST THEIR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
From SCANDLEN NEWSLETTR #198
10/16/2009
NEWS From Mackinac
The Mackinac Center has released a series of new videos about the Canadian system. It explains,
As America moves closer to a government-controlled health care system, anxious Canadians want to set the record straight about life under their country's 'universal' system.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy invites friends and allies to come along as it journeys across Canada, documenting harrowing stories from real Canadians of long waits, physician shortages, doctor lotteries, special treatment for insiders and being forced to travel abroad for basic medical care.
They're desperate for a way out. And they want YOU to know about it.
Introduction: "Oh. Canada?" - Meet the Canadians who have a warning for us.
"Medical Tourism" - Hear from Canadians so desperate for treatment they're leaving the country:
"Wait List Insurance" - See what happens when Canadians try to demand better service from their system:
"Canadian Doctor Lotteries" - Find out what Canadians need to do just to get a family physician:
"Breaking the Doctors" - Discover how rationing and shortages impose impossible burdens on Canadian doctors:
"Power Plays" - See how unions, politicians and bureaucrats take away choices from doctors and patients.
For more information: gmscan@comcast.net
|
SINGLE PAYER SYSTEMS GUARANTEE COVERAGE ONLY--NOT HEALTH CARE WHEN NEEDED
|
|
| | | |
|
HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY CAN'T COPE
From The Director:
In my opinion:
Our Nation's Life Style and Expectations are Unrealistic
More than Seven hundred thousand Physicians and the American health care delivery system are held responsible for the care of approximately 300 million Americans including several million illegal aliens, despite many who abuse tobacco products, alcohol and illegal drugs; whose poor nutritional habits can lead to Diabetes, Arteriosclerosis, Asthma and morbid Obesity while reckless driving together with an unwillingness to comply with safe-sexual conduct lead to early death, long term disability, chronic illness and Infertility [unable to have children].
Despite their life-style, many Americans feel that prompt and proper health care is their right and should be provided at little or no cost [including the medicines their illness requires]. Their belief is so firm as to expect to return, in good health, to their previous life-style as quickly as possible and, If disappointed, will demand [and expect] monetary compensation, through legal means, from any one in the system who did not meet their expectations.
While ignoring world history, which teaches that It cannot and will not work that way, their demands and expectations are causing serious damage to their health care system.which is without dispute,and despite its faults, the finest the world has ever witnessed.
Many articles in this section serve to demonstrate examples of that damage. [see new problems below]
FDA investigations lead to the arrest and conviction of Doctors who prescribe too much pain relieving medicines while other Doctors are accused of medical malpractice for prescribing too little.
A 70 year old patient died following a necessary surgical procedure. There was no evidence of Malpractice. The family sued the Doctor for "Battery" for failing to inform the patient of that possibility, The Jury awarded the family $150,000.
Needed Doctors are retiring early or curbing services, such as delivering babies, because of malpractice insurance premiums that can reach as high as two hundred thousand dollars per year.
There will be fewer new Doctors since medical school applicants are declining, as well.
NB: REPORTS INDICATE AN INCREASE IN MEDICAL SCHOOL APPLICATIONS.
BE AWARE, STUDENTS MAY APPLY TO MORE THAN ONE. [I know one who tried 14 ]. AS A RESULT HE WAS COUNTED !4 TIMES. MANY STUDENTS SEND MORE THAN ONE.
Our FDA is being severely criticized for approving drugs that can harm some patients while the majority who use the same drug receive great relief of their illness.
I would remind you that Penicillin and Aspirin have been known to cause deaths. In my many years of practice experience I have not heard of a medicine that didn't hurt someone.
Two plus two doesn't always add up to four in the health care business. Sometimes it's three, four or five depending on your family history, weight, age, blood pressure, Genes, eating and drinking habits and whether or not you use tobacco products etc.
We'll know after we've had a chance to check those things out.
BECAUSE THE ANSWER WON'T BE FOUND IN A BOOK
Vincent W Cangello MD
|
NATION"S LIFE STYLE OUT OF CONTROL
|
|
| | | |
|
NUMBER OF HEALTH CARE UNINSURED FEWER THAN REPORTED
After all the fuss, govt health plan to cover few[From the Director: Longer but well worth reading]AP...
|
HCREI: "INCREASING ACCURACY OF THE NUMBER OF MEDICALLY UNINSURED IS GRATIFYING"
|
|
| | | |
|
IS HEALTH CARE AN INDIVIDUAL'S RIGHT?
THE MERCURY, VOL.2 ISSUE 15, AUGUST 2009
Why Are We Moving Toward Socialized Medicine?@
By Karon Brook
Government intervention in medicine is wrecking American health care. Nearly half of all spending on health care in America is already government spending. Yet President Obama's "reforms" will only expand that intervention.
Prior to the government's entrance into medicine, health care was regarded as a product to be traded voluntarily on a free market--no different from food, clothing, or any other important good or service. Medical providers competed to provide the best quality services at the lowest possible prices. Virtually all Americans could afford basic health care, while those few who could not were able to rely on abundant private charity.
Had this freedom been allowed to endure, Americans' rising productivity would have afforded them better and better health care, just ust as, today, we buy better and more varied food and clothing than people did a century ago. There would be no crisis of affordability, as there isn't for food or clothing.
But by the time Medicare and Medicaid were enacted in 1965, this view of health care as an economic product--for which each individual must assume responsibility--had given way to a view of health care as a "right," an unearned "entitlement," to be provided at others' expense.
This entitlement mentality fueled the rise of our current third party-payer system, a blend of government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, together
with government-controlled employer-based health insurance (itself spawned by perverse tax incentives during the wage and price controls of World War II).
The resulting system aimed to relieve the individual of the "burden" of paying for his own health care by coercively imposing its costs on his neighbors. Today, for every dollar's worth of hospital care a patient consumes, that patient pays only about 3 cents out of pocket; the rest is paid by third-party coverage. And for the health care system as a whole, patients pay only about 14 percent.
Shifting the responsibility for health care costs away from the individuals who accrue them led to an explosion in spending. In a system in which someone else is footing the bill, consumers, encouraged to regard health care as a "right," demand medical services without having to consider their real price. When, through the 1970s and 1980s, this artificially inflated consumer demand sent expenditures soaring out of control, the government cracked down by enacting further coercive measures: price controls on medical services, cuts to medical benefits, and a crushing burden of regulations on every aspect of the health care system.
As each new intervention further distorted the health care market, driving up costs and lowering quality, bell igerent voices demanded still further interventions to preserve the "right" to health care: from regulations mandating various forms of insurance coverage to Bush's massive prescription drug bill.
The solution to this ongoing crisis is to recognize that the very idea of a "right" to health care is a perversion. There can be no such thing as a "right" to products or services created by the effort of others, and this most definitely includes medical products and services. Rights, as the Founders conceived them, are not claims to economic goods, but to freedoms of action.
You are free to see a doctor and pay him for his services--no one may forcibly prevent you from doing so. But you do not have a "right" to force the doctor to treat
you without charge or to force others to pay for your treatment. The rights of some cannot require the coercion and sacrifice of others.
Real and lasting solutions to our health care problems require a rejection of the entitlement mentality in favor of a proper conception of rights. This would provide the moral basis for breaking the regulatory chains stifling the medical industry; for lifting the tax and regulatory incentives fueling our dysfunctional, employer-based insurance system; for inaugurating a gradual phase-out of all government health care programs, especially Medicare and Medicaid; and for restoring a true free market in medical care.
Such sweeping reforms would unleash the power of capitalism in the medical industry. They would provide the freedom for entrepreneurs motivated by profit to compete with each other to offer the best quality medical services at the lowest prices, driving innovation and bringing affordable medical care, once again, into the reach of all Americans.
Karon Brook is the executive director of the Ayn Rand Centerjbr Individual Rights in Washington, D.C. ARC is a division of the Ayn Rand Institute and promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand--author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
|
WE SHOULD FIX THE FINEST HEALTH CARE SYSTEM THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN
|
|
| | | |
|
PURSUING MEDICARE FRAUD FINDS BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN FALSE CLAIMS
Medicare fraud crackdown brings 30 indictments
Physicians are among those charged with bilking millions from Medicare as federal strike teams expand their reach.
By Chris Silva, amednews staff. Posted Dec. 29.
Washington -- The government said it continues to make progress in its war against Medicare fraud, announcing the expansion of anti-fraud strike teams to new metropolitan areas and issuing another round of charges for people accused of filing millions in false claims.
Senior officials from the Depts. of Justice and Health and Human Services announced Dec. 15 that 30 physicians, business owners, executives and others have been charged in three cities for allegedly submitting about $61 million in false Medicare claims.
