The Obama administration is bold about their commitment to crisis. Less than a year ago, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”
For the history behind our current ’ healthcare crisis’, this article is a must-read.
Here’s just a portion:
Crisis Strategy was the brainchild of two radical socialist college professors, Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. The idea was to overwhelm government with demands for services to the point where the system would collapse and provide an opening for the socialists to take over. Their strategy was behind creation of the National Welfare Rights Organization in the 1960s and 1970s which dramatically increased the welfare roles and caused the near bankruptcy of New York City in 1975; creation of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), prime instigators of the mortgage meltdown; the national Motor Voter law signed by President Clinton in 1993, which opened the floodgates to vote fraud by ACORN and similar groups; and the illegal immigrant amnesty movement. As we all should know by now, Barack Obama worked with and trained ACORN workers for many years, and is known and supported by all the major players in this movement.
Healthcare nationalization is a major component of this strategy. The Left has agitated almost since the turn of the last century for some kind of socialized healthcare system. In fact, from 1939 forward, practically every Congressional session proposed national healthcare legislation. As aptly described in an incisive analysis of Medicare by the Cato Institute:For more than 50 years before the 1965 enactment of Medicare, the American people repeatedly rejected the idea of government-mandated health insurance. Yet advocates of such federal power inside and outside of government did not take no for an answer. Year after year they kept coming back–pursuing incremental strategies, misrepresenting their proposals, even distributing propaganda paid for with government money in apparent violation of existing law.Their dream was partially realized with creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society.” The stated goal of these programs was to provide comprehensive healthcare for seniors and the poor. As the programs grew, the Left clamored for ever more benefits to these groups and ever expanding definitions of covered individuals. Illegal immigration, also encouraged by the Left, contributed to a rapidly growing pool of beneficiaries.
Like any free good, demand for services under these programs has skyrocketed. Spending levels were insignificant in the early years, but today Medicare and Medicaid today comprise 36 percent of total US healthcare spending.Medicare was originally to be funded with “Hospital Insurance” (HI) premiums tacked onto the Social Security FICA tax. No one seriously believed the HI tax would cover all costs. And despite more than quadrupling the HI tax rate from 0.7 percent to 2.9 percent, it hasn’t. Today HI taxes cover a mere 40 percent of Medicare spending. About 21 percent comes from premiums paid by beneficiaries and other sources. Fully 39 percent comes from general revenues (i.e. you and me, pal.) Citation here.…
The increasing costs of medical care resulting from Medicare, Medicaid and the dramatic growth of malpractice lawsuits have provided activists with the rationale they need to agitate for socialized medicine.This has been their strategy all along.
Medicare and Medicaid were designed to undermine private healthcare, making it ever more expensive and unmanageable, until enough interest could be generated for systemic change. Similarly, changes in tort law aimed at turning our courts into vehicles for income redistribution have overburdened our legal system with massive caseloads and the highest liability costs in the world.While doubtless many thought they were doing good, the ultimate goal, as elucidated by the Left, has everywhere and always been Socialism.Furthermore, they grossly overstate the problem. We hear constantly about the “47 million uninsured.” These figures include 10 to 25 million illegal immigrants, 14 million people who are already eligible for medical benefits but haven’t availed themselves, and 10 million people earning $75,000 or more who could presumably afford their own insurance if they chose to. Even assuming the lowest estimate for illegal immigrants, the true number of uninsured would be only 13 million. Yet the Democrats want to nationalize the entire industry, currently 17 percent of GDP, to provide benefits to 4 percent of the U.S. population.…However, their true motives have finally been exposed. For seniors ObamaCare essentially advocates euthanasia. Benefits will be drastically cut, and in some cases will become completely unavailable. As Obama said publicly: “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.” In other words, if you think you are going to die anyway, why don’t you just save us the money and go ahead…For others it will mean a dramatic reduction in both the availability and quality of care. Obama’s health policy advisor Ezekiel Emmanuel (brother of Rahm Emmanuel) admits as much. He even wants doctors to to reconsider the Hippocratic Oath:Amazingly, Dr. Emanuel criticizes the Hippocratic Oath as partly to blame for the “overuse” of medical care: “Medical school education and post graduate education emphasize thoroughness,” he wrote. Physicians take the “Hippocratic Oath’s admonition to ‘use my power to help the sick to the best of my ability and judgment’ as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others.” (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008.) Of course that is what patients hope their doctors will do. But Dr. Emanuel wants doctors to look beyond the needs of their own patient and consider social justice (emphasis mine.) They should think about whether the money being spent on their patient could be better spent elsewhere.Who are these people?…Let me put this as bluntly as possible. The Left has never cared about the elderly or the poor, but ruthlessly uses them as part of their long-term strategy to overburden private healthcare until it ultimately collapses. The same Leftists who so passionately demanded free healthcare for all now want euthanasia for seniors and dramatically lower services for the rest of us. It is a power grab, pure and simple. There is nothing more to it.The Dems won’t cut benefits to the poor just yet though, because they still need their votes. Later on they will need them as hired muscle. But once they secure unchallengeable power, do you think they’ll care? They have willfully worked to destroy every beneficial thing in our society. These are vicious, selfish, utterly corrupt parasites. They have spent a lifetime abandoned to a philosophy that makes excuses for everything and anything in the service of one ultimate goal: absolute power.
