Showing posts with label Socialized Medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Socialized Medicine. Show all posts

Glorious Socialist Medicine: Penis Amputated Following Misdiagnosis and Delay

By RightKlik


Uninsured Americans get better care than this:
A Swedish man was forced to have his penis amputated after waiting more than a year to learn he had cancer.

When he returned in March 2010 complaining of foreskin irritation, the doctor on duty at the time diagnosed the problem as a simple case of inflammation.

After three weeks passed without the prescribed treatment alleviating the man’s condition, he was instructed to seek further treatment at Blekinge Hospital.

But it took five months before he was able to schedule an appointment at the hospital.

When he finally met with doctors at the hospital, the man was informed he had cancer and his penis would have to be removed.
In the United States, a penniless homeless man could have presented to the Emergency Department to be seen by a urologist the same day.


Take home lesson: Socialism leads to shortages. In health care, shortages manifest as long wait times. Long wait times result in morbidity and mortality.

But at least socialism is fair, just and equitable!

Think this won’t happen in the U.S.? Look what ObamaCare RomneyCare hath wrought:



Discussion: Memeorandum
Dan Mitchell: Government-Run Healthcare Can Be Emasculating…Literally


FYI: Sweden’s Single-Payer Health System Provides a Warning to Other Nations…
For much of the last fifty years Sweden has had a heavily socialized health care system. Almost all of the funding comes from government revenue, and most aspects of the health care system, such as hospitals, primary care centers and prescription drugs, are controlled by the government. Doctors could still have a private practice, although by the 1960s about 80 percent of doctors worked in government-run hospitals…
Read the rest.

ObamaCare and Social Security: Insurance when convenient; A Tax when necessary.

By Kook for Left Coast Rebel cross posted at Allied Liberty News

There are not enough curse words and epithets to fully express how I feel right now. Obama is playing the same playbook to keep obamacare that FDR did to swindle the American People into swallowing OASDI, better known as Social Security. Remember, so many of us said that it is unconstitutional to require people to buy insurance…well, duh, we have been there before. OASDI is an insurance when it needs to be and the rest of the time it is a tax… First read part of an excellent post done by Les over at Rational Nation USA and also posted here on LCR so that you can understand what I am so exercised about…

Remember back when ObamaCare collectivism was being debated? Recall that the”One”, and his Democrat minions, declared that the mandate to purchase health care was not a tax? Surprise! Now that the progressive collectivist have won another for the books they are switching the tune.
The Obama administration is now declaring in open court the mandate requiring an individual to purchase health insurance, scheduled to take effect in 2014, is simply an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.” In addition, their belief is that this power exceeds even the federal government power to regulate interstate commerce.
In a brief filed by the Justice Department in response to the challenges in court by over twenty states ans several private concerns the Obama administration take the position the mandate to purchase health care coverage is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes. The department said the Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its power under other provisions” of the Constitution.
Here is what Obama had to say earlier during the debates over collectivist ObamaCare in an interview with G. Stephanopoulos on ABC’s program “This Week.”
“For us to say that you’ve got to take responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.” When Mr. Stephanopoulos stated, referring to a dictionary, the mandate appeared to fit the definition of a tax the President replied, “I absolutely reject that notion.”

Okay, first it was not a tax. Now that the collectivist Obamacare is law it is suddenly a tax the Congress has every right and power to levy. Whew, I guess when you are “Obama the One” your only principle need be one that furthers your agenda. Even if that means being disingenuous or down right dishonest
I don’t know if I am correct here. But I am certainly seeing the dark shadow of increasing statist progressive collectivism and it’s belief that the tax payers money is the really the governments and therefor they have the right and power to tax whatever the H they so determine is appropriate.


Now… How does social Security factor in? Because they did the SAME THING before. It was “insurance” when being sold to the american people…until people who were philosophically against insurance spoke up…then it was a tax. It is Insurance when convenient and a Tax when necessary… Read my old post here, snippets of which are below.

“When the bill we call Social Security (OASDI) was first introduced in 1935 it was full of all kinds of Insurance jargon, and it was explained as an Insurance policy, by none other than FDR himself. Why? Well, during the Depression most financial institutions failed, which is why the FDIC was created. Insurance companies were by and large spared from collapse, and most folks trusted them. Also, culturally in 1935 people were against “relief” as welfare was called.”

“BUT, during the the final days of the debate on the bill, the insurance language was downplayed because Congress was afraid that the Supreme Court would declare it unconstitutional as the Constitution had no provision for the Government to run an insurance program. (Oh, for the days when the supreme court could be trusted to do the right thing). So during the passage the tax collecting part and the insurance parts were separated. This is KEY because you need to understand there is nothing binding the two together.”

The Government stated in its defense that OASDI was

“in no sense a federally adminstered ‘insurance’ under which a worker pays premiums over the years and acquires at retirement…a right to receive…a fixed monthly benefit IRRESPECTIVE OF WHAT CONGRESS HAS CHOSEN TO IMPOSE FROM TIME TO TIME…the ‘contribution’ exacted under [the plan] from an employee…IS A TRUE TAX…it is NOT COMPARABLE to an [insurance premium]…” AND “no contractual obligation exists on the part of the Government and no contractual right of a beneficiary could coexist with this reservation of power”

So once again, history is repeating itself with the O-ministration copying the FDR playbook. This is how Obamacare will always work…“no contractual obligation exists on the part of the Government and no contractual right of a beneficiary could coexist with this reservation of power”

Think about that… They will not need to ration care because there will not be a contractual obligation OF CARE. Remember; IT IS NOW A TAX.

Kook

Gallows Humor Video: Obama Takes a Call

by the Left Coast Rebel

Perhaps this animated video is closer to reality than we even wish to aknowledge at this point. May we never forget what the Marxist/Leninist Democrat party stands for. We can laugh at these fools and tyrants that rule us in righteous indignation:

As The Nation Considers Health Care Reform

By: Rational Nation USA

As America considers health care reform (ObamaCare), and the promise of greater federal government interference into the lives of individuals, Rational Nation USA asks that you consider the words of a past President of this great and individualistic nation. We then ask, if you agree that the bill known as ObamaCare will have only a negative on our nation, that you call your representatives and senators and forcefully weigh in with your resistance to this national Obamanation.

Rational Nation USA, in deepest gratitude, thanks the Left Coast Rebel for the opportunity given me to reach a by far larger audience that I could have been capable of reaching otherwise.

And now a poignant statement on the reality that ObamaCare and its underlying ideology will result in.



Via: Rational Thought And Belief In Individualism

Harry Reid’s Medicare Gamble: Worse Than the Public Option

by the Left Coast Rebel

A fabulous op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this morning, laying out my sentiment of just a few days ago, ie. that the Medicare ‘buy-in’ is even worse than the public option. Also reiterated is the Reid/Democrat scramble-strategy of throwing anything against the wall to see what stick and gets 60 votes. Can you imagine? Can you believe that this model is pushing the takeover of 1/6 of the U.S. economy? On that note everyone’s favorite – Chairman Max Baucus recently told WaPo:

“If there’s 60 Senators who can reach agreement, I’m for it.”

Now that is leadership, looking out for the best interests of America and proper governance. Can you imagine what could be in the health care ‘bill’, what atrocity or infringement yet Baucus will be ‘for it’? Ostensibly he wouldn’t read it any way. That is why Senate leadership, (McConnel comes to mind) need to get off their posteriors and delay, obstruct, oppose this thing as much as they can. Some excerpts from the Journal:
It’s hard to imagine a better illustration of the panic and recklessness stringing ObamaCare along in the Senate than the putative deal that Harry Reid announced this week. The Majority Leader is claiming that a Medicare “buy-in” for people from ages 55 to 64 has overcome the liberal-moderate impasse over the “public option.” But if anything, this gambit is an even faster road to government-run health care.
In the case of Medicare, this means expanding a program that is already going broke. Medicare reimburses doctors and hospitals at rates 70% to 80% below those of private insurers, which means below the actual treatment costs in many cities and regions. Providers either eat these losses—about half of U.S. hospitals are running a deficit or close to it—or they raise prices for private payers. This cost-shifting isn’t dollar for dollar, but all empirical research shows that it adds tens of billions of dollars to consumer health bills, and this will accelerate if several million new patients are added to Medicare. That means higher prices for health insurance.


Tell your Senator to simply just stop it! No bill is the best alternative.
Via WSJ
Via Memeorandum

U.K. Cancer Death Rate is 38% Higher Than the U.S.

by the Left Coast Rebel

While the Senate ‘debates’ behind closed doors on the government takeover of 1/5 of the U.S. economy and our health and lives, startling facts will surely not cross their desks. Just like the headline for this post, coming from Dick Morris at BigGovernment.com:


As the Congress prepared to vote to let us enter the world of waits for doctors, waits for specialists, waits for testing and waits for surgery, radiation and chemo, we should pause to consider the relative records of the private medical care system in the United States with the socialized system in the U.K.

In 2008, Britain had a cancer death rate 0.25% while the United States had a rate of only 0.18%. The UK cancer death rate was 38% higher than in the United States.

The Guardian, the UK’s left wing daily, estimated that “up to 10,000 people” are dying each year of cancer “because their condition is diagnosed too late, according to research by the government’s director of cancer services.” While many people die because of late detection due to their own negligence, there is no reason to believe this self-neglect is more common in the UK than in the US.

In Canada, the cancer death rate is 16% higher than in the United States.



Socialism kills, literally. I personally am aware of the time-sensitive nature of cancer. When my mother was diagnosed with rather advanced melanoma, myriad doctors, cancer specialists AND her insurance company worked overtime to get her the best treatment possible, at the soonest possible time. She was literally on life saving chemotherapy drugs within days, not months; of her diagnosis. I can speak to you of this now that she is cancer free and we are overjoyed as a family. I can speak to you that even a delay of a month or two from some damned government bean counter agency probably would have meant the difference of life and death for her. Think of that. Think what our ‘leaders’ want to do to us.

And I remind you as well that the life-saving drug that hammered and destroyed my mom’s cancer, a Genentech chemo-drug called Avastin

Is banned in Great Britain because the NHS has deemed it to be ‘too expensive’ for socialist health care.

That’s Obama’s cost-cutting action, in action…….

Socialism has consequences, just like elections……..

Rasmussen Poll Shows 38% Favor Obamacare, Socialized Medicine, Health Care Proposals: Great Britain Rationing

by the Left Coast Rebel

Heading out for the night, just saw this linked at Drudge. Simple stuff here. The public, you me, John Q. and Mary Joe don’t want their health care rights taken away from them and perceive the injustice that these bastards are benevolently instigating upon us. Rasmussen:

Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama
and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the
plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% now
oppose the plan.

Intensity remains stronger among those who oppose the push to change the
nation’s health care system: 21% Strongly Favor the plan while 43% are Strongly
Opposed.

Only 16% now believe passage of the plan will lead to lower health care
costs. Nearly four times as many (60%) believe the plan will increase health
care costs. Most (54%) also believe passage of the plan will hurt the quality of
care.

And there you have it. A clear move of defiance on all counts against liberty and the public. The leftist-statist grand prize of 1/5 of the economy, centrally planning all aspects of our lives. And they care not if you don’t want it to be done.

How about this story from UK’s Daily Mail too? A real life example of the rationing that takes place under a socialist scheme-regime. The NHS in England has refused access of Avastin to bowel cancer sufferers. Why? Too costly.

And they say that we are alarmists? Anyone hear read my story about my Mom’s struggle against cancer? Anyone want to know the drug combination that cured her advanced melanoma?

Avastin/Abraxain.

Damn us all if we let this happen in America!

Senate Health Care Bill Saturday Vote: What You Can Do

by the Left Coast Rebel

So recently the CBO scored the Senate health care bill that no one has read. It’s 2,074 pages of bureaucratic, future-generation-indebting, liberting-confining monstrosity. C-Gen weighs in brilliantly on the final product, what it really stands for:

Unfortunately, the good news is more the result of well-timed politics than actually creating good legislation. The real reason the news seems so positive regarding Reid’s legislation is the direct result of Reid not making the legislation available to be criticized ahead of the CBO scoring. The media, in its pliant attitude towards leftist policies are merely trumpeting the wonderful news for all to hear before anyone has a chance to tell you what policies are included in the bill. Let me be the first to fill you in on how the CBO projected surplus gains on the legislation.
Go to New Conservative Generation to get C-Gen’s in depth laydown on the moving parts. Hint: The Senate legislation includes Medicare doctor payment cuts, (sorry seniors), Medicaid expansion that will bust our budget and bankrupt future generations, and much, much more.

It is maddening to me to think that I am sitting here knowing that these bastards are pushing this thing despite overwhelming public mistrust. And on a Saturday no-less. The chicanery amidst us knows no bounds. Massive tax hikes, myriad new agencies, monthly abortion fees, a conglomeration of everything terrible that the Federal Government represents with any entitlement program.

