Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Harry Reid's Plan D: "None of the Above"

In Nevada, voters can actually choose a non-candidate named None of the above on their ballots.

With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's popularity slipping to a disastrously low 40% in his home state, Democrat tacticians appear to have launched Plan D.

Plan A, of course, was to ride the popularity of ObamaCare, Porkulus, TARP and 15% unemployment in Nevada to an easy victory. After 17 seconds, the Democrat brain-trust switched to Plan B.

Plan B attempted to paint Sharron Angle as an extremist tea-bagger who wanted to slash the size of government so that it would live within its means. After about 12 minutes, Democrats realized that approach might be a problem as well.

Plan C was designed to cleverly split the conservative vote by introducing a fake Tea Party candidate. After a long weekend, that bizarre plot imploded with the expected splash-back on the guilty Democrat coordinators.

The current plan, codenamed 'Plan Delta', is to concede that Reid is wildly unpopular. Seeing as how "None of the Above" is a valid ballot choice, Reid is intentionally marketing that selection as a logical alternative.

If that doesn't work, Plan E is, of course, the Democrats' traditional modus operandi: use illegal immigrants, ACORN-style vote fraud, felons, deceased voters and other Democrat stalwarts to swing a 400-vote victory, a la Al Franken.

Bottom line: support Sharron Angle for U.S. Senate now and we won't have Harry Reid to worry about much longer.

I call that Plan F Harry Reid.


Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

The Road to Single-Payer: Record High 26.3% of Americans Already Have Government-Run Health Care

Years before its full implementation, Obamacare has already had quite an impact: it has forced companies to terminate retiree health care benefits; it has pushed health insurers out of the business; and monthly premiums are skyrocketing.

Bottom line: if you like your current health care plan, too freaking bad, peon. The Democrats are on the way to single-payer with their top-down, Soviet-style health care 'law' passed during the dead of night in the form of a 2,600-page monstrosity that no one bothered to read.

More American adults reported having government healthcare -- Medicare, Medicaid, or military/veterans' benefits -- in September (26.3%) than in any previous month since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in January 2008, at which time the figure stood at 22.5%.


The increase in government insurance partially offsets the decline in employer-based insurance seen since January 2008 -- a decline that started in the fall of 2008 as the financial crisis exploded and large-scale layoffs began. The 45.4% of adults who reported they had employer-based coverage in September is statistically unchanged from the summer months, but down from earlier this year, and significantly lower than the 50% who said the same in January 2008.

The percentage of Americans without health insurance was 16.1% last month, about on par with the 16.6% in August, but still higher than the 14.8% in January 2008.

Oh, Melvin: he's so historic.


Monday, October 04, 2010

Obama Lied, Health Plans Died: 3M Retirees Lose Their Company Coverage, Get Body-Slammed Into Medicare

Runner-up Headline: Dear 3M retirees: if you like your current health plan, you can go pound sand

Today's Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal reports that 3M is dropping its health coverage for retirees thanks to ObamaCare. Oh, and that Medicare program they'll be herded into, cattle-car style? The Democrats slashed it by $500 billion, so the hundreds of thousands of additional seniors covered should really be in fine fettle.

3M Co., citing new federal health laws, said Monday it won't cover retirees with its corporate health-insurance plan starting in 2013... Instead, the company will direct retirees to Medicare-backed insurance programs, and will provide reimbursement for that coverage...

...Maplewood-based 3M (NYSE: MMM) is one of the first large companies to indicate that it won't tap a large federal-government reimbursement program created by Congress as part of the health insurance reform package... The rebate program was meant to encourage employers to keep in place their health-insurance plans for retirees.

...3M noted that these changes affect current and future retirees of 3M, regardless of their retirement date... The new policy is likely to save 3M money because it reduces the risk to the manufacturer for rising medical costs...

Just wondering: when is President Obama going to apologize to Joe Wilson?

Countdown to another Chavez-like threat by Kathleen Sebelius in 3... 2...


Update: 840,000 lose their health care coverage to ObamaCare... so far.

Hat tip: RoF

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Imagine There's No Country -- It's Easy If You Try

Imagine that FDR's New Deal had ended the Great Depression prior to World War II.

Imagine that the trillions of dollars contributed by Americans to FDR's Social Security system hadn't been stolen by Congress, leaving the system underfunded by tens of trillions of dollars.

Imagine that LBJ's "Great Society" program -- consisting of endless housing projects and massive wealth transfers -- had propelled poor inner-city residents to prosperity.

Imagine that the Democrats' efforts to legalize 'Chain Migration' had not dramatically increased illegal immigration and resulted in the the Balkanization of large swaths of the United States.

