The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

June 15, 2009 Justin DeMail ID. writes:

The new healthcare proposal is just another entitlement program. There has never been a successful Government managed entitlement program that’s not now near bankruptcy or collapse. Healthcare costs keep rising to help providers shift costs not covered/paid for by Medicare to the consumers private HC costs! The BHO/Dem proposal will force insurers to shift costs not covered/unpaid by Gov insured to the privately insured. And AGAIN these unpaid costs will be passed along to the privately insured, increasing their HC costs. Forcing the privately insured into the public entitlement program, AND YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT, SOCIALIZED NATIONAL HEALTHCARE.

June 15, 2009 Penny Flyer, Northbrook, Illinois writes:

If Republicans against Obama’s healthcare plan get over run and this plan goes through- I suggest that Representatives, Senators everyone including the President, his family -in fact every one in government that have a different health plan then the rest of us will have to have - be included in his plan- no running off to Walter Reed for great care- stand in line like the rest of will have to do as they do in Canada and Great Britian.

June 15, 2009 Justin DeMail ID. writes:

Isn’t “explore malpractice” just another BHO example of “expedient smooth talk” he conveniently shapes to fit to his current audience. In my world we call this kind of expedient rhetoric, “throw them a bone” It has no commitment or plan, just another “doesn’t that sound good, see what a great advocate I am for you”

June 15, 2009 J.C. Hughes, Texas writes:

Aside from the cheering section of his adoring fans, Obama’s canned speech was delivered with its usual contemptuous simplicity. His ignorance of health issues was very apparent. The only substance taken from his empty words exposed a down right lie. Essentially he told folks that rather than paying hospital rates, he’ll just tax everybody to cover the uninsured. Oh! and you can still buy private health insurance. This being a savings according to Obama? For who? Isn’t this the classic take from Peter to pay Paul? And his demagogue government are the ones in charge of it all? Give me a break!

June 15, 2009 » Financial News Update - 06/15/09 NoisyRoom.net: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the face of tyranny is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater writes:

[...] Who’s Telling the Truth about Health Care? [...]

June 15, 2009 m vale, gainesville, ga writes:

Let’s just help the people without health insurance get some. We could give poorer people a tax rebate to buy health insurance. A pretty simple solution, right? We should require everyone making over $50,000 to shop and get their own, just like we do with care insurance. Tax the people who won’t buy it. Stay with the private insurance companies and competition will bring down the costs. The governemnt should stay out of free enterprise. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water. When will be learn that the government is not always the solution.

June 15, 2009 Carolyn Troiano, Chesterfield, VA writes:

My name is Carolyn Troiano, and I need help going after Obama for a major Free Speech violation. He is violating my First Amendment right to free speech by trying to prevent me from voicing my opinions on a tax-deductible contribution supported internet site.

If you go to My.BarackObama.com, a website funded by tax-deductible money, you will see how they’ve set up tools and other resources to help people push the Obama agenda forward – the topic du jour is healthcare reform. People are told to create and attend events that are supportive of Obama. This is how they stole the election.

So to turn the tables, I went on the site and created my own event, a “GIGANTIC TEA PARTY” up on Long Island in my hometown of Merrick.
I set this up as a “Take Back Our America” event, and spread the WEALTH (Watch Every American Learn about Healthcare reform) like the Tea Parties of late, and included posted a call for all like-minded citizens to join me. All of the information is at my website:

http://www.examiner.com/x-13822-Chesterfield-County-Conservative-Examiner

The Obama webmaster responded by email saying my words were disrespectful, and that they had taken my event off the website.

The warning stated that this was a one-time warning, and if I did this again, I would have my access to the website taken away.

So what’s a girl to do? Create another event. This time it’s in Chesterfield, VA, this coming Saturday, June 20th, at my home or in spirit with me, and I made sure there is room for 1 billion people, in case those disgruntled Iranian voters want to revolt and join our cause too.

