Monthly Archives: October 2013

UNCG rec center spending hurts students, More spending like drunken sailors, UNC Greensboro students pay $ 707 to repay construction costs, Rec center portion $ 435

UNCG rec center spending hurts students, More spending like drunken sailors, UNC Greensboro students pay $ 707 to repay construction costs, Rec center portion $ 435

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

“The cost of health insurance will climb from a range of $61 to $77 monthly to a range of $118 to $133 monthly, according to a memo sent from UNC President Tom Ross to the UNC Board of Governors. On an annual basis, most students will pay about $500 to $700 more in 2012-13, depending on the campus.”

“Mallette said the insurance increases are due to the health care usage of UNC system students during the past couple of years, plus federal regulations on preventive care and pharmacy services issued in March. The process is complicated, he said, by the new provisions of the Affordable Care Act.”…Charlotte Observer May 1, 2012

“You can’t fix stupid.”…Ron White

 

I have written about UNCG, UNC Greensboro, spending like drunken sailors before. Once again, in one of the worst economies since the Great Depreciation, they are raising student tuition due to their unchecked spending.

Between the UNCG Administration,  Obama and Obamacare, these students have a uphill struggle.

From the Greensboro News Record October 30, 2013.

“Students to protest fee for UNCG recreation center”

“Some UNCG students and faculty members will speak out on campus today against the university’s plans to build a new recreation center — and the costs that go with it.

UNCG students pay $707 a year to repay construction costs for six existing facilities and one planned building.

That’s the highest debt service in the UNC system.

The bulk of this debt service fee — $435 a year — goes toward a new student recreation center that UNCG plans to build on West Lee Street on the edge of the Glenwood neighborhood. The $91 million facility, more than twice the size of the current rec center, is scheduled to open in fall 2016.

Juan Miranda, a UNCG graduate student and alumnus, said the project’s size and cost is too much.

“They’re raising fees to pay for that shiny building that most students wouldn’t want to pay for,” said Miranda, who is organizing today’s event. “Students are having a difficult time staying in school because of a lack of affordability.””

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/news/article_957c5824-356f-52ad-98d1-acc9f8c0afe4.html

UNCGrecCenter
“UNCG students, faculty protest new recreation center”

“Some UNCG students and faculty members spoke out Wednesday against the proposed construction of a new student recreation center on campus.

Seven people spoke at the event, held in front of the Jackson Library. It drew about 40 people, not including reporters.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/news/article_24415d04-4181-11e3-a6a2-001a4bcf6878.html

From Citizen Wells August 20, 2012.

“Michelle Obama spoke at UNCG a few weeks ago.

“It means all of our kids should be able to go to college without a mountain of debt.”

“Because of this reform, our children can stay on our insurance until they’re 26 years old. (Applause.) So they don’t have to lose their health care when they graduate and they’re out there looking for a job, trying to build their lives.”

“I want you to tell them how many jobs he created. Tell them how much money he’s put back in the pockets of American people. You can tell them that more of our kids can afford college;”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/michelle-obama-uncg-speech-august-1-2012-obama-lies-job-lies-tax-lies-college-tuition-lies-health-care-lies-student-loans-and-records-hidden/

Obama lies versus Obama reality.

From the front page of the Greensboro News & Record August 20, 2012.

“Registration cancellations rising at UNCG, A&T”

“UNCG about two weeks ago canceled the registrations of about 1,300 students because they had yet to pay their tuition bills — the highest number of cancellations since fall 2009, university officials said.

N.C. A&T is also seeing an increase in the number of students facing cancellation. The schools’ officials attribute their numbers to a variety of factors, including tuition increases and cuts and other changes in state and federal financial aid programs.

“Every lost soul is unacceptable to me, and it really hurts when we have to cancel that many registrations,” said Steve Roberson, UNCG dean of undergraduate studies.

By Friday, UNCG had managed to whittle that number to just 500, according to preliminary data.

But administrators are concerned about the large number of students who are having trouble paying this year.

UNCG Vice Provost Alan Boyette said recently that some students ran into problems because they did not apply for financial aid on time, or their financial aid had not yet been packaged. So, he expected that initial number would be reduced.

He said enrollment this year is “really unpredictable.” The university is gauging payments and registration on a near daily basis to get a feel for what the final number will be, he said.

“We think the timing is clearly related to the current economy,” Boyette said of the number of students paying late.

Sarah Carrigan, UNCG director of institutional research, said Friday that UNCG canceled 1,300 student registrations between July 31 and Aug. 8.

That’s an increase of about 500 over last year at that same time, she said.

As of Friday, about 800 of those students had paid to register again, Carrigan said.

A&T has also had a slight increase in the number of students who risk having their registrations canceled, said Akua Matherson, the university interim associate vice chancellor for enrollment management.

As of late Friday afternoon, the university was scheduled to cancel the registrations of 541 students, Matherson said.

That’s a 2.5 percent increase from last year, she said.

Those students had until the close of business Friday to make some kind of arrangement to keep their registration.

Staff from both universities spent much of the summer reaching out to students who were eligible to return to school but had not registered to find out what their problems are and to offer solutions.

More than 80 percent of A&T students qualify for need-based aid. Staff members have talked to families whose financial situations have changed, such as one parent losing a job.

“Some of our students are looking at some real challenges,” Matherson said.

Deborah Tollefson, UNCG financial aid director, has heard similar stories of parents’ stretched incomes.

She said that counselors steer students away from private loans.

Instead, they inform them of such options as federal loans, part-time campus employment and tuition payment plans if they are having trouble paying.

Tollefson said that UNCG has received a lot of late financial aid applications this year. Students who didn’t have to take out loans two or three years ago are now having to but are unfamiliar with the process, she said.

A&T had 10,590 students enrolled as of Wednesday, the first day of classes.

UNCG’s latest enrollment figures showed an enrollment of 17,800. Students there start classes today.”

http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/08/20/article/registration_cancellations_rising_at_uncg_at

With the Obama economic plan we get higher tuition, much higher health care costs and higher unemployment.

From Citizen Wells February 12, 2012.

“Amid chants of protest from about 100 students, the UNC Board of Governors this morning approved President Tom Ross’ proposal for tuition and
fee hikes over the next two years.

Ross’ plan would raise tuition by an average of 8.8 percent across the system and keeps increases below 10 percent on every campus.”

“Today’s vote caps months of intense debate over tuition, which the system has used in recent years to help make up for legislative cuts to its budget. The
hikes have forced more students to take on extra jobs to pay for school, or drop out altogether.”

“The state mandates that at least 25 percent of the money from the tuition dollars go toward financial aid for needy students. Some board members recently have spoken out about that requirement, saying it essentially calls for students, who themselves may be struggling, to subsidize the education of other students.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/unc-tuition-hikes-university-of-nc-system-raises-tuition-costs-in-dismal-economy-working-students-and-families-pay-others-tuition-income-redistribution-unc-tuition-hikes-university-of-nc-system/

I have met and talked with many college students. Recently a UNCG student, who is struggling to support his family and attend school, confided in me that the recent tuition and health care increases (mandatory health care insurance almost doubled) could force him to leave school.

