HARRY REID: "He talked about CBO saying that there would be $54 billion saved each year if we put caps on medical malpractice and put some restrictions — tort reform — $54 billion. Sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it, Mr. President? The answer is yes. But remember, were talking about $2 trillion, $54 billion compared to $2 trillion. You can do the math. We can all do the math. Its a very small percent."
As as we all know… if Harry Reid is admitting to this… the cost is probably even higher and the savings are less. Add that to all the other negatives… This is and will be a disaster!!
As it now stands, the health care reform plan proposed by Democrats and the Obama administration (the Baucus Bill) would not only fail to reduce the cost burden on middle-class families, it would make that burden significantly worse, says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
For example:
The bill would impose nearly $400 billion in new taxes and fees.
Nearly 90 percent of that burden will be shouldered by those making $200,000 or less.
It might not appear that way at first, because the dollars are collected via a 40 percent tax on sales by insurers of "Cadillac" policies, fees on health insurers, drug companies and device manufacturers, and an assortment of odds and ends.
The economics are clear:
These costs will be passed on to consumers by either directly raising insurance premiums, or by fueling higher health care costs that inevitably lead to higher premiums.
Consumers will pay the excise tax on high-cost plans; the Joint Committee on Taxation indicates that 87 percent of the burden would fall on Americans making less than $200,000, and more than half on those earning under $100,000.
Industry fees are even worse because Democrats chose to make these fees nondeductible, explains Holtz-Eakin:
This means that insurance companies will have to raise premiums significantly just to break even. American families will bear a burden even greater than the $130 billion in fees that the bill intends to collect.
Premiums will rise by as much as $200 billion over the next 10 years -- and 90 percent will again fall on the middle class.
Senate Democrats are also erecting new barriers to middle-class ascent:
A family of four making $54,000 would pay $4,800 for health insurance, with the remainder coming from subsidies.
If they work harder and raise their income to $66,000, their cost of insurance rises by $2,800.
In other words, earning another $12,000 raises their bill by $2,800 -- a marginal tax rate of 23 percent.
Double-digit increases in effective tax rates will have detrimental effects on the incentives of millions of Americans.
Source: Douglas Holtz-Eakin, "The Baucus Bill is a Tax Bill," The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2009
The 'kill granny' bill - By BETSY MCCAUGHEY, NY Post, 10/05/09 As the health-reform bills move through Congress, the prognosis for Medicare patients gets worse and worse.
The Senate Finance Committee bill (generally called the Baucus bill, after Chairman Max Baucus) robs the elderly to cover the uninsured -- like snatching purses from little old ladies. The House bills already cut future funding for Medicare by $500 billion over the next decade. The Baucus bill would slash a similar amount, just when 30 percent more people enter the program as baby boomers turn 65. The Baucus bill also puts new limits on what doctors can do for patients in Medicare:
* A "race to the bottom" provision (p. 102 of the revised chairman's mark) would take effect each year for the next five years. The provision penalizes doctors who end up in the 90th percentile or above on the cost of what they use to treat their patients, compared with national averages. The intent is to force down the cost of care, year by year. Yet this blunt instrument can't determine which care is actually wasteful -- it will punish doctors for treating high cost patients with complex conditions. Inevitably, it will lower the quality of care.
* Even more devastating is the amendment Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) got inserted into the bill (revised chairman's mark, pp. 102-
3). It gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to define quality, cost-effective care for each medical condition and penalize doctors who spend more on their patients. The law establishing Medicare in 1965 barred the federal government from interfering in doctors' treatment decisions. Slowly, Medicare regulations have begun unraveling that protection. Now the Cantwell amendment finishes the job.
This is the most extreme change to Medicare ever. Dr. David McKalip, a Florida neurosurgeon and a board member of the Florida Medical Association, predicts: "The only doctors left in Medicare will be those willing to ration care and practice cookbook medicine." It's reasonable for Medicare administrators to strive to get value for dollars spent. In recent years, Medicare has taken a slow, tight-fisted (and sometimes arbitrary) approach to paying for new drugs or medical devices. But Cantwell aims directly at doctors' decisions. That's not surprising. President Obama and his advisers vilify doctors for over-treating patients. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and a key Obama health-care adviser, argues that the Hippocratic Oath is largely to blame for the "overuse" of medical care.
In his view, doctors focus too much on the needs of their own patients; they should be taught to ask whether the money they're spending on a patient is worth it. To curb doctors' spending, the stimulus legislation launched a process of sending doctors protocols via computer on what the government deems "appropriate" and "cost-effective" care. Doctors who are not "meaningful users" will be punished financially.
When I warned that this meant the government would be interfering in doctors' treatment decisions, CNN and FactCheck.org said that was untrue. But Dr. David Blumenthal, appointed in March to head the new system of computer-guided medicine, settled that debate. In the New England Journal of Medicine (April 9), he confirmed that "embedded clinical-decision support" (his term for computers telling doctors what to do) would be used to reduce costs, and he predicted that some doctors might rebel against tight controls. The Baucus bill completes the framework for tying doctors' hands when treating the elderly.
Driving all this is the misconception that doctors spend wastefully on patients who are about to die. Newsweek's recent cover story, "The Case for Killing Granny," argues that "the need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate."
Numerous studies prove that is false. In 2006, Emory University researchers examining the records of patients in the year before they died found that doctors spend far less on patients who are expected to die than on patients expected to survive.
The Emory researchers said it's untrue that "lifesaving measures for patients visibly near death account for a disproportionate share of spending." They also found that doctors often can't predict when a patient is in the last year of life.
