Here's what you can expect if the Dems get their way:
- longer waiting times to see a doctor;
- one by one, private insurance companies will go out of business, dumping more and more Americans into the crappy federal program;
- a wave of doctors will get out of the health care business altogether;
- rationing of certain procedures;
- federal deficits will soar higher than the eye can see;
- misery all around.
.
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29 comments:
(UK) Baby died after 'massive overdose' of glucose (socialized medicine alert)The Telegraph
Poppy was transferred to the leading children's hospital in London for specialist care after she was born three months early on Christmas Eve last year, in Basildon, Essex.
But she died after a "domino effect" of mistakes, an inquest was told.
Rebecca Tite, a trainee nurse, who had spent just three weeks in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, set up a machine supplying her with glucose incorrectly, flooding her body with the solution.
The levels of glucose in Poppy's blood rose to 20 times the maximum level they should have been, causing ''devastating effects'' to her body, St Pancras Coroner's Court in central London heard.
The machine that nurses would have preferred to use to give Poppy glucose would have prevented an accidental overdose being given to her, the inquest heard.
But the equipment was not available after being taken away to help threat a five-year-old boy suffering from meningitis who had needed it urgently.
US government report recommends blocking popular websites during pandemic flu outbreak (NaturalNews)
The US government has issued a new report that recommends blocking access to popular websites during a pandemic outbreak in order to preserve internet bandwidth for investors, day traders and securities clearing house operations.
The concern is that a pandemic would cause too many people to stay at home and download YouTube videos and porn, hogging all the internet bandwidth and blocking throughput for investment activities, thereby causing a stock market meltdown.
This isn't an April Fool's joke. It's all based on a public report issued by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), available from their website at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d108.pdf
Sebelius Committed 'Slight Miscommunication'(Plan to give swine flu vaccine to foreign nations) CNS News
A White House official told CNSNews.com on Tuesday that the Obama administration's commitment to donate 10 percent of the U.S. supply of H1N1 vaccine to other countries will not necessarily begin after 40 million doses are procured, as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNSNews.com and the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week.
On Saturday, three days after Sebelius made her remarks about the U.S. donating some of its vaccine to foreign countries, President Obama declared the H1N1 epidemic a national emergency.
Calling Sebelius’ remarks “a slight miscommunication,” the White House official told CNSNews.com that the 40-million dose figure that Sebelius cited as the trigger-point at which U.S. donations of vaccine to foreign countries would begin refers to the estimate of needed vaccines for the most at-risk population in the United States.
“It’s the minimal requirement for considering when the timing will be right,” to begin international donations, the official said, adding that the most important consideration is the vaccine supply in the United States.
Texas border emergency room doctor says catastrophe is coming: Illegals choking hospitals to death
The Collins Report
A Texas emergency room doctor has a message for the rest of the country: illegal aliens are destroying the medical care delivery system in his part of south Texas.
Dr. Antonio Falcon cited diseases and conditions such as tuberculosis diabetes obesity and swine flu, brought by illegals, as major threats to America’s border hospitals because illegals refuse to pay for medical care.
Dr. Falcon says the problem started with the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), the federal law compelling hospitals to treat anyone in medical emergencies without regard to the patient’s ability to pay.
Falcon started his practice in 1980 and has seen the terrible results of EMTALA. In the early 1980’s Mexicans were usually among the best paying patients in border hospitals because the system required up front payments.
Today the same population offers only smiles and empty palms in return for their care. Now the influx of those willing to sneak into America to steal medical services is taking its toll.
Dangerous diseases
If illegals aren’t specifically excluded from any health care legislation Dr. Falcon foresees the effect on border hospitals being the same as forcing them to continue operating with 35% funding cuts.
The problems involved in protecting Americans from the onslaught of illegals goes well beyond merely providing emergency room care and obstetrics. One of the consistently under reported stories about illegals is the shocking array of exotic and deadly diseases they bring with them.
