Open Thread: Obama Press Conference

Obama sounds jerky and uncertain with some of his comments. I loved the woman who asked him where CSPAN was in these negotiations, something he promised while campaigning in Chester, Virginia.

Thanks for the slip habor master.

His friend got busted…oops jimmied his way into the house jigger into into….

HUH?

He sloughed off her excellent questions with vague replies that didn’t address her concerns about his and his administration’s lack of transparency.

It’s not right that follow-up questions apparently are not allowed. Why is THAT? And why don’t other reporters, when called on, change the subject instead of pursuing an excellent line of questions?

I’d like to know more about the health care co. execs who’ve visited him in the White House.

Although this wasn’t mentioned in that question, I’m especially appalled that the director of the CBO went to the White House. That is wholly improper. As one former CBO director said to Fox News, she maintained a wall between her office and the White House.

I can guess one thing: the fabulous journalists of the Huffington Post will ask some crushingly in-depth questions(!) and His Highness Emperor of Telempromptus will answer with quotes from Che Guevara’s writings.

All savings are coming from Medicare (ie. doctors ad hospitals getting less reimbursements from the Gov.) Where in hell is Insurance Reform and Regulation???? The more I hear about it the more it sound slike the nightmare Repubs wanted of killing off Medicare; expect that is is being done by Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Co. : Democrats my arse…(pardon me)

Hi, Teak.

As Charles Krauthammer just said on Fox, he spent an hour denying reality. And he did so “deceptively.”

What was this about Medicare? What does “bending the curve downward” mean? His responses are so vague — he knows how to turn a nice phrase, but there’s no “there there.”

I think Obama’s biggest problem is that he is unable to explain the program so that people understand how he is going to accomplish his fanciful goals of health care for all without increasing taxes or the deficit. There’s no link I’ve heard that explains that great leap of illogic.

Look at this if you want to know how much Obama cares about your health; especially when you get older and have more problems: his answer is pretty much don’t fix your health just deal with the pain until you die…

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/21/video-let-them-eat-painkillers/

Blah, blah, blah!!!!. Bush did not even have a press conference for his first whole year in power…

It was an excellent press conferene. He was not afraid to take the tough questions and defended what he is attempting to do.

Lots of very thoughtful and through answers.

Obama is a real leader. What are we seeing from the Republicans, absolutely nothing. Zero.

If he is pissing you people off then he is definately doing something right.

Charles started by saying how amazing his speech was and then dropped the bomb..

As Charles Krauthammer just said on Fox, he spent an hour denying reality. And he did so “deceptively.”

Charles the wit always says it with a twist of sarcasm. Awesome!

can some one explain to me how the “liberals who are for the little people” can get away with exempting congress and their families, the president and his family and ex-presidents and their families from the health care “gift” they are giving to us? Another question he never really answered.

What does “bending the curve downward” mean?

I heard that phrase on the radio 2 days ago.

I made a mental note to ask Master Po the next time I saw him.

In some circles that also could mean somthing entirely different. To many places to go with that one…

I think the American people might understand what bending means, reflexively , in real time.

What I do not get is why he is still beating the Bush drum.
Also it was factually incorrect that if he “jiggered his way into the white house he “would get shot”. The DNC made sure of that.

I opined on another thread Obama follows Bush’s strategy pushing through huge bills like immigration,

When things look bad, have town halls. If those fail, regally “demand” “a bill.” If that fails, call a national prime time press conference to set it straight.

As with Bush, the last failed Obama tonight. The act does not allay fears, but increases them.

He is the KING! I mean pResident, he has his own personal physician

SUSANUNPC: Do you want to know what people think that Obama’s health plan being deficit neutral? Look at people’s reaction when Orzag’s says this in a speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9_43nJVyKA&eurl=

Watch it, it’s worth it!!

Anoush,
The Republicans offered a plan Rep. Ryan discussed it in depth on CNBC MOnday morning. Few media outlets talk about the Republicans because they have no power. There wasn’t one tough question in the presser and his answers are meaningless drivel. Most people on this site are Dems.

Hey Bud,

What are we seeing from the Republicans, absolutely nothing. Zero.

Maybe we don’t want his socialist change at this time.

Maybe small businesses should get a tax cut instead of a 5% surcharge during a recession.

Maybe you don’t get it!

Just say NO to trillions more in debt!

Well, if this was suppose to be the big sales push, the presentation to qualm the public’s growing doubts about where we’re going with this, he failed bigtime. The big, rosy follow me because I know the way out just doesn’t work anymore. Campaign is over, done, finished.

Saying another bloated, vague government program is going to pay for itself when we’ve already heard the CBO’s findings and we’re teetering on a financial abyss does not fly. And no amount of sincerity or charm or abracadabra is going to change that.

We need health care reform, not another broken promise or act of hubris from the Congress of the United States. The Dems don’t get this one right, the cornerstone of everything they’re suppose to stand for, they are done forever. And the devil is always in the details.

You sure ‘bending the curve’ isn’t code for getting screwed and not knowing it?

That is my concern also. He said it was a “Republican” plan didn’t he. I don’t really understand how he is planning to move Medicare to private companies, but seniors will suffer. More than ever their needs will be decided by someone other than their doctors and them.

How exactly will this plan save the government over two trillion dollars? I don’t have any problems with my tax being used to pay for health care instead of say a bomb, but I can’t see anyone other than the ins companies benefiting.

Its going to be a Waterloo for you and all your Republican buddies…..

Keep talking the talkin points… keep shilling for the insurance companies and your Republican buddies who are ripping us off…. It don’t matter because you are going to be on the wrong side of history…

All you got is FEAR… FEAR.

Step away from the bong.

Susan UPC, Obama talks in circles and is unable to explain this to the American people because he doesn’t really understand it himself! The scenarios he gave to try to illustrate to the audience were ludicrous. The example about the child with lots of sore throats who’s doctor decided to go straight to surgery and perform a tonsillectomy. He came right up to the edge of saying “that doctor is just doing the surgery to get the money, so we’re not going to allow those doctors to make the decisions. He seemed to catch himself before saying it but the intent was clear.

As a healthcare worker for several decades, I am appalled at what I see coming if this passes. He claims the doctors and nurses are with him. I haven’t seen a list of the professional groups who have signed on, except for the California Nurses Association which is heavily unionized. Of course they are with him. From the snippets of the plan that I’ve heard, the general trend is oh so clear. I fear for us.

Shilling for the insurance companies? Who the hell do you think Obama just had meetings with the craft this crappy legislation? There is NOTHING in this bill that will reign in the power and profits and unfair practices of those companies – not a damn thing. I have no love for Republicans, but if you think that they are the only ones in bed with Big Money, and your precious Democratic saviors’ shit don’t stink in that regard, you are dreaming. The insurance companies are WRITING this damn bill.

But then, you probably have not read the bill you are cheering about, just like Obama hasn’t (he admitted he “wasn’t familiar with” its provisions). Once again you are buying a SLOGAN: Reform! Yay! Instead of reality.

And an eight percent penalty if the employer does not provide the govt option.

Ya and the Cambride Police “were stupid” (cringe).

Just once I would like a officer of the law at any level government ask BO for his identification.

Is there racism in America? Sure. Did POTUS have to respond in such a manner? The charges were drop and BO is his friend. Equal under the eyes of the law.

Where in the constitution does it say that the government shall provide national healthcare – that it is a right? One of governments primary roles is to protect and defend. The illiegal aliens are KILLING US. Lets nopt even consider the cost. Read the bill – it is scary!!! Page 16 – you won’t get to keep the current insurance you have….if any aspect of it is changed. Have you seen the section on end of life counseling. America this is rode we do not want to go down.

Excellent comments, Peggy Sue. We do need health reform but they just aren’t asking the right people so I have no faith that it will be done well.

He’s such a fecking narcissist. He tried too hard to look regal and important and failed to make his case cause he has no case to make.

a conference with no substance! No answers clearly stated,
either because he is lying or he doesn’t know or some combination of both. For a man who mocked Hillary’s campaign not being run in a efficient manner ,he sure isn’t running the white house in an efficient manner and the thing is we will pay for it.

I don’t know what it was on when I heard him answer the question about whether someone getting a pacemaker for this elderly person and his reply was maybe she should be given painkillers instead. This sounds like something we might hear from the Chinese or something! oh wait we will be run by them so why not get a head start.

I really want healthcare for everyone but not his way.

His responses are so vague — he knows how to turn a nice phrase, but there’s no “there there.”

You mean b.s. I don’t understand why people don’t recognize this more–I could tell the first time I heard him debate.