In any case, the health-reformers' plan to cut spending on patients 65 and older won't simply reduce end-of-life care, it will also eliminate care for patients who are perfectly capable of surviving their illness and going on with life.
The 'kill granny' bill - By BETSY MCCAUGHEY, NY Post, 10/05/09 Betsy McCaughey is chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former New York lieutenant-governor.
Watch how Maine Republican Olympia Snowe and Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln vote in the Senate Finance Committee on the Baucus version of the Obama healthcare plan. As Snowe and Lincoln go, so will the Congress.
The Democrats need Snowe's vote desperately, to convince wavering moderate Democrats that they can offer a veneer, however thin, of bipartisanship to the health proposal. If Snowe, their last chance at a Republican vote, opposes the Obama/Baucus proposal, there is no hope of a bipartisan fig leaf for the package.
On the other hand, if Snowe backs the bill, it will send a signal to moderate Democrats that it's OK to join in and the bill will probably attract the 60 votes it needs for Senate passage. Lincoln's vote becomes critical if Snowe votes no. Lincoln is probably the single most vulnerable Democrat running for reelection in 2010. She is the proverbial canary in the coalmine. If she makes it, so will all the Democrats. Hailing from a conservative Southern state, her poll numbers suggest that she would be in a heap of trouble with a stiff challenger.
If Lincoln defects and joins the Republicans in voting no (as she has done on a number of amendments), she will do a lot to cement her chances to remain a senator, but will open a wound in the Democratic Party. A domino effect will likely set in.
Her Arkansas colleague, Democrat Mark Pryor, will feel exposed by her defection and will probably consider voting no as well. It will be very hard for the son of moderate David Pryor to explain why Lincoln jumped ship but he chose to stay on board.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D) of Nebraska, encouraged by Lincoln's vote, will probably vote no as well. These negative votes will bring huge pressure on Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat. Nor can the president count on the support of Joe Lieberman (I) of Connecticut, who has warned that, despite his basic support for the concept of the bill, it would be hard for him to back it given the current economic and fiscal crisis.
Once Obama's plan fails to attract 60 votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will fall back on reconciliation as a strategy and hope for 50 votes. But if the Democrats pass the bill with 50 votes, it will set a precedent they may come to rue. It would basically eliminate the filibuster as a parliamentary tactic and would condemn any future minority party (Democrats in 2011?) to the same irrelevance as afflicts their House colleagues. To be in the minority in a chamber run by a bare majority is not a fun task.
However, if Lincoln votes yes, it will send a signal to all moderates that even the most endangered of their species is willing to risk backing the program and will do a great deal to shore up the president's defenses. All this means that if the elderly citizens of Arkansas and Maine -- and their families -- want to avoid the evisceration of the Medicare program contemplated in the Baucus/Obama bill, they had better get busy. They need to deluge both senators with urgent pleas to vote against the $500 billion cut in the Medicare program. Neither senator can afford to alienate her elderly constituents, but what do they expect when they vote to take the hatchet to Medicare? Newt Gingrich found out that cutting Medicare is a ticket to political oblivion. Barack Obama will learn the same lesson. The question is: Will Olympia Snowe and Blanche Lincoln join him? PLEASE NOTE: I have persuaded the League of American Voters to run ten second advertisements in key states that show an elderly person saying: "Senator _________: Please don't cut my Medicare by $500 billion. I need my Medicare." We need to get these ads on in the key states.
We need to focus attention on the cuts in Medicare. It is slashing services to the elderly that is the key point!
Please click here to donate and give generously. This is the key moment and you can make all the difference in the world. With pressure such as the elderly are bringing to bear, the Senate would not dare pass this benighted plan!
Please keep up the pressure on your own Congressman and Senators as well as on Olympia Snowe and Blanche Lincoln.
United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121
DFA “senior adviser” Jacob Hacker (above) is an Obamacare architect who laughed at criticism of the plan being a Trojan Horse for single payer coverage. “It’s not a Trojan Horse, right” he retorted at a far Left Tides Foundation conference on health care. “It’s just right there! I’m telling you. We’re going to get there.”
One Day After accusing Republicans of slowing down the process the Senate Finance Committee voted not to post the full Senate (Baucus) Healthcare Reform Bill online for at least a full 72-hours for the public and all Senators to read it before a vote… as they rumbled about how hard they were working and how they would work all day Saturday (9/26/9) and how posting the bill would slow things up… the Senate called it a day, a half-day yesterday (Friday 9/25/09), (for the Jewish Holiday) and now won’t be back until Tuesday from another long weekend…
Does anyone want to yell… stop with the b.s.? Stop with the untruths (lies)? Stop pushing what most people in America don’t want????? People really don’t want to read the Baucus Bill… they want it scrapped.
Hit the RESET Button!!!
(Then start working on some real healtcare reform that people want and that will save money, improve services and cover more people… which is not ObamaCare!)
One Single Payer System (CUTE SONG) From The reasons given not to post the full Baucus HC Reform Bill online for 72-hours before a vote, so people could actually read it were…
1. The people wouldn’t understand it. (They think we are stupid)
2. It would take too long to translate into laymen’s language. (This bill could and should have been written so everyone can understand it in the first place)
3. It will slow up the process of getting it passed. (They are hiding not just one thing, but a long list of things and intend to ram this through to promote Obama’s bigger agenda no matter what Americans really want!!)
