The New Improved More Positive Obama Presidency Thread
Comments
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P.S.: Snow, Collins and Specter are moderate Republicans. None of the others voted for it.
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Amy, that indeed is a very, very sad story. Too many people living in her conditions. It could happen to me, you or anybody. However, have any of you read this? I hope if this is passed that this lady is allowed to live.
Please don't accuse me of being a naysayer when I post this. Also, don't tell people to ignore me. Let them read this without feeling guilty that I have posted it. This is fact and you and everyone on this board should be highly upset. I heard about this this morning on Fox. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But, here it is in case some of you haven't been over to read about it on the other thread posted by one of the other ladies.
Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey
Commentary by Betsy McCaughey
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama's stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.
Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.
Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).
The bill's health rules will affect "every individual in the United States" (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and "guide" your doctor's decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and "learn to operate less like solo practitioners."
Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.
New Penalties
Hospitals and doctors that are not "meaningful users" of the new system will face penalties. "Meaningful user" isn't defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose "more stringent measures of meaningful use over time" (511, 518, 540-541)
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the "tough" decisions elected politicians won't make.
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle's book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept "hopeless diagnoses" and "forgo experimental treatments," and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform "will not be pain free." Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).
The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle's book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.
In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.
Hidden Provisions
If the Obama administration's economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration's health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. "If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it," he said. "The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol."
More Scrutiny Needed
On Friday, President Obama called it "inexcusable and irresponsible" for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny.
The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.
(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at Betsymross@aol.com
Last Updated: February 9, 2009 00:01 EST -
Stimulus plan would offer substantial health care benefits to jobless 03:56 PM CST on Monday, February 2, 2009Associated PressEDITOR'S NOTE - This AP analysis is part of a series of stories examining how the economic stimulus plan will affect Americans
WASHINGTON - It will get vastly cheaper for most people to keep health insurance after losing a job if the government's stimulus plan becomes law. Some nickel and dime cuts in health coverage for the poor will be reversed, too. Geek jobs in medicine will grow.
The billions to be poured into health care from the economic stimulus package will do little if anything about the chronic conditions behind the nation's stubbornly large ranks of uninsured.
Instead the plan is a temporary lifeline, hasty measures for nearly desperate times.
Jobs aren't the central point of the package sought by President Barack Obama, passed by the House and steered to the Senate.
The point is to cushion the blow from losing one.
For those who qualify, relief would be substantial.
Under a dramatic, temporary expansion of COBRA, the law that lets the unemployed keep health insurance from their old job for up to 18 months if they pay for it in full, costs would drop by about two-thirds for a year.
Moreover, people who lose a job they've had for 10 years could stay on COBRA at their expense all the way to age 65, when Medicare takes over, if they don't get another job with insurance first. People 55 and over could do the same without meeting the 10-year requirement.
It's so expensive for people to extend that insurance now that many don't do it. It can quickly eat up a majority of unemployment benefits.
That's just one of the steps to maintain health access in the worst economic conditions Americans have lived through in generations. And that's the key - maintenance more than advancement.
People who lose jobs at businesses that employ fewer than 20 people don't qualify for COBRA. For them, the government would bring many more jobless people under Medicaid's wing. The feds would pay for this, plus give states much more money to run cost-shared part of the program.
In return, states taking the extra money would have to back down on some of the cuts they've made to the program recently.
Altogether it's a pricey lifeline: $40 billion to subsidize health insurance for the unemployed and more than twice that to support Medicaid.
Budget hawks, whose voices are practically lost in the wind these days, wonder whether the relief really will be temporary. They know it's politically tough for the government to take something back once people get a taste of it.
Witness the expiring tax cuts that former President George W. Bush won from Congress. Obama promised to continue most of those cuts while raising taxes back up on the rich. But with the recession so deep, it's less likely he'll seek to raise those tax rates after all.
The recovery plan also sets aside $20 billion for medical record-keeping, a sum likely to grow jobs in information technology.
Four in five doctors still rely on old-fashioned paper files. Digital records are bound to cut administrative costs and improve care by making it easy to share patient information. But conversion is a huge task, for which Obama wants to spend $50 billion over five years.
The economic recovery plan isn't the only game in town when it comes to health care, although it's the most expensive. The Senate has voted to extend government-sponsored health insurance to about 4 million of the estimated 9 million uninsured children. The House acts on that next.
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Wow she found us.
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I may not like some of the things President Obama is doing but I think this health care part is the right thing to do. We'll send $15 billion to Africa (which I'm not against) but do little for our own people. Kudos!
