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POPSThe Left Pounds ObamaCare, some more Even that single payer maven, Representative Weiner said on WNYC: (http://bit.ly/68EVxB) “I’m not taking the Senate Bill. We’re going to go into a conference hopefully, we’re going to get back to close to where the house is. We’re not taking the Senate Bill. That Senate Bill should not become law.” And " “Peggy Noonan, the columnist and former Reagan speechwriter, told Axelrod on “Morning Joe”: “On the issue of health care, you are losing the left, you are losing the right, you are losing the center. That looks to me like a political disaster.” Pretty much, ’nuff said.
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POPSSpeak Truth to Power: Sen. Bernie Sanders Remarks on Withdrawing Single Payer Amendment. watch video @ clip source. Why are we spending twice as much on health care as other countries, with worse outcomes? Because the emphasis is on protecting private insurance companies Fifteen times more Americans die of preventable diseases than were murdered in the horrific 9/11 attack and that takes place every year: a manifestation of a collapsing system. Conservatives in other countries are outraged by the lies that are told by U.S. conservatives about the health care system in their countries We are producing legions and legions of insurance company bureaucrats: factor that into rising health care costs. The US Conference of Mayors supports Single Payer
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POPSSingle-payer health care plan dies in Senate The House already has approved its version of the health care bill, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday she was confident a final compromise would be signed into law before Obama's 2010 State of the Union address.
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POPSTop Communist Sam Webb on the Healthcare Struggle Employee Free Choice, climate change legislation, immigration reform, and other key battles. Some left and progressive people dismiss this danger, but politics is not only about passing laws, as important as that is " it is also about gaining and maintaining the initiative, building on victories no matter how small, and expanding the breadth and depth of the coalition at every opportunity. It’s higher math, not elementary addition and subtraction. The health care reform fight is not over, of course, since the Senate has yet to act and the balance of power is less favorable there. Still, the House vote gives fresh impetus to the broader movement to bring its weight to bear on Senate deliberations and then on to the reconciliation process where the bill can be improved, including through deletion of toxic elements like the Stupak amendment that would curtail access to abortions.
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POPSNew HealthCare Quagmire: Dingy Just Rolled The Dice 1. By breeching the historic dividing line between private and public plans now at 65, it opens the door for an expansion of Medicare to become just the single payer we are trying to stop. 2. How can you expand Medicare, potentially to tens of millions more people while cutting it by $500 billion? 3. The cuts in doctor and hospital reimbursement rates written into this bill will force hundreds of thousands of medical providers to refuse to treat Medicare patients. By applying these low reimbursements to patients 55-64, now, you are driving doctors out of the profession and discouraging others from entering it. A permanent scarcity of doctors will be the inevitable result. 4. The expansion of Medicaid to 150% of the poverty level imposes huge new financial burdens on states. It will cost Texas $3 billion, Pennsylvania $2 billion, California $2 billion, and Florida $1.3 billion. It will cost Arkansas and Louisiana $500 million each.
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POPSThe Federal Student-Loan Takeover Gets Booed in Academia
But before the bill has even come to the Senate floor, federal officials have been making unsolicited contacts to schools urging them to accept this "public option." In October, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter to schools nationwide offering to help them "in taking the necessary steps to ensure uninterrupted access to federal student loans by ensuring your institution is Direct Loan-ready for the 2010-2011 academic year." Schools got the message. The leader of a large university recently refused to discuss the issue with us on the record, fearful that the feds are taking names. Rep. John Kline (R., Minn.) has asked the Department of Education's inspector general to investigate efforts by officials to encourage outside groups to advocate for the ban on private lenders. He wants to know if department staff violated a federal law against lobbying with appropriated funds, among other possible offenses. WSJournal http://bit.ly/6P78Lb
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POPSABC's Johnson Recites Canard Lack of Health Insurance Kills 45,000 Annually
Trying to boost the rationale for ObamaCare, Thursday's CBS Evening News ran two stories from far-left sources, but the network disguised the agenda behind both. Katie Couric announced that "while the debate goes on over the cost of insuring everyone, a new study reveals the cost of not doing it. The Harvard study says nearly 45,000 American deaths every year are linked to a lack of insurance. "Neither she, nor reporter Jim Axelrod, noted that the report was really produced by Physicians for a National Health Program, "the only national physician organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program." ....with the numbers on screen credited to "Harvard Medical School" and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler identified on screen as with "Harvard Medical School," Axelrod reported Woolhandler "was part of a team that tracked more than 9,000 people for up to 13 years, comparing the health of those with insurance to those without ...