Imagine that LBJ's Medicare program had been designed for efficiency and cost-effectiveness; had not resulted in fraud approaching $100 billion a year; and its trust fund had not been stolen by Congress and spent in the general fund with no regard for future needs.

Imagine that the Democrats' multi-decade push for welfare benefits hadn't resulted in a culture of dependency; hadn't encouraged more single-parent families; and hadn't resulted in more inner-city violence, crime and imprisonment.

Imagine that the United States Post Office is a paragon of efficiency, generating profits for taxpayers year after year.

Imagine that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hadn't gone bankrupt, resulting in one of the most catastrophic financial crises in American history; that it hadn't been a "job shop for out of work Democrats"; that it hadn't been protected from audits by Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, and other Democrat politicians; and that it hadn't been mercilessly abused by Clinton administration cronies including Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and Jim Johnson.

Imagine that the SEC and other financial regulators had discovered Bernard Madoff's fraud before it imploded; that it hadn't somehow ignored the impending derivatives meltdown; and that it had adequately policed AIG, Goldman Sachs and other "too-big-to-fail" companies that were backstopped by the taxpayers.

* * * * * * * * *

Can you imagine a United States of America where all of these big government, social engineering programs were successful?

I can't. In fact, none of them have been successful. That's a .000 batting average.

Nor can they ever be successful. Central planning fails every time when you compare it to free markets, private property, individual liberty and the magnificent system of government our country's founders created.

We know central planning fails. Every effort by the Soviet Union, by Cuba, by Venezuela, by North Korea, by Zimbabwe, and by Democrats in this country have failed, utterly and completely.

So how could anyone support the trillion-dollar "Stimulus" program, Cap-and-Trade, socialized medicine, a 2000-page "financial overhaul", and "comprehensive immigration reform" when Democrats rely upon big government to make things right?

We know with absolute certainty how all of these ill-fated programs will end up. They will be bankrupt, maddeningly inefficient and reminiscent of the DMV at the end of the month.

It's November or never to unwind them. Our children and grandchildren are depending upon us.
 

 

Friday, October 01, 2010

I truly hope Newsweek's Sharon Begley never needs the wonder drug known as Avastin

Decades from now, few will remember the name Sharon Begley. Even fewer will recall the malevolent Democrat newsletter known as Newsweek Magazine, which recently sold for $1 (overpriced, at that).

No, I don't mean an issue. I mean the entire freaking magazine.

Anyhow, on 28 August 2009, Begley penned one of the most disturbing pieces of unvarnished propaganda ever seen on American soil: it was entitled The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate.

Begley was doing her best to move reluctant voters left while encouraging Democrat politicians to pass the 2,400-page collection of fecal matter known as ObamaCare. Among her amazing collection of lies?

You'll have no choice in what health benefits you receive. The myth that a "health choices commissioner" will decide what benefits you get seems to have originated in a July 19 post at blog.flecksoflife.com... In fact, the House bill sets up a health-care exchange...

Really? The child-only health insurance market has already been decimated by Obamacare. McDonald's is reported to be dropping their employee health plans and Principal Financial is exiting the health insurance business altogether.

But, sure, you'll have plenty of choices. Government-run care. Or government-run care.

No chemo for older Medicare patients. The threat that Medicare will give cancer patients over 70 only end-of-life counseling and not chemotherapy—as a nurse at a hospital told a roomful of chemo patients, including the uncle of a NEWSWEEK reporter—has zero basis in fact...

In fact, Sharon (if that is your name), perhaps you saw the following headline: "Susan G. Komen Foundation and Ovarian Cancer Alliance Decry First-Ever Medicare Denials of FDA-Approved Cancer Drugs.

That's right: cancer patients are fighting for drugs that are now deemed too expensive thanks to Donald Berwick, the man Obama wouldn't subject to Senate scrutiny.

Illegal immigrants will get free health insurance. The House bill doesn't give anyone free health care (though under a 1986 law illegals who can't pay do get free emergency care now, courtesy of all us premium paying customers or of hospitals that have to eat the cost). Will they be eligible for subsidies to buy health insurance? The House bill says that "individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States" will not be allowed to receive subsidies...

Nice try, dimwit.

All efforts to amend the health care bills to require a photo ID, a Social Security number and similar measures were defeated on party lines. This is consistent with a June 2009 report ("If the American people found out...") that "[pro-illegal immigration group] La Raza said if they get this, they don't even care about amnesty, because they've fixed it so that one family member can apply for all extended family members."

Put simply, do you think the same administration that sued Arizona for enforcing immigration law will deny health care to undocumented Democrats aliens?

Death panels will decide who lives. On July 16 [2009] Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York and darling of the right, said on Fred Thompson's radio show that "on page 425," "Congress would make it mandatory…that every five years, people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition." Sarah Palin coined "death panels" in an Aug. 7 Facebook post...

