BluntPolitics.com

By Ric Joyner

Folks,

Enjoyed my day meeting with my representatives. The first was Senator Feingold’s aid…Andrew S. Our mission was not to talk about ideology but how flex plans will be affected in health care.

Since the Dems are using reconciliation the process stops until the senate finishes. But the problem is that that House has to pass the Senate version (which has the two negative impacts on flex in it. Capping the health FSA and eliminating the over the counter medicine deduction in FSA, HRA and HSA.

We explained that our software vendor provided data on all their participants which provides about 1.2 million cdh account holders. The average dollar amount put into the FSA for health expenses was $1,563.17. I then explained that the problem with this that it is average numbers and singles put in much less than families so this numbers for actual participation with families is much higher and we were there to let the Senators know that our participants asked us to pass along to the representatives that this is a hidden tax. Same thing with over the counter meds.

Interesting fact, we waited in their lobbies and the phone rang off the hook with people calling to protest the health care bill. Finally one of the aids blew a gasket literally and started to argue with the constituent that health care did need overhauling. As we left, there were other folks from other associations that were lecturing the representatives staff on big government etc. and for them not to support this bill. But by and large the calls were steady in all the offices and they were overwhelmingly against this bill (there officially is no bill but just pieces and they will be cobbled together. But do watch the senate version and the house must pass this bill). The staffers said their job was take down and pass along the information to the member but that it was tiring!

There was genuine concern by staffers they could lose the house. They don’t think they will lose the Senate. They talked about Mass election catching them all by surprise.

The Senate Aides said they have the 50 votes (the VP adds 1) to pass the bill in the Senate but in the house it is unraveling. (This was told to us by Democratic Aides). One said she had been working so hard and long hours on a bill that she would be severely depressed if it didn’t happen.

Again we didn’t talk politics just asked the senators and representative to please work together to take out this hidden tax. We received positive comments that they would. (I have known most of them for years)

BTW we ended up lost below the Capital and we took a  ride on the Senator’s subway train which I guess is a not allowed. A guard stopped us and asked if we were staff and we said no…just lost. He told us we weren’t supposed to be on the train and asked how we got there and we told  him we came down the stairs and got on. He told us to come to his desk and he checked our IDs and gave us “official business Visitor” badges.

Oh boy that was cool. We got into a ton of places (and trains) we probably shouldn’t have.  One staffer asked how we got the badges and we said it was fun riding the senators train and appreciated the nice officer that gave them to us. She said “Great, that is why I feel so safe in Washington” and rolled her eyes.

Ferdacripesake it is fun to be from Wisconsin! 

One guy from NE was wearing a giant corn cob hat to represent the cornhusker pay off!

Ric Joyner, CEBS, CFCI

Joe Lieberman an independent  Senator from Connecticut which usually votes with the democrats, has just announced he will side with the Republicans on a filibuster of the Senate version of health care reform. Olympia Snowe a Senator from Maine also will side with the Republicans against the bill. Unless a compromise can be reached soon the bill is effectively “dead” in the Senate! The result is that the bill is prevented from moving out of the Senate to be joined with a House version. Both Senators are citing the public option (government take over of 20% of the economy), as their reason for not backing the bill. This news is  a blow to democrats who want a government take over of 20% of the economy. We are for fixing the people who do not have coverage, but this bill according to the Congressional Budget Office  (CBO) will not cover enough of the uninsured, potentially cost trillions of dollars and millions of jobs.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jbjzPEY0Y3bvRD335rGu_Z3KXoQw

Overhauling health-care system tops agenda at annual meeting of Canada’s doctors

By Jennifer Graham (CP) – 2 days ago

SASKATOON — The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country’s health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"We know that there must be change," she said. "We’re all running flat out, we’re all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."

The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there’s a critical need to make Canada’s health-care system patient-centred. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and France.

His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that "a health-care revolution has passed us by," that it’s possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and "that competition should be welcomed, not feared."

In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.

He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and other health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget. This "activity-based funding" would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he has said.

Doig says she doesn’t know what a proposed "blueprint" toward patient-centred care might look like when the meeting wraps up Wednesday. She’d like to emerge with clear directions about where the association should focus efforts to direct change over the next few years. She also wants to see short-term, medium-term and long-term goals laid out.

"A short-term achievable goal would be to accelerate the process of getting electronic medical records into physicians’ offices," she said. "That’s one I think ought to be a priority and ought to be achievable."

A long-term goal would be getting health systems "talking to each other," so information can be quickly shared to help patients.

