Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?
Posts tagged Medicaid
The Early Stages of ObamaCare
0Source: http://karendecoster.com
Here is a great talk given at The 21 Convention in 2012, by Doug McGuff, MD, a prominent member of the ancestral health (paleo-primal) community: “Fitness, Health, and Liberty.” Doug, an emergency room physician, is well known for his ‘Body By Science‘ program, a high-intensity interval training program.
This is an important presentation because Doug presents the historical picture on how the physician-patient relationship went from a fiduciary relationship between provider and consumer to a 3rd party morass of collectivized medicine that sacrificed individual services to the needs of the masses in general in order to conform to the rules outlined by the medical establishment-insurance industry alliance.
While it is easy to blame the Democrats or blame Obama for the nationalization of medical care, this system began to form many years ago under the auspices of self-serving medical practitioners who built alliances with the government-medical establishment in the pursuit of rent-seeking arrangements. Dr. McGuff notes that doctors, who had short-term gains in mind, ultimately sacrificed their profession to these pursuits and thus “set into motion the long-term unintended consequences that resulted in their ultimate enslavement.”
His discussion of the formation of the “Blues” plans to guarantee payment for services while receiving tax-exempt status in exchange for community ratings is spot on. Community ratings, that did not allow for discrimination based on individual health status, were the beginnings of socialized medicine and thus opened the door to moral hazard and the current system of pre-paid medical care that defies all the principles of personal accountability and the free market.
This presentation is 72 minutes, but it is worth every minute of your time. I work in this industry and can tell you that Dr. McGuff has presented the best short timeline I have seen on the topic of how 3rd-party insurance and government-business alliances came to destroy the U.S. health care system. Dr. McGuff is also a libertarian, as if you can’t tell by the presentation.
Social Security Ponzi Scheme : Ripping Off The Next Generations
010 months ago
Source: http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com
Social Security is debt slavery for the young. Plain and simple , just one of the many failings of government, who simply is incapable of doing business and can only steal and borrow money in order to spend it.The reward for working hard is to have half your income taken through force and a significant portion of this money is given to those that will not work! If that ain’t killing entrepreneurial spirit then what it is . The funny thing is, you can invest your money in the same place as social security and get more back privately. In fact if you could opt out and invest it in the same place not only could you receive the money for the rest of your life, but your inheritors would actually get the remainder when you die (not just have it go back to the general fund). The stupidest group on the planet are the ones who think that government was meant to provide for everything, and is the answer to everything.In a Ponzi scheme pays off the first few investors. social security does not even do that.A Ponzi scheme is voluntary but Social Security is violent
Individual Mandate Most Bizarre Tax in the History of the Country
111 months ago
Judge Napolitano: “Individual Mandate Most Bizarre Tax in the History of the Country.”
Massive $17 Trillion Hole Found In Obamacare
0Source: http://www.infowars.com
Zero Hedge
March 31, 2012
Two years ago, when introducing then promptly enacting Obamacare, the president stated that healthcare law reform would not cost a penny over $1 trillion ($900 billion to be precise), and that it would not add ‘one dime’ to the debt.
It appears that this estimate may have been slightly optimistic… by a factor of 1700%. Because coincident with the recent Supreme Court debacle, in which a constitutional law president may be about to find that his magnum opus law is, in fact, unconstitutional, someone actually read the whole thing cover to cover, instead of merely relying on the CBO’s, pardon Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs’, funding estimates. That someone is Republican Jeff Sessions who after actually running the numbers has uncovered that the true long-term funding gap is a mind-boggling $17 trillion, just a tad more than the original sub $1 trillion forecast. This latest revelation means that total underfunded US welfare liabilities: Medicare, Medicaid and social security now amount to $99 trillion! Add to this total US debt which in 2 months will be $16 trillion, and one can see why Japan, which is about to breach 1 quadrillion in total debt (yen, but who’s counting), may want to start looking in the rearview mirror for up and comer competitors. And while Obama may have been taking creative license with a number that is greater than total US GDP, he was most certainly correct when saying that Obamacare would not add a penny to US debt. Because the second the US government comes to market to fund a truetotal debt/GDP ratio of 750%, it is game over, and the Fed will have its hands full selling Treasury puts every waking nanosecond to have any time left for the daily 3pm stock market ramp.