Not that the propagandists at Newsweek are paying attention, but Obama's budget director Peter Orszag all but admitted that Obamacare is a rationing system. And those who decide the rules for rationing will, in effect, serve as a death panel.

The government will set doctors' wages. This, too, seems to have originated on the Flecksoflife blog on July 19. But while page 127 of the House bill says that physicians who choose to accept patients in the public insurance plan would receive 5 percent more than Medicare pays for a given service, doctors can refuse to accept such patients, and, even if they participate in a public plan...

As the state of California has discovered, Obamacare does -- in fact -- set price controls. And, as everyone but the posse of economic illiterates known as the modern Democrat Party knows, price controls determine wages.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sharon Begley has proven herself a disgraceful hack. She might even be 'historic'. Because when a 'journalist' parrots such obvious, despicable lies in the service of a tyrannical central government, he or she has become an organ of destruction.

I hope Sharon Begley never needs a treatment of Avastin -- or another pharmaceutical innovation. Because it is all but certain that our current level of care will be destroyed by a huge collection of federal bureaucracies that can't even run a weather-stripping program.

And these Democrat politicians will be long gone when the entire system collapses.


Putting government spending into perspective

Ken from S.F. writes:

Putting specific government spending into context helps point out the insanity.

The latest comparing the postal service budget overruns with the federal tax revenue by state.

Unfortunately, after 20 minutes of searching, I can only find 2007 numbers. Figure they would be pretty easy to get a hold of.

Postal Service expects $6 billion loss this year

Federal Tax Revenue By State

I wonder how the people in these states would feel if asked how they feel that all of the money taxpayers pay to the federal government is equivalent to the budget overrun of the USPS?

Now: I would like you to imagine the day -- in the not too distant future -- when the federal government controls every aspect of health care delivery. Or, roughly, one-sixth of the economy.

Get your surgeries in now, before it's too late.


Principal Financial: Thanks, Democrats! We're Exiting Health Insurance Because Your Insane, Soviet-Style Central Planning Will Bankrupt Us

Brilliant. Not only will small business be forced to file 200 (on average) 1099 forms -- up from 10, but now health insurers are being driven out of the market altogether. This is Soviet-style central planning at its best. And ObamaCare won't even kick in until 2014. But maybe Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi will find a way to blame it on Bush.

Principal Financial to Stop Selling Health Insurance


By REED ABELSON --- Published: September 30, 2010

Principal Financial said that it planned to stop selling health insurance, another sign of upheaval emerging among insurers as the health law starts to take effect...

And when this disastrous health care bill (the 2,400 pages that no one read) fails, which it inevitably will, they'll blame you -- the taxpayers -- for not spending enough. Or they'll blame the rich. Or the few remaining health insurers. Or the drug companies.

But they'll never blame themselves, the bloated, unconstitutional federal bureaucracy.

And their demands will never end. Because once the Constitution has been breached, the limits on government created by our founders will have been tossed aside like kindling.

If you want your children to have a chance at economic survival, you better vote Republican. Because there is a difference between the two parties. Republicans aren't Marxists.

It's November or never.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Harry Reid or Sharron Angle: Who's the Extremist?

Harry Reid likes to paint his opponent in this year's Senate race -- conservative Republican Sharron Angle -- as some sort of extremist because she believes in the Constitution. But Sharron Angle didn't nationalize the health care system against the will of the people. She didn't put America on a trajectory of economic ruin with unprecedented "Stimulus" spending. She doesn't favor open borders like Reid. And, best I can tell, Sharron Angle isn't involved in the shady, sleazy deals that Reid's been entangled with for decades.

From 2002 to 2005, Senator Reid was exceedingly generous with Christmas gifts for service workers at his luxury condo. He gave away $3,000 in gifts and gratuities for elevator and cleaning personnel. Unfortunately, the money came from campaign contributions and not his own bank account. It was only after the Associated Press' John Solomon discovered the sleazy behavior that Reid claimed it was a clerical issue and a Republican smear campaign.

In 2004, for example, after Reid made a profit of $1.1 million on a real estate deal, he failed to fully disclose the details as required by the Senate. And his partner was reported to have extremely odd ties to the casino business and reportedly surfaced in investigations into organized crime and bribery.

In 2005, Sen. Reid sponsored an $18 million earmark to build a bridge over the Colorado River. Coincidentally, a few miles from the bridge's location is a 160-acre parcel of land owned by one Senator Harry Reid. So, yes, Reid's own earmark greatly increases the value of his huge swath of land.