From Citizen Wells May 2, 2012.

“The UNC system began requiring students to be covered by health insurance in the fall of 2010. Students must either prove that they have their own insurance or buy a plan offered by the UNC system. Before that, 11 campuses required insurance; rates and coverage varied significantly among the schools.

On top of rising tuition and fees, those UNC system students who buy the university-sponsored health insurance plan will face steep premium increases in the next academic year.

The cost of health insurance will climb from a range of $61 to $77 monthly to a range of $118 to $133 monthly, according to a memo sent from UNC President Tom Ross to the UNC Board of Governors. On an annual basis, most students will pay about $500 to $700 more in 2012-13, depending on the campus.”

“Mallette said the insurance increases are due to the health care usage of UNC system students during the past couple of years, plus federal regulations on preventive care and pharmacy services issued in March. The process is complicated, he said, by the new provisions of the Affordable Care Act.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/obama-lies-work-on-unc-students-unc-student-health-care-increase-tuition-increase-high-unemployment-obama-uses-orwellian-language-to-sway-students-occupy-white-house/

From Citizen Wells July 27, 2012.

“Unemployment Rates Increase in 84 Counties in June”

“North Carolina’s statewide unemployment rate (not seasonally adjusted) was 9.9 percent in June. This was a 0.4 of a percentage-point increase from May’s revised rate of 9.5 percent, and a 1.0 percentage-point decrease over the year.

Over the month, the unemployment rate increased in 84 counties, decreased in 11 and remained the same in five. Thirty-nine counties had unemployment rates at or below the state’s 9.9 percent rate.”

“Guilford County, containing both Greensboro and High Point had an increase from 9.6 to 10.3 percent.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/nc-unemployment-rate-9-9-percent-june-data-unemployment-rates-rose-in-84-of-100-counties-mecklenburg-home-of-democrat-convention-rises-3-percent-to-9-9/

WHAT EVIDENCE DO WE HAVE THAT OBAMA HAD ANY STUDENT LOANS?”

Advertisement

Obamacare helps entitlement crowd hurts middle America, High premiums and deductibles hurt working families, Many lose affordable policies, 2010 Wyatt Emmerich study welfare pays

Obamacare helps entitlement crowd hurts middle America, High premiums and deductibles hurt working families, Many lose affordable policies, 2010 Wyatt Emmerich study welfare pays

“millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.”…NBC News October 29, 2013

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed

–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

When I wrote “Obamacare helps entitlement crowd” I meant only in the short term monetary sense because ultimately it will hurt all Americans and their healthcare.

A 2010 study analysis by Wyatt Emmerich concluded that welfare pays.

He found that a part time worker receiving a wide range of entitlement benefits could fare better that a family earning $ 60,000 per year.

From Zero hedge November 22, 2010.

“In Entitlement America, The Head Of A Household Of Four Making Minimum Wage Has More Disposable Income Than A Family Making $60,000 A Year”

“Tonight’s stunning financial piece de resistance comes from Wyatt Emerich of The Cleveland Current. In what is sure to inspire some serious ire among all those who once believed Ronald Reagan that it was the USSR that was the “Evil Empire”, Emmerich analyzes disposable income and economic benefits among several key income classes and comes to the stunning (and verifiable) conclusion that “a one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year.” And that excludes benefits from Supplemental Security Income disability checks. America is now a country which punishes those middle-class people who not only try to work hard, but avoid scamming the system. Not surprisingly, it is not only the richest and most audacious thieves that prosper – it is also the penny scammers at the very bottom of the economic ladder that rip off the middle class each and every day, courtesy of the world’s most generous entitlement system. Perhaps if Reagan were alive today, he would wish to modify the object of his once legendary remark.

From Emmerich:

You can do as well working one week a month at minimum wage as you can working $60,000-a-year, full-time, high-stress job.

My chart tells the story. It is pretty much self-explanatory.

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/entitlement-america-head-household-four-making-minimum-wage-has-more-disposable-income-famil

This analysis was pre Obamacare.

The unfairness is even worse now.

From the LA Times October 26, 2013.

“Many middle-class Californians with individual health plans are surprised they need policies that cover more — and cost more.”

“Thousands of Californians are discovering what Obamacarewill cost them — and many don’t like what they see.

These middle-class consumers are staring at hefty increases on their insurance bills as the overhaul remakes the healthcare market. Their rates are rising in large part to help offset the higher costs of covering sicker, poorer people who have been shut out of the system for years.”

Fullerton resident Jennifer Harris thought she had a great deal, paying $98 a month for an individual plan throughHealth Net Inc. She got a rude surprise this month when the company said it would cancel her policy at the end of this year. Her current plan does not conform with the new federal rules, which require more generous levels of coverage.

Now Harris, a self-employed lawyer, must shop for replacement insurance. The cheapest plan she has found will cost her $238 a month. She and her husband don’t qualify for federal premium subsidies because they earn too much money, about $80,000 a year combined.

“It doesn’t seem right to make the middle class pay so much more in order to give health insurance to everybody else,” said Harris, who is three months pregnant. “This increase is simply not affordable.””

Read more:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-health-sticker-shock-20131027,0,2756077.story#axzz2jD0EDmJP

Here is a copy of an original Wyatt Emmerich from the Wayback Machine archives.

“With welfare it makes sense to work less”

Remember when Mississippi used to have new manufacturing plants popping up weekly? What happened?

If you ask the business leaders, the problem is a lack of skilled labor. People don’t want to work. Especially in the Delta, people just won’t show up on time and often fail drug tests.

“How can this be?” you may ask. You have to work to eat. Well, that’s really not true anymore. In fact, our welfare state rewards not working. You can do as well working one week a month at minimum wage as you can working a $60,000-a-year, full-time, high-stress job.

My chart tells the story. It is pretty much self-explanatory.

It is quite easy to check my numbers, thanks to the Internet. In fact, it only took me a couple of hours on the net to gather this data. Almost all welfare programs have Web sites where you can call up “benefits calculators.” Just plug in your income and family size and, presto, your benefits are automatically calculated.

Just to double-check, I looked at what our country spends on welfare at a national level. Backing out Social Security, the U.S. spends about $750 billion a year on welfare. The U.S. has about 120 million households. If 25 million get welfare (20 percent), that comes to about $30,000 per family. This figure pretty much backs up my analysis.

The chart is quite revealing. A one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year.

If the family provider works only one week a month at minimum wage, he or she makes 92 percent as much as a provider grossing $60,000 a year.

First of all, working only one week a month saves big-time on child care. But the real big-ticket item is Medicaid, which has minimal deductibles and copays.

By working only one week a month at a minimum-wage job, a provider is able to get total medical coverage for next to nothing.

Compare this to the family provider making $60,000 a year. A typical Mississippi family coverage would cost around $12,000, adding deductibles and co-pays adds an additional $4,500 or so to the bill. That’s a huge hit.

