IF OBAMA ONLY MEANT WHAT HE SAID: Words Don’t Match Works in Health Care Reform

September 6th, 2009

By Elois Zeanah

It’s par for candidates to use personal campaign funds to pay consultants to conjure visual images to persuade voters.  It’s unprecedented, though, for a presidential candidate, once elected, to use tax dollars to appoint a “behavioral science czar” to do the same thing to manipulate the masses.   Does Obama feel the mojo of his “cultist personality” and his “oratory prowess” is no longer sufficient to sell his health care reform message?  I’m offended that the leader of our nation uses our taxes to probe how we think and how to persuade us through mental telegraphing to follow him when he’s wrong.  The problem is not the message or how well he reads a teleprompter.  The problem is a matter of truth and trust.  His words don’t match his works.

Obama stated:  “This is not just about the 47 million Americans who don’t have any health insurance at all.  Reform is about…the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid.”

The oratory touches me.  I’m persuaded.  But then why not fix the problems behind the skyrocketing costs of these two government-run health programs – instead of expanding and making them more expensive and increasing not reducing deficits?  (Independent consultants and the General Accounting Office, the Congressional watchdog, detail how his proposals will grow government, raise taxes, restrict American liberties, and overwhelm federal and state budgets, deficits and debt.) 

Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Consume Over $100 Billion Yearly

If the real reasons for health care reform are to reduce costs and make insurance affordable, shouldn’t government fix failures and cut costs before beating up on doctors, hospitals and insurance companies and demanding that they cut costs so government can have more to spend?  The truth is:  Fraud consumes 15% to 18% of total costs in government health care programs and only 1% in private health insurance programs.  Is there a disconnect here between our President’s words and works?

Obama Proposes to Expand Medicare and Medicaid

Obama cites Medicare as an example of how his health care plan will control costs. Undoubtedly the President is aware that Medicare and Medicaid pay only part of the bill to hospitals and doctors, creating a “hidden tax” for the rest of us.  Right now the average American worker pays $1800 more for health care per family because Medicare and Medicaid don’t cover costs of treatment.  I haven’t heard this addressed.  Expanding Medicare and Medicaid will only exacerbate the problems.  Surely our President knows that Medicare does not control costs, does not manage fraud, and does not balance its budget.  Medicare has a $38 trillion in unfunded liabilities!  How would expanding these two government-run programs reduce costs and make insurance affordable? 

Obama’s Conversion to Fix Health Care System is New

And what’s behind Obama’s sudden concern about the urgency to fix the health care system when he repeatedly fought past proposals to do so as a Senator?  This makes me suspicious about a possible hidden agenda.  Is health care reform really about coverage for “uninsured Americans”; or is the agenda about expanding government, seizing more of our liberties, making more of us dependent on government, and putting more control of our private lives in the hands of big government?  Sorry, but I have to ask:  Is the President trying to control our mind and our money?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

A DUELING DUO: Obama as Senator Versus Obama as President

September 6th, 2009

By Elois Zeanah

The President has been trying hard to convince the American public that passing his health care reform is urgent because doing nothing will sink our economy farther. It’s an emergency!  (Just as passing TARP was an emergency, as was the Stimulus Bill, as was bailing out Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac, and banks, and GM.  As is passing the Cap-and-Trade energy tax!  Everything that Obama wants, he must have now!) 

Yet sitting as a U.S. Senator, health care reform was not so important.  Senator Barack Obama helped other Democrats defeat meaningful proposals to reform health care that would have gone far to solve pressing problems that now only government, he says, can fix through a government takeover and $2 trillion.  For example:

  • Tax Reform to Give Individuals and Families the Same Tax Benefits as Employers

One reason for rising insurance rates, the tax “exclusion” law is caused by government.   Current tax laws prohibit employees or individuals as a whole to receive tax benefits when they purchase health insurance.  Only employers are eligible for this tax write-off. This tax exclusion for employer-sponsored insurance is a huge, but hidden, tax subsidy of over $246 billion every year.[1] 

 To level the playing field and allow Americans who do not get insurance through their employers to deduct their health care costs, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) offered Resolution 70 on March 13, 2008 to fix this unfair tax “exclusion”.  Senator Obama voted against this Resolution, which failed by a vote of 45-51.

