Category Archives: Healthcare bill

Obamacare penalties clobber NC hospitals and patients, Economically depressed areas hit hardest, Readmissions within 30 days for any reason trigger fine

Posted on November 27, 2012 | 27 comments

Obamacare penalties clobber NC hospitals and patients, Economically depressed areas hit hardest, Readmissions within 30 days for any reason trigger fine

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”…Barack Obama

“About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates.”…NE News Now

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)[1] imposes numerous tax hikes that transfer more than $500 billion over 10 years—and more in the future—from hardworking American families and businesses to Congress for spending on new entitlements and subsidies. In addition, higher tax rates on working and investing will discourage economic growth both now and in the future, further lowering the standard of living.”…Heritage Foundation

Admittedly, hospitals and the medical profession need to be more efficient and strive for patient friendly cost savings. However, arbitrary blanket decisions by government bureaucrats are not the solution.

From the Raleigh News Observer November 24, 2012.

“Hospitals scramble to limit readmissions, avoid new penalties”

“The patient – decked out in non-skid footies, a loose hospital gown and a breathing tube – prays she’s finally on the mend. At age 81, Juanita King had logged nearly five weeks at WakeMed Hospital since October after her breathing became so labored she had trouble walking.

The Clayton grandmother, weakened by a failing heart and obstructed lungs, wasn’t home even two weeks after the first hospital stay before returning to WakeMed earlier this month for another round of needles, meds and tests.

WakeMed, along with hospitals across the country, is scrambling to keep patients like King from coming back. Under federal penalties that kicked in Oct. 1 as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, hospitals lose Medicare reimbursements if their patients are readmitted at an excessive rate.

WakeMed officials, for example, estimate that the 15 readmissions since 2010 that Medicare deemed excessive will cost the Raleigh health care company more than $400,000 in the coming year.

To ease the financial sting, hospitals increasingly are trying to manage patients’ health care after they are discharged. Hospital personnel make follow-up calls, schedule doctors’ visits and set up therapy appointments. Duke University Health System is planning to offer apps designed to send prompts and reminders for patients to take meds and report symptoms.

Hospital administrators say the pressure to reduce readmissions is forcing them to take steps that are long overdue – by coordinating with nursing homes and family caretakers to treat health problems early, before they blow up into emergencies.”

“But industry advocates warn of a potential downside: Struggling hospitals, spooked by the prospect of huge penalties, could develop an unhealthy fixation on finding ways not to readmit patients who need hospital care.

Already hospitals nationwide have seen an uptick in patients being steered to observation beds rather than getting admitted, Foster said. Hospitals in economically distressed areas with limited health care options are most likely to readmit patients and pay penalties for doing so, she said.

“It’s hard to think there will be a financial penalty against your organization to do the right thing by your patient.” Foster said. “We don’t think that hospitals that serve impoverished, safety-net communities should be penalized because those communities lack the necessary resources.”

Readmissions are only one of several factors the federal government is tracking to reduce the cost of health care. All told, within several years hospitals could face up to an 8 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements – for failing to meet new federal standards for electronic medical records and for too many infections and errors, among other quality measures, according to the American Hospital Association.

Insurance companies are likely to adopt similar measures, based on the model developed by Medicare, the nation’s federal insurance program for the elderly. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state’s largest private insurer, now offers financial rewards for hospitals that reduce readmissions. But unlike Medicare, Blue Cross doesn’t penalize hospitals for too many readmissions, said spokesman Lew Borman.

The maximum Medicare penalty this year for excessive readmissions is a 1 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements. The fine will increase to 3 percent in 2015, which can translate to millions of dollars in lost revenue for a hospital.

The fines apply for readmitting too many patients with at least one of three conditions – heart failure, heart attack or pneumonia – within 30 days of discharge. Medicare is expected to add more diagnoses in the coming years, expanding the range of potential penalties.

A readmission can be for any cause – usually not the fault of the hospital. A pneumonia patient who leaves WakeMed, has a car wreck on the way home and is readmitted to Rex Hospital? Under Medicare, that counts as a readmission against WakeMed.

Each hospital is allotted a certain number of readmissions, based on a complex formula that factors in fluke scenarios like auto accidents, slips-and-falls and others unrelated to heart conditions or pneumonia.

Patients often go back into a hospital because they have trouble following directions for their medications. During a hospital stay and while recuperating, patients can be disoriented and confused, making it hard to keep track of multiple medications.

Heart patients, for example, are urged to adhere to a low sodium diet, but not all comply. “We had one patient who was taking their pills with pickle juice,” said Linda Butler, chief medical officer at Rex Healthcare in Raleigh.

In North Carolina, a half-dozen hospitals were levied either the maximum Medicare penalty for excessive readmissions or a penalty very close to the 1 percent max. The hospitals are in Ahoskie, Lumberton, Eden, Williamston, Hamlet and Rocky Mount, according to an analysis by Kaiser Health News. Hospital officials note that areas where hospitals get hit with high penalties are typically in economically depressed areas with limited access to therapists, specialists and other resources essential for preventing hospital readmissions.”

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Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Government, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Lies, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama taxes, ObamaCare, The Case Against Barack Obama, Washington DC, white house

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Pravda Obama reelected by illiterate society, Ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them, Liberalism is a psychosis, Bye bye Miss American Pie

Posted on November 26, 2012 | 33 comments

Pravda Obama reelected by illiterate society, Ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them, Liberalism is a psychosis, Bye bye Miss American Pie

“And, as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in Hell could break that Satan’s spell
And, as the flames climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite, I saw…
Satan laughing with delight the day the music died”…Don McLean “American Pie”

“Nobody who makes under $200,000 a year will see their taxes go up as long as I’m president.”…Barack Obama

“I absolutely reject that notion [mandate is a tax].”…Barack Obama

From Pravda November 19, 2012.

“Putin in 2009 outlined his strategy for economic success. Alas, poor Obama did the opposite but nevertheless was re-elected. Bye, bye Miss American Pie. The Communists have won in America with Obama but failed miserably in Russia with Zyuganovwho only received 17% of the vote. Vladimir Putin was re-elected as President keeping the NWO order out of Russia while America continues to repeat the Soviet mistake.

