Government Healthcare

[Creeker]

In related news...

DRUDGE REPORT: ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA 2009®

ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE
Tue Jun 16 2009 08:45:10 ET

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

The Director of Communications at the White House Office of Health Reform is Linda Douglass, who worked as a reporter for ABC News from 1998-2006.

Late Monday night, Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay fired off a complaint to the head of ABCNEWS:

Dear Mr. Westin:

As the national debate on health care reform intensifies, I am deeply concerned and disappointed with ABC's astonishing decision to exclude opposing voices on this critical issue on June 24, 2009. Next Wednesday, ABC News will air a primetime health care reform “town hall” at the White House with President Barack Obama. In addition, according to an ABC News report, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WORLD NEWS, NIGHTLINE and ABC’s web news “will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda.” This does not include the promotion, over the next 9 days, the president’s health care agenda will receive on ABC News programming.

Today, the Republican National Committee requested an opportunity to add our Party's views to those of the President's to ensure that all sides of the health care reform debate are presented. Our request was rejected. I believe that the President should have the ability to speak directly to the America people. However, I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our Party's opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate, which affects millions of ABC viewers.

In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this primetime infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime. The President has stated time and time again that he wants a bipartisan debate. Therefore, the Republican Party should be included in this primetime event, or the DNC should pay for your airtime.

Respectfully,
Ken McKay
Republican National Committee
Chief of Staff

MORE

ABCNEWS Senior Vice President Kerry Smith on Tuesday responded to the RNC complaint, saying it contained 'false premises':

"ABCNEWS prides itself on covering all sides of important issues and asking direct questions of all newsmakers -- of all political persuasions -- even when others have taken a more partisan approach and even in the face of criticism from extremes on both ends of the political spectrum. ABCNEWS is looking for the most thoughtful and diverse voices on this issue.

"ABCNEWS alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience."

Developing...

[Creeker]

Hot Air Blog Archive Video: The Public Plan Deception
Video: The Public Plan Deception
posted at 2:14 pm on June 12, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Send to a Friend | Share on Facebook | printer-friendly The guys at Verum Serum strike again with this new video of Democrats and their think-tank allies talking about the real goal of the “public plan” in ObamaCare, the new health plan getting rolled out in Congress this month. The White House says the plan will “keep private insurers honest,” but it seems the dishonesty comes from the Oval Office and Capitol Hill:



The people who designed this approach were very honest about it, as you can see in the above video. None of them talk about “keeping private insurers honest”; instead, they’re openly scornful of private insurance and want to rid us of them as soon as they are politically able to do so. The one couldn’t even bring himself to call the public plan a Trojan Horse, so obvious is its intent.
The entire premise of the public plan, as designed by its originators, was to crowd out the private insurers by undercutting them on price. After all, the government can take losses on the plan for as long as they need to drive everyone else out of the market. Once that process completes, voila! Single-payer remains as the only option.
Time to get on the phones and start telling your Senators and Congressment to vote no on the public plan. We will start next week on The Ed Morrissey Show. Get ready for some activism.

[CityOfChicago]

"Back in the US!

Back in the US!

Back in the USSA!"

[noelchabanel]

Originally Posted by retdetsgt

I've never heard that Canada was going bankrupt. I think the VAT would prevent that.

Perhaps Canadian provinces are capable of administering the health care system, but that's not what's being proposed here. The federal government will handle it and they will make it a farce, count on it.

Political preference is very real. My father in law wrote his Democratic Congresswoman because being a liberal Democrat himself, he believed the VA should pay for everything for him. He's going blind from glaucoma, but because he once complained to his Congresswoman, he gets new glasses about once a month, none of which work. That's money that should go to deserving people they could help. Everyone else is limited to one pair of glasses every two years, just like in private insurance.

I've never heard any stories that people couldn't get emergency care in Canada. I have heard that elective surgery takes a lot longer than here, but I have no personal knowledge of it.

Why don't you go to another doctor here? If you have to wait that long and can't go somewhere else, you picked the wrong insurance. I have an HMO here and I can get an appt with a specialists in less than a couple of weeks for anything.