I would debate you any day on the merits of the different proposals for healthcare reform, but tired of reading all your bullshit and conspiracy theories.

Why are the insurance companies spending between $2-3 million a day trying to kill reform if they are writing the legislation?

Enjoy your very small echo chamber.

The wheels on the bus go round and round.

I am still digesting him ducking the CREW question. You know it is non transparent when CREW is to be filing a lawsuit.

He has an oppertunity to tell the American people what the conversation was about. Nixon HMO redux.

No one trusts the government taking over health care. It’s a joke, and the fact that Obama thinks it’s a great option and something that should be pursued shows just how out of touch with reality he is.

We need Health Insurance regulations no health care reform: the health care system is pretty good it is just that it is overpriced and unaffordable to many. Why? Insurance and Pharmaceutical earnings!!

Why have healthcare costs skyrocketed beyond the usual inflationary adjustment (you don’t see that with any other thing like housing for example)? Same with college education but that is a different discussion. This is a serious question. Pl. tell me why. What are the factors contributing to that and if we go after those costs wouldn’t we address the root cause of the problem.

For years governments have been promising more than they can deliver, and delivering more than they can afford.

This one is no different.

Besides ,why can’t he reform the insurance people who spend most of their time trying to get out of paying for services. Insurance and big Pharma,,major pigs, remember the doctors trying to speak at one of the hearings and they were escorted out by the police.

This is just like what happened on wall street,he was going to help the people with their mortgages etc., so who benifited from his help? wall street, Goldman and the rest of the big banking and their lobbyists.

Hey brainwashed one: most of us are lifelong liberals who recognize the corporate stooge you mistake for a Democrat. You seem to think that anyone who disagrees with this insurance farce must be a Republican. We actually read independently and know how many lies are being spun, unlike you, who gobble up all the double talk he serves. If he was a real Democrat, he would be pushing single payer, and not caving to insurance lobbyists.

“Overpriced and unaffordable because of insurance and pharmaceutical earnings..”
Andy, see my question below. Could you expand on what you said or point me to some info in that regard?

You want to debate WMCB, who is married to a doctor, but then insult her and run away. Coward.

they are doing that to fool people like you. The money they will make is nothing compared to a couple million.

Why are the insurance companies spending between $2-3 million a day trying to kill reform if they are writing the legislation?

Anoush, that is actually a good question, but you won’t like the answer.

Pay to Play. How much bluntly can it be stated. WMCB nails it.

Excellent point.

The Waterloo is when all of us John Galt types cut back and layoff employees do to a 5% tax increase at time when margins and demand are falling and the cost of raw materials are going up.

Question

Got any skin in the game?

Didn’t think so Bud!

My husband, a radiologist, is disgusted that Obama uses the AMA to claim support for his “healthcare” plan. Less than a third of doctors belong to the AMA because it no longer represents their specialties.

Tell you what, why don’t you go google just WHO these people are who’ve been quietly visiting the Whitehouse and meeting privately with Obama. From the Whitehouse visitors list:

· Bill Tauzin visited the White House on March 5, May 19, June 2, and June 24.
· Karen Ignagni visited the White House on March 5, 6, and 11 and June 30.
· Richard Umbdenstock visited the White House on February 4, February 23; March 5, March 25, March 30; April 6, and May 22.
· J. James Rohack visited the White House on March 25, June 22, and June 24.
· William C. Weldon visited the White House on May 12.
· Jeffrey B. Kindler visited the White House on March 5, May 6, and June 2.
· Stephen J. Hemsley visited the White House on May 15 and 22.
· Angela F. Braly visited the White House on February 13.
· George Halvorson visited the White House on March 27 and June 5.
· Jay Gellert visited the White House on February 10, March 11, and March 20.
· Thomas Priselac visited the White House on April 3.
· Richard Clark visited the White House on March 24.
· Wayne T. Smith visited the White House on June 4.
· Rick Smith visited the White House on May 19 and June 2.
In addition to the above information, the White House visitor records reflect that Mr. Tauzin, Ms. Ignagni, Mr. Umbdenstock, Mr. Rohack, Mr. Kindler, Mr. Halvorson, Mr. Gellert, Mr. Priselac, David Nexon, and Rick Smith were scheduled to attend a May 11 meeting at the White House. We understand that all the individuals attended the meeting except Mr. Kindler, and that Mr. Clark attended as well. Finally, the visitor records do not reflect any visits by the following individuals: Ben J. Lipps; William A. Hawkins, III; or Robert L. Parkinson.

Heck, wait til the damn DOCTORS go galt. Because a lot of them are talking about doing just that if this crap passes.

Come out of the basement and see the light.
You BO supporters have been played. He used you. I hope you’ll still love him when he ships your ass off to fight in Afghanistan.
Aloha.

I will look pm317.

I recently had some imaging tests (ultrasound + another one overseas) and had to pay out of pocket: it costed me $150 both!

Here if I had to pay out of pocket it would cost me $700 each.

That’s how much hopitals bill and insurances pay them $150 while collecting from me (the insured) a copay of $75 and a premium that assumes a cost of $700 for these tests.

And pharmaceuticals are incredible (trust me I am close to the owner of a generic drugs one) it costs them a dime to manufacture 30 pills of a generic X and they sell them for 500 times that. Your premium is high because if factoring in the full earnings of the pharma.

Obama backtracked on importing cheaper drugs and assured pharma that they will be okay…I posted this on Ani’s last post but let me repeat it here:

The hospital deal came after weeks of negotiations among the industry, Mr. Baucus and the White House, said Rick Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association. Last month, the group said it opposed a plan by Mr. Obama to make similar cuts that it estimated would have cost hospitals between $224 billion and $254 billion over a decade

The group agreed to the cuts announced Tuesday in part because the givebacks are “substantially lower” than the White House’s previous request, Mr. Pollack said. “Everybody has to contribute to this process,” he said. “Others will have to do it as well.”

Under the deal, the government will slightly reduce a scheduled annual inflation increase it pays hospitals for treating senior citizens under the Medicare program, Mr. Pollack said. That is projected to save about $103 billion over a decade.

Starting in 2015, the government would begin paying certain hospitals less money through Medicare and Medicaid for treating uninsured people and government-insured Americans who are particularly costly, Mr. Pollack said. That is estimated to save about $50 billion over a decade. In theory, such payments can be reduced once more Americans have insurance coverage.

Also Tuesday, the chief lobbyist for brand-name drug makers said that he has heard reassuring words from White House officials about reimporting lower-priced drugs from other countries. As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama endorsed the idea, which the industry opposes.

Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said after a White House meeting Tuesday that officials have told the industry if the larger health-care bill passes, the cost savings will be big enough to make reimportation unnecessary.

A White House official confirmed the meeting took place and said, “As a political matter there may be less pressure” to pursue reimportation after a health bill passes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124701192458308917.html

Do you have any idea what you are talking about here, Anoush?

Because insurance companies used to cover most everything, and made a very decent profit. They took about 16% off the top of every healthcare dollar in this country, and things were sort of okay. That was acceptable. Now, they are taking 33% of every dollar, covering less, and it’s still climbing. That’s the dirty little secret that NO ONE, Dem or Repub, wants to talk about.

The CEO of Cigna alone makes approx. 30 million dollars in salary annually. The insurers skimmed almost 600 billion off the TOP of all healthcare costs last year. But they want to bitch and moan that some cardiologist who SAVES LIVES made 400,000, the selfish greedy pig.

Oh, yeah, we need “cost controls” that squeeze a few million out of your pocket, out of mine, out of the docs, the hospitals operating budgets,out of the small business owners. But the BIG waste hogs in this scenario are “untouchable”.

And these are the guys that Obama keeps meeting privately with in the Whitehouse. You’re being SNOWED, folks.

My brother in pharmaceuticals has provided a nice living for his family promoting new drugs from companies that invest huge resources to bring miracle drugs to market.
After the government gets involved my brothers services won’t be needed and large drug companies will not invest in new products because the government will take the profit out of making the drugs.

Maybe the Brothers Moss can do something together.

‘Bending the curve down’….I heard the phrase in response to the CBO report and lowering the costs in medical care.

That the current plan doesn’t ‘bend the curve down’, but rather increases prices.

Didn’t hear how Obama used the term though. I got a call during the speech so it might mean something else to him. Especially when you consider he doesn’t read these things.

Anoush — what are you, twelve? You’re tired already?? Ya know there are treatments for ADHD.
(Good luck getting coverage for that under BOcare.)

I just read the quote of the night on HotAir…bears repeating:

Obama took six months picking out a puppy for his daughters but he wants to pass health care in two weeks.