In conjunction with the indictments, the officials announced the expansion of anti-fraud operations to Brooklyn, N.Y.; Tampa, Fla.; and Baton Rouge, La. Branches already operate in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston and Detroit. These strike teams will allow the government to concentrate on known fraud hotbeds, officials said.
"Medicare is a sacred promise to America's seniors, and we will do everything we can to protect it," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. "The announcement we're making today is a significant step towards securing Medicare for seniors today and generations to come."
In May, HHS and the Justice Dept. announced the creation of a new initiative -- the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, or HEAT -- to help step up its anti-fraud efforts.
The two departments announced on June 24 that they were filing criminal charges against 53 individuals -- including doctors, beneficiaries, business owners and employees -- for allegedly submitting more than $50 million in false Medicare claims in the Detroit area.
"When President Obama took office, he promised a new commitment to cracking down on the criminals who steal billions from Medicare each year through fraudulent claims," Sebelius said.
Since March 2007, anti-fraud teams have obtained indictments of more than 460 individuals and organizations for fraudulently billing Medicare to the tune of more than $1 billion.
|
THIS SUPPORTS THE POSITION: "FIX THE THE ONE WE HAVE RATHER THAN REPLACE IT WITH A LOSER"
|
|
| | | |
|
SHOULD MEMBERS OF CONGRESS RECEIVE THE SAME HEALTH INSURANCE THEY ARE PLANNING FOR US
From John Fleming {R.La.} website http://fleming .house.gov/index.html
@THE LATEST UPDATES:
"On Tuesday 10/20/2009, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment, courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn which would require all Members of Congress and their staff members to enroll in any new government-run health plan.
Congressman John Fleming has proposed an amendment that would require Congressmen and Senators to take the same health care plan that they would require for us. (Under proposed legislation they are exempt.)
Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go to his Website for further information.
http://fleming.house.gov/index.html .
Senator Coburn and Congressman Fleming are both physicians.
who feel that Congress should have exactly the same medical coverage that they impose on the citizens of the USA"
House Resolution 615
"Over the past few weeks, members of Congress and the American people have come to know the details of the Administration's
proposed health care plan. Call it whatever you like, I believe this proposal is nothing more than government-run health care. As a physician, I am amazed at the number of bureaucrats in this House who are quick to claim a government-run health care plan is the reform this country needs. In response to this, I have offered a resolution that will offer members of Congress an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is, and urge their colleagues who vote for legislation creating a government-run health care plan to lead by example and enroll themselves in the same public plan.
Under the current draft of the Democrat healthcare legislation, members of Congress are curiously exempt from the government-run health care option, keeping their existing health plans and services on Capitol Hill. If Members of Congress believe so strongly that government-run health care is the best solution for hard working American families, I think it only fitting that Americans see them lead the way. Public servants should always be accountable and responsible for what they are advocating.
Together we will work to ensure that any plan that is good enough for American families is good enough for every member of Congress."
|
THE OBAMA HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL DOES NOT INCLUDE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
|
|
| | | |
|
|
|
|
| | | |
|
CONFUSION REIGNS-ARE PUBLIC FEELINGS, CONCERNING THE CURRENT HEALTH CARE REFORM EFFORTS, TO BE IGNORED?
Not only could Democrats lose health care reform if Martha Coakley loses, they could also lose their majority, says Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel.
And that’s why, if Coakley goes down, you can expect a rush to get the bill through.
“I’m telling you, Massachusetts, if it goes wrong, is going to be a big catalyst to push a vote,” said Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel, who is among many in the House frustrated with how long the Senate took.
“They will tell us that it’s now or never, we’ve gotta have a bill, we’ve gotta do this, we’ve gotta do that,” Engel predicted, should Coakley lose as many Democrats now fear. “If we don’t vote on whatever bill we compromise on, then health care reform is killed, the majority is gonna get killed..”
That’s because not only would the Democrats have failed at their top promise, but the whole process would leave a nasty taste in the nation’s mouth.
“I think the worst thing would be to do no bill at all, because what would happen is we would have the negativity of the contentiousness, of the fighting and the distortions, and then not come up with anything,” Engel said. “It would be 1994 all over again, it would look like we just can’t produce.”
Given that, he’s confident his party will get it together, and do what it has to.
“The tell us that it takes 10 days to count the vote in Massachusetts, so I’m sure they’ll be doing a very slow count,” Engel said, only half joking.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2010/01/if-coakley-loses-fast-forward.html#ixzz0d2SZM1ZE
From the Director: Am I correct in my observation that many of our elected representatives, in the National Capitol, appear to be ignoring numerous polls showing that the majority of Americans are not in favor of the current health care reform bill now under discussion?
|
HASN'T WORLD EXPERIENCE TAUGHT US THAT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE REFORM EFFORTS ARE A SLOW/PAINFUL PROCESS, NOT A SPECTACULAR POLITICAL EVENT?
|
|
| | | |
|
POST SURGICAL STAPH INFECTIONS EXACTING A HEAVY COST IN LIFE AND MONEY
MRSA surgical infections exact heavy clinical, financial toll
Preventing the resistant staph infection...
|
INFECTIOUS DISEASE CONTROL--A SERIOUS PROBLEM OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM THAT MUST BE FIXED
|
|
| | | |
|
DEMS FEAR FOR HEALTH CARE BILL
Dems look at bypassing Senate health care vote
 Email this Story
Jan 17, 11:30 PM (ET)
By CHARLES BABINGTON
BOSTON (AP) - A panicky White House and Democratic allies scrambled Sunday for a plan to salvage their hard-fought health care package in case a Republican wins Tuesday's Senate race in Massachusetts, which would enable the GOP to block further Senate action.
The likeliest scenario would require persuading House Democrats to accept a bill the Senate passed last month, despite their objections to several parts.
Aides consulted Sunday amid fears that Republican Scott Brown will defeat Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election to fill the late Edward M. Kennedy's seat. A Brown win would give the GOP 41 Senate votes, enough to filibuster and block final passage of the House-Senate compromise on health care now being crafted.
House Democrats, especially liberals, viewed those compromises as vital because they view the Senate-passed version as doing too little to help working families. Under the Senate-passed bill, 94 percent of Americans would be covered, compared to 96 percent in the version passed last year by the House.
The House plan would increase taxes on millionaires while the Senate plan would tax so-called Cadillac, high-cost health insurance plans enjoyed by many corporate executives as well as some union members.
When the House passed its version, members assumed it would be reconciled with the Senate bill and then sent back to both chambers for final approval, even if by the narrowest of margins.
A GOP win in Massachusetts on Tuesday would likely kill that plan, because Republicans could block Senate action on the reconciled bill.
The newly discussed fallback would require House Democrats to swallow hard and approve the Senate-passed bill without changes. President Barack Obama could sign it into law without another Senate vote needed.
House leaders would insist that the Senate make some changes later under a complex plan called "budget reconciliation." It requires only a simple majority, but it's unclear whether that could happen.
The plan is highly problematic. House liberals already are bristling over changes the Senate forced upon them earlier, and some may conclude that no bill is better than the Senate bill. Meanwhile, some moderate Democrats may abandon the health bill altogether after seeing a Republican win Kennedy's seat in strongly Democratic Massachusetts.
Republican activists openly scoffed at the notion of Democrats passing the highly contentious health package after a GOP takeover of Kennedy's Senate seat. But some Democrats said failure to pass a health bill will cripple their ability to tell voters this November that they accomplished anything with their control of the House, Senate and White House.
"The simplest way is the House route," a White House aide said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because Democrats have not conceded the race to Brown.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to discuss the option, telling reporters that the administration expects Coakley to win.
If she does win, final passage of a House-Senate compromise on overhauling health care is not guaranteed but seems likely.
But even as Obama campaigned for Coakley in Boston Sunday, top aides furiously weighed options if she loses. They include:
_Acting before Brown is sworn in. Congressional and White House negotiators could try to reconcile the House and Senate bills quickly and pass the new version before Brown takes office. A firestorm of criticism would follow, but some Democrats say it would be better than having no bill.
_Seeking a Republican to cast the crucial 60th Senate vote. Some Democrats hope Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, might do this, but others seriously doubt it.
_Start over and pass a new, scaled back health bill using budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority of 51 Senate votes. Several Senate aides said this was unlikely.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly ruled out a House vote on the Senate's version, and privately, officials have raised concerns about asking the rank and file to vote on legislation containing provisions that might prove problematic in the midterm elections.
As an example, the Senate-passed measure exempts self-insured health plans from many of the steps Democrats say are essential to curb insurance industry abuses. By one estimate, as many as 100 million individuals are covered under such plans.
It was unclear how the negotiators at the White House in recent days have resolved that issue.
