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

Stephen Blackwood: ObamaCare and My Mother's Cancer Medicine

The news was dumbfounding. She used to have a policy that covered the drug that kept her alive. Now she's on her own.

WSJ: When my mother was diagnosed with carcinoid cancer in 2005, when she was 49, it came as a lightning shock. Her mother, at 76, had yet to go gray, and her mother's mother, at 95, was still playing bingo in her nursing home. My mother had always been, despite her diminutive frame, a titanic and irrepressible force of vitality and love. She had given birth to me and my nine younger siblings, and juggled kids, home and my father's medical practice with humor and grace for three decades. She swam three times a week in the early mornings, ate healthily and never smoked.

And now, cancer? Anyone who's been there knows that a cancer diagnosis is terrifying. A lot goes through your mind and heart: the deep pang of possible loss (what would my father and all of us do without her?), and the anguish and anger at what feels like injustice (after decades of mothering and managing dad's practice, she was just then going back to school).

We, as a family, were scared and angry, but from the beginning we knew we would do all we could to fight this disease. We became involved with fundraising for research, through the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation in Boston; we blogged; we did triathlons (my mother's idea) and cherished our time together as never before.

Carcinoid, a form of neuroendocrine cancer, is a terminal disease but generally responds well to treatment by Sandostatin, a drug that slows tumor growth and reduces (but does not eliminate) the symptoms of fatigue, nausea and gastrointestinal dysfunction. My mother received a painful shot twice a month and often couldn't sit comfortably for days afterward.

Getty Images

As with most cancers, one thing led to another. There have been several more surgeries, metastases, bone deterioration, a terrible bout of thyroiditis (an inflammation of the thyroid gland), and much more. But my mother has kept fighting, determined to make the most of life, no matter what it brings. She has an indomitable will and is by far the toughest person I've ever met. But she wouldn't still be here without that semimonthly Sandostatin shot that slows the onslaught of her disease.

And then in November, along with millions of other Americans, she lost her health insurance. She'd had a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan for nearly 20 years. It was expensive, but given that it covered her very expensive treatment, it was a terrific plan. It gave her access to any specialist or surgeon, and to the Sandostatin and other medications that were keeping her alive.

And then, because our lawmakers and president thought they could do better, she had nothing. Her old plan, now considered illegal under the new health law, had been canceled.

Because the exchange website in her state (Virginia) was not working, she went directly to insurers' websites and telephoned them, one by one, over dozens of hours. As a medical-office manager, she had decades of experience navigating the enormous problems of even our pre-ObamaCare system. But nothing could have prepared her for the bureaucratic morass she now had to traverse.

The repeated and prolonged phone waits were Sisyphean, the competence and customer service abysmal. When finally she found a plan that looked like it would cover her Sandostatin and other cancer treatments, she called the insurer, Humana, HUM -2.81% to confirm that it would do so. The enrollment agent said that after she met her deductible, all treatments and medications—including those for her cancer—would be covered at 100%. Because, however, the enrollment agents did not—unbelievable though this may seem—have access to the "coverage formularies" for the plans they were selling, they said the only way to find out in detail what was in the plan was to buy the plan. (Does that remind you of anyone?)

With no other options, she bought the plan and was approved on Nov. 22. Because by January the plan was still not showing up on her online Humana account, however, she repeatedly called to confirm that it was active. The agents told her not to worry, she was definitely covered.

Then on Feb. 12, just before going into (yet another) surgery, she was informed by Humana that it would not, in fact, cover her Sandostatin, or other cancer-related medications. The cost of the Sandostatin alone, since Jan. 1, was $14,000, and the company was refusing to pay.

The news was dumbfounding. This is a woman who had an affordable health plan that covered her condition. Our lawmakers weren't happy with that because . . . they wanted plans that were affordable and covered her condition. So they gave her a new one. It doesn't cover her condition and it's completely unaffordable.

Though I'm no expert on ObamaCare (at 10,000 pages, who could be?), I understand that the intention—or at least the rhetorical justification—of this legislation was to provide coverage for those who didn't have it. But there is something deeply and incontestably perverse about a law that so distorts and undermines the free activity of individuals that they can no longer buy and sell the goods and services that keep them alive. ObamaCare made my mother's old plan illegal, and it forced her to buy a new plan that would accelerate her disease and death. She awaits an appeal with her insurer.

Will this injustice be remedied, for her and for millions of others? Or is my mother to die because she can no longer afford the treatment that keeps her alive?

Like every American, I want affordable health care, and I'm open to innovative solutions of all kinds—individual, corporate, for-profit, nonprofit and public. It will take all of these, and all the intelligence, creativity and self-discipline we have, as well as everything we can offer one another as families, neighbors, friends and citizens—and it still won't be perfect. But it is precisely because health care for 300 million people is so complicated that it cannot be centrally managed.

The "Affordable" Care Act is a brutal, Procrustean disaster. In principle, it violates the irreducible particularity of human life, and in practice it will cause many individuals to suffer and die. We can do better, and we must.

Mr. Blackwood is the president of Ralston College, a planned liberal-arts institution in Savannah, Ga., and is on the board of the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation. His mother, Catherine, manages the Family Medicine Center in Virginia Beach, Va.

Technorati Tags: Cancer,ObamaCare,Wake-Up,ObamaCare Surprises,Socialized Medicine,Carcinoid,Neuroendocrine Cancer,ObamaCare Casualties,Obamaland

Emilie’s Story: ObamaCare is hurting people like me

Video: Emilie’s Story: ObamaCare is hurting people like me

Here is comment I received from a gal, a reader of mine named Emmie over at AskMarion.  Neither of these women are alone or exceptions… their situations are repeated hundreds of times daily…

I wanted to contact you privately but cannot find an email address for you anywhere. So I will write here and hope you see it.

I was all for healthcare reform because I found it unacceptable that so many Americans were unable to get it. This sounded like a good thing. So I tried to allay the fears of people like you whenever I heard concerns being raised. Boy, was I ever played!