Priceless.

I’m still waiting for someone, anyone, to tell us what we’re getting with this healthcare proposal. Barack said everyone who wants to be insured will be insured, but in the next breath said, those who don’t feel they can afford it will take the risk of living without it. So that means everyone who wants it WILL NOT get it. Will there be means testing as a way to determine premium costs? Who will make those decisions? So, what are the premiums going to look like? Will they be comparable to commercial health insurance? How will you drive down the cost of Commercial health insurance (keep them honest) without significantly reducing premiums and/or quality of service? Will the rich have access to a quality of healthcare that the middle class and poor can’t afford? What does Barack mean when he says treatments will be things that work? Does he mean that doctors are currently pushing treatments that don’t work? What the hell was he talking about with the “red pill, blue pill” example. Did that mean we’ll get the cheapest drugs if those drugs work, without regard to other things like the duration of the treatment, the medication delivery method, the side effects of some meds vs. others? And what was the tonsil example about? Was he saying that doctors are removing the tonsils of children simply because they can make more money by performing a tonsilectomy than by prescribing a medication therapy? I have more questions now than before his press conference and I can’t help but wonder why NO ONE IN THE PRESS asked the questions about Medicare and Medicaid that needed to be asked. Questions like how will the dying be cared for? Will the quality of healthcare for Seniors, the disabled and the poor be diminished as their prognosis becomes more bleak?

I want to believe that this plan will work, but we haven’t been given enough details to come to any sort of conclusion, other than, we don’t know enough.

I listened to the President attentively. I am now convinced that he has no plan other than, “Don’t read the bill, just shut up and vote for it.” He certainly has now answers on how we’re going to pay for it.

Important point: How we are going to pay for it. Because, at the end of the day, it is tax increases on all of us, in one form or another, that will pay for it.

I used to live in Great Britain, and so am familiar with their National Health Service, which is what Obama wants us to move to. NHS essentially rations health care by systemically denying medical treatment as one ages, kind of a “duty to die” methodology. The Brits accept this as “necessary in order to provide free healthcare to everyone.”

If Obama were honest, he would just lay this out to the people. Instead, he tries to sell this using deceipt and not disclosing the details of his ideas. Or maybe he just doesn’t know how he’s going to do it.

Either way, a scary situation.

I couldn’t agree more, Andy. Regulate the insurance companies so that they have to lower premiums, are not allowed to dump patients when they actually use their plan, allow people with pre-existing conditions to change plans and they actually are made to deliver what they sell. Our system of health care is wonderful but rarely affordable. The insurance industry has to get over their obscene profits.

I missed the Fraud but when channel surfing after I came home, I saw Elizabeth Edwards on MSNBC. I paused long enough to hear her saying something on the order of…if you hear them using the words socialized medicine, blah, blah (naming off the buzz words we’ve all been hearing)..you know they are just using fear tactics. I immediately thought “Yes, Mrs. Edwards. Why would I believe you after you cooperated in fooling all of us who voted for your husband in the primary? Why should I believe a woman who has millions of dollars for her health care and in fact probably still gets government coverage from your husbands past office?” If Mrs. Edwards signs up, I’ll listen again. She might be more healthy if she’d start telling the truth.

Actually, if he was a real COMMUNIST, he would be pushing single payer. What this current situation is, with a marriage between Government and large private enterprises, is fascism.

Less than a third belong, and half of those are RETIRED and haven’t practiced in many years. The vast majority of WORKING docs, who have to, you know, actually see patients every day, do not belong to the AMA.

I think Anoush does get it…

That’s why he has run and hid from us!

Bye Bye troll!!

Oh yeah, she said whenever you hear them say socialized medicine, France, Britain, or Canada you know they are using fear…What a liar she is.

OBAMA: They’re going to have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier. And I — speaking as an American, I think that’s the kind of change you want.

I wonder if that is the red pill or is it the blue pill, geez I am so confused is there a simple version to this mess please????

It must be quite the buzzword in the WH. Gibbs the incompetent has been using it lately. I believe it has something to do with trending costs downward.

Thanks, WMCB. I appreciate your insightful comments here and on other blogs.

It is the usual corporate greed run amuck and as we have been saying since the beginning of the Dem campaign they are the ones pulling 0bama’s strings.

It’s the red pill. You take it, stay in your plugged in pod and Obama takes care of everything. LOL

MEchelle got a new do.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/07/22/michelle-obamas-first-lady-bob/12#c20352367

My husband, a gastroenterologist,said tonight he is through with the AMA. Regarding Obama’s remarks, I found his example of a doctor choosing to take out tonsils from a child with a recurring sore throat simply so he could collect more money, when the child may just have allergies – an appalling statement. It seems he thinks he knows more about treating patients than those who are physicians.

That’s great! At least someone appreciates the Constitutionally mandated separation of powers. Was she asked? (I don’t watch t.v. anymore; and if I did, I would not – could not have watched BO, anyway.

Here’s the link for the current Senate Plan. It’s 615 pages and I couldn’t find where it describes how premium costs would be determined or calculated, but I did find the area that says there will be no exclusion for pre-existing conditions, but that age can raise the premium cost not to exceed 2 to 1. So most people with pre-existing conditions that would have formerly excluded them from coverage are older people and this plan allows for their premiums to be twice the cost of younger participants. I wondered how the Insurance companies would circumvent the pre-existing conditions exclusion, they’re doing it by charging higher premiums for older participants. The devil is in the detail.

http://help.senate.gov/BAI09A84_xml.pdf

May I ask how they have a higher life expectancy then? May I ask what isn’t rationed about our current care, since now, the decisions on what procedures are being done are being made solely based on a profit motivated basis? Not saying the current plan floating is the best, but the status quo is certainly not an option. almost triple any other country in per capita spending and rank near the bottom of any industrialized nation in almost every category?

The O knows all trades.

He mocked farmers for not growing more arugula.

I only saw part of Ozero’s infomercial (I ran out of Pepto-Bismol). What I saw was:

1/3 lies
1/3 dodging questions
1/3 ignoring questions.

What is missing from the above?

Amen, fif.

Watch if they don’t start dressing the PR-esident like the Marlboro man and have him chop some wood for the camera before this is done.

He knows what to say and he sounds alright saying it. It is just that by now we already know not to believe anything he says.

Yes, fascism if government partners with big business. What is it though if big business owns government and what appears like a partnership is really graft? Mafia comes to mind, but it is too mild a term. I almost wish he was a Marxist. That would be easier to fix.

Thanks, Andy!

It is about not treating many conditions of the elderly. Cost/benefit you see. If the elderly are treated and live longer they will not pay more taxes. If they live longer they will cost more. Chronic health problems cost too much. Of course if many were treated early enough they would not be chronic. The resentment of treating people is starting to become socially and politically acceptable.

I certainly would not dispute that profits are grossly inflated for insurance companies and certain other sectors of the health care industry. But, also, some of the spiraling costs must come from the fact that those who can afford to contribute to the system are paying for health care not only for themselves but for ever increasing numbers of persons who cannot afford to pay anything into the system. And there is a lot of waste and misdirected effort and inefficiency in the current system. I can sort of see what this administration is trying to do….but….if Obama and friends cannot clearly explain what they are trying to do, then they don’t really understand either the details or the overall picture themselves and why should anyone have any confidence in what they are proposing. I think they should just slap some strong temporary price/profit controls on the whole business and take some time to come up with a system that makes sense. I personally don’t believe in sacrificing fellow creatures for $$$$$$.

fif,

most of us are lifelong liberals

My brother used to call me an elitist liberal who lived in the Peoples Republic of Seattle.
How times have changed…We now agree on everything and he has become a good friend.

It takes devoted long time democrats to see clearly what Hugobama and his internationalist’s cabal have done to the party.
The party left me…
I’m now free to give you the straight scoop with no reservations.
I love being free!
The Democrats represent Tyranny and Slavery to the State.
I have lived in socialist countries. They are stagnant monolithic and boring with very little incentive to upgrade basics like medical equipment or facilities. Productivity is much lower as there is no incentive to go the extra distance to give that special quality and service. End result..Stuffy waiting rooms with crying babies and health staff moving as slow as possible watching the clock and relishing in the reactions from those waiting.

What does Barack mean when he says treatments will be things that work?

In current HMO parlance that means a “committee” looks at the drugs they offer and say, “this works”.

In the absence of tort reform, it can only mean one thing. If it is a tire in the academic sense it can called round. What a square peg BO is. The government can not be sued for malpractice can it?

He could not prove to anyone HOW it will be “revenue neutral”. That term makes more sense if you are a big health care CEO / entity and you have BO tell you the offsets will be on the back end.