The full-time $60,000-a-year job is going to be much more demanding than working one week a month at minimum wage. Presumably, the low-income parent will have more energy to attend to the various stresses of managing a household.

If the one-week-a-month worker maintains an unreported cash-only job on the side, the deal gets better than a regular $60,000-a-year job.

In this scenario, you maintain a reportable, payroll-deductible, low-income job for federal tax purposes. This allows you to easily establish your qualification for all these welfare programs. Then your black-market side job gives you additional cash without interfering with your benefits. Some economists estimate there is one trillion in unreported income each year in the United States.

My analysis only includes the better-known welfare programs. One Web site I used, GovBenefits.org, gave me a list of dozens of additional programs and private grants available to low-income family providers.

This really got me thinking. Just how much money could I get if I set out to deliberately scam the system? I soon realized that getting a low-paying minimum wage job would set the stage for far more welfare benefits than you could earn in a real job, if you were willing to cheat.

Even if you didn’t cheat, you could do almost as well working one week a month at minimum wage than busting a gut at a $60,000-a-year job.

I have left out the mother of all welfare programs – Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI pays $8,088 per year for each “disabled” family member. A person can be deemed “disabled” if they are totally lacking in the cultural and educational skills needed to be employable in the workforce.

If you add $24,262 a year for three disability checks, the lowest paid welfare family would now have far more take-home income than the $60,000-a-year family.

Ironically, most private workplaces require drug testing, but there is no drug testing required to get welfare checks.

Granted, some of these welfare programs have restrictions to prevent double dipping. No doubt our efficient federal bureaucracy does a bang-up job of preventing such fraud.

I hope I have helped answer the question concerning why Mississippi doesn’t get many new industries. The welfare system in communist China is far stingier. Those people have to work to eat.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20110117224502/http://www.northsidesun.com/view/full_story/9915498/article-With-welfare-it-makes-sense-to-work-less

NBC Orwellian scrubbing of Obama health care knowledge?, Big Brother Obama pressure?, You’ll be able to keep your health care plan lie, Ministry of Truth rectifies?

NBC Orwellian scrubbing of Obama health care knowledge?, Big Brother Obama pressure?, You’ll be able to keep your health care plan lie, Ministry of Truth rectifies?

“If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan.”…Barack Obama

“millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.”…NBC News October 29, 2013

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

I began comparing the Obama camp to “1984” and Nazi Germany by early 2008. Why? I was paying attention and have studied history.

Numerous obots, rabid Obama supporters and those under the influence of the Obama Thought Police insulted me & my commentary.

How many of those people are so inclined now?

Obama knew by at least 2010 that his often quoted line was a lie.

“If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan.”…Barack Obama

George Orwell, prior to wrting “1984” had watched the regimes in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia.

He knew this.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it”…Joseph Goebbels

“Propaganda must not serve the truth, especially not insofar as it might bring out something favorable for the opponent.”… Adolf Hitler

Beginning in 2008, articles critical of or revealing about Obama were sanitized or scrubbed from the internet.

We learned to save copies of articles.

We have another recent example.

The mainstream media, in what I believe is an attempt to not be left behind in the truth being revealed about Obama, has begun exposing Obama.

NBC just did so, then the article disappeared. The it resurrected with a paragraph missing. Then the paragraph appeared.

They got caught. Why it happened I will leave to the reader to surmise.

From The Blaze October 29, 2013.

“NBC NEWS’ BOMBSHELL OBAMACARE REPORT DISAPPEARS DUE TO ‘PUBLISHING GLITCH’ – AND THERE WAS SOMETHING MISSING FROM REPUBLISHED VERSION”
“NBC News is claiming that a “publishing glitch” caused its bombshell investigative report on Obamacare to disappear for a period of time. The news outlet has since republished the scathing article, however, a key paragraph was temporarily removed — and no editor’s note explaining why was included.

The article in question revealed that the Obama administration knew at least three years ago that millions of Americans would not be able to keep their health insurance under Obamacare. But that didn’t stop President Barack Obama and other administration officials from promising the opposite, the report suggests.

At some point Tuesday night, the link to the story started directing readers to a “Error 404″ page:”

“As if the mysterious “glitch” wasn’t strange enough, NBC News — inadvertently or not — later republished the article without the following key paragraph:

None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered.

It was added back in to the article roughly 30 minutes after it was republished, but the discrepancy was again not noted in the article.”

Read more:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/29/nbc-news-bombshell-obamacare-report-disappears-due-to-publishing-glitch-and-there-was-something-missing-from-republished-version/

I regularly quote “1984” and have often used part of this segment:
“With the deep, unconscious sigh which not even the nearness of the telescreen could prevent him from uttering when his day’s work started, Winston pulled the speakwrite towards him, blew the dust from its mouthpiece, and put on his spectacles. Then he unrolled and clipped together four small cylinders of paper which had already flopped out of the pneumatic tube on the right-hand side of his desk.

In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages, to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston’s arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.

Winston examined the four slips of paper which he had unrolled. Each contained a message of only one or two lines, in the abbreviated jargon — not actually Newspeak, but consisting largely of Newspeak words — which was used in the Ministry for internal purposes. They ran:

times 17.3.84 bb speech malreported africa rectify

times 19.12.83 forecasts 3 yp 4th quarter 83 misprints verify current issue

times 14.2.84 miniplenty malquoted chocolate rectify

times 3.12.83 reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling

With a faint feeling of satisfaction Winston laid the fourth message aside. It was an intricate and responsible job and had better be dealt with last. The other three were routine matters, though the second one would probably mean some tedious wading through lists of figures.

Winston dialled ‘back numbers’ on the telescreen and called for the appropriate issues of The Times, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes’ delay. The messages he had received referred to articles or news items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify. For example, it appeared from The Times of the seventeenth of March that Big Brother, in his speech of the previous day, had predicted that the South Indian front would remain quiet but that a Eurasian offensive would shortly be launched in North Africa. As it happened, the Eurasian Higher Command had launched its offensive in South India and left North Africa alone. It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech, in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened. Or again, The Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today’s issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston’s job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones. As for the third message, it referred to a very simple error which could be set right in a couple of minutes. As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a ‘categorical pledge’ were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.”

Serco top Obamacare contract recipient being investigated by British government, Chief executive quits, Number 2 Obamacare recipient CGI embroiled in controversy and possible crony capitalism

Serco top Obamacare contract recipient being investigated by British government, Chief executive quits, Number 2 Obamacare recipient CGI embroiled in controversy and possible crony capitalism

“Public records indicate that during this time, every quarter from 2010 through 2012, CGI Group itself was lobbying on “HUD housing management contracts.”
Finally, there’s also a whistleblower lawsuit from a former CGI employee — who’d been recruited from HUD after overseeing the very Section 8 contracts CGI won — alleging that he was fired after refusing to go along with fraudulent plans to work around the bidding process. CGI denies the accusations, but has so far failed to get the case thrown out.”…Washington Post October 23, 2013

“Why was Obama promoting Capri Capital and other investment firms at the same time that Rezko, Levine and Cellini were shaking them down?”…Citizen Wells

“Now, I don’t get upset when foreign and national journalists fail to mention Tony Rezko, or the Daley boys, or how the Chicago machine plans to staff the Department of Justice, and the new Department of Homeland Casinos.”…John Kass, Chicago Tribune July 30, 2008

 

Serco, the apparent top dollar contract recipient of Obamacare, is being investigated by the British Government.