On Tuesday they are going to take up the Public Option again… And they won’t tell us what it costs. Big RED Flags!
Once any part of a Public Option… whether it is called a government-run co-op or a trigger, the Camel’s nose will be in the Tent, and it will only be a matter of time before we are on a single payer (socialized medicine) plan, and there will be turning back.
Neither Healthcare Reform or Cap and Trade have anything to do with improving the lot and life of Americans!! Both have everything to do with (in President Obama’s own words 5-days before the election) “Fundamentally changing America!”
The Fight For American Freedoms and Real Healthcare Reform is now!!
---------
Solution to the Healthcare Reform…
Address and Clean Up Fraud in All Areas of Medical Care! – Billions are lost and wasted in fraud each year. Read: Stop Paying the Crooks
Serious Tort Reform – The lawyers are the winner in Obamacare! Tort Reform is not even being addressed
Change Intra-State Insurance Laws; allow true competition to sell and purchase insurance across state lines.
Make Health Insurance Portable.
Reward Doctors for Results Not Numbers of Procedures.
Allow the self-employed and small business owners to form private co-ops to purchase health insurance to cut down costs.
7. These changes alone would improve healthcare and save money to cover the uninsured that could be put on a plan that is a subsidiary of Medicare and Medicaid. Government should act as a neutral regulator only… of insurance companies, Big Pharma and the AMA; not be in competition with them. Exclusions due to previous conditions should not be allowed and honest over-sight (which does not happen now) should be maintained and enforced as far as safety, costs and fraud.
8. Natural supplements and alternative or holistic treatments and preventative measures should also be covered and encouraged instead of forced out by Big Pharma and the AMA.
9. “No” centralization of Medical Records! The opportunity for mis-use of that information is too high. The government could incentivize medical groups and doctors to update their records to more modern systems (in-house/in system). Then those records could more easily be sent or hand carried with the patients consent to be shared.
The Obama administration keeps talking about saving money by reforming Medicare and Medicaid. Let them start there and see what the savings really are without cutting funding or pushing costs over to the states.
ObamaCare is or will eventually be socialized medicine, so we need to fight and stop it now. There will be no going back later.
A Govt-Run Co-Op is the same as a Public Option and a Trigger will end up being a Public Option… the Answer has to be No to all!
Also “NO” on covering illegal aliens or abortions with public funds. (Beware: Obama’s newest ploy is promoting amnesty and citizenship to illegals to cover them, with money we don’t have…)Obama: Legalize Illegals to Get Them Health Care
Call, email, fax and write your Congressman, Senator and all the fence sitter and radical today and everyday!
Call the United States Capitolswitchboard today... everyday at (202) 224-3121 or (202) 225-3121
Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and tell President Obama you have had enough!
ObamaCare heads to (in) committee>>>>
Next week, the Senate Finance Committee will consider the latest version of ObamaCare. Click here for 11 reasons to oppose it.
Please contact the Senators who sit on the committee and urge them to oppose this bill and to start over on real reform that most Americans want and need!
DEMOCRATS
Baucus (MT)
Rockefeller (WV)
Conrad (ND)
Bingaman (NM)
Kerry (MA)
Lincoln (AR)
Wyden (OR)
Schumer (NY)
Stabenow (MI)
Cantwell (WA)
Nelson (FL)
Menendez (NJ)
Carper (DE)
REPUBLICANS
Grassley (IA)
Hatch (UT)
Snowe (ME)
Kyl (AZ)
Bunning (KY)
Crapo (ID)
Roberts (KS)
Ensign (NV)
Enzi (WY)
Cornyn (TX)
RINObamaCare petition tops 20,000
Our national petition calling on Republicans to hold firm against ObamaCare topped 20,000 signatures this week.
President Obama has been inviting select Republicans to the White House as part of his ongoing campaign to get them to cave. We must keep up the pressure.
On, 09/22/09, the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee held a forum to highlight the urgent need for comprehensive health insurance reform. Wendell Potter, Former Communications VP/Spokes... Wendell Potter
Senators are negotiating on Senator Max Baucus' ObamaCare 6.0 proposal and it hasn't even been written yet. Of course, to state the obvious, the fact that they're negotiating on something that hasn't been written means no one has read it yet either. And, to add even more insult to injury, it’s now clear they have no intention of letting you read it. You read that right. On an almost straight party-line vote, Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee squashed an amendment by Senator Jim Bunning that would have required Baucus’ ObamaCare bill to be posted on the Internet – for all Americans to read – for 72 hours prior to the Committee voting on it. Not only that. Bunning’s amendment also called for requiring the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s official tally of how much Baucus’ ObamaCare 6.0 will cost the American people and what the real impact will be on health costs to be released before the it was voted on. It's as plain as the nose on your face. They're leaving the door wide-open to pass Baucus' ObamaCare 6.0 proposal in the dead of night... under the cover of darkness… without even telling you and other concerned Americans what it will cost and how it will affect your health care. But what really takes the cake is that even after those shenanigans, some Senate Republicans are still going out of their way to play Let’s-Make-A-Deal on Senator Max Baucus’ ObamaCare 6.0 socialized health care scheme. They're actually fighting tooth-and-nail, not to stop ObamaCare but to negotiate a so-called compromise on this Obama-Baucus scheme to socialize the nation’s health care system. And that's just one more reason why we must tell our elected officials, right here and right now, that the American people don't want any more negotiations or deals or compromises. We want ObamaCare off the table and we want it off the table now.