Exclusive: Another patient wants his story told about the real Dr. Ron Paul
01 year ago
Source: http://m.examiner.com
by Lori Stacey
Credit: Photo by Matt Pyeatt (Grandson), submitted to www.dailypaul.com
With all the concentrated efforts by mainstream media aimed at trying to turn voters against Ron Paul, his patients are courageously coming forward wanting to fire back and tell the American people about the real Dr. Ron Paul.
In response to a recent article regarding one of Dr. Paul’s former patients, another gentleman has come forward and graciously allowed me to tell his story. In that past article, I had attempted to tell the other side of the story regarding Dr. Paul’s commitment throughout his medical career of not accepting a penny from government-funded healthcare programs. The other side of that story was that he did not turn these patients away, instead he showed honorable charity and accepted them as patients by providing his services free of charge.
It was 1984 in Austin, TX and a young couple were awaiting the arrival of their baby girl. Robert and his wife were still attending High School at the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin. They had tried to get help through the hospital there but he states that back then the hospital did not accept programs like Medicaid. Shortly after their visit, they received a call from Dr. Ron Paul. Even though he was still finishing his term in Congress before returning to practicing medicine full-time, he agreed to become their Doctor and told them that they would not be billed for his services.
During their time knowing him, Robert states that Dr. Paul had encouraged both of them to finish school and they promised him that they would. On Robert’s graduation day, he was very surprised to receive an award for Excellence from Ron Paul. He kept his promise to Dr. Paul and went on to college receiving a scholarship majoring in Electronic Technology.
At the time they first met, Robert said, “I was a Democrat and that Dr. Paul opened my eyes” to conservative views and the Republican Party. He has kept those views over the last 27 years.
As to Robert’s choice for President of the United States, “Dr. Paul is my man with my heart and he always will be. He is an awesome man. Go Dr. Paul 2012!”
Thank you Robert for having the courage to come forward and especially for trusting me to share your story about this great American with the rest of the world.
[CIM Comment]
Now more than every we need the Champion of the Constitution!
Please visit Ron Paul’s official campaign site by following the link below and donate today!
Ron Paul “The Goal Is Peace! It Isn’t Occupation!”
0Ron Paul “The Goal Is Peace! It Isn’t Occupation!” Town Hall Durham, New Hampshire
Now more than every we need the Champion of the Constitution!
Please visit Ron Paul’s official campaign site by following the link below and donate today!
The Nation: Why Do GOP Bosses Fear Ron Paul?
01 year ago
Source: http://www.npr.org
by John Nichols
Jewel Samad /AFP/Getty Images In Paul We Trust? A supporter shows a coin with Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's face on it during a town hall meeting in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, on Dec. 21, 2011.
John Nichols is the author of several books that examine the legacy of old-right conservatives such as Taft and Buffett, including Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire.
Ron Paul represents the ideology that Republican insiders most fear: conservatism.
Not the corrupt, inside-the-beltway construct that goes by that name, but actual conservatism.
And if he wins the Iowa Republican Caucus vote on January 3—a real, though far from certain, prospect—the party bosses will have to do everything in their power to prevent Paul from reasserting the values of the “old-right” Republicans who once stood, steadily and without apology, in opposition to wars of whim and assaults on individual liberty.
Make no mistake, the party bosses are horrified at the notion that a genuine conservative might grab the Iowa headlines from the false prophets. Already, they are claiming a Paul win won’t mean anything. If Paul prevails, says Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, “People are going to look at who comes in second and who comes in third. If [Mitt] Romney comes in a strong second, it definitely helps him going into New Hampshire and the other states.”
The party’s amen corner in the media is doing its part. Republican-insider radio and television programs have begun to go after Paul, the veteran congressman from Texas who is either leading or near the top in recent polls of likely caucus goers. Rush Limbaugh ridicules Paul on his radio show, while Sean Hannity’s Fox show has become a nightly Paul-bashing fest, with guests like former Education Secretary Bill Bennett trashing the congressman with lines like: “his notion of foreign policy is impossible.”