Frankly, in a little over a year I have to go on Medicare and I'm not looking forward to it. There are doctors here who refuse to take Medicare patients. Dealing the the federal government and accepting low fees isn't worth it for them.

As I keep saying, people in this country want affordable health care, but affordable health care and government run are NOT synonymous in the USA.

Oh, the post wasn't directed at you, I've jsut heard all of these arguments against it on Fox and talk radio, some are valid, some are not, just a bit of food for thought is all.

It's not the insurance that is keeping me from the dermatologist, although I do have the Harvard Pilgrim HMO from my employer (the only choice we get) and have to say, they are excellent, I have no complaints at all.

There is a shortage of doctors in my area, dermatologists being one of the hardest to find. They make a lot more money two hours to the south in Boston, which kind of leaves us in a jam. NH has one of the oldest populations in the country, last I heard it was in the top 3 and getting older by the year...nearly all of them of course are on Medicare. It is a much bigger jam for people farther north. I'm sure if I actually thought the mole was growing they'd bump the appointment up. So long as it looks the same I have to wait a year.

Dentists are also in short supply, and my appointments with mine are also scheduled a year in advance. This is especially true for dentists if you are on a government insurance program (even the much celebrated one for kids) which is completely useless because none of them take it due to terrible reimbursement rates.

But that's a whole other ball of wax that I am not sure a state insurance plan can do anything to fix.

[Creeker]

Originally Posted by noelchabanel

...It's not the insurance that is keeping me from the dermatologist, although I do have the Harvard Pilgrim HMO from my employer (the only choice we get) and have to say, they are excellent, I have no complaints at all.

There is a shortage of doctors in my area, dermatologists being one of the hardest to find. ...I'm sure if I actually thought the mole was growing they'd bump the appointment up. So long as it looks the same I have to wait a year.

Dentists are also in short supply, and my appointments with mine are also scheduled a year in advance. ....

Sounds to me like you are simply in the wrong area.

I am sure there are other areas of the Country that are in the same boat as you.

I remember being in Yellowstone several years ago when I was growing up and my mother came down with... I don't even remember the sickness for sure, but it was once upon a time a plague... I think Scarlett Fever(?). There was only one clinic for miles around and we were in a Motorhome stuck there for a few days because there were no other medical facilities for hours. I'd bet there are several areas out west in the same shape.

Where I am, my GP has never turned me away - same day (and I have never waited more than 10 minutes past my appointment), my Dentist can see me next day and my Neuro can typically see me in 3 weeks. I had Carpal Tunnel in my left hand last summer and between the diagnosis and surgery was less than 3 weeks with the Bone & Joint man.

[retdetsgt]

Originally Posted by Creeker

Sounds to me like you are simply in the wrong area.

I am sure there are other areas of the Country that are in the same boat as you.

I remember being in Yellowstone several years ago when I was growing up and my mother came down with... I don't even remember the sickness for sure, but it was once upon a time a plague... I think Scarlett Fever(?). There was only one clinic for miles around and we were in a Motorhome stuck there for a few days because there were no other medical facilities for hours. I'd bet there are several areas out west in the same shape.

Where I am, my GP has never turned me away - same day (and I have never waited more than 10 minutes past my appointment), my Dentist can see me next day and my Neuro can typically see me in 3 weeks. I had Carpal Tunnel in my left hand last summer and between the diagnosis and surgery was less than 3 weeks with the Bone & Joint man.

I don't want to be accused by Oscarmitre of making derogatory remarks about his health system, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that in some areas of Australia and Canada, you might have a little trouble getting an appointment with a specialist too. It's more geographical than anything else.

I literally pay for my health insurance out of my pocket. Being retired, until I hit 65, I buy it through the city. The only advantage I have is I get it at their price, about $350 a month.

And it's worth every dime. I can email my doctor and get a reply by the end of the day. About a year ago, I hurt my back. I emailed her, she immediately called in a couple of prescriptions and got me an appointment with a physical therapist that afternoon. I could be wrong, but I doubt many countries can beat that.

If the federal government has anything to do with my health care, it will damn sure cost me more than $350 a month and I shudder to think how the quality of care will go down. Again, I don't know about other countries, but mine has never shown me anything but waste and inefficiency.

