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POPSObamaCare endorsements: What the bribe was The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the healthcare bill. Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues. Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP — which supposedly represents them — will make more money
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POPSKucinich: Why I voted NO I'm so torn. I think we should have fought harder for a single-payer bill, even though I know that would have been a much harder battle. But I don't think that voting no on this was the solution, either. As much as I would like BIG CHANGE, I know that can't happen in one fell swoop. Baby steps, unfortunately, will get us to that final goal. Hopefully, the public will realize, soon, that we need single payer!
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POPSHere Are Some Important Passages in the 2,000 Page Legislation.
Eviscerating Medicare: In addition to reducing future Medicare funding by an estimated $500 billion, the bill fundamentally changes how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals, permitting the government to dictate treatment decisions. Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) moves Medicare from a fee-for-service payment system, in which patients choose which doctors to see and doctors are paid for each service they provide, toward what's called a "medical home." (The bill specifies that patients may have to settle for a nurse practitioner rather than a physician as the primary-care provider.) Sec. 1114 (pp. 391-393) replaces physicians with physician assistants in overseeing care for hospice patients. • Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors). Advantage plans have warned this will result in . . . .
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POPSCorrupted doctors When you lied once at least, who will trust you further? :cool: Striking example of our totally corrupted medicine and health care. Corrupted by whom? Who corrupt society and its institutions? How we calling those who perform the corruption and their accomplices? If these organized individuals do corrupt our society, how can we expect any benefits for our health and well being from them, their actions? Lie cannot last forever and in the end the truth will find its way out. Who will resist to make it happen?
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POPSThe Biggest Risk To US Physicians: The AMA The following is a posting I presented along with the poll to the Sermo physician community on July 1st, 2009 First posted to the Sermo physician community on July 01, 2009: From the Founder: The Biggest Risk to US Physicians: The AMA As physicians, our first step in the health care debate needs to be clearing the air about who speaks for us on what topics. Today, I am joining the increasing waves of physicians who believe that the AMA no longer speaks for us. As the founder and CEO of Sermo, this is a considerable change of heart, given the high hopes that I had when we first partnered with the AMA over two years ago. The sad fact is that the AMA membership has now shrunk to the point where the organization should no longer claim that it represents physicians in this country. The AMA has drawn its power from the support of the physician community. The waning membership reflects our objection as the AMA has failed us consistently for over 50 years.
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POPSPETA's dirty secrets: 7 things you didn't know about PETA
More: regularly target children as young as six years old with anti-meat and anti-milk propaganda, often waiting outside their schools to intercept them as they walk to and from class-without notifying parents.… PETA…fund the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a deceptive animal rights group that promotes itself as an unbiased source of medical and nutritional information… PETA…billboards taunt Christians with the message that hogs "died for their sins."…And its infamous "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign crassly compares the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide with farm animals. PETA has repeatedly attacked research foundations like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, because they support animal-based research that might uncover cures for birth defects and life-threatening diseases…president Ingrid Newkirk has said that "even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we would be against it."
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POPSNo Cap on Government Control of Healthcare Rules! SENATE: PUBLIC OPTION STILL ALIVE! The Senate's version of healthcare reform is slated to be voted on by the Finance Committee on Tuesday. But the House bill has already been approved by several committees and is sure to play a major role in any conference by the House and Senate to reconcile the bills those bodies pass. Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella noted that under the House bill, physicians would be drafted into the public option, a provision Dr. Blaylock has earlier called "conscription." This bill "is virtually a draft because it says all physicians are automatically in the public option unless they opt out, and the opt out mechanism will be later determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services," Dr. Blaylock said. "Well, we don't know how difficult it will be for physicians to opt out. Will there be penalties, fines, taxes, etc.? Because that's all left up to the Secretary."
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POPSHealth Bills In Congress Won't Fix Doctor Shortage Add More Residents? 'Dead on Arrival' Almost everyone agrees on how to build up the supply of primary care physicians: create more residency positions at teaching hospitals for family doctors and internists to complete their training and significantly increase how much primary care doctors get paid by Medicare and other insurers. But there’s resistance to these steps because of their costs. A proposal backed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the teaching hospital lobby to add 15,000 Medicare-funded medical residency positions -- a 15 percent increase that would favor more primary care training -- was considered dead on arrival because of its $10 billion price tag over a decade. Proponents said it was a small price to pay, in legislation that could run as high as $1 trillion, to ensure that patients have access to doctors. Instead, the House and Senate overhaul bills would redistribute about 1,000 unfilled residency positions . . .
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POPSOklahoma Abortion Law: Details To Be Publicly Posted Online This defense is questionable. Feminists For Choice argues, "In reviewing the actual text of the law, the first 8 questions that will be asked and reported could easily be used to identify any member of a smaller community." The Center For Reproductive Rights, former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton (D-Okla.), and Okla. resident Lora Joyce David have filed a lawsuit to prevent this contentious abortion bill from going into effect, on the grounds that it violates the state's constitution.
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POPSWH's botched 'op' I know my doctor is very concerned. The extra staff he has to hire to understand & handle the insurance issues now struggle with the red tape. Imagine what it will be like with a complete change? How long will it take for a staff member, as well as each doctor, insurance representative, lab tech, etc....to learn what's in those 1000+ pages?