Curiously, Reid had received 60 of the acres from an oil magnate friend -- the owner of Haycock Petroleum -- for a total of $10,000 in 2002, though its assessed value was $120,000. And Reid continues to underreport the value of the land, though nearby sales put its real value at nearly half a million.

Harry Reid's three sons and his son-in-law are also concerned with serving the people. All have served as lobbyists and have blurred the line between family connections and special interests. In fact, his son-in-law helped increase lobbying fees at DC's Holland & Hart from $100K to $2 million in only one year. A series of LA Times investigative reports suggested that Reid had introduced legislation and pressured regulators to unblock a huge real estate deal fronted a heavy Reid contributor who also happened to be the employer of Reid's son Leif.

At the same time, Reid was vice-chair of the Senate Ethics Committee. When asked specifically about conflicts of interest involving family member-slash-lobbyists, he insisted there were none. Yet the Senate's rules have since changed to prohibit lobbying by family members, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

The Times' story found that mining companies paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobbying firms, and the payments just happened to follow around Reid's son-in-law from firm to firm. Rory Reid's services were also sought out by mining firm Placer Dome, according to the Times.

Reid's son-in-law was also engaged by the American Gaming Association, a helicopter tour company fighting restrictions near the Grand Canyon, chemical companies seeking deals in Nevada and the Hughes Corporation as it looked for land near Vegas. Sen. Reid helpfully advanced all of their agendas -- purely for altruistic reasons -- and even helped a partner in the law firm that employed all of Reid's sons get a right-of-way moved off his property.

"Reid never told his Senate colleagues or the public that the provisions he authored, some of which were technically and not apparently beneficial to anyone, were, in fact, introduced on behalf of clients who paid his sons and son-in-law over $2 million."

But Harry Reid's public service wasn't yet complete. In running the Senate, Harry's "spread the wealth" -- using the taxpayers' money to jam through socialized medicine with various bribes, payoffs and "incentives".

When Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana was undecided about DemCare, Reid ensured she received a $300 million "bonus" for her state. Chris Dodd received a $100 million medical facility in Connecticut (any guess as to what it might be called?).

In short, Harry Reid is a menace to this country. His opponent, Sharron Angle, is not.

Remember in November. And support Sharron Angle now -- before it's too late.


Based upon: ELECTION YEAR: Defeating Harry Reid, an excerpt of the new book 2010: Take Back America: A Battle Plan  


Saturday, September 25, 2010

Desperate Democrats' Latest Mailer: Evil Tea Party Will Kill Old People

The desperate campaign of Nancy Pelosi's protege Connie Pillich -- an Ohio incumbent -- has unleashed another attempt to stop Tea Party founder Mike Wilson in his tracks. Check out the Democrats' latest mailer, which does everything but paint Wilson as a bloodthirsty animal, trying to break into grandma's house to ensure that she'll never collect on Medicare.

But everyone who has studied the matter knows that the only folks killing Medicare are Democrats. Health Reform Report's latest newsletter offers the troubling statistics.

Medicare's own Chief Actuary was careful to explain in his own unprecedented accompanying report that the Medicare payment rates for the doctors and hospitals serving seniors will be cut by 30% over the next 3 years. By 2019, those Medicare payment rates will be lower than under Medicaid.

And the Democrats' gouging cuts don't even include the devastating changes to Medicare Advantage. Medicare's Chief Actuary estimates that half of all seniors on Advantage will lose their plan.

Who's sending this garbage out?

Who do you think?

These Marxists are out of control. They are an abomination.

If you've got a few bucks to spare, help Mike to show these leftists the door in November.


Monday, September 20, 2010

ObamaCare Already Depriving Children of Health Insurance--The Unintended Consequences of a 2,200-page Bill That No One Read

Democrats don't appear to be very proud of their historic health care reform law, passed at midnight using an unprecedented series of bribes and accounting skulduggery. And with news like this, I don't blame them from sprinting as far away from Pelosi, Obama and Reid as they can get. Hint: it ain't gonna work. Here's Denver's ABC-7 News:

Thousands of Colorado children will soon have fewer options for health insurance. And parents who may not be able to afford it for themselves, but want it for their children won't have that option.

Ironically the change is as a result of the health care reform act.

7NEWS learned several large insurance companies are no longer offering child-only health policies... Child-only policies are typically obtained by families because sometimes it's cheaper than a family health plan through an employer. But most often parents who cannot afford health insurance for themselves purchase a child-only policy to make sure their kids are insured even if they are not.

Obamacare passes: poorest families hardest hit.

The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies which offer child-only policies to take all kids, even those with preexisting conditions... According to Robbie Zirkelbach, of America's Health Insurance Plans, this is an issue the government did not see when it passed the Affordable Care Act...

