“
CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
June 19, 2009 – 2:02 p.m.

Six Words Snarl Senate Panel’s Health Care Overhaul Debate

Democrats and Republicans locked horns Friday over inclusion of medical comparative effectiveness study language in a draft health care overhaul measure, suggesting that majority plans to spend only eight days debating and amending the bill may be ambitious.

Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee members spent about 45 minutes arguing over just six words in the 615-page — and growing — legislation.

The debate — over a passage in the bill concerning how the government can use data developed from new “comparative effectiveness” studies of different medical treatments and procedures — illustrates both the almost infinite amounts of time Congress could consume debating the health overhaul, as well as the frustrating ease with which even seemingly minor issues can quickly become full-blown controversies.

The argument centered on an amendment by Pat Roberts , R-Kan., and Tom Coburn , R-Okla., aimed at forbidding Medicare from using comparative effectiveness research to deny paying for some medical procedures. Republicans fear such a policy could lead to “rationing” of care, a word the minority party tosses out with frequency in the health care debate.

-----------------------------

Like health care isn't "rationed" already......






CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
June 19, 2009 – 2:04 p.m.

Senate Panel’s Health Care Bill Shuns Public Option

An outline of a Senate Finance Committee proposal to overhaul the health care system would require individuals to have health care coverage, offer tax credits to help them afford it, and set up a marketplace for people to buy “platinum,” “gold,” “silver” or “bronze” coverage.

A spokesman for Finance Committee Democrats this week confirmed the authenticity of the outline.

The outline sketches out ideas the committee is considering as it seeks to bridge many controversial policy issues Democrats have fought over with Republicans and even with moderates in their own party.

Over the course of the week, Finance Chairman Max Baucus , D-Mont., and ranking GOP member Charles E. Grassley of Iowa also have been working to bring down the reported $1.6 trillion cost of their original package, seeking to get the total cost over 10 years to less than $1 trillion.

For example, it raises the idea of a “co-op” insurance plan, owned by policy holders and independent from the government after some initial start-up help, instead of a government-run “public option” insurance plan that would compete with private insurers.


-----------------------------------------


So far it looks like the Republicans and moderate Democrats are selling us out to the insurance industry again.

”

“Hmmmm, government healthcare vs private? PRIVATE all the way!

Government care is confusing, has more hoops to jump through than you can count and includes exceptionally long waits. Oh you need an obgyn now? That'll be 28 days at least. NICE.

I can't wait until this year is over so I can have my Blue Cross and Blue Shield back!!”

“Corporate insurance rations care more because they have to make a profit in addition to covering costs.

Their profits come from increasing premiums and denying treatments.   If you have to sue them you'll be dead for ten years by the time they pay.”

“The whole problem is because the french are from France.”

“Why do you hate your mother, t*lt?”

“
Most Americans Support Public Health Care Option, Poll Finds
by Jonathan D. Salant

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Sixty-nine percent of Americans support creation of a government-run health plan to compete with private insurance companies, a new poll found.

In addition, 52 percent of those surveyed by Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University said such a plan would keep the private insurance companies honest. Thirty-two percent disagreed. Twenty-six percent said they opposed a government-run insurance program. Some health-care overhaul plans proposed by Democrats in Congress would include a government-run plan, while Republicans are leading the fight against such a program.

Even though most of those polled backed creation of a government plan, 53 percent said they would prefer to buy private health insurance, compared with 28 percent who would join a government health plan, according to the poll. Eighty- five percent of those who have insurance said they were satisfied.

“American voters want their fellow countrymen to have the option of a public plan, but don’t want a public plan for themselves because they are satisfied personally with their health care,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s polling institute.

The poll of 3,063 adults, taken June 23-29, showed strong support for President Barack Obama’s efforts to overhaul health care. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

By a margin of 53 percent to 33 percent, respondents said they trusted Obama over congressional Republicans to handle health care.

”

“The problem with polls like that is that conservatives are usually at work when the phone rings at their home.”

“Health care already runs government, so, what'll be difference when the gov crawls on top?”

“"Do you support the FREE health care plan backed by Daddy-O or the fat-cat-insurance-based-health-care-in-which-costs-are-out-of-control-plan-of-old backed by greedy Republicans?"



Nice plan......the majority are for it but they don't want to be in it, lol.”

“http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Obamacare-failed-in-Europe-7900839-49458267.html


After its birth in 1948, planners soon found that "free" health care multiplied demand. NHS founder Lord Beveridge predicted free health care would cut spending as health improved.

The opposite was true. Between 1949 and 1979, it tripled in real terms. The service now costs twice as much as it did 10 years ago, with productivity down 4.5 percent.

One way government tries to limit demand is to decree which new drugs can be prescribed. Many drugs, widely available in America and continental Europe, are denied to British patients.

State mismanagement has also created waiting lines for hospitals, on average causing 8.6 weeks of waiting. Once inside, budgetary cutbacks on cleaning and maintenance mean higher rates of an antibiotic-resistant variety of staph infection. This "superbug" has turned even routine surgery into a lottery of death.”

“
Harry & Louise are back and now they're for it ---- because the insurance companies are in on the deal.