Doig, who has had a full-time family practice in Saskatoon for 30 years, acknowledges that when physicians have talked about changing the health-care system in the past, they’ve been accused of wanting an American-style structure. She insists that’s not the case.

"It’s not about choosing between an American system or a Canadian system," said Doig. "The whole thing is about looking at what other people do."

"That’s called looking at the evidence, looking at how care is delivered and how care is paid for all around us (and) then saying ‘Well, OK, that’s good information. How do we make all of that work in the Canadian context? What do the Is Canadian people want?’ "

Doig says there are some "very good things" about Canada’s health-care system, but she points out that many people have stories about times when things didn’t go well for them or their family.

"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," said Doig.

"They have to look at the evidence that’s being presented and will be presented at (the meeting) and realize what Canada’s doctors are trying to tell you, that you can get better care than what you’re getting and we all have to participate in the discussion around how do we do that and of course how do we pay for it."

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

By Ric Joyner

Arlen Specter’s meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius 

Congressional Representative Lloyd Doggett’s meeting gets heated.

By Doug Patton
July 20, 2009

I have a confession to make. I was wrong about our president. He has been telling us that he is a uniter, not a divider, and I doubted him. I thought he would divide this country like no one who has ever held the office. Well, I was wrong, and I want to publicly apologize.

I thought Mr. Obama’s call for a cap and trade policy to combat “global warming,” with its provisions for tax increases and higher energy prices, would surely drive a wedge between us, but I was wrong.

I was sure that President Obama’s push for “the Employee Free Choice Act,” which opponents now have dubbed “the Employee Forced Choice Act,” would segregate labor against management like nothing we have seen in a generation, but I was wrong.

I could not imagine that the president’s insistence on a government-controlled universal health care scheme would not divide us one from another over an issue that is so crucial to our future, but I was wrong.

I predicted that what I perceived as cowardice in our president’s foreign policy would split this nation down the middle and create an intolerable divide between Americans, but I was wrong.

I was convinced that Barack Obama’s extreme views on the sanctity of human life would cause a tear in the fabric of society like no other issue since the Civil War, but I was wrong.

I had little doubt that what I saw as Obama’s hostility to the Second Amendment would create tremendous division over the issue, but I was wrong.

I just knew that this president’s penchant for “redistributing wealth” would cause a separation between rich, middle class and poor, but again, I was wrong.

And finally, I had always believed that when this president nominated judges who shared his radical philosophy of government, those nominations would divide the country.

Was I ever wrong! About all of it.

Barack Obama, just seven months into his only term as president, is beginning to bring this country together like no one since Jimmy Carter, the most incompetent president of the 20th Century.

People frown at the idea of raising taxes and energy costs in the middle of a recession with double-digit unemployment. Far from dividing Americans, Obama has created a rallying point on an issue all of us can understand.

On big labor, our fellow citizens could hardly be more united. When properly explained (a practice Obama detests, as evidenced by the fact that he insists Congress rush through legislation without even reading it), the American people hate the idea of depriving workers of their right to secret ballots in determining whether they become part of a union.

On issues of race, foreign policy, traditional marriage, the sanctity of innocent human life, the Second Amendment, property rights and so much more, poll after poll now shows that Barack Obama is uniting the American people against his radical, anti-American agenda.

But perhaps the area where this president is doing the best job of bringing people together is on the issue of universal health care. Americans instinctively know their country is not Europe, and they have no desire to become France. They understand that somehow someone is going to have to pay for all this “free” health care Obama keeps promising. They know that Obama-Care, like Hillary-Care before it, will do less, cost more and provide fewer choices. They grasp the idea that you cannot serve more people with fewer doctors and provide better care for less money. And they know that trying to jam all this through Congress in two weeks is the last refuge of a panicked administration losing its mesmerizing grip on the people.

So, thank you, Mr. President, for bringing us together. I never believed you could do it and certainly not this soon. In less than a year and a half, you can unite us in a mid-term repudiation of your policies, and in three years and five months you can unite us all behind whomever your successor will be.

—

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a speech writer and public policy advisor for conservative candidates and elected officials. Since 2001, his work has appeared in newspapers across the country and on various Internet web sites.

Today on Obama’s weekly address he said that he inherited record deficits from the previous administration without explaining to us that in his short tenure he increased the deficit nearly double in one month! It took the previous administration 8 years to get the deficit and Bush was fighting a war! When is he going to admit the stimulus is mostly is pure democrat pork. Go to www.recovery.gov  and see the amount of spending that is wasteful and not creating jobs. Yet he has the gall to look the camera in the eye and tell us that “we have to do health care now”. Everything is  urgent with him. I think he is the greatest con man since PT Barnum with the old saying “there is a sucker born every minute!”.