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I think re: the healthcare part of the stimulus plan, everyone needs to take a deep breath, and not act like chicken little.
Sen. Specter Responds to Health Care Scare in Stimulus Bill
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
By Susan Jones, Senior Editor(CNSNews.com) - "We are not going to let the federal government monitor what doctors do," Sen. Arlen Specter told Fox News on Tuesday.
Specter, one of only three Republicans to support the Democrats' stimulus/spending bill, was responding to growing concerns over health care provisions buried deep in the bill.
One provision creates a National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, "designed to monitor your treatments, to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective," as a commentary on the Bloomberg news wire reported on Monday.
Specter told Fox News, "If Bloomberg has pointed out a potential problem...there will be clarification to avoid having the government meddle in what doctors do."
The Senate bill provides $3 billion to computerize health records to cut costs and reduce medical errors. It also allots $1.1 billion to various federal health agencies "to evaluate the relative effectiveness of different health care services and treatment options," the bill's summary says.
Specter said the provision was intended to "provide technology" - to computerize the health records of all Americans. He said the government should not be in the business of making decisions on patients' treatment.
Specter said one of the "big problems" with the stimulus bill is, "Why the rush? Why are we wedded to [a Feb. 13 deadline for passage]?" Specter noted that Congress never held hearings on the bill, and that has created problems.
"This is one of a number of provisions that has popped up that we have to revise and be very careful about," he said.
Specter said he has protested the rush to judgment, but "the only answer we get is that the situation is so dire, such an emergency, we have to act." Specter, asked if he would now put a stop to the bill or at least slow it down, indicated that he would not.
"Listen, this legislation is a bitter pill to swallow. But we are facing a situation where the current economic problems could turn into another depression like 1929." He said he would not change his "yes" vote.
"We will get this provision clarified. I've made a commitment, and I'm not going to go back on my word and on a commitment. But when we find problems of this potential, we can cure them without upsetting the whole apple cart."
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) told Fox News that the stimulus bill is about jobs. "If - that's a big if - if there's language in there that says the government's going to make my health care decisions, we'll get it out. I don't believe that," he said.
"I think that the consumer is pretty well protected. I think what this is meant to do is move us into the 21st Century for health care records," Tester continued.
"If it's in there, it's a bad idea. But the fact is if that can be fixed, it will be fixed, if it's in there, it will be changed and made better and made workable - and then, the bottom line is, to put people back to work."
Tester and Specter spoke to Fox News on Tuesday morning, just a few hours before the Senate was scheduled to vote on the massive spending bill, presumably passing it and sending it to a House-Senate conference committee.
The Bloomberg commentary by Betsy McCaughey reported that the controversial health care provisions "reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle," who was supposed to be President Obama's secretary of health and human services until tax problems derailed his nomination. -
Aloha Shirley - How was your trip to Hawaii? What island were you on?
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Hoping - I always thought Lucy was a bit of a bitch...lol..love the pic and I so agree:
I think re: the healthcare part of the stimulus plan, everyone needs to take a deep breath, and not act like chicken little.
Unique - I believe Obama's foreclosure plan, what he considers the third leg of his recovery plan will be out in a couple weeks.
Amy - I too am so happy that Henrietta got some help, thank goodness there are wonderful people out there that don't just see her as someone who has been on the dole for years.
My son, twenty, employed and a student was very impressed with PBO's town halls. He told me that he thinks PBO is going to be a great leader. woooooooooooooohooooooooooooo.
Backgrounder: he registered Republican and changed from McCain to Obama after the first debate. He is such a good kid! -
Before I sign off for the night, just wanted to add:
WooooooooooooooooooooooHooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!
Laura--glad your son saw the light : )
With everything Obama is facing now, I am reminded of the Rudyard Kipling poem, "If" -- especially the first two stanzas:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;......... -
Laura, my trip was very nice. Please take a "trip" via my video with me and meet some wonderful people from Hawaii. Makua Beach was lovely...Shirley
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Aloha Obama ladies.
As Traci once said. Keep it positive or keep it moving....
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO change is here and it sure feels good.
Achi
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Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooo our rallying cry.
I love how we're all keeping together and ignoring negativity!
Hoping- I never knew that poem was by Kipling. I've always loved it.
laura- I'm so glad your son saw the light, but knowing where he came from, I'm not surprised, he comes from good stock.
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Michael Steele: GOP could be out of power until 2020
"After George W Bush was elected we became the party of big government," said Mr Steele.
