The Coming Two-Tiered Medical System

Scott W. Atlas, writing at the Wall Street Journal (Cross-Posted at the Razor), warns about the coming two-tiered medical system.

About one-third of primary-care physicians and one-fourth of specialists have already completely closed their practices to Medicaid patients. Over 52% of physicians have already limited the access that Medicare patients have to their practices, or are planning to, according to a 2012 survey by Merritt Hawkins for the Physicians Foundation. More doctors than ever already refuse Medicaid and Medicare due to inadequate payments for care, and that trend will only accelerate as government lowers reimbursements.

In order to cut costs insurance plans are narrowing their networks, removing access to the best hospitals in the country (including Barnes Hospital in my hometown.)

For cancer care, the overwhelming majority of America’s best hospitals in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network—including MD Anderson Cancer Center of Houston, New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance uniting doctors from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s—are not covered in most of their states’ exchange plans.

Elements of this are already in place. The best paying jobs on physician job boards are “closed practices” run by large companies for their employees, or concierge practices that do not accept insurance.

Meanwhile, concierge practices are increasing rapidly, as patients who can afford it, along with many top doctors, rush to avoid the problems of an increasingly restrictive health system. The American Academy of Private Physicians estimates that there are now about 4,400 concierge physicians, 30% more than last year. In a recent Merritt Hawkins survey, about 7% to 10% of physicians planned to transition to concierge or cash-only practices in the next one to three years. With doctors already spending 22% of their time on nonclinical paperwork, they will find more government intrusion under ObamaCare regulations taking even more time away from patient care.

Moving towards socialized medicine inevitably leads to a two-tiered system. Having lived for 5 years under socialized medicine in Japan, I’ve seen the both tiers, and the quality of care diverged significantly between them to the point where we chose a private hospital for the birth of The Kid. The only question will be whether the quality of care good enough for the vast majority of Americans, or the care will stagnate and decline as the best and brightest health care providers move into the higher-paying private practices and hospitals.

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,Socialized Medicine,Wake-Uprisings,Doctor Shortages,Medicaid

Obama Spends $17M Per Month Of Our Money Advertising ObamaCare

Joshua Pundit: According to Pravda-On-The Hudson, the Obama Administration is spending $17M per monthof your tax dollars advertising for ObamaCare:

From January until the end of March, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

, which runs the HealthCare.gov site and administers the Affordable Care Act, will have spent $52 million on paid media, officials said. Conservative opponents of the law have concentrated their spending on ads focusing on Democratic candidates and sowing doubts about the viability of the law.

The idea is to get young, uninsured Americans to sign up for President Obama's signature program - high, unaffordable pricing, minimal coverage, high deductibles,numerous glitches and abominable security for personal data. Not surprisingly, they're avoiding it like the plague.

The president's new tactic reveals exactly how stupid he thinks we all are:

Russian troops were rolling through Crimea when Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff and a foreign policy expert, was deployed on a mission to do media outreach. But the focus of Mr. McDonough’s calls to local talk radio stations was not geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe, it was health care.

Mr. McDonough chatted with Andy Baskin and Jeff Phelps, hosts of a popular sports talk radio program on WKRK-FM (92.3) in Cleveland, about the coming N.F.L. draft, basketball at the White House and his days playing college football in Minnesota. Mr. McDonough then pitched a new website featuring games, videos and superstar athletes explaining the benefits of health insurance: a sports-themed portal to HealthCare.gov.

“We’ve all seen it happen,” said Mr. McDonough, promoting the portal, GamePlan4Me, to the hosts of “Baskin & Phelps” and their mostly young, mostly male audience. “Somebody’s playing hoops, and they blow out a knee or something. And then all of a sudden, if you don’t have health care, you’re going to bankrupt yourself.”

Actually, with the standard deductible for Bronze coverage being between a hefty $5,000 to to $6,350 for a single adult, the average person is going to go bankrupt with that kind of injury whether he or she buys ObamaCare or not. As a matter of fact, given the stiff premiums, you might go bankrupt even if you avoid a major injury.

But again, this president thinks everyone's stupid but him and that you'll be distracted by games and celebrity endorsements.

The only people whom win in this con game are people who qualify for MedicAid, AKA free stuff. Which of course, was always what this was about - government control and a huge transfer of wealth from the Middle class  to the entitlement class.

The fact that the president, congress and the rest of the Ruling Class are trying to force you to buy into this cynical fraud when they  aren't willing to take advantage of this 'wonderful program' themselves ought to clue you in to how horrible it really is.

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,Ads,Obamaland,Taxpayers,Wake-Up,ACA,PPACA Medicare,Medicaid,Exemptions,ObamaCare Exemptions,Ruling Class

Fourth Georgia hospital closes due to Obamacare payment cuts

DailyCaller: The fourth Georgia hospital in two years is closing its doors due to severe financial difficulties caused by Obamacare’s payment cuts for emergency services.

The Lower Oconee Community Hospital is, for now, a critical access hospital in southeastern Georgia that holds 25 beds. The hospital is suffering from serious cash-flow problems, largely due to the area’s 23 percent uninsured population, and hopes to reopen as “some kind of urgent care center,” CEO Karen O’Neal said.

Many hospitals in the 25 states that rejected the Medicaid expansion are facing similar financial problems. Liberal administration ally Think Progress has already faulted Georgia for not expanding Medicaid as Obamacare envisioned.

But the reality is more complicated. The federal government has historically made payments to hospitals to cover the cost of uninsured patients seeking free medical care in emergency rooms, as federal law mandates that hospitals must care for all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

Because the Affordable Care Act’s authors believed they’d forced all states to implement the Medicaid expansion, Obamacare vastly cut hospital payments, the Associated Press reports.

The Supreme Court ruled that states could reject the Medicaid expansion in 2012, as part of the decision that upheld Obamacare generally. Since that decision, the Obama administration has so far instituted 28 unilateral delays and changes to the health care law’s implementation without congressional approval, Fox Business reports.

From verifying eligibility for subsidies to enforcing employer requirements, the Obama administration has already taken a hacksaw to the health care reform law, but it has made no changes to the provision raising problems for half the nation’s hospitals.

While the feds wait for financial pressure to force states to act, several state governments have been taking things into their own hands. Some have criticized these moves as “hospital bailouts.”

Follow Sarah on Twitter

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,Medicaid,Hospitals,Georgia

Doctor Retires due to ObamaCare

Doctor Posts Newspaper Notice: Closing Due to Obamacare

Townhall- Cross-Posted at AskMarion: Obamacare realities just became a little more intense in the Bluegrass State. Requirements in the Affordable Care Act presented Kentucky Dr. Stephen Kiteck with obstacles he “just couldn’t overcome.”

This tweet helped uncover the story:

Twitter: Dara Bailey @darab_ic

They said it wouldn't happen.....wrong again.

7:21 PM - 8 Dec 2013

Dr. Kiteck verified the ad to Townhall Tuesday:

“It’s pretty basic really. The reason is that Obamacare requires electronic medical records and electronic prescribing and I simply don’t have the finances at this time to go into debt to provide that for my office, it would just be a complete new transfer of electronic equipment in my office for that.

So for me, at my age, I’m just not ready to go into financial debt. Of the 20,000 pages in there, probably up to 1,000 pages are about doctors' offices."

