Rating U.S. health care
September 4, 2010 - 10:31 am
CNN. June 17, 2009. Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and Tony Harris talk about how the U.S. stacks up compared to the rest of the world.
Duration : 0:3:4
Posts Tagged ‘states’
Betsy McCaughey, Health Care Plan Hidden in Stimulus Bill
August 29, 2010 - 5:26 pm
Betsy McCaughey, appeared on Lou Dobbs Tonight to discuss the Health Care
Stimulus Bill:
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/HR1.pdf
Read Pages 442, 445, 454, 479
111TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 1
A Bill
Making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure
investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the
unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year
ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes.
——————————————————————————–
No Federal Health Care, No Federal Control
Duration : 0:4:5
Anticipation – (Anticipatory Design Science)
August 29, 2010 - 5:06 pm
Does our political, social, corporate, economic system engage in the process of anticipation? Anticipate represents a key foundation item in finding future solutions and avoiding crisis based reaction and failure. We are watching debates framed around rationing, reaction, and a Malthusian shortage. We need to redefine how we discuss issues and concerns towards the concept of “anticipation.” We need to break event driven decision making in government towards a planning based economy rich in research and development. Just who is the real communist, Warren Buffett.
Duration : 0:5:16
Tell it as it is – Prepare to Jibe
August 29, 2010 - 4:59 pm
Are you losing savings, losing a job, losing purchasing power, losing hope, or being taxed into oblivion? You are probably not alone. There are millions of Americans in that exact position and they cannot push back. Instead they are all either in despair or they are wandering around aimlessly. They are locked into American fascism between two parties in a single party system offering no choice but destruction of everything considered to be American. The facts can be put on paper and explained plain as day! Is vitriolic rhetoric the way to get people excited? What are the costs of personalizing issues and using propaganda in an ends justifies the means approach? Cut through the rhetoric and the current fascist situation of citizen serfdom inexorably leads to the endpoint of systems collapse. What will it take to change tack?
Duration : 0:11:7
On the Road to Health Reform, Congress Moves a Step Closer
August 29, 2010 - 4:02 pm
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com
A major reform of the American system of health care and insurance has moved farther in Congress than ever before. President Obama wants a final bill passed by the end of the year. But a difficult road still lies ahead.
On November seventh, the House of Representatives passed a bill with an estimated trillion-dollar price over ten years. The president called the vote historic. President Obama said the Affordable Health Care for America Act will provide stability and security for Americans who have insurance. It will provide quality affordable options for those who dont. And it will bring down the cost of health care for families, business and the government while strengthening the financial health of Medicare.
But thirty-nine Democrats voted no, and only one Republican, Joseph Cao of Louisiana, voted yes. The bill passed with just two more votes than required. Republicans say the plan would add to the nation’s debt, raise insurance costs and expand government involvement in health care.
Republican Representative Joe Barton from Texas said: “So, there is a choice. Bigger government, more mandates, more control, less freedom. Or lower costs, more opportunity, more freedom or more choice. I vote for more freedom.”
The bill aims to provide health coverage to thirty-six million Americans. That would raise the nation’s coverage rate to about ninety-six percent.
The most disputed part of the bill is a “public option” for individuals and small businesses. The government would compete with private plans by offering its own insurance — based on payment rates negotiated with providers.
The House bill would raise taxes on high earners to help pay for the plan. It would also cut four hundred billion dollars from health programs for the retired and poor — money that supporters of the bill say is now being wasted.
Most Americans would have to buy insurance or pay a fine; the government would help the needy. All but the smallest businesses would have to offer insurance for their workers or pay a tax. Some small businesses could receive tax credits to help with their costs. Insurance companies could not deny or cancel coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. And the industry would lose its protection from anti-competitive laws.
And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report. You can read more about the health care debate at voaspecialenglish.com.
(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 13Nov2009)
Duration : 0:4:2
Last Man Standing – Dennis Kucinich
August 29, 2010 - 3:44 pm
A few very striking quotations from a backpedalling article written by Dennis Kucinich entitled, “Last Man Standing.” The words of Kucinich stand as an inditement of total political failure of the US system of government. The government continues to avoid solutions in favor of special private and corporate interests. How much failure can the citizens of the United States and the World endure? Liberty, freedom, and rights? Where?