After Obama was elected in his first term as president the then Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January of 2009. Ignored by the West as usual, Putin gave insightful and helpful advice to help the world economy and saying the world should avoid the Soviet mistake.

Recently, Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them. He gives speeches of peace and love in the world while he promotes wars as he did in Egypt, Libya and Syria. He plans his next war is with Iran as he fires or demotes his generals who get in the way.

Putin said regarding the military,

“…instead of solving the problem, militarization pushes it to a deeper level. It draws away from the economy immense financial and material resources, which could have been used much more efficiently elsewhere.”

Well, any normal individual understands that as true but liberalism is a psychosis . O’bomber even keeps the war going along the Mexican border with projects like “fast and furious” and there is still no sign of ending it.  He is a Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so. How shrewd he is in America. His cult of personality mesmerizes those who cannot go beyond their ignorance. They will continue to follow him like those fools who still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia.  Obama’s fools and Stalin’s fools share the same drink of illusion.

Reading Putin’s speech without knowing the author, one would think it was written by Reagan or another conservative in America. The speech promotes smaller government and less taxes. It comes as no surprise to those who know Putin as a conservative. Vladimir Putin went on to say:

“…we are reducing taxes on production, investing money in the economy. We are optimizing state expenses.

 The second possible mistake would be excessive interference into the economic life of the country and the absolute faith into the all-mightiness of the state.

There are no grounds to suggest that by putting the responsibility over to the state, one can achieve better results.

Unreasonable expansion of the budget deficit, accumulation of the national debt – are as destructive as an adventurous stock market game.

During the time of the Soviet Union the role of the state in economy was made absolute, which eventually lead to the total non-competitiveness of the economy. That lesson cost us very dearly. I am sure no one would want history to repeat itself.”

President Vladimir Putin could never have imagined anyone so ignorant or so willing to destroy their people like Obama much less seeing millions vote for someone like Obama. They read history in America don’t they? Alas, the schools in the U.S. were conquered by the Communists long ago and history was revised thus paving the way for their Communist presidents. Obama has bailed out those businesses that voted for him and increased the debt to over 16 trillion with an ever increasing unemployment rate especially among blacks and other minorities. All the while promoting his agenda.

“We must seek support in the moral values that have ensured the progress of our civilization. Honesty and hard work, responsibility and faith in our strength are bound to bring us success.”- Vladimir Putin

The red, white and blue still flies happily but only in Russia. Russia still has St George defeating the Dragon with the symbol of the cross on its’ flag. The ACLU and other atheist groups in America would never allow the US flag with such religious symbols. Lawsuits a plenty against religious freedom and expression in the land of the free. Christianity in the U.S. is under attack as it was during the early period of the Soviet Union when religious symbols were against the law.

Let’s give American voters the benefit of the doubt and say it was all voter fraud and not ignorance or stupidity in electing a man who does not even know what to do and refuses help from Russia when there was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead we’ll say it’s true that the Communists usage of electronic voting was just a plan to manipulate the vote. Soros and his ownership of the company that counts the US votes in Spain helped put their puppet in power in the White House. According to the Huffington Post, residents in all 50 states have filed petitions to secede from the Unites States. We’ll say that these Americans are hostages to the Communists in power. How long will their government reign tyranny upon them?

Russia lost its’ civil war with the Reds and millions suffered torture and death for almost 75 years under the tyranny of the United Soviet Socialist Republic. Russians survived with a new and stronger faith in God and ever growing Christian Church. The question is how long will the once “Land of the Free” remain the United Socialist States of America?  Their suffering has only begun. Bye bye Miss American Pie!  You know the song you hippies. Sing it! Don’t you remember? The 1971 hit song by American song writer Don McLean:

“And, as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage.

No angel born in Hell could break that Satan’s spell

And, as the flames climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite, I saw…

Satan laughing with delight the day the music died

He was singing, bye bye Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good ol’ boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing…

This’ll be the day that I die

This’ll be the day that I die

So, the question remains:

How long will America suffer and to what depths?”

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/

 

Thanks to commenter Starla.

33 Comments

Posted in Americans, Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Czars, Election 2012, fraud, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Liberalism, Lies, Marxist, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama taxes, ObamaCare, Russia, The Case Against Barack Obama, Washington DC, white house

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Obamacare forces 93000 hospital job cuts in 2013, NC hospitals costs up $7.5 billion the next 10 years, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, Mass layoffs

Posted on November 25, 2012 | 49 comments

Obamacare forces 93000 hospital job cuts in 2013, NC hospitals costs up $7.5 billion the next 10 years, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, Mass layoffs

“Nobody who makes under $200,000 a year will see their taxes go up as long as I’m president.”…Barack Obama

“I absolutely reject that notion [mandate is a tax].”…Barack Obama

“Glenn Beck has presented the frightening spectre of Christmas past created by Obama. But as in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”  it is the Ghost of Christmas Future that frightens me. The impact of Obamacare on our health care system and the combined impact of Obamacare and record deficit spending on our economy. The taxes of Christmas future to pay for Obama’s actions.”…Citizen Wells June 30, 2012

By March 26, 2010 I referred to Obamacare as a tax and control bill.

From the Greensboro News Record November 25, 2012.

“Hospitals feeling the pinch”

“Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center launched a distress signal in a gathering storm when it said on Nov. 14 that it will cut 950 jobs.

That storm has at its center national health care reform, possible lower reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid services, and an increasing number of older patients who need more care.

The hospital industry is in for a direct hit — that’s not in doubt.

But mass layoffs may be only one of many solutions for the health care industry’s problems.

The problem for hospitals is choosing the right one: mass layoffs, refined management techniques or some middle ground.

Wake Forest declined an interview request for this article. But it has said in other accounts that the roughly 6 percent staff cut is a pre-emptive measure for expected budget cuts and rising costs. And it expects remaining workers will become more productive as a result.

That’s a delicate balance, said Mark Graban, a national expert and consultant on health care management who lives in San Antonio, Texas.

“It’s easy to add up the cost savings of reduced payroll,” he said. “But it’s hard to add up the side effect of those layoffs.”