Among the worst is Chagas Disease a South and Central American parasitic illness that causes heart failure in million of people. Unknown here ten years ago, Chagas is now found in 23 states.
Incredibly Illegals have reintroduced Leprosy in America and there are now 7000 lepers in our country.
Open borders plus free healthcare equals dead hospitals.
10 Facts Every American Should Know About Speaker Pelosi's 1,990-Page Gov't Takeover of Health.
Members of Congress and the American people are just beginning to look at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) 1,990-page government takeover of health care, but it’s already becoming clear just how costly and unsustainable this proposal is.
From higher taxes on middle-class families to job-killing mandates on small businesses to cuts in Medicare benefits for seniors, here are 10 facts every American should know about Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990-page government takeover of health care:
1. RAISES TAXES ON MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES.
2. MASSIVE CUTS TO MEDICARE BENEFITS FOR SENIORS.
3. NO PROTECTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.
4. INCREASES THE COST OF HEALTH INSURANCE.
5. USES GIMMICKS TO HIDE BUDGET-BUSTING COST, PILES UP DEBT ON FUTURE GENERATIONS.
6. IMPOSES JOB-KILLING EMPLOYER MANDATES.
7. TILTS THE PLAYING FIELD IN FAVOR OF THE GOVERNMENT-RUN INSURANCE COMPANY.
8. THREATENS CASH-STRAPPED STATES WITH UNFUNDED MANDATES.
9. CREATES A NEW MONSTROSITY IN THE TAX CODE.
10. MISSES AN OPPORTUNITY TO CURTAIL JUNK LAWSUITS.
healthcare.gop.gov.
I laugh whenever I read that passing healthcare legislation will force doctors to leave the medical profession. What a joke! What are these people going to do, open a Subway shop? maybe franchise a Mailboxes etc? Come on, let's get serious.
So instead of making $300,000 per year they'll make $250,000. Boo Hoo Hoo
DEATHCARE (GatewayPundit)
Let me get this straight.
We’re going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose head says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president that also hasn’t read it, and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke.
What possibly could go wrong?
Pelosi Health Care Bill pages 1219-1246–
Just these 27 pages are enough to see what this bill is all about. I bet you will agree. PLEASE take time to read these 27 pages.
Anyone who reads these pages and still says this bill isn’t about the government takeover of health care is either a fool or a liar.
It’s just that simple.
* * * Today the Fraser Institute, one of Canada’s leading economic think-tanks, released the 19th edition of its annual report Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada.
The hospital waiting list survey measures median waiting times to document the degree to which queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures are used to control health care expenditures.
The report measures the wait times between referral by a general practitioner and consultation with a specialist, the times between seeing the specialist and receiving treatment, and the total wait times from GP referral to treatment.
The report finds that Canadians seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment are enduring a median wait time of 16.1 weeks, roughly the same delay they experienced in 2000-2001, even though governments have made substantial increases in health care spending since then.
SECTION 1803: SENATE HEALTH CARE BILL MAKES PLANNED PARENTHOOD QUASI-GOVERNMENT AGENCY?
AIPNews.com
Washington, DC (27 October 2009) – The Senate version of America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 may transform the nation’s largest abortion chain into a quasi-government entity for sex education.
Section 1803, page 503, creates a National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Resource Center and states:
The Secretary shall award a grant to a nationally recognized, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that meets the requirements described in clause (ii) to establish and operate a national teen pregnancy prevention resource center (in this subparagraph referred to as the ‘Resource Center’) to carry out the purpose and activities described in clause (iii).
(emphasis added)
According to the requirements found in clause (ii):
The organization has demonstrated experience working with and providing assistance to a broad range of individuals and entities to reduce teen pregnancy.
The organization is research-based and has comprehensive knowledge and data about teen pregnancy prevention strategies.
According to Rita Diller, national director for STOP Planned Parenthood, there is only one “nationally recognized” organization that fits the bill – Planned Parenthood.