Actually, Paul’s notion of foreign policy is in line with that of conservatives used to believe. The congressman is often referred to as a libertarian, and he has certainly toiled some in that ideological vineyard. But the truth is that his politics descend directly from those of former Ohio Senator Robert “Mr. Republican” Taft and former Nebraska Congressman Howard Buffett—old-right opponents of war and empire who served in the Congress in the 1940s and 1950s and who, in Taft’s case, mounted credible bids for the party’s presidential nomination in 1940, 1948 and finally in 1952. In all three campaigns, Taft opposed what he described as the “Eastern establishment” of the party—the Wall Streeters who, he pointedly noted, had little in common with Main Streeters.
Taft was a steady foe of American interventionism abroad, arguing very much as Paul does today that it threatens domestic liberty. Indeed, just as Paul joined US Senator Russ Feingold in opposing the Patriot Act, spying on Americans and threats to freedom of speech and assembly in the first days of what would become an open-ended “war on terror,” so Taft warned during the cold war that “criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government.”
“The maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country…more good than it will do the enemy,” explained Taft, who challenged President Truman’s attempts to use war powers as an excuse to seize domestic industries and otherwise expand what Dwight Eisenhower would eventually define as the military-industrial complex.
Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law
0Source: http://www.cato.org
It has been a year since President Obama’s health care reform bill was signed into law. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act represents the most significant transformation of the American health care system since Medicare and Medicaid. It will fundamentally change nearly every aspect of health care, from insurance to the final delivery of care.
The length and complexity of the legislation, combined with a debate that often generated more heat than light, has led to massive confusion about the law’s likely impact. But it is now possible to analyze what is and is not in it, what it likely will and will not do. In particular, we now know that
- While the new law will increase the number of Americans with insurance coverage, it falls significantly short of universal coverage. By 2019, roughly 21 million Americans will still be uninsured.
- The legislation will cost far more than advertised, more than $2.7 trillion over 10 years of full implementation, and will add more than $823 billion to the national debt over the program’s first 10 years.
- Most American workers and businesses will see little or no change in their skyrocketing insurance costs, while millions of others, including younger and healthier workers and those who buy insurance on their own through the nongroup market will actually see their premiums go up faster as a result of this legislation.
- The new law will increase taxes by more than $569 billion between now and 2019, and the burdens it places on business will significantly reduce economic growth and employment.
- While the law contains few direct provisions for rationing care, it nonetheless sets the stage for government rationing and interference with how doctors practice medicine.
- Millions of Americans who are happy with their current health insurance will not be able to keep it.
In short, the more we have learned about what is in this new law, the more it looks like bad news for American taxpayers, businesses, health-care providers, and patients.
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How to Get Real Spending Cuts
01 year ago
Source: http://www.nationalreview.com
[Well written article by Michael, I look forward to more}
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Listen to the Audio Version |
It is getting close to “crunch time” in the debate over raising the debt ceiling. Much of the debate continues to focus on whether Republicans will accept tax hikes as part of the package, and how big the debt-reduction package will be. All sorts of numbers are being tossed out: $4 trillion over twelve years? $6 trillion over ten years? $3 trillion over two years?
But focusing on dollars — even trillions of dollars — may be setting Republicans up for a fall.
After all, we’ve heard promises of spending cuts before. Remember the deal over the continuing resolution that kept the government open back in April? That deal was supposed to include $61 billion in spending cuts, but, in reality, it was crammed full of gimmicks such as counting savings from spending that hadn’t occurred in the previous year or not funding programs that actually didn’t exist. In the end, the actual reduction in spending was less than $8 billion.
And President Obama, in his most recent budgetproposal, counted interest savings and the elimination of tax breaks (“spending in the tax code”) as reductions in spending. They might show up that way on a balance sheet, but that sort of budget cutting does very little to reduce the size and burden of government — which is what this debate should really be about.