I led the charge to taking back America with a simple statement to the President –

“Mr. Obama, tear down that firewall!”

That’s my motto, and I’m taking this as far as I possibly can. Ronald Reagan must be turning over in his grave!

I’m seeking your help to give some visibility to this fight and let the Obama dictatorship know we will not stand idly by while our own tax dollars continue to be squandered on his Socialist agenda.

So let me know if you can help, and if you have any suggestions for ramping this up and getting all Americans to understand what’s going on here. Most have no clue.

Thanks for your time and attention!

Regards,

Carolyn (McKillop) Troiano
13613 Blue Heron Circle
Chesterfield, VA 23838
804-590-0055 (H)
804-647-9946
wtroiano@verizon.net
politicat@verizon.net

June 16, 2009 Barry, that’s what a Trojan Horse IS - rstreu’s blog - RedState writes:

[...] Candidate Obama: “I happen to be a proponent of a single payer, universal health care plan.” [...]

June 16, 2009 Roy Callahan writes:

When did Americans lose their right to take care of themselves? Who gave the government permission to take away my right to see to my own needs? An inquring mind wants to know.

June 16, 2009 bob pedersen menasha wisconsin writes:

The Federal government already runs of on the most effective health care systems in the country in the V.A. Let’s let the V.A. manage universal health care and call it a day.

June 16, 2009 Ben Franklin writes:

Those that would trade liberty for security deserve neither.

June 16, 2009 richtfan, suwanee, ga writes:

how about we let people decide on their own whether or not they want healthcare. many younger Americans do not want it because they live relatively healthy lifestyles to begin with. Abolish medicare, medicaid and schip altogether. offer to help, to a degree, the poor get a kaiser type plan that is not run by any governmental unit. but make them pay something for it, even a reduced copay. we do not need and Americans do not want any plan that forces people into it. that’s not choice.

June 16, 2009 JohnR, Michigan writes:

The key to health care reform is controlling costs. And the only way to significantly cut costs is to do what the Europeans/Canadians do…and that’s to ration health care.

IMO this is what Obama intends to do, but he can’t say it out loud as the voters would never stand for it. I think he wants to transition to single payer because then the govt will have complete control over not only pricing/payments, but rationing.

I’m in favor of this as health care spending projections will break our back and rationing is the only way to get the costs down. My biggest fear is we’ll also have a decline in quality as health care provider salaries will probably be cut too much.

June 16, 2009 Jerry from Chicago writes:

It’s been said that in order to be a good liar, you must ahave a very good memory. Mr. Obama must have a terrble memory and that makes him a bad liar. He will tell people that he favors a single payer healthcare system when he talkss with Jan Schackowsky, but when he meets with the AMA, he says he only wants to compete with the private health care system. Yeah, right. Just like he was going to post legislation on the Internet for five days before acting on it. Just like he was going to exercise line-item vetos of “earmarks” in proposed legislation. Just like he wasn’t going to hire any lobbyists to join his administration. And just like he wasn’t interested in running a car company. Now his supporters may say that he didn’t lie, he just changed his mind, or his opinion, or his direction. Where I grew up, if you told someone that you were going to do something, or that you weren’t going to do something, and then went out a did the opposite of what you said, you were a liar.

For Mr. Obama, the truth is whatever he thinks his audience of the moment wants to hear. So what he says is no indicator of what he does or will do. In the final analysis, he can’t be trusted.