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax messages to each and every Republican Member of the United States Senate - or alternately to President Barack Obama and each and every member of the House and Senate. Demand that they listen to the American people and defeat ObamaCare once and for all. Tell them that no amount of so-called "compromise" will make government-run health care acceptable to the American people. Let them know that if they spent the same amount of energy to defeat ObamaCare as they are spending negotiating, the job would be done. Demand, once and for all, that they stop negotiating and win this fight against socialized health care for the American people.
If the previous versions of government-run ObamaCare made you angry… Senator Max Baucus’ ObamaCare 6.0 is likely to make your blood boil. Much like its predecessors, the Baucus health care reform plan is chock-full of provisions calling for new government mandates, higher taxes, increased spending and government-dictated, rationed health care. In fact, it’s so bad that Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl said of Baucus’ plan: “This is a stunning assault on liberty!” Senator Kyl is right. And, the really sad part is this: As previously stated, the Baucus bill hasn’t even been written yet, much less read by the Senators who are doing the negotiating. It’s nothing more than a 200-plus-page shell of ideas to be rammed down the throats of the American people with all deliberate speed... before you and other concerned Americans have the time to find out what hit you. Senator Lindsay Graham, speaking on FOX News, probably gave the best explanation of what exactly is going on: “[T]he Baucus bill… literally changes everyday… we’re making this up as we go… they’re trying to buy votes… the vision here is to pass something… they don’t give a damn what it is and nobody understands what they’re doing.” These so-called leaders just don’t get it. Republicans and Democrats are quibbling over what type of government-run health care they believe to be best for you and your family and no one is fighting for the American people. The American people for months have been sending the message loud and clear that they want no part of ObamaCare, period, regardless of what form it takes. The American people have been telling politicians in Washington that no amount of so-called "compromise" will make Obama’s government-run health care scheme acceptable or palatable. And yet, one of the only things keeping ObamaCare alive is the fact that some Republicans, under the veil of “negotiations,” are keeping it alive. It’s time for these politicians to finally get the message. The American people do not want them to “fix”ObamaCare… no more so-called “ObamaCare compromises”… the American people want ObamaCare gone… never to be heard from again.
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax messages to each and every Republican Member of the United States Senate - or alternately to President Barack Obama and each and every member of the House and Senate. Demand that they listen to the American people and defeat ObamaCare once and for all. Tell them that no amount of so-called "compromise" will make government-run health care acceptable to the American people. Let them know that if they spent the same amount of energy to defeat ObamaCare as they are spending negotiating, the job would be done. Demand, once and for all, that they stop negotiating and win this fight against socialized health care for the American people.
They Don't Want You To Read The Bill, But Will They Read The Bill?
The Baucus plan, right now, as you read this letter, is rapidly advancing in the Senate – even though the bill hasn’t actually been written and none of the Senators working on it have actually read it. And, as previously stated, it’s now clear they have no intention of letting you read it either. Here’s what Michael Franc wrote on the Heritage Foundation’s blog, The Foundry: “During the Senate Finance Committee mark up of the Baucus health bill … Senator Bunning of Kentucky put forth an innovative amendment. This amendment stipulated that before voting on the measure in Committee, legislative language would have to be accessible to the public for 72 hours and that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would need to publish an official tally of how much this bill will cost the American people and what the real impact will be on health costs." Franc continued: “The amendment failed 11-12 on nearly a party line vote. Senator Blanche Lincoln (AR) was the sole Democrat to support this attempt at transparency. The bottom line: when the committee completes its work on this re-make of one-sixth of our economy, Senators will have voted on a phantom - a bill that does not exist with costs that are unknowable until, that is, the unelected legislative draftsmen write the real bill in some back room on Capitol Hill.” [Emphasis Mine] Remember what Senator Graham said: “the vision here is to pass something… they don’t give a damn what it is and nobody understands what they’re doing.” Fortunately, the American people are one step ahead of of our elected officials this time around. They believe they can work behind closed doors and try to repackage government-run health care and seal it with a nice pretty bow. But in the end, the American people are on to their game, we won’t be fooled and we can stop them. No more "negotiating"… no more "compromising"… it’s time to stop ObamaCare once and for all.
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax messages to each and every Republican Member of the United States Senate - or alternately to President Barack Obama and each and every member of the House and Senate. Demand that they listen to the American people and defeat ObamaCare once and for all. Tell them that no amount of so-called "compromise" will make government-run health care acceptable to the American people. Let them know that if they spent the same amount of energy to defeat ObamaCare as they are spending negotiating, the job would be done. Demand, once and for all, that they stop negotiating and win this fight against socialized health care for the American people.