The Electronic Medical Records mandate requires an electronic overhaul by 2015 or penalization. Check out this visual of its implementation:

 

 

"I’ve got 6,000 records, some of them are two inches thick. It would just be basically impossible to scan all of these and put them on electronic medical records and very expensive, by the way,” said Dr. Kiteck, pointing to the many man hours of pay that an electronic overhaul would require.

“It’s a solo practice, I’m just a very small solo practice. I call myself a mom and pop practice,” Dr. Kiteck explained, “so I’ve had it for about twenty years here in Somerset, Kentucky.”

The ad ran for the sake of his customers, according to Dr. Kiteck, as a common courtesy to give patients a one-month notice,

“I just happened to start it out with that little notice there, because so many patients have questions why you’re doing it.”

Kiteck said his ad likely opened up a Pandora’s Box. But the truth is, the box had already been opened when Obamacare was signed into law, and the frightening effects are only beginning to fly out.

Breitbart: The notice closes with this message, "Dr. Kiteck wishes to thank all his patients that have visited his office over the past 20 years, and apologizes for this inconvenience."

Dr. Kiteck's office confirmed that he is indeed closing his practice and that he did publish the notice in the paper. Asked if he would agree to an interview, his receptionist indicated that he'd received many calls from the media but was not prepared to make any additional statement at this time.

There have been surveys which suggested a significant number of doctors might quit or retire early as a result of the new health law. A  2013 Deloitte Survey of U.S. Physicians found that 62 percent of doctors expected some of their colleagues to retire early.

Dr. Kiteck is a 64 year old board certified family physician with a good rating for patient satisfaction on healthgrades.com.

Update: Buzzfeed got through to Dr. Kiteck and he cites a specific reason for retiring, a requirement to use electronic medical records in his practice. That requirement was not part of Obamacare but was included in the stimulus act. Physicians must move to electronic records by 2015 and because of the way use is reported, that means mid-2014 is the deadline for a working system. Those who fail to meet the deadline are charged a fine of 1% (deducted from their reimbursements).

Video Report: Doctors quit on Obamacare

ObamaCare Cost Increases Shocking to Many…

Fabulous Obamacare Success Stories

EIB: BEGIN 10.03.13 TRANSCRPT

RUSH: James Taranto, the Wall Street Journal, has a story of a guy named Brendan Mahoney, who did succeed. It's a Hartford Courant story, and this guy's being joked about as the man who saved Obamacare. The subhead is: "Great news! They got a 30-year-old dude to sign up!" And here are the details. "Meet Brendan Mahoney, the young man who is saving ObamaCare. He's 30 years old, a third-year law student at the University of Connecticut. He's actually been insured for the past three years -- in 2011 and 2012 through a $2,400-a-year school-sponsored health plan." So he's already got insurance and he went to the exchange. This year he is insured "through 'a high-deductible, low-premium plan that cost about $39 a month through a UnitedHealthcare subsidiary.'" But even though he already had plan, at 39 bucks a month, "he wanted to see what ObamaCare had to offer."

"He tried logging in to the exchange's website at 8:45 a.m. yesterday, which is impressive in itself. Most young people don't get up that early. 'He said the system could not verify his identity.'" He's got insurance, don't forget. He's paying $39 a month through a United Health Care subsidiary, high deductible, low premium plan, school-sponsored health plan. When the system couldn't verify his identity, "he called the toll-free help line, whose operator also encountered computer trouble. 'But then he logged on a second time, he said, and the system worked.'"

He told the Hartford Courant, "'Once it got running, it was fast. It really made my day. It's a lot like TurboTax.' He obtained insurance through ObamaCare. Now, he says, 'if I get sick, I'll definitely go to the doctor.' Even better, if he stays healthy, he won't need to go to a doctor, and his premiums will support chronically ill policyholders on the wrong side of 40."

This is the guy, this is what they're looking for. Now, hang in there with me, folks. This is not over. This is exactly what they're looking for, a 30-year-old healthy guy to sign up and pay the freight so that nanaw and grandpa can be treated. They're looking for 30-year-olds who are not gonna get sick, not gonna put any financial strain on the system. They pay the premium, they pay the freight. This guy had a premium of 39 bucks. He wanted to see if he could beat that on Obamacare, and he did.

"So, how much of a premium is strapping young Brendan Mahoney paying to help make ObamaCare work? Oops. The Courant reports that Mahoney 'said that by filling out the application online, he discovered he was eligible for Medicaid.'" So 30-year-old strapping, healthy dude, Brendan Mahoney, beginning next year will not pay any premium at all because Obamacare, the exchange, told him, based on the way he filled out the data, that he is eligible for Medicaid.

What a fabulous success story for Obamacare's first day. Here we have a future lawyer -- remember, now, this guy is I think a 3L at the University of Connecticut. He was gonna be a lawyer, might still be a lawyer. He was already paying for insurance, and he's been converted into a welfare case. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the objective. When you strip it all away, this shows how all of this is really designed to work.

Now, on the surface -- and everything I've told you here is true -- this 30-year-old guy signs up, he's paying a premium of $39, but, you know, he's curious. He's a tech savvy guy. He wanted to find out what it was all about. Maybe he could beat the 39 bucks. So he fills out all the necessary forms, inputs all the data, and he finds out at age 30 he qualifies for Medicaid, and therefore he's become a welfare case.

So this 30-year-old guy -- and hopefully, theoretically millions like him who are gonna be signing up and paying all these premiums so that nanaw and grandpa can get health coverage and treatment, qualified for Medicaid. So a 30-year-old guy -- who was gonna be a lawyer, so you figure he's got some decent earning power -- has been converted by Obamacare into a welfare case. And he didn't pull any strings. He didn't know anybody. He didn't ask for special treatment. This is just what the system spat out.

So now he doesn't have pay 39 bucks. Now he can get rid of that health plan he's got at school. At 30 years of age, he discovered he was eligible for Medicaid. He's a healthy guy. I is a joke here that they're saying, "Here we have great news, a 30-year-old guy signed up," because the story is nobody's been able to sign up. But lo and be, "Hey, we got a guy!" You know, the regime can tell everyone, "We got a guy! We got a guy! It's this guy in Old Clayneck, Connecticut, 30 years old. Look at this, what we did here. We got a guy! We got a guy.

"He's exactly who we want to sign up here," and Obamacare turned him into a welfare case. They turned him into a ward of the state. A guy that's gonna be a lawyer, is gonna have decent earning power is now a Medicaid recipient. "Oh, come on, Rush! It's just a first-year glitch. These things will get ironed out." A little companion story here from the Washington Free Beacon. "Health insurance premiums for young people will rise in all 50 states under Obamacare, with an average increase of 260 percent, according to a study released Thursday.

"The young and healthy segment of the uninsured is considered crucial for the Affordable Care Act to succeed. Former President Bill Clinton suggested last week that Obamacare only works 'if young people show up.'" Well, what the hell, folks? Here we got this young guy that showed up and the system made him a Medicaid recipient. He didn't game it. He is just going through the process and found out that he qualified for Medicaid -- and I'm telling you, in my not so cynical opinion, I think that is the long-0term objective is to turn everybody into a welfare case in this country, folks.

That's the long-term objective of not just Obamacare, but of the Democrat Party. Turn everybody into a dependents. Make everybody dependent on government for things they consider really important, like their health care. Here's another one. The Associated Press: "A Bumpy First Day for New Affordable Care Act Insurance Marketplaces -- The technical trouble couldn't dampen the relief Hussein Daoud felt for himself, his wife and their six children. The 51-year-old Detroit man came to apply for insurance at the Dearborn-based nonprofit organization ACCESS. With the help of counselors, he learned that his annual income of $14,500 made him eligible for Medicaid, and he likely won't have to pay for a plan that covers his family."