If he really wants to help solve the problem of rising health care costs, he needs to study the history of what has contributed those costs increases. There are a number of causative factors, foremost among them is the continual interference by state and federal government in the field of health care. For decades, state and federal governments have issued one mandate after another, all of which expanded the benefits of, and eligibility for, both fully insured and self-insured Medical plans. In addition to these mandates for expanded coverage and eligibility for benefits, these government actions have required ever increasing amounts of paperwork to be submitted by hospitals and doctors, especially when submitting claims to Medicare, dramatically expanding their administrative costs. Ask any insurance company, hospital or doctor’s office the amount of additional administrative costs were involved in meeting the Privacy requirements of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA). Ask any employer about the additional claims and administrative costs that were resulted when employer plans had to meet the requirements of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, known as COBRA (especially the most recent nine month extension of COBRA coverage). Ask employers and insurance companies how much additional cost was involved in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Newborns & Mothers Act, the Mental Health Parity Act, the Tax Equity & Fiscal Reform Act (TEFRA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). These are just a few of the Federal legislative acts to which group Medical plans are subject. Then there are dozens of IRS mandates to which group Medical plans are subject. In addition to these federal laws, there are hundreds of state mandates affecting fully insured group and individual Medical plans. Everyone of these state and federal laws increase the claims and administrative costs of Medical plans.

Further, ever since Medicare was made available to the public (circa 1965)the government has increased the deductibles of Parts A & B to be paid by those 65+ and limited the amounts to be paid to hospitals and doctors, requiring those 65+ to purchase Medicare Supplements, in order to have fuller coverage of costs. As Medicare cuts back what it pays every year, two things happen:
1. hospitals cost-shift the lost Medicare revenues onto the plans of Non-Medicare patients 2. more of a person’s Medical claims get pushed into the Medicare Supplement plans, increasing those costs.

For those in government who say that there is too much administrative cost in the delivery of health care and that claim costs are continually increasing, we in the the business of health care delivery can only say, “you dummies are the ones that caused 90% of it”. Now, they want us to believe that you can fix it. No thanks. The best thing the government can do to help solve the Medical care crisis is to stay the hell out of it. No more legislative intrusions into the field of health care, increasing benefits and expanding eligibility. No more IRS rules and regulations and quit cutting back on Medicare benefits. Quit dipping into Social Security and Medicare funds to finance wars, foreign aid, pork barrel projects or other government projects “du jour” and dropping off IOUs. We have to pay for those IOUs.

June 16, 2009 Ben C, Ann Arbor, MI writes:

In this wonderful era of technology it is impossible to deny statements made in this past. No doubt the collection of past rhetoric will become the talking points in the next election. I can’t wait for the next presidential election when Obama is challenged about what has said and what he has done - a true dichotomy.

June 16, 2009 W.T.R. ,Illinois writes:

It is only commonsence that when we have the government healthcare that we are paying for that we switch our own program as secondary to put the government program as primary. This will be short lived when the private programs have tax increases forcing them to become obsolete or too expensive to the individual groups. The government jiberish will trump our ability to pick our doctors afford medicines and schedule our appointments ourselves. The reality of discressionary service and selective availability according to productability {age} will become a reality.
I laughed at the prospect of the “Eskimo Ice cap Reality”its for the older people- ooppps thats me. If Obama’s Health Care takes its toll, I’ll only hope Gore’s Global Warming melts the ice caps first. They are both Democratic ideas so the likelyhood for either being correct doesn’t give us an out either way!

June 16, 2009 Brenda Cregor, Central California writes:

There is no doubt our healthcare system could use some much needed change. As mentioned before, our current system is complex and imperfect. Not only is it linked to the volatility of the free market system, but it is inextricably intertwined with decades of abuse (public, private, and governmental), and of less than effective state and federal legislation.

Whatever the motivation or political party, as citizens of this country, we have fought over the years to make sure the government would stay out of all aspects of our personal lives, homes, and bedrooms. Certainly, we can fight to keep them away from the inner and external workings of our bodies and out of our medicine cabinets.