[CityOfChicago]

Our Constitution mandates that the federal government remain small in its power over the people, and that power be vested in the people and the States. Now we have these huge bureaucracies - like the latest proposed one that will oversee the bureaucracies over the money in this nation - feds power growing daily - banking, automanufacturing, healthcare now. I dont think that the feds in DC have any insight on the medical needs of retired laborers in Iowa or Indiana.

[Sgt. Slaughter]

This will be yet another matter in the litany of complaints against the Federal government in which individual States will need to assert themselves and claim States' Rights.

[retdetsgt]

Originally Posted by CityOfChicago

I dont think that the feds in DC have any insight on the medical needs of retired laborers in Iowa or Indiana.

They don't have any insight passed the last check they got from a lobbyist, much less the true state of the American working people. And I really don't think it's reversible.

It's probably not going to happen in my lifetime, but I think it will all collapse someday. It could well be in yours though.

We're going the route of the Roman Empire. We've been meddling in other countries' affairs for way too long and the government's obsessed with "entertaining" the people. The Roman Empire, in an attempt to keep power spent way too much money trying to take care of the individual needs of each of its citizens and having influence on people that lived far away.

The paranoia of the "commie threat" has costs us not only billions of dollars, but ruined our credibility in areas of the world. We have an intelligence service that couldn't predict the weather, much less who has weapons, who doesn't, who's government is about to collapse (e.g. the USSR and East Germany) and who's not. They've been blind for decades. We have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on in N. Korea, Iran or any other rogue country just like we blew it with Iraq. Obama is like a deer in the headlights with Iran and N. Korea. During Vietnam, we were clueless about who was making the decisions in Hanoi and what they were thinking, much less any strategy. We found out years later they were actually starting to succumb to our bombing, but that was only 40 years too late..... But for decades, the CIA has been more interested in overthrowing governments they think might not be friendly to us than developing credible intelligence. This was all learned a few years ago when documents were finally declassified.

Revolution or any power play by the states is folly, it's not going to happen. Too many people are just fine with being taken care of, especially in the large cities where the real power lies.

Obama has probably destroyed our monetary system. Other powerful countries are starting to reject the dollar altogether. China is now starting to sell off our bonds they bought. If his health care plan goes through, there is no way in God's green earth we can pay for it along with all the other money he's thrown away. And with people like Barney Frank having power over government regulation of businesses, it can only go downhill.

People stress about guns, but that's not the real threat. The threat is a federal government that's gotten so big it stumbles all over itself and simply cannot do what it was originally intended to do. I think we're screwed and there is nothing we can do about it.:mad: It will happen slowly enough that people will accept it until it's too late.

[noelchabanel]

Originally Posted by retdetsgt

I don't want to be accused by Oscarmitre of making derogatory remarks about his health system, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that in some areas of Australia and Canada, you might have a little trouble getting an appointment with a specialist too. It's more geographical than anything else.

That is definitely true. Wealthy areas are just more attractive to doctors (and everyone really), who can afford to move to a more expensive area. That's just the way it goes, economics. I don't expect the gov't to solve that one. I am thankful I don't live on some remote Indian reservation where they see ANY doctor in the whole place only rarely.

[retdetsgt]

Originally Posted by noelchabanel

That is definitely true. Wealthy areas are just more attractive to doctors (and everyone really), who can afford to move to a more expensive area. That's just the way it goes, economics. I don't expect the gov't to solve that one. I am thankful I don't live on some remote Indian reservation where they see ANY doctor in the whole place only rarely.

The government helps med students financially through school here in Oregon if they promise to practice for so many years in some of the rural areas of the state. Even then, they have trouble recruiting people.

Which is why unlike some of my peers, I chose not to go to some of those areas to retire. Peace and quiet is nice, but medical care at my age is more important.

[ChevySSP]

RDS you may in your life time live to see the fall of the US in world standings and witness Russia and China become dominant world leaders in the void the US leaves.

Healthcare is one of those things that SHOULD NOT be a large priority. Right now we have inflation and (suprisingly) oil prices creeping back up that will once again raise our standard of living.