"It's anathema to grow government by 40 per cent, as we have, and to grow a $10 trillion deficit, as we have. No wonder people look at us cockeyed now when we talk about lower taxes and small government."
http://www.mofopolitics.com/2008/10/29/michael-steele-gop-could-be-out-of-power-until-2020/.................
i am sure mr. steele has changed his tune a bit since his october statements.
but he pretty much nailed it.
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Amy - the case of Binyam Mohamed is moving forward regardless of the denial that it even exists. Yesterday, U.K.Judges agreed to reopen the case next month in regards to disclosure of the "alleged" torture evidence..
Yesterday, Air Force Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley, representing Binyam Mohamed, met with several lawmakers in London. Although Mohamed's release will ultimately be determined by his American captors, Bradley says Britain has the power to put more pressure on Obama.
Well the pressure came today in the U.K. papers - Binyam Mohamed torture evidence 'hidden from Obama'
Letter to president about Binyam Mohamed was blanked out, say campaigners as they prepare for Guantánamo prisoner's release to UK
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/02/11/CSSlettertoObama.pdf
In his letter, Stafford Smith tells Obama he should be aware of the "bizarre reality" of the situation. "You, as commander in chief, are being denied access to material that would help prove that crimes have been committed by US personnel. This decision is being made by the very people who you command." The letter and its blanked-out attachment were disclosed as two high court judges yesterday agreed to reopen the court case.US-appointed military lawyer, Lieutenant Colonel Yvonne Bradley said; ''Sooner or later, all those things that were done in the dark corners of Morocco and Pakistan are going to come out into the light. It's better to get this out in the open and just deal with rather than dragging it out. It's obvious people were tortured. It's obvious individuals were rendered.What's unique about his case is the extent he was tortured and that the facts have been corroborated,''
Mohamed says that before he arrived at Guantánamo in 2004, the United States sent him to Morocco, where he was brutally tortured and interrogated. He says British intelligence officials interrogated him in Pakistan when he was arrested and that the British government knew about his ''extraordinary rendition'' to Morocco.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon would not say whether Mohamed was sent to Morocco. Nor would he say say when Mohamed was taken into U.S. custody. The CIA also declined to comment on Tuesday.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/v-print/story/897177.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/11/binyam-mohamed-release-torture-letter/print
stay tuned................................
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Aloha Obama Ladies:
If you recall, I mentioned that I have 4 kids. Two girls and 2 boys, Two are already in college and 2 are finishing high school. They all have started by going to a Junior college first and work hard to pay for their tuiton along with what I can give them. My mother lives with me, I take care of her, but I have to admit this past year during treatment she ended up taking care of me.I have one granddaughter. We have an extended family and we all work together. Did I say the picture I posted was my daughter? My picture represents the hope, love, and courage for all of us who know Obama is the best thing that has ever happened to this country. The oranges have a magical message.
I'm just a working mom who has worked hard all of her life. I live in a lower middle class neighborhood just struggling to survive and make things better for my family. Have I experienced racism? You betcha, all of my life. I look at life as my cup being half full not half empty and I'm thankful for everything that I have. Don't need those 11 million dollar bonuses, would never own an RV as I couldn't afford one, wouldn't want one, and wonder how energy efficient they are. I do take public transportation to get to my jobs and walk to the grocery store. When I retire I will live off my social security and be with one of my kids, just like my mom is with me. I will sit in a rocking chair with a wonderful smile. I will be able to tell stories about how I was part of this Historical event and remind younger people how they can be anything they want. If Obama did it, my kids and their kids can do it too.
Amy staying together is so Important. I feel so positive and good about Obama being our President. Most people I know feel the same way. Must be I live and work with many more Democrats than Republicans. I don't know many people who are not supporting Obama. Laura I loved your cartoon, it says what I was thinking. I'm also very concerned that something would be kept secret from Obama. Who is doing this? Sigh! I think Bush will go down in history as the worst President of all time.
Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooooo Change is here and it sure feels good.
Achi
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laura- people will always deny that torture exists, just as there are still holocaust deniers or minimizers there will be so called "war on terror" torturer deniers. I am so glad that. I don't see how Mohamed's alleged torturers should have the right to decide his disposition. Let an independent group do the investigation and if need be, trial- someone like the UN or at the Hague.
The republicans really need to get their act together and consider whgo they're allowing to speak for them/ The link tot he you tube videos is here http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2009/02/11/gop-congressman-criticized-for-profane-ad/
This is really, even if it was an aide's mistake and not from Cantor himself, the "ad" seems to be typical of the way many republicans feel about unions and the labor movement.