June 17, 2009 Jay, Harvest, AL writes:

Yesterday, there was a major report of the failure of the VA system to correctly monitor itself with established safety procedures, this time just for the Endoscopy lab. But this has resulted in many veterans being advised to be tested for HIV and Hepatitis. Remember, the VA system is a GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. It provides care that is standard or run-of-the-mill, but not exceptional. Working in a county hosptial ER, I chronically see ER patients who use the VA system and cannot get in for follow-up, or cannot get into a VA hospital when sick. Yes, I am a veteran and do believe that the government should provide promised healthcare coverage to veterans. The publicized reports recently for veterans from Iraq and Afganastan show some excellent innovations for treatment, prostetics, and other care, but these are still in the military medical systems, not the VA system.

We are seeing in the VA system an image of what healthcare will become under a nationalize healthcare. Socialized medicine is already in place, especially with Medicare and the VA. Ask some disabled veterans and elderly how happy they are with the current system. I do not think it will be glowing.

June 17, 2009 Normca writes:

Cap the trial lawyers, like Johnny Edwards. Place restrictions on law suits against medical providers, based on real harm to a patient. [Some do deserve monetary redress.] Stipulate what harm will result in a specific dollar amount, like Workers’ Compensation insurance. Make premiums, above a stated amount tax deductible [not based on income], make insurers eliminate the “pre-existing condition” clauses. In other words; improve our current system with suggestions like these, but don’t scrap it, in favor of government mandates that will cap our age for a life saving procedure.

June 17, 2009 Obama presses doctors to back health care overhaul - Politics and Other Controversies - Page 7 - City-Data Forum writes:

[...] [...]

June 17, 2009 Jason, Texas writes:

I am a State Trooper and a US Army veteran prior to my service as a patrolman. I recently received surgery due to a injury sustained in a narcotics arrest while on duty. For 12 years now I have never once reported any injury I received on the job. My philosophy was, “it’s the cost of doing buisness.” “Stuff happens.”

Now to the nuts and bolts of this. Do you have ANY idea how much paperwork I had to complete to get care under workers compensation insurance? Let me assure you, I made a significant contribution to the destruction of a rain forest somewhere in the world. I have health care that I pay for. Being that this was a incapacitating injury, I had to use worker’s comp. What a nightmare.

There is absolutely no way I would EVER want government insurance. To get a simple request acknowledged is a exercise of futility. I found myself dreading a doctors visit simply because how crazy the system is currently. Now we want socialized medical care?

My goal is simply to return to full duty status as opposed to light duty. I am not interested in making a lawsuit, or assigning blame to anyone. All I want is for the medical bills to be covered. So far, they are. As I look to the future and imagine this same situation under a Government run health system, I get very scared.

Granted my case is minor compared to others, but what if I received a incapcitating injury like a gunshot wound? What would I do then?

June 17, 2009 Jill from Colorado writes:

I like Math because it never changes. You can depend on the formulas year after year, century after century. Here is a true math reality for everyone out there.

The bigger the government and it’s programs, the smaller the liberty (freedom) of it’s people. It is just that simple! It’s true and provable in every case.

The government can’t give us anything unless they take it away from us first. Then they always keep a bunch for themselves and their friends for getting re-elected. They are just middle men who increase the cost without adding value.
We need to stop selling our liberty for lies and false promises!
There are plenty of countries out there for the socialists to live. Let them all move to those countries and let us keep the United States of America the land of the Free! The USA is a special place in the world. We should not let the few turn us into the miserable everybody else.

July 1, 2009 Obama’s Top 5 Health Care Lies « SHAWSBLOG writes:

[...] Professor Jacob Hacker, who is a key influence on the Obama administration, is on tape explicitly boasting that a public plan is a means for creating a single-payer system. “It’s not a Trojan [...]

July 2, 2009 Obama’s Top Five Health Care Lies writes:

[...] Professor Jacob Hacker, who is a key influence on the Obama administration, is on tape explicitly boasting that a public plan is a means for creating a single-payer system. “It’s not a Trojan [...]

July 29, 2009 Brian, OH writes:

What I really want to know is this: Why are we being fed a health care plan that is stated to be manditory, when put into plain english at least, yet the government themselves still have a choice not to be affected by this? This will be a completely unchecked system paid for by yours truly, a legal American tax-paying citizen. A bill of this size needs to be made public knowledge and voted on by the individuals paying for it, tax-payers. Did I just get taxed for saying that?

