“Real” HealthCare Reform – Options to ObamaCare

Health Care Reform I Support – Rep John Campbell

There is no question that our health care system needs reform. Unfortunately, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Harry Reid have had no intention of working with Republicans towards health care reform we all can agree on. However, mycolleagues and I have put forth a proposal that we believe will effectively reform health care for all Americans. The reform measure that I think is best has been introduced by Congressmen Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) called the Patient's Choice Act. It is directionally opposite of the plan proposed by President Obama and his cohorts. Instead of putting government in charge of the system, this plan largely removes the failed portions of government involvement, and puts each individual in charge of their own health care plan and decisions. Here are some bullet points on this plan:

• The plan eliminates the employer deduction for health insurance and the system of direct payment of health costs under Medicare and Medicaid, and replaces them with a $2,300 refundable tax credit per individual which must be used for health care costs. Therefore, everyone, whether they are young, senior citizens, or indigent, will be covered under a private plan of their own choosing. And you no longer have to get the plan from your employer, but will have a number of options to keep the same plan as you move from job to job. Senior plans would be further subsidized by the Medicare system but still allowed to choose their own plan.

• Currently as a Californian, you can only buy a health insurance plan approved by the state of California. Under the Patient's Choice Act, you would be free to pick from any of the over 1,300 medical insurance plans offered around the country. State based insurance exchanges will make sure that you cannot be cancelled for illness, and that pre-existing conditions will not interfere with our choices, in the same way that fire insurance is available to those who live in high fire risk areas today.

• Basically this legislation will allow unlimited contributions to a health savings account so that Americans can save for their own health care costs on a pre-tax basis.

• Litigation costs are a huge driver of medical costs. This bill would replace the court system with state based dispute resolution mechanisms for most claims, thereby saving a great deal of money in the system.

• Creates transparency through a public/private partnership to disclose cost, quality, and outcomes of various plans and providers.

• It also instills accountability into existing federal wellness and prevention programs to encourage more disease prevention activities and thereby lower costs.

• This bill will cost a grand total of $0 and will increase taxes by $0. It is revenue and cost neutral to the current system.

Click Here for the text of the legislation

Below are some of my links regarding health care:

A Right to Health Care? - OCRegister Editorial

From Congressman John Campbell's Laptop to Yours - Monday July 20, 2009

President Obama has Mislead us on Healthcare - The Greeneyeshade Blog

From Congressman John Campbell's Laptop to Yours - Monday July 27, 2009

Community Commentary - Health Plan Won't Help Americans - Daily Pilot

Confounding America's Ideals - Washington Times Editorial

President Obama's Socialized Medicine Package

The proposals we have seen from President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Harry Reid on healthcare reform represent some of the worst public policy I have seen in my entire public career. Socialized health care that raises taxes, rations care and increases costs isn't what most Americans have in mind. I stand in firm opposition to the current government-run healthcare proposal and will work diligently to ensure that Americans are not saddled with a system that will ultimately reduce the quality of your healthcare, raises taxes, and hamper the relationship between doctors and their patients.

On the whole, we will have government-only medicine with the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the DMV. Below I have included a graph which doesn't need any explanation, except for that this socialized health care plan will be a mess.

Here is a quick run-down of some of the most frightening provisions:

• It makes it illegal to purchase your own private health insurance after the bill is enacted and will in effect, transition virtually everyone to government care within 5 years. See Section 102, on Page 16 of H.R. 3200

• The bill raises taxes on "the rich" but also creates new taxes on small businesses and individuals who do not have health insurance. After the tax increase, the top tax rate for a resident of California will be over 57%, which makes it the highest income tax rate in the industrialized world (Sweden is 56%).

• It will increase the overall cost of health care in the country by trillions of dollars. Even the Democrat appointed head of the Congressional Budget Office had to admit that there is no evidence that the plan will lower the cost of health care as the President has asserted.

• Current estimates project that there will be nearly 5 million additional jobs that will disappear nationwide, as a result of the plan.

• As many as 114 million Americans could lose their current coverage under the bill, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group.

• Doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers will be paid even less than they are currently being paid by Medicare or Medicaid, which will bankrupt many.

• A government bureaucracy will determine whether you are allowed to receive treatments or medicines, and sometimes, as happens in other socialized countries, whether you are allowed to live or die.

• It does not deal with the bankruptcy of the Medicare system or Social Security so those problems continue, but the taxes said to balance them will have been spent on this.

• And, it will not even cover everybody with insurance, so it won't even fix what it is supposed to fix.

Rep John Campbell

Additional Facts:

• We are being told over and over again by the administration that the GOP and moderate democrats have no alternative plans or input. If you watched the president’s joint session speech, at least half of the Republicans and Blue Dogs were holding up copies of alternate healthcare plans or at least needed amendments to HR 3200 that Nancy Pelosi and her liberal cronies are trying to push down our throats.
• Before the recess Obama said that he would glad to sit with anyone/group (Rep or Senator) who wanted to and go over the bills or portions of the bills being proposed, line by line. He said again during the joint session speech that his door was open to anyone with viable alternative suggestions and input to the plans being shoved down our throats. UNTRUE!!! He has not met with or invited a single Republican to the White House since last April and refuses to return their calls. (Congressmen Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA & former physician) authors of the Patient's Choice Act have called and written the White House several times for a meeting (as well as many other Re;publicans) and the WH has not even acknowledged their request to meet with the president let alone set an appointment.)
• Universal Health = less docs - A new Investor’s Business Daily Poll revealed that if the healthcare bill passes, 45% of doctors will quit. Wow, what overwhelming support from the medical community. It's probably just because those greedy, evil doctors know the gig is up on their amputations for cash scheme. Another poll by Fox News/Health shows that 65% of all doctors oppose ObamaCare and another 15% are on the fence against or just not talking.
• Journalist and author T.R. Reid set out on a global tour of hospitals and doctors' offices, all in the hopes of understanding how other industrialized nations provide affordable, effective universal health care. The result: his book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. Reid is a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post — in whose pages he recently addressed five major myths about other countries' health-care systems — and the former chief of the paper's London and Tokyo bureaus. He was the lead correspondent for Frontline’s Sick Around the World.
  1. Germany offer’s healthcare to everyone for half our cost (approximately $770 per month and employers pay half), using “private insurance companies” of their choice that are heavily regulated… but no government-run healthcare, public option or co-ops. Their Healthcare is portable and they can change carriers at any time.
  2. Insurance companies in the U.S. charge more for services for less than in any other country in the world. 20% compared to an average of 5 to 5.5%, as low as 4% in some countries.
  3. In Switzerland, if you insurance company does not pay our bills within 5-days, your next month’s premium is free.
• The Baucus Bill is the same old same old…
  1. A government-run Co-op which is just another name for a Public Option
  2. Half a trillion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Baby-boomers (born between 1946 to 1964) are retiring in record numbers. The need is going up; it won’t drop. No major provisions for clean up of fraud and waste within those systems. Medicaid costs will be pushed onto the states. And the results cannot end up any other way than rationing care for seniors.
  3. The 8 trillion dollar cost (average estimate) is a fantasy. Huge amounts of the cost estimates are just that: estimates of possible savings over the next 10-yrs. Again, estimates without a plan and a track record of just the opposite, while Medicaid costs will be transferred to broke states and Also, many of the programs in the Baucus bill and others won’t start until 2013. If they did the cost would be 1.5 Trillion+, and you know that everything the government runs costs twice their estimates.
  4. Everyone (people who can’t afford healthcare now) will be forced to purchase healthcare of pay the government a penalty of $3,800 to $4,000. Right now the average estimates of the monthly healthcare costs will be $1,300 (rent payment for many in the U.S.).
  5. Many employers will drop their employees’ HC, forcing them into the government-run co-op which will ultimately equal a strong public option and ultimately total government-run “sub-standard” healthcare (just look at Veteran’s Benefits, the Reservation System, the Financial state of Medicare and Medicaid… and everything else the government runs (Social Security, the Post Office, Fanny and Freddie, etc etc Employers will be fined if they do not offer their employees HC, but the fine will still be less than the cost or providing the coverage. Especially in an economic climate like we have today no good businessman or small business owner will be able to choose covering their employees for long.
  6. And the list goes on…
• CBO – Doug Holz-Eaken (former CBO Director) says that the Baucus Bill was written (engineered) in a way that is favorable to the parameters or method used to score bills. Also… does anyone wonder why after the White House invited the present CBO Director for a small group visit or chat that they have received favorable scorings after the original thumbs down on HR 3200.
• If there is not “serious” focus and specifics in the bill addressing “Tort Reform”, and there isn’t, this is not a legitimate offer… Charles Krauthammer.
• There are many hidden taxes in the bill which will be used to payoff insurance companies.