He said layoffs are sweeping the industry. Graban referred to a report from the American Hospital Association that says hospitals will cut 93,000 jobs during 2013.

Wake Forest and other major hospitals across the nation pledge that nurse-to-patient ratios won’t change despite the job cuts. Graban said that simple pledge may only mask lingering problems that hurt the quality of patient care.

Nurses and other professional staff, for example, see the headlines, see friends who may be laid off and work in fear, he said.

“A lot of times, quality and good patient outcomes are a result of nurses and other staff going above and beyond,” Graban said. “My concern would be not that the professionals are going to get lazy, but are they going to continue to be motivated to go above and beyond?”

Across the nation, he said, many medical centers are choosing “no layoff” policies and using management techniques pioneered in industry.

“Lean management” is a term many industries use for a variety of techniques that train workers to improve performance, make fewer mistakes and work with higher morale, he said.

Lean does not mean, as many joke, “Less Employees Are Needed.”

Graban worked with one hospital, ThedaCare in Appleton, Wis., which typifies the technique. The medium-size hospital manages conservatively, he said, doesn’t over-hire workers and saves cash for slow times.

Don Dalton, the spokesman for the N.C. Hospital Association, said hospitals throughout the state are using lean-management techniques — especially the smallest hospitals.

The coming changes could cost North Carolina’s hospitals up to $7.5 billion over the next 10 years , Dalton said.

With limited resources, the state’s small and medium-size hospitals feel financial pressure first, he said. So they are looking for any way they can to operate without compromising service.

Hospitals are combining resources to save money. In some cases, that means nothing more than “group buying” of supplies and services — lower prices for bulk buyers.

On a larger scale, Greensboro’s Cone Health signed a managing partnership earlier this year with Carolinas Health Systems in Charlotte.

Doug Allred, the spokesman for Cone, which employs more than 8,000 people , said: “We do not have plans for any layoffs right now.”

When asked to discuss issues facing the hospital industry in general, Allred said: “We are going to decline” an interview.

Jeffrey Miller, the president of High Point Regional Health System , freely discusses what led to the hospital’s planned merger with UNC Health Care.

He said that many unemployed people in the Triad don’t have health insurance, and those who do find that rising deductibles are too expensive.

“So we have a bad-debt problem,” Miller said.

Federal Medicare reimbursements have declined or remained flat, and the program is asking hospitals to fill out more documents to justify expenses.

And finally, the state, which administers Medicaid programs, is cutting its own stretched budget and program reimbursements.

As a result, High Point Regional has operated at a loss for two years. With its 2,212 workers, the hospital lost $40.8 million on unreimbursed care last year.

“It’s coming at us from all directions,” Miller said.

Through careful expense control, Miller said, High Point has not laid off workers, but it has had to cut hours from time to time to save money — and jobs.

Saving money, changing the way a hospital works, changing the way hospitals work together — all are key issues for UNC Health Care and its subsidiaries, said Karen McCall, vice president of public affairs and marketing for the system.

“We need to reduce costs, and all of us are aware of that and we’re trying to take steps to be able to do that through re-engineering,” she said.

Lean management is a big part of how UNC has managed its hospitals.

“It’s really been a core value at UNC for quite some time.”

UNC is planning for a difficult future, especially the unknown effects of more insured people and a growing population of older people who will need more care.

UNC plans to create a system in which each patient has a “medical home,” or a central doctor and staff that can manage the patient’s total care. That doctor would coordinate care from specialists and a variety of other services.

But getting there, McCall said, means spending more money to upgrade technology.

Finally, UNC is constantly keeping an eye on its employees to make sure their morale is good.

“Having worked very, very hard with patient satisfaction, the key to patient satisfaction is employee satisfaction,” she said. “Employee satisfaction is just very important and it’s something we measure and take into consideration all the time.

“We’re looking for best practices outside the industry,” McCall said. “But I really feel that we’re not the only ones doing that. Everyone in health care looking to the future feels that’s very necessary.””

http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/11/24/article/hospitals_feeling_the_pinch

 

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Posted in 2013, Barack Obama, Christmas, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Employment, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Hospitals, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama taxes, ObamaCare, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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SC governor Nikki Haley response to Obamacare, Letter to Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, No to state based health care exchange, Not state based at all

Posted on November 16, 2012 | 82 comments

SC governor Nikki Haley response to Obamacare, Letter to Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, No to state based health care exchange, Not state based at all

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”…Barack Obama

“About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates.”…NE News Now

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)[1] imposes numerous tax hikes that transfer more than $500 billion over 10 years—and more in the future—from hardworking American families and businesses to Congress for spending on new entitlements and subsidies. In addition, higher tax rates on working and investing will discourage economic growth both now and in the future, further lowering the standard of living.”…Heritage Foundation

From the SC Office of the Governor Nikki Haley, November 15, 2012.

“Gov. Nikki Haley to Sebelius: S.C. will not set up a state-based health care exchange”

“COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Nikki Haley today sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius ahead of tomorrow’s deadline for states to decide if they intend to participate in the health exchange program created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

A copy of the governor’s letter to Sec. Sebelius is attached.

In the letter, Gov. Haley informed Sec. Sebelius that South Carolina “should not and will not set up a state-based health care exchange.”

Under PPACA, the governor wrote, “the federal government is required to establish exchanges and gave individual states the choice to participate. Yet, as we worked through the process of analyzing options available to South Carolina, it became abundantly clear that state ‘participation’ was in name only.”

“[T]he law’s state-based exchange programs are not state-based at all. Instead, they simply pass along to the state the burdens of a new and cumbersome bureaucracy,” she continued.

The governor also urged federal officials to provide all states with clear guidance on how state-based, partnership, and federally-facilitated exchanges will work or to delay the implementation deadline.

