An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for Health Care
Marc Rubio At CPAC
United Against Evil
Obamacare Awakens a Sleeping Giant
The Foundry
It is a rare moment indeed when faith denominations of all stripes unite together in common cause, and it is rarer still when that cause is a political one, with a sole piece of legislation as its principal target. But when that law eviscerates the very foundation of religious liberty in America as protected under the First Amendment, it should not be surprising that Catholics and Jews, charismatic evangelical Christians, and mainline Lutherans alike find common cause in defense of their liberties.
Such is the case with the firestorm of opposition to Obamacare and the Obama Administration’s attack on religious liberty. Under a new Obamacare mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the White House is mandating that many religious employers, with the exception of churches, provide health care coverage for contraception — including abortion-inducing drugs — thereby trampling upon their constitutionally guaranteed free exercise of religion. And it is this mandate that has caused a vehement response in churches and synagogues across the country.
I Don’t Just Think So…..
….. I KNOW so! 
How Many Adults Believe in God?
The vast majority of American adults hold a definite belief in God. Yet, despite this persistence of belief in America and the important place of religious practice in civil society, an increasingly narrow view of religion is threatening to force faith out of the public square.
Sadly, too many are letting the anti faith people dictate what we can, and cannot do. The 1st Amendment has been distorted and twisted to a point where the Founders would not recognize the actions connecting with the words.
Consider the recent mandate by the Department of Health and Human Services that will require almost all insurance providers to cover contraceptives, sterilization procedures, and education and counseling regarding such services—without cost to the insured. The rule includes mandatory coverage of ethically controversial drugs like ella, which can act as an abortifacient.
If a person is forced to go against their faith, to sin against the Word of God, forced to violate their deeply held principles, isn’t that a violation of the 1st Amendment?
Employers with moral and religious objections to providing such insurance coverage will find little recourse in the mandate’s narrow religious exemption. While the mandate’s potential threat to employers’ religious freedom is already causing a stir in court rooms and in the nation’s capital, the struggle to protect conscience rights on morally divisive issues is sure to continue well into the future.
I suppose this administration, and it’s cronies in Congress that pushed through a bill the vast majority of Americans did not want, is choosing to condemn believers to an eternity separated from God. The alternative would be not to provide insurance for their employees, and face the fines. Or, just close their doors and put more people out of work.
Not A Happy Camper
Let’s put it bluntly. This ol’ broad has major bitchiness attacking from all angles….and it ain’t just coming from me. Well, maybe it is, but I’m not gonna take ALL the blame. I could be nice and take it, but I don’t feel nice, so I won’t. 
I made it to the hospital, on time. I already had everything filled out, and taken care of before hand. Or so I thought. I provided the info. Is it my fault the person on the other side of the desk didn’t bother to include the proper info that I provided? UGH. Well, he was a nice guy and all, but making me feel like I had screwed up at 6am is not a real good idea. Finally, they figured out someone failed to scan in the proper info from my insurance card. After many apologies, we got it all straightened out. Things started to proceed smoothly. Well, as smoothly as waiting around for hours can be. They finally got me stripped and in that ever so lovely hospital peignoir.
Repeal….NOW!
You may have seen this, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it, and often!
Top Ten Things Obama Never Told You About Obamacare
1. Did you know that . . . since Jan. 1 of this year (2011), you cannot use your flex-account at work (FSA) or health savings account (HSA) to purchase over-the-counter medicines?
2. Did you know that . . . since July 1 of last year (2010), Americans have been paying a 10 percent excise tax on all indoor tanning services?
3. Did you know that . . . starting in 2018, if your health insurance is “too good” or considered a “Cadillac” plan, then you will incur a new 40 percent tax on your health plan?
4. Did you know that . . . Obamacare has 21 new or higher taxes in it, totaling over $500 billion in increased taxes going to the government over 10 years?
5. Did you know that . . . beginning in 2014, individuals and families that do not purchase “qualifying” – as defined by federal bureaucrats — health insurance will be forced to pay a yearly tax penalty?
6. Did you know that . . . 7 tax hikes in Obamacare directly break President Obama’s “firm pledge” not to raise any form of taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 per year and families making less than $250,000 per year?
7. Did you know that . . . the capital gains tax rate under Obamacare will rise to 23.8 percent starting in 2012? That is a 59 percent increase from its current rate.
8. Did you know that . . . in 2013, those Americans facing the highest medical bills and the least ability to pay for them will find their ability to deduct medical expenses is further limited (medical expenses must be reduced by 10 percent of income under Obamacare, rather than current law’s 7.5 percent)
9. Did you know that . . . beginning in 2014, businesses with over 50 employees will be forced to offer health coverage for everyone, or pay a hefty tax for each employee?