“This dangerous provision to the Senate health care bill could give Planned Parenthood, already under investigation for tax fraud and concealing child rape, quasi-government status and even more influence over our kids,” Diller said.
Medi-Fraud for Everyone (The Right Prescription)
Guillermo Denis Gonzalez was released from prison in Florida in 2004 after serving 12 years for murder. By the end of 2006, he owned a health care business officially licensed by Medicare.
This August, the Miami Herald reported that Gonzalez pled guilty to filing $586,953 in phony Medicare claims for supplies that were never given to any actual patients -- but this was only after he was arrested for murdering and dismembering another victim, to which he also confessed.
While it's shocking that government policing efforts are so lax for Medicare that even a convicted murderer can be granted a license to sell equipment and file claims, Gonzalez is actually a small player compared to other cheats.
Last June, for instance, the Washington Post ran a story about a high school dropout who scammed $105 million from the federal government by filing 140,000 fraudulent Medicare claims, buying herself a Mercedes-Benz and two condominiums with a portion of the proceeds.
The rampant fraud in existing government health care programs is nothing new, but the problem warrants increased attention given recent reports of growing momentum behind Democrats' push to create a new government-run program modeled after Medicare.
AFL-CIO warns Reid against tax on high-cost healthcare plans (Tax Thee, Not Me) The Hill
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned Senate Democratic leaders not to include a tax on high-cost healthcare plans in a bill that is expected to reach the floor in coming days.
Trumka dismissed the notion that Democratic leaders could placate the powerful union by raising the threshold on plans that would be subject to the tax.
Under the Senate Finance Committee’s bill, plans costing more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families would be hit with a 40-percent excise tax.
“Working families struggling to pay for healthcare should not be required to pay even more in the form of a new tax,” said Trumka in a telephone call with reporters.
“When you fail to force [insurance] companies to be competitive and employers to pay their fair share, you have to come up with money elsewhere.
“It’s a bad policy, bad politics, and totally unacceptable to put the cost of healthcare on the backs of working families,” he said.
Obama care will also mandate increased affirmative action admissions to medical schools and a radical increase in affirmative action hiring. What that means is that in addition to health care being run by an incompetent, evil, left-wing bureaucracy we'll be forced to see doctors who are low-IQ, third-world savages. Obama care is simply a racist power and money grab that will take from Whites and transfer to non-whites. If you are White, Obama and his allies are your deadly enemies.
Democrats challenged on cost of health bill (Washington Post)
Republicans on Capitol Hill are challenging an assertion by House leaders that their new health-care package comes in under President Obama's spending limit of $900 billion over the next decade.
The true cost of the measure, the GOP argues, is more than $1 trillion. A House leadership aide dismissed the charge as "GOP spin." But, in this case, the spin is essentially true.
According to a preliminary estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, expanding coverage to an additional 36 million Americans would cost $1.055 trillion over the next decade under the House plan, counting tax breaks for small businesses, subsidies for low- and moderate-income families, and the largest expansion of Medicaid since its inception more than 40 years ago.
House leaders prefer to emphasize a different number: the net cost of expanding coverage. That's $1.055 trillion minus money that would be raised from penalties on people who failed to buy insurance and employers that failed to offer it.
Those adjustments would bring the cost down to $894 billion over 10 years, just under Obama's limit...
Still, Democrats have a bit of a consistency problem: Democratic leaders in the Senate use the gross cost of expanding coverage.
If they switched to House math, the price tag of a bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee this month would be $518 billion -- nearly $400 billion less than the House bill.
Of Course… Pelosi’s Bill Will Punish States Who Pass Tort Reform
Friday,(GatewayPundit)
It figures. The Pelosi Plan will punish states that limit trial lawyers’ winnings.
Capital Confidential reported this at Big Government:
Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.
Tort reform could save the country $54 billion.
So it only makes sense that democrats would oppose it.
More… The death panels are back in the bill, too.
