Before he took over the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid agency this summer, Dr. Donald Berwick retired from the nonprofit health care think tank he co-founded with a nearly $900,000 compensation package and a seven-figure executive retirement plan.
But Dr. Berwick is declining to say exactly who provided funding to the Massachusetts-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement in response to Republicans who question whether the new Medicare chief could have a conflict of interest if medical-device companies or health plans helped make his generous compensation package possible in the first place.
Last week, Dr. Berwick, who is administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), declined to release information about donors to the nonprofit group where he served as chief executive, saying he no longer worked there and had no authority to release information that was not public.
“You can be assured that I will comply with all of the recusal and other obligations contained in my ethics agreement,” Dr. Berwick wrote.
The Washington Times reported earlier this month that a review of some of the funding sources of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement show health care entities that don’t appear on Dr. Berwick’s financial disclosure or on the standard ethics agreement that officials use to root out potential conflicts of interest.
Elections have consequences. Words really do have meaning. The fools in the Blue States are learning these truths the hard way.
The Hope and Change crowd is getting some change, but not the kind they thought they were getting when they closed their ears and eyes and voted for a charlatan they knew nothing about.
The costs of ObamaCare, that many of us warned about, are already being felt in several states that voted for Barack Obama and the best part is the first victims out of the shoot are the unionized public employees.
In Iowa state employees using Blue Cross/Blue Shield are paying up to 11.2 percent more in premiums for the same or less health care thanks to the provisions of ObamaCare. The State of Iowa will pay an additional $17 million to cover its employee’s medical insurance as well.
In Washington State, another Obama stronghold, unionized State employees will have to ante up increased healthcare insurance premiums. Starting January 1st some will be paying 50 percent more for what they had before ObamaCare.
One of the side effects of socialized medicine is that the government must have access to the history and prognosis of all its patients. This Big Brother boon is coming to America.
The New York Timesreported over the weekend that the Obama administration is “rewriting” its rules governing who can look into medical records – and whether you are allowed to find out about it. Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s HHS secretary, drafted temporary rules last August, then unveiled “permanent” rules just last month, but they were so loose many on the Left could not agree to them. Under current rules, “No notification is required” if someone steals, tampers with, or otherwise accesses a patient’s medical records unless the hospital judges it would pose “a significant risk of financial, reputational, or other harm to the individual.”
Breaches of privacy are all-too-prevalent. The Times noted the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse “estimates that more than five million people have been affected by breaches of medical information in the last 18 months.” The Institute of Medicine documented tens of thousands of breaches in 2007-8. These include the loss of Social Security number, the crown jewel of identity theft.
The actions of the Obama administration will further compromise patients’ privacy while laying heavier burdens upon health care providers
Obama managed to sneak a provision into the 2009 stimulus bill to make medical records more readily transferable. Section 3001 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 sets aside $19.2 billion to digitize records, turning the traditional, overstuffed folders of papers into Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). Federal law authorized the “development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the electronic use and exchange of information.”
The records are to include, “at a minimum, diagnostic test results, problem list, medication list, medication allergy list, and procedures.” The EMRs should also list each patient’s “problem list,” consisting of such things as “(i) Diseases. (ii) Injuries. (iii) Impairments. (iv) Other health problems and their manifestations. (v) Causes of injury, disease, impairment, or other health problems.” CNSNews.com asked Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, what if any information would not be stored for all to see. His answer seemed less than forthcoming.
The greater fear is the officials of ObamaCare will use this information to deny care to those they deem too weak or unworthy to live. Those fears were verified by Dr. Donald Berwick’s presence at the press conference announcing new “permanent” regulations last month. In any socialized medicine scheme, the State must pour over its subjects’ records to prioritize them for care – or to deny them care. As Clinton’s Labor Secretary Robert Reich put it, a government bureaucrat will gently whisper into an ailing grandmother’s ear, “We’re going to let you die.”