WE REALLY MUST BEGIN TO BE HONEST WITH OURSELVES BY LOOKING AT THE FACTS: THE GOAL OF OBAMACARE (ALL BILLS PRESENTLY BEING CONSIDERED) IS PUSHING THIS COUNTRY INTO A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMNT-RUN HEALTHCARE (SOCIALIZED MEDICINE) AND A POWER GRAB ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS WHO ARE REALLY PULLING OBAMA’S STRINGS!!!!!

These fears (or realities) are starting to be voiced from all directions: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Doctors themselves,

Senator Orin Hatch said today... the only way we can pay for the Baucus Bill or HR 3200 is with huge tax increases!

Please keep up the pressure on Congress!!

Call, Write, Email and Fax your Congressman & Senators and all the lefties and teeterers….!!!! Consistently.

• From Rep John Campbell’s Laptop to Yours – Aug 12 & 25 2009 & Daniel Hannan – There Will Be No Going Back
• Catastrophe
• The Healing of America
• Stop Paying the Crooks - A Must Read

Source: Daily Thought Pad – Cross Posted: Knowledge Creates Power

Posted: True Health is True Wealth

Details about HR 3200 -- Health Care Reform Bill

Always a good reminder. The Baucus Bill is out, but we already know that there will be at least a percentage of the things below in there and in other bills (some by different names or in different forms)… but once you let the ‘cow get her nose in the door’ it is only a matter of time that she gets in’!! (Just like with the government… especially this radically focused administration).

• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!

• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!

• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)

• Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.

• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.

• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.

• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.

• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)

• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules in order to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.

• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)

• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens

• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.

• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.

• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No “judicial review” is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.

• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.

• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.

• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.

• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll

• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll

• Page 167: Any individual who doesn't have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.

• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).

• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.

• Page 203: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Yes, it really says that.

• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected.

• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what speciality you have, you will all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)

• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc.

• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.

• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.

• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!

• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.

• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.

• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited from owning and investing in healthcare companies!

• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.

• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on “community” input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.

• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.

• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.

• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.

• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).

• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?

• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.

• Page 425: Goverment provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.

• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.

• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient’s health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.

• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.

• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.

• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.

• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.

• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

And let us always remember… Everything the government runs or has its hands in is a DISASTER or BROKE (or BOTH): Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans' Benefits & Affairs, Reservation Benefits & Affairs, the Post Office, etc etc

Health Care Bill: Baucus Bill in the Senate Finally Unveiled

Everyone is tired… but now is not the time to rest or back-off. it is time to step up the pressure!

Another thing to consider… Glenn Beck challenged

“56” – 56 Members of Gov’t in D.C. to or People in the Know to Step-Up… and No Legislation Until We Clean Up the Corruption

And no matter how or what happens, in the end, with the Health Care Reform… We as Americans need to remember who said what; who listened; who caved; who stood up, who sold out; and who voted how when we go to the voting booth in 2010 and 2012.

Posted: Ask Marion/ True Health Is True Wealth

Fascinating Perspective: Princess Diana's Death Offers Lessons for Health Care Debate, 12 Years Later

In Britain's Beloved Royal's Death, Experts Find Guidance in French Health System

The Mercedes 600 carrying Princess Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed was traveling more than 85 miles per hour when it hit a concrete pillar head-on in the Place D'Alma underpass, crumbling like an accordion.

A look back to the hours after the death of Princess Diana 10 years ago.

Both were killed, as well as the driver, Henri Paul -- later proven to have been under the influence of alcohol.

The Paris accident -- just before 12:30 a.m. local time 12 years ago today -- ended the life of one of Britain's most celebrated royals, unleashing a torrent of emotion in that historically stoic culture and catapulting Diana to near sainthood status.

In the days that followed, she was memorialized as the "People's Princess," as those devastated by her loss turned on the nation's out-of-touch monarchy, whom they blamed for her tragedy.

Conspiracy theories, all unsubstantiated, abounded. Had she been assassinated by the royal family so her estranged husband, Prince Charles, could marry his longtime love Camilla Parker-Bowles? Did the British Secret Intelligence Service bump her off because she was pregnant with Egyptian Fayed's Muslim child?

But the most baffling question was whether doctors could have done more to prevent Diana, 36, from dying.

The horrific accident illustrated the difference between the French and U.S. approaches to emergency care -- a relatively small piece of the French medical system, but deemed by some people to be the best in the world and often cited as a model for U.S. health care overhaul.

When rescue workers arrived, Diana was conscious, uttering, "My God" and "Leave me alone" to the swarming paparazzi. Although she had suffered internal injuries, she did not arrive at the Parisian hospital for 110 minutes -- too late for the surgery that some speculated could have saved her life.

Diana's last hour -- in cardiac arrest and bleeding to death -- was spent in a mobile medical unit parked a few hundred yards from Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where an emergency team followed French protocol and administered treatment at the scene of the accident and en route to the hospital.

At the time, many people surmised that had a U.S. ambulance responded, Diana would have been rushed to the nearest emergency room, where a full set of professionals and diagnostic equipment might have revived her.

Colloquially known as "scoop and run," the U.S. system is grounded in studies that show a trauma victim's best chance for survival is reaching the operating room within 10 minutes.

Under the French system, "stay and play," a fully equipped medical ambulance with a doctor stabilizes the patient and then directs him or her to a specialized hospital, even if it is miles away.

The scene of the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, in this file photo, her companion, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, Aug. 31, 1997. (Getty Images)

Car Crash Victims Served 24/7

"When a patient rolls into the American system, they have a level-one trauma center that runs 24/7, with every specialty and myriad resources for a patient in a car crash," said Dr. Preeti Jois-Bilowich, emergency room doctor at the University of Florida's Shands Hospital.

Two or three paramedics focus on the ABCs of first responder care: airway, breathing and circulation. Each state has different licensing requirements for its emergency workers and ambulance services.

In France, the government-run Service d'Aide Médicale d'Urgence (SAMU), or Emergency Medical Assistance Service, provides more uniform care, coordinating the mobile resuscitation units. Teams always include one doctor, usually an anesthesiologist or emergency room physician, and a driver who serves as a technician and a nurse paramedic.

In Diana's case, a doctor who was passing by was the first on the scene and called for the ambulance, which arrived in seven minutes. He saw no visible injuries and treated her for shock with oxygen.

Fayed and Paul both died at the scene and were taken directly to the mortuary.

The SAMU team spent an hour treating her in the tunnel. Then, following French emergency standards aimed at not further injuring the victim, they drove slowly to the hospital about 4 miles away.

Yards from the hospital, her blood pressure dropped and the ambulance stopped again to revive her.

Diana Delayed 110 Minutes Before Death

Diana didn't arrive until after 2 a.m. -- 1 hour and 45 minutes after the crash -- and underwent an emergency thoracotomy. Coroners pronounced her dead from hemorrhaging that resulted from major chest trauma and deceleration that caused a rupture of the left pulmonary vein.

Later, surgeons said that her heart had been displaced from the left to the right side of her chest.