Poll Finds Women Prefer Private Insurance Over Government Plan
A new poll by CNSNews reported that women prefer having their own private insurance plan over a government-sponsored plan by a 2-1 margin.
Nearly two-thirds of American women would rather have private health-care insurance than a government-run plan, according to a poll released Thursday by the Independent Women’s Forum.
The same proportion, two-thirds, also said Congress should not rush to pass a health-care bill.
By a margin of 64 percent to 27 percent, women agreed they “would rather have private health insurance than a government-run health insurance plan,” according to the poll.
The random- digit-dial telephone survey, which was conducted by pollster Kellyanne Conway, surveyed 800 women from across the country from Oct. 19-25.
“In this poll we treat women like grownups,” said Conway, a Republican and president of the polling company. “We don’t ask them just about babies and families, although we cover those issues. We ask them about real world economics, real tradeoffs and the real costs associated with our health-care system.”
The poll found that concern over the economy (39 percent) topped health care as women’s main concern.
New York Times: Pelosi Lied - Health Care Bill Costs $1.055 Trillion
Patriot Room
Bill Dupray
The incessant stream of lies out of the Democrats is amazing. This is the New York Times flat out saying that Pelosi tried to pull one over on us on the cost of her bill. Throughout Thursday, news accounts, including our own, focused on $894 billion, the total cost given out by aides to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, before the official cost analysis was released by the Congressional Budget Office. But a closer look at the budget office report suggests that the number everyone should have reported was $1.055 trillion, which is the gross cost of the insurance coverage...
I'm sorry to see that this sight has taken on a veil of hatred and misinformation concerning a legitimate crisis impacting our country. How 'bout some workable solutions to correct this situation as opposed to spewing more venom?
Anon 9:06 Sure, Whatever you say!
Patient left locked in ambulance
(BBC News)
NHS bosses have apologised to a patient in Manchester who was locked in an ambulance for five hours after the driver went home and forgot about him.
The man, 65, was stranded at Sharston ambulance station, Wythenshawe, after being collected by an ambulance from Manchester Royal Infirmary.
The alarm was raised when he failed to return to the care home where he lives.
The North West Ambulance Service said an inquiry had begun and a staff member "was suspended with immediate effect".
The incident happened on Tuesday when the patient was collected from the hospital at 1915 GMT.
Instead of being returned to the care home, he was driven back to the ambulance station where he was left until 0100 GMT.
“ This has never happened before and it will never happen again ” North West Ambulance Service spokesman The ambulance service said it received a call from the care home at 2030 GMT and later sent other staff to the station to collect the patient's paperwork to see where the man had been taken, when he was discovered.
A spokesman for the ambulance service said: "We are very sorry this incident took place.
"This has never happened before and it will never happen again.
I think it is an example of a government worker AND government health care.
It’s all free, no one pays directly and no one cares because they’ll make the same amount whether you live or die.
Must have been Union driver who had put in his eight hours, minus tea breaks.
9:06.. here is a solution for you. Get off your ass and provide for yourself. Don't depend on others to take care of you. If you don't have the money and can't afford children, don't have them. If you can't afford a house, don't take out a loan you can't repay. If you spend your time in high school drinking beer and smoking dope, don't expect the people who actually worked and went to college, to support your piss poor choices and decisions.
There is no health care crisis in this country. A lie manufactured by the democrats in order to get more power. It is all about political power.
You have no "right" to have someone else pay for your health care. You have no "right" to force others to pay for your lousy judgment, stupidity or laziness. You only have a right to compete, in a fair manner, for the benefits of a free society.
While you might have the right to free speech, you have no right to force me to buy you a podium. You might have a right to own a firearm, but you have no right to force me to buy you a Colt .45 automatic pistol.
Get the message? Even if you have a right to health care all that means is that society can not prevent you from getting health care. It, in no way, mandates that others provide you with health care.