Considering no one read the damn bill, Robbie, I think it's fair to say that there will be millions of unanticipated consequences, nearly all of them abysmal for society.

When 7NEWS contacted several insurance companies for comment, many did not want to talk about the changes.

I don't blame the insurers for being circumspect about the real reasons for their coverage changes. The last time they spoke freely -- as is their First Amendment right according to rumors spread by the evil Tea Partiers -- the Chavez-like central government threatened their livelihood.

As a result of this change, clinics such as Rocky Mountain Youth are anticipating an increased client load... For nonprofits dedicated to helping children this is a major concern... Wolk tries to reassure his patients that health care reform is fluid and changes can occur.

The scope of the disaster known as ObamaCare is only beginning to reveal itself.

And people will most definitely die -- needlessly -- as a result. We know that from mortality statistics comparing the U.S. with Canada and the U.K..

Thank a Democrat in November.


Hat tip: Van Helsing. Image: Conservative Dialysis.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

She's baaack! Guess who's behind the massive ObamaCare propaganda campaign appearing around the web? None other than Maoist Anita Dunn

If you're been surfing the web lately -- and, frankly, you're a loser if you don't spend at least 100 hours per week online (heh) -- you may have noticed the genre of ads depicted at right.

These ads intrigued me. They represent the tip of the iceberg of a massive web campaign; they also appear to typify a last-ditch defense of ObamaCare, which is increasingly unpopular despite Nancy Pelosi's exhortations. Or perhaps because of them.

So just who is funding this gargantuan ObamaCare propaganda campaign?

A click-through leads us to HealthInfoCampaign.org (no link, intentionally), seemingly operated by AmericasFairHealthCare.org. The site describes itself as "a project of the Health Information Center (HIC), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and the Health Information Campaign, a 501(c)4 organization, founded in 2010."

Its goal is the dissemination of provably false propaganda about ObamaCare, which it represents as follows: "Along with a coalition of partners, we work to explain to the public the benefits of the new law, how it affects consumers and when key regulations take effect. We also work to respond to misinformation and misperceptions about the law, educate leaders and stakeholders about the full extent of the benefits and provide a mechanism for policy makers and others to come together to share information and best practices that will help the implementation process."

In other words, the site is out to save the bacon of the few Democrat politicians who aren't already running away from ObamaCare. It's a front group, and a highly partisan one, which makes its 501(c)(3) status all the more curious.

Some of the lies marketed on the site have already been debunked by such right-wing outlets as the Associated Press and The New York Times. No, you won't be able to keep your old health plan. No, it's not going to reduce the budget deficit. And so on.

Check out the Soviet-style propaganda, the likes of which hasn't been seen in the United States since, well, never.

A more massive collection of lies you'd be hard-pressed to find in one place.

So who is behind the "Health (Mis)Information Center" or HIC?

According to The Puffington Roast, HIC is "a group supporting [ObamaCare] and founded by former Obama administration allies", which is "launching its own $2 million national cable and online ad campaign promoting the law and features that are now in effect or about to go into effect."

You mean like higher premiums for everyone?

Among HIC's staff are:

• Andrew Grossman, President -- a former Obama adviser
• James Chiong, Executive Director -- the "Deputy Campaign Director at The Alliance for Climate Protection and former National Field Director, Working America at Political Department, AFL-CIO" (i.e., a union boss).
• Erikka Knuti, Communications Director
• Ankit Desai, Finance Director, a former political operative for Joe Biden

The fish-wrap of record reports that another founder of HIC is Maoist Anita Dunn, Obama's disgraced former communications director.

So that's what happened to her.

Also in bed with HIC is the ludicrously named "Families USA", which according to Discover the Networks, is a member of the "Progressive States Network", which worked closely with (you guessed it) ACORN and the SEIU to advance Marxism.

So remember who is behind this effort as you see these ads pop up all over the web.

That would be the conventional claque of Maoists, Marxists and union bosses, who are leveraging our own 'non-profit' tax laws to push a hyper-partisan, Statist agenda.

Remember in November.


Linked by: Big Journalism and Verum Serum. Thanks!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Roger Kimball unveils the ObamaCare money chart

Roger Kimball's "A lesson for David Axelrod" is worth reading in its entirety. But the money chart is this:

Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:
U.S.            65%
England       46%
Canada        42%

Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment within six months:
U.S.           93%
England      15%
Canada        43%

Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:
U.S.            90%
England       15%
Canada        43%

Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:
U.S.            77%
England       40%
Canada        43%

Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people
U.S.            71%
England       14%
Canada        18%

Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are in “excellent health”:
U.S.           12%
England        2%
Canada         6%

In sum, you can have health care, or you can have ObamaCare.  People have looked at the latter... and they don’t like what they see. That’s the reason it’s unpopular, and will become more so.