Additionally, House Democrats in last week's talks pushed for additional subsidies for lower-income individuals and families who would be required to buy insurance under the measure that cleared the Senate. Several Democrats familiar with the talks said Obama had agreed with this point of view, and changes had been made accordingly. | |
|
SENATE RACE IN MASSACHUSETTS CRITICAL TEST FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
|
|
| | | |
|
A RACE TO GET THE HEALTH REFORM BILL TO THe PRESIDENT
For health care, a frantic ride in the final days
AP – White House Press...
|
IS THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE BEING IGNORE?
|
|
| | | |
|
DEMOCRATS CONSIDERING RARELY USED RULE TO GET HEALTH CARE REFORM
Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) --" Even if Democrats lose the special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator Tuesday, Congress may still pass health-care overhaul through a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said.
That procedure requires 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from blocking votes on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities. That supermajority is at risk as the Massachusetts race has tightened.
“Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said.
“Getting health-care reform passed is important,” Van Hollen said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “Reconciliation is an option.”
Should Democrats take that route, the legislation would have to be scaled back because of Senate rules.
He also said he expects Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley to win in Massachusetts.
Van Hollen said Republican predictions that the political climate had changed so much that they can capture the 40 seats needed to regain control of the House was “pure hallucination....”
|
POLLS INDICATING GROWING POPULAR RESISTANCE TO REFORM BILL BEING IGNORED
|
|
| | | |
|
A FIRST FOR THE HCREI WEBSITE--A LAUGHER
From the Director:
A MOMENTARY AND HUMOROUS PAUSE IN THE STRUGGLE TO REFORM AMERICA'S HEALTH CARE
Fw: Laws of Ultimate Reality
|
& Law of Mechanical Repair
After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.
& Law of Gravity
Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
& Law of Probability
The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
& Law of Random Numbers
If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.
& Law of the Alibi
If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire.
& Variation Law
If you change traffic lanes, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).
& Law of the Bath
When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
& Law of Close Encounters
The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
& Law of the Result
When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.
& Law of Biomechanics
The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
& Law of the Theatre
At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last.
& The Starbucks Law
As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
& Murphy's Law of Lockers
If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
& Law of Physical Surfaces
The chances of an open-faced jam sandwich landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug..
& Brown's Law of Physical Appearance
If the shoe fits, it's ugly.
& Wilson 's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy
As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
& Doctors' Law
If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better. Don't make an appointment and you'll stay sick.
& Law of Logical Argument
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
SOURCE: an email I received today 10/18/2009
|
|
HCREI WEBSITE--ELEVEN YEARS OLD--TIME FOR A LAUGH
|
|
| | | |
|
AMERICA'S COLLEGE OF SURGEONS URGE ANNUAL MAMMOGRAMS START AT AGE 40
College supports American Cancer Society screening mammography guidelines
The American College of Surgeons strongly supports the current American Cancer Society's (ACS) screening mammography guidelines that recommend women get a mammogram every year, starting at age 40. The College is supporting the ACS guidelines despite the recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force stating that women should have regular mammograms once every two years beginning at the age of 50. The College believes the ACS guidelines have resulted in an effective approach toward dealing with the possibility of breast cancer and that women should continue to follow them in consultation with their physicians.
The federal panel's position that regular mammography screening in women under the age of 50 may do more harm than good was dismissed by David P Winchester, MD, FACS, Medical Director of the American College of Surgeons Cancer Programs, and chair of the National Accreditation Program of
Breast Centers. Dr. Winchester was particularly concerned about the panel's belief that mammography may cause an increased risk of false-positive results in younger women who have denser breast tissue, observing that "the term unnecessary biopsy' is misleading." "In most cases," he said, "biopsy—done by either surgeons or radiologists—is the reliable way to rule out cancer at any age."
The College notes that the ACS has long recognized mammography as the gold standard for early detection of breast cancer, and encourages women to take an active role in partnering with their physicians to determine at what age, and at what interval, they should undergo screening mammography. The College agrees with the ACS that factors such as a woman's family history of the disease, and her overall medical condition, are some of the issues that should be addressed, particularly for women who are known to be at an increased risk for developing the disease.
"Many surgeons in this country have the tremendous responsibility and privilege of caring for breast cancer patients each day. While recognizing that mammography is not perfect and supporting continuing research for improved methods, the surgical community believes that the American Cancer Society's screening mammography guidelines offer an optimal approach to detecting breast cancer early, when it can be most successfully treated," LaMar S. McGinnis, Jr., MD, FACS, President of the American College of Surgeons and former president of the American Cancer Society, said. "Mammography is a good and safe tool, which we will continue to improve. In the meantime," he added, "let's save lives as best we can. The lives of women, mothers, and grandmothers are invaluable. Our progress has been significant, and it will continue. Let us not confuse our patients and the public with mixed messages."JANUARY 2010 BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEON
From the Director: Doctors could also consider earlier, than age 40, for patients with a history of Voluntary Abortion during their 'teen years'?
|
REFORM PLAN TO RATION THE PAP SMEAR AND MAMMOGRAMS ILL ADVISED
|
|
| | | |
|
ABORTION BREAST CANCER LINK NOW ACCEPTED IN THE USA
National Cancer Institute Researcher Admits Abortion-Breast Cancer Link True
 Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The National Cancer Institute gained a reputation for putting politics over science when it did everything possible to deny dissenting opinion during a meeting to establish whether or not a link exists between abortion and breast cancer.
Now, the main NCI acivist who got the agency to deny the abortion-breast cancer link has co-authored a study admitting the abortion-breast cancer link is true, calling it a "known risk factor."
Scientists and educators about the abortion-breast cancer link point to a new study that shows a top NCI official may be re-thinking the refusal to acknowledge the link.
The study, conducted by Jessica Dolle, appears in the April, 2009 issue of the prestigious cancer epidemiology journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
The Dolle study, conducted with the prestigious Janet Daling group of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle -- one of the first to receive recognition for highlighting the abortion-breast cancer link -- concerns the link between oral contraceptives and breast cancer. Full story at LifeNews.com
From the Director: www.abortionbreastcancer.com and earlier bulletins, on this website. have reported on this side effect of Voluntary Abortions. [search abortions or breast cancer]
Annual Mammograms, staring at an earlier age, are recommended for those women who have had a voluntary abortion. Consult with your private physician as well.
|
ANNUAL MAMMOGRAMS ESSENTIAL FOR EARLY DIAGNOSIS and TREATMENT
|
|
| | | |
|
A PREVENTIVE MEDICAL EFFORT PAYS OFF-OTHERS NEEDED
|
|
| |
|
From Health Affairs
The Costs of Diabetes - And the Savings of Workplace Wellness Programs |
| |
|
Bethesda, MD - Two articles published today by Health Affairs analyze the potential success of strategies to curtail medical spending in the U.S. One study evaluates the evidence on workplace wellness programs and finds that the medical savings outweigh the costs for employers. The second breaks new ground by developing a Cost of Diabetes Model and assesses the national economic burden of that disease to have reached $218 billion.
Workplace Wellness Programs Can Generate Savings
By Katherine Baicker, David Cutler, and Zirui Song
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.2009.0626
Katherine Baicker is a professor of health economics at Harvard University's School of Public Health; David Cutler is an economics professor at Harvard University; and Zirui Song is a doctoral candidate at Harvard Medical School.
With investment in disease prevention and wellness viewed as promising ways to achieve better heath and lower medical costs, workplace-based wellness programs are much touted in policy discussions. The authors conducted a critical review of more than 100 existing peer-reviewed analyses of employee wellness programs, many of which use health risk assessments and focus on obesity and smoking, the top two causes of preventable death in the United States. The authors found that these initiatives save employers money both through reduced health costs for their employees and reduced absenteeism.
For every dollar spent on wellness programs, about $3.27 was saved in medical costs and $2.37 was saved in reduced workplace absenteeism. "Encouraging (or even subsidizing) such programs...may have broad political appeal, perhaps in part because they operate with less direct government oversight and fewer government dollars," observed Katherine Baicker.
"They hold the promise of slowing health care cost growth without the specter of rationing care."
|
|
LET'S WORK AT FIXING OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM--NOT AT REPLACING IT
|
|
| | | |
|
HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL EXPOSED--INCREASING RESISTANCE TO PASSAGE
From Drudge Report 1/13/2009
Rep. Rangel: Dems facing 'serious problems' on healthcare reform bill
By...
|
WHEN IT FAILS TO PASS--LET'S FIX WHAT WE HAVE!!
|
|
| | | |
|
IF EMPLOYER MANDATE COMING OUT NOW--WHAT'S NEXT?
AP sources: Employer health mandate may be dropped
 AP – FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2010, file photo House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seen with House Ways and Means Chairman
WASHINGTON – House and Senate negotiators working on President Barack Obama's health overhaul bill appear likely to drop a proposed income tax increase on high-wage earners and possibly jettison a requirement for large businesses to offer coverage to their employees, Democratic officials said Tuesday.
