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Health-care overhaul: Long-term-care benefits are a long way off
Michelle Andrews - Washington Post
Among
the most important questions involving the health-care overhaul are how
seniors will be affected. Here are two of the biggest pocketbook
issues. When am I going to be able to start collecting benefits under
the law's new long-term-care program? Not anytime soon. Even if you were
to start contributing to the Community Living Assistance Services and
Supports (CLASS) program as soon as it's up and running -- probably in
2012 -- you wouldn't be able to begin collecting benefits until 2017 at
the earliest. Britain Moves toward Doctor-Patient Control
Grace-Marie Turner - National Review's Critical Condition
Britain's
new coalition government is proposing a major transformation of its
socialized health-care system to give doctors much more authority over
decisions involving their patients' care. This most entrenched of
government-run health systems is recognizing the importance of the
doctor-patient relationship just as the United States is taking a sharp
left turn toward more centralized government control over health care.
Is the world turning upside down?Britain's National Health Service, Praised by Obama's Medicare Chief, To Undergo Cost-Cutting Overhaul
Matt Cover - CNS News
Britain's
National Health Service (NHS), which rations basic health care services
to control costs, will undergo major budget cuts and restructuring
ostensibly to make the government-run system less bureaucratic and more
decentralized, according to detailed news reports over the weekend from
the United Kingdom. Dr. Donald Berwick, who was recently given a
recess-appointment by President Barack Obama to run the federal Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services in America, has praised Britain's
National Health Service, saying he loves the single-payer system. Decentralizing Britain's National Health Service
Peter Suderman - Reason
Over
the weekend, The New York Times noted that Britain's National Health
Service--the country's socialized medical system--is gearing up for a
major revamp, with a focus on reducing bureaucratic oversight and
increasing local control. The gist: Even as the new coalition government
said it would make enormous cuts in the public sector, it initially
promised to leave health care alone. But in one of its most surprising
moves so far, it has done the opposite, proposing what would be the most
radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is
called, since its inception in 1948. Tennesseans oppose health act by 2-1
Tom Humphrey - Knox News Sentinel
Tennesseans
oppose the national health care reform law enacted by Congress at the
urging of President Barack Obama by a margin of almost 2-to-1, according
to a recent poll. Fifty-seven percent of the 625 registered voters
surveyed said they oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act, while only 30 percent said they support it. The remaining 13
percent were undecided.Radio ads begin for Missouri measure opposing federal health care reform
Opponents
of the new federal health care law have started running radio ads
encouraging people to vote for a Missouri ballot measure next week. The
ballot measure sets up a conflict with a federal law requiring most
Americans to have health insurance or face fines by 2014. The Missouri
measure would prohibit governments from requiring health insurance or
penalizing people who pay for their own health care. A group called
Missourians for Health Care Freedom says it began running radio ads
Monday in support of the Aug. 3 ballot measure. The ads are running
during certain conservative talk shows and on Christian radio stations. New Health Official Faces Hostility in Senate
Robert Pear - New York Times
Unlike
many other health policy experts, Dr. Donald M. Berwick, the new chief
of Medicare and Medicaid, has extensive real world experience. As
co-founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge,
Mass., he worked with doctors and nurses to upgrade care at hundreds of
hospitals from Contra Costa County, Calif., to Green Bay, Wis., to
Florence, S.C. -- and from Britain to Sweden to South Africa. He led
efforts to reduce medical errors, eliminate hospital-acquired
infections, standardize treatments and cut waste. One of his students,
Dr. John S. Toussaint, former president of ThedaCare in Appleton, Wis.,
said his hospital had reduced the cost of inpatient care by about 25
percent, "using principles of continuous improvement espoused by Dr.
Berwick." Some insurers stop writing new coverage for kids
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar - Associated Press
Some
major health insurance companies have stopped issuing certain types of
policies for children, an unintended consequence of President Barack
Obama's health care overhaul law, state officials said Friday. Florida
Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said in his state UnitedHealthcare
and Blue Cross Blue Shield have stopped issuing new policies that cover
children individually. Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said a
couple of local insurers in her state have done likewise. Starting
later this year, the health care overhaul law requires insurers to
accept children regardless of medical problems. Insurers are worried
that parents will wait until kids get sick to sign them up, saddling the
companies with unpredictable costs.Opposition Mounts Against ObamaCare Tax Provision
Fred Lucas - CNS News
Business
advocates are hoping Congress scraps a tax provision in the health care
overhaul law that they say is overly burdensome to smaller companies.