August 10, 2009 Tim Fairfax VA writes:

“Penny Flyer, Northbrook, Illinois writes:
If Republicans against Obama’s healthcare plan get over run and this plan goes through- I suggest that Representatives, Senators everyone including the President, his family -in fact every one in government that have a different health plan then the rest of us will have to have - be included in his plan- no running off to Walter Reed for great care- stand in line like the rest of will have to do as they do in Canada and Great Britian.”

Penny,
You are flat-out WRONG ma’am. Have you ever even been to Walter Reid? Because I have on several occasions for family members of mine in military. The care there is not “great”, actually it is quite slow and arguably sub-par. As far as Canada and the UK goes you are not entirely right in your assumptions there either. I have friends in both countries and none of them have personally experienced lengthy waits for care. You are being LIED TO by the fox news propaganda. I’m talking facts here that I have personally confirmed myself. Think for yourself and research for yourself. Quit spreading false statements. In doing so you only make yourself look foolish.

August 11, 2009 Dex writes:

The facts are that the rest of the major industrialized nations have some sort of universal coverage provision; have health care outcomes that are at least as good as the United States of America; and spend much less than we do in this country.

The government will ration care…….Silly concept….what is rationing care?…..Private insurances decide which drugs to cover and which tests to pay for and which procedures to cover right now……Is this rationing of health care?

Death camps…..Another silly concept….the proposal as written allows Medicare to reimburse physicians for discussing end of life concerns with their patients……How this morphed into a death camp is beyond me.

This plan will cost us and increase our out of pocket costs….Last time I checked health care cost increases way out-pace inflation and increasing premiums are being paid by people. The cost to employers keeps going up…who then pass on these costs to their employees or take a hit in the wallet.

I dont want anyone to decide which doctor I see….Last time I checked the private insurance companies are doing this right now….sure you can see someone out of net work but it will cost you…so most people stay with in-network providers. Also what hapens if your employeer stops offering the insurance you currently have and switches to another company…wil you not have to change doctors…isn’t your employer deciding which doctor you see.

What happens if you switch jobs and the new company offers an insurance plan that will not cover your child with a pre-existing condition?…No problem if you are wealthy enough to pay for treatment on your own…but what if you cannot?

What happens if you loose your job and your health insurance…..get COBRA people say….Last time I checked for a family it will cost around $10000 per year …again no problem if you have the money.

Very difficult issue to come to terms with but the current system is failing large segments of the population and is way too expensive and getting more expensive everyday…the status quo is simply bound to fail.

All stakeholders in this arena; health care providers; John Q Public; insurance companies; drug and equipment manufactures have to be involved and the cost to fix the problem has to be shared by all. Let’s hope for some intelligent discussion and a viable solution.

August 22, 2009 Setting the record straight - Page 2 writes:

[...] [...]

August 24, 2009 Proletariat Blog » Blog Archive » It’s God’s will - the musings of worker7219-12 writes:

[...] to end. They can’t deny it because they’ve been saying it on record for years. It’s in print and speeches by elected and unelected Democrats, advocates, activists, community organizers, party officials, [...]

September 11, 2009 Tad, Livermore, CA writes:

Americans are the most compassionate and kind people on this earth. They will give of themselves for you and I. But it is for each of us to be RESPONSIBLE individuals. I heard that from Obana, when he talk to school children, “You are responsible for your own destiny.” I have yet to hear the word RESPONSIBILITY with respect to health care or to adults. I have yet to hear Fiscal RESPONSIBILITY by the President or our elected representatives.
Our elected representatives (Yes, our representative) enact laws and rules that govern every aspect of our lives but EXEMPT themselves from those very same laws and rules. That should not be true for health care they propose for us. After all, they are RESPONSIBLE to we the people and not to political party or organizations.

