DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Authors say appearances on conservative’s programs attract readers
Starner Jones, MD is a seventh generation Mississippian and wanted to come back to Mississippi after going somewhere else for college and medical school. His extracurricular interests are golf, hunting, fishing and college football.
FRAMEWORK LEGALIZED AND BILLIONS ALLOTED
(Intentionally Hidden in Stimulus Bill to Deceive Americans)
More important than ever to DEFEAT HEALTHCARE BILL
'A downpayment was made on socialized medicine' is a phrase you may have heard when the Stimulus Bill was passed. Though innocent sounding it means more than dollars. Tragically thanks to the Stimulus Bill a downpayment was made on socialized medicine in February that included billion dollar funding and legalized the framework to create socialized medicine. Slipped in without discussion, billions of dollars and a framework are now law. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, the failed nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.
Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.” Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.
New Penalties
Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541) Penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment. An appointed body with vast powers will make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.
There will be rationing and treatments will be determined by a board or council of 15 members that have already been appointed. The stimulus bill calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt. Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill changes that and applys a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).
The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board that approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis. Seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing.
Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Since the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994 failed due to debate and delay, Daschle advises quick action before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”
Sadly, the Stimulus bill was passed with little scrutiny paid to the health provisions.
The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.
(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs
Read before watching!
A Chinese Ming vase is up for auction. The bidding opens at a half-million Euros. Bidding is brisk and each bidder is clearly identified as each raises the bid by 100,000 Euros. (The exchange rate today is 1 Euro = $1.54.) Within seconds, the bid stalls at one million Euros, and the gasp from the crowd identifies the excitement that prevails in the room.
The successful bidder is the last one who bid one million, and the auctioneer counts down the bid... "Going once, going twice, and sold to the gentleman sitting in front of me for one million Euros."
Now, you are going to have to see the video for yourself to see the surprising conclusion.
I received an email letter from Frank Kratovil the other day, mainly concerning the health care bill.
But included in the email was this (with my added emphasis):
Earlier this month, I introduced legislation to extend the home-buyers tax credit, which realtors and economists have pointed to as a major factor encouraging the recovery of the housing market in Maryland and across the country. H.R. 3640 will extend the $8,000 tax credit for one year and expand eligibility to include all homebuyers purchasing a principal residence, while also offering tax relief to individuals or families forced to sell their home at a loss. Simply put, this tax credit is working, and in this housing market it would be foolish to allow this program to expire when it is working so effectively. Click here to take a look a the bill and here to view an impartial CRS analysis of the extension.
So he wants the taxpayers to bail out the people who jumped in over their heads during the housing bubble?
Somehow I knew this was coming.
I guess a democrat is a democrat.
Here's wishing you all a healthy flu season!