In the 1998 book, "Death of a Princess," Time magazine reporters Thomas Sancton and Scott MacLeod were critical of the French system, arguing that Diana could have been saved in a hospital operating room. SAMU was so upset with the indictment, according to the authors, that they threatened to sue.

But Sancton and MacLeod later rescinded their theory, based on evaluations of the medical records, in a 2004 Vanity Fair piece on the British inquest into Diana's death.

"I have actually revised my conclusions based on a fascinating series of interviews with a trauma specialist in Houston," Sancton wrote in an e-mail to ABCNews.com. "The bottom line is, whatever the merits or demerits of the French emergency medical system, poor Diana was a goner from the beginning because of the particular nature of her deceleration injury."

Defenders of the French system say that major road accidents like Diana's represent only about 12 percent of all emergency calls. Most are falls, domestic accidents, cardiac arrests and neurological problems.

And even Jois-Bilowich of the University of Florida, who did her medical internship with SAMU in Paris in 2006, sees its advantages.

French Emergency Workers Treat and Leave

"A lot of time, you get to the scene and you realize you can treat the patient right there," she said. "You can reassess in about 20 minutes and probably leave. Somebody who has diabetes in the morning and didn't eat and had a hypoglycemic episode -- their sugar comes up and is good and you leave.

From left, Prince Charles, Prince Harry and Prince William look at floral tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales, outside Kensington Palace, in this Sept. 5, 1997, file photo in London, England. (Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)

Here, they get transported to the emergency department and adds one more patient to an already overburdened emergency room.

"In France, you have physicians available and you treat it right there," she said. "You take the drug bag to the scene, it has just about anything you can imagine. It's a mini-crash cart. It's kind of like a mobile emergency department, with limitations."

But those limitations can be significant without X-ray or sonogram capability onboard. Jois-Bilowich recalled one Paris call during her internship in which a man collapsed at an apartment construction site.

The team set up a mini-emergency room and, for 45 minutes, ran an EKG, did CPR and began medication for a heart attack.

Without full emergency room diagnostics, doctors had to make an educated guess on the drugs. They were right, he survived but, had he ruptured an aorta, the drugs could have caused more problems or death. "You make judgment calls," Jois-Bilowich said.

The French emergency care reflects the overall health attitudes of that nation -- delivering basic primary care and health education to everyone will mean fewer expensive emergency room visits and hospitalizations later on.

Amid the health care debate here, some Americans are taking notice.

The French, at 10.7 percent of the gross domestic product, spend less than Americans do on health care at 16 percent of their GDP, according to 2009 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development health data.

French Health Care Tops World

The World Health Organization recently rated the French system as the best in the world. By comparison, the United States rated 37th. The average life expectancy in France is 79.4 years, two years fewer than in the United States. (Hmmm… the average life expectancy in the U.S. is 81.5 years, two more years than France, and our style of emergency services, in true emergency/trauma situations is the best in the world, yet France is rated the top Health Care System… because it is cheaper? is that what healthcare and the Hippocratic oath is all about?) By the way, part of the new Obama Medical Reform is a process of watering down the Hippocratic Oath. Just makes you feel safe… and warm and fuzzy all over, doesn’t it?

Both countries are struggling with rising drug costs, aging populations and unemployment, but about 65 percent of all French citizens, compared with 40 percent of all Americans, are happy with their medical care, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The French can choose their own doctors, see specialists and have access to some of the most sophisticated research and medical technology in the world, according to Victor Rodwin, professor of health policy and management at New York University.

"The American and French system share similar dimensions," he told ABCNews.com. "They are both based on fee-for-service practices, there is a large element of private provision and they also have a small equivalent of the gap supplement insurance like Medicare. It's a public-private mix."

In France, everyone is covered, regardless of their ability to pay, with an emphasis on primary care to prevent long-term illness.

"What we do is quite different," Rodwin said. "We take care of people, but not everyone, and we do it once they get very sick. We take diabetics with flare-ups and asthmatics in the emergency room, but we don't do primary care or health education as well for the poor.

"Our population is much sicker compared to France," according to Rodwin, whose research finds that Americans have the highest rates of avoidable hospitalizations -- two and a half times higher than the French -- for treatable conditions like pneumonia, asthma, diabetes and congestive heart failure.

That's according to a 2008 study from the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment. "The French have a term -- solidarity," Rodwin said. "Since World War II, the system is grounded in the philosophy that everyone should have access to health care. That doesn't mean everyone is treated equally. There are those who are more educated or higher socio-economic groups that use more specialty care and probably have access to better quality care, but everyone has access to the minimum."

Mary, a freelance writer who did not want to use her last name, lives in Paris and is a "big booster of the French system."

The school nurse called the fire department after her son had an asthma attack several years ago.

"Soon after, I received a call from a doctor on the scene telling me exactly what was going on and what treatment Luke was getting at the school," she said. "He suggested taking Luke to the hospital for a few hours of observation, after which I could pick him up."

U.S. Emergency Rooms 'Tangle of Forms'

"I find the emergency room responses the most dramatic change from the U.S.," Mary said. "I've always had excellent health insurance in the U.S. and I've found every American emergency room visit a tangle as I fill out form after form and sign over my first born before anyone will even look at an injured or sick kid.

"Here, because everyone is insured, there's never any questions in hospitals that people will be treated, and treated quickly, because there's no worry someone's going to be stiffed with the bill."

Jois-Bilowich agreed that the French system is more cost-effective and that most people admitted to U.S. emergency rooms are treated and then released. But, she argues, the U.S. system of trauma care is superior.

As for the ill-fated accident that took the life of Diana, she won't venture a guess at what her outcome might have been in the United States, noting that even simple trauma cases can "crash" on the operating table.

"I, personally, really hate the retroscope," she said. "We weren't there and we didn't know the circumstances. Every patient is an individual human being and not a computer system, and so many things can confound what you think is a simple situation."

This does example, however, brings us back to the same end as much of the ObamaCare debate. In the end… with the good and bad, there is no better system than the American healthcare system. We survive and virtually everyone gets treated. The cost is too high because there is fraud in several arenas, too many frivolous lawsuits, Big Pharma and the AMA put money before patients is certain instances and line their pockets and they and the Insurance industry is not regulated enough in some areas, like being allowed to exclude people because of previous conditions and over regulated in other areas like not being able to sell insurance across state lines. But fixing those things and insuring everyone except illegals that are truly indigent and not paying for unnecessary elective surgeries and abortions is a heck of a lot cheaper than ObamaCare and keeps the government out of our lives (anymore than it already is) and the crucial medical decisions where they belong…. between doctors and patients and their families.

Let’s Start Over On Health Reform

No on ObamaCare – Yes on Incremental Common Sense Reform

• No public option of any kind (which includes the new buzz word co-ops, single-payer, or new government run program)
• No rationing
• No centralized government database of patients
• No coverage of illegals – we can’t afford it (and that will get rid of the need to supply free translations services, taxation of citizens and not illegals for services, and forcing ‘legal’ aliens into a government option)
• No abortions paid for by taxpayer money
• No cuts in Medicare and Medicaid
• No Mandatory End or Life or Duty to Die Discussion with the Elderly, Wounded Veterans or Parents of Special Needs Kids/People
• Yes on Tort Reform
• Yes on Fraud and Record Duplication reform of Medicare and Medicaid
• Yes on Fraud and Record Duplication Reform of Veterans and Reservation Programs
• Yes on Insurance Reform including No more Previous Condition Restrictions
• Yes on Inter-State Health Insurance Sales
• Yes on Allowing individuals, the self-employed and small businesses to form and join consortiums to qualify to buy insurance at lower group rates
• Yes - Payment System based on outcome instead of number of procedures
• Yes - Inclusion of coverage of natural supplements and holistic methods and procedures

Related Post:

• I Read the Health-Scare Bill & Obama Is Lying!

'STOP OBAMACARE' PETITION

HR-3200 - full report

I Read the Heath-Scare Bill & Obama Is Lying!

