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Harry Reid Imagines That ObamaCare Is Getting More Popular
Peter Suderman - Reason
They
like it, they really, really like it? 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. The more people know about healthcare, the
better they like it, said Reid, who listed several aspects of the new
law he sees as popular.Prop. C will protect Missourians' health care choices, lawmaker says
Sarah West - Bolivar Herald-Free Press
Rep.
Ed Emery of the 126th District, a co-sponsor of the Health Care Freedom
Act, said that the act seeks to protect Missourians' right to make
health care decisions. At a forum Sunday about the act -- Proposition C
on the Aug. 3 ballot -- Emery said he is a proponent of the proposition
because if passed, it will block a federal penalty for not purchasing
government health insurance. Nationalized health care forces patients
into a package controlled by bureaucrats and politicians, he said.A New Concept in Health Care
Reed Abelson - New York Times' Prescriptions
It's
one of the hottest concepts to emerge from the discussions about how
best to overhaul the nation's health care system: accountable care
organizations. The idea is to encourage groups of doctors or hospitals
to work together to oversee medical care so quality improves and costs
go down. Having captured the fancy of Washington, the organizations are
even a part of the new health care law. If you're looking for a
straightforward description of what exactly an A.C.O. is -- or might be,
anyway -- you can check out the
http://www.healthaffairs.org/healthpolicybriefs/brief.php?brief_id=20">latest
health policy brief from Health Affairs, an academic journal devoted to
discussions of this nature. Clear contrasts for conservatives
Alex Cortes - Daily Caller
In
August and September there are several critical Republican Senate
primaries pitting Obamacare fighters against Obamacare appeasers. The
most significant matchups are between Senator Murkowski vs. Joe Miller
in Alaska, Rep. Jerry Moran vs. Rep. Todd Tiahrt in Kansas, and Rep.
Mike Castle vs. Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. All three present
conservatives with clear contrasts of where our activism can make all
the difference. In the Kansas Senate race to replace Sam Brownback,
Congressman Todd Tiahrt has been a leader in fighting Obamacare, while
Moran has been a party follower. On the Sunday the House of
Representatives passed the law, Tiahrt spent over 10 hours on the floor
fighting the law, while Moran was comparatively silent.Gibbs Misleads Public on Obama's Broken Tax Pledge
John Kartch - Americans for Tax Reform
White
House spokesman Robert Gibbs seems to have forgotten that his boss has
already broken his central campaign promise - a "firm pledge" that "no
family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax
increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital
gains taxes, not any of your taxes." Responding to a question during his
daily press briefing today, Gibbs said, "The President believes raising
taxes on the middle class during this economic time would not make a
lot of economic sense." The Obama Administration's Strange Approach to Special-Needs Families
Jim Geraghty - NRO's The Campaign Spot
Over
in the Examiner, Kirstan Hawkins examines the appointment of Dr. Donald
Berwick to the Department of Health and Human Services to oversee the
nation's Medicaid and Medicare system. While I was helping my 1-year-old
son, Gunner, do his life-prolonging breathing treatment, his president
betrayed him and others who suffer from cystic fibrosis. Obama appointed
a man who advocates rationing of health care and praises the disastrous
British National Health Service to head one of the most important
positions in the entire U.S. health care system...Editorial: Health care reform, after Obamacare
Robert
Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the
Heritage Foundation, met recently with the Orange County Register
Editorial board for a discussion and online video interview with
columnist Brian Calle (see the video at ocregister.com/opinion) about
the impending consequences of the new, 2,300-page health care law and
simple, practical legislative alternatives to Obamacare that could
better address problems in the U.S. health system. Mr. Moffit lamented
Obamacare's unnecessary heavy spending and its propensity to undermine
personal and economic freedoms. He said that Congress essentially
dictated to people what health insurance they can purchase and how they
can purchase it, while at the same time failing to address the real
problems with the nation's health care system.HMO Premiums Soar Before ObamaCare
Lisa Finn - The Independent
It's
a grim scene unfolding in work places across the United States: An
employer breaks the bad news that in today's flagging economy, a worker
struggling to make ends meet is about to be dealt another potentially
deadly blow - soaring health care premiums. No one is spared the across
the board increases as single parents, young professionals,
municipalities, school districts, and families alike are faced with
crippling increases in health care costs. One couple, insured under the
Oxford United Health Care plan, will see budget busting monthly costs
skyrocket from $761 to $928 - a whopping 18 percent. The increases are
typical for individual and family plans, regardless of the insurance
company.McClaughry: The ObamaCare tax on your existence
John McClaughry - Vtdigger
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.Seniors confused about new healthcare reform law, survey shows
Most seniors are misinformed or simply unaware about new healthcare reforms under the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a new survey from the National Council on Aging. NCOA's survey asked seniors 12 questions about Medicare, the budget deficit and other pertinent healthcare reform topics. Only 17% of the 636 seniors surveyed knew the correct answers to more than half the questions, while only 9% knew the correct answers to at least two-thirds of the questions, according to the survey results. None of the survey participants knew the correct answers to all 12 of the factual questions.
Health Care Cost Control: A Better Way
Stanley Goldfarb - FrumForum
Is
rationing required to control healthcare costs? No. Not if you define
rationing as denying care to a particular person with a specific
illness. That is neither necessary nor even possible given our
healthcare system or our legal system. Dr. Donald Berwick's appointment
as CMS Director may be a hoped-for step towards adopting the British
system by some, but it won't work. Rather, we need a system that focuses
on eliminating the moral hazard where neither patients nor doctors have
a direct stake in the cost of care. This notion was widely discussed in
the debate over Obamacare but seems to have fallen off the political
radar screen.ObamaCare: The Government's Rationing Toolbox Exposed
Capitol Confidential - Big Government
The
FDA attempt to de-label Avastin for breast cancer patients is the first
skirmish of the rationing wars. The battle must be fought and won.
This isn't an issue of government paying the cost of these late stage
drugs. This is an issue of the government manipulating data to deny
care to late stage cancer patients--even those with private insurance.
The issue at hand is whether or not the drug Avastin should be used to
treat late stage terminal cancer patients. The FDA is seeking to
de-label Avastin for breast cancer patients. Labeling is the FDA's
method of approval for using certain drugs for certain illnesses. Like
Medicare, private insurance companies use these labels to determine
whether or not they will cover the use of that drug to treat a certain
illness.Obama demonstrates how to use HealthCare.gov
President
Obama has a new video out, showing people how to use one of his biggest
legacies: The new health care law. Sitting before a lap top computer,
Obama demonstrates how to use the website HealthCare.gov, which is
designed to show users the coverage options they have under the new law.
Obama supplements the tutorial with stories of real people who have had
insurance problems.Think tank disputes premise that seniors who reject healthcare reform don't get it
Julian Pecquet - The Hill's Healthwatch
The
old saw that "you're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own
facts" just doesn't seem to apply when it comes to healthcare reform. A
day after the National Council on Aging vowed to give seniors "straight
talk" on the new law, the conservative National Center for Policy
Analysis said seniors already get it -- despite the findings of a poll
commissioned by the council.Healthcare law has more doctors teaming up
Noam Levey - LA Times
As Congress debated the healthcare bill, many
critics lamented it would do little to transform a system in which
doctors and hospitals bounce patients around in an uncoordinated,
costly, sometimes tragic process. But something unexpected has happened
since President Obama signed the legislation in March. Spurred in part
by the law, many independent providers across the country are racing to
mold themselves into the kind of coordinated teams held up as models for
improving care.
| Latest Polling |
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Rasmussen Reports July 26, 2010 58 percent of voters favor repealing Obamacare |