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POPS14th AMENDMENT-Equal Protection clause. Besides the systemic ban, a key component of ObamaCare may also run afoul of the Constitution. The "individual mandate" for citizens to buy health insurance seems to violate the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. In The Washington Post, attorneys David Rivkin and Lee Casey assert: The otherwise uninsured would be required to buy coverage...for no other reason than that people without health insurance exist. The federal government does not have the power to regulate Americans simply because they are there.
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POPSHealthcare Lies #1 in Series I ask: Who was it, when was it, and what was the alleged purpose of instituting such regulations? Behind the alleged intentions, what were the true intentions? Was there pre-knowledge that the effect would be detrimental to consumers in the long run? Was the well-being of the people sacrificed in order to cause the state of healthcare to degenerate and costs to spiral out of control just so eventually the people would acquiesce to governmental control? After all, go back only to the Clinton effort. When that failed do you imagine Democrats wanted to see conditions improve or get worse? That answer is obvious. The worse it got, the more pleased they had to be.
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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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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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POPSThe Public Option Deception (New Audio) P. Klugman explains how it will be regardless of what it's called. Private health care people will be paying higher premiums along with the increased taxes and eventually the government system will "look" more practical and people will succumb. (I think that's what I got out of it)
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POPSObama's Tax-Payer Funded Propaganda Campaign 
The President's website starts from the premise of public option--that is what the Left has long desired. Government run health care, aka Single Payer (the government) is what they covet. They know that they'll likely lose seats in 2010, so this is their last, best, and probably only hope of getting the prize. "Reform will stop 'rationing' not increase it": Right now, when a person needs a procedure that is not covered by his insurance company, the individual complains to the doctor and to the insurance company. The doctor asks the insurance company for a review, writes a letter of medical necessity and the insurance company either approves or denies coverage. If the evidence is compelling, they approve. Sometimes this needs to be appeal. Sometimes, yelling on the phone is involved. If the insurance company doesn't approve, the patient can pay for the procedure himself. If the withholding of the procedure harms the patient, the patient sues the insurance company.
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POPSCanadian Doctor Shares True Pros & Cons of Canadian Health Care
Canadian doctor Michael M. Rachlis shares the truth about the Canadian Health Care system in hopes of dissolving propaganda and confusion. The Los Angeles Times posted and Op-Ed article by Canadian doctor Michael M. Rachlis. The whole thing is well worth a read and will provide a much better understanding of not only the Canadian health care system, but that of the U.S. as well. There's been a vast debate regarding a public option in the U.S. and most of it seems to be based on misinformation and fear tactics. Unfortunately, there's been a shortage of informed opinions and solid facts. I think it would be a good idea of many people who enjoy the benefit of universal health care in other countries would come forth and share their experiences. With the vast number of uninsured Americans, and the fact that insurance companies can and do deny coverage on a very arbitrary basis, there seems to be a need of some kind of major overhaul to the American health care system.
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POPSLatest Kabuki Production From Team Obama's Manufactured Support for Government-Run Health Care Dr. Tracy Nelson: $1,500 in donations to Barack Obama. Dr. Stanton McKenna: $1,000 in donations to Democrats since 2001. Dr. Jason Schneider: $600 in donations to Democrats since 2001. Dr. Biron Baker: $500 donated to Barack Obama last year. Dr. Nick Perencevich: $500 in donations to Democrats since 2008. Dr. Elaine Bradshaw: $500 in donations to Barack Obama last year. Who unveiled “Doctors for America” earlier this spring? No, not ordinary citizens outside the Beltway. YouTube (0:28)
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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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POPS If You Donate A Kidney To Dad, You Won't Get Insurance Again. Mr. Waddington has polycystic kidney disease, or PKD, a genetic disorder that leads to kidney failure. First he lost one kidney, and then the other. A year ago, he was on dialysis and desperately needed a new kidney. Doctors explained that the best match — the one least likely to be rejected — would perhaps come from Travis or Michael, his two sons, then ages 29 and 27. Travis and Michael each had a 50 percent chance of inheriting PKD. And if pre-donation testing revealed that one of them had the disorder, that brother might never be able to get health insurance. As a result, their doctors had advised not getting tested. After all, new research suggests that lack of insurance increases a working-age person’s risk of dying in any given year by 40 percent. “At the time David needed a transplant, the people closest to him couldn’t even offer a lifesaving donation — for insurance reasons,” said Mr. Waddington’s wife, Susan.
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POPSSo Much For Health Care Reform Anybody following the money on this issue knew we'd never see any real progress, and now that's been confirmed. Corporations pay to keep health expenses high, so that's where they'll stay for yet another administration. This has been going on for six decades.