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POPSThe Root of Much of What Ails Our Health-Care System ~ “Third-Party-Payer Problem”
to create impenetrable bureaucratic barriers between you and their money. There’s a reason why claims forms are so complicated.... There is much to lament about that system, and real reform is needed. A meaningful body of reforms would do three things: 1) establish a real market for health-care services and health insurance, one that is fiercely competitive and driven by consumers who are not beholden to their employers, the government, or any concern other than their own needs; 2) take intelligent steps to reduce the expense of health care and health insurance, and the bureaucracy attached to them; 3) offer intelligently designed support for the poor, the sick, and other vulnerable participants in the market. Here are ten things that would go a long way toward getting that done: 1) Insurance Choice. 2) Real Competition: A National Market for Health Insurance. 3) Price Transparency. 4) High Ceilings for HSAs (and No Taxes). 5) Insurance on Your Insuran
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POPSThe internal contradictions of ObamaCare Another major difference is that medical school is free in places like France. Here, doctors go to work with truly crushing med school debt that take years to pay down. Its hardly fair that they invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their education and could now be told they can’t expect the ‘doctor’ type compensation we’re used to seeing.
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POPS "None Of Our Business" … CNSnews.com has confirmed that “the actual final text of the legislation will be determined by Reid himself , who will consolidate the legislation approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the still-unapproved legislation from the Senate Finance Committee. Reid will be able to draft and insert textual language that was not expressly approved by either committee.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will write the final version of Obamacare to be considered in the Senate with no input from the American people.. Then the House rubber stamps the Senate bill and rushes it into the President’s hands: The final step in this plan is for the House to take up Obama care, without amending the legislation, and then sending that bill directly to the President for his signature.
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POPSThe Two Party Facade Continues The Democratic super majority still remains ineffective in passing what the people want and need. It takes a comedian to point out the absurdity of this situation.
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POPSUSA: Panel votes to restore abstinence education money Late last night, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) pushed through an amendment in the Senate Finance Committee authorizing $50 million in funding for abstinence-only programs as part of Health Care Reform- despite over 10 years of evidence that these programs do not work. By a razor-thin vote of 12-11, the Senators on the Finance Committee gave conservative ideology a victory over science and common sense. See ↗ Advocates For Youth .
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POPSOnline Premium Web Directory Premium Directory of Information and business resources. Search on various categories, Cadillac Tight is family friendly human edited directory. We review all listing prior accepting into our directory.
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POPSObama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections U.S. Big Labor Department swings into action Instead of focusing on the economy or the alarming unemployment trends, Obama’s Big Labor Department seems to have focused little on the men and women behind those numbers. Instead, Secretary Solis has focused like a laser beam on eliminating disclosure of labor bosses perks and their spending of money collected as a condition of employment from millions of workers. And that is not all; Obama’s Labor Department creatively and without rulemaking eliminated 2008 Bush Administration reform of Labor Officer conflict-of-interest reporting. The following is the de facto rulemaking: Note: The Office of Labor-Management Standards will publish in the spring 2009 Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda notice of an intended rulemaking to revise the Form LM-30 (Labor Organization Officer and Employee Report). The rulemaking is intended to review questions of policy and law surrounding these reporting requirements. ......
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POPSTexas school district turns away students from Mexico It had to happen sooner or later, I know it would be either Texas or Arizona. If Obama’s health care reform package claims it will not offer health care to non American citizen’s then that should be the policy for our public schools as well. While it is sad to see children not get a good education, I can’t help but side with the fact that U.S. citizens are paying for our public schools through our tax proceeds. It just simply is not right to provide an education to another country if that country is not going to pay for it.