You know how the liberals progressives continually whine that we spend too much money on health care?

Because they're economic illiterates, I'll explain this phenomenon really slowly so they'll understand:

Because......... we......... can.


Related:
Berwick's First Strike: Susan G. Komen Foundation and Ovarian Cancer Alliance Decry First-Ever Medicare Denials of FDA-Approved Cancer Drugs
Good News for Seniors: the Most Powerful Man in the Medical Industry Has a Love Affair with Urine- and Feces-Soaked Beds

Connecticut: Anthem, Cigna blame 20%+ rate hikes on freakish outbreak of Ebola virus plus ObamaCare, but mostly ObamaCare

If I didn't know better, I'd say that Anthem and Cigna just told HHS Czar Katherine Sebelius to take her threats and -- well, you know. At least that's the way I interpret this news story from Connecticut entitled "Health Insurers Seeking Rate Hikes Of More Than 20 Percent In Connecticut."

Health insurers are asking for immediate rate hikes of more than 20 percent in Connecticut for some plans, citing rising medical costs and federal health reform laws as reasons.

...In what might appear to be an oddity, companies are citing a huge range of effects that the health care reform mandates will have on plan prices — from near zero to well over 20 percent. The reason is that among all the plans, some already deliver the provisions required by health reform, while others do not...

See, that's called the 'free market', progressives.

...Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut, by far the largest insurer of Connecticut residents, said in a letter that it expects the federal health reform law to increase rates by as much as 22.9 percent for just a single provision — removing annual spending caps. The mandate to provide benefits to children regardless of pre-existing conditions will raise premiums by 4.8 percent, Anthem said in the letter...

...CIGNA Corp. is asking for an increase of up to 1.3 percent for adding preventive care provisions, a 1 percent increase for waiving pre-existing conditions for children up to 19, and an increase of 14.5 percent for children from birth to 18 for new business, according to the Insurance Department...

It would appear that not a single member of the Democrat leadership has ever taken completed a course in economics. Or made a payroll. Or operated a cash register. Or cleaned up a bowling alley at nights while passing papers in the morning as a kid. But I'm not bitter.

...The proposed changes drew fiery response from elected officials. On Sept. 9, the Obama administration's Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote a letter warning the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans of a "zero tolerance" policy for "falsely blaming premium increases for 2011 on the patient protections in the Affordable Care Act."...

I think the voters are going to express a 'zero tolerance' policy for Katherine Sebelius and her boss in 2012. And, if we can take the House or Senate, well -- let the investigations begin.

...On Sept. 23, health insurers will be required to comply with an array of provisions that were part of federal health reform laws passed six months ago. In Connecticut, some of provisions were already extended to consumers by state law. Others were not, and they are cited as part of the reason for proposed increases to premiums starting Oct. 1.

"If you fail to recognize that the new requirements around benefits that were passed in federal reform were going to drive price, I think you're being intellectually irresponsible," said Keith Stover, a lobbyist with the Connecticut Association of Health Plans.

Did Keith just call Barack Obama a pinhead?

New regulations include eliminating cash limits on how much insurers pay per person each year, and throughout a person's lifetime. Insurers won't be able to deny coverage to children under 19 who have a pre-existing medical condition...

"Those are new benefits that are going to cost money," Stover said. "You can't just wave the magic wand and say, 'Do all these things, and they're free.' It just doesn't work that way."

Oh, don't burst any bubbles, Keith -- remember who we're dealing with! The liberals progressives don't worry about mathematics, logic, facts or reason -- they've got Marxist class warfare rhetoric to disseminate.


Post title shtick ripped from: Ace.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Good News: Democrats Declare a Regulatory Jihad on Small Businesses, Which Will Only Erase or Destroy 340,000 Jobs Annually

You know it's bad when even CNN doesn't mince words.

Senate takes up 'job killing' IRS rule


The Senate will also decide whether to repeal a law enacted as part of health care reform that will require small businesses to file millions of new tax forms -- a provision a top Republican calls "job killing..."

A small section of the massive health care law mandates that beginning in 2012, all companies will have to issue a 1099 tax form not only to contracted workers, as they must already do, but also to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a year.

The IRS Form 1099 is used to document income for individual workers other than wages and salaries: Freelancers get them and businesses send them out. Under the new law, the 1099 form would be used to track payments for services and tangible goods. Also, it requires that 1099s be issued not just to individuals, but to corporations as well.

The result would be millions of additional tax forms...

Chris Wysocki reports that the Democrat-controlled Senate failed twice this afternoon to repeal the disastrous 1099 requirements.