September 24, 2009 John, Chicago writes:

The whole world needs to hit the RESET button. Professional sports need to hit RESET by paying players ONLY for their performance. Wallstreet..pay only for performance. Now there is an idea- a performance based pay system for healthcare providers…the more people you cure and save…the more money you make. For us everyday people- the less time we spend in the doctor’s office…the more money we save via tax rebates. For pigs, smokers and drinkers…tax the hell out of cigarettes and booze and fastfood…use every cent of that money to subsidize rare and very costly diseases and also subsidize REAL RESEARCH awards…kind of like Nobel Peace Price. Call it the Nobel Health Prize. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME WE ACTUALLY CURED A DISEASE? What incentive to a drug company is their to completely cure a disease? For if the disease was cured- they would have no more patients. Speaking of patients…30 years ago when many of us were in Grade/High School…how many kids did you personally know who had to take ADD etc. drugs or who had some other drug dependent health problem????? I didn’t know 1 single person…so how is it that my nephew knows SEVERAL classmates who are on prescription drugs in a very well to do community…and they share these drugs with their friends “to be more alert for the test.” Who the fck is kidding who here???? Why not set up a reward based system for research that will greatly reward research teams….rather than rely on the fraud and greed of the “free-market” that occurs daily with the FDA conflict of interests. Everything in life should be reward based.

Though this is but a dream…because either way you go- It will be construed as stepping on peoples “freedom” and liberty. Well wake it up people…we still live in a world of kings and kingdoms…just in another hidden form…so in reality, there is no true freedom and liberty- we are all in the hands of the money changers.

If all Americans got their hands on one of the Chinese parametic manuals containing extremely effective treatments for just about anything…we likely wouldn’t need 70% of the health providers out there, let alone insurance companies.

Bottom line is: As long as there is PROFIT in health care..especially from Insurance Companies (who are the root of the problem) and drug companies (with their buddies on the FDA who have side interests) and doctors (who maximize unnecessary visits to maximize pay) …we will never have a fair health system. The athletes of this world have RUINED our country/world. The athletes salaries have NEVER dropped and it becomes a barometer to the rest of the American Dreamers …especially the Wallstreeters and other outlandish money earners of the world…whilest the middle class lay deep in the outskirts of the kingdom, on the edge of begging for food. Why are we being charged $400+ for a concert ticket? Why is an cat-scan company charging $400 to read a scan…something the doctor also did in an emergency room..where their should only be 1 single bill as apposed to 3-4 or more separate bills from people you never even came into contact with?????????????????

How to fix this mess? One of 2 things must occur:

1.) Middle class must receive a 100% salary increase whilest the more well to do stay where they are at.

or

2.) Costs on EVERYTHING must be cut in 1/2. So houses must be 50% less, bread 50% less, football game tickets 50% less.

If the middle class were all making $100,000 ($200,000 for couples) each year…I don’t think they would have a problem with a $10,000 a year insurance premium.

So one end of the rubberband must give…either everyone making under $50k-$75k gets an immediate raise to $100k, or you cut prices of everything for sale in the world to 50% of what it is now.

Oh there is a 3rd solution: eliminate the futures markets (where commodity prices are purely manipulated) and eliminate margin trading and short selling for equities- ie if you do not have the exact money to pay for stock..then you can’t buy it..and you certainly can not bet that it will go down. How is it possible to “invest” in something that you think will depreciate, yet your investment appreciates. This is pretty ass-backwards and as long as we have all these trading possibilities…the whole financial system will be loaded with fraud…especially when the so-called watchdogs are hand picked and have or will have direct interest in the greedy culprits themselves. What a strange concept…you create the rules (as you go along), hire police to enact your self-serving rules…then milk the everyday investors of everything they ever had saved up….then have the government feed you billions of dollars to give to friends..at the expense of the greatest majority little guys.

Don’t ya love this free country we live in??????????