Socialized Health Care Delivered Under A Christmas Tree Filled With Pricey Ornaments…
FOX News anchor Neil Cavuto summed up the mad dash to pass government-run health care – and specifically Baucus’ ObamaCare 6.0: “Christmas may be months away but that ain’t stopping Senators from trying to outdo each other on health care… all sorts of pricey ornaments… 564 amendments… the pace of this is startling.” Like the alcoholic who swears he will never take another drink, only to succumb to temptation the very next day, politicians in Washington lead us to believe that they got the message loud and clear... they lead us to believe they would stop ObamaCare. But instead of stopping ObamaCare cold, they rushed to make deals and propose amendments the second Senator Baucus unveiled his proposal. Even Senator Hatch, while calling for a so-called “bi-partisan solution” to ObamaCare, inadvertently stated the case as to why continued negotiations on ObamaCare are a dangerous thing: “Everything is geared to try to get us to a single payer system… if they can’t do it automatically… they’ll do it in increments… a one size fits all health care system right out of Washington.” Simply put, any compromise that is reached… any deal that is negotiated will simply lead us down the road to government-run, rationed health care for all. Some will try to tell you that negotiation is simply a strategy… that it is perhaps the only way to stop ObamaCare. But the truth of the matter is, ObamaCare never needs to come out of the Senate Finance Committee… it never has to see the light of day. Rule 4 of the Rules of Procedure for the Senate Finance Committee reads: “Rule 4. Quorums. - (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) one-third of the membership of the committee, including not less than one member of the majority party and one member of the minority party, shall constitute a quorum for the conduct of business.” That means, at least one Republican Senator on the Finance Committee needs to be in attendance in order to pass any legislation out of committee. In other words, 10 Republican Senators (Charles Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Olympia Snowe, Jon Kyl, Jim Bunning, Mike Crapo, Pat Roberts, John Ensign, Mike Enzi and John Cornyn) could stop ObamaCare cold right now by simply saying they will not support it under any circumstances. If those 10 Senators would simply say “no,” and deny Democrats on the Finance Committee a quorum; ObamaCare would be done… finished… it would die in committee... but you won’t hear that on the nightly news. And yet, instead of finding a way to convince these 10 Republicans to stand firm in their opposition to ObamaCare, we’re told it’s more prudent solution to negotiate and make a deal with the opposition and hopefully cushion the blow of something that never has to happen in the first place. Only in Washington D.C. does such a thing seem even remotely rational. It’s time to tell these Senate Republicans to get serious about stopping ObamaCare.
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax messages to each and every Republican Member of the United States Senate - or alternately to President Barack Obama and each and every member of the House and Senate. Demand that they listen to the American people and defeat ObamaCare once and for all. Tell them that no amount of so-called "compromise" will make government-run health care acceptable to the American people. Let them know that if they spent the same amount of energy to defeat ObamaCare as they are spending negotiating, the job would be done. Demand, once and for all, that they stop negotiating and win this fight against socialized health care for the American people.
If this dysfunctional willingness on the part of Republican Senators to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory... to "compromise" on a battle that could be won outright... sounds familiar, it should. It's happened before. It seems like only yesterday that our elected officials tried to ram amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens down the throats of the American people. Back then, the American people, in resounding numbers (Republicans, Democrats and Independents), told our elected officials to just say "no" to amnesty. And each time the American people spoke up, our elected officials tried to produce so-called "compromise legislation" ... and they alternately tried to sell it to us or ram it down our throats. But the American didn't let them get away with it. We all knew that each so-called “compromise” was just as egregious as the first amnesty bill... a few words were changed but every proposal essentially led to amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. Do you remember their very last attempt to sell all of us on so-called "compromise legislation?" Do you remember seeing that photograph in the paper of that group of Senators uproariously laughing and slapping each other on the back as they emerged from their closed-door negotiations? It was almost as if, when they emerged from that room, they were really laughing at all of us. Of course, back then, you took decisive action... you called... you faxed... and together we finally broke the back of those bogus amnesty compromises. You did it before. You can do it again. Now is the time to show your outrage. Make your voice heard now and we will defeat ObamaCare once and for all.
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax messages to each and every Republican Member of the United States Senate - or alternately to President Barack Obama and each and every member of the House and Senate. Demand that they listen to the American people and defeat ObamaCare once and for all. Tell them that no amount of so-called "compromise" will make government-run health care acceptable to the American people. Let them know that if they spent the same amount of energy to defeat ObamaCare as they are spending negotiating, the job would be done. Demand, once and for all, that they stop negotiating and win this fight against socialized health care for the American people.
Yours In Freedom, Jeff Mazzella President Center for Individual Freedom
Neither Healthcare Reform or Cap and Trade have anything to do with improving the lot and life of Americans!! Both have everything to do with (in President Obama’s own words 5-days before the election) “Fundamentally changing America!”
Contributing to send out the blasts is probably the most efficient, but if you choose not to go that route, you can contact Washington yourself… or do both until they realize that we will not stand for this betrayal!!
Call, email, fax and write your Congressman, Senator and all the fence sitter and radical today and everyday!
Call the United States Capitol switchboard today... everyday at (202) 224-3121 or (202) 225-3121(House and Senate)
Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and tell President Obama you have had enough.
The Member of the European Parliament below, Daniel Hannan, became quite well known for his speech denouncing the economic practices of Gordon Brown's Labor government in Britain. This speech has received over 2 million hits, and I have included it below. Watch it and you will see why…
Hannan has said several times he cannot understand why Americans would voluntarily move to socialized medicine and that once me did… because of the tremendous infrastructure, there would be no going back. He also cannot understand that Americans are not standing up for their Constitution… their Freedoms, of which he is a great admirer and advocate.
Please continue to contact all the Senators on the Finance Committee list above plus your own state Senators.
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.
Today... Senate Finance Committee voted 11 t o12 NOT to post the final Senate "ObamaCare" Bill online (in full) for 72-hours before a vote... Why?? Because again we are going to be cheated and put inline toward eventual socialized medicine... single payer and it will cost us all more for less services.