GOP Congressman Criticized, Apologizes For Profane Ad
By Christopher Weber
Feb 11th 2009 2:57PMFiled Under:eHouse, Democrats, Republicans, Ads, Economy, Gaffes, Humor, Media, Viral Video
In support of President Obama's stimulus package, the union coalition AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) funded an ad targeting Republicans for their opposition. Named in the spot is the House whip, Virginia's Eric Cantor. Here's the video, which rather tamely encourages voters to call GOP leaders and urge them to get behind the president's plan:
In a misguided and politically tone deaf move, Cantor's office responded by emailing out its own ad. They dug up an old 1970s PSA with a voiceover portraying AFSCME members as cartoonishly profane meatheads. The ad is littered with curse words: "We don't take sh*t from nobody. You got that, @$*hole? AFSCME -- the f*&%ing union that works for you." Check it out (NSFW):
Not surprisingly, Cantor and his aides are now taking some heat for appearing to mock union members during a serious debate over the correct response to the nation's economic crisis. "During these tough economic times the last thing hard working Americans need is to be ridiculed by a member of the Republican leadership," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a statement. "Rep. Cantor should apologize for insulting America's workers with this profane video."
And Cantor's office did finally apologize today. Press secretary Brad Dayspring released the following statement:"I would like to apologize for a joke that was in no way an official response from Congressman Cantor, but instead an inappropriate email. I apologize to AFSCME for my inappropriate email containing an old video. Let me be clear, we know people are hurting in these trying times and House Republicans completely agree that we must pass an economic recovery bill that preserves, protects and create jobs for Americans facing these economic challenges."
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One more morsel for thought: Can you guys, my Obama supporter friends, understand why anyone with health insurance wouldn't think others don't deserve the same for those without it. I hope that we don't have to wait until Obama's 2nd term to get universal health care. I wish it could have been done as part of a the stimulus package- instead of giving individuals or businesses tax breaks, given them breaks only for the amount of money they pay into employee health care, then use that money to get the uninsured the same health care that is available to congress people at the same price congress pays into that.
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Achi--No, you did not say that the pic was your daughter. Word of advice--ignore the pot stirrers, the hysteria, the half-truths, etc.....And thanks for sharing your story.
Call me idealistic, but wouldn't the world be a better place if we could all try to imagine what it is like to walk in someone else's moccasins.
Laura--Michael Steele hit the nail on the head with his comments: ""After George W Bush was elected we became the party of big government," said Mr Steele.
"It's anathema to grow government by 40 per cent, as we have, and to grow a $10 trillion deficit, as we have. No wonder people look at us cockeyed now when we talk about lower taxes and small government."Amy, nope--can't undertand that mentality of not wanting health insurance for all Americans
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hoping - i love that pic, it really does feel like the whole country is very optimistic well 76% of the country from the monday cnn poll...
wooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!amy - you can certainly see why cantor denies knowlege of the video that went out via e-mail from his office. i was shocked to watch the cantor video and if swear words offend - i wouldn't watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mw49mk_x0
achi - no worries - i love the pic and everytime i see it it brings a smile of hope and what is good, just as you intended. many people use pictures that aren't them or theirs in avatars. try not to let it bother you that anyone would give it another thought. not worth the bother.
amy - the way i think it is going to go down on the torture story is, obama will stay out of it for the time being, a formal commission or investigation will happen and if need be ( all the evidence says yes) the administration will step in. jmho
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Amy, here we go again. I asked you NICELY to not respond to my post in the way you did. Why don't you just ignore me. And don't hit the "report this post" because I'm not violating ANY rules. And I will keep a copy of the exchanges we have. I haven't hit the button. I'm a big girl.
My goal is for people from both parties read this sneaky insertion. No one has read this entire bill. If you choose to ignore it, fine. But this is not a negative post. It was an informative post.
And you say:
OBAMAisPRESIDENT wrote:
I love how we're all keeping together and ignoring negativity!
ShirleyHughes wrote:
Amy, that indeed is a very, very sad story. Too many people living in her conditions. It could happen to me, you or anybody. However, have any of you read this? I hope if this is passed that this lady is allowed to live.
Please don't accuse me of being a naysayer when I post this. Also, don't tell people to ignore me. Let them read this without feeling guilty that I have posted it. This is fact and you and everyone on this board should be highly upset. I heard about this this morning on Fox. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But, here it is in case some of you haven't been over to read about it on the other thread posted by one of the other ladies.
Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey
Commentary by Betsy McCaughey
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama's stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.
Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.
Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).
The bill's health rules will affect "every individual in the United States" (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and "guide" your doctor's decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and "learn to operate less like solo practitioners."
Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.
New Penalties
Hospitals and doctors that are not "meaningful users" of the new system will face penalties. "Meaningful user" isn't defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose "more stringent measures of meaningful use over time" (511, 518, 540-541)
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the "tough" decisions elected politicians won't make.
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle's book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept "hopeless diagnoses" and "forgo experimental treatments," and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform "will not be pain free." Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).
The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle's book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.
In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.
Hidden Provisions
If the Obama administration's economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration's health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. "If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it," he said. "The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol."
More Scrutiny Needed
On Friday, President Obama called it "inexcusable and irresponsible" for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny.
The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.
(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at Betsymross@aol.com
Last Updated: February 9, 2009 00:01 EST -
shirley, i am going to ask you nicely:
please refrain from posting to amy, you know she does not respond to you and never has and please do not post your long articles that nobody reads and promote carpal tunnel.
you know, i guess what i am asking you to do is not post here. many people read a posters history before they read a post. and your poster history points out that you go back to the republican thread after posting here to spread the word that you posted over there.
weird? rude? whatever. definitely different.
i am asking you nicely to stay away.
mahalo, laura
what about you start your own thread, i'll come visit and we can talk more about your hawaii trip, my mom lives in honolulu and i have a condo there ...:)
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"Don't judge any man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins" --Indian Proverb
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daisy,
please share your "proof", tia
"it has been proven they were Plants and their questions were all submitted and approved before Barry spoke"
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Shirley,
I haven't been posting here in a long time, but I felt compelled to respond to your McCaughey article. I have read the sections of both the House and the Senate bills that pertain to health information technology and find NOTHING resembling what McCaughey discusses.
The appropro part of the House bill starts on page 434. It's long and tedious but I'm sure you will read it in the interest of truth and accuracy. If, after you've read it, you find evidence of McCaughey's argument, please post it here. Please paste the revelant passages that prove McCaughey's statements.
Media Matters also supplies this summary of the McCaughey-Limbaugh rumor:
On February 9, Rush Limbaugh repeated a falsehood from a Bloomberg "commentary" by Betsy McCaughey, headlined "Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan." In the commentary, McCaughey falsely claimed that under provisions in the economic recovery bill passed by House Democrats, "[o]ne new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and 'guide' your doctor's decisions." In fact, the language in the House bill that McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York, referenced does not establish authority to "monitor treatments" or restrict what "your doctor is doing" with regard to patient care, but rather addresses establishing an electronic records system such that doctors would have complete, accurate information about their patients "to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care."
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Hiyas ~
I got the next thing up from basic cable (finally!) and it has been nice to watch more than PBS and C-Span. Altho I'd like to see C-Span 2, but I can't find it on the lineup. CS-1 is House, CS-2 is Senate.
So there's these channels all in a row: CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, CNN. So I flip around between them. CNBC, especially Ken Olberman and Rachel Maddow, is unapologetically liberal. Fox of course is Conservative spin. CNN is a mix, and surprisingly Conservative sometimes. But anyway.
The comment I wanted to make about Shirley is that anything on Fox needs to be checked for accuracy because they report on stuff that's just not true. If anyone is curious, politifact.com is a great place to check. They give in depth articles with their sources and I think are very fair in their evaluations.
Just my humble opinion - I think it is rude to refer to the President as "Barry" - it's not his name. I also get annoyed to hear people refer to the "Democrat" party. It's the Democratic party. We don't refer to the GOP as the "Republic" party.
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Daisysix -
so, mmmm....you don't have any proof to your post?
"it has been proven they were Plants and their questions were all submitted and approved before Barry spoke"
but you offer warnings about the President of the United States?
"THe man you call Barack Obama used the name Barry Satoro longer than he used "Barack" check it out.
and offer a question...
Does it bother you the hateful things that are said about President BUsh on this forum, just curious"
how about we make a deal, Daisy, you provide the proof of your statement as i previously requested and i would be more than happy to answer your question..deal?
i really would like to see the proof that the townhall meetings the President had the last couple days were staged. i have not seen anything about that except some blog on Michelle Mailken's site and we know that is not proof, right? lol
i look forward to hearing from you Daisy when you can provide the proof and i will happily answer your question:
Does it bother you the hateful things that are said about President BUsh on this forum, just curious"
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