I am currently between jobs. Cobra will run me about $500 a month – more than half of my mortgage. Not an option. Okay, I’ll go through healthcare.gov and see what they have to say. Well, that will run me more than $300 a month. Unemployment won’t garner me enough money to consider this and I’m not poor enough to qualify for any tax credits. Forget what my situation is – they don’t care that a bad economy, a major illness and two job losses, one of which resulted in gross underemployment, has led to a growing pile of bills. They don’t ask those kinds of questions. They don’t care. So I click on one of the two options remaining in IL, and I call Assurant. Sure, they can get me something for under $200 a month, but it won’t cover any pre-existing conditions. Wait, wha??? I thought that was part of the reform!?! Only if you go with the ACA plans! This fixed coverage won’t pay for much, certainly not major med if something happens, and since it’s not one of ACA plans, I’ll have to pay a penalty for using it. WHAT?! Oh, yes! There is a penalty, I was told by the nice lady at Assurant. Is this something you’ve read about anywhere? I’ve read that people will face a penalty if they have NO insurance, but I can’t seem to find anything about a penalty if they opt to go with a cheap plan outside of the ACA plans.

Now, how in God’s name are we supposed to pay for a government insurance policy that costs so much money we cannot afford it, yet if we don’t go that route we’ll be penalized anyway? If I was once considered middle class, and I’m struggling, how the heck will those who couldn’t afford healthcare before suddenly be able to afford it now?

I know it says there are exceptions and that people who face financial hardships will be excluded from penalties, but guess what? My hardships are never hard enough, apparently. I never qualify for any kind of aid or assistance or help of any kind. I guess it’s time I start considering filing bankruptcy since I’m losing faith. I long ago lost the hope Obama had the audacity to pedal.

AskMarion~

Related: 

Attention Main Stream Media. Regarding Obamacare… I Told You So! 

GOP Senators’ Obamacare Replacement Beneficial to Young People says Senator Colborn as He Loses His Own Cancer Doctor in the Midst of His Cancer Fight 

Pray For Jim Hoft Over At Gateway Pundit

 

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,ACA,Insurance Exchanges,Lies,Obamaland,Wake-Up,Stand-Up,Reality,Get-Involved,Elections Have Consequences,Assurant,Election 2014,Election 2016,Healthcare.gov,Healthcare Exchanges,Read the Bills,Socialized Medicine,Repeal and Replace ObamaCare,Trainwreck

Obamacare Will Hurt Dems in 2014 as Progressives Shift to New Battles

The unpopularity of Obamacare will make 2014 a tough year for Democrats, especially those in red states. The Washington Post's Greg Sargent doesn't deny some Dems are already taking cover where they can, but he says they also have a strategy for making this into a broader argument.

Dems aren’t simply looking to shift away from Obamacare, but to shift the terms of the debate over it, by putting it in the context of a larger debate over the safety net, an argument Dems are already engaging pretty aggressively...

red state Dems who did vote for the law — Kay Hagan, Mary Landrieu, and Mark Pryor — are in a tougher spot, and are each striking their own balance by criticizing its problems while calling for keeping and fixing it. But Dems like Hagan are aggressively joining the fight over unemployment insurance, and the party committees will be hitting Republicans hard over it.

I think there's an underlying truth here which is that parties can win battles over particular programs but that does not often translate into bigger wins. While word has certainly gotten out that Obamacare is a troubled program, the damage is probably limited to that one issue. Ideological conservatives (and some progressives) may see the obvious connection between this particular instance of big government failure and other similar programs but Americans are notorious for wanting to have it both ways.

For instance, a Gallup poll released in December found that an astounding 72 percent of Americans say big government is the biggest threat to the nation. If Americans were ideologically consistent we should see a groundswell of support for cutting back on entitlement programs which make up most of government's spending and hence its need for ever more growth and taxation. But in fact we don't see that in polls.

Satisfaction with Medicare and Social Security was 12 points lower in 2008 than it was in 2013. In 2010, 75 percent said the behemoth programs will "create problems" but in 2011 61 percent still said the solution was minor changes or to "not try to control costs." That's how it often seems to go in America. You get 3/4 of people saying entitlements are a problem and yet 2/3 say we should do little or nothing about it.

That kind of compartmentalization means that even though Americans genuinely do not like Obamacare right now and are worried about government overreach in general, they will not automatically side with Republicans against the broader progressive agenda. Each policy is its own battleground and Democrats surely know that heading toward November.

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,Entitlements

Judge Jeanine Pirro – Obamacare lies – How Many More People Will Lose Coverage?

Video: Judge Jeanine Pirro - Obamacare lies - How Many More People Will Lose Coverage

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Book: Beating Obamacare 2014: Avoid the Landmines and Protect Your Health, Income, and Freedom (Kindle)

Cross-Posted at AskMarion

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,Constitution,Financial,History,Politics,Survival,Taxation,ObamaCare Lies,Wake-Up,Betsy McCaughey,Book,Judge Jeanine Pirro,HC Coverage Loss

Wake-Up… ObamaCare Eliminates Your Plan by Design

RUSH: The scope of this fraud is incalculable and almost unimaginable.  That's how big it is.

The failure that is going on right now is all part of the plan to force everyone into a single-payer system… that is socialized medicine completely run by the government… Wake-up and stop being played.  The only option is to clean house in the 2014 Election so that we can repeal and replace this socialistic monstrosity with a plan to really help all Americans and retain our freedoms and choices.

Video: RUSH: Americans Had To Lose Their Health Care Plans In Order For ObamaCare To Work

EIB – Cross-Posted at AskMarion: BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Steve in South Bend, Indiana.  Welcome, sir.  It's great to have you here.  Hi.

CALLER:  Yes, good afternoon, Rush.  Thank you for taking my phone call.  Long-time listener, first-time caller.  In fact you mentioned Hillarycare earlier, and it's around 1993 that I think I first started tuning in, when Hillarycare debacle was going down. One thing I might add is, if you recall, C. Everett Koop supported Hillarycare.  In fact, if you remember the red carpet ceremony with Hillary walking into the joint session of Congress, I think she was joined by C. Everett Koop, who lent his weight behind her plan. 