There is no question that our health care system needs reform. Unfortunately, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Harry Reid have had no intention of working with Republicans towards health care reform we all can agree on. However, mycolleagues and I have put forth a proposal that we believe will effectively reform health care for all Americans. The reform measure that I think is best has been introduced by Congressmen Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) called the Patient's Choice Act. It is directionally opposite of the plan proposed by President Obama and his cohorts. Instead of putting government in charge of the system, this plan largely removes the failed portions of government involvement, and puts each individual in charge of their own health care plan and decisions. Here are some bullet points on this plan:
The plan eliminates the employer deduction for health insurance and the system of direct payment of health costs under Medicare and Medicaid, and replaces them with a $2,300 refundable tax credit per individual which must be used for health care costs. Therefore, everyone, whether they are young, senior citizens, or indigent, will be covered under a private plan of their own choosing. And you no longer have to get the plan from your employer, but will have a number of options to keep the same plan as you move from job to job. Senior plans would be further subsidized by the Medicare system but still allowed to choose their own plan.
Currently as a Californian, you can only buy a health insurance plan approved by the state of California. Under the Patient's Choice Act, you would be free to pick from any of the over 1,300 medical insurance plans offered around the country. State based insurance exchanges will make sure that you cannot be cancelled for illness, and that pre-existing conditions will not interfere with our choices, in the same way that fire insurance is available to those who live in high fire risk areas today.
Basically this legislation will allow unlimited contributions to a health savings account so that Americans can save for their own health care costs on a pre-tax basis.
Litigation costs are a huge driver of medical costs. This bill would replace the court system with state based dispute resolution mechanisms for most claims, thereby saving a great deal of money in the system.
Creates transparency through a public/private partnership to disclose cost, quality, and outcomes of various plans and providers.
It also instills accountability into existing federal wellness and prevention programs to encourage more disease prevention activities and thereby lower costs.
This bill will cost a grand total of $0 and will increase taxes by $0. It is revenue and cost neutral to the current system.
The proposals we have seen from President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Harry Reid on healthcare reform represent some of the worst public policy I have seen in my entire public career. Socialized health care that raises taxes, rations care and increases costs isn't what most Americans have in mind. I stand in firm opposition to the current government-run healthcare proposal and will work diligently to ensure that Americans are not saddled with a system that will ultimately reduce the quality of your healthcare, raises taxes, and hamper the relationship between doctors and their patients.
On the whole, we will have government-only medicine with the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the DMV. Below I have included a graph which doesn't need any explanation, except for that this socialized health care plan will be a mess.
Here is a quick run-down of some of the most frightening provisions:
It makes it illegal to purchase your own private health insurance after the bill is enacted and will in effect, transition virtually everyone to government care within 5 years. See Section 102, on Page 16 of H.R. 3200
The bill raises taxes on "the rich" but also creates new taxes on small businesses and individuals who do not have health insurance. After the tax increase, the top tax rate for a resident of California will be over 57%, which makes it the highest income tax rate in the industrialized world (Sweden is 56%).
It will increase the overall cost of health care in the country by trillions of dollars. Even the Democrat appointed head of the Congressional Budget Office had to admit that there is no evidence that the plan will lower the cost of health care as the President has asserted.
Current estimates project that there will be nearly 5 million additional jobs that will disappear nationwide, as a result of the plan.
As many as 114 million Americans could lose their current coverage under the bill, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group.
Doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers will be paid even less than they are currently being paid by Medicare or Medicaid, which will bankrupt many.
A government bureaucracy will determine whether you are allowed to receive treatments or medicines, and sometimes, as happens in other socialized countries, whether you are allowed to live or die.
It does not deal with the bankruptcy of the Medicare system or Social Security so those problems continue, but the taxes said to balance them will have been spent on this.
And, it will not even cover everybody with insurance, so it won't even fix what it is supposed to fix.
Rep John Campbell
Additional Facts:
We are being told over and over again by the administration that the GOP and moderate democrats have no alternative plans or input. If you watched the president’s joint session speech, at least half of the Republicans and Blue Dogs were holding up copies of alternate healthcare plans or at least needed amendments to HR 3200 that Nancy Pelosi and her liberal cronies are trying to push down our throats.
Before the recess Obama said that he would glad to sit with anyone/group (Rep or Senator) who wanted to and go over the bills or portions of the bills being proposed, line by line. He said again during the joint session speech that his door was open to anyone with viable alternative suggestions and input to the plans being shoved down our throats. UNTRUE!!! He has not met with or invited a single Republican to the White House since last April and refuses to return their calls. (Congressmen Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA & former physician) authors of the Patient's Choice Act have called and written the White House several times for a meeting (as well as many other Re;publicans) and the WH has not even acknowledged their request to meet with the president let alone set an appointment.)
Universal Health = less docs - A new Investor’s Business Daily Poll revealed that if the healthcare bill passes, 45% of doctors will quit. Wow, what overwhelming support from the medical community. It's probably just because those greedy, evil doctors know the gig is up on their amputations for cash scheme. Another poll by Fox News/Health shows that 65% of all doctors oppose ObamaCare and another 15% are on the fence against or just not talking.
Journalist and author T.R. Reid set out on a global tour of hospitals and doctors' offices, all in the hopes of understanding how other industrialized nations provide affordable, effective universal health care. The result: his book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. Reid is a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post — in whose pages he recently addressed five major myths about other countries' health-care systems — and the former chief of the paper's London and Tokyo bureaus. He was the lead correspondent for Frontline’s Sick Around the World.
Germany offer’s healthcare to everyone for half our cost (approximately $770 per month and employers pay half), using “private insurance companies” of their choice that are heavily regulated… but no government-run healthcare, public option or co-ops. Their Healthcare is portable and they can change carriers at any time.