Negotiators are considering extending the Medicare payroll tax, which now applies only to income from wages, to cover some of the investment earnings of couples making more than $250,000 a year, and individuals earning above $200,000. That could make up lost revenue from dropping the high-wage income tax and scaling back a proposed tax on high-value insurance plans, which is strongly opposed by organized labor and House Democrats.
On another high-profile issue, the negotiators are discussing a hybrid of a proposed national insurance exchange contained in the House bill and the state-by-state approach favored by the Senate. House Democrats are pressing for a national system to apply pressure to the insurance industry after their proposal for a new government-run insurance option was ruled out due to opposition from Senate moderates.
These officials also said key lawmakers and the White House were hoping to include more money to protect state governments from the cost of an expansion of the federal-state Medicaid insurance program for the poor. That issue flared after Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., the critical 60th vote for the health care bill in the Senate, got a deal for the federal government to pay the full cost of Medicaid expansion in his state forever, whereas other states would have to pick up part of the tab after a few years.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not free to disclose details of the negotiations.
The developments came as the pace of negotiations on health care legislation quickened with House members returning to Washington on Tuesday from a holiday recess. The White House wants a final bill for Obama to sign in time for his State of the Union address early next month.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democratic leaders were scheduled to meet with Obama at the White House on Wednesday to narrow the numerous issues that remain unresolved. The president has weighed in forcefully in recent days, telling lawmakers he wants at least a pared-down tax on high-cost insurance plans as well as a commission with authority to order cuts to Medicare spending under limited circumstances — both measures designed to hold down spiraling health care costs...".
|
JUST A FOOT IN THE DOOR THIS TIME AND THEN-MORE LATER?
|
|
| | | |
|
CHINA'S "MAN MADE" POPULATION CONTROL PLAN BACKFIRES
...
China's Birth Rate To Leave 24 MILLION Men Single
First...
|
WILL TAKE SEVERAL GENERATIONS TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM
|
|
| | | |
|
PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLOSING SOME ABORTION CENTERS
Planned Parenthood Found 2009 Difficult With Abortion Centers Closing Rapidly
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)...
|
REVENUE AND NUMBER OF ABORTIONS INCREASED BUT SOME CENTERS CLOSING
|
|
| | | |
|
MORE TROUBLE FOR THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
From The Sacramento Bee 1/11/2010Tide rises against mandated coverage BY BOBBY CAINA CALVAN bealvan@sacbee.com
"Michael...
|
SOME SAY SCRAP IT AND START ALL OVER AGAIN
|
|
| | | |
|
LONG, BUT WORTHY OF YOUR TIME
From AAPS news, Jan 2010, page 3
Winners, Losers, and Frauds
"...According to the European law enforcement agency Europol, carbon trading fraudsters may account for up to 90% of all market activity in some European countries, endangering the credibility of the entire scheme (Telegraph 12/10/09).
The Mafia and violent criminals are turning to Medicare fraud, as scammers can net up to $25,000 a day. A cocaine dealer could take weeks to net that amount, and faces much higher risks (Kelli Kennedy, AP 10/6/09).
84% of CMS Management Controls Deficient
Based on a random sample of 2008 contract actions by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that at least 84.3% had involved failure to implement at least one key control. In more than 37%, at least three lapses were found. Of nine 2007 GAO recommendations to improve internal controls over contracting and payments to contractors, only two were substantially addressed. One key defect is lack of quality control over data entry procedures. Faulty CMS contracting puts billions of Taxpayer dollars at, risk (GAO-10-60).
CMS Reports 7.8% Error Rate in FFS Payments
The error rate in making fee-for-service payments doubled since 2008, said White I louse budget chief Peter Orszag, largely because of changed counting methods. Items such as an illegible claim, or insufficient documentation, are now likelv to be called errors. The administration is planning to impose penalties for failure to return payments made in error (Modern Healthcare 11/17/09).
Consultation Codes Deleted
In the 2010 CMS Physician Fee Schedule, outpatient or inpatient consultations, codes 99241-99245 and 99251-99255, will no longer be paid. Physicians who have billed for consults need to learn the finer points of evaluation and management (E/M) visit codes for Medicare patients (MPCA 11/16/09).
More Rules, Stiffer Penalties
HIPAA. For violations going back to Feb 18, 2009, even an "innocent" violation could cost you up to $1.5 million. Comments are open on the interim rule implementing the HITECH Act until Dec 29. Read the rule and submit comments at http://tinyurl.com/HIPAA-Penalty.
Unclaimed funds.
States are beginning to target physicians under escheat laws that require businesses to turn over unclaimed credits, paychecks, or other property to the state after a certain dormancy period. Some states require an annual report even if you don't have property to hand over, with interest, penalties, and fines for failure to report. Keep complete records of attempts to return unclaimed funds, and get written confirmation from any person who receives them. Information is available from the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (MPCA 11/30/09).
- Cybercrime. In a national survey of small and medium businesses, 44% report having been the victim of hackers, viruses, or spy-ware. Medical practices are attractive targets, and have greater legal liability, from both state breach notification laws and HIPAA. "Smaller [providers] are hopelessly exposed," warns Cliff Baker of Health Information Trust Alliance. A small hospital had to close its cardiovascular unit and divert patients when attacked by a computer worm. Note that one infected provider can spread the problem to any others who access information (MPCA 11/30/09).
Required fraud and abuse course.
CMS now requires all participating and nonparticipating physicians, licensed medical personnel, and billing staff to complete an 85-minute module annually. Go to www.cms.gov/MLNGenlnfo/, scroll down "Related Links Inside CMS," click on "WBT Modules" and then on "Medicare Fraud and Abuse—April 2007."
Doctor Pays $400,000 to Settle Tricare Case
"The only gastroenterologist at Fort Huachuca, AZ, settled allegations of less than $100,000 in overpayments. Fines could have amounted to tens of millions of dollars. In a 2007 Tricare audit, the physician was not informed of any billing errors."
"This case is a warning...that even the best and most ethical physicians face potential financial ruin for unintentional and unknown errors," said Dan Cavett, attorney to Dr. Jaya Madder.".
The system involves "complex and confusing codes that could fill a phone book" (Ariz Daily Star 11/23/09).
Swine-flu Bribe Fever
"....Some scientists are accused of accepting secret bribes from vaccine manufacturers to influence the H1NI pandemic declaration. Many countries are required to purchase vaccine in the event of a pandemic. Many advisers have financial ties with pharmaceutical companies, which are not publicly disclosed (WND 12/7/09)."
Challenging Bad Science
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is filing suit to block the EPA finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and must therefore be regulated under the Clean Air Act. CEI states that EPA has ignored major scientific issues, including those raised in the Climategate fraud scandal.
AAPS general counsel Andrew Schlafly notes that the Mar 9, 2009, White House memorandum ordering "scientific integrity" in the federal government "gives a solid basis to file a complaint every time the bureaucrats or their grantees lie, cheat, or steal in connection with the use or abuse of research for the purpose of developing... policy."
AAPS News, January 2010 --Vol 66,No.1
[ www.aapsonline.org]
|
WHAT MAKES THEM THINK THEY CAN DO BETTER WITH 300 MILLION OF US UNDER THEIR CARE?
|
|
| | | |
|
PUBLIC OPTION IN OBAMA PLAN MAY BE REMOVED
Government health insurance option appears doomed
AP – House Speaker Nancy...
|
ATTEMPTS TO SAVE THE INDIVIDUAL STATE RUN MODEL OF HEALTH CARE
|
|
| | | |
|
ATMOSPHERIC CO2 LEVEL SAME FOR MANY DECADES
No Rise of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Fraction in Past 160 Years, New Research Finds
ScienceDaily...
|
STUDY REDUCES NEED OF FEAR RE: INCREASING CO2 LEVELS ENDANGERING OUR LIVES
|
|
| | | |
|
ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS DO NOT REDUCE HEALTH CARE COST
From: AAPS NEWS LETTER
Myth 32. Information technology will improve efficiency and safety.
January 7th, 2010
A large part of the savings projected from “healthcare reform” is supposed to come from wider use of information technology. The federal government is expected to “invest” some $45 billion in encouraging (or compelling) doctors and hospitals to use electronic records systems.
“Information is the lifeblood of modern medicine. Health information technology (HIT) is destined to be its circulatory system,” writes David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P., of the Office of that National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (New England Journal of Medicine 12/30/09). Physicians and institutions trying to practice highest-quality medicine without HIT are like Olympians trying to perform with a failing heart,” he states. (Note that Blumenthal’s numerous financial disclosures are in a separate document.)
In the real world, there are many problems in implementation. The University of California San Francisco Medical Center is one institution that is quietly writing off about a third of the $50 million it has poured into electronic medical records over the past 5 years. The system is still not fully up and running. UCSF terminated its contractor and is prepared to start part of the project from scratch (Huffington Post 11/23/09).