At what cost would healthcare actually be a benefit? Sure, pills would cheap but you'd double the cost buying food.

[Nole795]

Originally Posted by oscarmitre

All very complex. No need for it. The question is simple really - do you want to continue with the current model or do you want something better?

IMO, we need a serious change. Harvard did a study and found that in 2007, 62% of all bankruptcies were linked to medical problems. Out of that number, 78% had medical insurance at the start of the illness.

Study Links Medical Costs and Personal Bankruptcy - BusinessWeek

Beside hearing the horror stories from my colleagues in the health industry, I have seen it the flaws in our system. I know a couple where the husband (early 30's) is diagnosed with cancer. Though he is insured, he has to pay out of pocket $600 per pill in reference to the Chemo treatment. They are dead broke and if things dont turn around, may have to join the many other Americans who are facing bankruptcy from their medical bills.

I know another officer who is on disability in a work related injury. Fortunately he is medically covered for life by the City, but in order to get coverage for his family, he would have to shell out nearly $1100.00 for his family. He was forced to drop his wife from coverage.

For you non-Americans, the way the system works (on most accounts) is your employer provides healthcare while you are employed. Normally the employer pays a percentage of the health premiums. Pricing is dependant if your single or family and the type of plan you want. I work for the Federal Govt, so my employer pays 72% of my premiums (as of 2005). The other 28% is taken out of my paycheck. For a family plan, I pay over $130 a paycheck, or $260.00 a month. If I lost my job due to a sickness such as cancer, or some other serious injury, I would lose my benefits and would have to pay the full amount of the premiums (called a COBRA). Work it out, that would mean I would have to pay over a $1000.00 a month for a family plan.

God forbid you have a pre-existing condition prior to getting health insurance. The insurance company does not and probably will not insure you or will charge you an outrageous premium. Again the Private Health Industry is a business mode for-profit organization.

Most if not every American is one sickness away from Bankruptcy. That why I support the current administration role in tackling this important issue.

I hope that the powers that be look into the way other countries provide for their people and the U.S. can take back the plans that work and attempt to change the current system that is now in place.

[Sgt. Slaughter]

Originally Posted by retdetsgt

Revolution or any power play by the states is folly, it's not going to happen. Too many people are just fine with being taken care of, especially in the large cities where the real power lies.

To clarify this point, I've never advocated a Revolution on any level. My hope would be for individual States to take it upon themselves in their own legislative processes to disallow complete subjugation of their citizens. Several individual states have already passed bills asserting States' Rights as well as Montana (I believe that's correct, I'll have to check later) claiming weapons manufactured within their borders were not subject to Federal gun laws.

Every cause has to start somewhere and this has only just begun.

RETDETSGT - I'd say the true folly is on those who stand idly by silently in contempt and do nothing.

[Brendon]

Originally Posted by retdetsgt

Which is why unlike some of my peers, I chose not to go to some of those areas to retire. Peace and quiet is nice, but medical care at my age is more important.

That is one of the biggest problems of Medical Health-Care. Back in the Thirties, people would retire at 64, live in a pension and die at 70. With the increase of technology in the Medical field, people are living up until 110 today. It takes up a lot of money in Medical, a lot of which the State needs to eat up since they're on their pension.

Old people tend to get a lot complications when they turn at such-and-such age, and are extremely prone to falling. Most of the Ambulance call-outs I hear on my scanner and due to the elderly falling.

Originally Posted by Sgt. Slaughter

To clarify this point, I've never advocated a Revolution on any level. My hope would be for individual States to take it upon themselves in their own legislative processes to disallow complete subjugation of their citizens. Several individual states have already passed bills asserting States' Rights as well as Montana (I believe that's correct, I'll have to check later) claiming weapons manufactured within their borders were not subject to Federal gun laws.

Every cause has to start somewhere and this has only just begun.

From what I was taught and understand, technically, each state is supposed to Operate like it's own country in some ways, with the Central Government unifying them for protection purposes. Each state even had its own currency early on! State laws are supposed to override Federal laws, but with even the Feds raiding California Medical Dispenseries, so even then, you don't see Central Government listen to State requests much.