His goal is to implement control in government run health care, financial institutions, taxing energy, cars and change the fundamental way we live. This  agenda is with good intentions but is born from socialism which seeks to control peoples’ lives, limit freedom and eventually enslaves us due to high taxes.

Let us pray that he  doesn’t get his government run health care through with the massive loss of jobs!  SUCKERS!!!

But not with FOX NEWS? Obama receives unprecedented coverage by the Media. But he refuses to sit down with Fox News AND will not allow his surrogates to either! Fox was judged to have the most balanced coverage of the election but because they lean more conservative versus liberal they are viewed with contempt. What has this country come to? Are we all going to blindly follow someone when they run up the deficit and spend far worse than the Bush and the republicans every did? Come on folks useurbrain!

CDHealthWire For CD Market Report Subscribers ©

Subscriber: EFLEXGROUP      Tuesday June 16, 2009

ALERT: Finance May Double HSA Tax

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that an option to double the withdrawal tax on non-medical HSA transactions from 10% to 20% is being considered in the final Senate Finance Committee bill. The idea has been talked about over the past several months, but it is the first time HSA changes have been leaked publicly by committee staff in the final cuts. It’s not clear if this is a trade-off for dropping claims substantiation or in addition to the mandate.

© 2009 Interpro Publications Inc. (Washington)

I have family members that I dearly love. They do have Obama mania (defined as “though he is human he can do no wrong”). This mania stems from “anything is better than Bush” or even a hatred of Bush. Either way  when faced with an argument or debate they retreat to “he has only been in office for 6 months give the guy a chance”. In that 6 months he has collected unprecendented power and apologized all over the world for past “American mistakes” thus making us look weak.

Here are the key points they make.

1. “Aren’t you glad Obama gave the go ahead to kill the pirates?” That decision by Obama is puzzling. He has no problem blowing the heads off pirates but we aren’t allowed to water-board 3 known terrorists to save thousands of lives? Isn’t that hypocritical?

2. Obama increased the national debt 100% in one month! Yet blames Bush that Obama was forced to do this spending spree! No CEO on the planet would keep his job doubling the debit of a company under the auspice that the former CEO caused him to do it! This is fiscal irresponsibility at its worst and treats the average American as if we were children! The arrogance of Obama is incredible. Currently, USA Today stated that only 60 billion of the 750 billion has been released after 3 months! Thus the economy is healing itself. The funny thing is that only 3% of the giant spending bill went for construction projects. The rest are pet projects of the democrats. Here are some examples. Don’t believe me, check out this link from the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310466514522309.html

The problem with this debt is what Obama said himself, “We can’t sustain this amount of debt.

May 14 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”
Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy

But what does this mean? “I am going to tax you like hell to pay for this”

But he has ordered the Treasury to print money!!!

3. I shared with some family members that an unintended side effect of the Alaskan pipeline is that the caribou seek refuge under the pipeline during the harsh Arctic winter because the oil warms the area around the pipeline. http://www.anwr.org/Background/Caribou-in-the-Region.php I am not sure why this tidbit of science offends family members but the idea is that drilling for our own oil resources can work with the environment? Go figure.

4. Attack on the Health Care Industry. Obama now wants to create another entitlement called nationalized health care.  This gives him incredible power over the personal choices of Americans daily lives and destroys millions of jobs at the expense of helping 85% of Americans who have health care now by fixing the 15% using government run program and putting out of work literally millions of people in our industry and those of the insurance industry.

5. During the campaign the Bush detractors said that Bush was spending 9 billion per month on the war in Iraq. Yet Obama has no problem in one month and with future spending increase this amount by 3,000 billion per month!!! Are you nuts people?

6. When gas prices climbed the family members screamed bloody murder that Bush was driving up the costs and was in the pocket of the oil companies. Even after repeated proof on this blog that this was a ludicrous claim by the family members they continued in their delusion. Well the table has turned and the oil prices are climbing again, so is Obama in the pocket of the oil companies? Didn’t he just beg the Saudi King to lower prices last week? So why is Obama wanting to hurt the poor by increased oil prices? Are the family members going to step up to the plate and be intellectually honest and blame Obama the same way they blamed Bush? I doubt it. Why because there was a hatred of Bush that underlies their comments and sentiments.