Insurance companies in the U.S. charge more for services for less than in any other country in the world. 20% compared to an average of 5 to 5.5%, as low as 4% in some countries.
In Switzerland, if you insurance company does not pay our bills within 5-days, your next month’s premium is free.
The Baucus Bill is the same old same old…
A government-run Co-op which is just another name for a Public Option
Half a trillion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Baby-boomers (born between 1946 to 1964) are retiring in record numbers. The need is going up; it won’t drop. No major provisions for clean up of fraud and waste within those systems. Medicaid costs will be pushed onto the states. And the results cannot end up any other way than rationing care for seniors.
The 8 trillion dollar cost (average estimate) is a fantasy. Huge amounts of the cost estimates are just that: estimates of possible savings over the next 10-yrs. Again, estimates without a plan and a track record of just the opposite, while Medicaid costs will be transferred to broke states and Also, many of the programs in the Baucus bill and others won’t start until 2013. If they did the cost would be 1.5 Trillion+, and you know that everything the government runs costs twice their estimates.
Everyone (people who can’t afford healthcare now) will be forced to purchase healthcare of pay the government a penalty of $3,800 to $4,000. Right now the average estimates of the monthly healthcare costs will be $1,300 (rent payment for many in the U.S.).
Many employers will drop their employees’ HC, forcing them into the government-run co-op which will ultimately equal a strong public option and ultimately total government-run “sub-standard” healthcare (just look at Veteran’s Benefits, the Reservation System, the Financial state of Medicare and Medicaid… and everything else the government runs (Social Security, the Post Office, Fanny and Freddie, etc etc Employers will be fined if they do not offer their employees HC, but the fine will still be less than the cost or providing the coverage. Especially in an economic climate like we have today no good businessman or small business owner will be able to choose covering their employees for long.
And the list goes on…
CBO – Doug Holz-Eaken (former CBO Director) says that the Baucus Bill was written (engineered) in a way that is favorable to the parameters or method used to score bills. Also… does anyone wonder why after the White House invited the present CBO Director for a small group visit or chat that they have received favorable scorings after the original thumbs down on HR 3200.
If there is not “serious” focus and specifics in the bill addressing “Tort Reform”, and there isn’t, this is not a legitimate offer… Charles Krauthammer.
There are many hidden taxes in the bill which will be used to payoff insurance companies.
WE REALLY MUST BEGIN TO BE HONEST WITH OURSELVES BY LOOKING AT THE FACTS: THE GOAL OF OBAMACARE (ALL BILLS PRESENTLY BEING CONSIDERED) IS PUSHING THIS COUNTRY INTO A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMNT-RUN HEALTHCARE (SOCIALIZED MEDICINE) AND A POWER GRAB ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS WHO ARE REALLY PULLING OBAMA’S STRINGS!!!!!
These fears (or realities) are starting to be voiced from all directions: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Doctors themselves,
Senator Orin Hatch said today... the only way we can pay for the Baucus Bill or HR 3200 is with huge tax increases!
Please keep up the pressure on Congress!!
Call, Write, Email and Fax your Congressman & Senators and all the lefties and teeterers….!!!! Consistently.
Could anti-Semitic leftist former President Carter’s ridiculous comments about racism be the final nail in the Coffin of ObamaCare??
The national debate over health care reform has careered into the bumpy terrain of race.
Former President Jimmy Carter, some black lawmakers and some newspaper columnists have begun to call President Obama's opponents racist -- or fueled by racism -- and they are asserting that race is the underlying cause of much of the criticism of the president.
Obama's opponents, in turn, are charging the president's supporters with playing the race card -- using the issue of race for political gain.
"What Democrats are trying to do is shame white independents, who voted for President Obama in 2008 but are now uneasy about his policies, into supporting these policies to prove they are not racist," said Republican pollster and strategist David E. Johnson, who worked on Bob Dole's 1988 presidential campaign. Read The Full Article
Heritage Foundation says: Flawed Baucus Bill Is Not the Roadmap - Baucus Plan is the same old same old… just calling things by different names. So they are still selling us!!
Dick Morris says: BEWARE THE PUBLIC OPTION TRAP
As any good Persian rug dealer knows, you have to hold back a bargaining chit so that you can whip it out at the very end to tie down the sale. That's how Obama is playing the so-called public option in his health care program. His plan seems to be to combine its abandonment with some form of tort reform and try to buy off some Republicans - maybe only Maine's Olympia Snowe - to give moderate Democrats enough confidence in the veneer of bi-partisanship to win their backing for his bill. But it's a fraud and a trick.
Here's why: (a) Whether or not there is a public option makes no difference in the fundamental objection most elderly have to the bill - that it guts Medicare and Medicaid. All of the bills now under consideration cut these two programs by one half of a trillion dollars. And all of them require the medical community to serve thirty to fifty million new patients without any concomitant growth in the number of doctors or nurses. These cuts and shortages will lead to draconian rationing of medical care for the elderly, whether under a public option or not.
(b) The most likely proposal is to replace the public option with some form of buyer's co-op. But since there is no currently existing co-op to serve as a vehicle for health insurance, it would have to be formed. By who? The government, of course. That would mean, as a practical matter, that the "co-op option" would be a government run plan for several years. In fact, they may not get around to setting up a co-op at all.
(c) The other alternative, mentioned by Senator Snowe herself, would be for a "trigger" mechanism. This provision would require the creation of a public alternative to private insurance plans if, after a specified period of time, they did not lower rates to a pre-determined level. Given the escalation of health care costs, it is almost inevitable that this provision would lead to a government plan. And, anyway, who says that the government insurance option would be more successful in reducing costs?