  • Government Regulations Prohibit Cross-State Competition Among Insurance Carries

Another reason for rising insurance rates is that patients cannot shop across state lines.  We can go across state lines to buy cheaper booze and to get better retail bargains, and we can shop on the Internet to compare prices to get the best deal; but the government will not let insurance companies compete across state lines.  This lack of competition hurts consumers. 

To get rid of this government restraint to competition and to allow patients to shop for the best insurance product, Senator DeMint (R-SC) introduced H.R. 976 on August 2, 2007.  Senator Obama helped defeat this health care reform, which failed by a vote of 37-62.

  • Obama Consistently Opposed Health Care Reforms as a Senator

Obama voted “NO” on many other health care reforms:[2]

  • “NO”  on allowing Americans to use their own Health Savings Accounts (HAS) to purchase health insurance (H.R. 2 offered by Sen. Ensign, R-NV) on January 25, 2007, which failed by a vote of 47-48.
  • “NO” on minimizing the erosion of health coverage (Senate Amendment 2537 to Senate Amendment 2530 to H.R. 976 introduced by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ) on August 2,2007, which failed by a vote of 37-62. 
  • “NO” to expand health care access and reduce costs through the creation of small business health plans and through modernization of the health insurance marketplace on May 11, 2006, which failed by a vote of 55-32.
  • “NO” to save taxpayer money by requiring individuals who are eligible for both SCHIP and employer-sponsored coverage to use the latter first (Senate Amendment 2596 to Senate Amendment 2530 to H.R. 976 offered by Senator Vitter, R-LA) on August 2, 2007,  which failed by a vote of 35-64.
  • “NO” on requiring illegal immigrants seeking “Z Visas” to maintain a minimum level of health coverage to save taxpayers and hospitals money in uncompensated costs (Senate 1348 introduced by Senator DeMint, R-SC) on June 6, 2007 which failed by a vote of 43-55.

Despite these “NO” votes for needed health care reform over years, the President now blames Republican opponents of his pan.  He states:

 Republicans are “content to perpetuate the status quo, [and] are, in fact, fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests.” 

Sorry, Mr. President, but such blatant hypocrisy doesn’t help the mojo and your behavioral scientist’s mind-control manipulation.  Nor do your proposals to reform health care that expand government and deficits but don’t solve root problems.  In fact your “emergency” proposals are bad medicine for our ailing economy. 

 

[1] Joint Committee on Taxation, “Tax Expenditures for Health Care,” July 30, 2008. 

 

[2] http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Jim’sJournal.Detail&Blog_ID=9e16166

Posted in Health Care | 34 Comments »

EXPANDING HEALTH CARE ENTITLEMENTS IS BAD MEDICINE AND WILL WORSEN HEALTH CARE: Could it Crash the Private Sector?

September 6th, 2009

By Elois Zeanah

Independent analysts and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the watchdog of Congress, have for years repeatedly warned that federal and state budgets will collide with taxpayers’ ability to pay the rapidly rising costs of health care entitlement programs.  Yet not only did Obama vote against reform bills as a Senator, his unsustainable proposals as President accelerate the pace toward collision. 

 The notion by Obama that he can expand Medicare and Medicaid and give all Americans affordable health care is quickly dispelled by highly respected GAO analysts.  Obama’s plan to broaden the pool of these two programs will not alleviate but aggravate the current fiscal crisis.

 THE FISCAL NIGHTMARE

“The official projections for current entitlements show that the American people will be confronted with a series of unpleasant options: savage benefit cuts, massive tax increases, or a combination of both.  Heritage Foundation analysts, among many others, have amply documented the long-term economic catastrophe that lies ahead without comprehensive entitlement reform.[1]

GAO:   76% of every $1 will go to Health Care and Debt Interest

GAO has candidly told Congress:

  • “Just ten years from now in this simulation that is based on historical trends and recent policy preferences, 76 percent of every dollar of federal revenue will be spent on retirees and their health are providers, health care providers for the poor, and our bond holders.  This leaves little room for other priorities, such as national defense and investment in infrastructure and alternative energy sources, and threatens the government’s fiscal ability to respond to emergencies, both natural and manmade.”[2]
  • “The GAO estimates that it would take a 39 percent increase in revenue, or a 37 percent decrease in non-interest spending, to close the federal fiscal gap.”[3]
  • “Further, the GAO points directly to health care spending as the major cause of the fiscal gap: “Rapidly rising health care costs are not simply a federal budget problem; they are our nation’s number-one long-term fiscal challenge.”[4]

President Obama uses these dire warnings to make his case to Americans.  Yet, interestingly, his plan does exactly the opposite of what economic experts tell us reform must do:  Cut health care entitlement expenses!  Obama ignores these warnings and instead of cutting Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP, Obama expands these three health care programs in the name of reform and magnifies problems as a consequence.  His proposals will not only lead to more expensive programs and greater deficits but higher taxes at both the federal and state levels.

Government Health Care Costs Will Force States to Raise Taxes

  • GAO’s warnings include that “Health care costs, principally Medicaid costs,[5] even at current levels will force states to raise revenue or reduce spending by 7.6 percent every year in order to close the fiscal gap faced by state and local governments.”
  • “It is ironic that just as Senator Baucus and others propose to add millions of additional beneficiaries to the fiscally troubled Medicaid program, Congress is on the threshold of passing a temporary increase in the Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), the federal Medicaid match, in order to provide urgent economic relief to states.”[6]

WILL OBAMA CAUSE PRIVATE HEALTH CARE TO CRASH TO GET CONTROL OF HEALTH CARE?

“Adding more people to Medicaid when states cannot even afford their current programs makes no sense – unless the real object is to crash the program in order to force the states to support a single-payer system, under which the federal government would take over the entire health care system.  Congress’s own analysts have demonstrated that the current path for Medicare and Medicaid is unsustainable.”[7]

  • “The Obama and Baucus proposals…directly undermine the historic accomplishments of the 1990s welfare reform, which was designed to get Americans off of dependence on government programs.  Indeed, expanding the private health insurance pool and spreading risk over a larger population would help to stabilize health insurance premiums and slow the growth in health care costs.”[8]
  • “The President and Senator Baucus would also undertake a major expansion of existing government health care programs and entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).”
  • “Medicaid is already unsustainable for states and is already threatening state budgets”
  • “Expanding Medicaid discriminates against low-income families and provides limited access to health care.”

“EXPANDING MEDICARE AND MEDICAID AND INCURRING NEW LIABILITIES IS, TO PUT IT MILDLY, UNWISE

“Congress, in launching a recent series of massive bailouts, an unprecedented splurge in federal spending, has just created a record deficit of $1.6 trillion.  At the same time, Congress has avoided the tough but vital decision about how to pay for the massive entitlement obligations that have already been incurred in Medicare and Social Security, let alone how to finance new ones.

  • Medicare’s unfunded liabilities stand at $38 trillion currently.  “Medicaid’s long-term unfunded liability will be even greater than Medicare’s because Medicaid is funded entirely through general funds on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no trust funds or dedicated payroll tax available for its use.
  • “Given the unsustainable cost of the current programs and the utter failure of Congress to address these issues, it is hard to imagine how Congress would plan to finance additional entitlement costs.  The current approach on Capitol Hill is to avoid such accountability.”[9]

 

[1][1][1] Ibid.  (See Heritage entitlement spending charts, “Entitlement Spending Will More than Double by 2050,” “Entitlements Alone Will Eclipse Historical Tax Levels by 2052,” and “Mandatory Spending Consumes Growing Share of Total Spending,” at http://www.heritage org.  See also: U.S. Government Accountability Office, “The Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: September 2008 Update, GAO-09-94R, at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0994r.pdf (Feb. 6, 2009), and “State and Local Fiscal Challenges: Rising Health Care Costs Drive Long-Term and Immediate Pressures, GAO-09-21-OT, Nov. 19, 2008, at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0921t.pdf (Feb. 9, 2008)

 

 

[2] U.S. Government Accountability Office, “The Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: September 2008 Update, p. 2.

