[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wihTejYjsjA[/youtube] First Lady Michelle Obama’s video on health care reform raises important issues about female patients who are falling through the cracks of the U.S. health care system. It’s not a perfect system, but Nina Owcharenko explains that ObamaCare would take women and the rest of the country in the wrong direction. Having to depend on politicians or faceless bureaucrats to make decisions about their care doesn’t empower women or improve their health care situations. Plus, the Obama health reform agenda isn’t what women want. A majority of female respondents …
Heritage’s Stuart Butler on healthcare
Although the United States does have a huge deficit problem we can’t afford not to fix, the Obama administration is focusing on the wrong aspect in trying to create a new federal health program. Congress needs to address spending for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — all programs that have existed for decades — that is primed to explode. Long-term excess costs for Social Security and Medicare alone: $43 trillion. When added to the national debt, that is about $184,000 for every man, woman and child in America. We should …
Or, worse, they know what it is, but just don’t want it. From HotAir.com: Why go through the expense and bureaucracy of creating a government-run insurance plan when all that needs to be done for Alabama and North Dakota is to allow insurance companies from other states to compete? Because, as Axelrod fumbles through explaining, the administration isn’t interested in competition at all, but in dictating terms to insurers, providers, and consumers. Allowing insurance companies to compete on a national level would help eliminate the insurance monopolies that dominate …
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a preliminary analysis of the proposed changes to Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit for seniors, under the Ways and Means version of H.R. 3200, the House Democrats’ health care bill. The bill would make a number of changes to the Medicare program and its drug benefit, including phasing out the infamous doughnut hole or gap in drug coverage that some seniors have run up against. In a recent letter, the CBO estimated: “That enacting the proposed changes would lead to an average …
Israel Ortega, Senior Media Services Associate and Spanish newspaper columnist, discusses why Obamacare shortchanges Hispanics in this country and is a wrong headed approach to effectively provide health insurance for those who need it. True health reform will put the individual – and not the government – behind the steering wheel. Israel Ortega, columnista y asociado de prensa para la Fundación Heritage habla acerca en como el plan del Presidente no le conviene a la comunidad hispana. Una verdadera reforma nos pondría detrás del volante para decidir por si mismos …
America’s health care system is one-sixth of the entire economy—larger than Britain’s. Restructuring something that large and complex in one massive bill rammed through Congress is a fool’s errand. There are bound to be major problems. Instead, we must incrementally reform health care in stages, by letting the 50 states act as laboratories for solutions. Let’s find out what works and doesn’t. Two major reforms already have broad support and can move us forward. 1: Give states more freedom from federal rules to experiment with reform measures, like medical malpractice …
The White House’s assertion that you’ll be able to keep your health insurance if you like it is wrong given the incentives built into the House and Senate bills (i.e., employer mandates and creation of a government-run health plan). Companies will find it easier to pay a tax or fine and dump their employees out of their existing private coverage and onto a public plan or other alternatives. And it won’t just be the health insurance options that are limited. Under current legislation, the government would have the authority to …
Since many Americans with special needs, or their caretakers, use Medicare Advantage plans as a way to pay for their higher medical costs, they have every right to be concerned about the reduced funding congressional leadership is proposing to pay for its massive health care legislation. Dennis Smith, who worked tirelessly to improve options for disabled Americans when he was at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, notes that H.R. 3200 would reduce reimbursement for Medicare Advantage plans, resulting in fewer health insurance plans tailored to those with disabilities …
Contrary to the White House’s video, member of Congress in the House Ways and Means Committee already have exempted themselves from a government-run health plan with the defeat of an amendment by Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV). The amendment, which would have required members of Congress to enroll in the newly created public health insurance plan, failed with 21 Democrats voting no. Here’s the truth behind the entirely private coverage options offered to Congress and government employees through the successful Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVr3HsBFKeU[/youtube]