Concerned American to Concerned American:

Obama says "I am in the way" of his Health-Scare Bill because I have questions and concerns. Well Mr. Obama I have read your Health-Scare Bill and want to know why you are lying and not telling me what is in the bill. Saying one thing and writing another. Why are you scared, putting my Constitutional Right to Free Speech under attack, suppressing and censoring my concerns?

I AM NOT IN THE WAY!

Who am I? I am an American just like you. Americans in town hall meetings all across the country want to know what Obama the White House and Democrat Politicians in Washington are planning to do to their health.

What am I concerned about? A "government run" public insurance option that will destroy private insurance and the cost every American will pay in increased taxes.

What am I doing? I am on the front line to fight back against the media onslaught that calls Obama a god. We must have free and open communication of all the Health-Scare Bill information without government or government condoned private censorship.

TELL CONGRESS TO REJECT THE SOCIALIZED HEALTH SCARE
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!

"No government ought to be without censors, and where the press is free, If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defense. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting out the truth whether in religion, law or politics." - Thomas Jefferson 1792

I do not want a White House with conflicts of interest and a senior advisor to the president David Axelrod making millions from big players in the health care debate. Axelrod's old firm AKPD owes him $2 million, which it's due to pay in installments beginning Dec. 31. It is currently receiving huge fees "from Healthy Economy Now, a coalition that includes the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA," as well as AARP, the SEIU and others.

Here are a few of the shocking health controls per the Chosen One: Obama:

1. Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Government will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of atty. Mandatory! He will control your living wills
2. Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill - THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get (Unions are EXEMPTED)
3. Pg 42 of HC Bill - The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC Benefits for you. You have no choice! Government, not you, will decide what health care you are allowed.
4. PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise Obama wants illegal aliens covered, with YOU paying
5. Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Only Americans will pay) Illegal aliens get health care FREE.
6. Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Doctors, doesn't matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same Government gets to set pay rates-this guarantees fewer specialized doctors, mandating a lower quality of care.
7. PG 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS - Cancer patients - welcome to rationing! City of Hope and other cancer hospitals controlled by government--very young and elderly, due to other parts of Obamacare, will be forced to die since they will not be allowed health care.
8. They will teach you to die. PG 425 Lines 4-12 Government mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens and end of life.
9. They will stop assistance to special needs children. Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people!

What type of society in the past operated like this--killing the young, the elderly, and the special needs? This is not health care; it is Obama's version of "A Heath Scare".

"Government has laid its hand on health, housing, farming, industry, commerce, education, and to an ever-increasing degree interferes with the people's right to know. Government tends to grow, government programs take on weight and momentum as public servants say, always with the best of intentions. But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or economically as the private sector of the economy." - President Ronald Reagan

Lagging in the poles and losing support Obama has called for Obamites in local communities to lobby for Socialized and Rationed Health Care.
Obama believes that home is where the radically liberal administration of Barack Hussein Obama is strongest. But Americans do not agree with him or socialized healthcare and the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that not only are Obama's disapproval ratings soaring but support for his health care plan is now less than 46 percent, a new low.

He claims that our grass roots effort to inform all Americans of the true cost of his plan are full of those who profit from the status quo, or see this debate as a political game, and they will stop at nothing to block reform. Obama is not addressing the bold face lies of his plan documented by FactCheck.org and instead says you are filling the airwaves and the internet with outrageous falsehoods to scare people into opposing change.

Obama is very nervous that our campaign of truth about the health care is working. He claims that some people, not surprisingly, are getting pretty nervous, as well they should. So Obama says he wants his socialist movement to "get out there, fight lies with truth, and set the record straight."

Folks that is what AmeriPAC has been doing all along setting the record strait. We believe you are entitled to know everything in this bill and how much you stand to lose and how much it will cost you.

Be sure you counter Party Obamites, tell everyone the truth about this bad bill, and make certain your members of Congress know that you're counting on them to act and STOP THIS BILL.

But we have a chance TODAY to stop them as well!

TELL CONGRESS TO REJECT THE SOCIALIZED HEALTH SCARE
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!

More than 88 million Americans could LOSE their private, employer-based coverage, according to a new analysis of "The American Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" released this week by The Heritage Foundation.

While Obama, Pelosi and Reid insist that "if you like your health insurance coverage, you'll get to keep it," it's now very clear: once again, THEY'RE LYING.

Is THIS "change we can believe in"??? NO -- and that means WE have to take action NOW!

We can't AFFORD Obama's plan to socialize health care in America!
How can anyone in Congress vote for a new entitlement program for health care when Congress has not even begun to face up to this unfunded liabilities problem?
Well, they're trying to -- but WE can stop them, with YOUR help!

We CANNOT let the radical liberals in Congress -- and the White House -- force this plan for socialized health care on the American people! That's why we've set up our website to enable you to send a strong message to every single member of Congress, in both Houses, OPPOSING this outrageous plan.

For about what it would cost you in time and telephone charges, you can send Blast Faxes to Democrats, Republicans, Independents -- EVERYONE in the U.S. House AND the U.S. Senate, DEMANDING that they REJECT this socialized health care plan NOW!
Can it work? Can we stop Congress from forcing this down our throats, even though the GOP is in the minority?

YES -- thanks to "blue dog Democrats," who are more conservative than their "leaders" like Pelosi and Reid. Already, they've been holding up the bill in committee; now, they're saying that Pelosi might not have the votes she needs in the House! And on the Senate side, thanks to the overwhelming opposition of the American people to this bill, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, was overheard jokingly telling House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, "let me tell you, praying might be helpful here."

TELL CONGRESS TO REJECT THE SOCIALIZED HEALTH SCARE
SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!

Please, take action right away to STOP this bill dead in its tracks!
For more information, click here.
Defend America,

Alan Gottlieb
AmeriPAC
President and Founder

P.S. America needs health care reform. But new government programs, mandates, and price controls would deny patients control over their most important and personal medical decisions -- and it's "reform" that we cannot afford.

THIS ATTEMPT BY LIBERALS IS OUTRAGEOUS -- and it MUST be stopped! Send your faxes right away to make sure these Senators get a STRONG message, to REJECT the socialized plan of "Obamacare" NOW -- Thank you!

TELL CONGRESS TO REJECT THE SOCIALIZED HEALTH SCARE

SEND YOUR FAXES NOW!

Please make checks payable to AmeriPAC:
American Political Action Committee (AmeriPAC)
PO Box 1682
Dept Code 2907
Bellevue, WA 98009-1682

Paid for by AmeriPAC, a federally-authorized and qualified multicandidate political action committee. Contributions to AmeriPAC will be used in connection with federal elections. Maximum contribution per individual per calendar year is $5,000. Contributions from foreign nationals and corporations are prohibited. Contributions are not deductible for federal income tax purposes.

Posted: Daily Thought Pad – Cross-Posted: Knowledge Creates Power

For those of you who have followed our blogs, Daily Thought Pad, Knowledge Creates Power and some others we contribute to have known that these items and more undesirable items are in the health care and associated bills. But those of you who are new readers or who just wanted to believe that it wasn’t so… here it is again from another source, AmeriPac

If you do not want AmeriPac to send your faxes, below is the contact information for you to fax, call and email directly and then mail them out to… so as many legislators as you can!!

No ObamaCare

No Cap and Trade

No Additional Stimulus Bills and Give Us Back Whatever Hasn’t Been Spent

No Rockefeller-Snowe Cybersecurity Bill

No More New Legislation Until we stop the free fall of our Economy

Get Rid of the Czars

No Fairness Doctrine, Localism or any Other Restriction of Radio or TV

Leave Our Freedoms Alone

No Additional Gun Control Legislation

No Cash For Appliances

No Middle Class Tax Increases

Support Our Allies

Fight Our Enemies

Stop Apologizing for the United States

Govern by and Enforce the U.S. Constitution!!