“The amount of uncertainty in our economy is growing given the lack of information available from the federal government at a time when we can hardly afford it,” the governor wrote.”

http://governor.sc.gov/News/Pages/RecentNews.aspx

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Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, ObamaCare, The Case Against Barack Obama, Washington DC, white house

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NC Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to cut 950 jobs, Revenue affected by deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments, Obamacare impact on hospitals and jobs

Posted on November 15, 2012 | 25 comments

NC Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to cut 950 jobs, Revenue affected by deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments, Obamacare impact on hospitals and jobs

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”…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

“About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates.”…NE News Now

Citizen Wells has informed you of skyrocketing college student health care costs   of 200%, 300% and even over 1,000% in NC and rising costs for families tied directly to Obamacare. You are also hearing from business owners like the CEO of Papa Johns who are being forced to make cuts in employees and work hours due to the impact of Obamcare. Now more bad news in NC, which already has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

From the Greensboro News Record November 15, 2012.

“Update: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to cut 950 job”

“Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center will lay off 76 employees this week and cut a total of 950 jobs by the end of next June, the center’s chief executive said today.

Dr. John McConnell said most of the cuts are administrative positions, but some faculty members could lose their jobs due to cuts in federal research funding. He also said 2012-13 revenue is being affected by “deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments, which constitute nearly half of our health-care reimbursements.”

In a statement, the center said the cuts were being made “after a long and careful review of current staffing levels across the organization.”

The center said its restructuring is “designed to position the institution for success aligned with the challenges of health-care reform, federal budget deficits and a decline in research funding from The National Institutes of Health and private industry.
The center said half of the overall job cuts to its Winston-Salem operations would be achieved through eliminating vacant, temporary and contract labor positions, as well as through attrition and employee retirement.

Also among the cuts are 56.5 jobs at the Lexington Medical Center affiliate, of which 52 already are gone through integration of its back office operations, retirements and attrition.

McConnell said the restructuring is “not based on financial difficulty, but is purely preemptive to best position the center going forward. Like most companies, we are getting leaner.

“This represents all of the job reductions based on our current knowledge,” McConnell said, adding that it would be “hard to imagine a section of the hospital not being directly or indirectly affected by the restructuring.”

“This change will not affect nurse-to-patient ratios, the quality of patient care or the pioneering research that is occurring at Wake Forest Baptist each day,” the center said in a statement.

McConnell said the existing nurse-to-patients ratios are “sacrosanct” for the hospital.

The employees whose jobs are being eliminated this week will receive their full pay and benefits through Jan. 4, and after that, their severance benefits will begin.

Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State, said he considers Wake Forest Baptist’s action a “major layoff and a signal of challenges facing many hospitals who are being prompted to increase efficiency.”

“I think this is a bellwether announcement likely to be repeated across the state and nation,” Walden said.”

http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/11/14/article/wake_forest_baptist_medical_center_to_lay_off_475_full_time_employees

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Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Employment, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Hospitals, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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Obama fact checked in print in NC, October 18, 2012, Rhino Times, John Hammer prints truth about Obama, Economy Obamacare Libya attack debate, Obama lies

Posted on October 18, 2012 | 35 comments

Obama fact checked in print in NC, October 18, 2012, Rhino Times, John Hammer prints truth about Obama, Economy Obamacare Libya attack debate, Obama lies

“if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them”…Barack Obama

“We tried our plan—and it worked. That’s the difference. That’s the choice in this election. That’s why I’m running for a second term.”…Barack Obama

“The function of the press is very high. It is almost Holy.
It ought to serve as a forum for the people, through which
the people may know freely what is going on. To misstate or
suppress the news is a breach of trust.”
…. Louis D. Brandeis

From John Hammer of the Rhino Times, in Greensboro, NC October 18, 2012.

“Another debate and another pounding of the economic policies of President Barack Hussein Obama by Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Obama has a difficult task running for reelection with the economy in its current shape. Romney is relentless in pointing out that the economy grew slower this year than last year and grew slower last year than the year before, and that 23 million Americans are unemployed. When Romney says the real unemployment rate is 10.7 percent Obama doesn’t argue. When Romney says that Obama has piled up budget deficits of over $1 trillion year after year, Obama doesn’t argue.

Obama does say that his policies are going to work, but it’s hard to sell the idea that policies that haven’t worked for four years are suddenly going to start working in the fifth year or maybe the sixth year or the seventh year.

Romney talks a lot about Obamacare, but Obama doesn’t. He talks about bringing health care to every American, but he doesn’t dwell on Obamacare because polls show that most Americans are against it. It’s his signature piece but he has all but given up selling it to the American people.

When it comes to the contraception aspect of Obamacare, Obama is extremely misleading. Nobody is talking about not providing contraception services. The question is, who pays. According to Obamacare it has to be a free service. Why? Why is that free? Most medical care is not free even if you have insurance. What’s more, Obamacare will force the Catholic Church and other religious organizations to provide abortion services that they believe are morally wrong.

If Obamacare is not changed by the courts or by Congress, it is likely that Catholic hospitals, clinics, social service providers, universities, schools and other outreach programs will close. Perhaps Obama has been listening to his Catholic Vice President Joe Biden and not the Catholic bishops. But he might want to pay attention because if Catholic hospitals close in the major cities, there is going to be a health care disaster, and the Catholic bishops have made it abundantly clear that they are going to have no part in providing abortions.

Biden was entirely wrong in his answer about the situation with Obamacare and the Catholic Church, but then Biden has been told by at least one bishop that he is not a Catholic in good standing and should not participate in the sacraments.

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There are only two possibilities I can think of when it comes to the response by President Obama to the planned and well-executed terrorist attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya.

One is that when an American ambassador was killed in the line of duty for the first time since 1979, during the Carter administration, President Obama decided that in the midst of a presidential election he could not afford to admit that he had refused to give an American ambassador in one of the most dangerous places on earth adequate protection. So he lied to the American people about what happened and hoped that the truth wouldn’t come out until after Nov. 6.

The other is that the Obama administration is so incompetent that it borders on criminal. For two weeks the Obama administration – through its press secretary, Jay Carney, and the US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice – claimed that the attack was the result of a spontaneous demonstration over a video some nutcase in California made.

But the night of Sept. 11, when the attack was underway, Obama should have immediately known that an American embassy compound where the American ambassador was in residence was under attack by well-organized and well-armed terrorists. We have one of the most sophisticated communications systems in the world. If the president isn’t informed about a terrorist attack on a US embassy compound immediately, then what is the system used for? To make sure Obama doesn’t miss any basketball scores? When high-level State Department officials are being killed that is an emergency.