The Barack Obama Death to Small Business Tax Reporting Act of 2010 will stand... Senate Democrats successfully defeated an amendment offered by Senator Mike Johanns (R-Neb) that would have repealed an Obamacare provision which requires all businesses to file Form 1099 with the IRS for every vendor that sells them more than $600 in goods.

President Obama insists the reporting provision is necessary to ensure compliance with our tax laws. Business groups, and anyone with even an ounce of common sense, have pointed out that it is a regulatory nightmare.

Think about a midsized trucking company. The back office would have to collect hundreds of thousands of receipts from every gas station where its drivers filled up and figure out where it spent more than $600 that year. Then it would also need to match those payments to the stations' corporate parents.

See, this is what happens when you hire a bunch of academics who've never worked a real job in their lives and put them in charge of our economy.

Of course, the economic illiterates in the Democrat Party haven't done the complex calculations to arrive at the number of jobs this provision will cost.

The real costs, in dollars and misery, will be shockingly high.

Earlier today on Fox Business, Gerri Willis stated that the rule "...is a mountain of paperwork and will cost businesses about $17 billion [annually]."

My magic calculator puts the number of jobs erased or destroyed by this madness at 340,000 $50,000-a-year jobs. And that will be but one toll of this monstrous 'health care' bill that no one even bothered to read.

Remember to thank a Democrat on the first Tuesday in November.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

How ObamaCare Rapes Medicare and Puts America's Seniors At Risk

Campaign commercials funded by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) denounce Republicans for their efforts "to end Medicare as we know it."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has attacked his GOP challenger Sharron Angle, claiming that she wants to "gut" Medicare.

But Medicare's Chief Actuary has revealed the sorry truth: ObamaCare is in the process of raping Medicare:

• Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals will be slashed by 30% over the course of the next three years.

• By 2019, Medicare payment rates will have been slashed below those of Medicaid. What this means is truly shocking: Seniors who have paid into Medicare their entire lives will be treated worse than the poverty-stricken and illegal aliens, many of whom have never paid a dime into the system.

• By the end of the ObamaCare projection period, Medicare payments will be one-half of equivalent Medicaid payments.

• ObamaCare slashes $818 billion from Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) from 2014 to 2023 -- the first 10 years of operation. Combined with Medicare Part B cuts (doctor fees and related services), ObamaCare cuts $1.05 trillion in the first ten years and $5 trillion over the first 20 years.

• Medicare Advantage will also be dramatically curtailed by ObamaCare; Medicare's Actuary estimates that half of all seniors with Medicare Advantage will lose their coverage.

The implications of these cuts are as ominous as they are obvious.

Thousands of doctors will stop seeing Medicare patients altogether. Many hospitals will either go out of business or dramatically raise rates on private insurers (two-thirds of hospitals already lose money on Medicare patients, according to the Chief Actuary).

And seniors will suffer most. There will be fewer doctors, surgeons and specialists because of ObamaCare's draconian price controls.

If you're a senior, you better get your ass to the polls in November.

Obama's bald lie -- "If you like your health plan, you will be able to keep it" -- does not apply to any American, least of all seniors.

ObamaCare must be repealed. And for seniors, it's November or never.


Based upon: How ObamaCare Guts Medicare.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Welcome to Venezuela: HHS Chief Sebelius Threatens Health Insurers With Promises of Revenge That Are Clearly Cribbed From Hugo Chavez

Here is further proof, as if you need it, that today we live in a Banana Republic.

...the Obama administration called on health plans to stop "misinformation and scare tactics" about the healthcare reform law... The administration's letter to America's Health Insurance Plans comes after several health plans told customers that they were raising rates in part because of the new law. In it, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned: "I want AHIP’s members to be put on notice: the Administration, in partnership with states, will not tolerate unjustified rate hikes in the name of consumer protections."

Sebelius acknowledges that the new law will cause an increase in premiums, albeit "minimal."

"According to our analysis and those of some industry and academic experts, any potential premium impact from the new consumer protections and increased quality provisions under the Affordable Care Act will be minimal," she writes. "We estimate that that the effect will be no more than one to two percent."

Excessive premium hikes, Sebelius warns, will not be tolerated.

"We will also keep track of insurers with a record of unjustified rate increases: those plans may be excluded from health insurance Exchanges in 2014. Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections."

The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats are among the most outrageous economic illiterates the world has ever seen. On the one hand, they command health insurers to increase the age of covered children from the ages of 21 to 26. On the other hand, as premiums inevitably rise as a result of their inane diktats, they screech at the evil insurers. But it is the insurers who actually have underwriting standards, actuarial calculations and understand the health insurance business. Sebelius and her bureaucrats understand little or none of the reality of health insurance. They are Soviet-style central planners -- and nothing more.

