ObamaCare versus NobamaCare

Rob, a Catholic Canadian married to an American, our friend Alexa (the designer of this blog), gives us his unique take on Obama Care:

Being a Canadian and married to an American means having American in-laws, which means usually that once per visit, I will be asked by somebody on my wife's side of the family what I think of the Canadian Health Care system.

I used to be pretty smug about the Canadian system. Even after the time when we lived in Peterborough (1998) and found that family doctors were, uh, "rationed", and because once, in a pinch, we saw a GP in Lakefield about a bug that our son had, that one visit therefore committed us to that doctor to be our family doctor. Read the rest here.

Dr. Obama Prescribes a Pain Pill

Jane Sturm told Barack Obama that her mother had needed a pacemaker implanted at 100 years of age, but got denied by the first doctor she saw. She found a doctor who would do the surgery, impressed by her spirit. When Sturm asked Obama if her mother would have received a pacemaker under ObamaCare … well, watch for yourself:



Jane Sturm told the story of her nearly 100-year-old mother, who was originally denied a pacemaker because of her age. She eventually got one, but only after seeking out another doctor.

“Outside the medical criteria,” Sturm asked, “is there a consideration that can be given for a certain spirit … and quality of life?”

“I don’t think that we can make judgments based on peoples’ spirit,” Obama said. … “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking painkillers.“

H/T: Hot Air

Deal Hudson: The Problems with Government-Run Healthcare

Deal Hudson at Inside Catholic has written an excellent article on the problems with government-run health care.

Here is a sampling of what he shares:

Jim Cabretta, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, served for three years as the Bush administration's top budget official for health care. Cabretta claims that the present health legislation is not economically sustainable. "The plan as it stands," Cabretta concludes, "is not really a trillion-dollar bill; it really adds up to 1.5 trillion."

He explained the reason why the health-care bills are under-budgeted. "The legislation requires anyone who has job-based insurance 'has to stay there and not take the government subsidized program.' In addition, anyone who has not bought into their workplace insurance will be required to purchase it, 'even if they cannot afford it."' 

Anyone not presently covered will be able to get into the subsidized program, creating what Cabretta calls "horizontal inequity." In other words, everyone covered by employers will be paying significantly more for health care than those on the government plan.

"What will happen next is inevitable," says Cabretta. "People will complain about the inequality, and Congress will eventually allow everyone to purchase the lower-cost, government-subsidized programs. The overall cost of the nationalized plan will rise by 50 percent."

Click here to read the entire article.

Do You Trust the Government with Control of Your Health Care?

~ Via Students for Life.

Watch the New TV Ad Exposing The Obama Health Care Takeover

View Commercial here

First pastoral letter on healthcare bill comes from Kansas City bishops

Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St Joseph MO and bishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City KS have released a joint pastoral letter clarifying the Church's stand on health care. It is fair to legitimate concerns on both sides of the debate, but firmly warns that the bill as it exists, cannot be supported by Catholics due to violations of human life and dignity.

It begins by praising President Obama for making health care a priority and lists the shortcomings of the current system; 47 million uninsured, high cost of benefits, pre-existing conditions, Medicare will be insolvent by 2012, and the fact that employer who can't afford to provide benefits hire only part time employees.
The strengths mentioned by the bishops are: a majority of Americans are happy with their health care plan, 85% are covered by insurance, 40% of the uninsured are between the ages of 19 and 34, US doctors and scientists are esteemed and are the envy of the world, our advanced technology, and the fact that Medicare and Medicaid while in trouble are a safety net for the elderly and poor.
The bishops then point out, "change does not guarantee improvement" while warning of diminished protection of human life and dignity, and a costly insensitive bureaucracy violates the principle of subsidiarity. This principle says that the lowest reasonable level of government should meet human needs to make sure the individual is best served.
The injustice of Catholic hospitals, which make up one fourth of the hospitals in the US, being excluded from the health care plan if they refuse to provide abortions, and the fact that taxpayers will be forced to fund abortions were cited as major objections to the plan. The injustice of compulsory end of life counseling for the elderly and disabled, "place undue pressure on individual or guardian to opt for measures which end life". The plan also interferes with individual rights to make health care decisions and provide care for the family, stating while health care is a right that it is NOT the government's role to provide health care.