So far, Senate and House Republicans have pushed for repeal of this
specific provision of the health care bill. Even Democrats asked that
the Internal Revenue Service move cautiously in enforcement of the
provision. Pacific Legal Foundation Files Suit against ObamaCare's Individual Mandate
Michael F. Cannon - Cato @ Liberty
For
more on Sissel v. United States Department of Health & Human
Services -- and plaintiff Matt Sissel, a 29-year-old artist and former
National Guardsman who earned a Bronze Star during his second tour as a
medic in Iraq -- see the Pacific Legal Foundation's web site.New Bill Not Necessary: Public Option Already in Obamacare
Marguerite Higgins - The Foundry
Like
many federal efforts in Washington, last week's reintroduction from
House Democrats to create a public health insurance option, which would
become part of the 2014 insurance exchanges created by Obamacare, is a
bureaucratic redundancy. Stuart Butler points out that the health
reform law already has its own "public option" through expanded powers
to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Calling the House bill a
"smokescreen" for the nation's opposition against a public option,
Butler says the real story is in the "OPM alternative." "Far from being
an alternative, it is the fast road to a public plan -- as I warned
before the legislation passed. Why? Because the 'alternative' gives the
OPM the power to establish national plans. These are to be private -- but
in name only."ObamaCare: The Rationing Begins in Earnest
Capitol Confidential - Big Government
The
ink is not yet dry on the Obama Health Care takeover and rationing
advocate Donald Berkwick has yet to have his desk moved into the
Medicare offices, and the Administration is already attempting to limit
life-extending drugs for cancer patients. This is the first shot in the
health care revolution. In September, the Food and Drug Administration
will try to take the anti-cancer drug Avastin "off-label." Avastin is a
Stage 4 drug used to battle breast cancer. Avastin is not a cure but
has been shown to stop the growth of cancer for an average of five
months -- meaning some late stage breast cancer victims live beyond five
months.Obamacare's Political Future
James Capretta - National Review Online
July
1 was a milestone of sorts for Obamacare: It was the 100th day since
the president signed the sweeping legislation into law. The Democrats
who pushed it through to enactment in the most polarizing debate in
years are hoping that the passage of time will be their salvation.
Memories are short, they surmise, and so perhaps voters won't dwell on
the heavy-handed and highly partisan manner by which President Obama and
the Democratic congressional leadership muscled the bill through its
final legislative stages when they go to the polls this November. And if
that's the case, perhaps Democratic candidates for the House and Senate
won't get punished as severely as many now expect they will. Obamacare's Negative Prognosis
Tait Trussell - FrontPage Magazine
The
trillion dollar Obamacare experiment to reform America's health system
won't work. But the primary reason why it won't work is not what you may
think. Although a majority of Americans want nationalized health care
repealed, that probably won't lead to the demise of the law. A July 19
Rasmussen Reports poll found 60 percent of voters want the law
overturned. And 61 percent of voters think health costs now will go up,
not down. Sixty-two percent thought the federal deficit will increase,
with 54 percent believing the law is "bad for the country." Still,
repeal seems unlikely. Congress would need a two-thirds majority to both
pass a repeal and then override the presumed veto. Only a new
President, friendly to repeal, could kill the law, a Fox News.com story
noted.ObamaCare Remains Unpopular, or Round Two of My Exchange with Maggie Mahar
Michael F. Cannon - Cato @ Liberty
Maggie
Mahar responds to my response to her critique of Michael Tanner's claim
that ObamaCare is deeply unpopular. Mahar's alternative narrative,
espoused by many on the Left, is that "the more voters learn more about
the reform legislation, the more they seem to like it." Mahar shows that
her narrative works if you begin looking for a trend at the high-water
mark of opposition, if you look at a few select polls, if you look at
not-so-straightforward poll questions, if you interpret simultaneous
declines in both support and opposition as growing support, and if you
devise a rationale for ignoring the views of those who most oppose
ObamaCare. Which is to say, her narrative doesn't work. ObamaCare
remains deeply unpopular.Surprise, it's more taxes
John McClaughry - Bennington Banner
In
a startling development last week, the Obama Justice Department,
defending against a host of lawsuits to invalidate the ObamaCare law,
declared that the law's individual insurance mandate is not founded on
the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. Surprise! It's a
new tax. The reason, obviously, was that trying to hang the ObamaCare
coverage mandate on the interstate commerce clause looked more and more
like a loser in court. Reid: Healthcare reform will help Dems
Michael O'Brien - The Hill's Healthwatch
Healthcare
reform will end up helping Democrats at the polls this fall, Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested Monday. Reid, who is
facing a tough reelection challenge himself, said public opinion is
shifting in favor of the new healthcare law Democrats passed through
Congress earlier this year, and predicted more and more voters would
reject Republicans' calls for repealing the legislation. ObamaCare and Britain's NHS Move Forward With Rationing of Health Care
David Prentice - Life News
The
U.K. is ramping up healthcare rationing under its National Health
Service (NHS). According to The Sunday Telegraph, the NHS has drawn up
plans for restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and
injured. Operations including hip and knee replacements and cataract
surgery will be rationed in a new attempt to save money. According to
the report, plans also include cuts for terminally ill patients (dying
cancer patients will supposedly be sent home and told to manage their
own symptoms), closure of nursing homes for the elderly, cost-cutting
measures in pediatric and maternity services and care of the elderly. Md. could save $829M under health care reform
Brian Witte - Wasington Post
Maryland
could save about $829 million on health care costs between fiscal year
2011 and 2020 because of federal health care reform, according to a
model the state released Monday. The savings, however, last only until
the end of the decade, when the federal law shifts a greater share of
financial responsibility for Medicaid expansion to the states. The
projections are in an interim report by Maryland's Health Care Reform
Coordinating Council, which Gov. Martin O'Malley created in March to
study how the federal health care reform law will affect the state.| Latest Polling |
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Rasmussen Reports July 26, 2010 58 percent of voters favor repealing Obamacare |