10. Did you know that . . . in 2013, Obamacare caps the amount individuals and families can put in their flexible savings accounts at $2500? Currently there is no cap and these accounts are used for a myriad of health expenses including paying upwards of $14,000 in tuition to special needs schools for some parents?
Concealer
Yesterday morning, when I walked into the hospital’s coffee bar, the girl behind the counter said “Wow, you obviously finally got some rest!” My response….with a smile, “Concealer.”
Now, most women know what I mean, and most husband SHOULD know what that is, but for those of you who don’t…. Concealer is that little magic tube of makeup type stuff that conceals minor flaws….like dark circles and bags under your eyes when you don’t get enough sleep. Ok, so it doesn’t exactly conceal completely, but it’s a good start.
That got me to thinking. How many times in our lives to we use some sort of ‘concealer’. There are things we just don’t want people to know about us. I’m basically an open book, but there are many things about me that people don’t know. Frankly, cuz it’s none of their flippin’ business.
There are a few folks who have basically got the big picture, the Mr for one. Why would I try to conceal anything from the man I’m suppose to trust with my life? Doesn’t make sense. So, he knows some of the worst about me. My pastor and a few select friends know a lot, but not everything. And honestly, there are things I just don’t remember, for a variety of reasons.
So, when I started thinking about this, it occurred to me, our so called political leaders use a lot of ‘concealer’. And I mean a LOT! They cover the ugly parts they don’t want you to see, but they are still there, and eventually, come to the surface. Many will keep slapping on more and more concealer, in other words, lie….repeatedly, and expect us all to see and hear, only what they want us to see and hear. We are too stupid to see through the facade, don’t ya know. Haven’t they pretty much told us that, time and time again?
Take for example the comments Steve Cohen made on the House floor.
“They don’t like the truth so they summarily dismiss it,” he said. “They say it’s a government takeover of healthcare. A big lie just like [Nazi propaganda minister Joseph] Goebbels. You say it enough and you repeat the lie, repeat the lie, repeat the lie until eventually people believe it. Like blood libel, that’s the same kind of thing.
“The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it, and you have the Holocaust,” he added. “You tell a lie over and over again.”
Here we have a Jewish man, comparing his fellow Americans with Goebbels. Nice. Real flippin’ nice. The problem is, it’s not the GOP that are spewing the lies, and expecting WE, The People to buy into them. That would be YOUR side of the aisle, Stevie! You see, WE have actually READ the bill. Have you? Thank you, once again, for embarrassing the state of Tennessee. 
Of course, he did try to do some back peddling. I’m afraid you can’t get the toothpaste back in the tube.
Then we have one of the ‘queens of concealer’, Shelia Jackson Lee. Definitely one of my favorites. /snark Here we have the type of person who will use other people, even through a big fat lie, to attempt to slap down one of the more intelligent people who has interviewed her. One of the HUGE problems is that, it’s all crap! When someone shows up at a hospital, with a trauma, or seriously ill, they are NOT ever turned away. DESPITE their ability to pay.
Just a side note: There are people who use emergency rooms as their family clinic. Illegals come to mind. They are not turned away, even though they don’t pay, and as a consequence, many hospitals have had to close their doors, denying those who could, or would, pay, adequate health care.
Bureaucracies do not save lives. Never have, never will. This bill is nothing more than one huge bureaucracy, with the ability to control your life. Lies. And they keep repeating them. Sadly, many have not attempted to see through the ‘concealer’ to what is really underneath.
If, on the off chance, that Cohen or Lee has actually READ the entire bill, that too speaks volumes about their ability to think rationally, as a freedom loving American. I don’t believe either of them to be such a person. Which is why, imho, they push so hard to deny the rest of us the freedoms granted to us by the Almighty, Himself.
There is not enough concealer in the world to cover all the “flaws” that came out of the Democrat controlled Congress. We see through it!
Repeal It!
Healthcare Bill Repeal From Eric Cantor
Struck Down
Federal judge in Va. strikes down health care law
A federal judge in Virginia has declared the Obama administration’s health care reform law unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson is the first judge to rule against the law, which has been upheld by two others in Virginia and Michigan.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed the lawsuit challenging the law’s requirement that citizens buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014.
He argues the federal government doesn’t have the constitutional authority to impose the requirement.
The federal government has been doing a LOT of things they do not have the constitutional authority to do, but that hasn’t stopped them. Perhaps, now, we can get things back on track, and abolish ALL the unconstitutional crap they have been foisting on us in the last few……decades? I know this war isn’t over, but it’s a damn good victory.