These people have to be stopped.
You have to be stopped. Health reform is patriotic!
Ah, sarcasm, Trevor. Gotta love it!
For the record, I’m not against healthcare reform per se.…just this particular program!!!
Obama administration is bold about their commitment to crisis. Less than a year ago, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310466514522309.html
The hurdles which are set before us is the regulations which Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ( CMS ) has placed in the contracts which we operate under. The Government has the biggest monopoly on price fixing in the country. It would be in the best interest to propose that the Most Favored Nation clause be deleted or modified: changing the contract language for CMS, which would deregulate the cost of healthcare and provide a way for the free market to compete in medicine. It is extremely important that this be applicable only to cash paying patients. There are already in place cash medical discount plans (search gulfcoastdmpo.org for their site), such as Manatee County Rural Health has for Manatee County citizens.
When we receive cash we don’t have to wait 20, 45 or from some despite Prompt Pay laws in the state of Florida 120+ days for our payment, nor do we have to send out a bill. This would be a huge savings to us the provider and a savings to the patient.
We currently have our cash prices listed on our website, we can not go any lower. These prices have to be reviewed by an Attorney each year before publishing. As the law stands now, if we provide a cost which goes below the CMS price then we would be punished by having to return the monies retroactively to CMS.
Our Government would best serve the health industry by holding the standards high and require medical practices to be accredited by the organizations listed below. This would allow the “cash only” system above to work. For radiology services they should be accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR). Currently accreditations required to perform Mammography the facility must have FDA and ACR accreditation . For Ultrasound to be accredited by the ACR and by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation for Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL). Currently for hospitals who want to participate in funding from CMS then the hospital needs to have a The Joint Commission accreditation. All facilities should also be required to be accredited by The Joint Commission.
The above idea is not for hospitalization. Insurance coverage for” hospitalization only” are relatively inexpensive starting at $71 a month in our area of Florida. Pharmaceuticals there are also solutions which are not mention. The above is for the day to day use of health care.
We are not having a Health Care crisis, but a Health Insurance Crisis.
A citizen of this country does not need “Health Insurance” in order to receive healthcare. The word “Uninsured” is a political term our country nor our state can not insure nor afford to pay for the coverage for the cost of healthcare for us as citizens of this great State and Country.
This once “great” but now “good” health care system became “great” unaided by Health Insurance Companies. There focus is Wall Street, while most doctors focus is the patient. ( prwatch.org/node/8441 )
The hurdles which are set before us is the regulations which Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ( CMS ) has placed in the contracts which we operate under. The Government has the biggest monopoly on price fixing in the country. It would be in the best interest to propose that the Most Favored Nation clause be deleted or modified: changing the contract language for CMS, which would deregulate the cost of healthcare and provide a way for the free market to compete in medicine. It is extremely important that this be applicable only to cash paying patients. There are already in place cash medical discount plans (search gulfcoastdmpo.org for their site), such as Manatee County Rural Health has for Manatee County citizens.