He's 51 years old. He, his wife, and six children -- and an annual income of $14,500? What in the world...? (interruption) Yeah, eight people for free, but before you get there, how are eight people getting by on his $14,500 annual income? Well, I know. Food stamps and all the other stuff, but so eight people in Dearbornistan go in to sign up and he end up becoming wards of the state. Health care for them is free as well, in addition to the strapping young 30-year-old Brendan Mahoney in Connecticut. (laughing)

On one hand, this is the biggest collection of Keystone Cops and incompetence running. On the other hand, this is a really, really profoundly dangerous thing that's happening here. But there's a part of me that, I'm sorry, cannot suppress my laughter at raging... I know you might think it's a conflict to call them incompetent when they're registering all these wards of the state. I am here to tell you, folks, that they did not intend for 30-year-olds to be comped. That was never part of the plan. That's who is going to have to pay. How in the world...?

The way that they make those people wards of the state is take all of their disposable income in the form of health care premiums and make them dependent in other ways. But they do need money flowing into the system. They do need some people paying premiums, and they can't get by with just the rich paying premiums; there isn't enough money there to cover everybody. So they need these strapping, young, 30-year-old guys and women, who aren't gonna get sick, paying into the system -- and the system's converting 'em to welfare recipients. (Raspberry) Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's Lee, New York City. Lee, it's great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: How are you? Hey, you spoke about the Obamacare success story with 30-year-old guy in law school getting a free ride.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: They're probably tickled pink about this because what's gonna happen in a few years or less than that this guy starts earning six figures and he's stuck in the program? Hello, premiums!

RUSH: Now, that's a good point. He's talking about the first story I had in the Stack today, a Hartford Courant story about Brendan, some 30-year-old law student at University of Connecticut. He is in, folks, an insurance plan right now at school where he has a $39 a month premium. So he went to the Obama exchange in Connecticut on the website, and he got through, and he signed up.

Well, he found out that he qualifies for Medicaid as a college student. He doesn't have any income, not to speak of, so he's poor. So he qualifies for Medicaid. So right now, he doesn't pay anything. Now, the regime... He's 30, still in school. The regime wants people like this guy paying full freight to pay for nanaw and grandma. So people are making a big joke about the fact that this Brendan guy -- a healthy, strapping 30-year-old -- has been converted into a ward of the state by Obamacare.

But Lee's point here is, if this guy finishes school and does become a lawyer and does find a job (and all of those are questionable) then he's no longer qualifying for Medicaid, is he? He won't qualify for Medicaid once he gets a job as a lawyer, 'cause he won't qualify for Medicaid anymore. As Lee points out, this 30-year-old strapping young Brendan guy, he's not gonna like it. He's not gonna like the revelation that his premiums are gonna skyrocket, and that's true. That's gonna be a delayed reaction, because that requires old Brendan to graduate and then find a job at a decent law firm where he hangs his own shingle or what have you.

It's a great point, Lee. I appreciate that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's Nancy, Salt Lake City. Hi, Nancy, great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Hello. Nice to speak with you. Thank you for your time. I'll get right to the point 'cause I know you're busy. I want to tie in your very first story in the first hour and the story in your second hour about the Medicaid. I'm a single mom. I make $5,000 a year. I qualify for Medicaid, but my spend down premium is $460 a month. I am not eligible for any tax credit subsidy because my income is below 100% of the federal poverty level, which is 99% of my household income. This is a mess, it's a chocolate mess.

RUSH: Wait a minute. You make $5,000 a year?

CALLER: Yes. I'm a student and I make $5,000 a year and I'm trying to get out of the toilet.

RUSH: Oh, okay, student. And you don't qualify. You make too little to qualify for poverty?

CALLER: I do qualify. I am 100% below the federal poverty level.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: But for me to have Medicaid I have to pay the state of Utah $460 a month.

RUSH: Well, how did this clown in Connecticut get onto Obamacare and he's not gonna pay anything?

CALLER: Exactly, and he doesn't even have a child that he has to raise.

RUSH: Well, not that we know of.

CALLER: Well, that's true, too.

RUSH: Not that he knows of.

CALLER: I'm still trying to see the future pay-in, you know. But, anyway, so I'm not available for any tax credit subsidies that they claim that the poor people get to help them --

RUSH: This is incredible. So people at or below 100% of the poverty line cannot get Obamacare subsidies?

CALLER: Correct. You are correct. I have it right here in black and white. I do not qualify for any of the subsidy. But yet they want 99% of my household --

RUSH: You know, I could be really insensitive and say, "Welcome to my world."

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: But I wouldn't do that.

CALLER: But that's okay.

RUSH: I'm not doing that, Dawn, don't shake your head. I wasn't doing that. I told her I could, but I wouldn't. I'm not doing that. I just want you to know I don't get subsidies, either.

CALLER: Yeah. It blows you away, doesn't it, how this Obamacare is supposed to help the poor and --

RUSH: Yes, I know.

CALLER: -- blah, blah, blah.

RUSH: I did not know that you could be too poor to qualify for Obamacare. You're supposed to get Medicaid, but you have to pay $460 bucks a month did you say for Medicaid?

CALLER: Correct.

RUSH: That doesn't sound like it makes any sense. Anyway, I've gotta run. I'm outta time. I'm very sorry, Nancy, but that we'll have to look into. Don't go away, folks. Be right back.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I don't understand having to pay $400 a month for Medicaid. I've never heard of that before. I'm not challenging what she said; I just haven't heard about it.

END TRANSCRIPT

Obamacare To Double Cost Of Insurance For Average Californian

Originally Posted 06/02/2013 22:18 –0400 at ZeroHedge

Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums. But, as Forbes reports, the data that the executive director of California's 'exchange' released tells a different story: Obamacare, in fact, will increase individual-market premiums in California by as much as 146 percent. The exuberance that Peter Lee exclaimed over the 'savings' is a misleading comparison. He was comparing apples - the plans that Californians buy today for themselves in a robust individual market-and oranges - the highly regulated plans that small employers purchase for their workers as a group. If you're a 25 year old male non-smoker, buying insurance for yourself, the cheapest plan on Obamacare’s exchanges is the catastrophic plan, which costs an average of $184 a month; but in 2013, on eHealthInsurance.com, Forbes explains, the median cost of the five cheapest plans was only $92. In other words, for the typical 25-year-old male non-smoking Californian, Obamacare will drive premiums up by between 100 and 123 percent. The desperate spin of the PR disaster is incredible as talk of a 'rate shock' is now very prescient, "these extraordinary increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation and threaten to make health care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians."

Via Forbes,

Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums. “These rates are way below the worst-case gloom-and-doom scenarios we have heard,” boasted Peter Lee, executive director of the California exchange. But the data that Lee released tells a different story: Obamacare, in fact, will increase individual-market premiums in California by as much as 146 percent.

...

“The rates submitted to Covered California for the 2014 individual market,” the state said in a press release, “ranged from two percent above to 29 percent below the 2013 average premium for small employer plans in California’s most populous regions.”

That’s the sentence that led to all of the triumphant commentary from the left. “This is a home run for consumers in every region of California,” exulted Peter Lee.