EMRs create the virtual infrastructure necessary for death panels. Perhaps that is why Obama is willing to pay for them. The stimulus funds offer doctors and hospitals incentive pay to digitize records, and threaten to reduce Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to those not using digital records by 2014, reducing payments by one percent a year beginning in 2015.
Federal tax dollars will defray the enormous cost of purchasing the equipment necessary for EMRs. Such systems run doctors an estimated $50,000, and hospitals can pay $50 to $100 million. However, The Washington Post reports the government will award a maximum of only $11 million per hospital.
This unfunded mandate will drive already skyrocketing medical costs even higher. The Miami Herald reported that Miami Hospital is paying $100 million. The paper quotes Dr. Tony Prieto, a local family practitioner who works alone, that the federal reimbursement “won’t even be close” to his expenses. It added even a local hospital facing “financial woes is upgrading its…system as part of the federal push.”
How increasing medical costs is supposed to decrease medical costs is a secret known only to Democrats such as Joe Biden, who believe, “We have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt.”
Sadly, losing our money pales in comparison to losing our privacy and, perhaps, our lives.
Congressman Darrell Issa has produced a shocking new report detailing the Obama administration’s extensive use of taxpayer-funded propaganda, which he says breaks federal law. The report created for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform details how the former Alinskyite community organizer has channeled the resources of the federal government — that is, your money — to create “a sophisticated propaganda and lobbying campaign” made up of “inappropriate and sometimes unlawful public relations and propaganda initiatives.” The highlights include:
Using federal arts grants to spread Obama’s legislative message. Last August 10, administration officials held a conference call with National Endowment of the Arts grant recipients. Buffy Wicks, a college radical who worked in Valerie Jarrett’s Office of Public Engagement, told the invitees, “we’re going to come at you with some specific ‘asks’ here,” specifically supporting Obama’s initiatives on health care, the environment, or energy. She suggested, “We wanted folks to connect…with federal agencies, with labor unions, progressive groups, face groups [faith groups, perhaps?], women’s groups, you name it.” Within 48 hours, no fewer than 21 arts organizations released a statement endorsing ObamaCare.
The Dept. of Health and Human Services paid MIT economist Jonathan Gruber nearly $400,000 for various jobs. He did not disclose his employment by HHS while writing a string of op-eds, nor while testifying before the Senate in favor of, ObamaCare.
The Justice Dept. hired Tracy Russo, the former blogger for John Edwards, to comment on internet articles or bulletin board messages that criticized Barack Obama and his agenda. She did this anonymously or used a pen name.
A Dept. of Education officer used the White House email to send his colleagues eight bullet points to “communicate the merits of the President’s proposal with your members and their audiences.”
Andy Griffith starred in a Medicare “update” that doubled as a commercial for Obama’s health care legislation. Not only is the PSAl propaganda, it is erroneous. A writer with the nonpartisan FactCheck.org remarked Griffith’s scripted “promise that ‘benefits will remain the same’ is just as fictional as the town of Mayberry.”
The White House routinely drove traffic to websites that lobby for Obama’s legislation.
It’s not bad enough the president is a megalomaniac who skirts the law to foist his far-Left agenda on the American people — he also uses your money to do it.
Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March.
“The citizens of the Show-Me State don’t want Washington involved in their health care decisions," said Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, one of the sponsors of the legislation that put Proposition C on the August ballot. She credited a grass-roots campaign involving Tea Party and patriot groups with building support for the anti-Washington proposition.
With most of the vote counted, Proposition C was winning by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. The measure, which seeks to exempt Missouri from the insurance mandate in the new health care law, includes a provision that would change how insurance companies that go out of business in Missouri liquidate their assets.
"I’ve never seen anything like it," Cunningham said at a campaign gathering at a private home in Town and Country. "Citizens wanted their voices to be heard."
