Obamacare Slashes Senior Home Health Care Services

In early April, the Obama Administration delayed cuts in the Medicare Advantage program mandated by Obamacare. These plans, used by 30% of Medicare beneficiaries, supplement traditional Medicare coverage. The planned cuts to the MA program risked a political firestorm just months before the midterm elections. While MA received a short-term pardon, the Obama Administration is going forward with dramatic cuts to home health care services for seniors.

by Mike Flynn 23 Apr 2014, 7:59 PM PDT  -  Breitbart.com: Over 3.5 million seniors receive health care services in their home. Over 60% of the recipients are women. These beneficiaries tend to be older, poorer and sicker than the overall Medicare population. Because of this, they often lack transportation, making home health care services critical for their well-being. Those impacted by the ongoing cuts are the most vulnerable and at-risk seniors. 

Obamacare gave the Obama administration wide latitude in containing spending in the program. In a decision that baffled critics, however, the administration chose to impose the maximum cuts allowed, cutting reimbursements by 14% over the next four years. The announced cuts will dramatically shrink the home health care sector and leave over a million seniors without access to health services. 

“Despite the broad discretion granted to it by Obamacare, the Administration decided to impose the deepest possible cut, which is already having a dire impact on jobs, women and vulnerable seniors,” Eric Berger, CEO of the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare said. “Without relief, these Medicare cuts will continue to impact the home health professionals upon whom millions of the Medicare program’s most vulnerable seniors depend.” 

In issuing its reimbursement guidelines, the administration acknowledged that "approximately 40%" of the more than 11,000 home health care agencies would be losing money by 2017. 

Home health care services had been one of the fastest growing sector for jobs. In December, 2013, however, on the eve of the cuts taking effect, the sector shed almost 4,000 jobs, the largest loss of jobs in the sector in more than a decade. Over 1.2 million Americans currently work in the home health care sector, 90% of whom are women. An analysis by Avarle Consulting estimated that almost half of these jobs, 498,000, are threatened by the Obamacare cuts.

Technorati Tags: Seniors,ObamaCare,Watch the Other Hand,ObamaCare Delays,ObamaCare Surprises,Medicare,Medicare Advantage,ObamaCare Mandates,Elderly,Medicare Cuts

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

The Hidden Obamacare Taxes That Will Crush The Middle Class

MoneyMorning: Get ready to be blindsided by a barrage of new taxes. $1 trillion worth...

They'll be coming courtesy of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

And they won't just be affecting those who make over $250,000. The bulk of these taxes will be passed on directly to the middle class.

That's because while a majority of these "stealth taxes" were designed to be taxes on businesses, they're actually transferred directly to ordinary citizens.

They include the investment income surtax, a Medicare payroll tax, even a "tanning tax" on those who utilize indoor tanning services.

"Many of those [hidden] taxes, especially those on hospitals, insurers and medical device manufacturers, will ultimately be passed on through higher health costs," said Michael Tanner an expert on the healthcare law.

In fact, analysts estimate Obamacare will cost the average taxpayer nearly $6,000 in extra taxes as early as next year.

Obamacare Tax Hikes Stoke Outrage

Many of the Obamacare taxes are already in effect, others will hit January 1. But they are already infuriating millions of Americans.

While even Obamacare detractors applaud the requirement that insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions and put a stop to lifetime caps on benefits, they say these laudable benefits don't compensate for the bills high cost - especially in new taxes.

According to most experts, Obamacare will create a total of twenty new taxes or tax hikes on the American people.

In fact, the Obama administration has already given the IRS an extra $500 million to enforce the rules and regulations of Obamacare.

The new taxes don't bode well for millions of middle-class Americans. Incomes for the rich have soared this decade but middle class workers have seen their wages stagnate and even drop since the 2008 Great Recession.

Many fear Obamacare with its high insurance costs and new taxes, could provide the middle class a fatal blow.

Of course, the Obamacare plan was primarily designed to decrease the number of uninsured Americans and reduce healthcare costs.

Many experts are saying it will have the exact opposite effect.

That's just one of the reasons why Republicans hope to defund Obamacare before January.

They claim that the taxes and costs needed to pay for Obamacare will crush the middle class and most U.S. taxpayers, as well as trigger job losses in affected industries.

Tax experts say you should try to estimate how much you will have to pay when the law goes into full effect - and take precautions to limit the damage to your bottom line.

One expert, Dr. Betsy McCaughey, a constitutional scholar with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, recently wrote a best-seller showing Americans how they can not only survive Obamacare, but prosper through it.

McCaughey claims to be one of the only people in the country - including members of Congress - who has actually read the entire 2,572 page law.

Her book, titled Beating Obamacare: Your Handbook for the New Healthcare Law, breaks the huge bill down into 168 pages of actionable advice.

The book, written in an easy going, easy to read style, shows some startling facts about Obamacare not seen in the mainstream press.

For example, she points to a little known passage in the bill that shows how you could get slapped with a $2,000 fine for not having health insurance - even if you do actually have it.

