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POPSPrivate Health Insurance is a Defective Product DR. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER: Right. Well, the private insurers are getting millions of mandatory new customers. The taxpayers are going to give subsidies. It’s not going to make healthcare affordable, but it’s going to cost the taxpayers a lot of money to give these subsidies. Private health insurance is a defective product. We know from our studies of bankruptcy that the majority of Americans who face medical bankruptcy start their illness with private health insurance but are bankrupted anyway by gaps in coverage, like co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services.
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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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POPSObama and The Democrats Want You to Know They Had a Good Week
During his campaign, in effect, Mr Obama promised to be the constraint: to oversee Congress and guide it with a moderating hand. That was the difference he promised to make. There were always going to be limits to what he could do, but his failure so far even to try has been total. He has let nearly every agenda be set by the Democrats’ left-leaning congressional leadership. This comes in a country in which 40 per cent of voters call themselves conservatives, 36 per cent moderates and 20 per cent liberals. Voters are confused and concerned about the policies coming forward " above all by their mounting cost " but he has made little effort to explain or reassure, let alone influence. He has chosen to act as cheerleader for whatever congressional Democrats cook up. On healthcare, Mr Obama stood aside during months of chaotic haggling in Congress. By the summer, unsurprisingly, voters opposed to reform outnumbered voters in favour " again, above all, expressing worries . . .
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POPSSNeaker Pelosi's Useful Idiots List CA-11 McNerney, Jerry R+1 IL-08 Bean, Melissa R+1 IL-11 Halvorson, Debbie R+1 IL-14 Foster, Bill R+1 MN-01 Walz, Tim R+1 NY-23 Owens, Bill R+1 PA-12 Murtha, John R+1 NH-01 Shea-Porter, Carol R+0 NY-01 Bishop, Timothy R+0 TX-28 Cuellar, Henry R+0
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POPSTragedy at Ft. Hood An American with a brain AND common sense along with a resume and experience. He dares to speak the truth. Excellent article. FTA: "There should not be some 30 Islamic terrorist training camps in America that has nothing to do with First Amendment, Freedom of Religion. The Saudis are not our friends and any American political figure who believes such is delusional."
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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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POPSDana Milbank Is, as Mark Levin Describes Him, "A Punk, a Liar and a Coward" Constitutional attorney, bestselling author and hit radio show host Mark Levin certainly doesn't mince words. Alerted to Milbank's latest hit piece in The Washington Post, Levin called Milbank out as a propagandist of the first order. The reason: out of literally tens of thousands of patriotic signs and shirts at Thursday's Capitol Hill protest, Milbank picked out a handful as supposedly representative of a crowd he described as "hateful and gruesome." An outraged Levin called Milbank a "punk, a liar and a coward" while challenging him to a debate on his show. Here's a Nazi reference that Milbank might appreciate: I think of him as the Josef Goebbels of his age. He writes patent propaganda in service of the State. And I can prove it. Bubba visited DC for the rally and wandered through the crowd for hours taking scores of photos. I created a montage -- click to zoom if you'd like read the dozens of visible messages -- from his collection.
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POPSOwens Breaks 4 Campaign Promises in First Hour in Congress Mr. Owens also indicated during his campaign that he was firmly opposed to cutting Medicare benefits, taxing health care benefits, and increased taxes on the middle class in any way as you can see clearly in the screenshot taken directly from Mr. Owens' campaign website. http://www.gouverneurtimes.com/images/stories/2009/11/06/oewns-screenshot.jpg The House Health reform bill contains sections that cut Medicare benefits, tax existing health care benefits, and increases taxes on the middle class, yet Mr. Owens stated today that he will now vote in favor of those things contrary to what he had promised the voters of NY's 23rd Congressional District that he would vote against. Mr. Owens indicated in his press release today that "This legislation will reform the insurance industry and provide increased access to affordable healthcare without taxing healthcare benefits, cutting Medicare benefits or raising taxes on the middle class, and that is exactly the direction.....
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POPSPELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail Or you could pay a fine for, you know, being alive. I had joked before about them eventually taxing you for breathing to cut down on CO2 emissions, but I never though they would really tax you for doing nothing more than being alive.
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POPSCapitalism again proves to the the source of the problem
This article is a must-read. The unfair capitalist healthcare system causes a glut on doctors in rich areas where they can earn more, and a sparsity in areas where they would earn less, like poor communities. Do people still think that America can get by without reforming Healthcare? Doctor's salaries need to be standardized, so a doctor working in a dirt-poor area of Arkansas is going make the same amount (by scale of skill) as a doctor in Malibu, California. 50 million uninsured Americans, and another 50 million underinsured Americans are too many people to be excluded from proper, complete healthcare. It's criminal, and amoral. C'mon, all you right-wingers! Don't you think that women and newborn children dying from perfectly preventable causes during childbirth is more important that wondering if federal money is going to perform abortions? Don't you think that people ending up losing limbs or eyesight due to lack of care for their diabetes is more important than getting all work
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POPSThis? You're going to cover this? so, let me get this straight - no single payer, "public" might not be an option, but one of your solutions to the problems we have with health care in this country is PAYING PEOPLE TO PRAY FOR YOU?!?
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POPSAnother Republican says health care reform will destroy America. Rep. Broun, that is. Right -- if a liberal like Grayson calls out Republicans (who have no health care plan), they get their freak on. But I guess they have already been immunized to conservative insanity. Oh, and we have Rep. Gohmert saying this: Dems Would Allow Seniors To "Die Off More Quickly" This is standard conservative behavior that never gets mentioned by the media. It only comes up when a liberal is attacked and then they spend 24-48 hours to defend themselves and are forced to use these outrageous statement made by Republicans. And of course they have no traction, because of the defensive position the media puts liberals in.
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POPSHouse GOP Brings Transparency To HealthCare Bill Online The GOP will continue its online push against the bill on Thursday, when Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) will lead a 12-hour online town hall to discuss health care. VIA Representative Bob Latta (Oh.-R) http://latta.amplify.com/ Meanwhile, the Republican caucus is using the social networking site Amplify to highlight portions of the bill with which they take issue. On their page healthcaretruth.amplify.com, Republican users share the actual text of the bill up for discussion and leave a comment. Other users can leave their own comments or share the content using Twitter, Facebook, Digg and other social networking tools. Reps. Boehner, Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) spearheaded the project, and Boehner introduced it to other House Republicans this morning at their weekly members-only meeting. http://rnmc.amplify.com/2009/11/03/house-gop-brings-transparency-to-health-care-reform/
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POPSEverybody dance now: Give back to my campaign contributors two-step Not to pick on Sen. Sessions because Senators and Representatives on both sides of the aisle have been lining up for the past several weeks now to give short term "free rides" on duties for manufacturers in their states. The are all defended on the grounds that these are only temporary reductions and not a big give away. Grin. You place your orders for the material you need for the next six months to fit in the window of the "temporary" give back and it gives you a free ride for six months - sometimes even a year. Pretty slick eh? Not any more, now you know about this innocent appearing pay back scheme. How big it is? In $ II could not say but there have been more than 200 of these bills introduced in the last few weeks - that's big. But they can decide on healthcare til the end of the your or more - gimme a break!
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