Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Anti-Health Care Reform, Anti-Obama: What's Been Going Out As "Gospel" Part Two


O.K., let's get down to the worst of the worst in terms of lying about the Health Care Bill (HR 3200).

"Rationing!"
"Pulling The Plug On Granny!"
"Government Will Tell you what wheelchair to buy" (!?)
"The Government gives you no choice!"
"The Government MANDATES everything!"

After covering the first 100 pages (20 normal paperback book pages) of castigating the Health Care Bill, Prof Mat Stevor, at this point, acts totally clueless as to what the Bill actually says. Maybe he can't read. Maybe he's a functional illiterate. (The Dean of Liberty University School of Law illiterate? - Hey, it's possible!).


Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - Your Health Care WILL be rationed . This section only mentions Basic, Enhanced and Premium Plans 3 Plans, not four, no mention of rationing.

Pg 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible Individual will be automat.enrolled in Medicaid.. No choice. Who wouldn’t want to be in as many insurance programs as possible, if that’s what it take to get complete coverage?! And only those who have not opted for one of the other plans will be automatically enrolled. I call that consideration on the government’s part.

Pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue Govt on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Govt Monopoly. The Government has already stated that increases will be based on the Consumer Price Index.

Pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The Govt will tell YOU what you can make. Payment rates are established, yes, but the government is not FORCING doctors to join in the plans.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public opt plan. NO CHOICE . The employer provides for enrollment, not mandates enrollment. Provides simply means that enrollment is an option they might prefer.


Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families. Which page is he on? This is a section on health care providers (of which I’m one) their qualifications and pay scale. This guy is WAAAAAAY OFF BASE!

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer w/ payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll. Here’s the actual wording:

SEC. 313. EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS IN LIEU OF COVERAGE. IN GENERAL.—A contribution is made in accordance with this section with respect to an employee if such contribution is equal to an amount equal to 8 percent of the average wages paid by the employer during the period of enrollment . Does it say anything about 400k. What it does say is that the employer wants make contibution in lieu of coverage, the compensation must equal 8% of the employee’s average wages.


Pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesn’t provide public opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesn’t have acceptable HC according to Govt will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Again, there is NO TAX mentioned in pg. 150. Distortion: individual pays 2.5% of the EXCESS of the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over ‘the amount of gross income specified in 4 section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer.


Pg 170 Lines 1-3 Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay). Do NONRESIDENT Aliens pay any taxes at all? No. That’s because they’re most likely visitors. Do we actually tax tourists according to their incomes?

Pg 195 Officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans financial and personal records. NO. They may have limited access to establish and verify the appropriate amount of any affordability credit. And this does NOT apply to all Americans

Pg 203 Line 14-15 HC - “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that. Yes, just before:

"...imposed by this chapter for purposes of determining the amount of any credit under this chapter or for purposes of section 55.’’.

Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Govt will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected. It talks about physicians’ fees, not services. It says NOTHING about Medicaid, senior, etc. Stevor has his head up his ass on this one.


Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Doctors, it does not matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same. Not Necessarily: these lines refer to “service categories” and not fees.

Pg 253 Line 10-18 Govt sets value of Dr’s time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans. So this is where the stupid rumor about arbitrarily evaluating humans started! This section actually talks about MISvaluing and not Devaluing. In a sense, it is careful to value the SERVICES provided to the insured.

Pg 265 Sec 1131Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries. It doesn’t “control” productivity in any way. Instead, it monitors productivity making sure that certain hospitals and doctors give high quality service.

Pg 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs. It amends the already existing terminology in Social Security from “power driven wheelchairs” to striking ‘‘power-driven wheelchair’’ and inserting ‘‘complex rehabilitative power-driven wheelchair recognized by the Secretary as classified within group 3 or higher’’. This is not regulating purchase or rental fees.

Pg 272 SEC. 1145. Treatment of certain cancer hospitals – Cancer patients - welcome to rationing! This section amends the Social Security Act by comparing the expenses of cancer hospitals to other hospitals and making the necessary adjustments. No mention of patients, no mention of rationing at all! NOTE: since this critique of the proposed health care reform is bent on destroying it, it obviously does not point out all the good points of the Act, one of which is:

SEC. 1146. MEDICARE IMPROVEMENT FUND. Section 1898(b)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act is amended to read as follows: ‘‘(A) the period beginning with fiscal year 2011 and ending with fiscal year 2019, $8,000,000,000.”