Redistributing Health Care
Who Should Control Your Health Care, You Or The Government?
The Foundry
After President Barack Obama installed Dr. Donald Berwick as head administrator of Medicare and Medicaid by recess appointment, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked at the daily press briefing if “it would have been politically troublesome in an election year to have all these comments aired out about rationing, redistribution that Dr. Berwick had talked about in the past.”
Gibbs was ready for this question, though, and shot back: “Did he say things like, ‘rationing happens today; the question is who will do it’? Did he say that?” The bait laid, the reporter responded: “That was one comment.” The trap sprung, Gibbs pounced: “Actually that was Paul Ryan. That was Paul Ryan. He’s a Republican in Congress.” The White House press corps roared with laughter.
Gibbs may have won that round, but today Berwick is scheduled to testify before the Senate Finance Committee, and conservatives will have their first chance to question the bureaucrat in charge of implementing Obamacare’s many changes to the Medicare system. Hopefully Berwick’s past statements will not dominate the hearings but instead serve as a jumping-off point to shine light on the vast new powers Obamacare granted the federal government.
For starters, in June 2009, Berwick told Biotechnology Healthcare: “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care—the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly.” For comparison sake, here is the full version of the Gibbs-truncated Ryan quote from a 2009 interview with The Washington Post: “Rationing happens today! The question is who will do it? The government? Or you, your doctor and your family?”
Still Want ObamaCare?
Ever feel like smacking some sense into someone? I have a long list of folks I’d like to smack around, starting at the top, and going all the way down the list to the Kool Aid drinkers, who still chant “O-BAM-A”!
Have a HSA (Health Savings Account)? Yep, you’re getting screwed, royally. Thought you were making a wise decision in socking away money for your own health care? Pfft! Paleeeeeze! Doing the right thing is getting you shafted.
Obamacare Sticker Shock: Taxing Over 15,000 Medicines
Nancy Pelosi warned us we’d have to pass Obamacare to find out what’s in it. And what we’re finding we don’t like at all.
Higher insurance premiums are hitting families hard. Medicare Advantage has been decimated. Millions will be forced into government-run Medicaid where long lines and rationing await.
If we like our insurance — too bad.
Beginning January 1, 2011, more than 15,000 over-the-counter (OTC) health care items will require a prescription (and that means a doctor’s visit) for tax-free reimbursement.
I guess you won’t be allowed to have that burrito you love so much, even though it gives you heartburn, eh? Probably won’t be able to have an extra slice of cheese on your burger either cuz it might make ya constipated. And heaven forbid if your baby gets diaper rash!
Oh yeah….this was a REAL good idea, wasn’t it!
Still Shoveling ..It!
The State of Our Nation — Broken
When it comes to articulating the state of our nation, unfortunately, it’s not a tough task. Pick up any newspaper and you’ll see headlines about rising unemployment, skyrocketing healthcare premiums, and gloomy growth outlooks. The narrative is beyond troubling, but not challenging for anyone to grasp: big government is killing the country. Well, except if you’re running Washington. Or running from it.
There have been cracks showing for quite a while, and instead of doing something to stop the cracks, and reverse the damage, the stress of those cracks has now become a full blown break! Duct tape isn’t going to fix this! We’re gonna have to get a whole new one!
This election cycle Democrats aren’t talking about their legislative wins. Not one Democrat has taken out a paid ad touting Obamacare. Unwilling to acknowledge reality, Vice President Biden says they’re agenda is just too complicated to clarify to the public.
“Democrats aren’t running on the administration’s accomplishments like health-care and financial-regulatory overhaul and the stimulus because “it’s just too hard to explain,” Biden said.
That’s right, boys and girls. Don’t forget, we are just plain ignorant. Too stupid to understand the process. Although WE read the bills, unlike those in Congress who just don’t have the time, nor the inclination to educate themselves. This is Biden speak for “We don’t understand it, and no one has explained it to us, so we can’t explain it!” Reckon he didn’t get the memo that the American people are no longer buying their snake oil.
But the White House and Democrats spent over a year explaining their health care plan. Obama alone gave over 40 speeches on the subject. As for the stimulus, wasn’t that Biden’s baby? The lone piece of policy that he was tasked with selling during the highly inappropriately named “Recovery Summer?”
Well, what he did was run around the country, at the taxpayers expense, trying to convince his drooling acolytes his lies were actually truth. “Your insurance premiums won’t go up.” “If you like your insurance, you can keep it.” Little things like that. And if Biden doesn’t understand the crapulus failed, he hasn’t been paying attention. He reminds me more and more of a ventriloquist’s dummy.