She also goes into detail explaining how a third of all U.S. employers could stop offering health insurance to their workers.

In one chapter, she shows how ordinary Americans will get stuck paying for substance abuse coverage - even if they never touched a drink or drug in their life.

According to McCaughey's research, senior citizens will get hit the hardest.

Hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery will be especially hard to get from Medicare in the months ahead thanks to Obamacare, according to McCaughey.

She warns seniors to get those types of procedures done now before Obamacare goes into effect January 1.

Book: Beating Obamacare: Your Handbook for the New Healthcare Law

ObamaCare Disarray as 2013 Nears… Beware!

National arts and crafts retail chain Hobby Lobby is facing backlash after filing a lawsuit opposing the HeathCare Mandate, with the owners claiming that it goes against their Christian Values. (AP)

Fox News:

A Christian-owned chain of hobby shops is facing a bitter backlash after suing the Obama administration over new requirements to provide insured employees with contraceptive and abortion coverage.

Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby filed the suit Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleging that the ObamaCare mandate violates the religious beliefs of the company's owners. The suit followed similar suits by Catholic colleges and a Denver-based company whose owners also objected to the mandate on religious grounds. While a judge has not yet ruled on Hobby Lobby's suit, a Facebook page calling for a boycott of the company, which operates 500 stores in 41 states, has appeared online, and several other forums have featured posts urging customers to steer clear of Hobby Lobby.

“I’m boycotting Hobby Lobby!” reads the heading of one posting on image posting site Flickr. “Even if you're pro-life this kind of action stinks to high heaven! If things like this can be allowed then what's next?!,” the user added.

“They’re being told they have two choices. Either follow their faith and pay the government half-a-billion dollars or give up their beliefs."

- Lori Windham, attorney for Hobby Lobby

Others have taken to social media to protest against Hobby Lobby, with a “Boycott Hobby Lobby” page on Facebook.

“I've been to two Hobby Lobby parking lots today and they were fairly empty. I used to have trouble finding a parking spot!” read one posting from the administrator of the Boycott page. “I think the boycott is catching on! I do not think they are getting the reaction they hoped for.”

Hobby Lobby owner David Green is a devout Baptist who owns one of the world's largest collections of Biblical artifacts. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Green in his suit, argued that compliance with the offending portion of the health care law that the nature of their suit is “would force religiously-motivated business owners like plaintiffs to violate their faith under the threats of millions of dollars in fines.”

Lawyers argued that company employees are well aware of Green's views and their bearing on the company.

“The Green family’s business practices ... reflect their Christian faith in unmistakable and concrete ways,” the complaint states. The company employs full-time chaplains; close all store locations on Sundays and monitors all marketing and operations to make sure that it is consistent with their beliefs.

Failure to comply with the mandate could subject the company to as much as $1.3 million in daily fines, according to Becket Fund attorneys.

"They’re being told they have two choices: Either follow their faith and pay the government half a billion dollars or give up their beliefs," Lori Windham, an attorney from the Becket Fund, told Foxnews.com. "We believe that’s a choice no one should have to make.”

David Green could not be reached for comment, but in a recent USA Today Op-Ed, he blasted the Obama administration for imposing mandates he believes he cannot comply with.

“Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy," Green wrote. "Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It’s not right.”

The company does not object to providing coverage that includes birth control pills, but refuses to provide or pay for two specific abortion-inducing drugs such as the so-called "morning after" pill, because Green's "most deeply held religious belief" is that life beginning at conception, the family said in a statement released through its attorneys.

As for the boycott, the company's founders believe customers have the right to vote with their feet.

"The Green family respects every individual's right to free speech and hopes that others will respect their rights also, including the right to live and do business according to their religious beliefs.," the statement said.

Hobby Lobby is believed to be the first non-Catholic company to file an objection to the healthcare mandate. The Newland family, the devoutly Catholic owners of Denver-based Hercules Industries filed a similar suit this past summer and won a court injunction that ruled that they are not obligated to follow the mandate.

“I think the law and precedent set by this case is very strong for Hobby Lobby and the Green Family,” Windham said.

 

ObamaCare's cuts to hospitals will cost seniors their lives

Received this from a friend and fellow Classmate of mine. This is his son he's talking about...

Our son was the Radiology Department Director for the largest hospital in Phoenix, for 15 years. Two years ago, a conglomerate, which was taking over hospitals around the country, via hostile buyouts, "acquired" his. The first order of their new business was to remove all the highest paid staff, replacing all with lower paid new hires.

Being of such educated stature, he was able to take his choice of several other hospital employment offers from around the country. He nearly chose Fairbanks but wisely moved just North to Paysen Arizona. Again, Radiology Department Director. Just two years ago, that community facility serving a large area just South of Flagstaff was busy and thriving financially. Today, he is unemployed again! The hospital is losing money in huge amounts. Why? Arizona has been forced to revise it's program for servicing medicare/medicade recipients, cutting care to thousands of low income and elderly patients.