From Reuters October 25, 2013.

“Serco boss quits as firm seeks new start after scandals”

“The chief executive of outsourcing firm Serco has quit as part of a major reorganisation aimed at rebuilding its reputation with its biggest customer, the British government, following a series of scandals.

The UK government, which accounts for about 25 percent of Serco’s revenue, said in July it would not award the firm or rival G4S any new contracts pending a review of existing ones, after an audit discovered they had charged for tagging criminals who were dead, in prison or not being monitored.

The scandal has intensified the debate in Britain over the outsourcing of public services to profit-driven private firms – a key strategy to reduce government spending, but which has also led to a string of embarrassments, such as when G4S failed to supply enough security staff for the 2012 London Olympics.”

“It is due to appear in the U.S. House of Representatives to explain its part in the troubled rollout of the “Obamacare” healthcare laws, though it is not accused of any wrongdoing.”

Read more:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/25/us-serco-idUSBRE99O0DD20131025

From Free Republic October 20, 2013.

“Here is a list of contractors that received over $1 million in Obamacare contracts.”

obamacarecontractors1

Read more:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3081260/posts

Of course, CGI, the apparent number 2 recipient of Obamacare contract dollars (for now), is also embroiled in controversies.

From Citizen Wells October 25, 2013.

“Is this another case of Barack and Michelle Obama involved in crony capitalism or just poor judgement?

Toni McCall Townes-Whitley, who was in Michelle Obama’s class at princeton, is a Senior VP at CGI.”

Read more:

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/cgi-obamacare-website-contract-obamas-barack-michelle-crony-capitalism-or-poor-judgement-toni-mccall-townes-whitley-senior-vp-cgi-and-michelle-obama-princeton-alumnus/

 

 

 

Obama Obamacare government health care website not working, Despots always blame people not systems, Government (especially crony capitalism) is not the best means to do anything well

Obama Obamacare government health care website not working, Despots always blame people not systems, Government (especially crony capitalism) is not the best means to do anything well

 
“The problem is that government is not the best means to do anything well. The problem is the absence of two crucial things: the knowledge to assemble the resources properly and the means to make the economic assessment of the value of competitive resources. This is what happens when you eliminate the profit-and-loss system. You can throw massive resources at a problem with the end result being disappointing.”…Zero Hedge October 27, 2013

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed

–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

Government is not the best means to do anything well, especially with crony capitalism, instead of real capitalism.

ObamaStalin

From Zero Hedge October 27, 2013.

“You didn’t want to be the guy chosen to tell Stalin that the wheat crop failed or the production quotas on trucks and cars were not met. Why?

Because despots always blame people, not systems.

In the same way, you don’t want to be the guy chosen to tell Obama that his health care websites are a disaster. But that’s what they are, and he’s managed to blame everyone but himself.

At his hilarious and embarrassing press conference on Monday, the president first assured us that “no one is madder than me” about website failures. Then, of course, he lashed out at the critics and implicitly blamed them for technical failures.

“It’s time for folks to stop rooting for its failure, because hardworking, middle-class families are rooting for its success.”

Someone needs to explain to this guy that rooting one way or another does not cause a website to fail. Crop failures in Russia were not because of the enemies of communism, and the failure of Obama’s health care websites are not due to his political enemies, either. The problem is that government is a bad developer, even when it’s contracting out.

Then Obama said, “We did not wage this long and contentious battle just around a website. That’s not what this was about.”

There he goes again, defining his own reality. By plunging into direct provision of a commercial service and forcing people to cough up for it, Obamacare and its website must be prepared to be accessed just like any other private market service.

People don’t like it when websites are flaky and do not perform. By dismissing this feature — treating the website as if it is just a luxury feature that has nothing to do with the program itself — he reveals that he’s stuck in the past.

A website is not just a convenience. It is the heart and soul of a service that purports to serve everyone. In some ways, this is the most important website this government has ever produced. People don’t use the sites of the Pentagon or Housing and Urban Development. But this one people not only use, but are forced to use. Its failure is epic.

The president then made matters worse. He pointed out that people can download a form and mail it in. Also that people can go to centers where there are people who can help. Then he even rattled off an 800 number that people could call.

As The New York Times said with a funny blandness: “Several calls to the number immediately after he read it produced busy signals.”

Busy signals? I think the last time I heard one of those I was in seventh grade. No one under the age of 25 even knows what a “busy signal” is.

The terrifying thing is that all the troubles with HealthCare.gov foreshadow what’s coming with the new system of health care. Who can doubt it? It is going to be thrown back, inefficient, backward-looking, full of bureaucracy, insanely expensive, characterized by busy signals, and ultimately ending with a demand to come back another day.”

“The problem is that government is not the best means to do anything well. The problem is the absence of two crucial things: the knowledge to assemble the resources properly and the means to make the economic assessment of the value of competitive resources. This is what happens when you eliminate the profit-and-loss system. You can throw massive resources at a problem with the end result being disappointing.

Again, it is not just about the website. It is about the whole system. The fools who imposed this system had all the expertise, all the arrogance, all the money, and all the power, and they still couldn’t do it. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of workable and useful websites go up every day.

Has there ever been in our times a better symbol of the failure of government? The truth is this: Government doesn’t work. Here’s the proof. It’s just the beginning. If you want health care in the future, you are going to have to look outside the system. And plenty of people right now are working on that solution, which, unlike that which the experts create, will actually serve human needs.”

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-27/guest-post-plan-not-working

CGI Obamacare website contract Obamas (Barack & Michelle) crony capitalism or poor judgement, Toni McCall Townes-Whitley Senior VP CGI and Michelle Obama Princeton alumnus

CGI Obamacare website contract Obamas (Barack & Michelle) crony capitalism or poor judgement, Toni McCall Townes-Whitley Senior VP CGI and Michelle Obama Princeton alumnus

 
“Public records indicate that during this time, every quarter from 2010 through 2012, CGI Group itself was lobbying on “HUD housing management contracts.”
Finally, there’s also a whistleblower lawsuit from a former CGI employee — who’d been recruited from HUD after overseeing the very Section 8 contracts CGI won — alleging that he was fired after refusing to go along with fraudulent plans to work around the bidding process. CGI denies the accusations, but has so far failed to get the case thrown out.”…Washington Post October 23, 2013

“Why was Obama promoting Capri Capital and other investment firms at the same time that Rezko, Levine and Cellini were shaking them down?”…Citizen Wells

“Now, I don’t get upset when foreign and national journalists fail to mention Tony Rezko, or the Daley boys, or how the Chicago machine plans to staff the Department of Justice, and the new Department of Homeland Casinos.”…John Kass, Chicago Tribune July 30, 2008

 

Thanks to CDR Charles Kerchner for the heads up.

