Letter to the Editor - Waiting to see the Senate health bill

...On June 22, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Democrats defeated a Republican amendment to the health care bill that would have prevented the use of “comparative effectiveness” research methodologies in the denial of benefits to patients, against their will, based on their age, expected length of life, or of the patient’s present or predicted disability or quality of life.

Democrats claimed the amendment was unneeded. The existing language says that comparative effectiveness research “shall not be construed as mandates for payment, coverage, or treatment.” However, nothing in the current bill prevents it being used to deny treatment.


“Comparative effectiveness” refers to the practice of limiting choices in medicines or procedures to a few that government bureaucrats decide are cost-effective. This is the norm in Britain and Canada. Canada sends people to the United States for certain cancer treatments but decides which hospital, often to the detriment of the patient. If you are over 60 in Britain, your health care is limited.

Such rationing discriminates against people with disabilities, older people, and anyone considered having a poor ‘quality of life.’

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If our President had read H.R. 3200, he would never have told us that if we like our health insurance, we can keep it.

On page 16, Section 102(a)(1) “Limitation on New Enrollment” forbids new enrollment in private plans. In other words, if you lose your job, change your job, graduate from school and look for a job, you must go into the government plan. If the government insurance is so wonderful, it would not be necessary force people onto it.

On pg. 167, Title IV, Subtitle A, Part 1, any individual “without acceptable health care coverage, defined in subsection d (pg. 171-173) will have to pay a special tax. Pg. 194, Subtitle C allows the “Health Choices Commissioner” to get anyone’s tax returns in order to figure the tax.

The House and Senate bills are full of such mandates that make the word “choice” an empty one unless we are talking about abortion. Oh, yes, the government can define health care services to include abortion. It is revealing that amendments to exclude abortion in these bills have been beaten back by Democrats.

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If you would like to check the accuracy of my facts, I have the pdf version of HR 3200 that I can send you. (Note: Click here for pdf version of the entire bill.)

I also have facts that refute the contention that no federal funds will be used for abortions and that no illegal aliens will be eligible for the programs. (Illegals get health care now via hospital emergency rooms or by paying up front.). I've given up writing letters to the editor. It takes a lot of time to condense the facts to 170-200 words and they don't print them anyway. What the papers do like to print are name-calling letters. Anything giving "chapter-and-verse" facts are unwelcome as they go against their editorial stands.

An interesting question is what Canadians will do for their health care beyond the basics? Right now, the Canadian govt. sends cancer patients needing chemotherapy to either Buffalo or, I believe, Cleveland. They assign patients to one or the other, regardless of which regimen works better for that type of cancer. Detroit is the center for heart surgery of Canadian patients.

Where do I get these facts? Over 35 years as a reference librarian with a paralegal degree helps finding out these things...

- Carol White of Hawaii Right to Life and used with permission.

Action Alert: Senate Abortion Vote Tuesday - Call Key Senators

Members of the U.S. Senate Financial Services Committee will be voting NEXT TUESDAY on amendments to keep abortion coverage out of Sen. Max Baucus's (D-Mont.) health care bill. Sen. Baucus's health care bill explicitly includes abortion and would subsidize health plans that cover all elective abortions. Such subsidies for abortion goes well beyond the status quo of preventing federal funds either from paying for abortion or subsidizing plans that covers abortion as is prevented under current laws governing Medicaid, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, and the State Children's Health Insurance Plan.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has introduced several amendments that would prevent government funding for abortion and would protect current conscience laws for health workers. Please call these key Senators today and urge them to support Sen. Hatch's amendments to keep government funded abortions out of the Baucus bill:

• Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.): 202-224-5521
• Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.): 202-224-2441
• Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.): 202-224-2043
• Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.): 202-224-4843
• Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.): 202-224-5274
• Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine): 202-224-5344

Say No to B.O. and it's off to jail you go!

A must - read post:  Confirmed! Jail Time for Individuals who refuse Obama Care

Obamacare: What are they hiding?