That's not why I called.  Okay, 2010 when Obamacare was passed, they went to the states and wanted the states to offer extended Medicaid.  The promise was that the federal government would pay for it for two years -- and the bait, of course, was that the states did not have to pay for it. It was free Medicaid for two years. But then, of course, once they get everybody hooked into their entitlement then the federal government pulls the rug out from under it.

But everybody's hooked so, you know, the states have to continue it.  What I can foresee, what I predict with Obamacare rollout 2.0 is they're just gonna jack up the subsidies. They're gonna get everybody hooked in who lost their health care by overly subsidizing them, get 'em hooked and -- you know, for a protracted, limited time, a year or two or whatever -- and once theory hooked, they're hooked.  And you just mentioned the taxpayer subsidy would probably be a possibility.  That's what I see happening.

RUSH:  Yeah, well, I think that's what Jay Carney means when he quotes the president as saying he doesn't like people put in a position where they can't afford a better plan.  So here comes subsidies.  That's the Democrat solution to everything, is buy them.  The fact that we don't have the money is irrelevant.  The fact that they're still being lied to is irrelevant.  We'll just buy them.  We'll just buy their love.  We'll just buy their support.  And we'll use the federal Treasury to do it. 

There's a guy who writes a piece in The Politico today named Jonathan Gruber, and he practically admits -- let me read a little excerpt here.  "The White House is 'just reacting to one broken promise by imposing a much larger and harmful one: our promise to insurers that if they priced fairly, we would deliver a broad pool of insured.  If you allow the healthy enrollees to stay out in their old policy, the insurers lose money and the program falls apart.'"

So, in other words, if insurers are allowed to keep their plan, Obamacare will fail.  If you get to keep your plan, if we try to dial back the clock and everybody gets to keep their plan, it won't work, because the insurers will lose money and the program falls apart because they won't stay in business that way, whereas the federal government can.  Jonathan Gruber was quoted.  He didn't write the piece, but he was one of the architects of Obamacare.  He practically admitted that if insurers are allowed to keep their plans, that Obamacare will fail.  Meaning, if you're allowed to keep your plan, Obamacare fails.  This has been my point all week.  You cannot keep your plan and have Obamacare at the same time.  Obamacare, by definition, gets rid of your plan and replaces it with health care run by the federal government. 

Now, the caller is right about Medicaid.  Remember, they tried to off that to the states, and a lot of states said, "Wait a minute, we don't have the money to pay for this."  But Obamacare wanted to off that expense to the states to reduce the overall cost as reported to the CBO. Keep it under a trillion dollars and get it approved and everybody thinks, "Oh, wow, it's a net wash, we're replacing the Iraq war with health care, no loss, no gain."  The whole thing was a lie.  The states said, "We can't afford Medicaid. We can't print money. We can't accept it." 

So now it's coming back, and Obama, the theory is, "Well, we'll just subsidize people," and like the caller said, "We'll get 'em hooked," and once people are hooked with the government paying for things for them, that's it.  But they're subsidizing it with money they don't have.  But that's the story of this whole administration.  There was a stimulus that we didn't have.  A green energy program for money that we didn't have.  We're subsidizing everything Obama is doing with money that we don't have.  But the beneficiaries don't care.  The people getting the money don't care that we don't have the money.  In fact, you tell 'em we don't have the money and they say, "Yes, we do, I just got it." 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  The Gruber quote, just to be clear, he's one of the architects of Obamacare, it's in a Politico piece.  Gruber is reminding people that we cannot go back and give people their old plans.  We will not have Obamacare if we do that.  We can't turn back the hands of time.  We cannot turn back the clock as a fix for all the people that are losing their policy, losing their doctor, we can't just now say, "Oh, okay.  Well, here it is back."  The reason is, the White House is just reacting to one broken promise by imposing a much larger and harmful one.  And the original promise to the insurers, not the insured, the original promise to the insurers, the insurance companies, was that if they priced their policies fairly, that the regime would deliver a broad pool of uninsured that were mandated to buy. 

This is how they hooked the insurance companies in.  These idiots thought that they were guaranteed 30 million new customers. (interruption) Well, they are.  What else explains this?  So they sit there, and of course it's the president, I guess you meet with the president and he tells you something, you automatically believe it.  That's what I don't get.  But anyway, they did, they bought it.  And they were salivating, 30 million new customers and all we've gotta do is price our policies fairly.  Well, now they can't offer what they were offering at the same price because of the new mandates and all that in Obamacare.

The bottom line is, it isn't easy to repair this broken promise, that millions of consumers would be able to keep their insurance coverage.  And, by the way, the Politico, in random act of journalism here, they've gone out and they found a bunch of industry experts to say so.  You can't repair this broken promise.  The reason I'm making a big deal out of this is Jay Carney was asked by AP today if Obama agrees with Clinton.  You know, Clinton said (Clinton impression), "I think he ought to honor his promise. He said that people can keep their plan, I think he should do that."  You can't!  It doesn't work.  The only way you could do that would be a total repeal of Obamacare.  There are just too many mandates and requirements on everybody.  That is why people got canceled in the first place. 

Your insurance company didn't cancel you 'cause they hate you.  They didn't cancel you 'cause they want you to get sick and die.  They didn't cancel you because they're Republicans, they don't care about people.  They canceled you because they couldn't offer what you had at the price you were paying and stay in business, which was the design.  Obamacare, to get where Obama and the Democrats want it to ultimately end, requires that the private sector health insurance industry cease to exist.  This is the first step, is practically requiring them to be unable to provide you with the policy you've always had, because there are other mandates and requirements they have to conform to that makes it impossible to over to you the coverage you had at the price you were paying. 

So the only way to get your plan back is not to fix a broken promise. Now, they may try a subsidy, but the only way is to repeal Obamacare, folks. This is what this architect is basically saying, as is The Politico. 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Okay, here's the money quote from Jonathan Gruber: "If you allow the healthy enrollees to stay out in their old policy, the insurers lose money and the program falls apart."  The program is Obamacare.  You cannot have people stay in their old plans and have Obamacare.  It's exactly as I've been saying.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  I don't know, folks.  I still can't get over Clinton telling Obama to honor his commitments and not break his promise.  You know, I famously said, "I hope he fails."  Clinton is admitting Obama failed and demanding that he fix it.  The guy who lied to a grand jury telling the sitting president to be honest. 