The use of the radiology department's x-ray and other rooms are nearly stilled! This is certainly just one of thousands of medical facilities and doctors that are already feeling the effects of "OBAMACARE"…

ObamaCare's cuts to hospitals will cost seniors their lives

By Betsy McCaughey  -  Published September 12, 2012

FoxNews.com

President Obama is wooing seniors with promises to protect Medicare as they've known it. On the defensive because of the $716 billion his health care law takes from Medicare, Obama assures seniors he's cutting payments to hospitals and other providers, not their benefits.

Don't be bamboozled. It's illogical to think that reducing what a hospital is paid to treat seniors won't harm their care. A mountain of scientific evidence proves the cuts will worsen the chance that an elderly patient survives a hospital stay and goes home. It’s reasonable to conclude that tens of thousands of seniors will die needlessly each year.

Under ObamaaCare, hospitals, hospice care, dialysis centers, and nursing homes will be paid less to care for the same number of seniors than if the health law had not been  enacted. Payments to doctors will also be cut.

Scientific evidence published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a leading scientific journal, suggests that forcing hospitals to spend less on elderly patients will produce deadly results.

Exhaustive data on over two million elderly patients treated at 208 California hospitals from 1999 to 2008  show that elderly patients treated in low spending hospitals (bottom quintile) get less care and have a worse chance of surviving and leaving the hospital than elderly patients with the same diagnosis treated at higher spending hospitals. The research, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging and RAND and published in 2011  found that heart attack patients  were 19% more likely to die at low spending hospitals.

Over a four year period, 13,613 seniors with pneumonia, stroke, heart attacks and other common conditions who died at low spending hospitals would have recovered and gone home had they been treated at a higher spending institution.(Annals of Internal Medicine, February 1, 2011) That’s the death toll in one state with about 10% of the Medicare population.

Ignoring this evidence, the Obama administration is pressuring hospitals in all fifty states to imitate low spending hospitals. In addition to the across the board cuts in future payments to hospitals,very soon, beginning in October, 2012, the Obama administration will reward hospitals that spend the least per senior,and penalize those that spend more.  For several years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have measured hospital quality, including infection rates. But Section 3001 of the Obama health care law adds "Medicare spending per beneficiary" as a measure for the first time. Hospital administrators express alarm that the measure includes not only what is spent on an elderly patient in the hospital but also for thirty days after discharge, when the patient visits a doctor or gets physical therapy for example.

Slashing what hospitals are paid does not eliminate “fraud, waste, and abuse,”contrary to what the law’s defenders claim.  The cuts compel hospitals to operate in an environment of medical scarcity, with fewer nurses and less diagnostic equipment.

When Medicare cut payment rates to hospitals in 1997, the cuts eventually led to more deaths from heart attacks.   Seniorstreated at the hospitals incurring the largest cuts had a 6-8% worse mortality rate from heart attacksthan seniors treated at other hospitals. The reason, researchers concluded, is that hospitals coped with the cuts by reducing nursing care. (National Bureau of Economic Research, March 2011.)

Though this research did not measure harm to younger patients, it is obvious that patients of every age suffer when nurses are spread thinner. Press the call button, and you will wait longer for help.

Medicare is the single largest source of revenue for hospitals. Richard Foster, Chief Actuary of Medicare and Medicaid Services, testified to Congress that the ObamaCare cuts will eventually force 40% of hospitals to operate at a loss, affecting the standard of care. Foster also cautioned that 15% of hospitals may stop accepting Medicare.

There are safer ways to control Medicare costs, including inching up the eligibility age, asking seniors to pay an affordable share of their bills, preventing hospital infections, and empowering patients to be cost-conscious consumers. Of course, politicians will try to claim that the easy answer -- slashing payments to hospitals -- won’t hurt patients,  but the evidence shows that’s untrue.

Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D. is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and author of "Obama Health Law What It Says And How To Overturn It."

Related:

CBO Raises Estimate of Those Hit By Obama Health Care Tax & ObamaCare in Disarray

THIS isn't allowed even on Bourbon Street

There is only one way left to repeal, replace ObamaCare and reform healthcare and that is if we fire Obama in November and Hire Mitt Romney!

Cross-Posted at Ask Marion

Technorati Tags: seniors,Medicare cuts for seniors,wake-up America,wake-up seniors,watch the other hand,ObamaCare,death panels,ObamaTax,ObamaCare mandates,Mitt Romney in 2012,repeal and replace ObamaCare,Fire Obama - Hire Romney,CBO,religion,Hobby Lobby

New Romney-Ryan Ads

A new ad from the Romney-Ryan campaign takes the Democrats' Medicare attacks on Paul Ryan head on. Watch the video below:

Video:  New Romney Ad: Obama Cut Medicare to Pay for Obamacare

"You paid into Medicare for years," the voiceover says. "Every paycheck. Now when you need it, Obama has cut $716 billion from Medicare. Why? To pay for ObamaCare. So now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is going to a massive new government program that's not for you."

And Remember:  Nobody 55 or older will be affected by any Medicare changes made, but the program will be bankrupt by 2024 for people younger if nothing is done or changed!  Ryan’s plan will save the program for those under 55-years of age.