According to one study, between 50% and 80% of electronic health records systems fail. The larger the EHR project, the higher the risk of failure (IEEE Spectrum 1/1/10).
READ MORE AND COMMENT: http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00767
|
"GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT" TOO OFTEN THE CASE
|
|
| | | |
|
ANOTHER GOVERNMENT GIVE AWAY MISSES IT'S TARGET
From the Director: A LETTER SENT TO ME BY A FRIEND- AUTHOR UNKNOWN
"Think of it this way -
A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.
So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.
That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars
So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
We spent $8.57 for every dollar saved.
I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with health care though..."
|
AUTHOR CORRECTLY SUGGESTS THEY WILL ALSO FAIL IN HEALTH CARE REFORM
|
|
| | | |
|
A MAJOR CHANGE IN THE HEALTH CARE REFORM EFFORT
Scandlen to Step Down Wed, December 30, 2009 9:08:23 AM
From:
Greg Scandlen <greg@chcchoices.org>View...
|
THIS MAN'S "MOVING ON LETTER" TELLS IT ALL
|
|
| | | |
|
STRATEGY IN CONGRESS CONTRARY TO PUBLIC WILL
From Sacramento Bee 1/5/2010
Democrats intend to bypass GOP on health care deal
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - House and Senate Democrats intend to bypass traditional procedures when they health negotiate a final compromise on health care legislation, officials said Monday, a move that will exclude Republican lawmakers and reduce their ability to delay or force politically troubling votes in both houses.
The unofficial timetable calls for final passage of the measure to remake the nation's health care system by the time President Barack Obania delivers his State of the Union address, probably in early February.
Democratic aides said the final compromise talks would essentially be a three-way negotiation involving top Democrats in the House, Senate and White House, a structure that gives unusual latitude to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.
These officials said there are no plans to appoint a formal House-Senate conference committee, the method Congress most often uses to reconcile differing bills.
Under that customary format, a committee chairman is appointed to preside, and other senior lawmakers from both parties and houses participate in typically perfunctory public meetings while the meaningful negotiations occur behind closed doors.
In this case, the plan is to skip the formal meetings, reach an agreement, then have the two houses vote as quickly as possible. A 60-vote Senate majority would be required in advance of final passage."We hope to get a bill done as soon as possible," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid.
The issue is so partisan that only one Republican, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana, has cast a vote in favor of the legislation.
GOP leaders have vowed to try to block a final bill from reaching Obama's desk.
Both houses have already passed legislation to remake the health care system, extending coverage to millions who lack it while cracking down on industry practices such as denying insurance on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.
There are literally hundreds of differences between the two bills. The biggest differences involve a dispute over a government-run insurance option — the House wants one, but the Senate bill omitted it — as well as the size and extent of federal subsidies to help lower-income families afford coverage.
|
UNFAIR PRACTICES DESIGNED TO REPLACE THE CURRENT SYSTEM?
|
|
| | | |
|
HEALTH CARE REFORM PROMISES THAT WON'T BE POSSIBLE
From AAPS News Letter 1/3/2010
Myth 31. "Healthcare reform" bills will increase doctors' pay while...
|
PROMISE OF BETTER CARE FOR LESS COST IS A PIPE DREAM
|
|
| | | |
|
MANY PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS CAN'T CONTINUE TO SEE MEDICARE PATIENTS
Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients
By David Olmos
Dec. 31 (Bloomberg)...
|
DOCTORS SOMETIMES PAID MORE FOR WELFARE PATIENTS
|
|
| | | |
|
AND THEY WANT US TO BELIEVE THEY CAN DO IT BETTER?
Accounting in health bills may not add up
FUNDS SHAVED FROM MEDICARE COUNTED TWICE
BY ROBERT PEAR New York Times
WASHINGTON - At the heart of the fight over health care legislation is a paradox that befuddles lawmakers of both parties.
Separate bills passed by the Senate and the House would squeeze nearly a half-trillion dollars from projected spending on Medicare over the next 10 years. These savings would help offset the cost of providing coverage to people who are uninsured. At the same time, federal accountants say the money would shore up the Medicare trust fund, so the program could continue paying hospitals to treat older Americans in the future.
In other words, Medicare savings mean both more money available to spend now and the appearance of more money later for Medicare. How is this possible? The Congressional Budget Office tried to answer the question last week In effect, it said, the same money cannot be used for both purposes without double-counting.
"To describe the full amount of hospital insurance trust fund savings as both improving the government's ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare would essentially double-count a large share of those savings, and thus overstate the improvement in the government's fiscal position," the budget office said. But the clarification came too late to affect the outcome of debate over the legislation, passed Thursday in the Senate by a party-line vote of 60 to 39.
For weeks, Republicans had been saying that Democrats would plunder Medicare, raid it, use it as a "piggy bank" to pay for coverage of the uninsured.
Such fusillades frightened older voters and prompted defensive maneuvers by Democrats, who said their bill would "save lives, save money and save Medicare," while providing additional benefits to older Americans.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., offered an amendment that said nothing in the bill would result in a reduction of "guaranteed benefits" under Medicare. The amendment was approved, 100-0, Dec. 3.
Richard S. Foster, the chief Medicare actuary, agrees with the Congressional Budget Office. He traces the confusion to different accounting rules used for the federal budget and for Medicare's trust fund.
The Senate bill would reduce the growth of Medicare spending and increase the Medicare payroll tax on high-income people. The combination of less spending and more revenue would lower the deficit, based on budget accounting rules, and extend the life of the Medicare trust fund. However, Foster said, the same money "cannot be simultaneously used" to cover the uninsured and to extend the Medicare trust fund, "despite the appearance of this result from the respective accounting conventions."
From the Director: Our government has difficulty in dealing with the 40 plus million Seniors in the Medicare Progrsm. Fraud and mistakes are well documented. Despite this reality, they want to expand the program to regulate the care of more than 300 million Americans.
To agree, wouldn't make sense to me.
|
PATIENT CONTROLLED HEALTH CARE--THE ONLY WAY THAT WORKS
|
|
| | | |
|
BENEFITS OFFERED TO CERTAIN STATES BY HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL CHALLENGED
13 state AGs threaten suit over health care deal
COLUMBIA, S.C. –12/30/2009-
" Republican attorneys general in 13 states say congressional leaders must remove Nebraska's political deal from the federal health care reform bill or face legal action, according to a letter provided to The Associated Press Wednesday.
"We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed," South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and the 12 other attorneys general wrote in the letter to be sent Wednesday night to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
"As chief legal officers of our states we are contemplating a legal challenge to this provision and we ask you to take action to render this challenge unnecessary by striking that provision," they wrote.
In a rare Christmas Eve vote, Senate Democrats pushed sweeping health care legislation to the brink of Senate passage, crushing a year-end Republican filibuster against President Barack Obama's call to remake the nation's health care system. The 60-39 vote marked the third time in as many days Democrats posted a supermajority needed to advance the legislation.
The letter was signed by top prosecutors in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington state. All are Republicans, and McMaster and the attorneys general of Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania are running for governor in their respective states.
Last week, McMaster said he was leading several other attorneys general in an inquiry into the constitutionality of the estimated $100 million deal he has dubbed the "Cornhusker Kickback."
Republican U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint of South Carolina raised questions about the legislation, which they said was amended to win Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's support.
"Because this provision has serious implications for the country and the future of our nation's legislative process, we urge you to take appropriate steps to protect the Constitution and the rights of the citizens of our nation," the attorneys general wrote.
A conference committee begins meeting next year to work out a compromise between House and Senate versions of the bill. Experts expect those talks will likely last into February.
McMaster says if the bill goes through to final approval with the benefit to Nebraska, taxpayers in the other 49 states will have to pay for it...."
|
"We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed," South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster
|
|
| | | |
|
CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORT OF AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION CONFLICT OF INTEREST
From AAPS News Letter 12/29/2009
Chicago Tribune exposes AMA conflict of interestThe Sunday edition...
|
SEE EARLIER HCREI NEWS BULLETIN REPORTING DROP IN AMA MEMBERSHIP
|
|
| | | |
|
HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL UNFAIR TO SOME STATES
Sacramento Bee Sunday 12/26/2009
20 states cry foul on
Senate health bill
THEY FACE BIGGER...
|
WE SHOULD FIX WHAT WE HAVE TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY
|
|
| | | |
|
AAPS SAYS "Health Care Reform Bill" is Socialized Medicine
|
From the AAPS News Letter 12/24/2009
Myth 30. Healthcare reform is not “socialized medicine.”