Duration : 0:3:8
Congress ought to enroll in Medicaid
August 29, 2010 - 3:43 pm
U.S. Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) today introduced an amendment to limit all Members of Congress, which includes the Vice President of the United States, to Medicaid as their sole federal health insurance benefit. Senator LeMieux believes that since Congress has forced an additional 16-million Americans into Medicaid through the massive health care overhaul, members of Congress ought to enroll in that plan, too. A majority of senators opposed the LeMieux amendment, 59 to 40.
Duration : 0:0:55
Jobless Benefits for Millions to End in January- Unemployment
August 29, 2010 - 3:36 pm
About one million laid-off workers will see their unemployment benefits end in January unless Congress acts quickly to renew existing federally paid extensions, according to a new survey and legislators and state officials.
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A man waits to use a free telephone to speak with an adviser about collecting unemployment benefits in Calexico, Calif.
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Standing in line at a job fair sponsored by Monster.com in New York City earlier this month.
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The record extension of emergency benefits that was signed into law on Nov. 6 was widely praised as a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Americans who had spent a year or more in fruitless searches for jobs.
The new law provided up to 14 weeks of federally paid aid to unemployed people who had exhausted existing state and federal limits, benefits that already lasted up to 79 weeks in many states. And for the majority of states with particularly high unemployment, it added six more weeks of payments, bringing the potential total to 99 weeks.
But many legislators, state aid officials and struggling workers apparently failed to read the fine print. The added federal benefits were built on a series of previous extensions that are slated to end on Dec. 31, unless Congress renews these programs. People who lost their jobs after July 1 of this year, for example, would receive no federal extensions once their customary six months of state aid ran out.
While discussions have started, Congress is not yet considering a specific proposal. And unless it acts before the Christmas break, officials warn, the extensions will end. If Congress, now caught up in the health care overhaul, delays action until next year, millions would face gaps in aid that many thought would be automatic.
There are six people looking for every available job, and these payments are enabling people to pay their mortgages and put food on the table, said Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington, who championed the Nov. 6 law and hopes to light a new fire under Congress.
Duration : 0:3:33
Great News, More Customers
August 29, 2010 - 3:29 pm
Great News, More customers; explaining the “healthcare bill” does not get any easier than that. We are watching crony-legalized-government~sponsored-graft-capitalism at its finest moment of theft in action. But why does the economy work at all. We have a huge military commitment spanning the seas holding stability in place. Without our military project we in the United States would be isolated from the great landmass as if we were an island with no future prospects. We need to apply anticipatory design science (to be covered in the next video) or face that outcome as illustrated by the Hammer and Sickle of Soviet Empire reaching over Western Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Duration : 0:4:29
Obama Signs Historic Health Care Bill
August 29, 2010 - 3:07 pm
This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com
President Obama has signed legislation to make the biggest changes in the health care system
in forty-five years. The president said: “Today, after almost a century of trying; today, after over a year of debate; today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America.
Many parts of the plan will fully take effect in four years. But some take effect quickly. For example,
in six months the new law will bar insurance companies from denying coverage to children with
pre-existing health conditions. Adults with pre-existing conditions will be added in four years.
The government will help millions of people pay for insurance. It will also permit millions more to receive free coverage through the Medicaid program for the poor. In all, the plan aims to make health insurance available to thirty-two million people now without it. People will be able to buy private policies through marketplaces called exchanges to be administered by
the states. Illegal immigrants
will not be able to take part.
An estimated eighty-three percent of people under age sixty-five who are in the United States legally now have insurance coverage. The plan
is expected to raise that to
ninety-five percent within
several years. People over
sixty-five are covered by the Medicare insurance program which
the government created in nineteen sixty-five. For the first time, Americans will be required to have health insurance or face a yearly fine starting in four years. The law will also require companies with more than fifty employees to
offer coverage. If not, they could face a fine of two thousand dollars a year for every worker. Also, this year the law will start closing what is known as “the doughnut hole.” That is a lack of Medicare
coverage for some drug costs for older Americans. President Obama promised senior citizens that the reforms will not cut their guaranteed benefits. The
Senate quickly made a last set of legislative fixes needed in the
new law. However, some states have already gone to court to fight the new health care reform law. The health care plan is expected to cost about nine hundred forty billion dollars over ten years. But it is also expected to help reduce the federal budget deficit.
And that’s the VOA Special English Health report. You can comment on this story at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.
(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 24Mar2010)
Duration : 0:4:1