The campaign plans a large buy with this ad in important swing state media markets.

  Video: America Deserves Better

President Obama cannot run on his record, so he is committed to tearing down Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Obama’s campaign tried to use the tragedy of a woman's death for political gain. Then, Obama’s top campaign aides were caught lying about it. Doesn't America deserve better than a president who will do and say anything to stay in power, regardless of the truth?

Romney-Ryan: America’s New Dream Team and a Clear Choice – Updated

Technorati Tags: Romney-Ryan,Romney ads,Medicare,ObamaCare,Election 2012,2012 Election,America's Come Back Team,videos

The Return of Mediscare

National Review:

By The Editors

On CNN yesterday, Obama strategist David Axelrod claimed that “most of the experts who have looked at this” have said that Paul Ryan’s plan to reform Medicare would put the program “in a death spiral” and “would raise costs on seniors by thousands of dollars.” A day earlier — as Representative Ryan was preparing to accept Mitt Romney’s offer to join his ticket — Obama campaign manager Jim Messina had said the plan involved “shifting thousands of dollars in health-care costs to seniors.”

None of this is true. Any expert who looks at Ryan’s plan — any intelligent and fair-minded person, really — can tell you the actual worst-case scenario for how much more it could make beneficiaries pay: $0.

The claim Axelrod and Messina are making is based on a hostile interpretation of an earlier version of Ryan’s proposal. Ryan has changed the proposal over the last year, however, and Romney has endorsed the new version. The Democratic criticism, applied to the new plan, is indisputably false.

The Romney-Ryan proposal — which has the support of liberal Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon — would let senior citizens choose a coverage plan provided either by the federal government or by a private company. The government would defray the cost of purchasing the plan selected. The providers would submit bids showing the premiums they would charge to cover the benefits Medicare has traditionally offered. The second-lowest bid would set the amount the government would provide for each beneficiary.

Seniors who picked the second-cheapest provider would have their entire premium paid by the government, and seniors who picked the cheapest would get a check for the difference. Seniors who picked a more expensive plan would have to pay the difference out of pocket.

We have reason to be confident that this arrangement would restrain the growth of costs. A study has just shown that applying the second-cheapest-bidder approach to even the much less robust form of competition in Medicare Advantage would have resulted in a 9 percent reduction in Medicare costs in one year alone. The savings from years of real competition could be enormous.

If, however, competition does not restrain costs, the growth of government spending per beneficiary will be capped at a level a bit above the growth rate of the economy plus inflation. That is the exact level that the Obama administration envisions as well. The administration, however, hopes to reach the target by setting low prices for medical providers and otherwise micromanaging medical markets. There have been many past efforts along these lines, and they have always failed.

Under a worst-case scenario, then, the Romney-Ryan plan costs senior citizens no more than current law. It offers the hope of doing considerably better: of reining in the costs of Medicare, the principal cause of long-term debt disaster, without sacrificing patient choice, the quality of health care, or medical innovation.

Republicans should explain that they have found a promising strategy to stave off national bankruptcy while improving senior citizens’ health care, and explain also the alternative of bureaucratic rationing Obama has in store for them. If Obama and his aides persist in claiming that the Romney-Ryan plan will increase costs for senior citizens or shift risks to them, Republicans and fair-minded observers should not hesitate to call these charges what they are: lies.

FACTS:

• Seniors… You cannot be for Medicare and for ObamaCare… Obama takes $700 Billion plus from Medicare to help pay for ObamaCare – Romney-Ryan will repeal ObamaCare and replace it with real reform.
• The Democrats have no budget plan or plan to solve the debt problem. Both Romney and Ryan have plans that they will combine. (Harry Reid has blocked a vote on a federal budget for 3-years now. Obama will be the only president to complete a term, spending like a drunken sailor… sorry sailors, without ever having a budget.)
• Nobody 55 or older will be affected by an Medicare changes.
• Ryan will not gut the ‘support net and senior benefits’ system. Ryan’s mom is a senior who lives in Florida and after Ryan’s father died, their family needed and received assistance.
• The leftist ideologues and Team Obama minions immediately pounced on the Ryan pick. Peggy Noonan says “Ryan is liked by pretty much everyone except the far left, so Team Obama and their media minions will try to kill him quickly with falsehoods”.
• The Left, who has no record or plan to run on, will resort to the same lies of Ryan throwing granny over the cliff even though that campaign has already been proven to be false. Word is they are already planning another ‘Granny over the Cliff’ commercial.
• If we do not address the entitlement spending problems, Medicare will be bankrupt by 2024. The National Review featured a great piece on the Medicare
• Entitlement reform(s) are at the center and must be addressed to rehab the economy and turn around the national debt. It is the issue that Team Obama and politicians on both sides of the aisle have avoided for years.
• Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have called for the stop of negativity and falsehoods in the 2012 campaign and for the shift of focus on facts, plans and solutions instead. No more smears and falsehoods… “Let’s take the campaign out of the gutter”, said Romney in Wisconsin over the weekend. Yet Team Obama and their minions have continued, if not stepped up, their negative and attack campaign and ads.