[3] Ibid., p. 10

[4] Ibid., p. 8

[5] Ibid., p. 5

[6] The Heritage Foundation: “Note to Congress: Expanding Health Care Entitlements is Bad Policy,”, by Dennis G. Smith, Feb. 12, 2009

[7] Ibid.

[8] The Heritage Foundation: “Note to Congress: Expanding Health Care Entitlements is Bad Policy,” by Dennis G. Smith, Fe. 12, 2009

[9] The Heritage Foundation, “Note to Congress: Expanding Health Care Entitlements is Bad Policy,” by Dennis G. Smith, February 12, 2009

Posted in Economic Crisis, Health Care | 106 Comments »

OBAMA’S CALL TO MINISTERS: Are Ministers Answering the Call from the President OR from God?

September 1st, 2009

By Elois Zeanah

Since President Obama’s conference call to faith-based groups in mid-August 2009 to urge their support for government-controlled health care, I’ve heard ministers speak about our “responsibility” to make health care insurance a “right”.   

Health Care For Children 

One minister centered his comments on children who are uninsured.  He stated (incorrectly) that too many children in America go “unprotected” when the Bible tells us to take care of them.  Apparently, he is unaware that every child from a poor family has access to Medicaid and S-CHIP, and every person, adult or child, is treated at a hospital even when they cannot pay. 

Health Care For Illegal Immigrants 

Another minister opined that we should look at the health care issue biblically.  She used the parable of the Good Samaritan to make the case that illegal immigrants should be included in the health care plan and should receive tax-subsidized or free health care.  “What does it mean for us today to love our sick or uninsured neighbor as ourselves?” she asked.  

 I would ask in return if Jesus was referring to individuals as neighbors or to governments?  I can’t see how that parable can be interpreted that people should look to the government to take care of their needs and their neighbors’.  I would also ask if Christians have a biblical duty to obey laws and expect others to do the same?  Didn’t Jesus charge citizens to “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”?   While most people are aware that it is unlawful to enter the United States without permission, most people are unaware of another law that prohibits anyone from aiding and abeting illegal immigrants.  Christians should obey laws.
 

Do Christians Have a Moral Obligation to Push for Comprehensive Health Care For All? 

One minister pointed Christians to Old and New Testament scriptures where God and Jesus are continually referred to as “healers”.  Citing Isaiah 57:18:  “I have seen their ways, but I will heal them,” and Luke 14:4:  “So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away”, the minister asked:  “Can we Christians do any less?”   1 John 3:17 tells us:  ‘How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?’  From this perspective, do people of faith not have a moral responsibility to encourage our elected officials to pass comprehensive health care?”  The minister obviously feels Christians are obligated to support proposed comprehensive health care, and to answer the President’s call. 

Guilt Trip as Bully Club

Just as President Obama reached out to persuade faith leaders to use their influence to get their “flock” to back his health care proposal, politicians too often apply the guilt trip like a tourniquet to any issue that doesn’t have public support to persuade Americans to do something they don’t believe is right. I believe Christians have a moral obligation to follow their conscience and to fight injustices in our culture, which spring eternally from our government. 

Ministers, if they are going to preach on health care reform, should study what’s in the health care reform bill, who it will hurt as well as help, and what impacts (intended as well as unintended) will be on various groups, including the poor, as well as what freedoms and liberties granted by our Constitution will be sacrificed to serve a political agenda.  Only then can faith leaders know if they are being shepherds or sheep, and whether they’re following man or God.

Posted in Health Care, Immigration, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

HB3200 VIOLATES YOUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY: The Good News is that it Expands Business for the IRS and the “Repo Man” and Creates New Jobs

August 28th, 2009

By Elois Zeanah

BEWARE:  Government can grab your bank account, your car, even put a lien on your home.  You thought an IRS audit was as scary as it gets?  It will no longer be just your tax filing that the roving eyes of the IRS can access.  It’s your bank accounts, both checking and savings; it’s the worth of your house and how much the government can take if a lien is needed to pay the government for your share of health care.  The government can even seize your car. 