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POPSHow Obama Can Make Healthcare Better Without Congress This is the same sort of silliness that President Bush suggested when he was pushing immigration reform "If Congress passes my immigration reform bill, I will start enforcing existing laws regarding immigration." In both these examples, the duty of the president is to execute the laws and run the executive departments faithfully. That includes stopping fraud, criminality, and waste -- regardless of what Congress does. Without waiting for congressional approval, which he does not need to end fraud in Medicaid, push our schools to bring back physical education, or streamline the process of FDA approval of drugs, President Obama could begin to make healthcare in America better and less costly right now. But that assumes that President Obama actually wants to improve healthcare in America. In fact, all the countless speeches, all the vastly complex congressional bills, all the relentless insistence that America is in crisis, are all intended to accomplish just one thing:
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POPSParents: Opt-out of Obama speech? "Unless we get public assurances from the White House that the president won’t address health care or global warming or the homosexual agenda (under the color of “human rights for people different than us”) this might be a great time for parents to exercise their opt-out authority and give their students a biography of George Washington to read while the President turns the minds of an entire generation to mu"
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POPS Change WH withdraws call for students to 'help' Obama President Obama's plan to inspire the nation's schoolchildren with a video address next week erupted into controversy Wednesday, forcing the White House to pull out its eraser and rewrite a government recommendation that teachers nationwide assign students a paper on how to "help the president." White House aides said the language was an honest misunderstanding in what was supposed to be a inspirational, pro-education message to America's youths. Among the activities the government initially suggested for prekindergarten to sixth-grade students: that they " write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president." Another task recommended for students immediately after listening to the speech: to engage in a discussion about what "the president wants us to do." http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/02/wh-withdraws-call-students-help-obama/
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POPSObama Administration Sued Over Healthcare Enemies List Nevertheless, say the two groups filing suit, the information collection effort continues under another name and is part of an "unlawful pattern and practice to collect and maintain information" on the exercise of free speech, which "continues in violation of the Privacy Act and First Amendment even if the Defendants terminate a particular information-collection component due to negative publicity." "My hate mail started shortly after the White House issued the 'fishy' request," said Kathryn Serkes, AAPS' Director of Policy and Public Affairs. "We were quite visible and vocal before then, so it doesn't seem like a coincidence. Who did they share their data with? With whom might they share it?" In the suit, the groups are demanding the White House remove all information already collected, and further, be prohibited from collecting any personal data in the future. Follow the Thomas Jefferson Street blog on Twitter. https://twitter.com/tjsblog
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POPSFast Food Industry’s 7 Most Heinous Concoctions The American fast food industry, in its attempt to survive at the expense of our health, has come up with some creative gastronomical mashups that not only play on our weakness for artery-hardening, sugar-saturated, taste-bud tantalizers but also keeps the U.S. health care system fat with wasted spending. The best way to ‘reform’ this country’s health care system is to stop feeding it with our extremely unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles that leads to heart disease, cancer, stroke, COPD, diabetes, etc. We like the convenience of fast food, but we can force fast food chains to come up with healthier fare by educating ourselves on what a healthy diet actually consists of, and what it doesn’t. Trust me, a healthy diet is not offered at fast food restaurants. Education and a desire to live a longer healthier life is key.
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POPSSave Health Care Innovation! for example, make utility or mortgage payments on time or finance the education of the family’s children. 3. The future growth in national health spending should be constrained to fall significantly below currently projected spending growth, which has the United States devoting about 40 percent of its G.D.P. to health care by midcentury. All other goals are subordinate to these three overarching goals, as are the means to reach them. All other goals? Many of us hope that one goal is to preserve the US system as the last bastion of innovation in the development of new drugs and new treatment methods. Europe, by way of contrast, has bent their cost curve, in the short run anyway, by underinvesting in that sort of thing. ERRATA: From the WaPo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/06/19/DI2009061902140.html
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POPSVoight: Is Obama creating a civil war in America? ""Do not let the Obama administration fool you with all their cunning Alinsky methods. And if you don't know what that method is, I implore you to get the book 'Rules for Radicals,' by Saul Alinsky. Mr. Obama is very well trained in these methods," he continues, citing a television campaign critical of the Republican Party and contentious town-hall meetings about health care reform. "The real truth is that the Obama administration is professional at bullying, as we have witnessed with ACORN at work during the presidential campaign. It seems to me they are sending down their bullies to create fist fights among average American citizens who don't want a government-run health care plan forced upon them," Mr. Voight says. "So I ask again. Is President Obama creating a civil war in our own country?""
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POPSDemocrat Plan: Make the IRS the Internal Medical Service (a)TAX IMPOSED."In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of" (1)the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over (2) the amount of gross income specified in section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer. The Senate version is similar, although the tax is called a "shared responsibility payment" not a tax. Wow, a "tax" isn't as scary " but a "shared responsibility payment"? That's when you know you'll get hosed. House, kid, you were good, real good, but the Senate receives the 2009 George Orwell Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Euphemizing. Of course, "shared responsibility" sounds good to many, but the reality is that it won't truly be shared. For one thing, this burden will only fall on those who work on the books and actually file a tax return.
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POPSMobs, Bullies and Fascists 101
The shock-jocks like Limbaugh are out there in the shadows of their microphones waiting to make an attack on the innate fears of the populous. They exaggerate, amplify, blow out of proportion and hyperbolize everything and I mean EVERYTHING that may cause apprehension amongst those who are unaware of what the radio host real motive is (make ada BIG BUCKS!). In other words they prey upon the gullible for gain. I wish these vulnerable people could become informed the old fashion way by reading and inquiring the many information outlets available (legitimate newspapers and educational library books) but that's too difficult for them, plus they may be too worn-out from the hard lives they are forced to lead, due to lack of information and education. It's just too easy to click a knob on the old TV or radio and tune into the shows that dumb down their audiences. Also, the Limbaugh's give them a punching bag to direct their pant-up anger at. It’s not only sad, it’s criminal.
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POPSRepublican senator: Health care bill is bad enough we don't need to lie about it More: Murkowski said the nation's health care system needs reform to control costs and improve access to care, but bad legislation will only make it worse. Last month, she voted against a health reform measure that emerged from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "I'll be honest with you," Murkowski said. "There are things that are in this bill that are bad enough that we don't need to be making things up."
