An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for Health Care
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.
Can’t Sleep
I thought painkillers were suppose to knock you out! And it’s not like I’m in any serious pain, just a very sore shoulder where Nurse Ratchet stabbed my bone with a 6 inch stilletto!
Actually, I can’t feel my finger at all right now. It’s like the lidocaine forgot to wear off. Oh, if I whack where the stitches are, I can feel it….sorta, but not to the extent I would have thought. Maybe the nerves are just asleep in self defense. The tip feels more like a dead hairless mouse. Don’t ask! And since I can’t feel it, I also can’t feel when the stupid bandage slides off.
Hmm….kind of looks like a weird finger puppet. Ok, yes, I am sorta of drugged. Hush. Believe me, it hurt a lot more than what it looks now….and yes, I am definitely a wuss! 
This was an entirely new experience for me. I’ve had stitches before, but I was always unconscious, like during surgery. After she stabbed me with the lidocaine,t numbed up a bit, the sadist pulled the skin open. I have a bone in there! One I was particularly anxious to see. Kind of gross, looking inside your own finger.
One positive thing comes from not being able to sleep. I finished another book. 
“One Second After”. Not a bad book, but unfortunately, a fiction that could easily become reality. How unprepared are we for an EMP? Anyway, if you want a decent book to add to your summer reads, this one isn’t half bad.
Yep! This six fingered typing is serious work. Only too me 40 minutes to type out should have taken no more than four or five. Good thing I didn’t have anything important to say. Would have lost my train of thought a long time ago. 
If He Wants To Destroy The Country….
…..wouldn’t nukes be quicker?
The Obama Energy Tax Game Plan
The Foundry
In February of this year, after Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-MA) victory put Obamacare on life support, health insurer Anthem Blue Cross announced a 39% rate hike for its individual market subscribers in California. Despite the fact that the President’s health care plan will only drive health insurance rates higher, the White House seized on this story to revive the government takeover of the health insurance industry. Two months later when the President’s financial regulation plan was stalled in the Senate, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman Sachs with fraud in marketing some of its subprime mortgage investment products. Again, the White House pounced on this news to get its preferred legislation through Congress.
Healthcare? Or ObamaCare!
Americans losing confidence in healthcare
Americans are steadily losing confidence in their ability to get healthcare and pay for it, despite the passage of healthcare reform legislation, according to a survey published on Wednesday.
Personally, I find that headline utterly ridiculous.
healthcare n. The prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions.
How can Americans lose confidence in that? No, the way I see it, Americans are losing confidence in the government’s invasion of THEIR personal healthcare.
“Strikingly, Americans expect the situation to worsen significantly in the next three months,” said Gary Pickens, chief research officer at Thomson Reuters.
“The thing I thought was interesting was … the level of sentiment about future expectations worsened more. The future outlook seems to be causing the people we interviewed angst.”
Perhaps they should have titled this article “Americans losing confidence in the Federal Government’s ability to provide healthcare”. Wouldn’t that be a LOT more accurate?
“I think it may have something to do with the reform legislation,” Pickens said in a telephone interview. “Getting legislation through hasn’t reassured Americans,” he added. “People are being unclear about what it means for them.”
Why do these people always assume that the American people are ignorant? A vast majority KNOWS ‘what it means for them’. Higher taxes, fewer choices, incompetent care, and yes, ‘death panels’, just to name a few.
“What we saw last summer was a big difference by political party,” he said. Republicans strongly opposed healthcare reform.
Obviously. The Democrats have foster a dependence mentality. The Republicans and Independents prefer self sufficiency.
Pickens predicts older Americans may be among the most worried. “I think I would have angst because of the prospect of significant cost cuts, cutbacks in federal programs including Medicare,” he said.
Perhaps if people would more self reliant, and would stop expecting their fellow tax payers to take care of them in their old age, older Americans wouldn’t have such concerns.
In February, when the index fell to 98, a statistically significant number of people said they had delayed filling or did not fill a prescription in the past three months and expected to delay or cancel a diagnostic test in the next three months.
Honestly, I would think this had more to do with the economy than healthcare coverage. Even with the best of coverage, you’re still going to have to pay something out of pocket. Well, unless of course, you’re some union lacky, and believe your healthcare is totally ‘free’.
In March, more people said they had lost or reduced their health insurance coverage in the past three months or that they expected to delay or cancel an elective surgical procedure.
Contrary to what the media keeps saying, people are still losing jobs, so naturally, if they have health insurance through the company, they lose their insurance. If companies paid an employee the same amount they are putting into company health care insurance, then wouldn’t it be logical people could have private coverage?
For some reason, when I think of ‘elective surgical procedure’, I think cosmetic. Now, if that’s the case, there is a huge difference between want and need. You might want that bigger pair of boobs, but you do not NEED them. I’ve never understood why any insurance company would cover such procedures.
No, it’s not “healthcare” Americans have a problem with….it’s the Federal Giverment that is the issue. We no longer have ANY confidence in them at all!
What Part Of ILLEGAL………
Immigration Advocates Vow to Fight Arizona Law
Arizona’s governor vows the state’s tough new law targeting illegal immigration will be implemented with no tolerance for racial profiling, but at least two advocacy groups were preparing legal challenges and Mexico has warned that the law could affect cross-border relations.
Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill that supporters said would take handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration in Arizona, the nation’s busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico and home to an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants.
The law makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It also requires local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants; allows lawsuits against government agencies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws; and makes it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transport them.
With hundreds of protesters outside the state Capitol shouting that the bill would lead to civil rights abuses, Brewer said critics were “overreacting” and that she wouldn’t tolerate racial profiling.
“We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act,” Brewer said after signing the law. “But decades of inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unacceptable situation.”
Let’s get this out there, right off the bat. I’m not a racist. Mexican is not a race. I do not hate Mexicans.
What I have major problems with is the fact there are people, sneaking into my home, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. I’m suppose to pay for their room and board, their health care, their children’s education, and get nothing in return. Well, I’m tired of it. I’m tired of reading about LEGAL citizens being murdered by these slime balls, while the federal government, sits on it’s thumbs and spins to the tune of their “advocates”. We see people killed by drunk drivers, no license, no right to be on the roads, with numerous offenses. We read about kidnappings in Phoenix, the “kidnap capital of the world”. We see the violence growing on the border, and that moron they call the Secretary of Homeland Defense is telling us all is well. Really? What planet is she on?
Told Ya So!
Report: Health Overhaul Will Increase Nation’s Tab
President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law will increase the nation’s health care tab instead of bringing costs down, government economic forecasters concluded Thursday in a sobering assessment of the sweeping legislation.
I’m thinking this is one of those “told ya so” moments!
A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the health care remake will achieve Obama’s aim of expanding health insurance — adding 34 million Americans to the coverage rolls.
D’Bama Lies and Old People Die
Fewer doctors, more taxes, gubmint officials making decisions on who gets care, and who doesn’t. Gee, maybe Palin had it right….death panels.
How the Left Really Plans to Pay for Obamacare
The Foundry
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), over half of President Barack Obama’s new $940 billion health care entitlement is paid for by price-fixing Medicare cuts. Never mind that the President’s own Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says that these cuts would cause “roughly 20 percent” of Medicare providers to go bankrupt in Obamacare’s first ten years. The CBO has to believe these cuts will happen because they are required, by law, to believe everything Congress tells them. The American people are not. So the American people ought to know that instead of cutting doctors’ Medicare reimbursement rates by 21% as required by law on April 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services froze payments at current levels until Congress could come back after Easter recess and rescind those cuts. Again. As they have done every year but one since the cuts were first enacted in 1997.