Ah, yes, the “Repo Man” will have a new client:  The U.S. Government, dear ol’ Uncle Sam himself.  After all, these economic times scream for ways to create jobs, and the health care bill could boost the economy big time.  Repossession companies will no longer have to look to just banks, auto dealerships and loan agencies for work.   Big Government rides to the rescue again.  If ObamaCare (or maybe it will now be called KennedyCare) passes, you will be forced to buy insurance one way or another.  The IRS and the “Repo Man” will collect every last dime you owe government to take care of you.  You may hide from other debtors but there’s no hiding from the government.   

Privacy is Passé Under HB3200 

If you think your rights to privacy are protected by the U.S. Constitution, my advice is:  “Get over it!”  Here’s how government plans to take your liberties and invade your privacy.  (This is just a few ways; more will be revealed in future articles.) 

Financial and Health Records can be Viewed by Thousands of Bureaucrats  

  • Section 431(a):  “The IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and ‘other information prescribed by’ regulation.  That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for ‘affordability credits.’”[1]

  • Section 245(b)(2)(A):  “The IRS must divulge tax return details – there’s no specified limit on what’s available or unavailable – to the Health Choices Commissioner.  The purpose is to verify “affordability credits.”[2]

  • Section 1801(a):  “The Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a ‘low-income prescription drug subsidy’ but has not applied for it.”[3]  They’ll check to see whether you qualify by getting your tax data.

Thousands of government employees can assess your records.  “The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee….So say good-bye to privacy from the federal government.  It was fun while it lasted for 233 years.”[4]   

And, by the way, remember that $700 billion Stimulus Bill that was rushed through before the public or the people who voted on it could read it?  This “emergency” bill “mandated the ‘utilization of an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014,’ but included only limited privacy protections.”[5]  

It’s logical, is it not, that the government needs to overrun your liberties and your individual privacy to make sure that you’re not frauding the government out of it’s just due to provide you health care?  The only way to know you’re not abusing your new entitlement to health care is to protect society from you. 

The Electronic Privacy Information Center opposes this invasion into our personal lives and violation of our right to privacy.  Marc Rotenberg writes:  “We would oppose section 431(a) of the bill because it violates the intent of the Privacy Act which generally requires agencies to obtain information directly from individuals and not from other agencies.”   Should you get your Members of Congress onboard as well?  Or does it really matter who knows the most intimate details of our financial and health records?  After all, Uncle Sam loves us all so very much, he wants to take good care of us; and that means we have to give up something to Uncle Sam in return so he can control our affairs.

[1] “Democratic Health Care Bill Divulges IRS Tax Data – Taking Liberties,” by Declain McCullagh, CBS News, August 26, 2009

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.  Quote from Tom Giovanetti, Institute for Policy Innovation (a free-market think-tank).

[5] Ibid.

Posted in Health Care | 16 Comments »

ILLEGAL ALIENS: Can Non-Citizens Receive Health Care Under HB3200 OR Is This Claim Uninformed Rabble?

August 28th, 2009

By Elois Zeanah

Illegal aliens can receive benefits under the proposed bill.  The Congressional Research Service (CRS), the “research arm” for the United States Congress, issued a report titled “Treatment of Noncitizens in H.R. 3200 that confirms: 

  • “H.R. 3200 does not prevent non-citizens, whether they’re present in the U.S. legally or illegally, permanently or temporarily – from receiving health care benefits under the proposed plan.
  • Illegal aliens can also receive taxpayer subsidies for their health care – whether they choose government insurance or private insurance.
  • Loopholes in the bill are so gaping that even Mexican and Canadian citizens could participate in the health insurance exchange.

The CRS specifically cited the absence in the bill requiring that immigrants be “verified” as in the country legally before receiving health care insurance.  Because the language is so ambiguous, the CRS concluded that the Health Choices Commissioner would decide who was eligible under the plan.  This bureaucrat will, of course, interpret the vague wording according to the wishes of those who appointed him. 

What is the Intent of the President and Congress? 

“These loopholes were deliberate and intended to extend benefits to illegal aliens, while allowing Members of Congress to deny those facts to the American people,” stated Dan Stein, President of FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform).