The State Department knew. The intelligence community knew. Obama made a big deal about watching the attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan live in the White House. It wasn’t exactly true that they were watching it live, but they were watching the video the night that it happened.

The American embassy compound in Benghazi had surveillance cameras. The Rhino Times office also has surveillance cameras. You can watch The Rhino Times surveillance cameras real time from a computer, tablet or smart phone anywhere you can hook up to the internet. I cannot believe that the surveillance cameras at the American compound in Benghazi were not hooked up to some communication device so that they could be watched by people in the State Department and intelligence community.

Even without the surveillance cameras, the US had competent people on the ground who, once they got away from immediate danger, reported to their superiors. In fact, according to the State Department timeline, a call about the attack went out immediately with frequent updates. The State Department knew as soon as the men in the compound knew that they were under attack by an organized force.

Vice President Biden says that he didn’t know, and that is entirely possible. Why would anyone bother to tell the vice president, even if he were a competent, honest, intelligent human being? The vice president isn’t going to be making any decisions. He is completely out of the loop as long as the president is alive. Biden may still believe that the attack was the result of a spontaneous demonstration or he may believe that it took place in the last century where he evidently spends a lot of his time.

But President Obama knew or should have known within minutes exactly what was happening in Benghazi. He should have received the reports from those on the ground and he should have been watching the action on the surveillance cameras. But the reports from those in the compound who escaped only to be attacked at the so-called safe house about a mile away should have been more than enough proof that this was a highly organized, well-planned attack.

So in this next debate Obama needs to explain to the American people what happened. Was there such a tremendous communications breakdown that he didn’t get word from Libya about what happened for two weeks? Did the State Department put the Benghazi terrorist attack report on a sailing ship to send it to the White House? How on earth could a report and surveillance video take two weeks to get to the White House?

Obama needs to explain. If the first day the White House had gotten the story wrong that could be attributed to an honest mistake, but in today’s world to claim that the White House didn’t get information from its embassy for two weeks is simply a lie or evidence of overwhelming incompetence.

, , ,

Liberals love this, and the moderator for the presidential debate, Candy Crawley, is certainly a card-carrying liberal, which is why she re-asked the incredibly stupid question about making AK-47s illegal in the United States. Romney answered the question correctly by saying that fully automatic weapons are already illegal in the US. They have been since 1934. It is possible to get a license to have one, but it is not easy or cheap.

One of the so-called fact checkers said Romney was wrong when he said that fully automatic weapons were illegal. Technically Romney was wrong. Most people would tell you that it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon without the proper permit, but the fact checkers evidently would tell you that is wrong because you can carry a concealed weapon on your own property without a permit. Technically there was no Vietnam War, but that is simply not how we speak. Technically only a couple of hundred people get to vote for president, but candidates and pundits talk about voters in the presidential race all the time. Nobody says “people who vote for electors committed to one candidate,” we call them voters.

However, what the question was about were “assault weapons,” which is a term invented during the Clinton administration. The AK-47 is not an assault weapon; it is an assault rifle because it is fully automatic and for all practical purposes illegal. The assault weapons ban was not about banning a particular kind of rifle but banning rifles because of the way they looked. Rifles that operate identically could be legal or illegal based on how they looked. One that looked like a hunting rifle would be legal and one that looked like an assault rifle would be illegal.

It was a law that simply made people who want all guns to be illegal happy, but didn’t really do anything. Now many hunters are using what are technically assault weapons for hunting. They are lightweight, accurate and make good hunting rifles. And it is true that they are used to kill people. But knives are also frequently used to kill people and there was no question for the candidates about making knives illegal.

, , ,

President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat who won the respect of both parties and whom history has smiled upon, had a plaque on his desk that read, “The Buck Stops here!”

President Obama, a Democrat who has not won the respect of Republicans and is losing the respect of many Democrats and whose place in history is unknown, has no such plaque, and up until Tuesday night did not follow the philosophy expressed on the plaque.

We know this because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was sent out to take the fall for Benghazi. The buck stopped with the secretary of state, not the president. You have to wonder what Truman would say about such cowardice by an American president.

Obama takes full credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden although he was over 7,000 miles away. That was Obama who took Bin Laden out, not the Navy Seals who were onsite risking their lives and doing the shooting. But when an American ambassador gets killed in the line of duty for the first time since 1979, it was not Obama’s fault, but the fault of the secretary of state.

During the second presidential debate on Tuesday night, the story changed again. Evidently having Hillary Rodham Clinton take the fall for the terrorist attack in Benghazi was not working with the American people. So during the Tuesday night debate Wendy Crawley threw Obama a softball so he could take full responsibility for the failure.

The attack was on Sept. 11, and on Oct. 16 the president finally takes full responsibility. It does make you wonder how many months it would have taken for Obama to take full responsibility if it wasn’t an election year.

, , ,

The more we learn about Obama the more questions arise. According to his own personal history Barry Obama quit being Barry and became Barack when he was at Occidental College in Los Angeles. By the time he went to Columbia University he was going by Barack exclusively, even to the point, according to his sister, of trying to get his family to call him Barack. But Martha Raddatz reportedly invited Barry Obama to her wedding. So if everyone called him Barack and had no reason to even know that he was called Barry as a kid, why was Barry invited to the wedding.

Or did really close friends at Harvard call him Barry? We’ll never know.

, , ,

They call it the Stupid Party for a reason, and unfortunately the reason hasn’t gone away. Four years ago the moderator of the vice presidential debate, Gwen Ifill, had written a book about Obama. If he were elected her book would make money, if he lost then the book would go in the remainder bin. She had a lot of money riding on the outcome of the debate and the election.

But then the Republicans allow that snafu to be topped. Barry Obama went to Martha Raddatz’s wedding and she was invited to the Obamas’ wedding but didn’t attend. However, her husband (now her ex) did. Do the Republicans vet these people at all? Do they have a list of Obama’s immediate family and if the person is not on that list, not named George Obama for instance, then they are eligible?

Then when you think it can’t get any worse they come up with this woman for the second town hall meeting, Candy Crawley, who gave Obama 9 percent more time than Romney and was much harder on Romney than on Obama. She also selected the questions, which were Obama-friendly, and asked her own follow-up questions, which she was not supposed to do according to the agreement signed by both campaigns.