Read the entire pastoral letter at the Catholic Key Blog.

Here is the powerful closing statement, which should be read in parishes across the country;
"These last two principles: Solidarity and the Promotion of the Common Good cause us to say that we cannot be passive concerning health care policy in our country. There is important work to be done, but “change” for change’s sake; change which expands the reach of government beyond its competence would do more harm than good. Change which loses sight of man’s transcendent dignity or the irreplaceable value of human life; change which could diminish the role of those in need as agents of their own care is not truly human progress at all.
A hasty or unprincipled change could cause us, in fact, to lose some of the significant benefits that Americans now enjoy, while creating a future tax burden which is both unjust and unsustainable.
We urge the President, Congress, and other elected and appointed leaders to develop prescriptions for reforming health care which are built on objective truths: that all people in every stage of human life count for something; that if we violate our core beliefs we are not aiding people in need, but instead devaluing their human integrity and that of us all.
We call upon our Catholic faithful, and all people of good will, to hold our elected officials accountable in these important deliberations and let them know clearly our support for those who, with prudence and wisdom, will protect the right to life, maintain freedom of conscience, and nurture the sense of solidarity that drives us to work hard, to pray, and to act charitably for the good of all.
We place this effort under the maternal protection of our Blessed Mother, Mary, who was entrusted, with Joseph in the home at Nazareth, with the care of the child Jesus. We ask Our Lord Jesus Christ to extend His light and His Mercy to our nation’s efforts, so that every person will come to know His healing consolation as Divine Physician."

Most Reverend Joseph F. Naumann - Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas
Most Reverend Robert W. Finn - Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph

August 22, 2009

Memorial of the Queenship of Mary


HT National Catholic Register Blog

Individual bishops speak up against Obamacare

During her interview with Jeff Gardner on Catholic Radio International, American Life League Director Judie Brown, surprised me by saying "we've never had better bishops". Hearing the dim view she had of Senator Kennedy's funeral, I expected her to me more pessimistic about our bishops. She said that she feels we have turned a corner, and that the American Catholic cares more about life issues than ever, before, and that our bishops reflect this trend.
Now I can see where she gets her enthusiasm. These shepherds are eloquent, bold and inspiring. Let's follow them to victory over this insidious evil plan with it's hidden agenda which belongs to the Culture of Death.
Death to seniors, death to the disabled, death to the unborn.

Bishop Walker Nickless of Sioux City, Iowa issued this message today,
"First and most important, the Church will not accept any legislation that mandates coverage, public or private, for abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem-cell research," Nickless writes. "We refuse to allow our own parish, school, and diocesan health insurance plans to be forced to include these evils."
I think Bishop Nickless is referring to the State of North Carolina's efforts to force faithfully Catholic Belmont Abbey College to cover abortions and birth control in their employee health plan. That would be the future of Catholic health care plans if Obamacare passes.

Bishop Robert Vasa of Oregon stated, "Without these changes (and significant changes in other medical, moral and conscience issues) the health care bill is fatally flawed and as such cannot be supported."

"Meanwhile, the Bishop of Fargo, North Dakota, Samuel J. Aquila, has written a letter calling for “genuine health care reform.”
“True health care begins with the unborn child in the womb,” he explained. “When a given plan to provide care fails to protect that life, it is no longer animated by a source of truth and justice, thus it will not, and cannot, flourish.”
Abortion "has nothing to do with promoting health," he says."

Such clear, uncompromising words give encouragement to those of us who labor in the trenches.
Nickless has encouragement for pro-life advocates.
"I encourage all of you to make your voice heard to our representatives in Congress. Tell them what they need to hear from us: No health care reform is better than the wrong sort of health care reform," he says. "Insist that they not permit themselves to be railroaded into the current too-costly and pro-abortion health care proposals. Insist on their support for proposals that respect the life and dignity of every human person, especially the unborn."

Thank you Bishops Nickless, Vasa, and Aquila!

Read the entire story at Life News.