Folks, this Politico piece that I just stumbled across here during the program, if I don't mind saying so, is a huge See, I Told You So.  I have been -- and I hate that phrase, by the way, "I've been saying."  You hate it, but I hate it when other people use it because it implies that nobody's listening, and I know you've heard me say this.  It's almost an habitual thing to remind people that they've been told of something. 

I've been trying to make the point now -- I really hammered it yesterday with a caller -- ever since people started bellyaching about losing their policies. I mean, I've practically been pounding my fist on the table here telling people that you have to lose your policy if there is going to be Obamacare.  I don't want to have to go through this again.  By the way, I need to really apologize to you all for being all over the ballpark today.  I'm just really fatigued.  I'm just worn out, tired -- and it's not assisted by being rudely awakened by my kitten. 

Well, you know, what I mean by that is I'm saying silly things, like, "Why do people not remember?" I know the answer to these questions I'm asking.  I just let my guard down.  I'm asking stupid questions to which I already know the answers.  I'm just basically saying, "Gee, why can't it be some way else?" and I know that that's silly.  You know, wishing for it to be otherwise is silly, 'cause it is what it is.  But this is big.  I'm telling you that's why this lie that he told is so fraudulent. 

You mean, it's impeachable what he's done here, because there's no way anybody was ever going to be able to keep their plan, and yet he made that the number one selling point.  Without that lie he might nota been reelected, and without that lie we might not be saddled with this albatross.  The American people have been deceived and defrauded.  You let Richard Nixon try this and see what happens.

Bernie Madoff is a piker compared to the fraud, including the money, compared to what Obama has done with that one lie, because it was never true.  There was never going to be a way that you or anybody could keep your plan -- and the simplest way to understand that is he's out there telling the entire nation, "If you like your plan, you can keep it," and for the most part, the vast majority of people liked that characteristic of Obamacare. 

That's why they supported it.

Do you think he would have been reelected if he would have told people that this is what was gonna happen?  If he were to campaign now, "You're gonna lose your plan, and the replacement's gonna cost you three times as much, but we have to do it to insure the uninsured," do you think he would have been reelected? Do you think we would have to deal with this?  As Joe Biden once said, "This is a big F---ing deal." 

You were never gonna be able to keep your plan, and the fact that he made it the number one selling point, and that they knew! The Federal Register admited that 93 million people were not gonna keep their plans.  They knew that, and they've known it since 2010, when this all started.  The fact that he made that the number one selling point for this, stop and think for a second. 

If everybody keeps their plan, then what the hell are we talking about? Why do we need Obamacare?  If you like your plan and get to keep it, what's wrong?  The only thing that anybody could say is wrong, well, the insured.  Now, I realize that especially may have not liked their plans because they believed there was something better, and that was the second lie that was told.  "Do you like your plan? You can keep it, but the alternative is gonna be even better for you." 

The scope of this fraud is incalculable and almost unimaginable.  That's how big it is.  So for this Obamacare architect -- a man by the name of Jonathan Gruber, in The Politico today -- to be admitting this is a huge See, I Told You So.  The See, I Told You So is specifically what I drilled home to a caller yesterday, that these canceled policies will never be brought back.  Now, you're gonna hear Democrats talk about reinstating your lost policy.

And you might hear some idiot Republicans talking about wanting to support that, and you might hear the media talk about it. But it's not possible.  Your policy cannot be restated, or restored unless Obamacare is repealed, and that isn't going to happen.  Obama will not do it. Saul Alinsky, that might put the fire out in Hell.  That would never happen. Repealing this thing, that'd be one of the biggest embarrassment ever.  I know that they might delay the individual mandate.

They might try to do a bunch of things here to limit the pain, or to move the pain to after the 2014 elections, but these plans cannot be brought back.  They were canceled precisely because Obamacare doesn't permit them, financially and with regulation.  That's why you've been canceled.  It's not because the insurance companies hate you.  It's not because they want you to get sick and die.  It's not 'cause they're a bunch of Republicans and they're trying to save money.  It's none of that. 

They can't stay in business with your old plan.  They're not gonna be in business anyway by the time this is all said and done.  Now, The Politico piece also has this.  "The Huffington Post reported that the [regime] is considering providing subsidies to those who lost coverage but wouldn't qualify for subsidies otherwise under the law."  So they're gonna buy you off.  You've lost your plan and you can't get it back.

So they're gonna cover the difference with a subsidy.  Now, if you're the Republicans, I don't know how you deal with that. If you oppose that, what can they say about you?  "Well, you want people to starve! Oh, you don't want people to have health care? Oh, you want people in pain?"  Once you get to the point where the federal Treasury becomes the number one weapon before for a political party to stay in power, I don't know how you battle that. I really don't. 

I don't know how you battle that, given how many low-information voters we have, given how many people are already on food stamps and dependent, how many people are already in poverty. I don't know how you re-instill a sense of self-reliance.  And particularly when it comes to health care, I just don't know how you do that.  And that is why I am sounding wistful here in wishing for fantasy, 'cause it is fantasy that people understand and remember how devastating liberalism is.  They just don't. 

They fall for it every time it's pitched to 'em. 

Well, maybe not.  They had to be lied to big time to fall for this. 

END TRANSCRIPT 

Video: Rush Limbaugh to GOP: Don't Let Obama 'Eliminate Pain' by Delaying Individual Mandate

RUSH: Obama Doesn’t Care. He Lied For Power. 

Video: RUSH: Obama Is Sorry You Believed Him

The Dirty Secret Behind ObamaCare No One’s Talking About

“Mr. President, I’m Leaving the Medical Field”; Letter from a Physician to Obama

The Last Great Stand: Which props do you think Obama will use when he reads THIS letter on national television? Will he call back all the actors he dresses up in white lab coats to stand around him and look all doctor-like when he reads it?

No wait! I know, maybe one of the fake doctors in the lab coats will fake a faint, and Obama will be there to save HIM! What do you think? Am I close?