Related:

Video: Ryan eviscerates Obama on Obamacare in 6 minutes

Team Obama and their Progressive media minions have already resorted to the same lies of Ryan throwing granny over the cliff even though that campaign has already been proven to be false. But what else do you do when you have nothing else to run on? We can only hope that Granny and Gramps are a lot smarter than the Dems think they are! And Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan think they are!

Ryan has also had the courage to go head to head with Obama and has proposed alternative plans for both a budget (more than once) and ObamaCare.

Romney-Ryan: America’s New Dream Team and a Clear Choice

Paul Ryan: A Great Choice for America’s Women

Don’t Fear Ryan

Paul Ryan VP pick: A young wonk, he's liked by friends and foes

Technorati Tags: Medicare,Mediscare,ObamaCare,seniors,Romney-Ryan,Election 2012,2012 Election,Medicare cuts for seniors,educate yourself,Election 2012 Is Our Last Chance,Election 2012 falsehoods,Paul Ryan,Mitt Romney

ObamaCare… the Gift that just keeps on Giving~

JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PROBES JUSTICE KAGAN‘S ROLE IN OBAMACARE...

The House Judiciary Committee has launched an inquiry into Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s involvement in the health care overhaul at the request of 49 Republican House members.

The probe will examine whether Kagan, who served as President Barack Obama’s solicitor general prior to her Supreme Court nomination, will be required to recuse herself for cases challenging the health care law, and the accuracy of her answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearings last July, CNS News reported.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday, House Judiciary Chair Lamar Smith (R-Texas) requested “relevant documents and witness interviews in order to properly understand U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan’s involvement in health care legislation or litigation while serving as United States Solicitor General.” Smith requested they be made available by July 29.

Federal law bars Supreme Court justices from being involved in cases where their impartiality could be questioned or they previously served in an advisory capacity related to the case at hand.

Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) led 48 of his Republican colleagues in a letter to Smith and House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.) on June 24, pointing to statements made during her hearings the House members called “contradictory” to released Justice Department documents and urging an investigation.

Kagan said in written responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee that she had no involvement in developing the government’s legal responses to the health care law and was never asked her views or offered them, according to the Washington Times.

Fleming issued a statement Thursday applauding Smith’s request to Holder:

“I am confident that this investigation will uncover even more evidence that Justice Kagan was involved in Obamacare defense activities, contrary to her Senate confirmation testimony. How can any reasonable person believe that Justice Kagan can be impartial on ANY Obamacare case if she was involved in formulating a defense of this destructive law?

Video:  Rep. Fleming Discusses Call For Kagan Investigation

Posted on July 7, 2011 at 2:49pm by Madeleine Morgenstern

Source:  The Blaze

SCHEDULED MEDICARE PREMIUM INCREASES

For those of  you who are on  Medicare, read the article below. It is about the monthly amount of money you are going to pay  in Medicare premiums in 2011, 2012 and the huge  increase you will pay in 2013. It's  a short but important  article:

Congress will not allow an increase in the social  security COLA (cost of living adjustment); however,  the per  person monthly Medicare insurance premiums are being  increased as follows: 

2009 premium of  $96.40

2012 premium of  $104.20 

2013 premium of  $120.20

And increases to a whopping  $247.00 in 2014!

Thank You  Obamacare!

Congress also gave themselves a $3,000 a  month Cost of Living Adjustment!
Send this to all  seniors that you know.

REMEMBER TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER  2012

And in the meantime you might consider moving from AARP, who sold seniors out for profit on ObamaCare, to the ASA or AMAC.  Just like hating Progressivism and what it is doing to America, you can’t talk about changing it and about making a difference and then buy Progressive Insurance.  You gotta help starve the Beast!!

For anyone who missed the Progressive Insurance information:

Friends it is important that we have and share information like this…I would not be sending this out to you if it had not been confirmed by Snopes.com and Truthorfiction.com.

BTW, Snopes is also a leftist group that receives Soros funds, so be aware when checking.  The aren’t always accurate or truthful, but got this one right!

You’ve seen and smiled at the Progressive Insurance TV commercials.
Well, you’re about to learn the rest of the story:

PROGRESSIVE AUTO INSURANCE

You know their TV commercials, the ones featuring the
actress all dressed in white. What you might not know is that the Chairman of Progressive is Peter Lewis, one of the major funders of leftist causes in America . Between 2001 and 2003, Lewis funneled $15 million to the ACLU, the group most responsible for destroying what's left of Americas Judeo-Christian heritage. Lewis also gave $12.5 million to MoveOn.org and American Coming Together, two key propaganda arms of the socialist left. His funding for these groups was conditional on matching contributions from George Soros, the America-hating socialist who is the chief financier of the Obama political machine.

Lewis made a fortune as a result of capitalism, but now finances a progressive movement that threatens to destroy the American free enterprise system that is targeting television shows on Fox News.