This just in for the next and final debate, Obama’s campaign Communications Director David Axelrod is unexpectedly unavailable to moderate the debate so the Commission on Presidential Debates has asked Michelle Obama if she will step in. The Commission on Presidential Debates has noted that Mrs. Obama is a Harvard Law graduate like president Obama but did not attend Harvard Law School at the same time as President Obama, so they do not think she will have a conflict of interest based on their law school years.

The Republican Party has reportedly agreed to accept Michelle Obama as a fair and impartial moderator but has insisted that her daughters not be allowed to sit with her while she moderates the debate.

Who are these people on the Commission on Presidential Debates? Do they pick moderators from a list submitted by the Obama campaign? It’s like having the Ram’s Club pick the referees for the Duke-Carolina game. The Republicans have four years to get their act together but they had better get some conservative Republicans appointed to the Commission on Presidential Debates.”

http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-Columns-c-2012-10-18-213522.112113-Under-The-Hammer.html

 

35 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Election 2012, Employment, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Jobs, Lies, media, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, ObamaCare, Occidental College, Presidential candidate, Presidential debate, Terrorist Attacks, The Case Against Barack Obama, Washington DC, white house

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Biden lie revealed by Catholic Bishops, October 12, 2012 US Conference of Catholic Bishops USCCB statement, HHS mandate, Infringements on religious freedom

Posted on October 12, 2012 | 46 comments

Biden lie revealed by Catholic Bishops, October 12, 2012 US Conference of Catholic Bishops USCCB statement, HHS mandate, Infringements on religious freedom

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”…Barack Obama

“It’d be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.”
“They’re the enemy,” “by “they” he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.”…Hank Williams Jr.

“First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me –
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.”…Pastor Martin Niemoller

From the US Conference of Catholic Bishops October 12, 2012.

“USCCB Responds To Inaccurate Statement Of Fact On HHS Mandate Made During Vice Presidential Debate”

“The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued the following statement, October 12. Full text follows:

Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees:

“With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact.”
This is not a fact. The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain “religious employers.” That exemption was made final in February and does not extend to “Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital,” or any other religious charity that offers its services to all, regardless of the faith of those served.

HHS has proposed an additional “accommodation” for religious organizations like these, which HHS itself describes as “non-exempt.” That proposal does not even potentially relieve these organizations from the obligation “to pay for contraception” and “to be a vehicle to get contraception.” They will have to serve as a vehicle, because they will still be forced to provide their employees with health coverage, and that coverage will still have to include sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients. They will have to pay for these things, because the premiums that the organizations (and their employees) are required to pay will still be applied, along with other funds, to cover the cost of these drugs and surgeries.

USCCB continues to urge HHS, in the strongest possible terms, actually to eliminate the various infringements on religious freedom imposed by the mandate.

For more details, please see USCCB’s regulatory comments filed on May 15 regarding the proposed “accommodation”: http://www.usccb.org/about/general-counsel/rulemaking/upload/comments-on-advance-notice-of-proposed-rulemaking-on-preventive-services-12-05-15.pdf”

http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-163.cfm

 

Thanks to commenter observer.

46 Comments

Posted in Abortion, Barack Obama, Catholics, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Civil rights, Government, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Hospitals, Joe Biden, Lies, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, ObamaCare, The Case Against Barack Obama, Washington DC, white house

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Obamacare and Catholic Church, Religious liberty and health care, Dr. Grattan Brown, Natural Law as the Foundation of Religious Liberty, Belmont Abbey College

Posted on October 2, 2012 | 12 comments

Obamacare and Catholic Church, Religious liberty and health care, Dr. Grattan Brown, Natural Law as the Foundation of Religious Liberty, Belmont Abbey College

“Führer, my Führer, give me by God. Protect and preserve my life for long. You saved Germany in time of need. I thank you for my daily bread. Be with me for a long time, do not leave me, Führer, my Führer, my faith, my light, Hail to my Führer!”…Recited by Hitler youth

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”…Barack Obama

“First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me –
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.”…Pastor Martin Niemoller

From Saint Pius X Church in NC.
“Saint Pius X to Host Lecture on Religious Liberty & the HHS Mandate

Dr. Grattan Brown, STD, a professor at Belmont Abbey College, will deliver a lecture,

“Natural Law Foundations of Religious Liberty & the HHS Mandate,”

in the church on Saturday, October 6, at 7 p.m. Dr. Brown is a former researcher in religion and public policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC and former professor at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia.

A reception will precede the event at 6 p.m.

This is an important topic not just to Catholics, but to all Americans who cherish religious liberty. Much is heard about the issue in the news, but Dr. Brown will be able to help us understand the issue from the viewpoint of Catholic tradition and Church teaching.
This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.”

http://www.stpiusxnc.com/

From Citizen Wells November 18, 2011.
“Belmont Abbey sues feds over birth control rule”
“Belmont Abbey College has filed a broad legal challenge to the part of President Barack Obama’s health care reforms that requires employer insurance plans to cover contraception and other birth control.
The Catholic college in Gaston County says the federal mandate forces religious institutions opposed to birth control to violate their beliefs or face penalties. The rule goes into effect next August.
The school has sued a number of federal agencies. The defendants include Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Keith Maley, an HHS spokesman, said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm.”