Republicans must also ask when those spending cuts will occur and how will they be enforced. Budget history is flush with promises of cuts some day in the future — but some day never actually comes. This is especially true when budget savings are anticipated not from actually eliminating programs, but from making government “more efficient.” For example, the Obama administration claims that the health-care-reform law will ultimately save some $500 billion in Medicare spending. But even Medicare’s own actuaries don’t believe those savings will ever occur.
Now, the administration is reportedly offering another $340 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts as part of a budget deal. But because the administration continues to resist any changes in the structure of the program, those savings are likely to be as ephemeral as the Obamacare cuts.
Is FireDogLake leaning towards supporting Ron Paul?
01 year ago
The left-wing web site FireDogLake has this post from a blogger. He doesn’t mention Ron Paul by name, but his view of the current situation and his solution is completely Ron Paul-like. Perhaps everyone is awakening to the sham, we can only hope!
Social Security or an Empire and the Federal Reserve?
By: alstradamus Sunday July 10, 2011 12:05 am
So let me get this straight.
This country has a gigantic debt problem which is contributing to a massive annual budget deficit. The interest on the national debt takes about 10% of our annual tax and other revenues. Our national politicians have never done much about it other than to keep raising the debt ceiling and increasing the deficit. But now we’re being told our very existence is at stake if we don’t take drastic measures to decrease the budget deficit by taking on more debt and choking money out of our entitlement and income security programs so we can slow down the increase of our debt.
We’re told that President Obama and the Republicans led by John Boehner are playing a game of poker (folding, uping the ante, cards on the table, etc.) The Republicans want at least $2 trillion in spending cuts from our national budget over the next ten years or they won’t vote to authorize raising the current $14.294 trillion debt ceiling, which is limited by law. If the debt ceiling isn’t raised the government may have to default on it’s debt and shut down the government. The debt ceiling was reached on May 16th but Treasury Secretary Geithner is taking “extraordinary measures” to buy time and set a date of August 2nd for when those extraordinary measures would run their course. Extraordinary measures of course include stealing (I mean borrowing) money from programs such as Social Security, Medicare and the Federal Pension program.
Boehner and Obama did what elite Americans do when negotiating deals, they went to the golf course. That didn’t seem to do a lot of good, maybe they should go again. I’m sure their games need the work.
It seems everyone agrees it needs to be done, this reducing of our deficit so we can get debt under control. The lemmings of course are buying into it. But the devil is in the details, particularly with the entitlement programs of Social Security and Medicare, programs American citizens are entitled to based on money they pay into the systems.
The budget (for FY 2012) of the U.S. is approximately $3.7 trillion. Revenues taken in are approximately 2.2 trillion leaving a current budget deficit of approximately $1.5 trillion. Of that, approximately $2.4 trillion is for mandatory or non-discretionary spending and $1.3 trillion for discretionary spending. The mandatory spending includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Income Security programs, and the interest on the National Debt. Discretionary spending includes the budget for all federal agencies including the massive budget for the Department of Defense and all associated security and intelligence programs that keep us safe from Terrorists.
Let’s do the math: the proposal that will probably win the poker game is a $2 trillion dollar reduction package over ten years. That’s $200 billion per year. Assuming the deficit stays at $1.3 trillion or more, considering the $200 billion annual reduction, the ten year deficit, added to the current $16 trillion plus (after they raise the debt ceiling) would still add up to about $13 trillion. Therefore in ten years the national debt would be about $29 trillion notwithstanding future additional outlays.
Put bluntly, this poker game ain’t shit. It will do virtually nothing in the scheme of things to change our deficit or debt problems. The whole thing appears to be a scam to start the ball rolling on reducing our entitlement programs. A bipartisan approach as directed by the national and international central bankers to take down the domestic programs of this country just as is being done in other western countries.
This is a work in progess, a self learning tool and fun little project. Please excuse the slow development as it seems the needed proper time is always lacking. It is my hope that the combination of content and links to other sources of information in this simple blog may help awaken a few of the sleeping masses and encourage and inspire others to initiate their own research, ultimately for each person to be a light to help awaken others. Opinions expressed belong to me, myself and I. Also, a big thank you to all that take the time to visit, it is appreciated :)
