Wolf Blitzer mediates a heated debate between Georgia Rep. David Scott and Brian Hill, the doctor he screamed at during a town hall meeting for asking about health care reform, being accused of “hijacking” his event.
Scott tries to get words in edgewise, but Hill keeps telling him that he doesn’t want to hear “talking points”.
Duration : 0:4:46
On Wednesday, March 24, 2010, Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Creek, CA) went on the floor of the House of Representatives to explain what Americans can expect from the new health care/higher education law approved by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Many good parts of the bill will happen in 2010, including…
Immediately: Seniors stuck in the Medicare Part D donut hole will receive a $250 rebate and next year will see their prescription drug costs in the donut hole reduced by 50 percent.
Immediately: Small businesses will receive up to a 35 percent tax credit to help pay for health coverage for their employees, raised to 50 percent by 2014.
In 90 Days: Early retirees aged 55-64 will see additional relief to help them afford health coverage.
In 90 Days:Out-of-pocket health expenses will be capped at $6,200 for individuals and $12,400 for families who have insurance through small businesses.
In 90 Days: Adults with preexisting conditions will be able to enroll in a high risk pool to make sure they finally have basic health care protections in preparation for full integration into our insurance system.
In 6 Months: Discrimination against children with preexisting conditions will end.
In 6 Months: Insurance companies will not be able to kick people off of their insurance because they are sick.
In 6 Months: New insurance plans will be required to offer free preventative care.
In 6 Months: Young adults up to the age of 26 will be allowed to stay on their parents health plan.
In 6 Months: Bans lifetime and restrictive annual limits on coverage for all Americans.
Duration : 0:8:46
Hudson Valley residents expressed outrage today after their incumbent Congressman, who has refused to hold any public discussions on HR 3200, derisively known as ‘ObamaCare’, attempted to leverage his official position to shut down a series of town hall meetings on health care that have been arranged by his prospective 2010 opponent, New York State Assemblyman Greg Ball (R, C, I – Patterson).
“The congressman’s office seems more interested in spending time trying to avoid a public discussion on health care than they are in reading this 1,100 page socialized medicine bill,” Ball said. “A primary concern of mine is that we face an unlevel playing field when a public plan can shift costs to our state’s private insurers because of low doctor and hospital reimbursement rates. State lawmakers nationwide can, and should be hosting public meetings on this critical issue.”
According to reports, the current congressman’s requests for cancellation of Ball’s town hall meetings were denied.
“Hudson Valley residents deserve an open and honest discussion to debate the consequences of legislation that many believe will irreparably harm both the economy, and our health care system,” said Cornwall Town Supervisor Kevin Quigley. “Our sophomore Congressman may feel differently, but I’m glad to see our state representatives, like Assemblymembers Annie Rabbitt and Greg Ball, taking the lead on this critical issue.”
Ball signed onto an official letter from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to Congressional leaders, which was delivered on July 29, expressing the will of more than 1,800 state legislators opposing federal reform efforts-particularly, the Medicare-modeled “public plan” and a national health insurance exchange-which they say will trample states’ rights and lead Americans down the road to single-payer health care.
“It may have escaped our Congressman’s notice, but people are outraged about this bill,” said William DeProspo, Chairman of the Orange County Republican Committee. “It is bad enough that he has refused to defend his viewpoint on this issue directly to the public, but this Orwellian attempt to infringe upon free speech and halt public discussion is shameful.”
The members of ALEC-the nation’s largest nonpartisan, individual membership association of state legislators-recently approved the Resolution on Preserving States’ Rights Regarding Federal Health Insurance Exchanges and a Public Plan, which deems the federal public plan anti-competitive and calls the proposed national health insurance exchange a “federal takeover” of the states’ role in regulating health insurance.
“Our current congressman has chosen to discuss this bill only in meetings with special interest groups in a behind the scenes, closed door format, and while that may score political points with Nancy Pelosi, Hudson Valley residents know better,” said Chairman Michael McCormack of the Dutchess County Republican Committee. “States primarily regulate today’s health insurance market and provide aggressive oversight of the market and enforce consumer protection and ensure a local, responsive presence for consumers. Now that congress is considering legislation that may impose restriction on the states ability to regulate health plans, including overriding already adopted state patient protections, is important to have responsive legislators like Assemblyman Greg Ball, who will stand up and fight for us, as it is the duty of our state elected officials to stand up and stop this effort to undermine state authority to design programs that reflect local needs.”
In the ALEC letter to Congress, ALEC’s lawmakers criticized the federal push to shift health care decision-making to Washington. “We all share the goal that patients deserve to choose their own quality, affordable, private health coverage,” Ball’s letter states. “But health reform shouldn’t just be the job of the federal government.”
Duration : 0:2:17
The senior administration official noted that even luminaries in the Republican party are acknowledging that there is a “health care crisis,” citing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.Palin gets tough on health care proposals
That same senior administration official said both Democratic and Republican lawmakers now believe “something has to get done” because doing nothing “would be a political failure.”
The speech, analysts said, will probably be one of the most important to date.
“Wednesday night’s health care speech may be one of the toughest he has faced,” CNN contributor David Gergen said.