Defense of the Faith: A Forum on “Religious Liberty” (Part 2 of 4 – Dr. Grattan Brown)

“Published on May 28, 2012 by StBenedictPressTAN
Defense of the Faith: A Forum on Religious Liberty (PART 2 OF 4)
Dr. Grattan Brown: “Natural Law as the Foundation of Religious Liberty”
PART 1: Introduction (http://youtu.be/9v3FQYZ_d9g)
PART 3: Mr. Kyle Duncan (http://youtu.be/o-qfS4Q7Z_w)
PART 4: Mrs. Nancy Matthews (http://youtu.be/tl91F_R6l2s)
On March 21, 2010, the United States House of Representatives voted on, and narrowly passed, a new national healthcare reform bill. Two days later, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into federal law. On January 20, 2012, over repeated objections by the United States Catholic Bishops and other religious leaders, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reaffirmed a rule mandating that virtually all private healthcare plans must cover sterilization, abortifacients and contraception by plan years beginning on or after August 1, 2012.
This action has been called by many religious leaders an egregious violation of the first amendment which states that: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”
On Saturday, February 11, 2012, over one hundred attendees gathered for a forum on religious liberties hosted on the campus of Belmont Abbey College. The event was moderated by Dr. William Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College. Three nationally-recognized speakers took the podium.
Dr. Grattan Brown, Associate Professor of Theology at Belmont Abbey College, opened the forum with his presentation on Natural Law as the foundation for religious liberty, addressing various contraceptive methods mandated under the new administrative guidelines, and their potential to function as abortifacients in violation of Natural Law.
Mr. Kyle Duncan, Senior Legal Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm located in Washington, DC, spoke on the accelerating legal challenges to religious liberty in the United States.
Mrs. Nancy Matthews, recently retired Chancellor and General Counsel for the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT, closed the forum with a presentation on the goals and objectives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ad hoc committee on religious liberty. Mrs. Matthews is currently a consultant to this committee.
It is our hope that this forum will help you to better understand these issues facing the Catholic Church and nearly all employers in America today and encourage you to take action to ensure the continued protection of religious freedom.”

12 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Catholics, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Civil rights, Faith, Family, Government, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Lies, Medicine, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, ObamaCare, Religion, Religious freedom, The Case Against Barack Obama, US Department of Justice, Washington DC, white house

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Obamacare fines begin Monday October 1, 2012, Medicare will fine hospitals, Penalties will average $125,000 per facility this coming year, Taxpayers hit again

Posted on September 30, 2012 | 32 comments

Obamacare fines begin Monday October 1, 2012,  Medicare will fine hospitals, Penalties will average $125,000 per facility this coming year, Taxpayers hit again

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”…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″

Obama, aka Big Brother knows more than we do that is why college students are paying dramatically higher health care premiums this year and why now hospitals will be fined and taxpayers will pay for this.

From NE News Now.

“Obamacare fines kick in”

“If you or an elderly relative have been hospitalized recently and noticed extra attention when the time came to be discharged, there’s more to it than good customer service.

Starting Monday, Medicare will fine hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications. The penalties are part of a broader push under President Barack Obama’s health care law to improve quality while also trying to cut costs.

About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates.

Data to assess the penalties have been collected and crunched, and Medicare has shared the results with individual hospitals. Medicare plans to post details online later and people can look up how their community hospitals performed.

It adds up to a new way of doing business for hospitals, and they have scrambled to prepare for well over a year. They are working on ways to improve communication with rehabilitation centers and doctors who follow patients after they’re released, as well as connecting individually with patients.

“There is a lot of activity at the hospital level to straighten out our internal processes,” said Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and safety at the American Hospital Association. “We are also spreading our wings a little and reaching outside the hospital, to the extent that we can, to make sure patients are getting the ongoing treatment they need.”

Still, industry officials say they have misgivings about being held liable for circumstances beyond their control. They also complain that facilities serving low-income people, including many major teaching hospitals, are much more likely to be fined, raising questions of fairness.

Consumer advocates say Medicare’s nudge to hospitals is long overdue and not nearly stiff enough.

For the first year, the penalty is capped at 1 percent of a hospital’s Medicare payments. The overwhelming majority of penalized facilities will pay less. Also, for now, hospitals are only being measured on three medical conditions: heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.

Under the health care law, the penalties gradually will rise until 3 percent of Medicare payments to hospitals are at risk.”

http://onenewsnow.com//ap/united-states/obamacare-fines-kick-in

Commenter James Barnett.

“And who pays for all this extra service to Medicaid and Medicare Patients? Those of us with Insurance and Insurance Company’s are not willing to contest all the new charges, they just pass it on to the Middle Class and say your fortunate to be covered at all! Communism alway’s Kills the Middle Class, as we cannot afford to sue, or go without coverage, so we are Enslaved by both the Rich and the Poor, until we ourselves are Poor! By then the Government is Bankrupt and there is only Depression, Starvation, Homlesness, Depravity and Oppression. Ask any former Citizen of China or the Soviet Union! Please Wake-up America, Obama wants our Republic of Freedom and Prosperity, under GOD Destroyed and Replaced by a Worldwide Dictatorship under an Islamic Oligarchy! Write your Representatives and tell them to Purge our Government of all Muslim Brotherhood Insurgents in our Bureaucracy, before it is too late! Shalom!”

32 Comments

Posted in 1984, Barack Obama, Big Brother, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Government, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Medicare, Medicine, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama taxes, ObamaCare, Orwellian, The Case Against Barack Obama, Washington DC, white house

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Romney right Washington Post wrong, Health care costs higher for families and students, Obama promised $2,500 per family per year lower by end of first term, Washington Post receives 5 Orwells

Posted on September 28, 2012 | 41 comments

Romney right Washington Post wrong, Health care costs higher for families and students, Obama promised $2,500 per family per year lower by end of first term,  Washington Post receives 5 Orwells

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”…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. But 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 Ohio State University February 27, 2008

“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.”…George Orwell, “1984”

Any way you slice it, health care premiums are higher for families and students and we are near the end of Obama’s first term. In a speech at Ohio State University on February 27, 2008 Obama stated:

“If you’ve got health insurance we’re going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year. But 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”

From Citizen Wells September 26, 2012.

“Health Insurance Costs Skyrocket For College Students Due To ObamaCare”

“Can we stop calling ObamaCare the Affordable Care Act now?

A Young America’s Foundation activist forwarded an email from the Vice President for Finance at his school, Guilford College (Greensboro, NC), informing him that, “For the 2012-13 academic year, the annual cost of the student health insurance is increasing from $668 to $1,179. This insurance premium has been charged to your student account.”

Why the increase? “Our student health insurance policy premium has been substantially increased due to changes required by federal regulations issued on March 16, 2012 under the Affordable Care Act.”

“Guilford joins a long list of colleges raising their premiums. Virtually all current student insurance plans do not meet ObamaCare’s mandates, and Forbes reports colleges have been forced to drop their plans or raise their premiums rates as much as 1,112% (and no, that’s not a typo).”