And anything else you want to add…

Call the switchboard for Congress in Washington today... your Senator, your Congressperson and Nancy Pelosi and tell them "NO on ObamaCare, NO on Cap and Trade" & NO on the Carbon Tax!!!

1-202-224-3121- Switchboard - House

1-202-225-3121- Switchboard - Senate

(202) 225-0100 - Speaker of the House Pelosi

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
http://speaker.house.gov/contact or http://www.speaker.gov/contact

Info for Senators, Find Senators from your State.

Call the White House at 202-456-1111 & tell President Obama you have had enough!

And if you can Join up with the Tea Party Express as it passes your area:

Join the Tea Party Express

Tea Party Express Tour Schedule

or better yet… See You in Washington D.C. on 9/12

Related Resources:

• Free Our Health Care Now - Petition
• 'STOP OBAMACARE' PETITION
• HR-3200 - full report

  Other Breakdown Articles of HR-3200 Bill

• DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE 1000 PAGE HEALTH CARE PLAN BY AND ATTORNEY & DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF LAW
• *Letter to Your Congress Person on Health Care (Obamacare) HR3200
• *A Look at What is Really in the Health Care Bill (HR 3200): Chilling!

Why Won’t ABC and NBC Run This Ad?

ABC, NBC Won't Air Ad Critical of Obama's Health Care Plan

The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama's health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot -- particularly in light of ABC's health care special aired in prime time last June hosted at the White House

The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama's health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot -- particularly in light of ABC's health care special aired in prime time last June and hosted at the White House.

The 33-second ad by the League of American Voters, which features a neurosurgeon who warns that a government-run health care system will lead to the rationing of procedures and medicine, began airing two weeks ago on local affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. On a national level, however, ABC and NBC have refused to run the spot in its present form.

"It's a powerful ad," said Bob Adams, executive director of the League of American Voters, a national nonprofit group with 15,000 members who advocate individual liberty and government accountability. "It tells the truth and it really highlights one of the biggest vulnerabilities and problems with this proposed legislation, which is it rations health care and disproportionately will decimate the quality of health care for seniors."

Adams said the advertisement is running on local network affiliates in states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Maine and Pennsylvania. But although CBS has approved the ad for national distribution and talks are ongoing with FOX, NBC has questioned some of the ad's facts while ABC has labeled it "partisan."

"The ABC Television Network has a long-standing policy that we do not sell time for advertising that presents a partisan position on a controversial public issue," spokeswoman Susan Sewell said in a written statement. "Just to be clear, this is a policy for the entire network, not just ABC News."

NBC, meanwhile, said it has not turned down the ad and will reconsider it with some revisions.

"We have not rejected the ad," spokeswoman Liz Fischer told FOXNews.com. "We have communicated with the media agency about some factual claims that require additional substantiation. As always, we are happy to reconsider the ad once these issues are addressed."

Adams objects to ABC's assertion that his group's position is partisan.

"It's a position that we would argue a vast majority of Americans stand behind," he said. "Obviously, it's a message that ABC and the Obama administration haven't received yet."

Dick Morris, a FOX News political analyst and the League of American Voters' chief strategist, conceptualized the advertisement and said its purpose was to "refocus" the debate on health care reform.

"I feel the whole debate on health care reform needed to be refocused on the issue of Medicare," he told FOXNews.com. "Most of the debate had been on issues of socialized medicine and cost. I felt that the impact of the legislation in cutting the Medicare program and enforcing rationing needed to be addressed."

Morris, a onetime advisor to former President Bill Clinton, said he was particularly troubled by ABC's decision not to air the spot.

"It's the ultimate act of chutzpah because ABC is the network that turned itself over completely to Obama for a daylong propaganda fest about health care reform," he said. "For them to be pious and say they will not accept advertising on health care shuts their viewers out from any possible understanding of both sides of this issue."

By Joshua Rhett Miller - FOXNews.com

Posted: True Health Is True Wealth

Related Resources:

• ObamaCare and me – Doctor Zane F. Pollard, MD
• Prescription for Truth – Daniel Hannan From England: HealthCare Worse for Elderly
• Unease in Britain Following Assisted Suicides
• Overhauling health-care system tops agenda at annual meeting of Canada's doctors
• Healthcare: Does Canada Do It Better?
• Canadian Health Officials: Our Universal Health Care Is 'Sick,' Private Insurance Should Be Welcomed
• Outcry Over Vets’ ‘End of Life Care’
• Click here to read the "Your Life, Your Choices" guide.
• Woman in Oregon Told Healthcare Would Not Pay for Cancer Treatment But Would Pay for Assisted Suicide… Welcome to Government Controlled Healthcare
• Video: Oregon says no to chemotherapy, offers assisted suicide instead
• Dr. & Rep Tom Price: Americans Need Patient-Centered Reform, Not Democrats’ Costly Government Takeover of Health Care
• Senator Lieberman: Postpone Universal Healthcare
• Rep. Tom Price (former physician) Admonishes Government Takeover of Healthcare
• Kristol: Kill It, And Start Over
• Obamacare: Beware the Rhetoric
• No Turning Back from Obamacare
• Catastrophe

ObamaCare and me – Doctor Zane F. Pollard, MD – For Anyone Who Still Doesn’t Believe in Rationing and Death Panels if ObamaCare Passes

I have been sitting quietly on the sidelines watching all of this national debate on healthcare. It is time for me to bring some clarity to the table by explaining many of the problems from the perspective of a doctor.

First off, the government has involved very few of us physicians in the healthcare debate. While the American Medical Association has come out in favor of the plan, it is vital to remember that the AMA only represents 17% of the American physician workforce.

I have taken care of Medicaid patients for 35 years while representing the only pediatric ophthalmology group left in Atlanta, Georgia that accepts Medicaid. For example, in the past 6 months I have cared for three young children on Medicaid who had corneal ulcers. This is a potentially blinding situation because if the cornea perforates from the infection, almost surely blindness will occur. In all three cases the antibiotic needed for the eradication of the infection was not on the approved Medicaid list.

Each time I was told to fax Medicaid for the approval forms, which I did. Within 48 hours the form came back to me which was sent in immediately via fax, and I was told that I would have my answer in 10 days. Of course by then each child would have been blind in the eye.

Each time the request came back denied. All three times I personally provided the antibiotic for each patient which was not on the Medicaid approved list. Get the point -- rationing of care.

Over the past 35 years I have cared for over 1000 children born with congenital cataracts. In older children and in adults the vision is rehabilitated with an intraocular lens. In newborns we use contact lenses which are very expensive. It takes Medicaid over one year to approve a contact lens post cataract surgery. By that time a successful anatomical operation is wasted as the child will be close to blind from a lack of focusing for so long a period of time.

Again, extreme rationing. Solution: I have a foundation here in Atlanta supported 100% by private funds which supplies all of these contact lenses for my Medicaid and illegal immigrants children for free. Again, waiting for the government would be disastrous.

Last week I had a lady bring her child to me. They are Americans but live in Sweden, as the father has a job with a big corporation. The child had the onset of double vision 3 months ago and has been unable to function normally because of this. They are people of means but are waiting 8 months to see the ophthalmologist in Sweden. Then if the child needed surgery they would be put on a 6 month waiting list. She called me and I saw her that day. It turned out that the child had accommodative esotropia (crossing of the eyes treated with glasses that correct for farsightedness) and responded to glasses within 4 days, so no surgery was needed. Again, rationing of care.

Last month I operated on a 70 year old lady with double vision present for 3 years. She responded quite nicely to her surgery and now is symptom free. I also operated on a 69 year old judge with vertical double vision. His surgery went very well and now he is happy as a lark. I have been told -- but of course there is no healthcare bill that has been passed yet -- that these 2 people because of their age would have been denied surgery and just told to wear a patch over one eye to alleviate the symptoms of double vision. Obviously cheaper than surgery.