 

  • An amendment to the House Ways & Means Committee bill to bar illegal aliens from enrolling in the proposed public option or receiving the “affordable credits” toward private insurance was voted down.  The amendment by Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nevada) to apply the same eligibility verification procedures that are now used for Medicaid to prove citizenship was voted down on a party-line vote.  This system is the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system.
  • Amnesty groups have expressed pleasure at the wording and have stated that the bill allows illegal aliens to receive health care benefits.

Fact or Uniformed Rabble? 

Stein stated:  “For the past month, irate citizens, concerned that their tax dollars will be used to fund health care for illegal aliens, have been unfairly portrayed as uninformed rabble by their elected representatives and a host of media organizations.  It’s time for the politicians to close the loopholes, and for the media establishment to acknowledge that they got it wrong.” 

The Congressional “research arm” has spoken:  Illegal aliens can receive benefits under the bill.   Citizens, once again, have proven they aren’t duped by ambiguous language that gives the President, Congress, and the media deniability, and by attempts of politicians to blatantly mislead U.S. citizens of their intent!

Posted in Health Care, Immigration | 13 Comments »

SENIORS: Will Government Become the “Grim Reaper?”

August 28th, 2009

By Elois Zeanah

Controversy has erupted over what House Bill 3200 says about end-of-life counseling.  Can Section 1233 be interpreted to mean “death panels”?  And what about rationing?  Will rationing by bureaucrats to save costs, to be blunt, result in government becoming the “Grim Reaper?” 

Section 1233 is not as benign as the President pretends, according to Dr. Charles Krauthammer, who stated:  “This offers government reimbursement to any doctor who gives end-of-life counseling – whether or not the patient asked for it.  [The purpose] is to create an incentive for such a chat.” 

Krauthammer goes on to say that Section 1233 “is subtle pressure applied by society through your doctor.  And when you include it in a health-care reform whose major objective is to bend the cost curve downward, you have to be a fool or a knave to deny that it’s intended to gently point you in a certain direction, toward the corner of the sick room where stands a ghostly figure, scythe in hand, offering release.”[1]

What does Obama’s Health Adviser Say?   

Let’s take President Obama at his word.  He asked the American public to judge who he is by the people he chooses as his friends and appoints as his advisers.  This is not very comforting!  His health adviser, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, has written statements as a bioethicist, that will make a senior’s heart flutter.  For starters, Dr. Eamnuel “blames the Hippocratic Oath for the ‘overuse’ of medical care.”[2]

Who should get medical care?  Who should decide?  Whose life is worth saving?

“The health bills being pushed through Congress put important decisions in the hands of presidential appointees like Dr. Emanuel.  They will decide what insurance plans cover, how much leeway your doctor will have, and what seniors get under Medicare.”[3]  Dr. Emanuel has been appointed by President Obama to two key health care positions:  health-policy adviser and the Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research.  What he thinks will heavily influence health policy.  Here’s a sampling of what Dr. Ezekiel believes, based on his personal statements:

  • Health reform will not be pain free.
  • Doctors’ ethical obligations must be redefined.
  • Patients’ needs must be balanced with what’s good for society.
  • Medical students should be trained to emphasize “socially sustainable, cost-effective care.”
  • Scarce medical resources must be carefully allocated.
  • Decisions about patient care cannot focus on only the worth of the individual.
  • Age and productivity should guide medical decisions.
  • “Individuals aged roughly 15 and 40 years” should be given priority over younger and older patients.
  • Allocating medical services by age is not discriminatory.
  • The U.S. should erect “a decision-making body similar to the

    United Kingdom’s rationing body – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) – to slow the adoption of new medications and set limits on how much will be paid to lengthen a life.”

Do these beliefs make you feel better about rationing and end-of-life counseling intended by House Bill 3200?  If Dr. Emanuel is in charge of your medical treatment and if you have cancer, for example, your chances for survival based on best-practices medicine will plummet.   

The U.S. is rated No. 1 out of 191 countries for responsiveness and giving individual patients choice. 