No. Lord Barrack has a funny way of reading letters from the pile that only has about 4 letters in it. The pile that is now responsible for 1% of the annual budget in storage because of the size never seems to get read from. I wonder why??? I’m kidding about the 1% by the way. I’m sure he just burns all the hate mail telling him what a boob he is. 

Barack Hussein Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington, DC 20500

Mr. President,

I was born at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. My mother would later take a job delivering babies in that same operating room only a couple years later. My parents got a divorce when I was young. There were many times during the summer when she would be forced to take my sister and I to work with her. I vividly remember the child version of myself walking the halls of the same floor I was born on in fascination as the years passed. The anesthesiologists use to bring us candy and watch movies with us. When the holidays came, a nurse by the name of Patty Vaughn (we called her Granny), would have bags of presents for my sister and I. Donna Smith, a surgical first assistant who came to America from Canada to work in a free-market healthcare system, use to babysit us.

I’m Hanging Up The White Coat Because Of Obamacare To Pursue My Doctorate In Economics And Head To Wall Street

I’m Hanging Up The White Coat Because Of Obamacare To Pursue My Doctorate In Economics And Head To Wall Street

Donna’s two-story town-home became a 3rd home (2nd was the hospital). We spent countless nights at her house.

Patty passed away when I was ten. I still remember the last box of moon pies she gave me for Halloween that year. To this day every time I see a moon pie I think of her. Donna helped me through my undergrad at Belmont University. With tuition at $30k/year money was tight. Donna never let me go without a meal.

You see Mr. President, the smell of sterile operating rooms, horrible coffee, crisp white coats, and cold metal was my destiny. The first time someone ever asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I responded, “Anesthesiologist”. I had no idea what they even did, but it was the first big word I learned to pronounce as a 6-year-old. The hospital is my family. It’s all I’ve ever known.

Twenty-one years after my birth, in the same hospital, I listened to a fetal heart beat through my very own stethoscope. You know, it’s quite magical. As the cool, metallic bell lies upon the tight skin of a young mother’s stomach anxiety, fear and joy are all present in her face. A week before my birthday I stood at the side of the laboring mother. There’s no other way to explain childbirth than witnessing the face of God. The emotion is enveloping. You can only try (unsuccessfully) to hold the tears back. I knew at that moment what a gift God had given me. To be allowed the involvement of such a beautiful, pure moment was not to be unappreciated.

When I started college I knew where I was going. You had just won the election. I remember the cameras focusing in on Oprah Winfrey’s face. Tears streamed down. At the time, I knew nothing about politics. My biggest concern was a girl in my Anatomy & Physiology class I had a crush on. I paid little attention to Washington DC.

I worked hard. Multiple all-nighters, falling asleep behind the wheel of my car countless times, thousands of shots of espresso (I actually took a job at Starbucks to support the habit) and 15k note-cards later I had graduated in the top 5% of the country. However, during those last few years something changed.

We studied medical legislation for an entire semester. It’s no secret that the federal government has over-burdened the healthcare market, which has manifested astronomical costs to consumers. However, in 2010, democrats forced through the partisan Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which was later funded by both democrats and republicans.
Since the passage of Obamacare everything has changed. When I started college I never intended to work for the government. I never thought I’d have a government bureaucrat dictate what I was worth to the market, and I certainly never imagined those same bureaucrats (who have absolutely no medical training) telling me how to treat my patients.

I remember the day Obamacare became law. I was sitting in the hospital working in the anesthesia department part-time to cover the costs of tuition. Dr. Alfery, a mentor of mine, looked over at me and said, “Run– It’s not too late to change majors.”

Your legislation has caused countless doctors to go into retirement early, opt for cash-only practices, and has discouraged bright, young minds from entering the field.

With student loans reaching $300k, incalculable opportunity costs and 8 years lost to school, students seeking medical degrees give their lives to the practice. Starting our careers at 30 while dictating to us how much money we can make is nothing short of destroying all incentive to enter the field.

Since that day I’ve yet to find a doctor who recommends the field. People respond to my complaints, “It’s still going to be a good job”. I don’t want a “good job”. I have not fought for a government entitlement of a “good job”. I want an incredible career. That’s what I have fought tirelessly for.

I have been on a path to enter the Air Force and continue my education in medicine. I have been dreaming of specializing in pediatric neurosurgery for half a decade.

After quite literally losing my hair from the internal conflict, considering the sunk costs and evaluating different avenues I have decided.

I have decided that I believe in the principles of a truly free-market, and I trust the free-market. Because of this deep, internal value system I cannot, with clear conscience, continue on this path. My life has value. Such value cannot be calculated by Washington bureaucrats. I won’t allow it. Only a true free-market can accurately assess the value I am capable of.

Mr President, I’m leaving the medical field. I’m hanging up the white coat. However, let me be clear. You have not won. Unless something “changes”, you’ve lost and will continue to lose. You will fail because you lack principle. Meanwhile, we will succeed because we are born of principle.

Regards,

Michael Gordon Lotfi

2014 IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!!!!  GET-INVOLVED!!!!

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare Lies,ObamaCare,Doctor Shortages,Repeal and Replace ObamaCare,Socialized Medicine,Physicians

Healthcare, Financials, Defense Stocks in Play as Voters Head to Polls

ELECTION 2012 LAST CHANCE TO REPEAL OBAMACARE… VOTING FOR ROMNEY-RYAN on November 6th: Healthcare, Financials, Defense Stocks in Play as Voters Head to Polls - Wall Street Journal

Investors keen to do some stock picking on Election Day have a massive landscape to consider as voter decisions at the ballot box have the potential to shake up major industries from healthcare to financials and beyond, while ballot measures in individual states put other stocks in play.

At the top of that list is President Barack Obama's signature 2010 healthcare overhaul, which Mitt Romney has pledged to repeal if he is made president.

While full repeal may prove challenging depending on how Tuesday's election shakes out in Congress, the law--major parts of which don't go into effect until 2014--could ...

Read More Here

Related:

5 Effects Obamacare Will Have on Working Americans

March 23rd Second Anniversary of ObamaCare… March 26th a Future Day in American Infamy?

Did You Get Your ObamaCare Letter Yet?

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

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

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

Do you have a gun in your house? Your Doctor wants to know and so does the government.