I spent two years in the US Navy during the Viet Nam war and was well treated by the military. There was tremendous rationing of care and we were told specifically what things the military personnel and their dependents could have and which things they could not have. While I was in Viet Nam, my wife Nancy got sick and got essentially no care at the Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. She went home and went to her family's private internist in Beverly Hills. While it was expensive, she received an immediate work up. Again rationing of care.

For those of you who are over 65, this bill in its present form might be lethal for you. People in Britain face rationing of care in that there is an eight month wait for cataract surgery, 11 for hernia and the same for disc and total hip The government wants to mimic the British plan. For those of you younger, it will still mean restriction of the care that you and your children receive.

While 99% of physicians went into medicine because of the love of medicine and the challenge of helping our fellow man, economics are still important. My rent goes up 2% each year and the salaries of my employees go up 2% each year. Twenty years ago, ophthalmologists were paid $1800 for a cataract surgery and today $500. This is a 73% decrease in our fees. I do not know of many jobs in America that have seen this sort of lowering of fees.

But there is more to the story than just the lower fees. When I came to Atlanta, there was a well known ophthalmologist that charged $2500 for a cataract surgery as he felt the was the best. He had a terrific reputation and in fact I had my mother's bilateral cataracts operated on by him with a wonderful result. She is now 94 and has 20/20 vision in both eyes. People would pay his $2500 fee.

However, then the government came in and said that any doctor that does Medicare work cannot accept more than the going rate ( now $500) or he or she would be severely fined. This put an end to his charging $2500. The government said it was illegal to accept more than the government-allowed rate. What I am driving at is that those of you well off will not be able to go to the head of the line under this new healthcare plan, just because you have money, as no physician will be willing to go against the law to treat you.

I am a pediatric ophthalmologist and trained for 10 years post-college to become a pediatric ophthalmologist (add two years of my service in the Navy and that comes to 12 years). A neurosurgeon spends 14 years post-college, and if he or she has to do the military that would be 16 years. I am not entitled to make what a neurosurgeon makes, but the new plan calls for all physicians to make the same amount of payment. I assure you that medical students will not go into neurosurgery and we will have a tremendous shortage of neurosurgeons. Already, the top neurosurgeon at my hospital who is in good health and only 52 years old has just quit because he can't stand working with the government anymore. Forty-nine percent of children under the age of 16 in the state of Georgia are on Medicaid, so he felt he just could not stand working with the bureaucracy anymore.

We are being lied to about the uninsured. They are getting care. I operate at least 2 illegal immigrants each month who pay me nothing, and the children's hospital at which I operate charges them nothing also. This is true not only on Atlanta, but of every community in America.

The bottom line is that I urge all of you to contact your congresswomen and congressmen and senators to defeat this bill. I promise you that you will not like rationing of your own health.

Furthermore, how can you trust a physician that works under these conditions knowing that he is controlled by the state. I certainly could not trust any doctor that would work under these draconian conditions.

One last thing: with this new healthcare plan there will be a tremendous shortage of physicians. It has been estimated that approximately 5% of the current physician work force will quit under this new system. Also it is estimated that another 5% shortage will occur because of the decreased number of men and women wanting to go into medicine. At the present time the US government has mandated gender equity in admissions to medical schools .That means that for the past 15 years that somewhere between 49 and 51% of each entering class are females. This is true of private schools also, because all private schools receive federal funding.

The average career of a woman in medicine now is only 8-10 years and the average work week for a female in medicine is only 3-4 days. I have now trained 35 fellows in pediatric ophthalmology. Hands down the best was a female that I trained 4 years ago -- she was head and heels above all others I have trained. She now practices only 3 days a week.

(Now there will also be mandated racial equity in admissions… rather than admissions based on ability).

By Zane F Pollard, MD – American Thinker

Background: Dr. Zane F. Pollard
I did my undergraduate work at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. I graduated Tulane University medical School Alpha Omega Alpha ( medical school's top 10% of graduating class). Internship at the Univ. of Southern California in Los Angeles, one year of General surgery residency at the U. of California in San Francisco. Two years in the US Navy. Residency in Ophthalmology at the U.of S. California in Los Angeles, fellowship in pediatric Ophthalmology at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. In practice with Eye Consultants of Atlanta for the past 35 years. Published 90 papers in peer reviewed Scientific Ophthalmology Journals. Member of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Ophthalmological Society. Board certified in Ophthalmology.

-----------------

Barbara Wagner wanted to live, but Oregon Government-Run Healthcare would not pay for her cancer treatments. What they would do, was give her the meds for assisted suicide.

Video: Oregon says no to chemotherapy, offers assisted suicide instead

Read Full Story: Woman in Oregon Told Healthcare Would Not Pay for Cancer Treatment But Would Pay for Assisted Suicide… Welcome to Government Controlled Healthcare

---------------

Over the weekend the Veteran’s Manual was exposed

Full Article: Outcry Over Vets’ ‘End of Life Care’

Click here to read the "Your Life, Your Choices" guide.

------------------

IT'S ALL A DEATH PANEL: THE TRUTH ABOUT OBAMACARE

Washington is all atwitter about "death panels": President Obama derides the idea that his health-care reform calls for them; the Senate is stripping "end of life" counseling language from its bill -- and last Friday the voice of the liberal establishment, The New York Times, ran a Page One story "rebutting" the rumor that ObamaCare would create such boards to decide when to pull the plug on elderly patients.

But all those protests miss the fundamental truth of the "death panel" charge.

Even without a federal board voting on whom to kill, ObamaCare will ration care extensively, leading to the same result. This follows inevitably from central features of the president's plan.
Specifically, his decisions to (1) pay for reform with vast cuts in the Medicare budget and (2) grant insurance coverage to 50 million new people, vastly boosting demand without increasing the supply of doctors, nurses or other care providers.

Whether or not he admits it even to himself, Obama's talk of cutting "inefficiencies" and reducing costs translates to less care, of lower quality, for the elderly. Every existing national health system finds ways to deny state-of-the-art medications and necessary surgical procedures to countless patients, and ObamaCare has the nascent mechanisms to do the same. With the limited options that Obama's vision would leave them, many will find that "end of life counseling" necessary and even welcome.

"Reform" would cut care to the elderly in several ways:
* Slash hundreds of billions from Medicare spending, largely by lowering reimbursement rates to doctors and hospitals for patient care.

If a hospital gets less money for each MRI, it will do fewer of them. If a surgeon gets paid less for a heart bypass on a Medicare patient, he'll perform them more rarely. These facts of the marketplace are not only inevitable consequences of Obama's cuts but are also its intended consequence. Without them, his savings will prove illusory.
* Expanding the patient load by extending full coverage to 50 million Americans (including such "Americans" as illegal immigrants) without boosting the supply of care will force rationing decisions on harried and overworked doctors and hospitals.

People with insurance use a lot more health-care resources -- so today's facilities and personnel will have to cope with the increased workload. Busy surgeons will have to decide who would benefit most from their treatment -- de facto rationing. The elderly will, inevitably, be the losers.

* The Federal Health Board, established by this legislation, will be charged with collecting data on various forms of treatment for different conditions to assess which are the most effective and efficient. While the bills don't force providers to obey the board's "guidance," its recommendations will still wind up setting the standards and protocols for care system-wide.

We've already seen Medicare and Medicaid lead a similar race to the bottom with their formularies and other regulations. With Washington dictating what every policy must cover and regulating all rates, insurers and providers will all have to follow the FHB's advice on limiting care to the elderly -- a de facto rationing system.
* In assessing whether to allow certain treatments to a given patient, medical professionals will be encouraged to apply the Quality-Adjusted Remaining Years system. Under QARY, decision-makers seek to "amortize" the cost of treatment over the remaining "quality years of life" likely for that patient.
Imagine a hip replacement costing $100,000 and the 75-year-old who needs it, a diabetic with a heart condition deemed to have just three "quality" years left. That works out to $33,333 a year -- too steep! Surgery disallowed! (Unless of course, the patient has political connections . . . )

Younger, healthier patients would still get the surgery, of course. The QARY system simply aims to deny health care to the oldest and most infirm, "scientifically" condemning them to infirmity, pain and earlier death than would otherwise be their fate.