This will change if Dr. Emanuel has control of your health care insurance.  “Dr. Emanuel has fought for a government takeover of health care for over a decade.  In 1993, he urged that President Bill Clinton impose a wage and price freeze on health care….Now he recommends arm-twisting Chicago style.”[4]

“’Every favor to a constituency should be linked to support for the health-care reform agenda,’ he wrote last November 16 in the Health Care Watch Blog. ‘If the automakers want a bailout, then they and their suppliers have to agree to support and lobby for the administration’s health-reform effort.’  “Is that what Americans want?”[5]  Do you feel better about the sections of House Bill 3200 that deal with rationing and end-of-life counseling?  Or does your scared fluttering heart feel like going to a town hall meeting and voicing your opinion while you still have a choice?

[1] Charles Krauthammer, “Living wills aren’t used in many case, August 21, 2009

[2] The Wall Street Journal:  “Obama’s Health Rationer-in-Chief,” by Betsy McCaughey, August 27, 2009

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

Posted in Health Care | 9 Comments »

HOW TO IMPROVE HEALTH CARE, CUT COSTS & REDUCE THE DEFICIT

August 26th, 2009

By Elois Zeanah 

With the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, the White House will have one more reason to ram through compulsory health insurance that will seize more freedoms and skyrocket deficits. This likelihood is one more reason to make voices of citizens stronger.  One way to do this is to propose as an alternative straightforward solutions to health care reform that will improve health care, cut costs, and reduce the deficit.  My package of reforms follow: 

STOP PAYING THE CROOKS

  • Reduce fraud in Medicare and Medicaid
  • Amend EMTLA to give free health care to indigent Citizens only
  • Pass TORT reform

($800B/yr. wasted on fraud, defensive medicine, paperwork)[1] 

Ø      These three MUST be done if costs are to be controlled 

GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE WAY

  • Allow interstate competition among insurance carriers
  • Eliminate government mandates of what insurance companies must cover
  • Find ways to make policies portable

“HANDS OFF MY HEALTH CARE” PRIVATE INITIATIVES

  • Electronic information-sharing (records, wikis, etc.)
  • Collaborative Care (e.g.:  Theda Care in Appleton, Wisconsin)
  • Incentivize good behavior (e.g.: Safeway:  obesity, exercise, smoking)

Ø     ALL can be accomplished WITHOUT government takeover 

And let’s not stop with health care!  Once the waste and fraud are cut from health care, let’s insist that Washington start purging costs from other wasteful and inefficient government programs listed in my previous article to stop the financial hemorrhaging.  Only then will be finally get deficits down and rein in government spending.  Our children and those yet unborn deserve no less.

[1] Senator Tom Coburn, M.D.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

BUDGET DEFICIT NOW $9,000,000,000,000: How much is Due to Greed and Chicanery?

August 26th, 2009

By Elois Zeanah

“It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.” –George Washington

Our nation must find a way to stop its financial hemorrhaging.  Our economy cannot sustain this level of bleeding (borrowing and spending). The Obama administration raised its 10-year budget deficit projection by $2 trillion to $9 trillion.  (The national debt is already $11.7 trillion.) The White House report showed the public debt doubling by 2019 and reaching three-quarters the size of the entire national economy.  This is hard to comprehend. 

One way to understand its impact on our economy is to put it in the context of a one-dollar bill.  Fold the dollar into thirds.  Then unfold two thirds.  This represents our national debt.  Our nation cannot survive on one-third of our economic output.  The result would be horrific – not only to our generation but on “ages yet unborn”.

A book “National Suicide: How Washington is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z” by an investigative reporter, Martin Gross, to be released in September 2009, is about the outrageous expenditures that American taxpayers are forced to fund. Some payments are for programs that don’t do the job intended, others are to achieve political goals.  A few examples among the book’s revelations are:

·        $700 billion a year is spent on welfare, “amounting to $65,000 for each poor family of four, yet we still have the poor with us.”[1] 

·        “Both political parties secretly encourage illegal immigration (Democrats for votes, Republicans for cheap labor) and then reward the immigrants’ children with automatic U.S. citizenship.”[2] 

·         1,000 duplicate programs waste billions.