When we receive cash we don’t have to wait 20, 45 or from some despite Prompt Pay laws in the state of Florida 120+ days for our payment, nor do we have to send out a bill. This would be a huge savings to us the provider and a savings to the patient.
We currently have our cash prices listed on our website, we can not go any lower. These prices have to be reviewed by an Attorney each year before publishing. As the law stands now, if we provide a cost which goes below the CMS price then we would be punished by having to return the monies retroactively to CMS.
We currently have our cash prices listed on our website, we can not go any lower. These prices have to be reviewed by an Attorney each year before publishing. As the law stands now, if we provide a cost which goes below the CMS price then we would be punished by having to return the monies retroactively to CMS.
Our Government would best serve the health industry by holding the standards high and require medical practices to be accredited by the organizations listed below. This would allow the “cash only” system above to work. For radiology services they should be accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR). Currently accreditations required to perform Mammography the facility must have FDA and ACR accreditation . For Ultrasound to be accredited by the ACR and by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation for Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL). Currently for hospitals who want to participate in funding from CMS then the hospital needs to have a The Joint Commission accreditation. All facilities should also be required to be accredited by The Joint Commission.
The above idea is not for hospitalization. Insurance coverage for” hospitalization only” are relatively inexpensive starting at $71 a month in our area of Florida. Pharmaceuticals there are also solutions which are not mention. The above is for the day to day use of health care.
Thanks for adding, Davis. It’s great to hear from someone “in the business” who is struggling to provide care for others (in your case, specifically women!) and the problems y’all are having.
• The 2005 Deficit Reduction Act which was instituted Jan. 2007 has severely effected our industry. Internally we have made salary cuts to our Administration, Radiologist, Technologist and Clerical employees at our center and we continue to do so to be able to survive (keep our jobs) the results of the 22% cut in revenue. We can not sustain any further CUTS in imaging specifically the Utilization Rate Assumption (URA) . We have 76 employees not counting the Radiologist, all are women who are the bread winner of the family and in most cases are the only bread winner. Quite a few husbands have lost their jobs. Some are single mothers with children.
• The proposed increase of the Utilization Rate Assumption (URA) which is currently in the Senate at 90%, is unsustainable to our company. The
URA has had the following coverage:
WASHINGTON, July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Patients and leading patient advocates from across the country, in partnership with the American Brain Tumor Association, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Colon Cancer Alliance, Lung Cancer Alliance and Society for Women’s Health Research gathered today at the U.S. Capitol to call on Congress to reject proposed deep and arbitrary reimbursement cuts to imaging services that would devastate patient access to life-saving diagnostics, particularly in rural communities throughout America.
These groups convened to officially submit a letter from thirteen leading patient advocacy groups to the Senate Finance and House Tri-Committees urging Members to adopt legislation that preserves access to diagnostic imaging.
The letter says that any “proposal to increase the utilization assumption for certain imaging equipment including CTs and MRIs will result in additional draconian cuts for imaging services. These additional cuts would come at a time when the GAO and other Medicare claims analyses have found that the deep cuts imposed by the Deficit Reduction Act have already significantly reduced Medicare spending on imaging (one analysis revealed that spending on advanced imaging is down 19.2%) and dramatically slowed the growth of advanced imaging services (the same study showed that the volume of these services has grown only 1.9% in the last year). Further cuts will undoubtedly reduce seniors’ access to these imaging services that are so important for detection, diagnosis and treatment.“
• Self referral: there are many studies available for the documentation of the over utilization of imaging in our medical industry (contact Josh Cooper of American College of Radiology (ACR) see contact information below). If a family practitioner, a cardiologists, an orthopedic surgeon, or a chiropractic physician, has a piece of imaging equipment in their office then they will use it much more than if they sent the patient out of their office for imaging. You will see over utilization up to seven times more than necessary, than referred to an ACR accredited facility.
• The Radiologist is the best utilization tool in the imaging industry. They are trained to use ACR standards which are already in place called “appropriateness criteria”. These standards are in place to help the referring physician to order the appropriate test with the appropriate imaging equipment for an ailment which the patient is describing to the referring physician.
• Regulating Radiology to the utmost standards which will require companies wanting to provide imaging to fall under strict regulations just like mammography then you would have fewer people in our industry just for the money.