Is this another case of Barack and Michelle Obama involved in crony capitalism or just poor judgement?

Toni McCall Townes-Whitley, who was in Michelle Obama’s class at princeton, is a Senior VP at CGI.

From the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.

Toni McCall Townes-Whitley ’85
Senior Vice President, Federal Civilian Agency Programs, CGI

First Lady Michelle Obama ’85

http://www.princeton-abpa.org/dynamic.asp?id=news_1980s

 

From the CGI website.

Toni Townes-Whitley
Senior Vice-President,
Civilian Agency Programs
CGI was the lone bidder.
From The Washington Examiner October 13, 2013.

“Feds reviewed only one bid for Obamacare website design”

“Federal officials considered only one firm to design the Obamacare health insurance exchange website that has performed abysmally since its Oct. 1 debut.

Rather than open the contracting process to a competitive public solicitation with multiple bidders, officials in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid accepted a sole bidder, CGI Federal, the U.S. subsidiary of a Canadian company with an uneven record of IT pricing and contract performance.

CMS officials are tight-lipped about why CGI was chosen or how it happened. They also refuse to say if other firms competed with CGI, or if there was ever a public solicitation for building Healthcare.gov, the backbone of Obamacare’s problem-plagued web portal.

Instead, it appears they used what amounts to a federal procurement system loophole to award the work to the Canadian firm.”

“The multiple awards were in the form of “task orders” for projects of widely varying size. Over the life of the CGI contract — which expires in 2017 — the IT firm can receive awards worth anywhere from the “$1,000 to $4 billion,” according to a contracting document provided by CGI to the Washington Examiner.

This is apparently the route chosen by CMS officials in awarding the Obamacare Healthcare.gov website design contract to CGI.

Between 2009 and 2013, CMS officials awarded 185 separate task orders to CGI totaling $678 million for work of all kinds, according to USAspending.gov, a federal spending database.The Obamacare website design contract was for $93 million.”

“The first indication of questions of CGI performance and pricing came in February 2010 when the firm protested a $230 million CMS contract award to Computer Sciences Corp. Inc.

In a sharp rebuff to CGI in November 2010, General Accountability Office acting counsel Linda H. Gibson denied the CGI protest.

In doing so, she noted that CSC’s bid was $148 million versus CGI’s bid of $258 million. When CMS modified the terms of its proposal, CSC was still substantially lower, coming in at $223 million versus CGI’s price tag of $395 million.”

“As the Examiner previously reported, CGI in Canada also suffered embarrassment in 2011 when it failed to deliver on time for Ontario province’s flagship project a new online medical registry for diabetes patients and treatment providers.

Ontario government officials cancelled the $46.2 million contract after 14 months of delay in September 2012. Ontario officials currently refuse to pay any fees to CGI for the failed IT project.”

Read more:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/feds-reviewed-only-one-bid-for-obamacare-website-design/article/2537194

Obama’s history of crony capitalism is extensive and includes another Princeton grad, John Rogers.

From Citizen Wells October 23, 2011.

“Mr. Obama also recently pointed to his work on the Illinois pension issue as a model for what he would do as president to promote minority-owned companies.”

“The goal was always “to open up doors,” said John W. Rogers Jr., the chief executive of Ariel Capital Management, one of the investment firms that received state business. “It was, as the Rev. Jesse Jackson has eloquently put it, to force other industries to have their ‘Jackie Robinson’ moment.””

“During this period, campaign finance records show, executives from Ariel, Loop and two other leading Chicago investment firms, Holland Capital Management and Capri Capital, sharply increased their donations to Mr. Obama’s State Senate campaign fund. And once he began his campaign for the United States Senate, they quickly became a fund-raising core that has carried over into the presidential race.

Mr. Rogers, who is one of three people at his company who have each bundled at least $50,000 in donations for Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign, said that his financial support for the senator had “no connection” to his company’s efforts to win state contracts, but that it reflected the broader excitement over what Mr. Obama’s success meant for blacks in America.”

“Still, things have not worked out as well for some of the investment managers. Both Ariel and Holland were given several hundred million dollars to invest.

But one of the funds dropped Ariel and two dropped Holland last year after their investment returns lagged behind those of other firms.”

“In 2002, the year after Obama made the pitch, the Illinois Teacher Retirement System reported an 18% increase in assets managed by minority-owned firms. Ariel’s share grew to $442 million by 2005.

In 2006, after the federal investigation became public, the teacher pension board severed its relationship with Ariel, concluding that Ariel’s investment returns were insufficient.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/obama-role-in-corrupting-il-teacher-retirement-system-pensions-cellini-trial-2007-ny-times-article-where-is-tony-rezko-where-is-house-judiciary-committee/

House Oversight Committee Obamacare letter, What White House wants, Shop for health insurance without registering feature removed, Obamacare will dramatically increase premiums

House Oversight Committee Obamacare letter, What White House wants, Shop for health insurance without registering feature removed, Obamacare will dramatically increase premiums

“We need an educated citizenry that values hard evidence.”…Barack Obama

“If you’ve got health insurance we’re going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year. We will not wait 20 years from now to do it, or 10 years from now to do it. We will do it by the end of my first term as president.”…Barack Obama

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

 

Below are exerpts from the House Oversight Committee letter to Steve VanRoekel, U.S. Chief Information Officer and Administrator, Office of Electronic Government Office of Management and Budget and Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Office of Management and Budget.

The letter paints a disturbing picture of the implementation of the Obamacare website and confirms many of our suspicions.

“Dear Messrs. VanRoekel and Park:

The recent problems associated with ObamaCare’s health insurance exchanges and the colossal failure of healthcare.gov has revealed systemic and pervasive failures within the Administration’s implementation of ObamaCare. Many individuals have demanded accountability for these failures.’ Most notably, on MSNBC, Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s first-term press secretary, stated:
I hope they are working day and night to get this done. When they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure that this thing was supposed to work.2
As the Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer for the Obama Administration, and as leading advocates of the OMB-led TechStat3 vetting and review process, you surely maintained significant involvement in the oversight and development of ObamaCare’s critical information technology (IT) infrastructure. As such, we are writing to ask you for more information about the Administration’s development of the healthcare.gov website and its related components.”

“CGI officials provided a second briefing to Committee staff on October 16, 2013, after the failure of healthcare.gov became obvious to the public. CGI officials told Committee staff that CMS officials and employees constantly mentioned the “White House” when discussing matters with CGI. For example, CMS officials would routinely state: “this is what the White House wants.”I2 Moreover, CGI officials told Committee staff that the ability to shop for health insurance without registering for an account — a central design feature of the health insurance exchange — was removed “in late August or early September.”I3 Although, CGI officials were not able to identify who within the Administration made the decision to disable the anonymous shopping feature, evidence is mounting that political considerations motivated the decision.”