Except that Lee was making a misleading comparison. He was comparing apples—the plans that Californians buy today for themselves in a robust individual market—and oranges—the highly regulated plans that small employers purchase for their workers as a group. The difference is critical.

...

If you’re a 25 year old male non-smoker, buying insurance for yourself, the cheapest plan on Obamacare’s exchanges is the catastrophic plan, which costs an average of $184 a month.

... But in 2013, on eHealthInsurance.com (NASDAQ:EHTH), the median cost of the five cheapest plans was only $92.

In other words, for the typical 25-year-old male non-smoking Californian, Obamacare will drive premiums up by between 100 and 123 percent.

...

Obamacare’s impact on 40-year-olds is steepest in the San Francisco Bay area, especially in the counties north of San Francisco, like Marin, Napa, and Sonoma. Also hard-hit are Orange and San Diego counties.

...

How did Lee and his colleagues explain the sleight-of-hand they used to make it seem like they were bringing prices down, instead of up? “It is difficult to make a direct comparison of these rates to existing premiums in the commercial individual market,” Covered California explained in last week’s press release, “because in 2014, there will be new standard benefit designs under the Affordable Care Act.” That’s a polite way of saying that Obamacare’s mandates and regulations will drive up the cost of premiums in the individual market for health insurance.

But rather than acknowledge that truth, the agency decided to ignore it completely, instead comparing Obamacare-based insurance to a completely different type of insurance product, that bears no relevance to the actual costs that actual Californians face when they shop for coverage today. Peter Lee calls it a “home run.” It’s more like hitting into a triple play.

Everyone needs to go through the process of finding out what ObamaCare will cost them and then send the quote on to your Congressman and Senator… and ask them Why?  What happened to the promises?!?

Related:

Anyone Who Is Buying That the Republicans in the House Are Unreasonable Needs to Read This… NR: 100 Unintended Consequences of ObamaCare

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,ObamaCare Costs,ObamaCare Mandates,California,ACA,Medicaid,Rush,EIB

Obamacare Becoming Boehnercare? - On The Record… Pull the Plug on Obamacare Rally – Group Demands Speaker Defund Health Care Law [Pictures]

Below are pictures from the “Pull the Plug on Obamacare” rally that took place in Troy, OH on Tuesday, August 27th, 2013.

Video: Defund Obamacare Rally 8-27-2013

By Marion Algier - AskMarion - h/t to MJ for photos

Hundreds attended this event to respectfully tell Speaker John Boehner to do the people’s will and defund Obamacare.

• Real Clear Politics average polling shows Obamacare is now opposed by a margin of 51% against to 39% in favor (link).
• Voters in Ohio spoke loudly against the federal government takeover of healthcare by passing the Healthcare Freedom Amendment (HFA) in 2011. The HFA won with 66% of the vote and passed in all of Ohio’s 88 counties.
• As a check and balance to protect America from tyranny, the founders gave the House of Representatives (or the “People’s House”) control of the purse strings of our nation.
• The House Speaker controls the “gavel” and the “calendar.” This means he decides who can speak and what bills may be scheduled for a vote. It is fully within John Boehner’s power not to allow ANY bills to the House floor that include money for Obamacare.
• In September, the House will hold a vote to fund our government. They will either include money to fund the implementation of Obamacare or they will pass a resolution without such funding.

BoehnerCare

Video:  Obamacare Becoming Boehnercare? - Group Demands Speaker Defund Health Care Law - On The Record

Rally Pictures and video…

Marching to Speaker Boehner’s office.

Panorama of march to Speaker Boehner’s office

At Speaker Boehner’s office.

Event organizer Janet Porter from Faith 2 Action leading rally attendees in prayer.

Rally crowd during presentations from speakers.

Doc Thompson of The Blaze.

The Blaze photographer.

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

Ohio Liberty Coalition President Ted Stevenot

Pro Obamacare attendees.

RPV Chairman Pat Mullins Responds to ‘ObamaCare Medicaid Expansion in Virginia’ – A Susan Stimpson Email

Obamacare’s Hierarchy of Privilege

Cruz To Conservatives: “Don’t Blink” – Urges GOP To Fight Obamacare Rollout – On The Record

Obama Taps Former ACORN Lobbyist To Head Obamacare Youth Video Contest…

Time to put an end to special privileges for government officials

Another OBAMACARE PROVISION: "FORCED" HOME INSPECTIONS

Americans petition Congress to Defund Obamacare

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,rallies,events,Ohio,Defund ObamaCare,stand-up America,BoehnerCare,ACA,Medicaid Expansion,HFA

RPV Chairman Pat Mullins Responds to ‘ObamaCare Medicaid Expansion in Virginia’ – A Susan Stimpson Email

Virginia Right: There is an email from Susan Stimpson the former Republican Candidate for Lt. Governor in Virginia circulating concerning the Republican’s plan to expand the ObamaCare Medicaid program in the Commonwealth. My fellow blogger Sandy Sanders covered this story today here.

We all remember the deal the Republicans made in the last session to get Democrats to go along with the Transportation Tax increase pushed by Governor McDonnell and the Republicans. At the time, it was reported that Republicans agreed to set up a commission on the Medicaid expansion that would actually be empowered to expand Medicaid under the ObamaCare program. Many believed that this was a first move towards that goal.

Susan Stimpson believes that agreement is about to come to fruition despite many Republicans words to the contrary and she sent out an email this morning urging citizens to call the Republican Party of Virginia and express their concerns to Chairman Pat Mullins.

Apparently, the calls are coming in as requested by Stimpson, however, Mullins says that he and Speaker Howell are against the expansion.

According to Chairman Mullins:

“ObamaCare is an expensive, unaffordable train wreck that threatens to bring everything that’s wrong with the federal government into our health care system. I have said repeatedly that expanding Medicaid in Virginia is a terrible idea. It threatens to create a massive new unfunded liability for the Commonwealth that would at the same time put hundreds of thousands of Virginians into a system that people in both parties know is badly broken. Speaker Howell has been rock solid on this issue, and I commend him for his leadership. Just this weekend he told our state central committee that Medicaid expansion in Virginia is not going to happen. I stand with Speaker Howell in opposition to the expansion of Medicaid under ObamaCare and I call on all members of the General Assembly to do likewise.”

The letter below from Stimpson enumerates the names and numbers of State Legislators that Stimpson asked Virginian’s to contact that are involved with this “super committee”. While I understand Speaker Howell and Pat Mullins claim that they don’t want to expand Medicaid, it is hard to deny the record of various government “super-committees” – remember sequestration?

Republicans have a trust issue in Virginia – especially with the Conservative wing of the party. Denials of intent are well and good but the creation of this committee in and of itself should give Virginians cause for concern. The Republicans controlled the House, Senate and Governor’s Office and we still got a huge tax increase and a super committee that places the pockets of Virginians in even deeper jeopardy.

And despite the denials of impending Medicaid expansion, most of us are still not reassured that ObamaCare will not be coming to a Medicaid Expansion Center near you.

The full letter from Susan Stimpson is published below for reference.

Fellow Virginia Republican,

Remember earlier this year when Governor McDonnell and the Republican leadership in the General Assembly cut a deal with Senate Democrats — leaving Obamacare expansion on the table in return for the votes Republicans needed to pass the largest tax increase in Virginia history?