Checkup Report Outlines Broken Promises of Dems’ Government Takeover of Health Care & Republicans’ Better Solutions to Lower Costs, Protect Jobs
Washington (Jun 23) House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today marked the three-month anniversary of President Obama’s government takeover of health care by releasing a report outlining its broken promises. Entitled “ObamaCare: Three Months of Broken Promises,” the report measures the law’s across-the-board failure to live up to Washington Democrats’ specific promises, including creating jobs, lowering costs, reducing the deficit, and protecting seniors’ benefits.
The report also examines Republicans’ coordinated offensive to address the rising public backlash against the new law and promote better solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting jobs.
“This report chronicles ObamaCare’s broken promises in the three months since it became law,” Boehner said. “The American people remain squarely opposed to this government takeover of health care that has already failed to live up to specific promises made by President Obama and Washington Democrats. Republicans are listening to the American people, and fighting to repeal ObamaCare so we can replace it with common-sense reforms focused on lowering costs and protecting jobs.”
The 43-page report is comprised of the following sections:
• American Jobs Already Under Attack • Increasing Americans’ Health Care Costs • Increasing The Deficit • Raising Taxes On Middle-Class Families And Small Businesses • Devastating Cuts In Seniors’ Benefits • “If You Like Your Health Care Plan, Too Bad” • No Progress On Stopping Taxpayer-Funded Abortions • States Revolt Against ObamaCare Mandates • Taxpayer-Funded, Taxpayer-Rejected PR Campaign • GOP Offensive Holds Democrats Accountable For Broken Promises • Better Solutions To Lower Health Care Costs
NOTE: The “ObamaCare: Three Months of Broken Promises” report can be viewed by clicking here.
this brings the cost to over $1Trillion for Obamacare
Congressional Budget Office estimates released Tuesday predict the health care overhaul will likely cost about $115 billion more in discretionary spending over ten years than the original cost projections.
The additional spending — if approved over the years by Congress — would bring the total estimated cost of the overhaul to about $1 trillion.
The Congressional Budget Office expects the federal agencies to spend $10 billion to $20 billion over 10 years on administrative costs to implement the overhaul. The CBO expects Congress to spend an additional $105 billion over 10 years to fund discretionary programs in the overhaul.
The CBO released the estimates in response to a request from California Rep. Jerry Lewis, ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. A spokeswoman for Lewis said the inquiry was filed before the House voted on the bill.
“[L]arge sums of discretionary spending in both the House and Senate versions of the health care reform bills have not yet been included in estimates by the CBO, rendering it impossible to make informed decisions regarding the outcome of this legislation,” Lewis wrote in a February letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asking her to postpone votes until the discretionary spending analysis was complete.
With Democrats hurtling toward a scheduled Sunday vote on national health care legislation, Washington is already starting to speculate on the political ramifications of its passage.
The latest Gallup poll suggests that President Obama’s drive to jam the unpopular bill through Congress is taking its toll. For the first time of his presidency, more people disapprove of Obama’s performance (48 percent) than approve (46 percent).
Despite the polling numbers, the White House publicly insists that once Americans understand what’s in the bill, they’ll come to like it and over time will embrace it just like Social Security and Medicare. Yet the reverse is more likely to be true. Once Americans confront the consequences of this government takeover of the health care system, it will only become more unpopular.
When he set out to overhaul the nation’s health care system, Obama faced a basic problem in selling his proposals: roughly 85 percent of Americans have health insurance and are generally satisfied with their personal care. So as a result, he was forced to make a series of bold claims. He has argued that without his brand of health care legislation, premiums would spiral out of control; health care spending would eat up more than a fifth of our economy; and our entitlement crisis would cripple the federal government. Meanwhile, he’s claimed that his plan would expand coverage while reducing deficits and improving quality of care. And of course, none of these revolutionary changes would interfere in any way with people who like the coverage they have.
this brings the cost to over $1Trillion for Obamacare
Obamacare is destined to fail 