Page 280 Sec 1151 The Govt will penalize hospitals for what Govt deems preventable readmissions. (Incentives for hospital to not treat and release.) I can personally state what this section actually means. I am an in-home caregiver. In the past several years, there have been at least five times when my charge was hastened out of the hospital, only to come back (usually to emergency). Those returns were highly unnecessary if the hospitals had taken care of his illness in a more serious and professional manner. Why should the taxpayer pay for the hospital’s mistake?

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Drs, treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission-Govt will penalize you. See above. Ditto for doctors.

Pg 317 L 13-20 PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Drs. what/how much they can own. This applies only to doctors owning a percentage of the hospital or medical facility. Sad to say: there are doctors (not many) who have a conflict of interest going.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand. Hospitals CAN expand upon application to expand and show the need for such expansion. What the bill limits is hospitals expanding immediately after the bill is enacted.

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can you say ACORN?!! Can you say STUPID ASSUMPTION? Professor Stevor would have you believe that ACORN was in a conspiracy with Al Queda and 9/11!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 - Govt mandates established of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing. Total assumption.

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Govt has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans (Part B), HMOs, etc. Forcing people into Govt plan. Ahem. Prof. Stevor: Medicare is run by the U.S. Government (the last time we checked). HC bill is, in a sense, an expansion of Medicare. Disqualification only occurs when the Plan has deficiencies for that patient.

Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people! This section EXTENDS an enrollment restriction ALREADY IN PLACE in Social Security. The extension is from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2013.

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy - Telehealth Advisory Committee. HC by phone/Internet? This, again, is an extension of an existing service; one that has served the RURAL communities quite well. Maybe the professor doesn’t “stevor” (sorry) HC to farmers.

Pg 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance [Death] Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life. WTF?!? Advance care does NOT equal death! It requires the physician to do the most compassionate thing: inform the patient and family of all resources, therapies, and responsibilities including mention of the advanced care clearing houses funded by the Older Americans Act of 1965.

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of atty. Mandatory! What is it with the word “mandatory”? Does this guy think only in terms of force? The Govt does not instruct, but the DOCTOR does. Another personal example: when my mother was in the hospital with multiple myaloma (a condition of the bone marrow), the hospital social worker made an appointment with me to instruct me how to place my mother in a nursing home (costs, time, emotional pressure, etc.) I was very, very grateful that the hospital had such a service. At no time did we discuss “pulling the plug.”

Pg 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Gov’t provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in death. No one “guides” you in death. ALL decisions are to be made BY THE INDIVIDUAL. There are, in fact, many people who wished they had had this informationThis is a recommendation by the government to explain: living wills, durable power of attorney, what a health care proxy is, lists of STATE-specified resources to help families with a health care plan.

Pg 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program for orders for end of life. The Gov’t has a say in how your life ends. How do you get that out if this:

‘‘… distributes or makes accessible such orders to physicians and other health professionals that (acting within the scope of the professional’s authority under State law) may sign orders for life sustaining treatment;


Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An “adv. care planning consult” will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates. It states NOTHING OF THE SORT!! ‘‘ A consultation under this subsection may include the formulation of an order regarding life sustaining treatment or a similar order. For purposes of this section, the term ‘order regarding life sustaining treatment’ means, with respect to an individual, an actionable medical order relating to the treatment of that individual that…

Pg 429 Lines 10-12 “adv. care consultation” may incl an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOV . That’s STATE government to you!

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 - The govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order. NO.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Govt will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life NO.

(NOTE FROM RJ: The above really does give the government the authority to determine who lives and dies, and when. A government bureaucrat really will be making this decision for you and your loved ones.)

This is absolutely ridiculous. Read:

“effectively communicates the individual’s preferences regarding life sustaining treatment, including an indication of the treatment and care desired by the individual; is uniquely identifiable and standardized within a given locality, region, or State (as identified by the Secretary)

Repeat Repeat Repeat: the doctor is requested to tell the patient and family ALL the options for cases like terminal illness: extended care, nursing home, etc. "Treatment and care desired by the individual" is taken into account at every point along the way. Absolutely nobody is "pulling the plug" on anyone.

Stay tuned...