The AMA is backing it ---- they stand to gain 250 billion in payouts.

The drug companies are still on the outside looking in ---- they've spent 40 million in the last three months on lobbying.

”

“T*lt sounds bitter.”

“government healthcare in action ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw

amazing about the French-language woman interviewed at the hospital”

“You guys are whores for the insurance companies and you don't even have the sense to recognize it.

It's climate change all over again.

They say jump --- you ask how high.

”

“Go back to your silly nasty trolls, t*ltypoo.



http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/
last edited: 7/25/09 5:10:57 PM”

“Their profits come from the healthcare they do not deliver.”

“There's that evil 'profit' again. LOL”

“profit drives competition
competition drives lower prices”

“Do you really think they compete with one another when as a lot, they run the country. I guess you think the oil companies(except retailer) compete.LOL”

“yes, absolutely I do. - the doctors would drive the competition if they were the ones setting prices

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf3MtjMBWx4&feature=PlayList&p=DA62FD44F47537FE&index=0&playnext=1
last edited: 7/26/09 6:09:33 AM”

“Some people enjoy being ripped off.”

“Tilt,If is wasn't for the insurance companies, Doctors would still be getting paid in chickens. How good would our health care system be then? Obama and folks like you aren't concerned with the quality of health care, all you care about is making sure it's equal for everyone. And while that may seem great to you socialists, Why shouldn't someone who can afford better health care have it?”

“How we gona afford to have everyone receive Michael Jackson type health care in our last few years? A million$ a month would add up. Why do I even bother, you people think you deserve what congress gets. Speaking of congress, why don't we dig up Terry Shivo so they'll stay in season over the week end? LOL”

““Some people enjoy being ripped off.”
Tllt
6:23:47 AM
7/26/09

Like t*ltypoo, and his silly "don't shop at Wal-Mart" histrionics..”

“Tilt,If is wasn't for the insurance companies, Doctors would still be getting paid in chickens

Isn't that the definition of conservatism?”

“Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 29% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11. That’s the first time his ratings have reached double digits in negative territory ”

“Cool. Bring back the barter system.

If they were serious about this they'd start with universal coverage and go from there. I say kick out the middlemen who siphon money out of the system but materially contribute nothing.

But because the system is corrupt nothing will fundamentally change. You can bet whatever comes out of this, the Fix is in.


Speaking of Terry Schiavo..... Where's Bill Frist these days? You can bet he's calling on his Old Buddies in DC. He cut deals and did favors in Washington for a few years then went back to his family's hospital corporation.”

“I'm waiting to ask the new governeer of Alaska what to do, I didn't like Joe Biden's ideas.
Guess I'll wait some more, did I say that right?
I'm sure Bills on the insider looking out.
last edited: 7/26/09 11:17:29 AM”

“

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/”

“No SB, Conservativism would be Some one starts a new business, lets call in health insurance. Pretty soon it catches on. Doctors like it because it allows them to charge more for their fees, the consumer likes if because he can get better health care with out breaking the kids piggy bank (or killing a chicken) for an office call. Drug companies like it because more people can use their product and they have more money to develop more drugs ... Are you seeing a pattern yet?”

“You're right, it's done a great job of running prices and profits up and the ones that need expensive care out for the public to pay for.

Tax it as income, let's not fool ourselves, that's what it is.

It, as with 85% of what the fed gov does
, is none of their business and should be passed to the states.
last edited: 7/26/09 5:55:37 PM”

“
No Sex, Please, We're Lobbyists
— By David Corn | Mon July 27, 2009 9:33 AM PST

Here's a good indication of the obvious: in Washington, sex scandals trump institutional corruption.

Politico reports that "embattled" Senator John Ensign (R-NV), who has admitted having an affair with an employee whom the Ensign campaign paid $25,000 and who also received $96,000 fom Ensign's family (as possible hush money), remains embattled, with his chief of staff and his communications director jumping ship and with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filing complaints with the Senate ethics committee and the Federal Elections Commission. The newspaper reports:

“He’s trying to do a ‘Vitter,’” a senior Senate GOP aide said of Ensign. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) managed to say virtually nothing but that he was sorry for committing a “very serious sin” after his name turned up in the phone book of the alleged “D.C. Madam” in 2007.

“He’s just trying to get beyond this,” the aide said of Ensign. “I am not sure he can, but he’s trying.”


The article makes it clear that due to the sex scandal, Ensign may not be able to hold on. And toward the end of the piece, there is this little nugget about the fellow who will take the chief of staff slot being vacated by John Lopez:

Aaron Cohen, currently a lobbyist with Jeffrey J. Kimbell and Associates, will replace Lopez. Cohen, who served previously as senior policy adviser to Ensign and former Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), currently lobbies on behalf of drug companies like Hoffman-La Roche, according to lobbying disclosure records.


Trysting with a subordinate is indeed scandalous. But a senator hiring a drug lobbyist to be his chief of staff is not cause for the blinking of an eye in the nation's capital. Not even when that senator sits on the Senate finance committee, which is in the dramatic throes of drafting major health care reform legislation of tremendous interest to Big Pharma. This is merely S.O.P. No extramarital sex is allowed--but there's nothing wrong with getting into bed with corporate mercenaries. Alas, one of these couplings affects the public interest more than the former.