Republican leaders told us it was just a good will gesture necessary to broker a compromise (massive tax increase) and that expanding Medicaid, a key component of Obamacare, would never happen. Governor McDonnell claimed the budget language was a “firewall” to expansion. The commission isn’t a firewall, it’s a torch.

Instead of keeping their constitutional responsibility to ensure Obamacare expansion would never become reality, legislators abdicated to a super committee of five senators, five delegates and two “experts”. The decision rests with these 10 legislators. Republican leaders claim this will save money in future years and lessen the devastating fiscal impact of such an expansion.

While conservatives in Washington are attempting to draw a line in the sand by trying to defund Obamacare, and the full effects of this disastrous law begin to become clear, what are Virginia Republicans doing?

This week Governor McDonnell said “If they say ‘done,’ Medicaid expansion goes into place.”

And listen to Republican Senator Emmett Hanger, a member of the commission and proponent of Medicaid/Obamacare expansion, bragging about the Obama administration being close to accepting proposed reforms: “I’d say we are a little more than halfway there.”

Of course what our Republican leaders don’t seem to recognize is that once any entitlement is created or expanded, it is almost impossible to reverse. If they don’t have the guts to fight expanding its implementation, do you really believe they would ever end it? And the Obama administration will make whatever concessions necessary in the short term to achieve their goal; Obamacare in every state. Liberals never give up, and they will see the erosion and elimination of reforms. Obamacare expansion will be a budget buster for Virginia leading to more massive tax increases.

But if recent history is any indication, they don’t care. Didn’t they take note of the last election where two longtime incumbents were ousted because of their vote to raise taxes on a transportation bill that doesn’t even address roads?

When I ran for Lieutenant Governor I spoke out when no one else would against the GOP-led tax increase. And I am warning you now that Republican leaders are on the precipice of expanding Medicaid and Obamacare in Virginia. It’s happening right before our eyes. For more detail, read this blog post by RPV State Central member Steve Albertson.

I urge you to call Pat Mullins and demand he denounce this move towards Obamacare expansion. And call the individual members of the Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission and urge them not to expand Obamacare. Call your own delegate and senator.

The majority of Americans and Virginians disapprove Obamacare. They know it is already wreaking havoc on our own healthcare, on our small businesses and our families. If you agree with me, please contact our GOP leaders and the members of the commission. Let’s fight this together.

Sincerely,

P.S.: It’s time for our Republican leaders in Virginia to stand for the principles of our creed. If we can’t trust them to fight Obamacare expansion in Virginia, can we trust anything they say?

Chairman Pat Mullins – (804) 780-0111

Speaker Bill Howell – Capitol: (804) 698-1028 District: (540) 371-1612

Senator Tommy Norment – Capitol: (804) 698-7503 District: (757) 259-7810

Senator Walter A. Stosch – Capitol: (804) 698-7512 District: (804) 527-7780

Senator Emmett W. Hanger, Jr. – Capitol: (804) 698-7524 District: (540) 885-6898

Senator John C. Watkins – Capitol: (804) 698-7510 District: (804) 379-2063

Delegate R. Steven Landes – Capitol: (804) 698-1025 District: (540) 255-5335

Delegate Beverly J. Sherwood – Capitol: (804) 698-1029  District: (540) 667-8947

Delegate John M. O’Bannon, III – Capitol: (804) 698-1073 District: (804) 282-8640

Delegate James P. Massie, III – Capitol: (804) 698-1072 District: (804) 377-0100

Technorati Tags: First Move,Fruition,General Assembly,Health Care System,Last Session,Lt Governor,Medicaid,Medicaid Expansion,Medicaid Program,Move Towards,Republican Candidate,Republican Party Of Virginia,Republicans,Rpv,Sandy Sanders,State Central Committee,Stimpson,Train Wreck,Unfunded Liability,Virginians

Why Weight Loss Surgery is NOT a Sound Treatment Choice for Type 2 Diabetes

Story at-a-glance

• The Cleveland Clinic has chosen weight loss surgery as a treatment for type 2 diabetes as the number one medical invention for 2013, for the unbelievably ludicrous reason that Medicaid and other health insurance will now pay for it, not because it is effective
• Bariatric surgery as a treatment for type 2 diabetes is a prescription for the most invasive and costly (not to mention risky) intervention possible for a problem that is firmly rooted in a faulty diet and lack of exercise. Virtually 100 percent of type 2 diabetes cases can be successfully treated and reversed through appropriate lifestyle changes
• Complications occur for both types of weight loss surgery, gastric banding and the more invasive gastric bypass. Research has shown your risk of dying within 30 days of gastric bypass surgery is 1 in 50, and 60 percent of patients who undergo gastric banding need to have additional surgery
• Your diet is not only the most effective way to reverse type 2 diabetes, it’s the ONLY way to correct the true underlying cause of diabetes, which is faulty insulin and leptin signaling. To reverse the disease, you need to recover your body's insulin and leptin sensitivities through proper diet and exercise, as detailed in my free nutrition plan

By Dr. Mercola

The Cleveland Clinic recently published its "Top 10 Medical Inventions for 2013" list¹. Doctors and researchers at the Clinic voted for what they thought were the most significant inventions out of 250 submitted ideas.

Noted medical inventions include an implantable neuromodulation device for the treatment of severe cluster headaches, a handheld melanoma detection device, a novel prostate cancer drug, and breast tomosynthesis (a.k.a 3D mammography).

But shockingly, and really almost unbelievably, topping the list at number one is using bariatric surgery for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

According to the Cleveland Clinic:

"Surgery for obesity, often called bariatric surgery, shrinks the stomach into a small pouch and rearranges the digestive tract so that food enters the small intestine at a later point than usual.

Over the years, many doctors performing weight-loss operations found that the surgical procedure would rid patients of Type 2 diabetes, oftentimes before the patient left the hospital.

To explore this diabetes treatment hypothesis, 150 patients with Type 2 diabetes and obesity were enrolled in a study in 2007. 50 patients had gastric bypass surgery.

This is a procedure that reduces stomach volume from the size of an inflated football to a golf ball size; 50 had a sleeve gastrectomy surgery, which reduces the stomach from the size of a football to that of a banana; and 50 were offered counseling in nutrition and exercise while they continued taking their diabetes medication.

By closing off most of the stomach to food, people who received bariatric surgery ate less and, therefore, lost weight. Patients in the study lost about five times as much weight on average as those only taking bloodsugar-lowering medications.

The study results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012, astounded the medical world.

Compared with patients taking diabetes medication and receiving lifestyle counseling, those who had bariatric surgery were far more likely to be free of diabetes or to have reduced their dependence on diabetes medications for at least two years. The weight-loss surgery also helped many to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol. Most of the patients went from a dozen or more medications daily to none or just a few."

Dr. Michael Roizen, Cleveland Clinic Chief Wellness Officer, told Reuters²:

"Bariatric surgery has been around for a while. The reason it was chosen as the top innovation is because Medicare has broadened its indication for payment, and Medicaid in many states follows Medicare.

A lot of the other (private) insurance companies started covering it, so it's much more accessible. The criteria that insurers use to cover the surgery has been broadened because of its effectiveness in controlling Type 2 diabetes."

While this will probably sound wonderful to some, there's no doubt in my mind that this is absolutely the wrong treatment and not at all an appropriate solution for the vast majority of people, and that's what this list is all about — one of the primary criteria for making it onto the list was the number of people the product or procedure can potentially help.