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

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

Obamacare Has Literally Replaced the Constitution

Meet the ObamaCare Mandate Committee

Obamacare rationing panels an ‘immediate danger to seniors’: former AMA president

Obamacare’s Second Anniversary: No Gift for Seniors

IPAB Spells Gloom And Doom For Medicare - Just yesterday (03.22.12) the House of Representatives voted to repeal key 'Obamacare' provision” IPAB (the CLASS ACT has also been nullified)

Catholic Groups File Against Obama Contraception Mandate – ‘Pro-Choice’ Americans At Record Low, Poll Finds

Obamacare to Herd Disabled Seniors to Bare-Bones Medicaid Plans

Obama Lies, Taxes Rise

Settling the Question of a Real Estate Tax in Obamacare

"Taxmageddon" in 2013? Can We Avoid It? Can You Afford It?

Verichip (RFID) Implants are coming, now they will have your credit and social security info connected to... part of HC Bill

RFID Chip for all Americans in 2013 as Part of ObamaCare… See Biden Telling Fed Judge He Will Have to Rule on Implanted Microchips

RFID Implant Law Hidden in Obummercare Implementation 2013 -

Update on RFID: There is definitely a provision in the ObamaCare law, whose wording is purposely vague, for a database and tracking of implanted medical devices – pacemakers, artificial joints, things that are surgically implanted to bring function back to as close to whole as possible that could eventually lead to the mark of the beast technology. But after some additional research, it appears that the regulations for this have ‘not’ been written, and probably won’t be by year end, since they are behind on so many others. This means it probably won’t happen in 2013… but if ObamaCare remains and Obama is re-elected, it is only a matter of time. Luckily since it will require lots of compliance on this piece from the device manufacturers and importers, and they’re about to get hit with sales taxes, they probably won’t be implementing much else for a while, since they must get set up for all that mayhem of reporting requirements. This is another bullet dodge for a while to give Americans the opportunity to turn things around. We know it is part of the plan: Joe Biden mark my words (RFID). The question is when will they implement… if we don’t reboot and get rid of both ObamaCare and Obama as President.

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,Last Chance America,Repeal and Replace ObamaCare,Election 2012,2012,Election,WSJ

5 Effects Obamacare Will Have on Working Americans

Heritage: Obamacare will certainly have a negative impact on every American, but here are five ways it will harm working Americans:

1. Two-thirds of American employees’ wages will decrease as employers deal with increasing costs. Heritage’s Drew Gonshorowski explains the results of an Urban Institute study: “The Urban Institute claims that mid-size firms will see spending per person increase by 4.6 percent, while large firms will see spending increases by 0.3 percent per person. According to the U.S. Census, this accounts for 65.1 percent of employees—or roughly 79 million—in the U.S. who are employed by medium- or large-size firms. The study suggests: ‘Any increase in employers’ health-related costs will be offset by decreases in other compensation—whether wages or other benefits.’ This means that individuals in mid- and large-size firms will receive less in take-home wages (or other benefits) and pay a greater proportion of their compensation to health care due to Obamacare.”
2. Loss of existing insurance coverage. Because of Obamacare’s high costs, experts predict that employers will stop offering employees health coverage, forcing employees into the new government-run exchanges. Although estimates vary, it is likely that millions of Americans will lose their current coverage. For instance, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that between 5 million and 20 million Americans will lose employer-sponsored coverage, the American Action Forum estimates 35 million, and McKinsey, a consulting firm, estimates that 30 percent of employers will definitely or probably stop offering coverage after Obamacare takes full effect in 2014.
3. Premiums in the individual market are set to skyrocket. Obamacare’s new, extreme insurance rules and regulations will have dire effects on the cost of coverage that individuals and small businesses purchase on their own. As Forbes columnist and health policy analyst Avik Roy has pointed out in recent articles, “Obama adviser Jonathan Gruber has estimated that, by 2016, the cost of individual-market health insurance under Obamacare, relative to what it would have been under prior law, will increase by an average of 19 percent in Colorado, 29 percent in Minnesota, and 30 percent in Wisconsin. A prestigious actuarial firm, Milliman, has estimated that individual-market premiums in Ohio could increase by 55 to 85 percent.”
4. Full-time workers turned part-time to avoid the employer mandate. As Heritage predicted, businesses have already begun limiting the hours their employees can work, turning full-time workers into part-time workers, to avoid paying the employer mandate penalty or providing costly insurance coverage. For example, one of the nation’s 30 largest employers, Darden Restaurants, is experimenting with keeping employees under the 30-hour threshold established for Obamacare’s mandate. According to the Orlando Sentinel, “In an emailed statement, Darden said staffing changes are ‘just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications health care reform will have on our business.’”
5. The heavy burden of 18 taxes and penalties. Obamacare imposes 18 new taxes and penalties that will cost Americans over $836 billion between 2013 and 2022. These taxes will either hit consumers directly or be passed on through higher prices. For example, the infamous individual mandate to purchase health insurance will be imposed on 6 million Americans in 2016, many of whom are the working middle class. Nearly 70 percent of payers will be below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, and even those below the poverty level could be forced to pay the mandate tax.

Obamacare must be repealed in order to protect hard-working Americans from its harmful and far-reaching effects.

Related:

March 23rd Second Anniversary of ObamaCare… March 26th a Future Day in American Infamy?

Did You Get Your ObamaCare Letter Yet?

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

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

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

Do you have a gun in your house? Your Doctor wants to know and so does the government.

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

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

Obamacare Has Literally Replaced the Constitution

Meet the ObamaCare Mandate Committee

Obamacare rationing panels an ‘immediate danger to seniors’: former AMA president

Obamacare’s Second Anniversary: No Gift for Seniors

IPAB Spells Gloom And Doom For Medicare - Just yesterday (03.22.12) the House of Representatives voted to repeal key 'Obamacare' provision” IPAB (the CLASS ACT has also been nullified)

Catholic Groups File Against Obama Contraception Mandate – ‘Pro-Choice’ Americans At Record Low, Poll Finds

Obamacare to Herd Disabled Seniors to Bare-Bones Medicaid Plans

Obama Lies, Taxes Rise

Settling the Question of a Real Estate Tax in Obamacare

"Taxmageddon" in 2013? Can We Avoid It? Can You Afford It?