Has anyone else been to the doctors and had them write a script, only to get to the druggist who tells you that one is not covered?
How many of us have witnessed while waiting in line seeing people, usually elder citizens, be refused because it was not covered?

Or how many of us have seen the drug rep in the doctors office and seeing the doc order comp meds that he can give to patients that can’t get them?

So where was all that in what BO said? Is this revenue neutral? or is the term a euphemism for the status quo?

According to current Obama thinking, Medicare is currently overpaying for senior Advantage programs—those are the ones where you sign your Medicare benefits over to an HMO (like Kaiser for example) and you have to get all your care through them and they receive a medicare payment for providing you service. Apparently the government contends that this is resulting in overpayments.

Bending the curve means changing/lowering the current upward trend in the cost curve in the out years.

Lowering health care costs is absolutely needed but we are not getting the specifics of plans to do that. One of the big costs that is not being talked about—insurance company salaries/benefits and profits. WMCB has a great summary of these figures over at TC—well over billions each year.

BTW we have no congressional dialogue about insurance company costs and why in the world we need insurance companies anyway. We need a national, politically independent, non-partisan, non-profit entity to provide nation-wide health care. A sort of Federal Reserve system for the health care system that is tasked with containing costs and ensuring access for all.It should be rigorously reviewed by congress but independent of congress interfering like the Fed is. No insurance companies. Health care should not be a for-profit business; it should be a public service like national defense.

Democracies like Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and Great Britain have universal health. They also have lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. The CIA describes the infant mortality rate “is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country.”
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
HRC said, with BO as POTUS, we would never get universal health. Too bad she is usually right. (Maybe this is another reason she could not be allowed to be POTUS.)

Meshell actually looks much better in that new haircut—softer and not so mean looking—even younger. Guess she gave up on the Jackie look.

That tics me off, too. I’ve been a pediatrician for twenty years and have never encountered such a situation. What I’ve heard lately is everyone, repub and dem, talking about how doctors and our scams are the reason for all the waste in the system.

Well how about the multi-million dollar yearly salaries the insurance execs collect for pushing paper??? They don’t provide the care, they’re not in the trenches of medicine, but they want us all to think they are. Hey Obama, want to trim the fat–just look to all those clandestine visitors you have every day. Let them pony up for a change.

I’d like to have even a million in total assets at the END of my career. I’ve never even made one tenth of a million in a whole year. I live in an expensive area and take care of poor, urban kids. I make less for a comprehensive physical and well-check than a pedicurist in our area makes. And she gets to set her own fees!

Enough! This health care conversation is all wrong. And Obama is a lying liar who doesn’t know anything about it except how to stand up and protect the richest corporations who don’t actually do any of the work.

I love my work, I love my patients. But I’m about ready to go open a sports business, or something. At least then I don’t have to fix everyone’s problems AND be talked about as if I’m a crook by everyone and their neighbor.

The Federal Reserve is an insurance company.

He sounded like a complete idiot. He said the tonsil story, as if your primary care pediatrician stands to make money off the surgery. That’s another doctor, you dimwit.

And where I live, repeating tests come back as a DUPLICATE charge, and no insurance company pays for it. Another straw man bogus argument which should show the American people that he does not know what the hell he is talking about and cannot be trusted to address health care.

oh, yeah, they will.

Truth and transparency. The basis of his campaign.

Oh, yeah, the CEO of Cigna can make 30 million annually, and not a peep from Obama or congress.

But if the cardiologist who actually does the work and saves the lives makes 400,000 a year, he’s a greedy bastard and we need to cut those costs.

Stupid cops in Cambridge, crooked doctors all.
How many times did you name “insurance companies” or “big pharmacy”?

Many companies from GM to the plastics factory in Seattle are going to be off loading health care benefits like the plague.

There is NO rational reason for being forced into a corner when the alternative is

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer w payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

This double taxation. The employer takes it as a increased cost of doing business and the employee takes home less…

Looks like a wig to me.

Or somehow “fixing” the list of drugs to favor pharma companies that are in bed with the government. Hospitals do it already. If a drug is not “on formulary,” you cannot get the drug in that hospital.

Considering that hubby’s a family practice doc who has also practiced in Europe, and I’m a nurse with both hospital med/surg and psych ward and VA experience, and I managed his office and did all his billing and referrals and pre-authorizations for years, and am INTIMATELY familiar with the procedures, costs, and billing and contracting practices of private insurances, Medicare, and Medicaid….

Wanna debate me about this crappy bill? I say bring it on, because I know my shit up one side and down the other.

The basis of Obama’s campaigh is no truth and no transparency.

campaign … aaargh.

oh really its the illegals and only the illegals? How about the stupid gangbangers who get shot and need to have surgeries that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars with no insurance? Or how about all the teenage pregnancies, do they also have insurance? its not just the illegals, gimme a break.

I know, WMCB, isn’t it infuriating?

Meanwhile, the corporate protectors, otherwise called the members of congress, get the best of medical care, AND lifelong salaries after leaving office.

And we wonder why this country is in such a shambles…

Saw this on Pajamas Media. h/t “Meryl”

The boy king is playing a role. Unfortunately, the role was designed for Charlton Heston and it turns out he’s actually Barney Fife.

King Barack doesn’t seem to to well under pressure, does he?

Bill Clinton was at his best when he was down and pitching with the bases loaded and no outs.

Barry can’t get it over the plate.

I’ve never been more convinced in my life that big business owns the president, and most of the congress as well.

There was nothing better than seeing Bill Clinton against the ropes. That’s why he was always called the Comeback kid. He would fight the hardest when he was down and out.

Obama has never really had the trials Clinton did (although he says he suffered), but Clinton had that raw, fighting spirit that comes from being a survivor in life.

Obama doesn’t have that same fortitude. He’s not tough.

But, Scout, it’s the crooks who are painting you and your profession as crooks. Everyone I know likes their doctor and doesn’t think the problem is with them. You worked so hard to get where you’re at – don’t let the fraud/crook-in-chief chase you away. Hang in there – I don’t think he’s going to win this one.

As an aside, since you’ve mentioned Øbama’s war in Afghanistan, I wonder how many letters of condolences Øbama has written to the military families that have had a loved one killed over there? Say what you will about President Bush, he personally wrote a letter to each family. I’m guessing that Øbama has a form letter and a rubber stamp in his bottom drawer to handle the situation. Does he visit the wounded over at Walter Reed or is his “I admire the military” just more bullshit dribbling down his chin?

I also find her a bit disingenuous, given her complicity in promoting JE when she knew he was absolutely unelectable.

These folks are not in the real world at all.

Think of all the money wasted on behalf of JE’s campaign, from donations, to workers, to election materials,etc. How many poor kids could be vaccinated with all that wasted money and energy?

When they’re willing to go with any new plan, then I’ll be more interested in their opinions.

My take on OhBlahBlah’s speech:

Blah Blah Blah listen to my”soothing voice” blah blah blah, Sal Alinski said to do this this way to captivate people.

Blah Blah blah do what i tell you to do I am you master Blah blah blah.

have a good night……

When Glen Beck and Bill O’Reilly don’t sound way extreme we have a big problem.

Quote Beck, “hmmm I think I read that some where before…Oh yeah the bible. THE SCAREY PART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

We need to improve care in this country not by destroying the fabric of what made this nation great. Fiscal conservatives are not all EVIL Republicans most of us are little guys living hand to mouth within our means. Imagine that.

…a personal physician that can only write a one page medical history. Why does the vision of it being on ruled notebook paper keep wafting through that scenario.

Kind of like when the kid with the best handwriting wrote “parent excuse” notes for their idiot friends.

I had to turn the channel when Obama said it wasn’t about him. What an effing crock! This whole thing is about him and, guess what, this is the end of his presidency as he hallucinated it.

NO to more spending!

Obama isn’t even familiar with what’s in the bill – he admitted as much. And congressional members have been complaining that not only is he not literally working on it with them (as Bill Clinton did), but he’s not even giving them leads or ideas about what he wants.

It’s the height of arrogance and deceptiveness to be hawking something of which you know nothing about. All he wants is an immediate “win” to feather his cap – he doesn’t care about if it works or how well it works, or what other ramifications it may have in society. It’s about him. I’m so surprised.

Tonight on Fox they actually reported on Michelle’s program at the U of Chicago, turning away uninsured people to other hospitals (of course, we all knew about this during the primaries). They outlined that the team was BO, MO, Jarett, and Axelrod, the spin doctor. They were asking, are these really the people you want reorganizing healthcare?

Thanks, lorac.