In short, ObamaCare doesn't need to set up "death panels" to make retail decisions about ending the lives of individual patients. The whole "reform" scheme is one giant death panel in its own right.

Order a copy of Catastrophe

In Britain, there is a total dollar amount that government will pay for each person.

• Prescription for Truth – Daniel Hannan From England: HealthCare Worse for Elderly
• Unease in Britain Following Assisted Suicides

Canadian Healthcare is going Bust…

The new president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Anne Doig, has made comments that indicate that Canada's public run healthcare system is running on empty.

We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize...We know that there must be change...We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands.

These comments come as the outgoing CMA President Dr. Robert Ouellet, is expected to report that Canada's government-run system needs to become more patient-centered.

Related Resources:

• Canadian Health Officials: Our Universal Health Care Is 'Sick,' Private Insurance Should Be Welcomed

• Overhauling health-care system tops agenda at annual meeting of Canada's doctors
• Healthcare: Does Canada Do It Better?

• And the list goes on… The more time we have to study ObamaCare and other government run healthcare systems, the more negative and scary information keeps surfacing.

Posted: TrueHealthIsTrueWealth

Sign The: 'STOP OBAMACARE' PETITION

No turning back from Obamacare

Even a watered-down version of Obama's plan would shift the country permanently to the left.

My conservative friends – and even a few media liberals – are agreed: The bloom is off the Obama rose. He's not the Obamessiah, just another 50 percent president. He tried to do too much too fast, and his numbers are sinking. The Europeanization of health care is dead. Fuhgeddabouddit.

I wouldn't be so sure. President Barack Obama has no choice but to move fast, in part because the image he presented during the campaign – a post-partisan, post-racial, post-anything-unpleasant-and-controversial pragmatic centrist – was a total crock. He has a vast transformative domestic agenda and, because most of its elements are not terribly popular, he has to accomplish it at speed or he won't get it done at all.

Health care "reform"? As we've seen this past week in the House of Representatives, put not your trust in "Blue Dog Democrats." And, as we'll no doubt see in the weeks ahead in the Senate, put not your trust in "moderate Republicans" whose urge to "reach across the aisle" is so reflexive it ought to be covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The president needs to get something passed. Anything. The details don't matter. Once it's in place, health care "reform" can be re-reformed endlessly. Indeed, you'll be surprised how little else we talk about. So, for example, public funding for abortions can be discarded now, and written in – as it surely will be by some judge – down the road. What matters is to ram it through, get it done, pass it now – in whatever form.

If this seems a perverse obsession for a nation with a weak economy, rising unemployment and a war on two fronts, it has a very sound strategic logic behind it. As I wrote in National Review a week or two back, health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. That's its attraction for an ambitious president: It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in a way that hands all the advantages to statists – to those who believe government has a legitimate right to regulate human affairs in every particular.

That's not why it's tanking in the polls, of course. It's floundering because Obama sold it initially on the basis of "controlling costs," and then the Congressional Budget Office let the cat out of the bag and pointed out that, au contraire, it would cost $1.6 trillion, and therefore either add to an unsustainable deficit, or require massive tax increases, or (more likely) both.

All of which is true. But to object to the governmentalization of health care on that basis implicitly concedes the argument that, if we could figure out a way to bring the price down, it would be fine and dandy. Right now, there are a lot of wonkish and utilitarian objections to what the Democrats want to do, and they're gaining traction. In The American Spectator, Brandon Crocker points out that this is exactly the way things went over Hillarycare in 1993: Americans took against the plan on practical grounds but not against the underlying principle. "Since we did not win that philosophical argument in 1993," Mr. Crocker writes, "we now have to fight the same battle today." And, if we win on utilitarian grounds today, we'll have to fight it again in 10 years, five years, maybe less – until something passes, and then everything changes, forever: As the IRA famously taunted Margaret Thatcher, we only have to get lucky once; you have to be lucky every day.

On the price tag: It's often argued that, as a proportion of GDP, America spends more on health care than countries with government medical systems. But, as a point of fact, "America" doesn't spend anything on health care: Hundreds of millions of people make hundreds of millions of individual decisions about what they're going to spend on health care. Whereas up north a handful of bureaucrats determine what Canada will spend on health care – and that's that: Health care is a government budget item. If Joe Hoser in Moose Jaw wants to increase Canada's health care spending by $500 drawn from his savings account, he can't: The law prevents it. Unless, as many Canadians do, he drives south and spends it in a U.S. hospital for treatment he can't get in a timely manner in his own country.

You can make the "controlling costs" argument about anything: After all, it's no surprise that millions of free people freely choosing how they spend their own money will spend it in different ways than government bureaucrats would be willing to license on their behalf. America spends more per capita on food than Zimbabwe. America spends more on vacations than North Korea. America spends more on lap-dancing than Saudi Arabia (well, officially). Canada spends more per capita on doughnuts than America, and, given comparative girths, Canucks are clearly not getting as much bang for the buck. Why doesn't Ottawa introduce a National Doughnut Licensing Agency? You'd still see your general dispenser for simple procedures like a lightly sugared cruller but he'd refer you to a specialist if you needed, say, a maple-frosted custard, and it would only be a six-month wait, at the end of which you'd receive a stale cinnamon roll. Under government regulation, eventually every doughnut would be all hole and no doughnut, and the problem would be solved. Even if the hole costs $1.6 trillion.

How did the health-care debate decay to the point where we think it entirely natural for the central government to fix a collective figure for what 300 million freeborn citizens ought to be spending on something as basic to individual liberty as their own bodies?

That's the argument that needs to be won. And, if you think I'm being frivolous in positing bureaucratic regulation of doughnuts and vacations, consider that under the all-purpose umbrellas of "health" and "the environment," governments of supposedly free nations are increasingly comfortable straying into areas of diet and leisure. Last year, a British bill attempted to ban Tony the Tiger, longtime pitchman for Frosties, from children's TV because of his malign influence on young persons. Why not just ban Frosties? Or permit it by prescription only? Or make kids stand outside on the sidewalk to eat it? It was also proposed – by the Conservative Party, alas – that, in the interests of saving the planet, each citizen should be permitted to fly a certain number of miles a year, after which he would be subject to punitive eco-surtaxes. Isn't restricting freedom of movement kind of, you know … totalitarian?

Freedom is messy. In free societies, people will fall through the cracks – drink too much, eat too much, buy unaffordable homes, fail to make prudent provision for health care and much else. But the price of being relieved of all those tiresome choices by a benign paternal government is far too high.

Government health care would be wrong even if it "controlled costs." It's a liberty issue. I'd rather be free to choose, even if I make the wrong choices.

By: Mark Steyn - Syndicated columnist
©MARK STEYN

Posted: True Health Is True Wealth

Related Posts:

• Obamacare: Beware the Rhetoric
• Prescription for Truth – Daniel Hannan From England: HealthCare Worse for Elderly

ObamaCare: Beware of the Rhetoric

Both syndicated columnist host Mark Steyn and author and former political advisor to Bill Clinton, Dick Morris, said today in separate interviews… “beware of the rhetoric on healthcare”!