Government By the (Page) Numbers Patterico
CNN’s Jack Cafferty compares the number of pages in the health care reform bill (1,990) to the number of pages in other important government documents (I’ll leave the numbers blank so you can guess):
• The original draft of the 1935 Economic Security Act, which established the Social Security Administration was _____ pages.
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 – forbidding discrimination based on race and sex: _____ pages.
• The 19th amendment to the Constitution, giving Women the right to vote in 1920: _____ page.
• The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863: _____ pages.
• Or, if you really want to get back to basics: The Declaration of Independence came in at _____ page in 1776.
As suggested by the singular “page,” the 19th Amendment and the Declaration of Independent were both 1 page. The other answers are at the link.
Anon 9:54: 9:06 is our socialist troll, back from the bath house, who hasn't reared her head in a while
MSNBC Fail: Network Goes Alinsky on Bachmann (Again) to Promote 'Socialized' Medicine
Newsbusters
After a pattern of attacking Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, on a nightly basis, one of the strategies is becoming apparent - MSNBC is in need of a boogeyman to give a face to the opposition of these radical steps being undertaken to fundamentally change health care in the United States.
So rather than attack where the opposition is wrong on a policy level, MSNBC "Countdown" fill-in host Lawrence O'Donnell is going to apply one of the tactics from Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" to promote a dramatic shift in the U.S. health care system - "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."
"In our number five story on the countdown tonight, the Congressional Budget Office finds that it would leave 18 million people uninsured and the government-run health insurance plan will probably charge consumers premiums that are quote, ‘Somewhat higher, higher than average premiums for the private plans,' end quote," O'Donnell said. "This is a devastating conclusion for a plan being sold not just as a low-cost option for consumers, especially poor consumers, but as somehow driving private insurance premiums lower."
(UK) Thousands of women misled into breast cancer surgery
The Sunday Times
THE government has been forced to rewrite its advice on breast cancer screening after research showed that thousands of women have been misled into having unnecessary surgery.
Women invited for screening by the National Health Service will be told that some of the cancers detected will be dormant and may never spread to other tissue.
Research published this year showed that for every 2,000 women screened regularly for a decade, one life would be saved but 10 healthy women would be treated unnecessarily.
The information now given to women has been criticised for advertising only the benefits and not the risks to encourage women to be screened.
Research published this year showed that for every 2,000 women screened regularly for a decade, one life would be saved but 10 healthy women would be treated unnecessarily.
====
But NHS or the socialists in the US never bother to mention the fact that American women have a 97% survival rate compared to only 70+ in the UK.
How inconvenient for them.
ObamaCare: Insurance Premiums Soaring Up, Up, and Away
Biggovernment.com
CBO DIRECTOR DOUGLAS ELMENDORF: “Our Judgment Is That That Piece Of The Legislation Would Raise Insurance Premiums.” (Finance Committee, U.S. Senate, Hearing, 9/22/09)
New Government Regulations: “[P]remiums in the new insurance exchanges would tend to be higher than the average premiums in the current-law individual market…” (CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, Letter To Sen. Baucus, P. 6, 9/22/09)
New Taxes On Medical Devices, Prescription Drugs And Clinical Labs: “Those projected premium amounts include the effect of the fees that would be imposed under the proposal on manufacturers and importers of brand name drugs and medical devices, on health insurance providers, and on clinical laboratories.
Those fees would increase costs for the affected firms, which would be passed on to purchasers and ultimately would raise insurance fees by a corresponding amount.” (Doug Elmendorf, “CBO’s Analysis Of Premiums Under The Chairman’s Mark Of The America’s Healthy Future Act,” CBO Blog, 9/23/09)
New Taxes On High Cost Insurance Plans: “The imposition of the excise tax on insurers can be expected to lead health insurance providers and consumers to take measures to minimize their burden from the tax.