Don’t ya wonder who has their hand up his back at any given time?
The truth is that this White House has spent plenty of time pleading their case. But the facts don’t lie. More Americans oppose than favor Obamacare. And more people than not believe that the stimulus has failed. If the policies are flawed and largely unpopular, no amount of clarification can help.
Thanks to some hard working folks, many conservative bloggers and pundits, we DO understand, and we don’t like it! We said so. Fairly explicitly too! The problem is not that we don’t get it. The problem is, THEY don’t! I’ve actually read these bills. Can the White House say the same?
Ah yes. If only they had talked about spending another trillion dollars on the now non-existent shovel ready projects and talked about Obamacare for three years instead of two, they left wouldn’t be facing this backlash.
Oh, there were “shovel ready projects” alright. The media have been holding the shovels, and Obama has been dishing out his B.S.!
ObamaCare’s Consequences
Unintended, But Not Unforeseen
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, is to the law of unintended consequences what Newton’s apple was to the law of gravity: the illustration that bonks us on the head with its obviousness. Practically every week since its passage has added a new dimension of mirth to Nancy Pelosi’s punchline for the ages, that we had to pass the bill to find out what is in it. Out of the mouths of babes and clueless politicians . . .
And her chuckling proves, once again, the jokes’ on us. Well, quite a few, but not all of us. There were many out here in cyberland who warned, shouted it from the rooftops, but were we listened to? Of course not. We’re just the unwashed masses. The “Homer Simpsons“.
The Democrats will rail in reliably demagogic fashion about the evil insurance fat cats boosting their profits, but consider this: Those losses would be passed on to health-care consumers in the form of higher premiums and reduced benefits, meaning that the mandate to cover those with pre-existing conditions will function as a tax on other insurance consumers, and those who were responsible enough to buy insurance before they got sick will be punished to bail out those who were not similarly responsible.
I bought health insurance long before I ever had any health issues. It’s just common sense. You know the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Well, that’s quite true. You may never need it, but it’s a REAL good idea to have it, just in case. I’ve already seen my premiums go up, as have most folks. I don’t have one of those ‘pay for everything’ type policies. I have a catastrophic policy. Which means, in case you don’t know, I actually PAY for my doctor’s visits. In full. Did you know that most doctors will charge LESS for a visit if they don’t have to file an insurance claim? Sometimes, it’s up to 50% less. If you’re old enough to remember, EVERYONE use to pay for their own doctor’s visits, and shots, and blood tests, etc. It was a WHOLE lot cheaper. Yes, the cost of everything has gone up over the years, but can you imagine if we didn’t have to pay for everyone else’s doctor visits too? How much would the cost come down? We also had something called Hospitalization. For anything that required a hospital stay, the insurance company paid 80%, you paid 20%. Along came HMOs. Another one of those Democrat ‘bright ideas’. Costs went up dramatically!
Democrats of late have spent a lot of time engaged in televised scoffing at the idea that regulatory uncertainty is a major cause of our current economic malaise. They would do well to consult the insurers whose businesses they are attempting to micromanage. WellPoint had this to say about its decision to discontinue child-only policies: “Unfortunately, there remains a great deal of uncertainty as to how the rules will be implemented and what the impacts might be on participating insurers.”
Once again, the socialists in Congress prove they have NO clue what they are doing. Or, perhaps, they know exactly what the consequence will be on the public, including the companies that take all the risks, and their intent is to destroy the economy, thinking they will step in as the “white knight” and save the day. Create chaos, step in and claim it’s the other guy’s fault, and propose solutions to ‘fix” the problem, steal money from hard working families, and say “You have to give it more time!” sigh….
Dozens of new taxes, regulatory beasties, and unlovely business outcomes have cropped up since the bill was passed. Meanwhile, the Democrats have declared war on financial reality, blasting insurance actuaries for the crime of consulting the actuarial tables when it comes to pre-existing conditions. And who can forget Rep. Henry Waxman’s fit of rage inspired by the fact that corporate accountants were following the rules of corporate accounting, inflicting massive writedowns on scores of struggling American companies forced to adjust their balance sheets to reflect the new costs and liabilities Obamacare inflicted on them?
The Democrats created a dependent society. They are obviously so incompetent it makes ones head spin. When those who can actually add and subtract numbers call them out, what is their reaction? Sputtering blame. I wonder….have any of those who pushed this massive tax/health bill down America’s throat ever balanced a check book? I’ll put it in real simple terms: You have X amount of dollars coming in on a monthly basis. You have X amount of bills. You subtract the bills from the income, and hopefully, you’ll have some left over for food. If you can’t afford steak and lobster with the left over funds (AFTER socking away some for a ‘rainy day’), you buy beans. You don’t go to the grocery store and fill your basket with a lot of high end items, write a check, and expect the next guy two places back in line to pay for the overdraft fees.