“Many IT experts have suggested that the decision to disable the anonymous shopping feature contributed to the failure of healthcare.gov on October 1, 2013, and in the weeks that have followed.I6 Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a policy and marketplace consulting firm, stated:
I think what happened was when they designed their system they were so paranoid about that that they wanted to make sure people browsing got the lowest price. That required signing in so you could see subsidies. And my theory is that’s why they went to the architecture they did even though the IT systems people wanted to go another way.”
On October 17, 2013, the Washington Examiner reported that there was a lack of testing prior to the roll out of healthcare.gov. It stated:
Federal officials did not permit testing of the Obamacare healthcare.gov website or issue final system requirements until four to six days before its Oct. 1 launch, according to an individual with direct knowledge of the project.
The individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the troubled Obamacare website project as suffering from top-level management disarray, changing systems requirements and recurring delays.
The root cause of the problems was a pivotal decision by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials to act as systems integrator, the central coordinator for the entire program. Usually this role is reserved for the prime information technology contractor.
As a result, full testing of the site was delayed until four to six days before the fateful Oct. 1 launch of the health care exchanges, the individual said.

“Normally a system this size would need 4-6 months of testing and performance tuning, not 4-6 days,” the individual said.
The source said there were “ever-changing, conflicting and exceedingly late project directions. The actual system requirements for Oct. 1 were changing up until the week before,” the individual said.I8
ObamaCare will dramatically increase premiums for the groups of individuals the Administration is hoping to enroll in the exchanges. A recent study from the Manhattan Institute found that Obamacare increases premiums for men by an average of 99 percent and premiums for women by an average of 62 percent when comparing the cheapest plan offered in a given state before and after ObamaCare.I9
Given the information gathered by the Committee thus far, we are concerned that the Administration required contractors to change course late in the implementation process to conceal ObamaCare’s effect on increasing health insurance premiums. We believe that the political decision to mask the “sticker shock” of ObamaCare to the American peopleyrevented contractors from using universally accepted and OMB-advocated IT “best practices”” in the development and roll out of this massive federal government IT project. When prudent design and programming decisions are subordinated to politics2I, it is easy to see why chaos would likely ensue.22 Moreover, we are also concerned that the obvious lack of testing means that sensitive consumer information flowing through the data hub and exchanges are vulnerable to security breaches.”

http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2013-10-21-DEI-Lankford-Jordan-Farenthold-Mica-to-VanRoekel-OMB-re-healthcare.pdf

Obamacare scarier than nonfunctioning website higher premiums and skyrocketing deductibles, Lack of physicians, Rural areas not covered, Doctors forced to alter their practices

Obamacare scarier than nonfunctioning website higher premiums and skyrocketing deductibles, Lack of physicians, Rural areas not covered, Doctors forced to alter their practices

“We need an educated citizenry that values hard evidence.”…Barack Obama

“In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.”…NY Times July 28, 2012

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

When Obama and the left began pushing “health care reform” I was concerned.

When Obamacare was passed I knew we had a serious problem.

How did I know this?

First of all, soon after I started Citizen Wells in January of 2008, I spent a few days researching Obama. That alone told me that we had a problem.

He has a history of lying, associating with radical elements of society and pay to play politics. Crony capitalism.

I am well read and well informed.

I have known and spoken to many medical doctors over the years. They all have had a common concern. Malpractice insurance, it’s cost and impact on their practice.

The impact of malpractice insurance, a direct result of rampant lawsuits in this country, has been known for years.

From the NY Times October 4, 1987.

“Students are also alarmed over the threat of malpractice suits and the increasing cost of malpractice insurance. When UConn asked prospective students what there concerns were about practicing medicine, 40 percent cited the fear of malpractice suits, said Dr. Markowitz. A year of malpractice insurance in the Northeast could cost as much as $100,000, he said.”

It came as no surprise that Obama omitted tort reform from Obamacare. Afterall, he and Michelle were attoneys at one time and attorneys and law firms were his biggest contributors in 2008.

Much has been reported about the Obamacare website, rising premiums and skyrocketing deductibles.

Perhaps an even scarier aspect of Obamacare will be the lack of physicians and the ways they will be forced to alter their practices.

From WND October 22, 2013.

“DOCTORS IN CONGRESS: OBAMACARE WORSE THAN YOU THINK”

“At least 12 doctors in Congress have expressed serious concerns about Obamacare, and now President Obama admitted the recently unveiled online health insurance exchanges have been a technological headache and that he’s “frustrated” by them.

Obama also insists once those problems are fixed people will discover that the exchanges offer wonderful health plans at affordable prices, but a prominent congressman says the facts are not on the president’s side.

“They’re still trying to sell a program that the American people know won’t work,” said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., a former physician who authored a free-market version of health-care reform that is still awaiting House consideration. “And it won’t work because the same things that are wrong with the website, that is the challenge of getting into it and having it work are the same things that are going to be wrong throughout the entire health-care system when Washington is running it.”

The exchange woes are very real in Price’s district as well. At a town hall on Monday, many constituents had tried to navigate the website with no success. Price stresses that whenever the online problems are fixed, the biggest problems will just be starting.

“The real problem is not that the website won’t work,” Price said. “It’s that the program won’t work because it puts Washington in charge and that’s not what people want.””

““This system won’t work because it can’t work,” he said. “It doesn’t work for patients. It doesn’t work for families, doesn’t work for doctors and certainly doesn’t work for employers or employees. At this point, we’re seeing how it doesn’t work for states from an exchange standpoint or the federal government from a financing standpoint. I think the whole thing will implode. The sad thing about all this is there will be real people who will be harmed from a quality health care or accessibility aspect that wouldn’t have otherwise.””

Read more:

http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/doctors-in-congress-obamacare-worse-than-you-think/

From Citizen Wells July 30, 2012.

“What I am about to write about and explain is simple. It is very similar to governments taxing businesses. Doctors are businessmen as well as physicians.
When their cost of doing business rises, the costs are passed along to consumers, patients. It is that simple. The same applies to hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.

Doctors, just like any business person, must decide what service they will provide. They must weigh cost vs benefit and the current and potential risks they will take. Many areas of practice are too risky, especially in our litigious climate. This prevents many doctors from engaging in a type of practice or forces them to join larger groups.

This has been mostly downplayed or ignored by the mainstream media. News outlets like the NY Times have tap danced around the subject which is probably why some of my so called learned friends have been so ill informed. When George Bush brought up tort reform he was ridiculed. But Bush was right and he was not in bed with law firms and attorneys like Obama and the Democrats.

From the NY Times July 28, 2012.

“Doctor Shortage Likely to Worsen With Health Law”

“In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.

Other places around the country, including the Mississippi Delta, Detroit and suburban Phoenix, face similar problems. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. And that number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand for care. Even without the health care law, the shortfall of doctors in 2025 would still exceed 100,000.