·        “Medicare and Medicaid waste $150 billion a year dealing with doctor and hospital fraud.”[3] 

·        “$45 billion a year is wasted on ‘improper payments’ and even more on ‘unnecessary agencies.’”[4] 

Cal Thomas writes, “This book will keep your blood pressure up and your motivation to do something about overspending high into the next election.  Publisher’s Weekly wrote in its review:  ‘A fiery A-Z compendium of government greed, chicanery and plain incompetence.  Gross enjoys a good rant, but his criticism are sound and well-supported.”[5]

A good place for Americans to start to hold Washington politicians accountable for their “greed and chicanery”, is to demand that current bills on health care reform that do nothing to stop the financial hemorrhaging must be scuttled!  Like the dollar bill illustration above, only one-third of House Bill 3200 is about health care.  The rest, according to a legislative consultant who appeared on a Fox News program, is about pet programs, totally pork!

Federal government programs are riddled with fraud as a rule.  They “are inherently vulnerable to bribery, fraud, conflicts of interest, and collusion.  There is an old adage that where there is money to be made, fraud is not far behind, like bees to honey.”[6]  This is a primary reason for Americans to insist that government “keep its hand off our health care”.  Examples of fraud in federal programs within the last year alone include:

·        The $750 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), signed by President Bush in October 2008.  “Tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money will be lost to fraud” within TARP.[7] 

·        The $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress and signed into law in February 2009.  “Estimates are that $50 billion of stimulus money will be lost to fraud.”[8]

It’s past time for Washington to start purging costs from wasteful/inefficient government programs to stop the financial hemorrhaging.  It’s not time to pass a new entitlement of a health care bill that will explode deficits. 


[1] Cal Thomas “Deficit has gone far beyond being our children’s burden”, August 26, 2009

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6]

[7] Quarterly Report to Congress, Office of the Special Inspector General for TARP, April 21, 2009 (source: “Stop Paying the Crooks” book, foreword by Newt Gingrich)

[8] Greg Morcroft, “Fraudsters eye huge stimulus pie, consultant says,” MarketWatch, June 12, 2009 (source:  Book, “Stop Paying the Crooks”, foreword by Newt Gingrich

Posted in Economic Crisis, Health Care, Immigration, Taxes, Uncategorized | No Comments »

WHO’S THE NEXT TAX VICTIM? Big Government is now coming for the Poor!

August 24th, 2009

 

By Elois Zeanah

The THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of the big foot of government is heard in the distance – again!  This time big government is coming for yet more of your money to pay for health care.  They’ve soaked the rich to where numbers of the once-rich are dwindling.  So the big bully who survives by taking from others now has to move to new territory.  THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!  The giant government will this time – get this! – tax poor people more than rich people. 

Remember the poor people who voted for President Obama because he said he would give them free health care and other freebies and tax only the rich?   THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, the giant bully is on the move.  He has to be fed.  If nationalized health insurance works for Europe, it should work for all Americans.  If Europe uses the value-added tax (VAT) to help pay for socialized medicine, what’s wrong with European-level taxes for Americans?  After all, don’t we want to be like Europe?  THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, the Obama administration is hungry.  It’s on the prowl for another victim – an unsuspecting victim would be easiest.  Its ravenous appetite makes VAT deliciously appealing. 

Not to worry about the poor seeing through this trickery.  The Value Added Tax will not be transparent.  This essentially national sales tax will tax products in every stage of the production chain from manufacturing to delivery.  THUMP, THUMP THUMP!  As the product moves from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer, the government is there to take a tax bite.  These taxes will of necessity be passed on to consumers.  Goods and services will cost more.  VAT will hit everyone, but being a regressive tax, it will burden the middle and low income more because they spend most of their income on goods and services. 

Wouldn’t this tax be contrary to what President Obama promised?  Of course!  But who’s to know?  Consumers will not blame Washington.  Washington will tell consumers to blame those greedy business people – just like those evil insurance companies are to blame for high health care prices.  The big bully is marching, but he won’t arrive until after the 2010 elections.  Can’t confuse the voters now, can we?  But we can use the time to mull more mischief as bully government lays the trap for the next victim.  You can’t blame him; he’s hungry and he’s got to be fed!  THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!   

Posted in Economic Crisis, Health Care, Taxes | 7 Comments »

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