Many critics of the Democrats’ “healthcare reform” call it “socialized medicine.” Advocates respond, condescendingly, that since the government would not own the means of production, and physicians would not be salaried by the American equivalent of the British National Health Service, this is not socialism. Physicians and hospitals would still be “private,” as in Canada.
So let’s work backward: Start with the definition, then think of the word. These are the characteristics of the plan. It is: (1) compulsory; (2) redistributive; (3) collectivized; (4) centralized; (5) dictatorial; (6) oppressive; and (7) intrusive.
For more information: http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00749
|
|
Government Controlled Health Care fails to fulfill its promises
|
|
| | | |
|
SHOULD WE BELIEVE THIS IS "REALLY" HEALTH CARE REFORM?
From the Greg Scandlen Newsletter #208
12-22-2009
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen fancies himself an expert on health care because his wife has been seriously ill. He says that while being in her hospital room, "I would sometimes drift to the window and look out over a city with several million people and wonder: What do they do? What do they do if they have no health insurance?"
Yes, indeedy. Royalty often looks out the window and wonders about the little people.
But he understands the limits of government. He writes,
"Ben Nelson did get special privileges for Nebraska, and Mary Landrieu got goodies for Louisiana. Carl Levin got a little something for Michigan; and New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont all found something under the Senate's Christmas tree. There are mysterious provisions in the bill to favor this state or that, this hospital or that -- but no money went into the pockets of members of Congress, so this is not corruption as we know it. It just smells the same."
His hubris shows when he repeats all the myths that have been used to sell this monstrosity. "Only in America can sickness send you to the poorhouse." Jeeez. Maybe he doesn't know that people in most European countries actually have higher out-of-pocket costs than Americans do.
But it gets worse. He writes,
"Behold the uninsured. Look at them in their terror. See their faces as they are denied coverage for preexisting conditions or their looks of despair because they cannot afford insurance at all. Watch them ignore symptoms of sickness, pass up examinations or wait, often for hours and hours, for free medical services."
What? People don't wait for care in Europe and Canada? Hellooooo! And this notion of denials for pre-existing conditions is getting really tiresome. That applies solely to new applicants in the individual market. Which means almost nobody. Yet that little item has driven this whole push to change health care for every single American.
|
EUROPE IS AN EXCELLENT CLASSROOM FOR A STUDY OF GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED HEALTH CARE
|
|
| | | |
|
SENATE'S VERSION OF THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL FACES STRONG OPPOSITION IN THE HOUSE
Health plans on collision course
POLITICO 12/21/2009
"Despite a last-minute weekend deal that put the Senate on the brink of passing health care reform this week, liberal and moderate Democrats remain on a collision course over the bill, as both sides dug in Sunday for the next phase of negotiations.
President Barack Obama’s liberal base and powerful union leaders once hoped the expected House-Senate conference would partly undo a year of retreats and compromises, with Obama weighing in to nudge the moderate Senate bill to the left.
But the titanic struggle to lock in Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) as the 60th senator for the first key test vote early Monday morning has changed all that. The need to hold Nelson and other moderates in line means major changes on the public option, abortion, taxes, Medicare and Medicaid are unlikely — and that the Senate’s vision of health reform is likely to prevail over the House’s in the final talks.
"It is very clear that the bill — the final bill — to pass in the United States Senate is going to have to be very close to the bill that has been negotiated here," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said on "Fox News Sunday." "Otherwise, you will not get 60 votes in the United States Senate."
Nelson, who received assurances of a "limited conference" to secure his vote for the Senate bill, has already laid down at least two deal breakers in the House bill that he can’t support: the inclusion of a government insurance plan and an income tax increase on wealthy individuals.
"That would break it," Nelson said on CNN’s "State of the Union."
House Democrats acknowledge that they will be limited in how far they can tweak the Senate compromise. But House leadership also knows that its rank and file need to force some changes, however small, before they will accept the final package — as a face-saving measure to be able to swallow late changes to the bill in the Senate, most notably the decision to eliminate a public option.
But on the left, the sentiments of a liberal base that revolted over concessions to moderates were channeled Sunday by Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, who last week repeatedly called on Democrats to scrap the bill..."
From the Director: This one Bill, of approximately 2000 pages, attempts to replace the health care delivery system, for more than 300 million people, that has been in development for approximately 100 years.
Many experts see heallth care reform as a long term process, not just a short term event,
|
WHICH VERSION WILL WIN IS UNCERTAIN
|
|
| | | |
|
FINALLY THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG-WORTH READING
MORE ON THE UNINSURED
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The Heritage Foundation [from Galen Institute Newsletter, 9/9/'04]
Other commentaries address the new uninsured numbers with a common theme: The writers recognize that millions of people have genuine difficulties affording health insurance, but they question whether the Census Bureau's estimates of the number of uninsured provide an accurate guide for policy solutions.
Editors of The Wall Street Journal observe, "The actual number of uninsured may be a third less than the Census figures claim, while another third of the uninsured appear to be wealthy enough to afford coverage." The true number may be closer to 15 million, the Journal concludes.
David Gratzer of the Manhattan Institute points to findings of a report on Census Bureau data by the BlueCross BlueShield Association last year. "The bottom line: About 8.2 million Americans, not 45 million, are chronically uninsured and low-income," he writes in a Los Angeles Times commentary.
Derek Hunter of The Heritage Foundation examines the discrepancies between Census Bureau estimates of the number of people covered by Medicaid and the actual number of those for whom the Medicaid agency pays benefits, with the Census Bureau underreporting Medicaid coverage by 18 million. Hunter urges Congress and the Administration to revise the methodology to develop a more accurate database to guide policymaking.
Wall Street Journal editorial (subscription required): online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109356338582602540,00.html
Gratzer in the LA Times: www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_latimes-what_health.htm
The Heritage Foundation: www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm555.cfm
|
BE AWARE THIS DISAGREEMENT STARTED IN 1987
|
|
| | | |
|
HOWARD DEAN SAYS KILL THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.
Dean said the removal of the Medicare buy-in made the bill not worth supporting, and urged Dem leaders to start over with the process of reconciliation in the interview, which is set to air at 5:50 PM today on Vermont Public Radio, political reporter Bob Kinzel confirms to me.
The gauntlet from Dean — whose voice on health care is well respsected among liberals — will energize those on the left who are mobilizing against the bill, and make it tougher for liberals to embrace the emerging proposal. In an excerpt Kinzel gave me, Dean says:
“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”
Kinzel added that Dean essentially said that if Democratic leaders cave into Joe Lieberman right now they’ll be left with a bill that’s not worth supporting.
Dean had previously endorsed the Medicare buy-in compromise without a public option, saying that the key question should be whether the bill contains enough “real reform” to be worthy of progressives’ support. Dean has apparently concluded that the “real reform” has been removed at Lieberman’s behest — which won’t make it easier for liberals to swallow the emerging compromise.
Update: The full interview is now up at Vermont Public Radio
|
THIS BILL IS DEAD--GO BACK TO THE HOUSE AND START OVER
|
|
| | | |
|
WE ARE WALKING DOWN A ROAD THAT MANY HAVE WALKED BEFORE "TO NO GOOD"
From Greg Scandlen News Letter
#200 . Oct. 29, 2009
"...Whaaaaa?!?! Is this any way to run a railroad? How can people so blithely support such massive legislation with absolutely no understanding of the consequences?
It is endemic when politicians get involved. They fundamentally don't understand what they are doing so they rely on platitudes and sweeping generalities that make for good sound bites. In my presentations I often cite the following examples:
1988, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis
"Massachusetts will (now) be the first state in the country to enact universal health insurance."
1989, Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts
"Today our dreams of providing effective and affordable health care to all Oregonians have come true."
1992, Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter
"Tennessee will (now) cover at least 95 percent of its citizens."
1992, Vermont Governor Howard Dean
"This is an incredibly exciting moment that should make all Vermonters proud."
These statements were all made by governors at the signing ceremonies for new legislation. One might think they had solved all the problems in health care. But, in fact, all of these laws failed and have since been repealed.
They all failed precisely because they had not done the kind of analysis that John Goodman has provided. They relied on empty slogans.
Similar things have occurred in New Jersey, Maine, Washington, and other states that set out to "reform" health care politically. And the exact same thing will happen nationally if any of these bills become law. Unfortunately, it is a whole lot harder to repeal laws in Congress than it is in the states. Even when the program is a complete disaster that ruins lives, there will always be some special interest that benefits from it and will fight tooth and nail to keep the law in place.
Let us hope there are enough Democrats in Congress with the good sense and humility to back away from this misadventure before it is too late..."
For more: www.gmscan@comcast.net
.
|
"WHY DO WE NEED TO DESTROY ONLY TO REBUILD AGAIN- LET'S FIX WHAT WE HAVE"
|
|
| | | |
|
RATIONING OCCURS IN MORE WAYS THAN PEOPLE SUSPECT
From THE ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS [AAPS] 12/5/2009
Myth 27. Healthcare reform is affordable.