You wouldn’t think this was so complicated, would you.
Shared by Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn
Creating Paperwork, Raising Costs, Destroying Jobs
ObamaCare’s Form 1099 Provision
September 21, 2010
“[W]e have to pass the [Healthcare] bill so you can find out what’s in it.”
—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, March 9, 2010
BACKGROUND
Section 9006 of ObamaCare expands information reporting requirements to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for business transactions in excess of $600 in goods or services. Starting in 2012, ObamaCare mandates that all businesses file an IRS Form-1099 for any vendor with which they have more than $600 in yearly transactions. With an unemployment rate above nine percent for 16 consecutive months, this monstrous accounting and paperwork burden will not provide any incentive to create jobs. To the contrary, the “1099 Provision” will create additional costs for business owners, particularly owners of small businesses, reducing productivity and further stifling economic growth.
CONDEMNATION FROM ALL SIDES
Businesses—Crushed by It: In an extensive June 2010 memo submitted to President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, the Business Roundtable and the Business Council, industry organizations representing the nation’s largest private sector employers, outlined the job-killing policies of the administration. Referring specifically to the 1099 provision of ObamaCare, the memo noted, “the cost to modify systems to collect the data and send the additional 1099s will not be insignificant.” Indeed, a recent National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Survey determined that tax paperwork, costing $74 an hour, is the most expensive burden placed on small businesses by the federal government. The NFIB’s tax counsel, Bill Rys, has also highlighted the “direct negative impact on small business” of the 1099 mandate.
A recent letter from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to members of Congress, signed by more than 2,400 member businesses from all industries and regions, stated that the 1099 provision means “40 million entities, including governments, nonprofits, and businesses of all sizes across the nation will be subjected to onerous data collection and IRS information filing burdens.” The letter continued: “these entities will have to institute new complex record-keeping, data collection and reporting requirements that track every purchase by vendor and payment method.” This mandate will “dramatically increase accounting costs, expose businesses to costly and unjustified audits by the IRS, and subject more small businesses to the challenges of electronic filing.”
Accountants—Against It: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) advocated against Section 9006 in a July 2010 letter to Senators. Based on excessive implementation costs and the “limited utility” gained by the government from the “generation and receipt of millions of forms,” the AICPA said the 1099 requirement should be repealed as the “extraordinary burden in this instance far outweighs the potential benefit.”
The IRS—Wary of It: In July, the Internal Revenue Service’s National Taxpayer Advocate highlighted several problems with the 1099 mandate:
- “[T]he new reporting burden, particularly as it falls on small businesses, may turn out to be disproportionate as compared with any resulting improvement in tax compliance.”
- “[S]mall businesses that lack the capacity to track customer purchases may lose customers, leaving the economy with more large national vendors and less local competition.”
House Republican Conference – Mike Pence, Chairman
We Do Not Want To Be Controlled
Majority of Tennesseans oppose health reform, according to poll
Tennesseans oppose the national health care reform law enacted by Congress at the urging of President Barack Obama almost 2-to-1, according to a recent poll.
Fifty-seven percent of the 625 registered voters surveyed said they oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, while only 30 percent said they support it. The remaining 13 percent were undecided.
There was notable contrast between Republicans and Democrats.
Of respondents who consider themselves Republican, 92 percent were opposed and only 3 percent supported the law. But 73 percent of Democrats backed the plan while only 10 percent were opposed.
Voters who said they were politically independent opposed the plan, 59 percent to 25 percent.
I keep wondering why there is such a major difference in the way Democrats and Republicans think. I honestly find it disturbing that there are so many who want some faceless entity taking care of their every need. Where did our spirit of independence go? People want to lower the medical costs, the first thing they need to do is get the government out of their business.
Captain Clueless At The Helm
The Rationer-in-Chief
The Foundry
When Linda O’Boyle was diagnosed with bowel cancer, her doctors told her she could boost her chances of survival by adding the drug cetuximab to her regimen. But the rationing body for Britain’s National Health Service, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), had previously ruled that the drug was not cost-effective and therefore would not be paid for by the government. So O’Boyle liquidated her savings and paid for the drug herself. But this is not allowed under NHS rules. When government bureaucrats found out that O’Boyle had purchased the drug with her own money, she was denied NHS treatment and died within months.