Democrats REFUSE to Let Americans Read Obama's 'Health Care' Bill Before Vote

Catholic Medical Association evaluates health care reform proposals

Washington D.C., Sep 24, 2009 / 07:12 am (CNA).- The Catholic Medical Association on Monday wrote an open letter to Catholic organizations and individuals to express its views on “key prudential aspects” of health care reform proposals. Some provisions risk violating the patient-doctor relationship and could threaten the dignity of human life, the association says.

The letter, signed by Catholic Medical Association (CMA) president Louis C. Breschi, M.D., expressed a desire to collaborate with others to shape legislation “in harmony with the Catholic faith.” The CMA said its views reflect years of experience in serving patients.

“We believe we are facing a crisis, not only in health-care financing and delivery, but in the health-care reform process itself,” the CMA wrote.

The country has the opportunity and obligation to craft “effective, ethical” responses to the crisis in health care financing and delivery, the organization continued, but it warned there is a danger that “misguided legislation” could worsen the problems.

According to the CMA, problems in health care include a lack of “consistent access” to affordable insurance and to appropriate health care. Services are also “expensive and fragmented.”

These problems, the association claimed, result largely from “misguided” tax, employment and government policy incentives. The organization criticized “increasing third-party payer intrusion” into the patient-physician relationship.

While Catholic ethical and social principles should be the subject of agreement, the CMA said these principles’ application is the main question.

In the association’s view, present reform proposals rely heavily on the federal government to “dictate” solutions and will empower “a small group of unelected government bureaucrats and committees” to determine the composition and cost of health insurance policies, the reimbursement of providers and the approval of treatments.

“We think this government-controlled approach is flawed in principle and ineffective, if not dangerous, in practice,” the CMA wrote, charging that the approach “clearly violates” the principle of subsidiarity and will be ineffective.

According to the CMA, Medicare will be insolvent by 2017. Further, Medicaid costs have run out of control to the point that 40 percent of physicians no longer accept it because of money-losing reimbursement rates.
The current health care reform proposals are also “dangerous” because of the presidential administration’s “repeated failures to accord proper respect for the dignity of human life.” The CMA cited the reversal of the Mexico City Policy and funding for human embryonic stem cell research, claiming that the Obama administration wants to make such policy decisions difficult or impossible to overturn
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Saying there have been some “misunderstandings” about health care provisions concerning end-of-life consultations, the CMA said “serious concerns” remain about funding the care of the seriously ill and the dying.

“Giving the federal government the power, and primary responsibility, to contain medical expenditures could threaten the provision of medical care to the most vulnerable, the elderly and chronically ill,” the organization said.

Click here to read the entire story.

Bishop Murphy Addresses Health Care Reform

 Bishop William Murphy, chairman of Domestic Justice and Human Development for the U.S. bishops, addresses the need for health care reform that is available to everyone and protects the life and dignity of every person. He mentions that health care be provided for legal immigrants who live here, work here, and pay taxes.

Population Research Institute Releases Humorous Cartoon on Health Care Reform

FRONT ROYAL, VA, Sept. 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Population Research Institute, a pro-life research group based in Front Royal, VA, has released the first in a series of humorous cartoons intended to give the facts on President Obama's purported health care reform.

This video is only the first of several slated to come out in the next few weeks, and each is intended to deftly tackle one specific aspect of health care.

"People are having trouble wrapping their minds around the 1,000 page health care bill," says Colin Mason, PRI's Director of Media Production and one of the video's main architects. "Our short videos will give people the facts in a way that they can quickly absorb and communicate to others."

"While the videos are funny, they are also factual," Joseph Powell, the cartoon's primary artist and narrator. "They're little chunks of information that people can pass around, short enough to forward to friends, relatives and co-workers interested in the health care debate."

The first video is available at PRI's YouTube page (www.youtube.com/colinpri1), or by visiting PRI's web site: www.pop.org.