Calling something affordable, even in the title, doesn’t make it so.
Making somebody else pay the bill doesn’t make it affordable either. A massive redistribution scheme adds costs, and makes the total cost less affordable.
A CBO score less than Obama’s target of $900 billion isn’t affordable either. That’s the total net worth of 900,000 millionaires.
Just looking at the gross numbers: the total cost of the bill Sen. Reid presented to the Senate was estimated to be $848 billion. It was said to extend insurance coverage to 31 million Americans (maybe, in a few years). That would be about $27,000 per additional insured person.
READ MORE & COMMENT: http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00665
|
CANADA'S SINGLE PAYER NOW ALLOWS SALE OF PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE LIKE ENGLAND
|
|
| | | |
|
A COMMENT BY NEWT GINRICH SEEMS APPROPRIATE FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
"It Is Clear from the Examples of Katrina, Michigan and Detroit that the highly taxed, heavily regulated,...
|
SINGLE PAYER SYSTEMS FAIL--WHY DON'T WE FIX WHAT WE HAVE
|
|
| | | |
|
SHOULDN'T WOMEN BE TOLD THAT MAJOR NATIONS FIND AN INCREASE IN BREAST CANCER RELATED TO VOLUNTARY ABORTIONS?
Sen.Boxer compares denying women abortion coverage to denying men Viagra
By Mike Zapler
mzapler@mercurynews.com
Posted: 12/08/2009...
|
EUROPEAN AND ASIAN NATIONS FIND AN INCREASE RISK OF BREAST CANCER RELATED TO VOLUNTARY ABORTION
|
|
| | | |
|
WE ARE EXPECTED TO BELIEVE THEY CAN DO IT BETTER AND CHEAPER
Brought to you by Yahoo! Finance 10/20/2009
Govt report: Over $98B wasted in improper payments payment [40-50 billion in Medicare each year]
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer Hope Yen, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – More than $98 billion in taxpayer dollars spent by government agencies was wasted, much of it on questionable claims for tax credits and Medicare benefits, representing an increase of $26 billion from the previous year.
In all, about 5 percent of spending in federal programs in fiscal year 2009 was improper, according to new details of a government financial report that were released Tuesday. Saying the overall error rate was similar in 2008, officials attributed the $26 billion jump to some changes in how to define improper spending as well as an increase in overall spending due to the recession.
President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order within the next week aimed at cracking down on government waste and fraud, particularly in Medicare and other benefit programs. In the 2009 report, the government officially reported questionable Medicare payments of roughly $36 billion, but that amount will be revised upward to about $48 billion next year as the Health and Human Services Department fully converts to a new methodology that imposes stricter documentation requirements.
"We need to protect taxpayer dollars," Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters. "Every dollar that goes to the wrong recipient or in the wrong amount is a dollar not available to help an unemployed worker, or to invest in education or key priorities of the administration."
"Under the executive order, every federal agency would have to maintain a Web site that tracks improper payments, error rates and outstanding payments. If an agency doesn't meet targets for reducing error rates for two years in a row, the agency director and responsible official will have to directly report to OMB to explain the delinquency and new actions they will take.,,,"
"The Obama administration will also seek to impose penalties on government contractors that receive improper payments so they have incentives to return the money, Orszag said."
"Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who chairs a Senate panel on federal financial management, said he worried that the latest numbers "may still be just the tip of the iceberg" since they don't include estimates for several programs such as the Medicare prescription drug plan".
"It goes without saying that these results would be completely unacceptable in the private sector, as they should be in government, especially at a time of record deficits," Carper said.
From the Director; I find it difficult to understand their logic. They want to take over rather than fix our current system because it's too expensive. Do they want me to believe they can make it better and cheaper?
|
LET"S FIX OUR SYSTEM AND NOT REPLACE WITH A LOSER
|
|
| | | |
|
HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL NEEDS REFORM
From the Sacramento Bee 11/27/2009
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER [Washinton Post Writers Group]
"Health reform bills are an arbitrary,overregulated mess
The United States has the best health care in the world - but because of its inefficiencies, also the most expensive. The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions. Worse, they are packed into a monstrous package without any regard to one another. The only thing linking these changes - such as the 118 new boards, commissions and programs - is political expediency. Each must be able to garner just enough votes to pass. There is not even a pretense of a unifying vision or conceptual harmony.
The result is an overregulated, overbureaucratized system of surpassing arbitrariness and inefficiency. Throw a dart at the Senate tome:
You'll find mandates with financial penalties - the amounts picked out of a hat.
You'll find insurance companies (which live and die by their actuarial skills) told exactly what weight to give risk factors, such as age. Currently insurance premiums for 20-somethings are about one-sixth the premiums for 60-somethings. The House bill dictates the young shall now pay at minimum one-half; the Senate bill, one-third - numbers picked out of a hat.
You'll find sliding scales for health insurance subsidies - percentagps picked out of a hat - that would radically raise marginal income tax rates for middle-class recipients, among other crazy unintended consequences.
The bill is irredeemable. It should not only be defeated. It should be immolated, its ashes scattered over the Senate swimming pool.
Then do health care the right way - one reform at a time, each simple and simplifying, aimed at reducing complexity, arbitrariness and inefficiency...."
From the Director--I'm in agreement, the Senate Bill and the 2.014 page House Bill are unworkable; and as said by Charles Krauthammer "they should not only be defeated. They should be immolated." [shredded?]
|
"The Senate Bill is irredeemable. It should not only be defeated. It should be immolated."
|
|
| | | |
|
SHORTAGE OF PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS REPORTED
An Opinion from the Director: 9/9/2009
A majority of the American people are outraged by the "immoral conduct" in the corporate world, the "excessive" profits in the health care industries and the "rising costs" and salaries reported by "privately operated" Managed Health Care Plans--as they watch their retirement plans "vanish"; find it "impossible" to afford life-preserving medicines and are expected to settle for a "diminishing quality "and quantity of the health care "provided" when they are in need.
Truth is, they supported the growth of a "private enterprise" managed health care system. The promise of "better health care at a lower cost" failed to materialize. In short, the new system put into place failed to deliver, They know they must look for an alternative.
However!
I see an irony in the fact that many Americans act as if the Medical Profession invented the concept of greater personal satisfaction and financial reward for hard work and intellectual achievement. These rules of achievement have always been, and will never cease to be amongst the basic foundation stones of a free society operating in a free enterprise system. If such a nation chooses to abandon such principles it will be only a question of time before they reappear.
The American public has enjoyed the benefits of the greatest health care system that man has ever devised. Too many, however, have lost sight of that fact and are demanding that changes be made, and quickly. This is occurring despite the realization, by many health care professionals, that inordinate demands will soon be placed upon any new system we choose since so many of our younger citizens seem bent on their own destruction through poor nutritional habits, use of tobacco products/cigarettes, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and failure to protect themselves from deadly sexually transmitted diseases.
Ignoring these developments, our nation continues to be more concerned with reducing the cost of health care and getting rid of incompetent, greedy and dishonest Doctors.
Pity, if it doesn't turn out that way. For, if we don't do it right, we will pay more, get less, and bad Doctors like bad people, won't go away either.
VWC
.
|
A REDUCTION IN MEDICAL CAREER CHOICES WILL RESULT
|
|
| | | |
|
SENATE DEMOCRATS CRITICAL OF CHANGES IN OBAMA HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
Obama faces healthcare insurrection from left flank
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House worked on Thursday to tamp down an insurrection from some of President Barack Obama's liberal backers who feel he has been too willing to compromise away their priorities on a healthcare overhaul.
The frictions reflect the tortured state of negotiations over Obama's top domestic legislative priority as the White House and Democratic leadership in the U.S. Congress seek to piece together enough supporters to approve a healthcare plan that Republicans oppose.
Leading the grousing from the left has been Howard Dean, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who ran unsuccessfully for his party's presidential nomination in 2004.
Dean, a medical doctor and former governor of Vermont, in recent days has said a Senate healthcare bill that Obama supports and which is lurching toward a possible vote in coming days should be killed.
Dean and others on the left argue that the Senate legislation does not permit competition with medical insurance companies, would expand private insurers' grip on healthcare and does not really amount to reform.
His complaint came because Senate leaders have ditched a plan for a government-run insurance plan and a measure that would allow people under 65 to buy into the Medicare government insurance plan for the elderly.
"If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current healthcare bill," Dean wrote in a Washington Post opinion article on Thursday, his latest broadside on the matter.
Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, went on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program on Thursday to fire back at Dean, saying his argument is "predicated on a bunch of erroneous conclusions" and that the legislation does meet most Democratic goals.
Axelrod found himself challenged on the program by Ed Schultz, a liberal anchor on MSNBC's evening programing.