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POPSWhite Coats passed out to Docs A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing Obama’s pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress. The physicians, all invited guests, were told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image. But some docs apparently forgot, failing to meet the White House dress code by showing up in business suits or dresses. So the White House rustled up white coats for them and handed them to the suited physicians who had taken seats in the sun-splashed lawn area. ‘You look very spiffy in your coats.’ Obama told the group of doctors after his aides had handed out a great many of them. UPDATE: Patterico is not sure that all of the doctors in attendance at the President’s photo op were even pro-ObamaCare . According to the testimony of one doctor who was invi
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POPSMinus Public Option, Obamacare Still Stinks not those ineligible for assistance ― or outright thieves. Grassley proposed that individuals show government-issued photo identification when applying for Medicaid or SCHIP: the State Child Health Insurance Program. On a party line vote, Democrats killed Grassley's measure and helped the undeserving snatch everyone else's hard-earned tax dollars. ― Democrats enshrined waste, fraud, and abuse when their party-line vote squelched Texas Republican John Cornyn's amendment to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid. ― Democrats torpedoed Idaho Republican Mike Crapo's amendment to block any Medicaid expansion that imposes unfunded mandates on the states. ― Kansas Republican Pat Roberts tried to secure flexibility and choice for Americans with Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Savings Accounts, and other financial instruments that foster personal responsibility. He tried to remove a draft provision that prohibits reimbursing such accounts for purchases . . .
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POPSCredibility I think the doctors that attended this photo op have lost credibility, but not quite as much as the big O.
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POPSDoctors for Obama, Arm of the Obama Campaign That Boasted More Than 10,000 Members ....... sent out an email on September 18, which was received by Beverly B. Nuckols, MD, of Texas, who blogged: The only people who kept bringing up “what physicians can be doing now to ensure that Congress pushes forward to create meaningful health reform” were the same guys who made sure that the rest of us were on “listen-in” mode only.Still no mention about the close connections with Senator Max Baucus, the Obama election and transition teams, the Center for American Progress and John Podesta, or (specifically) Dr. Murthy’s own role on the transition team. Dr. Murthy, an internal medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, is also the co-founder and president of Doctors for America. Dr. Nuckols did some serious sleuthing and discovered: The leadership at Doctors for America is made up of nearly the same roster of men and women who, in 2008, were the leadership of “Doctors for Obama” in 2008.
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POPSHow to Choose a Non-Surgical Scar Treatment Product Have you ever done an internet search for products that help reduce scarring? If you have, you are painfully aware of the fact that there are an abundance of creams, gels, lotions and sheets on the market. One could literally spend days going through all the websites promoting products that claim to reduce scars, some of them making outrageous claims about their benefits.
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POPSIt's Not Torture (Rape) When We Do It. What I really despise, is that OUR kids are being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan to learn how to become monsters, all in the name of "patriotism" and funded by us, their parents!. What will they be like when they return home? How do we live with what we've allowed to happen? And, no, it's not OK for us to do it. Two wrongs don't make a right and the ends do not justify the means.
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POPSNew England Journal of Medicine: Contain health costs by removing profit incentives As long as there is a profit incentive to add services, medical care will be first a business focused on increasing profits rather than a service improving health. "Furthermore, competition doesn’t lower prices in medical care as it does in other markets, because physicians usually choose the services to be provided and are paid largely by insurance " not by the consumers for whose business they would compete if this were an ordinary market."
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POPSsodomized to protect our freedoms this is from a report by physicians for human rights- "Broken Laws, Broken Lives" accounts of how US personal tortured men in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo
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POPSThe WHO's Overblown "Pandemic", Common Cold Worse With only 29,000 cases globally this refutes WHO's declaration of Swine Flu "pandemic", level 6, which has the potential of triggering draconian governmental powers. The Common Cold is an "unstoppable virus" with 1 billion cases annually--in the U.S. alone, has no "cure" or "vaccine", and is not a "pandemic"! The definition of "pandemic" is being abused. Where is the outcry of physicians against this! Tired of this propaganda.
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POPSMore docs for healthcare change than against it Don't know where all the heat is coming from when most in healthcare want meaningful reform. Is it just that those who oppose the President want to win by trying to make him lose? Weird country this - at times like these. I know tons of folks who don't get the preventive and corrective care they need because they can't afford it. and then theres' my 70 year-old buddy who is doing great because he is fully covered because of his coverage from the VA and Medicare - two government run healthcare programs that some say we should be afraid of - go figure.
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POPSHealth Insurance Bankrupts Americans
A Harvard study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses. Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem. Consider the plight of David: David had to stop working as a truck driver after he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and has since been struggling to pay for COBRA during the two-year Medicare waiting period. His wife, Gloria, is his full-time caregiver and cannot work outside the home, and the couple has had to use much of their savings and borrow from friends and family to pay for their COBRA premiums. David cashed in his 401K at a 24 percent loss so that they will be able to continue to pay the COBRA premium until he is eligible for Medicare. Gloria tried to apply for Medicaid, but she learned that their income is too high. "There is not any help for people like us. We are not considered poor enough, but we don't have the money to pay it on our own," Gloria sa
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POPS45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul 45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul From IBDeditorials.com Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found. The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors’ own lobby " the powerful American Medical Association " both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul. It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration’s claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost. Pfft " What the bleep do they know? (/sarc) The willingness of a professional organization to betray its own members’ interests is the real story here.
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