Verichip (RFID) Implants are coming, now they will have your credit and social security info connected to... part of HC Bill

RFID Chip for all Americans in 2013 as Part of ObamaCare… See Biden Telling Fed Judge He Will Have to Rule on Implanted Microchips

RFID Implant Law Hidden in Obummercare Implementation 2013 -

Update on RFID: There is definitely a provision in the ObamaCare law, whose wording is purposely vague, for a database and tracking of implanted medical devices – pacemakers, artificial joints, things that are surgically implanted to bring function back to as close to whole as possible that could eventually lead to the mark of the beast technology. But after some additional research, it appears that the regulations for this have ‘not’ been written, and probably won’t be by year end, since they are behind on so many others. This means it probably won’t happen in 2013… but if ObamaCare remains and Obama is re-elected, it is only a matter of time. Luckily since it will require lots of compliance on this piece from the device manufacturers and importers, and they’re about to get hit with sales taxes, they probably won’t be implementing much else for a while, since they must get set up for all that mayhem of reporting requirements. This is another bullet dodge for a while to give Americans the opportunity to turn things around. We know it is part of the plan: Joe Biden mark my words (RFID). The question is when will they implement… if we don’t reboot and get rid of both ObamaCare and Obama as President.

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,ObamaTax,ObamaCare taxes,ObamaCare surprises,repeal and replace ObamaCare,loss of coverage,higher premiums under ObamaCare,wake-up America,Obamaland,Mitt Romney in 2012,CBO,watch the other hand,doctor shortages,RFID chips,rationing,ObamaCare mandates

ObamaCare Summed Up in One Sentence

Video:  Obamacare Summed Up in One Sentence

So, let me get this straight. This is a long sentence. We’re going to be gifted with a healthcare plan that we’re forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people without adding a single doctor but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that didn’t read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President who smokes — [laughter] — same sentence! — with funding administered by a Treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government that has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese — [laughter] — and finally, financed by a country that’s broke.

h/t to MJ

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,ObamaTax,wake-up America,stand-up America,repeal and replace ObamaCare,Socialized Medicine,read the bill,IRS,Obamaland

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

by Sarah Palin on Monday, June 25, 2012 at 11:11am – on Facebook

As we wait for the impending Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, I reiterate what I wrote in my first post on this topic nearly three years ago. I stand by everything I wrote in that warning to my fellow Americans because what was true then is true now, and it will remain true as we hear what the Supreme Court has to say.

It was a pretty long post, but a lot of people seem to have only read two words of it: “death panel.” Though I was called a liar for calling it like it is, many of these accusers finally saw that Obamacare did in fact create a panel of faceless bureaucrats who have the power to make life and death decisions about health care funding. It’s called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), and its purpose all along has been to “keep costs down” by actually denying care via price controls and typically inefficient bureaucracy. This subjective rationing of care is what I was writing about in that first post:

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.

Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.

We must step up and engage in this most crucial debate. Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back. Ronald Reagan once wrote, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late.

If the Supreme Court doesn’t strike down Obamacare entirely, then Congress must act to repeal IPAB and Obamacare before it is indeed “too late.” All of Obamacare must go one way or another.

- Sarah Palin

Related:

Obamacare Has Literally Replaced the Constitution

Obamacare to Herd Disabled Seniors to Bare-Bones Medicaid Plans

Meet the ObamaCare Mandate Committee

Eugenics In Action: 3 Year Old Girl Denied Kidney Transplant …

"People 70 and over will not be treated under Obamacare… and you thought DEATH PANELS were gone"

Dirty Little Secret: Rationing is at Heart of ObamaCare

Obama “Fixed” Medicare…With Rationing

FYI: Every American Concerned With Health Care Needs To Read This Conversation

UPROAR OVER OBAMACARE‘S ’RATIONING PANELS’ INTENSIFIES

Obama Embraces 'Death Panel' Concept in Medicare Rule

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

Life With Trig: Sarah Palin on Raising a Special-Needs Child

Soylent Green Anyone???

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,death panels,rationed healthcare,Sarah Palin,repeal and replace ObamaCare,seniors,disabled persons,IPAB,soylent green,wake-up,Independent Payment Advisory Board,America,stand-up America,rationing for seniors,special needs children,Supreme Court,Affordable Care Act,Palin

Keeping Dad Alive

My eighty-eight year old dad is in Florida seeing different doctors every week. It costs a ton to keep him alive. In the past our country didn’t measure the price of life. He was ipso facto worth it. The doctors wanted to keep my dad alive so that they could keep making money off their cures. Good. Let them profit by keeping him alive. I profit too.

The Democrats pretend the Affordable HealthCare Act has no death rationing panels. But death is built into the system. Doctors have no incentive in curing the infirm. Extensive care depletes their finances. They would rather cure the less costly. Let the old go; they’re going anyway. Our health becomes an accounting matter.

Whenever healthcare becomes nationalized there is no incentive for doctors to keep us alive. There is a pool of money and the doctors want to use it on the cheapest cures. They want to ration it. It’s only natural considering that the doctors do not profit from keeping the patient alive but keep more money in the pot by letting the really ill ones go.

I’d rather have a system where private doctors can profit from keeping me alive. Life was once important in this country. Before the Democrats took a left turn and threw us off the cliff of social justice. We dumped the aged in a pile of aborted babies who were too inconvenient to raise.

Give me a good old fashioned doctor to overcharge my dad but keep him alive. Don’t let Obama care come in and decide that he’s not worth it. Obama is Dr. Death, pointing his angry finger at us.

David Lawrence – TPN

Technorati Tags: seniors,Father's Day,parents,death panels,rationing for seniors,rationing,ObamaCare,repeal and replace ObamaCare,geriatrics,watch the other hand,soylent green,Affordable HealthCare,ObamaCare is socialized medicine,value of life,life

Judge Opening Door to Obamacare Secrets?

A federal judge hearing a case alleging Barack Obama conspired with Planned Parenthood and other special interests in the development of his health-care bill says the plaintiffs may be able to seek evidence of a secret advisory panel handpicked by the president.