"They key is, people in this country right now don't believe that the White House has stood up to the insurance industry," Schultz said.
REPUBLICANS APPLAUD DEAN
Obama himself took up the argument in an ABC News interview on Wednesday, saying the legislation will reduce the budget deficit over the long run, will help reduce insurance premiums for families, will force companies not to deny coverage to individuals due to pre-existing health conditions, and permit 30 million uninsured to get coverage.
"There's got to be a sense sometimes that we're willing to rise above our particular interests, our particular ideas in order to get things done," Obama said.
Republicans who are trying to defeat the bill found themselves happy to have Dean's help.
"If you live long enough all things can happen," Republican Senator John McCain said with a smile. "I now find myself in complete agreement with Dr. Howard Dean, who says that we should stop this bill in its tracks, we should go back to the beginning and have an overall bipartisan agreement. Dr. Dean, I am with you."
Bickering in the healthcare debate is taking its toll. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll published on Thursday found Americans turning against an overhaul. It said 44 percent said it is better to pass no plan at all, compared with 41 percent who want passage.
Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, said at this stage it is critical for Obama to emerge with a victory on healthcare because he has spent so much time on it this year.
|
INCREASING OPPPOSITION FROM BOTH DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS IN THE SENATE
|
|
| | | |
|
BIRTH RATE STUDIES PROJECT THE POPULATION OF THE FUTURE
White Americans' majority to end by mid-century
By HOPE YEN (ASSOCIATED PRESS) – 12/16/2009
WASHINGTON...
|
TOTAL US POPULATION 399 million by 2050
|
|
| | | |
|
CONCESSIONS ON HEALTH REFORM BILL MAY RESULT IN A SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM
From the Sacramento Bee 112/14/2009
WORTH REPEATING
"I think we would do almost anything if it meant...
|
FA{LURE TO COMPREHEND/RECOGNIZE THE COMPLEXITY OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY WILL END IN DISASTER
|
|
| | | |
|
A STRONG REACTION TO CHANGE IN MAMMOGRAPPY SCHEDULE
From AmedNews Letter 12/14/2009
OPINION
What editorial writers are saying about new...
|
MAMMOGRAPHY SAVES LIVES--NOT THE PLACE TO SAVE MONEY
|
|
| | | |
|
GOVERNMENT ANALYSIS OF THE COST OF THE OBAMA HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL
AAPS News Bulletin 12/13/2009Reid bill would "bend the cost curve" up
The Office...
|
GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED HEALTH CARE DOESN'T SAVE MONEY
|
|
| | | |
|
DEMOCRATS CAVING ON CONTENTIOUS HEALTH CARE ISSUES
Democrats reach deal on health bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic healthcare negotiators said they agreed on Tuesday to replace a government-run insurance option with a scaled-back non-profit plan and would seek cost estimates on the deal.
"We have a broad agreement," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters, refusing to provide details of the healthcare proposals to be sent to the Congressional Budget Office.
A team of 10 Senate Democrats -- five liberals and five moderates -- had worked for days to find a substitute to the government-run "public" insurance option included in the Senate healthcare bill after moderates voiced concerns about it.
The government-run plan has been one of the biggest hurdles for the healthcare overhaul, which is President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
Democratic Senate sources said the substitute would create a non-profit plan operated by private insurers but administered by the Office of Personnel Management, which supervises health coverage for federal workers..."
|
JUST WANT TO GET A FOOT IN THE DOOR, NOW??--THEN, MORE LATER?
|
|
| | | |
|
ABORTION COVERAGE BY OBAMA HEALTH CARE BILL IN DISPUTE
Senate rejects abortion curbs in health care bill
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR,...
|
DISAGREEMENT IN BOTH PARTIES IN SENATE THREATENS PASSAGE
|
|
| | | |
|
IMPROVING VACCINE PRODUCTION REQUIRES FURTHER STUDY AND CHANGES
FROM AMEDICAL NEWS 12/7/2009
H1N1 vaccine problems trigger review of public health emergency plans
The...
|
"the country's response to public health emergencies will be ongoing."
|
|
| | | |
|
Myth 28. Healthcare reform bills will not cover illegal aliens.
.
FROM AAPS NEWLETTER 12/7/2009
Myth 28. Healthcare reform bills will not cover illegal aliens.The...
|
All four bills that had passed committees as of September would allow illegal aliens to take part in Health Insurance Exchanges.
|
|
| | | |
|
CMA DISCUSES WHAT GOOD HEALTH CARE REFORM REQUIRES
CMA Heads to Washington to Fight for Improvements to Senate Health Reform Bill [California Medical Association]
As the U.S. Senate begins to debate sweeping health reform legislation, CMA leaders are heading to Washington, D.C., to fight for changes to the bill to ensure reform delivers on its promise of providing patients access to a doctor when they need it.
CMA has encouraged lawmakers all year long to craft a workable plan that provides universal access to health care. While CMA supports meaningful health reform, and the general thrust of legislation passed last month by the House of Representatives, the CMA Executive Committee voted two weeks ago to oppose the Senate bill as currently written.
"There is no way health care reform can work if patients can't get access to a doctor," says CMA President Brennan Cassidy, M.D. "The Senate bill fails to fix major problems in Medicare and Medicaid, which currently suffer from chronic underfunding that undermines access and continues to undermine the success of these government programs.
"As physicians, we remain committed to meaningful reform that best serves our patients. Building reform on the foundation of Medicare and Medicaid can only work if that foundation is sound, and unfortunately both programs need major improvements and better funding to function properly."
What is meaningful health reform? Meaningful reform would truly build on what works and fix what's broken by ensuring people have affordable access to care and ensuring health care decisions are made by physicians and patients, not insurance companies or government bureaucrats. It would rein in the health insurance industry to increase competition and choice for consumers; protect the needs of patients; prohibit coverage exclusions due to pre-existing conditions and prevent insurance companies from cancelling policies after patients get sick and file expensive claims; and provide sufficient resources so that public programs can deliver on their promise of health care. CMA is working with senators to draft amended legislation that meets these goals.
Click Here for more information.
Contact: Elizabeth McNeil 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.or
|
OPEN ACCESS TO PHYSICIANS KEY TO SUCCESSFUL REFORM
|
|
| | | |
|
SENATE VOTES TO CUT MEDICARE MONEY
Health bill survives first big test — on Medicare
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo, Ap Special Correspondent – 57 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Unflinching on a critical first test, Senate Democrats closed ranks Thursday behind $460 billion in politically risky Medicare cuts at the heart of health care legislation, thwarting a Republican attempt to doom President Barack Obama's sweeping overhaul.
The bid by the bill's critics to reverse cuts to the popular Medicare program failed on a vote of 58-42, drawing the support of two Democratic defectors. Approval would have stripped out money needed to pay for expanding coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans.
The broader legislation aims to extend health coverage to 31 million who now lack it, while barring insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. Though the overhaul is estimated to cost about $1 trillion over a decade, the Congressional Budget Office has said it would cut federal deficits by $130 billion over that period, and probably reduce them further in the 10 years beyond that.
"Our bill does nothing to reduce guaranteed Medicare benefits," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as several fellow Democrats accused Republican critics of making false claims of potential harm during three days of debate.
The AARP supported the 10-year package of cuts in projected spending, giving Democrats political cover for their decision to pare back subsidies to private Medicare plans as well as payments to hospitals, hospices, home health agencies and other providers.
Republicans disagreed vigorously. "Medicare is already in trouble. The program needs to be fixed, not raided to create another new government program," said the party's leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
The Medicare vote came not long after the Senate backed a guarantee for all insured women age 40 and older to receive mammograms with no out-of-pocket costs. The breast cancer screening test would be included in an array of preventive measures that insurance plans would be required to cover. The proposal cleared on a near party-line vote of 61-39, one more than the 60 needed for passage. It essentially wiped out a federal advisory committee recommendation to defer routine mammograms until women reach the age of 50.
The day's votes were the first since the Senate's health care debate began on Monday, and demonstrated the ability of Democrats to move ahead in the face of implacable Republican opposition.
|
LIMITATIONS/RESTRICTIONS PROPOSED FOR MAMMOGRAMS REMOVED
|
|
| | | |
|
AMA SUPPORTS OBAMA REFORM PLAN
AMA favors some of worst features of Senate billDecember 3rd, 2009 AAPS NEW BULLETIN
"In a letter...
|
AMA REPRESENTS ONLY 20 TO 30% OF THE NATIONS PHYSICIANS
|
|
| | | |
|
DIFFICULT TO GET HOSPITAL CHARGES FOR COMPARISON?
From Sacramentio Bee 12/2/2009
HOSPITAL COSTSReport: Price-quote
law not followed
UNINSURED...
|
|
LAW CONCERNI | |