Peter Lewis is making a fortune off of conservative Americans (who buy his auto insurance) that he applies to dismantle the very system that made him wealthy. He's banking on no one finding out who he is, so, STOP buying Progressive Insurance and pass this information on to all your friends.

Verify at Snopes:  http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/peterlewis.asp
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/a/aclu-lewis.htm

Cross-Posted By Blogger to True Health Is True Wealth and Daily Thought Pad at 7/09/2011 11:41:00 AM

Related:

Obama Fixed Medicare With Rationing

Senate Confirms Elena Kagan As Newest Supreme Court Justice… Another Nail in America’s Coffin

Papers Prepped to Disbar Elena Kagan

Dirty Little Secret:  Rationing is at Heart of ObamaCare

The 10 Worst States for Retirees

Obama calls GOP Medicare, spending plans 'radical' (Obama's plan, your medical records on Facebook)… Really?

Is this really where you want your medical records stored… on Facebook… the social network that works hand in hand with the government and retains the right to keep any information that you post there… photos, posts, etc, even after you close your account?  This is beyond frightening!!

Pablo Martinez Monsivais  /  AP  -  Members of the audience listen to President Barack Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a town hall meeting to discuss reducing the national debt, Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California

PALO ALTO, California — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that congressional Republicans are pushing a radical plan to trim Medicare and Medicaid, ramping up the rhetoric as he and Congress approach crucial decisions on spending and the nation's debt.

"I think it's fair to say that their vision is radical," Obama told a town hall gathering at the headquarters of Facebook, the huge social network company.

"I don't think it's particularly courageous," he said of the GOP plan to convert Medicare to a voucher program and make big cuts to the federal-state Medicaid program for the poor.

"Nothing is easier than solving a problem on the backs of people who are poor, or people who are powerless, or don't have lobbyists, or don't have clout," Obama said.

The president wants to be friends on Facebook

Other Democrats have called the GOP plan radical, but the president generally has used less pungent language. Even as he sharply criticized the Republicans' spending

proposals Wednesday, he said he believes the two parties can reach an accord on long-range plans to cut deficits by about $4 trillion over the next decade.

Obama made the comments in a friendly environment — one with 19 million friends, in fact. He told Facebook employees and others watching online the nation must invest vigorously in education, clean energy and research that are vital to future jobs and a strong economy.

Making the case for his own deficit-cutting plans, Obama said that one way to trim health care costs could involve doctors sharing medical information on Facebook, the hugely successful social network.

Obama's 2008 campaign used Facebook and other social networks to reach voters, volunteers and donors, especially among young adults. Such outlets will play even bigger roles in next year's campaigns.

The president shared the stage with Facebook's youthful founder, Mark Zuckerberg, whose company noted that 19 million network users have electronically "liked" Obama's White House Facebook site.

Obama, beginning a three-day Western tour pitching his budget plans and raising re-election cash, said trimming $4 trillion from the nation's deficits over the next 12 years sounds like a lot but can be done.

He will hold another session Thursday in Reno, Nev., with his message that his approach to cutting deficits is more balanced and less painful than a rival House Republican plan.

The president has proposed cutting spending, raising taxes and squeezing federal health care programs. The Republican plan rules out tax cuts and would achieve nearly $6 trillion in savings from spending cuts and overhauling Medicare and Medicaid.

The Associated Press 2011

 **  Seniors… Please do not fall for the hype and misinformation!!  Anyone who is now on Medicare or Social Security, or is 55 or older, will not be affected by any of the upcoming changes proposed by the GOP, including Paul Ryan’s Plan.  And if people under 55 want to have some safety net for themselves and generations to come we must make some changes, or they will have nothing! The greatest thing you have to fear that ObamaCare will go into full implementation.  That is your nightmare!  And unfortunately, it will not happen until after the 2012 Election, just like the inflation and Wall Street are being manipulated, until the day after election, when all our worst nightmares will be unleashed.  Do your own homework.  Read the ObamaCare Bill that was passed or seek information that is coming from neutral sources… which is not AARP or the mainstream media news coverage.  Like Facebook, NBC especially, is practically a subsidiary of the White House.   **

Urgent Petition: Repeal ObamaCare!

First Senior Moment... And Extinction

How Dinosaurs became extinct (The very first "senior moment"...???)

Global warming plan could leave humans extinct

Forget climate change -- the real threat to the planet and all of us riding on it comes from screwball scientists and their schemes to "save" us from nonexistent threats.

The latest plot sounds like it might have been hatched by a Bond villain: a series of simulated volcanic explosions to fill the atmosphere with a manmade chemical sunblock that would shield the entire planet.

Can you imagine anyone saying this stuff with a straight face? Yet that's just one of a number of dead-serious proposals in the growing field of "geoengineering."

Another scheme involves spraying seawater into the sky around the planet to create more clouds, lowering the global temperature. I hope you've invested in a good umbrella.

What's even more disturbing is that our government is actually taking this nonsense seriously. The National Science Foundation just awarded $382,000 of YOUR money to University of Montana researchers just to study the ethics of geoengineering.