Predictions. Obama is consolidating a massive amount of power with the medias help. He i controlling the banks, racking up debt, going to take over your personal choices of health care and now will tell you what kind of car to drive! Next he will bail out the states and the states lose power! He is in the pocket of the unions and which are corrupt and responsible for the downfall of large companies such as GM with their massive benefits and oppressive pension plans.

Looking forward to the health care fight to see how far he will take this country to push his agenda not caring about the average guy who puts people to work such as eflex!

I  hope my family members wake up and finally put on their intellectual honest glasses.

We have finally reached a point where humanitarian assistance, from us and others, can have an impact.

Washington Post

By Angelina Jolie
Thursday, February 28, 2008; 1:15 PM

The request is familiar to American ears: “Bring them home.”

But in Iraq, where I’ve just met with American and Iraqi leaders, the phrase carries a different meaning. It does not refer to the departure of U.S. troops, but to the return of the millions of innocent Iraqis who have been driven out of their homes and, in many cases, out of the country.

In the six months since my previous visit to Iraq with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, this humanitarian crisis has not improved. However, during the last week, the United States, UNHCR and the Iraqi government have begun to work together in new and important ways.

We still don’t know exactly how many Iraqis have fled their homes, where they’ve all gone, or how they’re managing to survive. Here is what we do know: More than 2 million people are refugees inside their own country — without homes, jobs and, to a terrible degree, without medicine, food or clean water. Ethnic cleansing and other acts of unspeakable violence have driven them into a vast and very dangerous no-man’s land. Many of the survivors huddle in mosques, in abandoned buildings with no electricity, in tents or in one-room huts made of straw and mud. Fifty-eight percent of these internally displaced people are younger than 12 years old.

An additional 2.5 million Iraqis have sought refuge outside Iraq, mainly in Syria and Jordan. But those host countries have reached their limits. Overwhelmed by the refugees they already have, these countries have essentially closed their borders until the international community provides support.

I’m not a security expert, but it doesn’t take one to see that Syria and Jordan are carrying an unsustainable burden. They have been excellent hosts, but we can’t expect them to care for millions of poor Iraqis indefinitely and without assistance from the U.S. or others. One-sixth of Jordan’s population today is Iraqi refugees. The large burden is already causing tension internally.

The Iraqi families I’ve met on my trips to the region are proud and resilient. They don’t want anything from us other than the chance to return to their homes — or, where those homes have been bombed to the ground or occupied by squatters, to build new ones and get back to their lives. One thing is certain: It will be quite a while before Iraq is ready to absorb more than 4 million refugees and displaced people. But it is not too early to start working on solutions. And last week, there were signs of progress.

In Baghdad, I spoke with Army Gen. David Petraeus about UNHCR’s need for security information and protection for its staff as they re-enter Iraq, and I am pleased that he has offered that support. General Petraeus also told me he would support new efforts to address the humanitarian crisis “to the maximum extent possible” — which leaves me hopeful that more progress can be made.

UNHCR is certainly committed to that. Last week while in Iraq, High Commissioner António Guterres pledged to increase UNHCR’s presence there and to work closely with the Iraqi government, both in assessing the conditions required for return and in providing humanitarian relief.

During my trip I also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has announced the creation of a new committee to oversee issues related to internally displaced people, and a pledge of $40 million to support the effort.

My visit left me even more deeply convinced that we not only have a moral obligation to help displaced Iraqi families, but also a serious, long-term, national security interest in ending this crisis.

Today’s humanitarian crisis in Iraq — and the potential consequences for our national security — are great. Can the United States afford to gamble that 4 million or more poor and displaced people, in the heart of Middle East, won’t explode in violent desperation, sending the whole region into further disorder?

What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made. In fact, we should step up our financial and material assistance. UNHCR has appealed for $261 million this year to provide for refugees and internally displaced persons. That is not a small amount of money — but it is less than the U.S. spends each day to fight the war in Iraq. I would like to call on each of the presidential candidates and congressional leaders to announce a comprehensive refugee plan with a specific timeline and budget as part of their Iraq strategy.

As for the question of whether the surge is working, I can only state what I witnessed: U.N. staff and those of non-governmental organizations seem to feel they have the right set of circumstances to attempt to scale up their programs. And when I asked the troops if they wanted to go home as soon as possible, they said that they miss home but feel invested in Iraq. They have lost many friends and want to be a part of the humanitarian progress they now feel is possible.

It seems to me that now is the moment to address the humanitarian side of this situation. Without the right support, we could miss an opportunity to do some of the good we always stated we intended to do.

Angelina Jolie, an actor, is a UNHCR goodwill ambassador.