Here's proof: remember this story from earlier in the year?

Venezuela president Hugo Chávez warns shops not to raise prices


President Hugo Chávez has ordered Venezuelan troops to raid shops and businesses that raise prices today in the wake of a big currency devaluation.

"Right now, there is absolutely no reason for anybody to be raising prices of absolutely anything," he said yesterday . "I want the national guard on the streets with the people to fight against speculation. Publicly denounce the speculator and we will intervene in any business of any size."

...Speaking on his weekly TV show yesterday, Chávez said blame for any price rises would lie with speculators. The socialist leader told his defence minister to prepare an "offensive" against speculators and gave out telephone numbers to report price gouging.

Sebelius and Chavez have helpfully illustrated for us the madness of socialism: when the central planners' plans fail -- as they inevitably do -- they blame not themselves, but their victims. They do so because their failed ideology commands them to seek ever more power, more control, more authority. To do so, they must steal it from you.

The health insurance industry is simply a metaphor for you. It could be the oil companies. Or the drug companies. Or the coal companies. Or the doctors. Or the patients.

Big government is never to blame. Only you are. And therefore you must surrender more and more of your liberty to the government.

There's a word for this: it's called tyranny.

November will determine whether we begin to resist the slow descent into a Venezuelan-style failed society -- or we resurrect our once-proud Constitutional republic--where the government is limited, not the individual.


Friday, August 27, 2010

Anyone know of a good outplacement service for Harry Reid?

Professor Jacobson is understandably concerned with outplacement services for soon-to-be-ex-Senator Harry Reid.

The latest Mason-Dixon Poll released by the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows Reid up 1 point, 45-44... [but] Reid still is only polling at 45%, an abysmal number this late in the game for a multi-term incumbent [and d]espite two months of pummelling Angle, Reid still has higher negative numbers...

...Reid is in trouble, and his team knows it.  Expect even more over-the-top attacks on Angle, but it will not help.  Reid is a fully known quantity, and people know they don't like him.  That will not change. 

...[Also,] the NRA will not be endorsing Reid, with Reid's support of Elena Kagan as one of the motivation factors.

I don't think Nevadan voters will be fooled by Reid's hyperbole. Since he and his liberal colleagues have taken control of the Senate, they have given us:

• Three straight years of job losses with an unemployment rate that has more than doubled to nearly 10%;

• A national debt that has ballooned to over $13 trillion, an astronomic increase of 60%;

• A $787 billion pork- and boondoggle-laden "stimulus" bill in 2009, which did no stimulating of the economy and has only prolonged economic recovery;

• Record high home foreclosures that the American taxpayer is on the hook for because of misguided economic policies;

• Another "jobs bill" that cost taxpayers $18 billion, yet created no "jobs";

• The $700 billion TARP bill to bailout banks that couldn't balance their books; and

• The 2,000+ page health care takeover bill, which leaves the American taxpayer on the hook for another $2.6 trillion to pay for this new "entitlement."

Stimulus. TARP. ObamaCare. These three words will be written into the political obituaries of politicians who voted for these programs – and should definitely be branded onto the political epitaph of Harry Reid.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Gates of Vienna. Thanks!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

In Touch: Deb Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) proclaims "the recession is over"

Rejoice, Floridians: just below this sentence and to the left is the kind of dynamic intellect representing you in Washington.

Interviewed on Fox News by Greta Van Sustern this evening, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D) told viewers that the Great Recession is over. Those were her exact words: "the recession is over."

This should come as uplifting news for business owners and the unemployed, all of whom are suffering through one of the worst fiscal downturns in decades.

Wasser-Schultz is one of the more outrageous Democrats in Congress -- difficult though that may be to believe -- for her serial policy failures. For months now, WaSchultz has been proclaiming the success of the Obama Democrats' economic leadership. Plus health care. She really likes socialized health care.

...Insisting that her Congress and the Obama Administration are focused on “job creation and turning the economy around”, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz unloaded a whopper of a claim. As she was directly asked about our nation’s 10 percent unemployment rate, Rep. Wasserman-Schultz made the very dubious assertion that, “On the pace that we’re on with job creation in the last four months – if we continue on that pace – all the leading economists say it is likely that we will have created more jobs in this year than in the entire Bush Presidency."

Did I just hear a lie detector explode somewhere in the distance?

And this is the same rocket scientist who claimed a few months ago that there was no individual mandate in ObamaCare, stating: "We actually have not required in this law that you carry health insurance."

Even fifth graders know that's a freaking lie.

So what can you and I do? Support Karen Harrington for Congress. Seriously, donate a few bucks.


Linked by: NewsRealBlog. Thanks!