As insurers pass along the cost to the consumer by increasing price, the cost of employer provided insurance will increase.” (“Memorandum: Revenue Estimate,” Joint Committee on Taxation, 9/29/09)
HIGHER HEALTH CARE COSTS
HHS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Systems Actuary: “Total National Health Expenditures Under This Bill Would Increase…” (”Estimated Financial Effects Of The ‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act Of 2009’ (H.R. 3200), As Reported By The Ways And Means Committee,” Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services, P.3, 10/21/09)
AP: “The nation’s medical costs will keep spiraling upward even faster than they are now under Democratic legislation pending in the House, a report from government economic experts concluded…” (“US Health Care Tab Would Grow Under Overhaul,” AP, 10/21/09)
CBO ON SENATE FINANCE PROPOSAL: Costs Will Grow. “The gross cost of the coverage expansions, consisting of exchange subsidies, the net costs of expanded eligibility for Medicaid, and tax credits for employers: Those provisions have an estimated cost of $180 billion in 2019, and that cost is growing at about 8 percent per year toward the end of the 10-year budget window.” (CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, Letter to Sen. Baucus, P. 10, 10/7/09)
CONSISTENT WITH INDEPENDENT STUDIES
OLIVER WYMAN STUDY: “Average premiums for small employers will increase: Under reform, small employers will experience premium increases as a result of rating rule changes and minimum benefit requirements.” (Oliver Wyman, “Insurance Reforms Must Include A Strong Individual Mandate And Oth
er Key Provisions To Ensure Affordability,” P.3, 10/14/09)
PRICEWATERHOUSE COOPERS STUDY: “There are four provisi ons included in the Senate Finance Committee proposal that could increase private health insurance premiums above the levels projected under current law.” (PricewaterhouseCoopers, “Potential Impact Of Health Reform On The Cost Of Private Health Insurance Coverage,” P.3, 10/11/09)
HAY GROUP STUDY: “Our model results show significantly higher premiums and lower coverage levels than for the most recent version of the Senate Finance Committee bill than our original assumptions would have produced.” (Hay Group, “Impact Of Proposed Senate Finance Committee Health Care Reform Bill On The Nongroup Market,” P.1, 10/5/09)
· 76% Say Their Costs Would Get Worse or Not Change
· 22% Say Their Costs Would Get Better
Pelosi vs. NH: Wrecking the state budget (Is congress still exempt under Deathcare™?)Union Leader
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a health care reform bill that allegedly would cost the federal government less than previous House Democratic plans. But it would cost states more.
The previous House bill would have made families earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level eligible for Medicaid, which states partially fund. New Hampshire pays 50 percent of its Medicaid costs. That would have cost states an additional $33 billion.
Under Pelosi's bill, families earning up to 150 percent of the poverty level are to be covered by Medicaid! That huge increase would have a disastrous effect on New Hampshire's budget.
This bill ought to draw an automatic "no" vote from Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes. It would explode the already out-of-balance New Hampshire state budget and almost certainly result in a state income or sales tax. But Shea-Porter was on the stage with Nancy Pelosi, beaming with delight, when the speaker unveiled the plan. Maybe Hodes and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen will have more sense than to support this budget buster.
Annual Medicare Fraud: $60 Billion; Annual Profits of Top Ten Insurance Companies: $8 billion
(Weekly Standard)
As 60 Minutes reported last week, Medicare fraud is rampant and has now replaced the cocaine (ahem) business as the major criminal activity in South Florida. Both 60 Minutes and the Washington Post report that Medicare fraud now costs American taxpayers roughly $60 billion a year. That may sound like a lot of money, but surely it pales next to the extraordinary profits of private insurance companies, right?
Well, let's see.... Last year, the profits of the ten largest insurance companies in America were just over $8 billion -- combined. No single insurance company made even five percent of what Medicare reportedly loses in fraud.
It's time to stop the socialism!
No more socialized fire departments!
If can't afford to replace your house, don't let it burn down!
Next thing you kinow there'll be negro firefighters, too! Third worlders! Can we entrust them with water?
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