Obamacare now is before the U.S. Supreme Court on a challenge to its constitutionality, and a decision is expected within weeks.

The law also is targeted in the district court case.

“In general, summary judgment ‘is proper only after the plaintiff has been given adequate time for discovery,’” wrote U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts in his latest order in a case brought by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch Inc.

Klayman noted that Freedom Watch has requested discovery to depose Kimberly Harris, a deputy assistant and deputy counsel to the president in the Office of the White House Counsel.

“The parties therefore will be ordered to show cause why the government’s supplemental memorandum should not be treated as a motion for summary judgment, and Freedom Watch will be permitted to justify its request for discovery,” the judge said.

Klayman has alleged that Obama’s multiple meetings with representatives of Planned Parenthood and other organizations constituted a federal advisory committee. He contends that refusing to release details about the meetings violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

It was last August when Roberts ruled that part of the case could advance, determining that Klayman “has alleged sufficiently … that the committee here was an advisory committee under the FACA.”

He noted at that time that Freedom Watch “may be entitled to mandamus review against the president, and dismissing the complaint [as the White House wanted] on separation of powers grounds would be premature.”

Later Klayman filed a motion for an order to show cause, alleging that the White House is flouting the court and its orders.

“In an attempt to circumvent the court’s order, defendant President Barack Obama’s supplemental memorandum on mootness effectively rebukes and thus ‘thumbs its nose’ at the court’s memorandum of opinion and order of Aug. 12, 2011,” the motion explains.

Klayman explained that the White House did not respond to questions about whether the special advisory committee still is meeting.

“Plaintiff had consistently and meritoriously maintained that such ongoing meetings and/or communications must still be taking place, since implementation of what has become known as ‘Obamacare’ involves thousands of regulations, and there is much at stake concerning such healthcare reform, particularly during this period leading up to the presidential elections in 2012,” Klayman argued.

He noted that the court agreed with his argument that “a de facto federal advisory committee could exist was properly pled.”

“The court [ordered] defendants to advise whether meetings and/or communications were still ongoing with nongovernmental persons and entities,” he wrote. “Despite defendants’ own acknowledgment of the court’s unequivocal order, defendants have opted to avoid compliance, seeking to side-step answering candidly and honestly. … Defendants have merely submitted the disingenuous, nonresponsive, and misleading sworn declaration of Kimberly D. Harris, deputy assistant and deputy counsel to the president in the office of the White House Counsel.

“In this sworn declaration, defendants to seek to sidestep perjury allegations they were forced to admit that such meetings and communications were, in fact, taking place in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act,” Klayman wrote.

Now, Roberts has filed the order outlining issues he thinks are in the case, including the fact that the government said the group has discontinued meeting and what he wants regarding the minutes of the meetings that were held.

Klayman, in response, said his organization, as the plaintiff, needs a deposition of Harris.

“As set forth in the complaint and plaintiff’s opposition to defendant’s motion to dismiss, there were widely reported accounts in credible news sources that the president had specific groups, namely pharmaceutical companies, AARP, Planned Parenthood, US. Chamber of Commerce and other private lobbyists who ‘regularly attended and fully participated in non-public meetings of the OHRDFAC,’” Klayman responded.

“In fact, defendants have admitted as much in the affidavit of Ms. Harris, where they confirmed these meetings in the past,” he continued. “And, the advisory committee is likely to continue to meet even if the Supreme Court rules the ‘Obamacare’ legislation unconstitutional, in whole or in part. It will obviously continue to meet in furtherance of new compliant legislation and rulemaking for the implementing government agencies.”

Klayman argued Harris omitted any reference to ongoing meetings, which would mean the action is not moot.

And, he argued, “even a group formed by private industry becomes an advisory committee if it is ‘utilized’ by the president or by one or more agencies of the government.”

“Defendant is holding onto the information and the facts and is attempting to dismiss this action by claiming that plaintiff should simply trust defendant. This goes specifically against Congress’ intent in establishing FACA to ‘keep Congress and the public informed of their activities.’”

Klayman cited earlier ramifications from a similar argument involving the proposed government-run health care plan promoted by then-first lady Hillary Clinton in the 1990s.

“In an earlier landmark lawsuit involving a healthcare advisory committee chaired by Hillary Clinton in the 1990s, the lower court granted summary judgment, accepting the affidavits of the Clinton administration without allowing discovery by the nonmovant. This ruling was overturned on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and when the discovery did finally go forth … it was learned that the Clinton administration had lied in its affidavits.”

Earlier in the new case, Harris admitted PlannedParenthood and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “along with many other individuals and entities, attended meetings at the White House, at times in groups, to express their views on health care reform.”

But then she explained “there was and is no such committee [so] there are no committee documents and no past, present or future committee meetings.”

Previously the White House refused to give up information about negotiations with various groups over Obamacare, saying Obama has a “privilege” to keep such communications concealed.

Among other arguments, a letter from Marcia Berman, a senior counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, told Klayman, “Defendants object to the subpoena on the grounds that it seeks information that is protected by various recognized privileges, such as the deliberative process privilege and the presidential communications privilege.”

Klayman, who founded Judicial Watch and, more recently, Freedom Watch, is in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., contending the president’s conduct falls within the scope of the act that “requires the president to come clean on why he has caved in to the pharmaceutical industry, preventing the importation of prescription drugs that would lower prices for consumers, why he has become the lackey of Planned Parenthood in championing government financed abortions, and why the AMA (American Medical Association) and AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) are now his great friends.”

Klayman, the only lawyer ever to have obtained a court ruling that a U.S. president committed a crime, has pursued cases against the Clintons, former Vice President Dick Cheney, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He built a reputation that inspired writers for the NBC drama series “The West Wing” to create a character, “Harry Klaypool,” based on his work.

by Bob Unruh - WND

 

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,ObamaCare Unconstitutional,Planned Parenthood,lobbyists,Obamaland crumbling,Big Pharma,Repeal and replace ObamaCare,special interests and ObamaCare,U.S Chamber of Commerce,Obamaland,ObamaCare Secrets,death panels,Freedom Watch