”

“I've met a few doctor's kids that weren't complete pricks, but poor little t*lt's not one of them.”

“The best part about Tilty's posting is that Livers are not like.."In the liver depository" they actually have a very short time from Removal to transplant.

If the match is not right...#&%!$ happens. If the patient is not right...sorry.

Luckily when Free Health Care comes in that will be eliminated as an "unnecessary" medical process.”

“Sometimes you have to deliver information in a form the braindead can digest.”

“Sadly braindead is the only way Tilty can understand it.”

“healthcare is too expensive and will bank rupt us in 10 years.....so lets go bankrupt today instead!”

“When we face the fact that medicine, military and all the other things that cost too much money have grown beyond the capacity of a country that imports most of it's energy and consumer goods to pay. We borrow to pay for this first through mutual funds buying bonds etc, then second from the fed and third from China - Debt, debt, debt, but you can't borrow your way out nor can you stop spending in a consumer based economy.”

“I forgot ---- they still have to read.”

“'it's energy and consumer goods to pay'.

I don't need no stinker cartoons and pictures to muddle up a few semi- english words into an undesipherable mish mash.”

“you need a drink”

“
Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?


by Greg Palast
Thursday, August 13, 2009

For The Huffington Post


Eighty billion dollars of WHAT?

I searched all over the newspapers and TV transcripts and no one asked the President what is probably the most important question of what passes for debate on the issue of health care reform: $80 billion of WHAT?

On June 22, President Obama said he'd reached agreement with big drug companies to cut the price of medicine by $80 billion. He extended his gratitude to Big Pharma for the deal that would, "reduce the punishing inflation in health care costs."

Hey, in my neighborhood, people think $80 billion is a lot of money. But is it?

I checked out the government's health stats (at HHS.gov), put fresh batteries in my calculator and toted up US spending on prescription drugs projected by the government for the next ten years. It added up to $3.6 trillion.

In other words, Obama's big deal with Big Pharma saves $80 billion out of a total $3.6 trillion. That's 2%.

Hey thanks, Barack! You really stuck it to the big boys. You saved America from these drug lords robbing us blind. Two percent. Cool!

For perspective: Imagine you are in a Wal-Mart and there's a sign over a flat screen TV, "BIG SAVINGS!" So, you break every promise you made never to buy from that union-busting big box - and snatch up the $500 television. And when you're caught by your spouse, you say, "But, honey, look at the deal I got! It was TWO-PERCENT OFF! I saved us $10!"

But 2% is better than nothing, I suppose. Or is it?

The Big Pharma kingpins did not actually agree to cut their prices. Their promise with Obama is something a little oilier: they apparently promised that, over ten years, they will reduce the amount at which they would otherwise raise drug prices. Got that? In other words, the Obama deal locks in a doubling of drug costs, projected to rise over the period of "savings" from a quarter trillion dollars a year to half a trillion dollars a year. Minus that 2%.

We'll still get the shaft from Big Pharma, but Obama will have circumcised the increase.

And what did Obama give up in return for $80 billion? Chief drug lobbyist Billy Tauzin crowed that Obama agreed to dump his campaign pledge to bargain down prices for Medicare purchases. Furthermore, Obama's promise that we could buy cheap drugs from Canada simply went pffft!

What did that cost us? The New England Journal of Medicine notes that 13 European nations successfully regulate the price of drugs, reducing the average cost of name-brand prescription medicines by 35% to 55%. Obama gave that up for his 2%.

The Veterans Administration is able to push down the price it pays for patent medicine by 40% through bargaining power. George Bush stopped Medicare from bargaining for similar discounts, an insane ban that Obama said he'd overturn. But, once within Tauzin's hypnotic gaze, Obama agreed to lock in Bush's crazy and costly no-bargaining ban for the next decade.

What else went down in Obama's drug deal? To find out, I called C-SPAN to get a copy of the videotape of the meeting with the drug companies. I was surprised to find they didn't have such a tape despite the President's campaign promise, right there on CNN in January 2008, "These negotiations will be on C-SPAN."

This puzzled me. When Dick Cheney was caught having secret meetings with oil companies to discuss Bush's Energy Bill, we denounced the hugger-muggers as a case of foxes in the henhouse.

Cheney's secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were creepy and nasty and evil.

But the Obama crew's secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were, the President assures us, in the public interest.

We know Cheney's secret confabs were shady and corrupt because Cheney scowled out the side of his mouth.

Obama grins in your face.

See the difference?

The difference is 2%.

”

“How did people survive on only whiskey and a bullet to bite? The general public can't understand that the drug problem isn't down the alleyways, but in their bathroom. I guess we could say that the USA has a drug problem, that from all angles, is ripping this country apart. Let's just keep throwing people in jail for smoking a damn weed- that'll fix it all.”

“Oh, I keep forgetting.... We're supposed to think he's the Messiah.


Weed?   I say TAX THAT #&%!$ !!

”

“Why, I'm calling my representatives as we speak! LOL!”