Go girl, go!!

Yeah, they bought “change” without even asking for any specifics to be provided, so I guess they’ll settle for “reform” without any specifics provided. If it’s got the “O” brand, “Mikey’ll like it”.

Truly, do schools teach critical thinking skills in schools anymore?

I wonder if there is anyone here who could verify some things about Medicare/medicaid. I am acquainted with some older people here in California who are recipients of medicare/medicaid. Periodically, they receive summaries of their medical bills paid from insurance companies.

Is it possible, that Medicare is not really a “one-payer entity” as far as individual patients are concerned? That the pool of recipients are being “farmed out to various insurance companies who process the medical bills and who in turn bill Medicare? If this is in fact how this govt. program is being administered, then little wonder that it is going bankrupt. Because certainly the Insurance companies tack on their overhead and profit margins in billing medicare.

The program needs financial and management audit.

MicHELLe also got mentioned for being part of the “possible” patient dumping scam at her old job – University Hospital.

The heat/ temperature in the kitchen is rising.

THANK GOD I WAS AT ASTROS AND CARDINALS GAME. SO I MISSED THE OBAMA AND THE MEDIA FOLLIES SHOW.

GO ASTROS

ditto. I heard a pathological liar in glorious exuberance. He definitely did not know what he was talking about. President of Aruba should be the most he should be in charge of.

This man is a danger to everything we hold as values. So weak, confused, and tentative that he is not only jeopardizing our economy but he will become the target of greedy international assaults. The MSM still likes to flirt with his cuteness. I guess they are just tempting the Russians and the Chinese to raise up an incident so that they can have some real news to cover.

Check out the permanent frown…gone? Botox.

You didn’t miss anything. Obama started out by saying this whole thing WASN’T about him….yeah, right.

0 can’t explain this 1,000 page bill because 1) it isn’t his bill, it’s Nancy Pelosi’s bill, and he like all the others has not read it. 2) like Lyndon Johnson who signed medicare and medicaid into law, 0 wants to sign nationalized healthcare into law under his name, regardless of what the bill really will do. This is what he has always done – let others do the heavy lifting. He swoops in at the end and takes all the credit.

You are correct. See the little piece of hair sticking out at the neck?

“Turn a nice phrase”, like what?? I have not once, ever, been impressed with his speaking. He does not have a style that appeals to me in any way.

I, like you, fif, am very tired of even republicans prefacing their scathing remarks about him with some of THESE phases: “Pres Obama is an impressive speaker”, “He is the most popular president we’ve ever had”, “He is a brilliant man”, “the most brilliant pres we have ever had”. What is up with this? The people who say that undoubtedly must have very low standards for speaking ability and intelligence.

I find him to be grossly lacking in all areas to have been able to convince all the players that put him where he is.

My understanding of it, based on helping a parent sort through it all, is that there are quite a few companies/providers they can choose from (that’s why I’m not quite sure why it’s referred to as “government run healthcare”).

Then there are different options – Medicare A (which I think is for hospital visits), Medicare B (which I think is for doctor visits), then C (pharmacy benefits…?), D, E… for different added things (dental, eyes…?). The added things costs more money, as I recall.

So you have to decide which benefits you want (the letters), then go back to the materials from the different providers and choose a provider (because not all providers offer all the “letters”, so you have to make sure they offer what you want). Then set aside the providers which offer what you want, now you go back and compare the costs for what you want out of this subset.

To be quite honest, it struck me as being rather overwhelming for a senior to have to wade through and digest. And I understand that if you pick one plan because it covers Medicine X that you need, at some time during the year they may decide to discontinue covering that drug, and you’re screwed….

But maybe once you get past all that initial mess (which you will go through again every year if you decide you need to change), maybe then it works better for the patient.

Every time B0 says “this is not about me,” I just burst out with a huge

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You better believe if 0 said it, he picked it up from someone else. There isn’t anything original with him. Even the title of one of his books, “The audacity of Hope” came from a Jeremiah Wright sermon title. Remember when he plagiarized Duval Patrick’s speech (with Patrick’s blessing, no less)?

Oh, forgot to add TriCare and TriCare prime – very familiar with those also, since we were in a military town.

Experience and engagement in patriotic love. A political delinquent.

But Americans pay for Medicare all of their working lives. It isn’t a gift or charity. Neither is Social Security, but over the years SS money has been used to pave roads and anything else whatever administration decides it wants to do. We pay for health insurance in addition to the withholding for Medicare so if they want to reduce costs of health care by not taking care of seniors, why do we need to have the withholdings?

Brilliant and impressive. Thanks. The thing is that believing that when the government will exercise control over all factors of health care production everything will be peachy is very naive because health care is a personal issue and an art, not a science. A black market will get established instantly. All we need is a price list. Why can’t we get a menu of services with prices and a way to compare A to B. Pay for what you agree to purchase and work to make the payments. End of all evil.

The Russians and the Chinese are seeing that and thinking. And many others in smarter countries that those two are also seeing it and thinking twice as hard.

amen to that! i, too, am sick of all those prefacing comments. he is not brilliant, and has no substance. he is empty and boring. he is slick and clever, and tonight just doing his snake oil salesman routine. lying, duplicitous, evasive.

anyone who cant see his evasiveness, that he answered no questions honestly, or from a base of knowledge is an utter fool, but their foolishness is taking us all down. note how he avoided answering about whether his family would accept the public option for themselves.

“then little wonder that it is going bankrupt.”

I believe the future projected fiscal problems are primarily based on the fact that the baby boomers are starting to retire, and so there are currently fewer workers available to subsidize the larger number of retirees. In the past, we’ve had more younger people working relative to the number of older, retired people. Too bad they didn’t save that excess money (or prevent it from being stolen for other programs) for the future when the demographics would change, as they knew they would….

There was also considerable pressure brought to bear on the hospital board by these people. The one Rezko was “fixing” and the one BO was on, while MO was at the hospital. 300k is a lot of kick back. Someone else made 4 times or more

BO’s answer to health care is just what happen to the Wonfords when they but their house up for sale. They got jammed big-time. Michelle was there to put a “AA” face the on dumping. The thing I have not figured is who profited by dumping them at community hospitals.

Lorac how many straws does it take?

k-12?
No not in my schools district. There are teachers out there that get it but it is not an easy task for them. The “teach to the test” crap is killing any developement of this skill.

It was a required course in my high school days. No more.

I agree, Lily. Everyone in the country should have access to the same kind of care and money shouldn’t be a consideration. No one knows what is in this bill. It was written by congressional aides, different parts by different people.

What I believe is happening here, there were some agendas from the contributers, some good and some bad, but they have made compromises and changes in order to pass the bill. I went to Senate.gov, spent two hours reading and didn’t even get through the Table of Contents. I can’t remember the last time I read a good book that was more than 1,000 pages long.

There is a lot of waste and some of it is due to the lack of a data base, but a national data base might compromise private information. There is waste in hospitals. For example, when my mother was in the hospital the last time for surgery, they changed her room while she was in the OR and ordered new supplies for the new room. That may be a requirement by OSHA, but a special matress costing more than $150 was ordered twice in two days.

There weren’t enough nurses and when one disconnected the IV needle from the line, she failed to shut off the valve and Mother was bleeding from the needle. She called for a nurse, but no one came. She was weak from the surgery, but finally managed to shut it off herself.

Hospitals double bill often ( it probably isn’t deliberate ) and insurance companies won’t pay if they catch it and patients get into endless battles with hospitals over the bills.

Something needs to change, but like many people, I don’t trust Obama or congress enough to believe they have the solutions with this bill. It’s interesting that one of the most liberal members of the House, Dennis Kuchinich, opposes this bill. He claims it is not a mandate and will leave over 17mil not covered. I don’t think Obama knows enough about the basics of the bill to push for it’s passage and it’s nothing more than a pitch for his ego.

He wants to deprive seniors—especially white women who live the longest—of quality of life and sense of security, and get rid of them so he can fund 10-12 million illegal aliens who he hopes will vote for him. Cut Medicare payments that are already too low, and drive more doctors out of business, and more will refuse to accept Medicare — many are already refusing. Vicious negative circle that will get worse and worse.

when i hear about 46 million uninsured AMERICANS, I go ballistic. 10-12 million are illegal aliens who are already bankrupting california with their drain on health, education, welfare, prison system, etc.These health care “reform” bills dont reform anything. They propose to insure illegals on the backs of American seniors and deprive seniors of what they have earned. The MSM say not a word about this (except morris said it to oreilly tonight — only mention i have seen). Where is the AARP? NOWHERE!