Health experts, including many who support the law, say there is little that the government or the medical profession will be able to do to close the gap by 2014, when the law begins extending coverage to about 30 million Americans. It typically takes a decade to train a doctor.

“We have a shortage of every kind of doctor, except for plastic surgeons and dermatologists,” said Dr. G. Richard Olds, the dean of the new medical school at the University of California, Riverside, founded in part to address the region’s doctor shortage. “We’ll have a 5,000-physician shortage in 10 years, no matter what anybody does.”

Experts describe a doctor shortage as an “invisible problem.” Patients still get care, but the process is often slow and difficult. In Riverside, it has left residents driving long distances to doctors, languishing on waiting lists, overusing emergency rooms and even forgoing care.

“It results in delayed care and higher levels of acuity,” said Dustin Corcoran, the chief executive of the California Medical Association, which represents 35,000 physicians. People “access the health care system through the emergency department, rather than establishing a relationship with a primary care physician who might keep them from getting sicker.”

In the Inland Empire, encompassing the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, the shortage of doctors is already severe. The population of Riverside County swelled42 percent in the 2000s, gaining more than 644,000 people. It has continued to grow despite the collapse of one of the country’s biggest property bubbles and a jobless rate of 11.8 percent in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area.

But the growth in the number of physicians has lagged, in no small part because the area has trouble attracting doctors, who might make more money and prefer living in nearby Orange County or Los Angeles.”
“The pool of doctors has not kept pace, and will not, health experts said. Medical school enrollment is increasing, but not as fast as the population. The number of training positions for medical school graduates is lagging. Younger doctors are on average working fewer hours than their predecessors. And about a third of the country’s doctors are 55 or older, and nearing retirement.

Physician compensation is also an issue. The proportion of medical students choosing to enter primary care has declined in the past 15 years, as average earnings for primary care doctors and specialists, like orthopedic surgeons and radiologists, have diverged. A study by the Medical Group Management Association found that in 2010, primary care doctors made about $200,000 a year. Specialists often made twice as much.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/health/policy/too-few-doctors-in-many-us-communities.html?_r=3&partner=MYWAY&ei=5065

The Times did not mention the cost of malpractice insurance or tort reform and blamed the problem on the aging baby boomers and alleged increased coverage from Obamacare.

From Forbes May 5, 2008.

“Reasons Not To Become A Doctor”

“The American Medical Association recognizes there are shortages in certain geographic areas and in certain specialties. Part of that is due to the aging population and a stagnant number of medical-school applicants.

But there are other significant reasons. They include the increasing costs of medical malpractice coverage, higher practice costs, lower insurance reimbursement rates and insurance-company restrictions resulting in less autonomy over how patients are cared for.”
“Reasons Not To Become A Doctor”

“But for potential physicians, there is a future of looming medical-school debt, which is higher than ever. Students who graduate from a public medical school have a median debt of $100,000; private-school students graduate with a median debt of $135,000, according to a 2003 study by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Compare that with 1984, when median debt for public-school graduates was $22,000 and private-school students was $27,000.

Monthly payment on a debt of $150,000 at the end of residency at an interest rate of 2.8% is $1,761, according to the study.

The amount of time it takes to pay off debt depends on the specialty. The average physician’s net income, adjusted for inflation, declined 7% between 1995 and 2003, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change. In order to enter the most lucrative specialties, like radiology, ophthalmology, anesthesiology and dermatology, doctors must continue with their training into their 30s. That means they can’t start chipping away at their debt–let alone make money–until a time by which their counterparts in law or business are usually prospering.

Meanwhile, getting sued by a patient is a major concern. Of course, doctors who make fatal mistakes and who are unqualified should be held responsible. But there’s evidence that the bulk of lawsuits brought are frivolous. Of all malpractice lawsuits brought to jury trial in 2004, the defendant won 91% of the time. Only 6% of all lawsuits go to trial; those that aren’t thrown out are settled. Only 27% of all claims made against doctors result in money awarded to the plaintiff, according to Smarr, president of the trade association for medical malpractice companies.

Regardless, doctors need to defend themselves against the possibility of damages–and that’s an extremely expensive proposition. It takes about four-and-a-half years from the start of a lawsuit to the end, and the average cost to the defense in legal fees was $94,284 in 2004, according to the American Medical Association.

Many states are trying to establish laws to protect doctors from baseless suits. Texas went from the state with the most lawsuits filed to the only state that wrote tort reform into its constitution after its citizens voted it into law. Since tort reform was enacted in 2004, the yearly premium doctors pay in Texas for malpractice insurance has dropped by 40%. Now, the most plaintiffs can recoup for emotional damages is $250,000 from doctors and $500,000 from hospitals. Most interestingly, the number of claims filed against doctors has dropped by about half.”

http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/05/physicians-training-prospects-lead-careers-cx_tw_0505doctors.html

From the Concord Monitor March 13, 2008.

“Cost of malpractice insurance forcing doctors to leave high-risk specialties

Lawyers benefit from huge damage awards”

“I am an emergency physician. I care for about 5,000 patients a year. I have been practicing for 12 years and thus have cared for roughly 60,000 patients.

I receive deep satisfaction from my job and the privilege of the “laying on of hands” as the physician-patient relationship is called in medical school. Most of the time, I rely on the good graces and expertise of the primary care physicians, surgeons and many other specialists to help take care of the people who come to me seeking help. However, recent trends suggest that our hospitals’ ability to deliver that care with the help of appropriate specialists is eroding.

A great deal of this quiet but steadily growing crisis is caused by the direct and indirect costs of medical malpractice. The article about the malpractice suit involving Dr. Eric Leefmans (“Man wins $1.75 million suit against area doctor,” Sunday Monitor, March 9) demands a response from the medical community.”

“In New Hampshire, many physicians are leaving as malpractice insurance costs soar. Specialty physicians have experienced a 50 percent increase in premiums from five years ago. The average premium is now close to $100,000 for obstetricians and neurosurgeons.

Soaring insurance costs

Concord and Manchester have seen a significant decrease in subspecialty coverage in the past five years, including neurosurgical and oral surgery coverage for call. Several small hospitals in the state practice without an anesthesiologist. Only one obstetrician remains to deliver babies in the northern part of the state. Locally, many subspecialty groups have had significant challenges recruiting new physicians to practice in this area. General surgery, one of the most coveted residencies just 10 years ago, now struggles to fill residency positions. Several recent studies and articles predict a significant and increasing gap between the demand and availability of physicians of all types.”
“Our medical system is going through significant difficulties, including increasing health insurance costs, a growing uninsured population, rising medical costs and loss of specialists and primary care physicians. However, the cost of malpractice contributes to those problems – while making less money available to care for the uninsured. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has estimated medical liability costs add $60 billion to $108 billion to the cost of health care each year. Interestingly, the estimated annual cost of covering all of the uninsured patients in the United States is $100 billion.”