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POPSSparta Reconsidered The Spartan public educational system, the agoge, was admired almost universally by contemporaries, from historians such as Herodotus and Xenophon to philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. Although Spartans were proud to say that they built their monuments "in flesh"—meaning that the virtue and courage of Sparta's citizens were the greatest monuments a city-state could possess—they were not lacking in architectural and artistic achievements, as was well catalogued by the Ancient Greek tour-guide, Pausanias. Spartan music and dance were famous throughout the ancient world, and the oldest recorded heterosexual love poem was the work of a Spartan poet praising Spartan maidens. Spartan wit and mastery of rhetoric were so widely admired that ancient Greek scholars collected "Spartan sayings" and the "Laconic" style of speech was studied and imitated in intellectual circles. & as a culture, not all that gay[/u
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POPSSticker Shock Threatens To Stall Health Care Overhaul even if that means it will take longer for the economy to recover." costs are "a boulder no one can move." The White House has said "it it can save $622 billion in health care costs over the next 10 years by paring hospital subsidies to the uninsured, changing how certain Medicare payments are made to providers, and cutting waste and fraud from Medicare and Medicaid." The rest would likely be paid for in tax increases. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which would subsidize people to help them pay for insurance premiums, and found that "those subsidies alone would cost an estimated $1.28 trillion." "Tanner warned"and CBO officials agreed"that such initial estimates are the 'floor, not the ceiling' on costs" (Lightman and Douglas, 6/19). Republicans and Democrats alike are questioning those costs, The Los Angeles Times reports. On ABC's "This Week”, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,
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POPSSenate Panel Passes Health Bill One Democratic aide said the bill would add up to $1.5 trillion over the next decade. But the CBO estimate showed that even if the price tag holds to $1 trillion, more than 80 percent of the costs will hit in the last five years. This indicates that after 2019, taxpayers could be hit with a rising tidal wave of health care expenses resulting from the shift in health care coverage from the private to public sector. Amid those staggering estimates, advocates and foes of such a plan are facing off in a pitched battle on Capitol Hill, coinciding with the tame-by-comparison drama of Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearing. "This bill has massive spending and massive tax increases to try to cover the spending in the bill," Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said at a press conference with other congressional Republicans Tuesday, complaining about a provision in the House bill to tax the wealthy. "Half of that will be hit on small businesses."
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POPSEmployer Health Care Mandate ‘Tax on Jobs’ National Retail Federation~Steve Pfister is NRF's Senior Vice President for Government Relations, ... We need to add new jobs, not exacerbate the near double-digit unemployment numbers. We cannot afford to have new and existing jobs priced out of our collective reach because of mandated health coverage.” Pfister’s comments came in a letter to members of the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means Committees. The three panels have drafted a joint “Tri-Committee Bill” on health care reform that the full House could vote on by the end of the month. Pfister said NRF opposes a number of provisions in the Tri-Committee Bill, including a publicly sponsored insurance plan that would compete with private insurance plans and lead to cost shifting similar to that already seen with Medicare and Medicaid. NRF also opposes a limited five-year grandfathering of existing group health plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act because . . .
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POPSAmericans Utter a Collective “Ooops” This certainly proves that America has NOT become a ‘center-left’ nation at all. And we are now seeing the actual results of this shift in the public. Cap & Trade - stalled. Healthcare Reform - stalled. Second Stimulus - not a chance in Hell. Pelosi - a lying failure. Reid - incompetent failure. Obama - don’t know where to begin with that one. The only problem for the Republican Party is how to channel this Democrat-rejection into a positive vision going into 2010. One idea: campaign on reversing the Porkulus legislation before it fully bankrupts the nation.
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POPSUnions gave ACORN nearly $10 million The bulk of the donations came from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which contributed $7.4 million between 2005 and 2008 to the national organization, state chapters and allied groups. SEIU’s single largest donation of $1.5 million went to the ACORN Community Labor Organizing Center (ACLOC) in 2006. SEIU also made a $1.3 million donation to ACORN International in 2005. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Communication Workers of America (CWA), and the National Education Association (NEA) were other top contributors. SEIU Locals 100 and 880 were listed as allied organizations on ACORN’s web site until The Examiner highlighted this connection. Why would unions pay 10 million dollars to a group of community organizers?
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POPSAlthough Ignored By the Media-- Palin's Accomplishments Were Extensive We also slowed the rate of government growth, we worked with the Legislature to save billions of dollars for the future, and I made no lobbyist friends with my hundreds of millions of dollars in budget vetoes... but living beyond our means today is irresponsible for tomorrow. We took government out of the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands - where it should be. We provided unprecedented support for education initiatives, and with the right leadership, finally filled long-vacant public safety positions. We built a sub-Cabinet on Climate Change and took heat from Outside special interests for our biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance. We broke ground on the new prison. And we made common sense conservative choices to eliminate personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, the junkets... the entourage. And the Lt. Governor and I said "no" to our pay raises. So much success in this first term - and with this success I am proud to take credit...
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POPSChicago Schools Note that Arne Duncan was selected by Barrack Hussein Obama as Secretary of Education because of his Excellent performance with the Chicago public schools.
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POPSThe House Health Care Bill: A Blueprint for Federal Control Democrats are scrambling to maintain of the "Buzz Words" as Americans are reeling away from OBAMA care as the details are SLOOOOOWLY coming to the surface. for something so urgent, they sure do take their own sweet time to let the public know the little "devil" in democratic "Details"
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