Bariatric surgery as a treatment for type 2 diabetes is a prescription for the most invasive and costly (not to mention risky) intervention possible for a problem that is firmly rooted in a faulty diet and lack of exercise... What makes this recommendations particularly troublesome is that virtually 100 percent of type 2 diabetes cases can be successfully treated and reversed through appropriate lifestyle changes!

It's also blatantly clear (they even state it outright) that it topped the list because Medicare (i.e. your tax dollars) will now pay for it, NOT because it's been proven safe and effective.

On the contrary, they appear to base their opinion on the results from a singular study. This is probably ill advised.

Dr. John Ioannidis of the Stanford School of Medicine in California warns against placing too much faith in singular medical studies showing large effects of medical treatment (benefits or harms). His massive analysis, recently published in JAMA,³ tracked the fate of thousands of studies, from the effects demonstrated in the initial study, compared to the effects elucidated in subsequent trials.

Interestingly, in 90 percent of cases where "very large" effects were initially reported, such effects shrank or vanished altogether as subsequent studies were done to confirm the results. Dr. Ioannidis told Reuters⁴:

"Our analysis suggests it is better to wait to see if these very large effects get replicated or not... Keep some healthy skepticism about claims for silver bullets, perfect cures, and huge effects."

In the case of weight loss surgery, there are already a number of studies showing both bariatric surgery and gastric banding are very risky procedures that produce poor long-term outcomes! But of course, that only means the revenue stream from those suffering with type 2 diabetes will continue to flow, and apparently that's what really matters and drives medical recommendations in the US...

Nearly Half of Weight Loss Surgeries Result in Major Complications

All surgeries have inherent risks, but bariatric surgeries seem to have a much higher ratio of complications. Complications occur for both types of weight loss surgery, gastric banding and the more invasive gastric bypass.

For example, a study from 2004⁵ reported that the risk of dying within 30 days of gastric bypass surgery was 1 in 50. And, within the surgeon's first 19 procedures, the odds of death within 30 days were 4.7 times higher, due to inexperience.

Gastric banding consists of surgically inserting a band around the top section of your stomach, and cinching it into a small pouch. This is often touted as a simpler, less invasive procedure to gastric bypass, and whereas gastric banding is at least reversible, while gastric bypass is not, the complications are often so debilitating that patients opt to have the bands removed completely. According to research⁶ published last year, nearly 40 percent of patients who undergo gastric banding experience major complications, including:

Band erosion
Malnutrition
Infection

Kidney stones
Bowel and gallbladder problems
Liver failure

Black-outs
Increased risk of death
Abnormal band expansion

Furthermore, the study found that:

• Nearly 50 percent of patients required removal of their bands
• Nearly 1 out of 3 patients experienced band erosion
• 60 percent needed to undergo additional surgery

The researchers concluded that:

"LAGB [laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding] appears to result in relatively poor long-term outcomes."

Even according to LapBand.com, one American clinical study that included a 3-year follow-up reported a staggering 88 percent of gastric banding patients experienced one or more adverse events, ranging from mild to severe. Common complications, from gastric banding included the following -- and keep in mind that excess weight increases your risks even further, which means everyone who undergoes weight loss surgery is at even greater risk:

Gastroesophageal reflux
Band slippage and/or pouch dilation
Stomach obstruction

Esophageal dilation
Reduced esophageal function
Difficulty swallowing

Leaking or twisted access port into the stomach
Band eroding into the stomach

Gastric Bypass Will Wreak Havoc on Your Digestive Processes and Ability to Absorb Nutrients

Gastric bypass involves stapling your stomach into a pouch that's only a half-ounce in size, so it literally cannot hold much. The idea is that you'll feel full faster, since your stomach will be unnaturally tiny, but this also means you'll often be eating meals that are sorely lacking in nutritional requirements.

A small opening is also created to allow food to empty slowly from the pouch. Because the opening is so small (made this way deliberately to keep the small amount of food you've eaten in your stomach longer, making you feel "full"), food must be chewed very thoroughly or it won't be able to fit through the opening, leading to vomiting.

You'll also be instructed to eat the protein portion of your meal first, because you very well may get too full to fit in a vegetable or anything else. Even liquids must be restricted for up to 45 minutes before and after a meal, lest they take up what little space you have to consume actual food. As you might suspect, because bariatric surgery patients can consume very little roughage, constipation is often a problem. It is even described as "normal" to have a bowel movement only once every two or three days!

Snacking is also expressly forbidden after gastric bypass, as you're only allowed three small meals a day, and you may have to write off certain foods entirely because your body just can't digest them anymore. This includes red meats, skins of fruits and vegetables (where the bulk of the antioxidants are) and fibrous vegetables. This is simply NOT a healthy way of eating, and the long-term implications are just as severe as the short-term risks. Hair loss and muscle loss are common after the surgery -- both signs that your body is not receiving proper nutrition.

Proper Diet — The Most Important Strategy to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

What makes this so frustratingly ironic, if not downright tragic, is that your diet is not only the most effective way to reversetype 2 diabetes, it's the ONLY way! Yet the medical community keeps coming up with one bad diabetes treatment after the other, and I think they've really hit it out of the park with this one — all because Medicare and insurance companies will pay for it...

Seven years ago, Dr. Ron Rosedale wrote the article Doctors Cause Diabetics to D.I.E., and if you have type 2 diabetes, or know someone who does, you'd be well advised to read what he has to say on this matter.

"I have been incensed about the traditional medical treatment of diabetes for decades," Dr. Rosedale writes. "Diabetics have been told that they can eat meals multiple times daily that turn into sugar and even sugar itself, as long as they take enough insulin to lower their blood sugar.

The importance of limiting the intake of sugar and foods that turn into sugar has been almost totally ignored. There has been virtually no recognition that high levels of insulin are at least as much of an insult to a person's health as high levels of sugar (see Insulin and its Metabolic Effects).

With blinders on, drugs have been and are still being given to lower blood sugar, even though they essentially whip the islet cells of the pancreas to produce more insulin. These unfortunate, overstressed islet cells have been producing excess insulin for years and often decades to try to compensate for the insensitivity, the resistance of the body's cells to insulin's signal.

This is much like whipping a horse to run faster at the end of a race; it runs faster for a little while, but if you keep doing it, it collapses and dies.

So too do the islet cells that manufacture insulin in the pancreas die when drugs, nay doctors, whip them to keep producing more insulin when they are tired and sick. At this point, a diabetic, who originally had plenty of insulin being produced, and whose problem was merely one of insulin resistance that is easily remedied via proper treatment and diet, now starts losing the ability to produce insulin and becomes, in addition to insulin resistant, insulin deficient; a much more serious and problematic disorder caused by Doctor Induced Exacerbation (DIE)."

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes Sans Surgery or Drugs

Amazingly, one in four Americans has some form of diabetes or pre-diabetes. If this is not a clear sign that conventional health recommendations are flawed, I don't know what is.

I too have personal experience with this disease. I developed it myself at one time, and most of my paternal relatives (my dad included), have, or have died from, diabetes. My personal experience with diabetes and subsequent review of the literature made it VERY clear to me that virtually every case of type 2 diabetes is reversible... And the cure for type 2 diabetes has NOTHING to do with giving insulin or taking drugs to control your blood sugar. In fact, giving insulin to someone with type 2 diabetes is one of the worst things that can be done. Any physician still doing this suffers from profound ignorance of insulin physiology.