“Lenoir-Rhyne University (Hickory, NC) raised theirs from $245 to $2,507″

“During his first run for president, Barack Obama made one very specific promise to voters: He would cut health insurance premiums for families by $2,500, and do so in his first term.

But it turns out that family premiums have increased by more than $3,000 since Obama’s vow, according to the latest annual Kaiser Family Foundation employee health benefits survey.

Premiums for employer-provided family coverage rose $3,065 — 24% — from 2008 to 2012, the Kaiser survey found. Even if you start counting in 2009, premiums have climbed $2,370.

What’s more, premiums climbed faster in Obama’s four years than they did in the previous four under President Bush, the survey data show.

There’s no question about what Obama was promising the country, since he repeated it constantly during his 2008 campaign.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/health-premiums-up-3000-obama-promised-2500-cut-student-health-care-doubles-triples-and-more-obamacare-another-obama-lie-kaiser-survey/

Romney was right and the Washington Post was wrong.

From the Washington Post July 3, 2012.

““Promise: President Obama promised to lower annual health insurance premiums by $2,500…Result: Annual health insurance premiums have increased by $2,393….Gap: health premium costs are $4,893 higher per family than President Obama promised.”

— new Facebook/Twitter post by the Romney campaign

Promises made during the heat of an election campaign sometimes come back to haunt politicians.

The campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is trying to nail President Obama for making an iffy promise during the 2008 campaign — that premiums will be $2,500 lower under his health care plan. Instead, the Romney campaign argues in an effort to create a viral Facebook post, the swing has gone $4,893 the other way.

The Romney graphic is false on several levels, though Obama certainly left himself open to scrutiny with imprecise language in the 2008 campaign. Let’s take a look.

The Facts

The Romney campaign cites a statement from a 2007 speech by Obama, but it’s a pledge that was repeated often: “When I am president, we will have universal health care in this country by the end of my first term in office. It’s a plan that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premiums by $2,500 a year.”

This particular quote is not very clear on when the savings would be realized, but in another speech, in 2008, Obama suggested it would be at the end of his first term — though to be fair, it is not clear if he is talking about the savings or enacting a new health care law:

 “In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year. And we’ll do it by investing in disease prevention, not just disease management; by investing in a paperless health care system to reduce administrative costs; and by covering every single American and making sure that they can take their health care with them if they lose their job. We’ll also reduce costs for business and their workers by picking up the tab for some of the most expensive illnesses. And we won’t do all this twenty years from now, or ten years from now. We’ll do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States.”

The details of this number were further explained in an Obama campaign memo:

“Combining all of these effects — from improved health IT [information technology], better disease management, reduced insurance overhead, reinsurance, and reduced uncompensated care — under our “best-guess” assumptions, we estimate that businesses will save $140 billion annually in insurance premiums. The typical family will save $2500 per year.”

But note that Obama’s pledge came with an asterisk: He was not saying premiums would fall by that amount, as the Romney graphic asserts, but that costs would be that much lower than anticipated. In other words, if premiums were expected to rise by $5,000, they would only rise by $2,500 — that’s what Obama’s pledge meant, even if he was not too clear about it.

Michael Dobbs, our predecessor as The Fact Checker, awarded Obama Two Pinocchios for the pledge, saying it was based on shaky assumptions (such as a Rand Corp. study that was criticized by the Congressional Budget Office) and there was no guarantee that any savings would be passed on to consumers. Our colleagues at FactCheck.org also thought Obama’s pledge was highly dubious.

Of course, once Obama became president, the health care proposal he advocated as a candidate was significantly changed, even to the point of accepting the individual mandate that he had so criticized when Hillary Rodham Clinton promoted it. But the White House more or less stuck to the idea that costs would not rise as quickly as previously estimated — except that it would result in $2,000 in savings by 2019. (Recall also that the health care law will not be implemented until 2014, making a first-term pledge problematic.)

Now, let’s look at what the Romney campaign has done with the pledge. First, it assumes that Obama was saying that premiums would actually decline by $2,500, rather than decline from a projected increase. Then, it takes the 2011 Kaiser Family Foundation survey estimate (Exhibit 1.11) and subtracts the cost of a 2008 family premium ($12,680) from the cost of a 2011 premium ($15,073). Viola, an increase of $2,393—and a promise gap of $4,893.

The Romney campaign’s math is nonsensical. First of all, the Kaiser survey is conducted from January to May each year, so starting with the 2008 date makes little sense, since that is still George W. Bush’s term. Then the health care law was not passed until 2010, so the first year in which any impact could be seen from the law was in 2011.

But, as the Kaiser report notes, most of the provisions of the new law will not take effect in 2014. Thus far, other provisions, such as providing coverage for adult children up to age 26, appear to have had a modest impact on premiums–perhaps 1 to 2 percentage points. (The White House disputes even that effect.) Still, the full effect on premiums — including any possible savings — will not be seen until the law is completely implemented.

We had previously given the Republican National Committee Three Pinocchios for an ad that had focused on the single data point — the increase in premiums from 2010 to 2011 — and blamed all of the increase on the health care law. Now the Romney campaign has quadrupled the same error in an effort to claim that “health premium costs are $4,893 higher per family than President Obama promised.”

The Pinocchio Test

Obama in 2008 made a foolish, dubious pledge about health care premiums. As we have noted, he will have to answer to Americans if his law fails to live up to that promise by 2019 or if people feel misled by his lawyerly wording. He was warned when he got Two Pinocchios back in 2008.

But two wrongs don’t make a right. The Romney campaign has twisted the meaning of that pledge, and then blamed a partially implemented, one-year-old law for three years of premium increases, in order to concoct an absurd claim.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/romneys-whopper-claim-on-an-obama-health-care-pledge/2012/07/03/gJQAVhk3IW_blog.html

For their efforts to discredit Romney and protect Obama the Washington Post is awarded 5 Orwells.

41 Comments

Posted in 1984, Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Election 2012, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Lies, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, ObamaCare, Orwell, Orwellian, Presidential candidate, The Case Against Barack Obama, Washington DC, Washington Post, white house

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