That is the information that needs to be out there, and that’s part of why he wants to ram a bill thru before people see this travesty and explode.

Your last question is easy to answer – the Chicago University hospital benefited.

By dumping poor, Medicaid (which has crappy reimbursement), and uninsured patients on other hospitals, U of C kept all their beds for patients with money and/or private insurance. It’s much more lucrative for a hospital to have high-paying patients in those beds than patients for whom they will have to eat all or some of the cost.

This is one of several very troubling aspects of the bill I have come across and I believe it will permit hospitals to deny emergency care until they can verify insurance coverage and even refuse care if they have no insurance.

SEC. 1173A. STANDARDIZE ELECTRONIC ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS.
Paragraph 2
`(D) enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card;

According to the CIA Factbook, UK is 79.01 average life expectancy. It is number 36 in a list of over 200 countries. The US is number 50 with average life expectancy 78.11. Canada is number 8 at 81.23 years.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html

WCMB, not only will the docs walk, the nurses are walking already. The shortage of nurses has been on a critical path for a while now. It’s a proven fact that bedside nursing care improves patient outcomes. Without us, who will carry out the orders from docs, provide the treatments, monitor the vital signs, comfort the patients and teach the families? I’ve been shouting nursing shortage for awhile now but if this plan passes you will see the exodus accelerate.

The AARP are in bed with this administrations plan for the demise of our country and our lives.

Amen

lmao! perfect

Wonder if that wasn’t just a set up for Obama to bring up how Latinos and blacks are victimized? Do not know how it really went but the Harvard professor should have been grateful they were watchful. Wonder if this Harvard professor had anything to do with hiding the one who isn’t really grades?

How stupid of Obama to even bring the incident up. But it goes along with his dividing speech given at the NAACP meeting. There too he had his wedge out, placing it squarely for division. Like the Arabs saying to catch slaves. “Divide and conquer.” Guess it worked in Africa. Blacks took other blacks and sold them to the Arabs.

He wants us to be a divided country. Push back everyone of us. He is a user who will discard everyone who is his helper, once his goal is achieved.

By the way, what does a persons bank account information have to do with Health Care? Also, wasn’t our country founded on “all men our equal?” Then why not equal health treatment? Guess that didn’t mean women of a certain age.

OBAMA: They’re going to have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier. And I — speaking as an American, I think that’s the kind of change you want

***

Of course, that means HE can continue to smoke ’cause he’s (and Congress) got ‘excellent’ health care coverage. He can also fly back and forth to far-away cities/countries and dine on gourmet food and wine….

The one who never was has upgraded his pay from 5 cents a post to about $ 11 and hour for his paid “grassroots” movement to shove this down our throats. The first post by his creature looked like a cut and paste job. Canned ham, sorta like the over pri bought for twice as much as Food Lion sells it for. Over priced rhetoric. Do we need to wonder who is paying for this “grassroots” spendathon?

(or prevent it from being stolen for other programs)

***

…like medicaid. Keep on supporting the unwed welfare queens who keep having babies in order to keep drawing money from the government (us tax payers) so they won’t have to work. Also, the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who expect us to support their anchor babies; lazy American men/women who just don’t want to work PERIOD and ‘claim’ they’re ‘not able to work’….the list goes on and on.

You are so right. The Medicare trust fund is separate from any health insurance that you buy either individually or get with an employer. They want to roll it all together.

This is one of several very troubling aspects of the bill I have come across and I believe it will permit hospitals to deny emergency care until they can verify insurance coverage and even refuse care if they have no insurance.

***

Unless, of course, this involves an illegal immigrant. They get free healthcare as it is and the gov’t is surely NOT going to ask for their legal status – THAT is reserved ONLY for legal, American CITIZENS! If you’re an AMERICAN CITZEN and have no insurance, then you’re out the door; it’s UNLAWFUL to ‘discriminate’ or ‘profile’ against those of different colors/languages/nationalities. What a JOKE, and the American tax payers in this country ALLOW this to happen!

Here are some things in the bill: Please read, this is not all about money this is about CONTROL. “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything away from you.”

Repost from 2009-07-22 07:48:15

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/

Seniors are especially affected by this bill, and so I am begging all you seniors and children of senior parents and those who will be seniors in the near future to take time to read this list below. It is written in Twitter language but I think all can “get” the gist.”

Following the mad recommendations of Peter Singer made in NYT’s Sunday magazine, it pays to take a look at what is actually in the healthcare bill.

It’s worse than you can possibly imagine. Somehow, it manages to be Singer on steroids. Who wrote this bill. It has Singer’s footprints all over it.

Peter Fleckstein (aka Fleckman) is reading it and has been posting on Twitter his findings. This is from his postings (Note: All comments are Fleckman’s)

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill – THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benes u get

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill – YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!!

Pg 42 of HC Bill – The Health Choices Commissioner will choose UR HC Benefits 4 you. U have no choice!

PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill – HC will be provided 2 ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise

Pg 58HC Bill – Govt will have real-time access 2 individuals’ finances & a National ID Healthcard will be issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Govt will have direct access 2 ur banks accts 4 elect. funds transfer

PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan 4 retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating an HC Exchange 2 bring priv HC plans under Govt control.

PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill – Govt mandates ALL benefit pkgs 4 priv. HC plans in the Exchange

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt will ration ur Healthcare!

PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill – Govt mandates linguistic approp svcs. Example – Translation 4 illegal aliens

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps 2 sign up indiv. for Govt HC plan

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members – U Health care WILL b rationed

-PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill – Medicaid Eligible Indiv. will b automat.enrolled in Medicaid. No choice

pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Govt Monop

pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill – Doctors/ #AMA – The Govt will tell YOU what u can make.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into pub opt plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay 4 HC 4 part time employees AND their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Emplyr w payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesnt prov. pub. opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesnt have acceptable HC accrdng 2 Govt will be taxed 2.5% of inc

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from indiv. taxes. (Americans will pay)

Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access 2 ALL Americans finan/pers recs

PG 203 Line 14-15 HC – “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that

Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Govt will reduce physician svcs 4 Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected

Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill – Doctors, doesnt matter what specialty u have, you’ll all be paid the same

PG 253 Line 10-18 Govt sets value of Dr’s time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.

PG 265 Sec 1131Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries

PG 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs

PG 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer patients – welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151 The Govt will penalize hospitals 4 what Govt deems preventable readmissions.

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Drs, treat a patient during initial admiss that results in a readmiss-Govt will penalize u.

Pg 317 L 13-20 OMG!! PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Drs. what/how much they can own.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have oppt to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can u say ACORN?!!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 – Govt mandates estab. of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Govt has authority 2 disqual Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing peeps in2 Govt plan

Pg 354 Sec 1177 – Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs ppl! WTF. My sis has down syndrome!!

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy – Telehealth Advisory Cmtte. Can u say HC by phone?

PG 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of atty. Mandatory!

PG 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Govt provides apprvd list of end of life resources, guiding u in death

PG 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program 4 orders 4 end of life. The Govt has a say in how ur life ends

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An “adv. care planning consult” will b used frequently as patients health deteriorates

PG 429 Lines 10-12 “adv. care consultation” may incl an ORDER 4 end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOV

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 – The govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Govt will decide what level of treatment u will have at end of life

Pg 469 – Community Based Home Medical Services=Non profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Svcs here!!?

Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment 2 a community-based org. Like ACORN?

PG 489 Sec 1308 The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which means they will insert Govt in2 ur marriage

Pg 494-498 Govt will cover Mental Health Svcs including defining, creating, rationing those svcs

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—everytime the Boy Wonder speaks he weakens the nation.

Let Chairman Maobama sign on for the exact healthcare coverage he’s trying to shove down America’s throat. That’s change even I could believe in!

Perhaps if Congress and the White House decided to kill just one of their mega-expensive ‘gotta have’ programs, Social Security and Medicare might benefit from the ‘saved’ money from those wasteful projects, thus ensuring their survival for quite a long time in the future.
Got to give Congress credit for killing the F22 program. It’s a step in the right direction, and about the only thing they’ve done that’s right.
This press conference made me realize that Obama is beginning to be looked at like a fool. He’s becoming downright funny in trying to be so grown up. It’s dawning on people around the country that he’s not up to the job.

And the most galling is that doctors pay so much in malpractice insurance!
A physician making $400,000 possibly pays a fourth of that in malpractice, but nobody thinks about that when they’re pointing fingers at doctors. Even if a doctor is not at fault, he or she still needs to hire a lawyer to answer any lawsuits.

People who think doctors are overpaid are seriously uninformed.

