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Category: Healthcare

State Opposition to Federal Healthcare Reform »

In a post a few months ago I lamented that state government officials, who have much to lose in the proposed federal healthcare reforms, have not spoken out much in opposition to the costs the reforms would foist on them.  There have been a few cases, and here is another.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum (who [...]

The State of Our Affairs: Seven Haiku »

Copenhagen scam
Snow in Louisiana
Turn up thermostat
________________
Health care reform hoax
Splendid investment they say
Fog will lift next year
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Afghanistan war
Soldiers in cold winter fight
Widows wearing black
________________
Change you can believe
Dark clouds on the horizon
Night comes on quickly
________________
Frightened birds take flight
False hopes fall down suddenly
Foolish citizens
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Democrats on throne
Republicans hunker down
What goes round comes round
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Global warming soon
Peer review makes no mistakes
Cold [...]

Obamacare Progresses, Corporate State Cheers »

Left-liberal Glenn Greenwald points out that the health industry’s stocks are exploding as Obamacare comes close to passing. This bill is a huge gift to big business, as much as its supporters and some of its opponents claim otherwise. In another post, he notes that the tea party movement and the progressive left, the latter [...]

Medicare’s Refusal of Medical Claims Continues to Outpace Private Rate »

In his speech to Congress on the need to overhaul health care, President Obama asserted:
More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won’t pay the full cost of care. It happens every day.
The following week, Health Care for America Now, [...]

Would a Health Insurance Mandate Help? »

One of the issues health care reform is grappling with is how to extend health insurance coverage to the uninsured.  At first glance, it would appear that one way to make sure everyone has health insurance is to mandate that everyone has to buy it.  This article indicates that about 16.2% of Americans are currently [...]

Congress’s Accelerating Dereliction of Duty »

How seriously Congress has ever taken its responsibility to serve as a “check and balance” against the powers of the executive and judicial branches of the U.S. government is debatable, but it has certainly run pell-mell from those clearly delineated responsibilities in the past several decades: abdicating its sole power to declare war, enabling [...]

State Opposition to Federal Healthcare Reform »

I’ve wondered why state governors and legislators haven’t been more vocal opponents of the healthcare reforms being drawn up in Washington.  All these proposals would put huge financial burdens on the states.
I haven’t seen much in the news until this article appeared, reporting that two Florida state senators are proposing that the state examine dropping [...]

Observations on Obamacare »

In Newsweek, November 16, 2009, p. 20, Fareed Zakaria says, “There are two general health-care crises in America — one involving coverage and the other cost.  The Obama plan appears likely to tackle the first but not the second.  This is bad economics but also bad politics: the crisis of cost affects 85 percent of [...]

Constitutional Questions About Government Health Care »

Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) was asked “Specifically where in the Constitution does Congress get its authority to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance?”  He couldn’t cite a specific section, but noted that Congress has required individuals to do lots of things in the past.
As a practical matter, Senator Reed is right.
Originally, the Constitution created a [...]

Obama Is Worried »

The White House is shrugging off the Republican electoral victories. But we know what the elections mean: The people are fed up with the march toward nationalization and socialism. Just like the 2006 elections were a repudiation of Bush’s war policy, yesterday marked public discontent with the Democrats’ war on the economy. This is all [...]