“ObamaCare is not about healthcare reform, it is about a power grab and taking 40% of Medicare funds (from the elderly) and redirecting them to illegals. The key to this program is not the public option or end of life counseling, it is taking funding from the elderly, giving it to younger illegals and then rationing care. So the protestors’ victories in the past few days are not what they may seem” …Dick Morris

“Fraiser Care in British Columbia (their socialized medicine) just announced that they would again be cutting healthcare for seniors as well as 15 to 20% of elective surgeries for everyone. Obama and the Dems will do whatever they can to pass an embryonic healthcare program and then burn the bridge behind them, so that there is no going back, because their ultimate goal is to get to a single-payer government-run healthcare program as part of their re-making of America program. Their entire Healthcare Program (Obamacare) is a death system with them in charge. It is the nationalization of your body.” …Mark Steyn

They both say that the co-op plan that the Dems have now started talking about is the same thing as the public option plan… which will ultimately result in a single-payer plan and government running who is covered and who isn’t, price setting, and what procedures and drugs will be given to whom!! They will also cover abortions with government money, have full access to your medical records and your bank account, if this passes.

“One third of the uninsured are 18 to 25-year-olds categorized as ‘the invincibles’ who think they are just that and don’t have a lot of money, so choose not to purchase health insurance if not covered by their parents or their employer.

Another quarter of the uninsured are adults between the ages of 50 and 65, the pre-Medicare boomers, who have lost jobs or coverage through their employer and either can’t get coverage because of pre-existing conditions of themselves or someone in their family, or can’t afford the premiums, so they are waiting and praying they will be fine until Medicare kicks in.

And then there are another 12 to 19 million illegals depending on who is supplying the figures that are not covered but will be under Obamacare. Covering illegal aliens not specifically addressed because if something or someone is not specifically excluded… they are included, which is the goal of the left!

Medicaid (coverage for the poor) is broke, primarily because of fraud and waste caused largely by duplication and could be cleaned up.” …Ceci Connolly, Washington Post

The balance of people not insured is about 5 to 8 million people who could be covered and covered cheaper by:

• Trashing all 5-bills that are presently being considered in the house and Senate
• Clean up Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Affairs and Reservation Benefits… by controlling fraud and waste.
• Invoke serious tort reform… stopping frivolous lawsuits and restricting the awards
• Do not cover abortions with public funds
• Do not cover people in the United State illegally
• Allow individuals and small businesses to for groups and co-ops to get better rates
• Allow the purchase of health insurance across state lines
• Allow portable coverage (allowing you to take your insurance with you when you leave a job or move)
• Pay on results not on number of procedures
• No more exclusions because of pre-existing conditions by insurance companies
• Crack-down on insurance fraud
• Allow coverage of natural supplements, natural and holistic procedures like chiropractic care, acupuncture etc by insurance coverage
• Force Big Pharma to honor price reduction they offered Team Obama
• Allow generic medications to be covered by insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.
• Allow sharing of information and encourage the reduction of duplication of records… but not kept and managed by the government or in a central database by a company like GE, who is in bed with Team Obama. In today’s world if large companies and groups like Kaiser, Blue Cross, Medicaid, Cigna etc kept their own central databases, forwarding information electronically or giving a copy to the patient to hand carry to avoid the duplication of procedures or tests is and would be easy. Perhaps some the unspent stimulus money could go toward helping some of these companies updating their record systems, which would also create some permanent and temporary jobs. A central database of everyone’s information is just to tempting for future problems.

If the above measures were enacted, we could pay for the 5 to 8 million who are not insured and not are insurable, lower or at least maintain our costs without changing the quality of our medical care in the United States, keep additional government intrusion out of our lives and prevent rationing.

Add to this the ideas of dozens and dozens of present and ex-Governors, Senators and Congress people plus CEO’s of companies and experts in economics and medical care from the financial end, we could perhaps level the cost increase for a few years and improve our care for everyone.

Everyone agrees that we need some kind of reform. This kind of reform, not the ObamaCare versions (any of them)

HUGE PRO-OBAMA HEALTH CARE AD CAMPAIGN UNDER WAY

As you can see from the link below, the Obama people are launching a huge TV ad blitz to restore momentum behind their health care proposals. Funded by money from drug companies and other vendors who have been bought off to back the plan, it tries to refocus the campaign for his legislation on the supposed benefits of his plan for the average person.

Click here to watch the ad. We need to counter this offensive with all our resources.

The supposed benefits of the Obama package that are enumerated in the ad are all:
1. Easily available by federal or state regulatory legislation and need not be part of an overall change in the health care system; and

2. Have largely already been agreed to by the insurance companies at their White House meetings; and

3. Were, in many cases, solved by the Kennedy Kassenbaum bill, passed in 1996, that prohibited insurers from discriminating against patients whose pre-existing conditions were covered in their old jobs.

Yet, in a bid to drum up support for the bill and its inevitable rationing of care to the elderly, Obama is presenting these measures as integral to his legislation when, in fact, they are quite extraneous to it.

Strategically, he is trying to focus the debate on the needs of the younger population and avoid addressing the catastrophe that his plan would represent for the elderly. None of the people in the ad are old and the issues are those that concern the younger, working population.

The answer is to keep the debate focused on the elderly. If their opposition to these proposals grows and reaches a tipping point (as it is doing as we speak), the Democrats will not dare pass their legislation.

PLEASE... Go here and donate funds so we can run ads attacking Obama's plan and zeroing in on what it means for the elderly. We are now on the air in Montana, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Maine. We are about to go on in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Louisiana.

We need money to advertise in North Carolina, Wyoming, Indiana, and Connecticut.
Please give generously so we can reach these Senators!

Thanks,
Dick Morris

If you have the time and inclination to read the healthcare bill (HR-3200 - full report) yourself it would be great, most of the Congresspeople who are holding town halls have not.

If not, here are some breakdowns:

Breakdown Articles of HR-3200 - full report

• DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE 1000 PAGE HEALTH CARE PLAN BY AND ATTORNEY & DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF LAW
• *Letter to Your Congress Person on Health Care (Obamacare) HR3200
• *A Look at What is Really in the Health Care Bill (HR 3200): Chilling!

And a must read on this subject is Dick Morris’ Catastrophe

Click Here To Find A Town Hall Near You!

Related Resources:

• Senate Removes 'End of Life' Provision From Senate Bill - Victory in the 'Right' Direction for the American People and Fox News
• Obamacare for Illegal Aliens – While Granny Gets Duty to Die Lecture
• Prescription for Truth – Daniel Hannan From England: HealthCare Worse for Elderly
• GovernmentCare’s Assault on Seniors
• ObamaCare For Seniors: Sorry, You’re Just Not Worth It
• Dick Morris Says Obamacare Will Replace Medicare – What to do to Save Health Care
• Kennedy: Let’s Ration Healthcare
• Kristol: Kill It, And Start Over
• Seniors Left Behind?
• HR 3200 Kills the Private Insurance Industry
• The Ultimate Resting Place of Socialized Medicine
• Co-Ops = Public Option = Single Payer
• Lamar Smith Spells Out Costs of Speaker Pelosi’s Insistence on Covering Illegal Aliens With Federal Health Plan
• Catastrophe

Contact your Senator and Congressperson, any Blue Dogs or moderates in pivotal states and attend a local healthcare Townhall, healthcare Tea Party on 9/12 or the Big One in Washington. Read the Bill or at least some Reviews, Read Catastrophe, educate yourself on this and related issues And then please speak out America!!!

Taxes go up, taxes go down. Laws are made and rescinded. But once a version of Government-Run Healthcare is passed and initiated there is no going back: Prescription for Truth – Daniel Hannan From England: HealthCare Worse for Elderly and No Turning Back From Obamacare

Call the switchboard for Congress in Washington today... your Senator, Congressperson and Nancy Pelosi and tell them “NO” on Government-Run Healthcare Takeover, "NO on Cap and Trade" & NO on the Carbon Tax… and to pay back the unspent stimulus money!!!

1-202-224-3121- Switchboard - House

1-202-225-3121- Switchboard - Senate

(202) 225-0100 - Speaker of the House Pelosi

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
http://speaker.house.gov/contact or http://www.speaker.gov/contact
If the web contact form doesn't work, use this email address:
AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov

Info on Senators from your State.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” --Ronald Reagan

Join the Tea Party Express

Free Our Health Care Now - Petition

Posted: True Health Is True Wealth