But Obama has to at least appear to be willing to compromise, so he has invented the idea of re-packaging the public option in order to seem to be flexible.
The key, here, is not to be distracted by the debate over the public option. It matters very much to private insurance companies whether the government becomes their competitor, but, for the elderly (and the near-elderly), the key concern is not the public option by the rationing and cuts projected under the program. In the Clinton Administration, we worked hard to kill the proposed Medicare cuts and are no less committed to stopping them in the Obama presidency. That they were once proposed by the right and are now being pushed by the left makes no difference. A cut is a cut is a cut. And Medicare should not be cut.
The Baucus Plan is already under fire from all sides. Plan has no public option but has government-run co-ops. Plan has no GOP support and many Democrats have reservations as well.
Reporting from Washington and Pittsburgh - Senate Democrats' most concerted quest for a bipartisan compromise on healthcare collapsed Tuesday as finance committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced he would move ahead with his long-delayed proposals without any guarantee of Republican support.
Baucus also took a blow from his own party's left, as a senior Senate Democrat declared that too many concessions had been made and that he would not support the emerging bill because it did not include a public insurance option.
"I cannot agree with [Baucus] on this bill," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), a senior finance committee member who has been briefed on the proposal. "There is no way, in its present form, that I will vote for it."
The Baucus plan, which scales back President Obama's ambitious proposals both in scope and cost, is considered a likely template for the measure that will ultimately clear the Senate. It has been designed to allay the concerns of moderate Blue Dog Democrats as well as Republicans.
After the negotiations broke down, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the finance committee, accused Senate Democratic leaders of lacking a commitment to bipartisanship.
"I'm disappointed because it looks like we're being pushed aside by the Democratic leadership so the Senate can move forward on a bill that, up to this point, does not meet the shared goals for affordable, accessible health coverage that we set forth when this process began," said Grassley in a written statement.
Congressional Democrats and the White House had been doubting Grassley's commitment to negotiations after he sent a fundraising letter last month pledging to defeat "Obamacare."
The Finance Committee is scheduled to begin voting on its provisions next week. Baucus said he hoped that by the time the panel finishes amending and debating the bill, the measure will have gained some Republican backing.
But a last-minute session with his GOP counterparts -- the latest in a months-long string of such negotiations -- broke up late Tuesday with no commitment of Republican support.
At the same time, the White House was ramping up pressure on the Senate to act -- even if that meant scaling back Obama's expectations of the legislation.
David Axelrod, Obama's senior political advisor, met Tuesday with Senate Democrats to underscore the political risks of failing to revamp the healthcare system. According to Baucus, he cited polls showing public demand for changes -- and increasing support as people learn details of what Democrats are trying to do.
Rockefeller said after the meeting with Axelrod that he would find it "very distressing" if the White House reduced its strategy to "just a question of passing something so you can say you did healthcare reform."
To amplify his message outside Washington, Obama is scheduled to do five television interviews on Sunday -- with ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Univision -- to promote his healthcare initiative. He will also appear on David Letterman's show Monday.
The Baucus version of a healthcare overhaul would significantly scale back the cost and scope of legislation approved by two House committees and another in the Senate. And it would shun the public option preferred by many Democrats.
Baucus was still revising key provisions of the bill Tuesday, including curbs on funding for abortion and on benefits for illegal immigrants. But the broad outlines were clear.
Like the version pending in the House, the Baucus proposal would require all individuals to have health insurance, make Medicaid available to more poor people, provide subsidies to help middle- and lower-income people afford private coverage, and set up marketplaces for individuals and small businesses to buy insurance at competitive rates.
But the Baucus bill costs less than $880 billion over 10 years, compared with the $1-trillion measure in the House.
The cost-cutting changes Baucus made to win favor with deficit hawks in the Senate have fueled fresh complaints from liberals such as Rockefeller and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) who worry that, in the absence of a public option, there is no guarantee that affordable insurance will be available to people of modest means who do not qualify for subsidies.
At the same time, however, some of the most fervent supporters of the public option Tuesday signaled a willingness to compromise, and the president himself continued to show flexibility as he barnstormed for action.
Bill Samuel, director of government affairs for the AFL-CIO, said in an interview that the public option remained the preferred solution. But he also said, "If people bring forward an idea that they can credibly argue achieves the same results -- breaking the stranglehold of insurance companies -- we'll look at it."
Obama addressed an AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and reiterated his support for the public option. But he continued to avoid making it nonnegotiable.
Setting up a government-run plan to compete with private health insurers and act as a brake on rising premiums is a good idea, Obama said, one that would "offer Americans more choices, and promote real competition, and put pressure on private insurers to make their policies affordable and treat their customers better." Rallying the union audience, Obama described the healthcare system as a blight on the nation. He described it as "broken" and prone to "sucking up all the money."
"How many more workers have to lose their coverage?" he asked. "How many more families have to go into the red for a sick loved one? How much longer are we going to have to wait?
colleagues and I have put forth a proposal that we believe will effectively reform health care for all Americans. The reform measure that I think is best has been introduced by Congressmen Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) called the Patient's Choice Act. It is directionally opposite of the plan proposed by President Obama and his cohorts. Instead of putting government in charge of the system, this plan largely removes the failed portions of government involvement, and puts each individual in charge of their own health care plan and decisions. Here are some bullet points on this plan:
