Consequences of passing a bill that was not read

I want to say 'serves them right' but I would rather that they pass bills that have actually been read and thoroughly proofed. Oh, and don't pass bills that take away our freedoms...on third thought, just stop passing them. We'd be better off.

According to a Hot Air post Congress may have stripped themselves of their own health insurance with the recent passage of the "healthcare reform" bill.

The NYT (of all people) sums it up quite nicely:

“If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?”

I would say NO.

US health care system at it's best

I could not imagine being forced to give birth in a corridor because there were no beds available at the hospital. Yes, a home birth is ideal and would thus remove the possibility of a corridor birth from ever happening, but home birth is, at best, a dream for most women. Even me, someone who used to desire such a thing.

Why did I change my mind? Because of the delivery of my son Rooster. Everything went fairly smooth throughout the 27.75 hours of labor; not exactly how I wanted it to occur (ha, when does that happen...) but we got to the delivery stage in good condition. Once he was born (~3 hours after pushing) he had an apgar score of 3 - very blue, not really breathing and had little muscle tone. He was rushed to the baby area as NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) nurses and doctor rushed to his side. While 4-5 people were working on him, 2 doctors (one resident and one supervisor) plus 1-2 nurses were working on me. My uterus would not stop bleeding and was having trouble contracting after the placental birth. Thanks to all these wonderful people (at least 7-9) my son and I made it through this stage of birth just fine. He was placed in my arms within 10 minutes with a score of 6 and we both made a full recovery.

It's times like this that I thank God that I have access to outstanding medical care.

Too early to tap dance

One small victory at a time though.

While the President may say he doesn't consider the public option to be the most important aspect of reform, we all know it's only slightly true. The total truth would be that single payer is what he has his eye on.

As for Johnson's (D-GA) comments:

"We'll have the same number of people uninsured," she said. "If the insurance companies wanted to insure these people now, they'd be insured."

I still don't buy it. There are planty of people out there who can afford it and choose to not have it. There are even more out there who just can't afford it and haven't signed up for Medicaid and state options that are available to them.

On the same note, keep informed here. Betsey McCaughey was the Lt. Gov. of New York and is an expert on health policy. She has extensively researched the health care reform bills that are being considered in the house and senate. What she is finding in these bills is scary. Examples: end of life counseling, the actual cost of it, when (not if) you will be forced into it, etc.

Don't be faked out by what Drudge calls a white flag of retreat. They don't tuck tail and retreat - they divert attention and then sneak in the back door.

If public option health care is such a great idea...

...why is it that a majority of Democrats don't even want to be enrolled?

Tom Coburn (R, OK) is also a medical doctor and posted an article on National Review this morning. In it he poses 10 questions that are being overlooked or simply avoided by the media and Congressmen pushing this "reform." One of the best questions:

5. If the public option is so wonderful, will you lead by example and vote for a plan to enroll you and your family in the public option?

I offered an amendment in committee to force members of Congress to enroll in the public option. Nine out of eleven Democrats on the health committee who back the public option refused. If the politicians creating the public option don’t have confidence in it, neither should the American people.

Can we seriously trust legislation that Congress themselves want to avoid? Of course not. When the people writing the bill lack confidence in it than we should be very, very concerned, especially when they begin talking about rationing of care.

6. Will you vote for a plan that will allow a board of politicians and bureaucrats to override decisions made by you and your doctor?

Both the Senate and House bills set up a government-run “comparative effectiveness” board that will make final decisions about treatment and care. In committee, I gave senators several opportunities to accept language that would forbid this board from denying care. All of my amendments were rejected, which suggests that the intent is to set up a board that will ration care, as is done in the United Kingdom.

It's hard to discount the government's ability to ration care when it is built right into the bill. How else do you suppose they will reduce costs and cut spending?

Our congressman is holding a townhall meeting tomorrow night and we plan to attend. He happens to be a Republican and has come out against the bill but we are still attending to voice our concern. Please do so in your district too. If your congressman does not have a townhall meeting set up, keep calling and emailing until he/she does set one up. It is our responsibility to communicate with our elected officials as to how we would like them to vote on our behalf and why. Here is the info specific to CO elected officials.

Denver Freedom Rally

Good job to my fellow Coloradans in rallying for freedom of health care!

This will probably be categorized as fear tactics and mob mentality not to mention indoctrination of the young (did you see the cute baby!). But seriously, we are exceptionally fortunate and blessed to be able to rally and speak our minds in this wonderful country of ours. Thank the lord that you don't live in Iran!

Now, go report me to the White House.

My body, my choice (Updated)

Update: Please go here and sign a petition to keep our health care out of government hands

This post will be about health care, truly an argument about my body versus another (say the tiny baby growing inside a woman's body). I wrote that title not knowing a recent article had the same. It covers a topic often overlooked - our own responsibility and "self-reliance" when it comes to health care.

Consequences of a government-run program are also often overlooked, which include doctor shortage, long lines, waiting lists, lower-level of care, denial of care, denial of senior-care, denial of certain medications, etc. Plus, it puts our country at risk financially. Oh, and death may occur.

Not to mention the eventual decrease in the number of medications out there. The United States accounts for almost half of the global pharmaceutical market. Why would this continue under a government-run (IE non-capitalist) system?

Another a look at Canada:

...report says that from 1997 until 2005 quality was not existent in
providing health care. She added that managers put a “far greater
emphasis on financial management than on protecting the public
interest.”

Bold emphasis added by me.

What Obama proposes as "cost control" is really reduction in spending. For example, if I set up a budget in my home of how I much is spent on milk and I need to control costs, what do I do? I reduce the milk consumed (limit availability) or I buy cheaper milk (lower quality).

A real-life health care example of cost-control: limiting the number of test strips a diabetic uses in a day. My husband Roscoe recently had an A1C of 5.9. This rocks! He does it by watching what he eats, exercising 6 days a week, and keeping very close tabs on his blood sugar levels. The last part is done partly by checking his blood sugar levels all the time, often a couple times an hour. He obviously uses a lot of test strips to do so. Well, what if he was only limited to 5 per day because some person working for the government deems it as enough because anymore than 5 is too expensive? Suddenly part of what works for this diabetic is tossed aside due to cost controls.

If you have a few minutes (20 actually) please watch this video of Stephen Crowder. He takes the cameras to Canada to find out how their health care runs.

I would rather have tort reform

Thankfully this article is out there to spell out some of the downfalls of Obama-Care.

If you prize choosing your own cardiologist or urologist under your company's Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer rewards your non-smoking, healthy lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for the essentials, or if you simply take comfort in the freedom to spend your own money for a policy that covers the newest drugs and diagnostic tests -- you may be shocked to learn that you could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills that herald a health-care revolution.

I've been following this "other option" that the current administration is pushing and it is not pretty. It's going to cost everyone (not just your really wealthy uncle) a bunch of money, put our country further into debt (who is going to buy it now - China doesn't want it anymore), there are questions about what coverage we will really get (or not get!), and many, many other downfalls that I have a whole other post dedicated to explaining. Think Canadian health care on really bad, out of date drugs.


h/t Roscoe emailed the article

Things that made me go WHAT?! when listening to the press conference tonight

Did the President really tell us tonight that we are wasting our money when we seek second or third medical opinions? Really?!

And what exactly does he mean when he says that we will still receive the best care, just not the most expensive care?

And when he states that the one thing we will have to give up is paying for things that don't make us healthy, I have one question: who decides that it isn't making me healthy - the government, my doctor, me...?

And that guy who got hit by the bus in his scenario - either way we pay for his care, Mr. President. Why not give him an option of only having emergency health care that he purchases?