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/cost-of-malpractice-insurance-forcing-doctors-to-leave-high-risk-specialties?SESS0da5adf917ca993fd9972fb4069845a6=google&page=full

Why was tort reform not included in Obamacare?

From the NY Times March 23, 2000.

“To trial lawyers, especially those involved in the tobacco litigation, Mr. Bush has become their worst nightmare. He has made attacks on lawyers a campaign centerpiece, pointing with pride to his record in Texas of curbing civil litigation, capping legal fees and limiting jury awards.”

“To that end, while trial lawyers have long been heavy Democratic Party donors, the prospect of a Bush candidacy, along with the possibility that like-minded Republicans would retain control of Congress, has ratcheted up the stakes, and the donations.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/23/us/trial-lawyers-pour-money-into-democrats-chests.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Why Obama ignores tort reform?

Top Recipients, 2011-2012

Candidate Office Amount
Obama, Barack (D)  $12,116,092
Romney, Mitt (R)  $5,205,273
Gillibrand, Kirsten (D-NY) Senate  $1,999,202
Nelson, Bill (D-FL) Senate  $1,376,064
Warren, Elizabeth (D-MA)  $1,158,556

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=K01

Don’t be fooled by the false logic arguments, Orwellian wordsmithing and smooth talking devil attorneys. I have spoken to many physicians over the years and they all echoed the statements of the doctor above.

Oh, and did I mention John Edwards?”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/obamacare-and-no-tort-reform-why-healthcare-costs-skyrocketed-why-there-is-a-doctor-shortage-obama-and-democrats-in-bed-with-attorneys-and-trial-lawyers/

Sean Hannity calls Obamacare hotline, October 21, 2013, Healthcare.gov down for next 42 hours, Glitches continue, Higher premiums deductibles glitches portend failure

Sean Hannity calls Obamacare hotline, October 21, 2013, Healthcare.gov down for next 42 hours, Glitches continue, Higher premiums deductibles glitches portend failure

“The study says 27-year-old men in Nebraska will see a whopping 279 percent increase in premiums and 27-year-old women in Nebraska will get an also-shocking 227 percent increase in rates.”…Watchdog.org

“Every day, new questions about the president’s health care law arise, but candid explanations are nowhere to be found,”
“This decision continues a troubling pattern of this administration seeking to avoid accountability and stonewall the public.”…John Boehner

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

 

I listened to the following Sean Hannity Radio Show segment live.

Higher premiums, deductibles and glitches, and of course the authors, portend failure for Obamacare.

From The Blaze October 21, 2013.
“FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SEAN HANNITY CALLS OBAMACARE HOTLINE”

“Fox News and conservative radio talk show host Sean Hannity called the Obamacare hotline on-air Monday afternoon — and things quickly got awkward.

Hannity, who first had to navigate through the automated menu, was eventually connected with representative Erling Davis.

“You are on the radio, you are on the Sean Hannity radio show,” the radio host informed Davis. “You’re on the radio. Is that OK with you? You have to say yes if you want to be on.”

“It’s OK, sir,” Davis replies.

“How is the call volume today?” Hannity then asked. “Because the president gave out your phone number today. Did you know that?”

“I did not know that, sir,” she says.

Hannity then explained to Davis that he is having problems enrolling in President Obama’s signature health care program using the healthcare.gov website.

“Right now from what I heard our system is down for the next like 42 hours,” Davis said. “So no one is able to get in, but if they call us we can help them fill out an application as long as they went online to create an account first.”

“Well that’s the point, I can’t get online to create an account, so how would I be able to create the account if the website is down for the next 42 hours?” Hannity asked.

“You would have to wait until those 42 hours is up,” Davis replied.”

Read more:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/21/find-out-what-happens-when-sean-hannity-calls-obamacare-hotline/

Obamacare website company choice reflection of Obama experience and government vs private sector performance, Obamacare website company fired by Canadians

Obamacare website company choice reflection of Obama experience and government vs private sector performance, Obamacare website company fired by Canadians

“The study says 27-year-old men in Nebraska will see a whopping 279 percent increase in premiums and 27-year-old women in Nebraska will get an also-shocking 227 percent increase in rates.”…Watchdog.org

“If you’ve got health insurance we’re going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year. We will not wait 20 years from now to do it, or 10 years from now to do it. We will do it by the end of my first term as president.”…Barack Obama

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

 

 

Barack Obama has no real experience in the  world of business.

Is anyone surprised at the failure and cost of the Obamacare website?

As Rush Limbaugh has stated, Obama is incompetent.

From Gateway Pundit October 18, 2013.
“Bombshell: Obamacare Website Company Was Fired by Canadian Government for Poor Performance”

“Oh well. It only cost $634 million.
The Canadian government fired the parent company of CGI Federal, the prime contractor for the problem-plagued Obamacare health exchange websites, last year for poor performance.

So it only makes sense that the Obama Administration would be working with them.
Heck, it’s not their money.”

“Canadian provincial health officials last year fired the parent company of CGI Federal, the prime contractor for the problem-plagued Obamacare health exchange websites, the Washington Examiner has learned.

CGI Federal’s parent company, Montreal-based CGI Group, was officially terminated in September 2012 by an Ontario government health agency after the firm missed three years of deadlines and failed to deliver the province’s flagship online medical registry.”

“Oh… And the company used 10 year-old technology to build the Obamacare website.
USA Today reported, via Guy Benson:”

Read more:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/bombshell-obamacare-website-company-was-fired-by-canadian-government-for-poor-performance/

From Zero Hedge October 20, 2013.

“While some have proclaimed the 36,000 enrollment in The Affordable Care Act “a good start,” the online marketplaces that Obamacare has become more infamous for have been plagued with problems in the brief two weeks since launch. Politico provides 25 of the most telling and colorful comments made about the “glitches” the online exchanges have faced…”

“1. “I hope they are working day and night to get this done. When they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure that this thing was supposed to work.” —former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on MSNBC’s “Now with Alex Wagner,” Oct. 14

2. “A thousand Social Security numbers being sent to the wrong people is not a glitch!” — CNBC contributor Carol Roth on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Oct. 12

3. “How can we tax people for not buying a product from a website that doesn’t work?” — House Speaker John Boehner, Oct. 10

4. “Despite the widespread belief that the administration was not ready for the health law’s Oct. 1 launch, top officials and lead IT contractors looked us in the eye and assured us all systems were a go. Instead, here we are 10 days later, and delays and technical failures have reached epidemic proportions.” — Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) in a statement, Oct. 10

5. “We’re going to do a challenge. I’m going to try and download every movie ever made and you are going to try to sign up for Obamacare — and we’ll see which happens first.” — Jon Stewart to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on “The Daily Show,” Oct. 7

6. “It’s a new rule: If something doesn’t work, you get rid of it! If the post office is late today, let’s get rid of the post office! If the plane is late an hour, get rid of airplanes! It’s ridiculous!” — MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Oct. 12

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-20/obamacare-glitch-explained-25-quotes