It's important to understand that many of the conventional recommendations for treating diabetes are not only flawed but dead wrong. If you need a refresher, please review my previous article, Deaths Halt Diabetes Study. Once you understand that type 2 diabetes is a fully preventable condition that arises from faulty leptin signaling and insulin resistance, the remedy will become clear.

To reverse the disease, you need to recover your body's insulin and leptin sensitivities!

How do you do that? As mentioned earlier, the ONLY way to accomplish this is through proper diet and exercise, as detailed in my free Nutrition Plan. Surgery will not do the trick, and there is NO drug that can correct leptin signaling and insulin resistance... Adhering to the following guidelines can help you do at least three things that are essential for successfully treating diabetes: recover your insulin/leptin sensitivity; normalize your weight; and normalize your blood pressure:

• Severely limit or eliminate sugar and grains in your diet, especially fructose which is far more detrimental than any other type of sugar. Following my Nutrition Plan will help you do this without too much fuss.
• Exercise regularly. Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, and without it, you're unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance. If you're unsure of how to get started, I recommend reviewing my Peak Fitness program for tips and guidelines.
• Avoid trans fats.
• Get plenty of omega-3 fats from a high quality, animal-based source, such as krill oil.
• Optimize your vitamin D levels. Recent studies have revealed that getting enough vitamin D can have a powerful effect on normalizing your blood pressure and that low vitamin D levels may increase your risk of heart disease.
• Optimize your gut flora. Your gut is a living ecosystem, full of both good bacteria and bad. Multiple studies have shown that obese people have different intestinal bacteria than lean people. The more good bacteria you have, the stronger your immune system will be and the better your body will function overall. Fortunately, optimizing your gut flora is relatively easy. You can reseed your body with good bacteria by eating fermented foods (such as fermented vegetables, natto, raw organic cheese, or raw milk kefir) or by taking a high quality probiotic supplement.
• Address any underlying emotional issues and/or stress. Non-invasive tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique can be helpful and effective.
• Get enough high-quality sleep every night.
• Monitor your fasting insulin level. This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You'll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 and 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin sensitivity is.

Technorati Tags: weight control,weight loss,Dr. Mercola,diabetes diabetics,weigh loss surgery,leptin,gastric banding,The Cleveland Clinic,Medicaid

So it begins: Obamacare forcing states to cap, cut prescription drug benefits for seniors and the poor

But they're the party of compassion, don't ya know:

A new report from Kaiser Health indicates states are now moving in the direction of capping or cutting prescription drug benefits.

Illinois Medicaid recipients have been limited to four prescription drugs as the state becomes the latest to cap how many medicines it will cover in the state-federal health insurance program for the poor.

Sixteen states impose a monthly limit on the number of drugs Medicaid recipients can receive and seven states have either enacted such caps or tightened them in the past two years, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KHN is a program of the foundation). The limits vary across the country. Mississippi has a limit of two brand-name drugs. In Arkansas adults are limited to up six drugs a month. Since June, Alabama has had the nation’s stingiest Medicaid drug benefit after limiting adults to one brand-name drug. HIV and psychiatric drugs were excluded. On Aug. 1 the state will relax the limit to its previous level — four brand-name drugs — after the restriction saved more money than expected and the state received money as part of a settlement with a pharmaceutical company.

Other states with Medicaid drug limits are Arkansas, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

 

Rationing issues in Obamacare have long been a concern of pro-life groups. Although the death panels — the voluntary advanced care planning that pro-life advocates have been concerned about because it could have doctors financially motivated to promote less medical care and lifesaving treatment — occupied most of the debate, the National Right to Life Committee says other provisions cause concern.

Joe Biden really was right for once. If your life depends on these prescription drugs, Obamacare really is a big f***in' deal.

Hat tip: BadBlue

Technorati Tags: Joe Biden,ObamaCare,prescription drugs,repeal and replace ObamaCare,Medicaid,death panels,Romney-Ryan in 2012

GAO Report: White House Intentionally Delayed Obamacare’s Cuts To Medicaid Until After 2012 Election…

GAO: Obamacare Timeline Based on Election

WFB:

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has laid bare the Obama administration’s effort to delay the impact of Medicare cuts in the health care law until after the 2012 election.

Under the new law, cuts to Medicare Advantage funding would force many seniors off their preferred health plans. This aspect of the law was originally intended to go into effect before the election in November, but fearing the political backlash, the administration launched an $8.35 billion “demonstration project” that would effectively delay the cuts until after the election.

The GAO report urged the administration to cancel the project, citing its numerous “design shortcomings” and noting that the program fails to “conform to the principles of budget neutrality,” meaning the $8.35 billion is not offset by spending cuts or other revenue, and will have to be borrowed.

The Weekly Standard’s Jeffrey H. Anderson has written extensively about the controversial program here.

“This is a grossly underreported story—one aimed right at what is perhaps Obama’s most vulnerable point: his amazing decision to pay for Obamacare largely by looting from Medicare,” Anderson told the Washington Free Beacon in an email. “What’s more, it ties in the corruption and lawlessness of his administration and hearkens back to the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, and Gator Aid.”

Former campaign strategists Democrat Joe Trippi and Republican Karl Rove have both said that Obama is waging a Chicago-style gutter politics campaign and that he will say and do anything to get re-elected to the most powerful office in the world, including demeaning it with using falsehoods and smoke & mirrors  to stay there.  If Obama is re-elected this is only the tip of the bad news iceberg for seniors, healthcare overall, taxes, and the American way of life!

Technorati Tags: repeal and replace ObamaCare,ObamaCare,watch the other hand,Election 2012,seniors,elderly,one term Obama,Medicaid,Chicago-style politics,GAO,wake up seniors,wake up America

KISSING OBAMACARE GOODBYE - Part 2: The State Battlefield

Video: The Black Eyed Peas - Let's Get It Started

KISSING OBAMACARE GOODBYE - Part 2: The State Battlefield

By: AJ - Hat Tip: MJ

We are going to end Obamacare at the state level by using the KISS principle - Keep It Simple, Stupid, so let’s get it started!

Using simplicity and common sense, we Americans can take this into our own hands and do what we need to do to prove that Obamacare is irrelevant and unnecessary at the state level. All we need is a simple solution, which this article provides, and one state that will pursue this by doing a little homework.

Let me start by telling you what this is NOT… this solution is not reliant on the politicians who foisted this upon us or the spineless politicians doing nothing to end it. It is not dependent upon repeal, courts, nullification, state-wide voting, Constitutional amendments, petitions or polls.

Now let me tell you what this is… it is about picking one or more states that will do some simple homework to prove beyond doubt that the Obamacare law is not applicable in their state. If we do this, we can proactively take control of the narrative to announce that Obamacare is irrelevant because the state is already compliant.

BACKGROUND:

First, Obama and his comrades established that the fundamental basis of Obamacare is to ensure that everyone has healthcare. They claimed that 12 to 30 million people are going without healthcare and these people have a right to it. Has anyone challenged this with actual data that shows who these people really are? Read on and you will find out.

Second, Obama and his comrades claim that the 12 to 30 million phantom people are our poor and disadvantaged. This enables a powerful narrative that the media and left-wing talking heads can push onto the uninformed and ignorant 26% who support Obamacare. Is anyone challenging this narrative with actual truth? Not yet. That’s why, when we convey facts and even show sections of the actual legislation to uninformed people, their bottom line response is, “Well I think everyone should have healthcare”. Again, the false narrative wins the day, the uninformed remain ignorant and they actually believe that these phantom people who want healthcare cannot get it.