In Texas, the gangbangers are FROM Mexico…and the demographic group with higher rates of pregnancies ARE those from Mexico…

Anoush, if you get your head out of your arse, you might actually hear what a con artist your guy is.

Guess he tucked tail and ran. He’s not familiar with debating actual facts.

I think we all know the answers to those questions.
*sigh*

Regarding the Red pill vs Blue pill metaphor:

“When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question “what is the Matrix?” (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo “Remember, all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”

http://www.arrod.co.uk/essays/matrix.php

I guess Obama has taken his “The One” moniker to heart.

So the govt. will have access to our personal financial records in addition to our health records.

Are we scared yet?

Quite frankly it’s the Wall Street types who are flushing this country down the drain. This country was built on immigrants’ backs.

You don’t know what you’re talking about. Procedures are not – as you try to say – being selected “solely based on a profit motivated basis”. You’re obviously not familiar with medicine or you wouldn’t make ignorant statements like that.

My mother and my aunt live in the UK. They are 86 and 87 years old. My aunt has significant health problems, every single one of which has been treated by the NHS. No quibbling, no arguments.

Health care is rationed here too, but by health insurance companies whose goal is to increase their profits.

I think “bending the curve downward” means they are going to ensure the number of people on medicare will be less. In othewords, the elderly will be allowed to die sooner that they are now because care will be withheld. I saw a blogger on another blog state yesterday that the buzz at the White House is “the Reaper is Cheaper.”

The fact that they are more worried about illegals here in the US than the elderly who for the most part have paid taxes and contrubuted to our society is an act of treason, as far as I am concerned.

The idea that personal medical records would be accessible beyond the physician’s office really set O’Reilly off. Hopefully, this will get some traction.

It will be no time at all before those records are breached. Hell, even presidential candidates’ passport records were spied upon.

No doubt about this either. Nurses have just recently begun (in the last 10-15 years) to make a decent salary for their very demanding work. There is no chance those salaries will maintain their current level or keep pace with the cost of living if the squeeze on health care comes. The nurses always get squeezed in a budget crunch.

The other thing is that primary care physicians will be a thing of the past. Physicians don’t have a lot of tolerance for lower pay and worse working conditions. Meet your new nurse practitioner who will be meeting all of your primary health care needs at a fraction of the cost. Nurse practitioners do excellent work, but the choice of your health care provider, and the long-term relationship you may have built, will be a thing of the past if this goes through.

While recovering from a difficult fight with cancer, on January 3, 2005, the same day he left Congress, Tauzin began work as the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, a powerful trade group for pharmaceutical companies.

It was reported that they had offered more than $2.5 million per year for his services, outbidding the Motion Picture Association of America, which had offered Tauzin $1 million to lobby for it.[1]

Two months earlier, Tauzin had played a key role in shepherding the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill through Congress, which had been criticized by opponents for being too generous to the pharmaceutical industry.

This link was explored at great length in an April 1, 2007 interview by Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes. The report, Under the Influence, pitted Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) and Rep. Dan Burton against Tauzin and accused him of using unethical tactics to push a bill that “the pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote”. Their claim is supported by CSPAN video, the fact that it was the longest roll call in the history of the House of Representatives, and the 3 a.m. voting time. Along with Tauzin, many of the other individuals who worked on the bill are now lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry. Michael Moore’s 2007 film Sicko levied similar criticism.

Tauzin now is on the Board of Directors at Louisiana Healthcare Group.

See list elsewhere on this page showing that Tauzin has visited the WH on many occasions in the last few months. So much for no lobbyist involvement in this government.

I think they are all afraid of being called racists. I agree with you completely. Obama is an empty vessel…..gaffes….austrian language, memorial day, 57 states, etc….it aggravates me to remember all of them…..He is a fraud and is doing irriversable damage to our country.

And that brings up another question. (It is not) but for argument if health care is a RIGHT, then as we all know our RIGHTS under the constitution come to us from God, and are inalienable so how can the government take them away, or for that matter give them to us?
They need to walk very softly around that discussion or they will hang themselves with it.

They will be hearing from me. My husband is on disability so we joined a couple of years ago. We use their medicare part D prescription drug coverage. The need to be inundated by seniors dropping their memberships as AARP even more than before is blatently NOT looking out for seniors in this or as with the AMA, jumpped in before reading what is in the house bill. Doctors are leaving the AMA in droves but they dont care because the gov is going to give them larger doctor payments in exchange for their endorcement.

I am with you scout, 100% (my Dad is a pediatrician as well so I know exactly what you are saying).

I found his comment last night outrageous. He was telling moms to second guess their pediatrician. It was a low blow and politically calculated to rally women for his health care plan by
emotionally asking them to site with him b/c their child doctor is more interested in $ while he, Obama, is on his child. It made me vomit. It was despicable.

And so it was saying on national TV that while he didn’t know the facts of the case the police in MA acted “stupidly” : even if they did you do not use this kind of fowl language as POTUS on TV; again is second guessing the police on National TV; as POTUS he should be much more careful not to be instigating by
pitting people against the police.

Obama HAS NO CLUE. I find him to be incredibly aggressive: he’s always insulting others. They say, that in life there are two was to elevate yourself: through hard work and your own achievements or by outting everyone else down. Obama is the typical example of the latter. Disgraceful.

I am with you scout, 100% (my Dad is a pediatrician as well so I know exactly what you are saying).

I found his comment last night outrageous. He was telling moms to second guess their pediatrician. It was a low blow and politically calculated to rally women for his health care plan by
emotionally asking them to site with him b/c their child doctor is more interested in $ while he, Obama, is on his child. It made me vomit. It was despicable.

And so it was saying on national TV that while he didn’t know the facts of the case the police in MA acted “stupidly” : even if they did you do not use this kind of fowl language as POTUS on TV; again is second guessing the police on National TV; as POTUS he should be much more careful not to be instigating by
pitting people against the police.

Obama HAS NO CLUE. I find him to be incredibly aggressive: he’s always insulting others. They say, that in life there are two was to elevate yourself: through hard work and your own achievements or by putting everyone else down. Obama is the typical example of the latter. Disgraceful.

health care is a personal issue and an art, not a science

Lark, you get something almost everybody including a lot of doctors overlook. It isn’t just knowledge, but applying that knowledge and transferring that knowledge to patients is more of a learned art. Some of the most functionally ignorant people I will ever know in my life graduated ahead of me. O.K. I was like 16th. But some of these people you could ask what is the first word on page 100 of grays anatomy and they could tell you because they could see the page in their mind. These guys more often than not made the worst doctors, because you need to be able to relate to people to be a doctor. Part of our folly is in forgetting that and in accepting people for training that simply do the best in paper tests as opposed to critical logical thinking and interpersonal skills.

Take note:

This new education is what you get with a government run program…No Child Left Behind.

Yup. There is already a bad nursing shortage, and an even bigger shortage of GOOD nurses.

When I was hubby’s office nurse, and we had a brand new resident doc come in, he asked the Mr. if he had any advice for long-term success with a practice. Hubby answered “Get yourself the best damn nurses you can find, and treat and pay them well. A good nurse will make or break your practice, and save your ass on the hospital floor.”

Obama slipped a few times and let the truth. He said, ‘people will continue to get treatments’-”just not the expensive ones.” The last phrase is an exact quote. Made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
Anyone remember Ted Kennedy’s much touted HMO system? Health Maintenance Organizations-now called Managed Care. Go to your primary doctor, doctor calls insurer’s gatekeeper(who makes the decision whether to give approval for a specialist referral), go to the specialist & wait while the specialist calls the same gatekeeper for approval of recommended tests. After tests, said gatekeeper must be contacted again for approval of recommended procedure/surgery, the approved facility to be used and when procedure/surgery will take place. It is a nightmare!
Obama’s plan (which he has not read) smells like the same convoluted system. The poor and the elderly will be forced into the “public option” and therefore on the bottom of the healthcare list, along with those who have chronic and terminal illnesses. Didn’t he promise to help these people get equal access to quality, state-of-the-art care??
Go to the nearest county or public healthcare clinic and see the future of federally built & funded, federally mandated, “state-of-the-art” clinics.

Well of course. Obama doesn’t understand what’s in the various bills being put forward and what he does understand, he knows won’t be popular.