Obama has issued broad reform ideas, but has left most of the specific legislative details to leaders in Congress, who have faced sometimes contentious negotiations
Duration : 0:10:50
On Wednesday, March 24, 2010, Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Creek, CA) went on the floor of the House of Representatives to explain what Americans can expect from the new health care/higher education law approved by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Many good parts of the bill will happen in 2010, including…
Immediately: Seniors stuck in the Medicare Part D donut hole will receive a $250 rebate and next year will see their prescription drug costs in the donut hole reduced by 50 percent.
Immediately: Small businesses will receive up to a 35 percent tax credit to help pay for health coverage for their employees, raised to 50 percent by 2014.
In 90 Days: Early retirees aged 55-64 will see additional relief to help them afford health coverage.
In 90 Days:Out-of-pocket health expenses will be capped at $6,200 for individuals and $12,400 for families who have insurance through small businesses.
In 90 Days: Adults with preexisting conditions will be able to enroll in a high risk pool to make sure they finally have basic health care protections in preparation for full integration into our insurance system.
In 6 Months: Discrimination against children with preexisting conditions will end.
In 6 Months: Insurance companies will not be able to kick people off of their insurance because they are sick.
In 6 Months: New insurance plans will be required to offer free preventative care.
In 6 Months: Young adults up to the age of 26 will be allowed to stay on their parents health plan.
In 6 Months: Bans lifetime and restrictive annual limits on coverage for all Americans.
Duration : 0:7:52
http://house.gov/paul
http://CampaignForLiberty.com
The administration’s terrible healthcare reform bill is now law, but the debate over how– and whether– the federal government should be involved in providing healthcare services is not over. It is not too late for America to correct its course and stop the march toward a government run, “single payer” healthcare system.
Polls show that a large majority of Americans don’t want Obamacare. Congress should seize the opportunity to repeal the very worst aspect of this new legislation, namely the mandate that forces every American either to purchase health insurance or face an IRS penalty. This mandate represents nothing more than an unconstitutional, historically unprecedented gift to the insurance industry. I introduced the “End the Mandate Act” (HR 4995) expressly to prevent the administration from ever putting this provision into effect.
Instead of mandating the same failed entitlement healthcare schemes that are bankrupting Europe, Congress should fundamentally re-examine the case for free-market healthcare. Our current model, based on employer-provided health insurance, did not arise based on market preferences. On the contrary, it makes no sense to couple health insurance with employment. But federal wage and price controls instituted during World War II left employers with no alternative to attract workers in a tight labor market other than offering extra benefits such as health insurance and pensions. Over time these nonwage benefits became the norm, especially since employers could deduct the cost of health insurance premiums from their income taxes while individuals could not. The perverse consequence is that employees lose both their paychecks and their health insurance when they lose their job.
As reliance on third-party health insurance grew, patients became detached from the true costs of their doctor visits. In the 1970s the Nixon administration, along with the late Senator Edward Kennedy, championed the cause of health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Congress accepted the faulty premise that HMOs would reduce costs through centralized management of patients, when in fact the opposite was true: more bureaucracy would only lead to higher costs, less accountability, and worse patient care.
In recent years Congress has only intensified the problem with more laws and more regulations, especially with the disastrous Medicare prescription drug benefit. The drug benefit was another example of naked patronage to a politically-connected industry, and it exponentially worsened the federal government’s balance sheet. Obamacare will be the last nail in the coffin of our bankrupt entitlement system.
More laws are not the answer. Instead, we need to allow a market system to operate that reflects consumer choices while rationally pricing services. In a market system patients likely would pay cash for basic services, while maintaining relatively high-deductible catastrophic insurance for serious illnesses and accidents. The cost of most routine medical care would drop if the patient paid the bill on the spot, especially if doctors no longer needed to employ large staffs solely to deal with insurance and billing.
Let me repeat: we need a system in America where patients pay cash for basic services, and carry insurance only for serious illnesses and accidents. “Health maintenance” is the responsibility of each of us individually. We cannot continue to collectivize the costs of healthcare and expect things to get better.
Authoritarianism is bad for your health. Congress should end the Obamacare mandate and allow market-based medicine to flourish.
Duration : 0:4:38
Congressman Ike Skelton speaks on the House floor regarding H.R. 4887, a bill that would explicitly state in law that TRICARE and the DOD nonappropriated fund (NAF) health plans are protected from any health reforms currently under consideration by Congress for individual health insurance.
TRICARE and the DOD nonappropriated fund (NAF) provide health coverage to members of the military and their families, military retirees and their families, and employees of U.S. military post/base exchanges and other nonappropriated fund activities.
Duration : 0:2:50
Filmed last night, Tues, 06/09/09. I wanted to show the whole truth of living with connective tissue disease and as a statistic of the health care crises – This is me now, one and a half years after my muscles paralyzed on me. This is my life 80 to 90 percent of the time… My poor family! They’re such troopers!
The purpose of this vid is because when my daughter did my hair and make-up in my previous vids and the fact that I was feeling so so good that day i felt it didn’t tell the WHOLE story of what it’s like to be sick in America today.
There will be follow vids as well of doc appts, and other unpleasant things as time goes on in order to document the difficulty and frustration there is when trying to receive medical care.
Duration : 0:6:39
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