Third, the Obama narrative has now advanced to “States need to expand the Medicaid rolls” and some GOP Governors are flatly saying “No”. What these Governors fail to see is where this narrative is going. Medicaid is for the poor and disabled, so the spin masters are setting the stage for their next assertion; “Republicans won’t expand the Medicaid rolls because they want poor and disabled people to die.” When are these GOP Governors going to flatly say that the poor and disabled are ALREADY covered by Medicaid? And tell the truth that expanding the Medicaid rolls is a false narrative.

GOP Governors are playing checkers while Obama and his comrades are playing chess and are a few moves away from checkmate. Instead of responding to Obama’s narrative and falling into his trap, do some homework and speak boldly to create a completely different narrative. In other words, expose the truth.

SIMPLE SOLUTION:

States can take control of the narrative by defining a clear, true and concise narrative that lets people know that, from our poor to our elderly and everyone in between, all who want healthcare can already get it without Obamacare.

Can a state prove this? Yes. I contend that all a state needs to do is gather totals… the total number of people served by each of the categories delineated below. Every provider, insurer and program know how many people they serve in a given state.

Get the totals, add them up and then compare that number with the total population of the state to see how many people are not receiving healthcare from any of these categories. The number will either be zero or a very small percentage of the state population. Then, just a little more homework will reveal that the vast majority of this small segment of the state’s population is actually young, healthy people who choose not to spend their money on it because they don’t need it, they don’t use it and they don’t want it.

Take a very close look at all these programs and healthcare-delivery vehicles (below) that have been in place without Obamacare and before Obama took the Presidency. Look at all the people covered in these categories. A majority of working Americans who already have healthcare plans actually have no idea that all these programs exist and, unfortunately, Obama’s lies sound believable to them when no one counters him with the truth.

• Medicare: for everyone aged 65 and older.
• Medicaid and/or SCHIP (e.g. CA has MediCal and Healthy Families): for everyone who is poor and disabled.
• TRICARE: for service members, retirees and their families.
• Veterans Administration: for Veterans.
• Employer-based: for individuals and families covered through their employer.
• University-based: for University/College attendees (e.g. CA has a mandatory fee that all students must pay which provides healthcare coverage whether they want it or not).
• COBRA: for individuals and families who are in-between jobs/left their job for whatever reason. If they are unable to find new employment and their income remains low (e.g. unemployment), they become eligible for Medicaid, Hospital/Doctor Financial Waivers, and they can go to clinics or even private providers. One size doesn’t fit all and these people have choices.
• Tribes: for individuals and families who are members of an Indian Tribe.
• Clinics: for individuals and families who receive healthcare from community-based/free clinics.
• Private Provider: for individuals and families who choose to pay for their own healthcare through private providers.
• Religious Exemption: for individuals and families who choose to be exempt for religious reasons, which includes people such as the Amish, Muslims, Mennonites and Hutterites (because purchasing insurance violates their religious beliefs).
• Hospital/Doctor Financial Waiver: for individuals who receive free healthcare directly from doctors/hospitals because they submitted a ‘financial hardship’ form.

Don’t forget that Obama and his comrades gave the states another category:

• Obama/HHS Waiver: for millions of Obama’s lobbyists/special-interest friends/campaign contributors who received an Obamacare waiver directly from Obama’s HHS secretary.

After a state gathers the grand total of all the above categories and subtracts it from the state population, the state can create their own waiver in order to protect young peoples’ right to choose and once they are in this new category, everyone is accounted for in terms of healthcare and Obamacare is proven irrelevant and unnecessary because the state is already compliant. Everyone who wants healthcare already has it.

• *Freedom-of-Choice Waiver: this is a new category (if needed) for the majority of young people who seek to exercise their unalienable Right, as granted by our Declaration and Constitution, to choose not to spend their hard-earned money on healthcare because they do not use, want or need it while they’re young and healthy. The Freedom-of-Choice Waiver accomplishes the exact same thing as the waiver granted at the Federal level by Obama – it exempts people who want exemption; therefore, it is completely consistent with Federal precedence.

Take control of the narrative Governors! Do your homework! Don’t fall into the latest trap. Expanding Medicaid rolls is a false flag. Our poor and disabled are already on Medicaid and, in fact, many who are not poor and can afford healthcare are on the Medicaid rolls already. We don’t have $100 million a year in Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse by accident. So don’t take the bait! Medicaid rolls don’t need expanding because our poor and disabled already have Medicaid. So get out there and spread the truth!

While we’re on the subject of going on offense and getting the truth out there, notice that Obama’s campaign rhetoric includes sound-bites that give the false impression that Obamacare will give people whatever healthcare they want – for free – and up to now, his lies remain unchallenged.

Know this… Obamacare does not address the quantity or quality of healthcare; it merely asserts that once the federal government controls our healthcare, a 15-member panel and about 159 new government agencies will decide the quantity, quality and location of treatment IF they allow you to have it.

Who is challenging Obama about the federally controlled Medicare program that, by far, denies more claims for the people it serves than any other form of healthcare coverage? Quantity or quality is not even part of the debate when talking about Obamacare because Medicare already shows us what happens when the federal government controls healthcare. Get out there and spread the truth about this!

Make no mistake, Obamacare does not make healthcare a “right”, it takes away our right to choose and it forces our young people to pay into a monstrous system that destroys the best healthcare system in the world, transforms citizens into serfs, creates another massive redistributive system that seizes the fruits of our labor and gives the federal government control of our finances and our lives. As Mark Levin says, it forever changes the relationship between government and citizen.

So… which states will remain on defense and constrain their public responses to the false narratives and clichés thrown at them by Obama and his comrades?

And… which states will do their homework, gather the totals and create the media firestorm that will stop Obamacare dead in its tracks?

Which state will be the first to prove that Obamacare is irrelevant in their state because they are already compliant and everyone who wants healthcare already has it?

Which state is ready to go on offense and protect individuals and businesses in their state from Obamacare?

Let’s get it started! If states do their homework, take control of the narrative and spread the truth, we’ll be kissing Obamacare goodbye in short order.

Video:  OCCUPIED! - Obama's Un-Affordable Health Care TAXES and CONTROL ACT

Reference:

Killing Obamacare Before It Kills Us – Part 1: The Political Battlefield

Obamacare Now Estimated to Cost $2.6 Trillion in First Decade

Report: 83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare

A State Revolt Against ObamaCare Emerges

Ohio takes tough health law stance

Gov. Scott: Florida will not implement insurance exchanges or expand Medicare

Rick Perry joins Republican governors who won’t implement Obamacare

List of 27 States Suing Over Obamacare

Obamacare Bill 4872

Thanks Obamacare: 83% of Doctors Surveyed Say They May Quit

Obama Gets Civilian Army In Healthcare Bill

Obamacare Now Estimated to Cost $2.6 Trillion in First Decade

Lawyers Have Already Drafted 13,000 Pages of Regulations for New ObamaTax Law

Huckabee: GOP Sweep Needed to Repeal Obamacare

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,Medicare,Medicaid,SCHIP,TRICARE,COBRA,Veterans Benefits,HHS waivers,HHS,Freedom of Choice Waiver,ObamaTax,ObamaCare Exemptions,ObamaCare Religious Exemptions,doctor shortages,Affordable Care Act,ObamaCare surprises,repeal and replace ObamaCare