Can you imagine him saying “Yes, this program is paid for out of federal tax income. But you will still need to pay premiums and if you choose not to buy insurance because you still think it’s too expensive, then we will make you pay a fee each year. No, illegal aliens aren’t required to pay that fee if they choose not to get insurance. Nor are we going to do anything about them getting paid under the table so we can’t collect income tax from them either. We will delete that fee from your yearly income tax return or from your bank account based on information that you are required to give us in order to even apply for government sponsored health insurance. Which is great because then if you don’t pay your child support or get behind on your student loans, we can give that bank information to those other groups so they can get their money. And yes, there will be more wait times. Especially for rural areas. I mean think about it. If you increase the number of patients 25% with the same number of doctors and nurses and clinics, it only makes sense that you will have to wait that much longer to see the same doctor since he’s seeing more people overall. But don’t worry about it. If you like your insurance now, you can keep it up to 5 years as long as the insurer doesn’t change anything about the policy such as the deductible or co-pay or terms of coverage. If they do, luckily, the government has evaluated various plans and we will let you know which ones are acceptable. And that rule about businesses not having to provide insurance as long as there is less than 25 employees? Well, that’s ok, because we can force those individual employees onto the government option or force them to pay a penalty. And for businesses with 25 employees or more? We plan to charge a percentage of their total salary if they don’t offer insurance. But we’re still excited if they don’t offer insurance. Because then we can we collect that fee from the business along with business taxes and income taxes and premiums from the individual employees while we force them onto one of our chosen plans. At least we have electronic medical records with a big computer holding all the information here in DC. So if you live in NY but travel to SC and have a minor accident and need stiches for a gash on your arm, your doctor can pull up the records. No need for that pesky long intake process. And if he sees you got breast implants last year and had alcohol poisoning when you were 20 years old, well, that’s acceptable because full access to any and all history is required. It saves us money too – someone could pass out in the grocery store and when they get to the hospital still unconsious, the nurse just pulls out the mandatory card they are required to carry out of the wallet and pull up the history and see that while the person looks younger, they’re really 70 years old and have a history of diabetes and had a hip replacement 5 years ago. Well we need to know that history so we don’t do excessive tests or procedures that aren’t cost effective. We need to make the best decision for what treatment the medical team should give you based on government studies of longevity, cost analysis, and so on. We’re saving money!!”

Medicare is a benefit that people PAY FOR their entire working lives. It is guaranteed to ALWAYS be free of charge to seniors. This is just like the binding contracts of dealerships, bond holders etc., that the Obama administration thinks they can just throw out the window.
It is all illegal, and I wish some lawyers, the ACLU, or someone would start calling them on it.

You are referring to the Medicare Advantage plans-not the traditonal Medicare plan. You can choose a Medicare Advantage Plan or traditional Medicare.
Having personally tried both, I’ve found the original Medicare to be less of an obstacle to treatment since many doctors won’t accept direct payment from the Advantage Plans-you pay up front and fight with the insurer for reimbursement. I’ve also found since Wal-Mart and Target (and Publix in Fl.) began offering $4 prescriptions, more and more pharmacies are offering dicount cards and competitive pricing.

the administration has already targeted seniors. they wont be getting a cost of living increase for the next 1-4 years. when i wrote to harry reid (who is my senator)he replied with obamaspeak babble about the gdp numbers and since the cost of living hasnt increased(???) seniors dont need an increase in income. what planet does he live on?

The answer to the question of whether he would take the “public option” himself was priceless – “I am the President, and I have the best coverage in the world”. Excuse me but what does that have to do with whether you would take what we are being force-fed?? Talk about clueless…and GLOATING. Thank you Carmen, I have been paying into Medicare for too many years and now we will be rationed, just when I can start claiming my fair share! Hitler had the Jews, Obama has the Seniors….let ‘em die. Thanks a lot – for nothing!

One thing I remember from the stories on MO’s job at the hospital, and it stuck in my mind, was that the hospital, a not-for-profit hospital, made $100 million that year. I did wonder why a hospital that is supposed to be “not-for-profit” would make a profit that would gladden the heart of any corporation. And they claimed they couldn’t afford to treat the poor who came looking for help. Sure, might have cut into that enormous profit margin!

The head of AARP had been in bed with Bush. He had written the forward to newt gingrich’s stupid book. The organization was co-opted by the right wing ala kkkarl rove types. We have no one to stand up for us. Obama…bush redux…only worse.

we have all been skinned.and barbecued.

octomom comes to mind.lol.

tzada, thank you for the info. It’s very helpful and a time saver.

“political cartels”?

Where did Obama’s passport info go in that breach? Or was the breach done in order to hide Obama’s travels and his indonesian passport?

Just sayin’

Barry can’t get it over the plate.

As proved by last weeks pitch at the Allstar Game.

Seniors and the disabled will be the big losers when it comes to Obamacare.

Democracies like Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and Great Britain have universal health. They also have lower infant mortality rates than the U.S.

It’s true but it’s very important to investigate how numbers are compiled. In the US, I believe a baby born under 20 cm in length, approximately 2.2 lbs is considered a live birth even if the baby dies shortly thereafter. In some European countries, a baby born meeting that same criteria is classified as stillborn. America counts any low weight baby (per above criteria) born alive as alive. Approximately 30% of those babies ultimately pass away. Other countries code them as stillborns so “technically” they don’t show as infant mortalities since they weren’t ever counted as alive. So see how the infant mortality rate is skewered depending on how the death is or isn’t recognized?

I just feel it’s important to not generalize that because another country or even the US has a higher number in regards to something positive, that’s it’s because of a wonderful medical system. Of course, it’s a contributing factor but the numbers still need to be researched to find out if “funny” math is being used.

FROM SOYLENT GREEN:

Gilbert before he kills Simonson:
Uh… they told me to uh- to say that they were sorry, but that you had become… unreliable.

Gilbert: You know, I won’t understand them if I live to be a hundred.
State Security Chief Donovan: You won’t.

Obamacare is just another version of Soylent Green.

Obama is long on rhetoric, short on specifics, cowardly on taking any responsibility for job losses, greedy for praise, which he heaps on himself, insulting to doctors and police officers, inaccurate on who will actually be paying for this disastrous takeover of health care, in short – a phony and a liar is at the helm as we head into the storm.

The police report on the Henry Gates:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html

Maybe Obama should have read it before commenting.
Better yet, he should have just not commented at all.

correction: The police report on the arrest of Henry Gates

You know when your news conference sucked..

The next day folks are talking Treason for deception and putting our country in peril.

Yeah, I’ll speak with your mama outside!

ROTFLMAO!! Capping on a cop’s mother. That almost reaches the level of a Darwin Award.

I have been saying that an attack on Sarah is an attack on me..

I guess I’m not alone..

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/hating_sarah_palin_and_us.html

That line stuck out to me, too. But Obama either didn’t know about it or didn’t find it objectionable.
The fact that he commented on it at all still shocks me.
Another baffling Obama statement- “Victory not necessarily the goal in Afghanistan…”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/23/obama-victory-necessarily-goal-afghanistan/

Then why are we there? I’m hearing that refrain from the Viet Nam era: And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?

Excellent article in American Thinker, Seattle Moss, particularly the distinction made between “a real player” and “a real person.” Sarah Palin is definitely a real person. Peggy Noonan and Maureen Dowd, etc. are real bores. I say: Go, Sarah!

Now the cop is thinking of suing? I think this revelation turns this whole dynamic on it’s head. To me this never had a whit to do with race, it is about private property and individual rights… period. But this story gives some pause to the any tangential theories. This makes me wonder honestly, is there a such thing as a reverse race card?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=8163051&page=1

OT:
a 1500 year old Native American mound is in the process of being destroyed to provide fill for a Sam’s club warehouse.
http://www.reznetnews.org/article/goodbye-indian-mounds-hello-sam-s-club-36320

If one has anything to say about the destruction of this irreplaceable, ancient, cultural artifact:
SAM’S CLUB
608 SW 8th St.
Bentonville, AR 72712-6097 (Map)
Phone: 479-277-7000
Toll Free: 888-746-7726

WAL-MART is the parent company of Sam’s Club:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611
479-273-4000

“The city’s CDA” [Oxford Alabama's Commerical Development Authority] “uses taxpayer money and assets to lure commercial businesses. The $2.6 million no-bid CDA contract for preparing the Sam’s site went to Oxford-based Taylor Corp. That money came from the sale of city property to Georgia-based developers Abernathy and Timberlake and from additional money provided by the city.

In Alabama, CDAs are exempt from bid laws, meaning contracts can go to whichever company the board chooses. Oxford’s CDA board and its actions have multiple connections to Smith’s” [Oxford's mayor] “political fundraising…”

http://www.annistonstar.com/pages/home_poll/push?article-The+Silent+Partner-+Oxford+mayor+has+financial+ties+to+Commercial+Development+Authority+activities%20&id=2658111&instance=1st_left