And what can you do? A lot, actually. Contact the following swing Senators that may listen. There are four of them right now that Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago thugs are coercing. Ben Nelson, a key target is threatening to filibuster the bill. Tell him to do it. Tell them that you will personally fund their opposition if the vote for the Senate health bill. Tell them, (respectfully), that you will not stand for it. Here they are, h/t Mark Levin :

Senator Mary Landrieu (LA)
Chief of Staff: Jane Campbell (jane_campbell@landrieu.senate.gov)
Washington, DC (202) 224-5824 / (202) 224-9735 fax

Senator Evan Bayh (IN)
Chief of Staff: Thomas Sugar ([email protected])
Washington, DC
(202) 224-5623 / (202) 228-1377 fax

Senator Blanche Lincoln (AR)
Chief of Staff: Elizabeth Burks (elizabeth_burks@lincoln.senate.gov)
Washington, DC
(202) 224-4843 / (202) 228-1371 fax

Senator Ben Nelson (NE)
Chief of Staff: Tim Becker (timothy_becker@bennelson.senate.gov)
Washington, DC
(202) 224-6551 / (202) 228-0012 fax

Make it happen patriots!

HR 3962 Saturday Vote: Activist Action Alert

by the Left Coast Rebel


The Tax Policy Director for ATR just emailed me this list. Here is what you need to do:

1. Call the switchboard @ 202-224-3121

2. Ask to be directed to your Member of Congress (look this up first if you don’t know).

3. The receptionist who picks up the phone is your point of contact. Don’t expect to speak to anyone else. This person is keeping a tally at the front desk of phone calls by issue. The goal of the caller is to be a checkmark in the “vote no” column.

4. Politely identify yourself as a constituent of the Congressman, and say you wanted to urge him to vote “no” on H.R. 3962, the House Democrat health bill.

5. The receptionist may either say, “thank you, I’ll pass that along, have a nice day” (in which case you are done), or may ask for contact info to send a letter to you. If they do, please give your info. It validates that you are, indeed, a real live constituent.

This is one of the single most important metrics Members will be watching on the run-up to Saturday. They assume that one call equals ten other people who didn’t call.

1000 “vote no” calls translates in their mind into 10,000 constituents who want them to vote no.

Call, get your wife to call, get your brother to call. 3 people equals 30.


Via Memeorandum
Also follow the live Twitter Feed

HR 3962: 1990 Pages, Thirteen New Taxes

by the Left Coast Rebel
Here is the House Obama/Pelosicare, HR 3962, (PDF version). Before even reading this go here to email every single member of the Blue Dog Caucus. Use the template, make your voice be heard!
The following are new HR 3962 taxes according to Americans for Tax Reform:
Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).
Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.
Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.
ROUNDUP:
  1. Think Progress notes with glee that Sec. 107 outlaws treating domestic violence as a pre-existing condition. Do you even know what to think of that?

  2. The Weekly Standared weighs in saying that HR 3962 pays for abortions, cuts medicare, raises taxes + fees + the deficit. What’s not to love?

  3. The Washington Times reports that the House unveiling ceremony for HR 3962 was closed to the public. I repeat, it was closed to the public. Vistitors had to be listed on a pre-approved list.

  4. Debate begins next week. Boy do I have the list for you, more on that later.

  5. American Spectator points out that HR 3962 includes a mandate that forces individuals to purchase insurance or pay a tax + the employer mandate. It also includes government-run insurance exchanges. AS also shows that the bill will add a huge new section to the federal tax code: PART VIII: HEALTH CARE RELATED TAXES. Can you imagine this ambiguous section of the code not changing every year? Your liberty is at stake.

UPDATE: Reader Brett Thompson wrote up a great summary of HR 3962, he attempted to go through the 1800 + page bill. He writes :

I just went to skim 1800 pages of HR 3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act.
Go here. (Sign up on this site, track and vote here on Bills)

I got lost after the first page and the references to section and subsections is endless. Has any one person in Congress really read all 1800+ pages? What happened to the paper reduction act? What happened to bills we were going to be able to read? Title 26 of the US Code of Federal Regulations (IRS) started with a small amount of pages (compared to this) and now this mess consists of 16,845 pages according to the US Government Printing Office. If reading some of HR 3962 isn’t enough for you, go read the monster that was created in 1939 with only 504 pages. Click here for the original.

I’ll let the mathematicians figure out what kind of growth that is since 1939, then add that same growth to HR 3962.

I created a static page with his entire letter to me, read it here.