They should have asked me -- I could solve that one for free: Ethics won't matter one whit if we're all dead after scientists blow their volcanic loads and dump the sea into the sky.

I wasn't around when the dinosaurs got wiped out -- I'm not that old -- but the leading theory says it started with a meteor impact. The space rock itself didn't kill off the creatures...instead, the real culprit was a massive cloud of dust kicked up by the impact, blocking out the sun.

Sound familiar?

I'm not convinced the climate is changing in the first place -- and even if it is, it's certainly not because of anything we've done. The planet's a lot older and stronger than us.

But if we give in to this manufactured panic and let the mad scientists engineer the environment for us, we'll go the way of the dinosaurs ourselves.

Hoping common sense isn't extinct,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

Will the Health Care Bill Pass? What is the Process? What Will It Cost? And Why Is the Bill Being Crammed Down Our Throats?

Sen. Judd Gregg on the health care bills Senate hurdles

Senator Gregg said earlier today on GretaWire that the actual cost of the Pelosicare Bill is $3 Trillion Dollars and it will end up as single-payer socialized medicine and will ultimately cut a Trillion in Medicare…

Will the Health Care Bill Pass? - Video

Senator Gregg says keep the bill out of Conference… Keep the Senate from voting to take the Bill to the Next Step... to Conference!!

And do you ever wonder why the Healthcare Bill is being crammed down out throats no matter what Americans want? It is SEIU… the Unions who over promised and now need the government to bail them out. Andy Stern of SEIU has been to the White 22-times… to lobby!

Great Candid Discussion By “Real” Doctors on Healthcare and Healthcare Reform – Definitely Worth a Watch! Plus RFK Jr. on Vaccines…

Doctors speak candidly about upcoming cuts and what will happen if ObamaCare passes; about what really needs to be done; and offers and suggestions of what to do.

Today Glenn Has His OWN Doctors in White Coats Meeting - No Shills, No SEIU Affiliates

Congress to Make HC Decisions & Can’t Make War Decision - Part II

Glenn to Doctors: How Many of You Cut Feet off For Extra Dollars? - Part III

Doctor: “Government HC Causes Us To Compromise With Patients Care” - Part IV

Has Anyone Noticed the Absence of Lawyers in HC Debate? - Part V

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

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Tells Truth About Government Cover-up of Vaccine Dangers

Part I – Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy Present RFK Jr.

Part II – Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy Present RFK Jr.

Mind you… these are the same people that are going to making decisions about your and your family’s health…

Related Resources:

"The" Dr. Oz Bait for Vaccine: Why Did He Do It?? Oz Kids and Wife Not Getting H1N1

Reid Admits Healthcare Costs $2 Trillion

DoctorsforPatientFreedom.com

Cato Expert: Medicare Cuts Coming

Conservatives for Patient's Rights

Stop Paying the Crooks

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

Posted: True Health Is True Wealth – Cross- Posted: Marion’s Place

Obamacare: Cut the Elderly and Give to AARP

Among the $500 billion in Medicare cuts that will provide the bulk of the financing for Obama's health care plan is a $160 billion to $180 billion cut in the Medicare Advantage program, which offers a range of benefits not available to beneficiaries under basic Medicare.

Medicare Advantage should be Obama's favorite program. It combines all the elements he likes -- premiums are subsidized for low-income elderly, and the companies negotiate low-priced, managed care that emphasizes prevention, treatment of chronic conditions and coordination among doctors. As a result, its costs on the one hand and its premiums on the other are both much lower than with conventional insurance.

Ten million primarily low-income elderly have voluntarily enrolled in Medicare Advantage and realize savings of about $1,000 annually in enhanced benefits over and above what Medicare itself provides. These extra benefits include reductions in out-of-pocket costs and comprehensive drug coverage, vision, dental and hearing benefits, wellness programs (like gym memberships), and disease management and care coordination programs.

Medicare Advantage, which gained momentum during the Bush-43 years, essentially implements all the economies and efficiencies that Obama preaches nonstop. Doctors speak to one another, duplication is avoided, care is managed, and there is an emphasis on prevention.

The alternative to Medicare Advantage is Medicare supplement plans, popularly called Medigap coverage. But these conventional health insurance policies offer fewer benefits at higher premiums. They offer no care coordination, no chronic care management, no pay-for-performance incentives. They have no way to control costs. They just write out checks.

Because Medicare Advantage negotiates payment levels and saves money through bulk purchasing, inpatient costs run 20 percent to 25 percent lower than under Medigap insurance. More patients are handled through outpatient care. X-rays and other radiation cost 10 percent to 20 percent less, and durable medical equipment like wheelchairs, walkers and oxygen bottles run one-fifth less than with conventional insurance policies.

So why is Obama so keen to cut Medicare Advantage?

Here's a clue: AARP (the American Association of Retired Persons) does not sell Medicare Advantage. But it makes a vast amount of money selling Medigap coverage. AARP has had no higher political priority than to curb the Medicare Advantage program and replace it with Medigap insurance. The profit margins on Medigap are greater, and AARP has every intention of exploiting them with Obama's help. His price? AARP backing for his program.

The American Seniors Association (ASA), an alternative to AARP that represents hundreds of thousands of elderly, says, "It is outrageous that Medicare Advantage, a private program with premium assistance for seniors ... has come under attack." Stuart Barton, ASA president, notes that under Medicare Advantage, private healthcare companies "compete to provide care based on a negotiated price."

Obama's deal with AARP represents special interest politics at its worst. He has already negotiated a deal with the big drug companies to get their support for his bill (and their advertising bucks to promote it) in return for guaranteeing that the cuts in their prices and profits will be small. And, by cutting Medicare Advantage, he signed up the AARP too.

Obama plans to slash the premium subsidies to low income elderly for Medicare Advantage coverage. This would drive up the premiums and drive many poor seniors into Medigap coverage. And then, most cynically, he would take the money he saves on shortchanging poor old people and use it to subsidize the policies of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s who are, by definition, not poor (and thus not eligible for Medicaid).

And all this from a liberal? A Democrat?

by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann – Authors of Catastrophe. Dick Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton (Dem), is the author of Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race.

There are several good Republican options available, HR 3400 is one, but the Dems won’t even look at them and as much as Obama likes to look inclusive, he has not met with the Republicans since April and either refuses or ignores any of their attempts to set up a meeting.

(1) SERIOUS tort reform is needed. Medical malpractice needs to be redefined from ordinary negligence (that is, any time anything goes wrong, you can sue) to gross negligence (that is, you can sue only if some ridiculously awful thing has happened, such as the surgeon botched the surgery because he was drunk at the time). Furthermore, since medical drugs, machines, and procedures have to be OK'ed by the FDA, they should carry NO liability whatsoever, as long as they are made up to specs -- if the gov't insists on the power to say what treatments you can have, and the gov't says this or that treatment is OK, then the gov't should accept liability for such treatments. Period.

(2) Medical savings accounts (combined with high-deductible, catastrophic-coverage-only insurance) would bring the market into medical prices, since people would shop for the lowest price to save money for themselves. Remember, the price of two types of medical procedures has been falling while everything else has gone 'way up: cosmetic surgery and laser eye surgery. Why? Because these procedures are not covered by insurance, so people shop for the best price.

(3) Add to this a free market to allow the inter-state purchase and sale of health insurance, which is not allowed now, and portability and the bulk of our problems would be over without destroying our medical system, maintaining freedom of choice, and without allowing a gov’t takeover of healthcare.

Related Resources:

AARP Series: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Part II

What Will the Year 2109 America Be Like for Babies Living to 100?

Are the elderly cost effective?

Stop Paying the Crooks

The Healing of America

Humana Given Gag Order Letter by Government for Telling Seniors the Truth About ObamaCare Cuts

Humana Letter Addresses Proposed Cuts to Medicare Advantage Plans

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

By Andrea, posted in News

In letters from health insurance giant Humana Inc., to Medicare Advantage enrollees, the company addressed current health care legislation, urging enrollees to contact lawmakers about proposed cuts to the privately-run Medicare plans.

Democrats announced yesterday that there is an investigation as to whether Humana was misleading seniors about health reform legislation. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (SMS) to put a stop to Humana’s efforts.

In its own letter, CMS warned Humana not to lobby its customers on the issue.

“CMS is concerned that, among other things, this information is misleading and confusing to beneficiaries, represents information to beneficiaries as official communications about the Medicare Advantage program, and is potentially contrary to federal regulations and guidance for the MA and Part D programs and other federal law, including HIPAA. As we continue our research into this issue, we are instructing you to end immediately all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your website,” according to a letter addressed from Teresa DeCaro, a CMS employee, to executives at Humana.

Today Republicans are accusing the White House and CMS of trying to implement a “gag order” on insurance companies that provide Medicare Advantage programs.

In a written statement, House Minority Leader John Boehner calls the CMS letter “outrageous” and says the White House is “trying to keep seniors in the dark about the consequences of congressional Democrats’ costly government-run health care bills.”

“Would the Administration impose this sort of gag order if seniors were being given information promoting the Obama health care plan? I don’t think so,” says Boehner in the statement. “Seniors have a right to know about the cost and consequences of the Democrats’ health care bills, and Republicans will continue to tell the American people the facts about the nearly $500 billion in Medicare cuts that Democrats are proposing.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also rebuked the CMS letter to Humana, giving an impassioned speech on the Senate floor about the gag order.

“Using the full weight of the federal government’s enforcement powers to stifle free speech should trouble all Americans — and all of us — even more,” McConnell said. “We cannot allow government officials to target individuals or companies because they do not like what they have to say.”

“Shut up! the government says,” said McConnell. “Don’t communicate with your customers. Be quiet and get in line.”

A health-care bill under debate this week in the Senate Finance Committee seeks to trim $123 billion over ten years in payments to Medicare Advantage plans, putting the plans in a new competitive bidding program. Lawmakers are divided over what the effect of the payment cuts will be on enrollees’ benefits.

source: WSJ