Healthcare: The Infant Mortality Lie & Battling the LHS

It doesn't always take long to have a controversial response to a blog post. My recent post:
http://brandon7221.blogspot.com/2009/10/modest-cuts-of-medicare-advantage-just.html

My opinion is simply: we, as a society, have to do what's in our means to protect our weakest citizens, particularly the elderly and the children. In my opinion, there was a purposeful divergence by the Liberal Healthcare Supporter(LHS) to attack me and my stance AGAINST healthcare reform.

Many of my debates over the topic have revealed that most supporters have good intentions, but don't realize what's ACTUALLY in these bills. Utopian perspectives on fixing healthcare have shown me that most everything, including those "evil" Republicans, want the system improved, but only a few understand the magnitude of the changes that are proposed.

Anyway, back my battle with the LHS, who needs to cling to this idea: the US is the wealthiest country on the planet, but aren't #1 compared to countries with socialized medicine. So our conversation swung toward the point I made earlier and the LHS pounced: why is the infant mortality rate higher in the US than in Europe?

It's likely you could face this swing in a similar argument so let's peel back the onion to find the truth. This is from a piece by Dr. Halderman in 2008 that summarizes many of the falsehoods surrounding Infant Mortality Data¹:

• According to the way statistics are calculated in Canada, Germany, and Austria, a premature baby weighing <500g>
• Hong Kong or Japan is born alive but dies within the first 24 hours of birth, he or she is reported as a “miscarriage” and does not affect the country’s reported infant mortality rates.
• 37-41 weeks. In Belgium and France — in fact, in most European Union countries — any baby born before 26 weeks gestation is not considered alive and therefore does not “count” against reported infant mortality rates.
• Switzerland and other parts of Europe, a baby born who is less than 30 centimeters long is not counted as a live birth.
• Since 2000, 42 of the world’s 52 surviving babies weighing less than 400g (0.9 lbs.) were born in the United States.

These facts are not Dr. Halderman's data, just a great consolidation and presentation. She's one doctor speaking out repeatedly against the current reform bills, but be warned, speaking out gets you labelled, so she must be a "right-wing extremist" or in the tank for the big insurance companies.

How about if we look within our own country: Utah has a rate of 4.5%, here in Florida it's 7.2%, nearby Mississippi 11.4%, and DC ranks the worst at 14.1%². Do they have socialized medicine in Utah? We certainly don't here in Florida.

There are a lot of economic, race and education issues that drive this huge discrepancy between US states. So, how can we compare the US to other countries that don't count births based on weight, length, or gestational age?

Remember abortions are NOT part of any of these calculations. There are over a million abortions every year in the US alone and over 2.5 million in Russia. It's always hard for me to keep my cool discussing infant mortality with the LHS when over 5.5 million children are aborted every year.

5.5 million abortions.

Are we supposed to adopt the policies in Asia of NOT counting a new born who passes in the first 24 hours of his or hers life? Will a government run health insurance better serve to resolve this problem - if so, how?

My word of encouragement is this: be ready to face healthcare supporters that have their minds made up, especially those LHS. Whether healthcare is viewed as a right, better than the status quo or they are simply an Obama fanatic, little is known in these bills, but I vow to you the end game is this: one government socialized system.

One theme is all of the healthcare bills and that is the efforts to put pressure on private insurance, control aspects of their business or regulate them out of business.

From the President's letter to supporters:

"The heart of my plan is simple: bring stability and security to Americans who already have health insurance, guarantee affordable coverage for those who don't, and rein in the cost of health care."

Stability, security, guarantee and rein in: all translate to control, control, regulate and control.

After the control and government takeover of healthcare occurs, will the infant mortality be brought down?

I don't think so.

1. Dr. Linda Halderman: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-doctor-is-in-infant-mortality-comparisons-a-statistical-miscarriage/

2. http://www.census.gov/statab/ranks/rank17.html

Another ACORN Falls from the Obama's Tree: Patrick Gaspard

President Obama's radical friendship tree is more convoluted that the typical family tree. When the concerns were addressed in an October debate with John McCain, Obama assured Americans that he was surrounding (and would continue to do so) himself with solid experience personnel and NOT the radicals from his past.


Then we had Van Jones being outted as a radical, self-proclaimed communist and many of the czars coming under fire for their radical ties and/or comments. Now there's Patrick Gaspard, Director of the Office of Political Affairs (Karl Rove's former position), who was former Exec. VP of SEIU, Chapter 1199 and its 300,000 members.

In 2004, Gaspard was the National Field Director for America Coming Together, working on Howard Dean's campaign and was the Director of the Obama transition team.

Well, there's been quite the debate on the internet between Matthew Vadum of the American Spectator and Politico's Ben Smith over Gaspard's ties to ACORN and other radicals. See there was some drama, heightened by ACORN'S former leader Wade Rathke, admitting then renouncing that Gaspard was tied up in all of this.

I'm no regular follower of either one, but linking their back and forth with a piece by Stanley Kurtz (go old fashioned, reliable journalism is hard to come by) there is this link:

http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng42.html


Now that is not light reading, even by my standards, so let's hit the high points.

• "New Ground" is the newsletter of the Democratic Socialists of America (Chicago chapter)


• Chicago New Party links to ACORN sharing on-the-ground organizing, legal representation, training, or even funding


• Obama was seeking New Party endorsement in Chicago, Patrick Gaspard was working as a New Party organizer in New Jersey.


• Working Families Party (a successor to the New Party, led by New Party co-founder Dan Cantor, and largely controlled by ACORN and the SEIU).


• Gaspard and ACORN'S Bertha Lewis supported Working Families Party in a joint response to criticisms from a local journalist.


• "ACORN members spearhead formation of the Working Families Party, the first community-labor party with official ballot status in New York state in more than 50 years." -- ACORN'S own website (see below for link if you don't trust me yet)

ACORN has been tied to its SEIU affiliates, ACORN founder Wade Rathke and Local 880 headed by ACORN bigwig Keith Kelleher who happens to the husband of Madeline Talbott. Talbott, if you don't know, is a radical agitator whose close personal ties to President Obama. The tenacles run very, VERY deep and Gaspard is wrap in them nearly as tightly as Van Jones.

Obama has surronunded himself with radicals, extremists, but always manages to escape scrutiny. I don't expect this to be any different, but that doesn't mean we don't know about it.

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/09/29/the-politico-gets-played-by-ac

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12448

The "Modest" Cuts of Medicare Advantage - just special interests AGAIN

Since 2007, during his campaign, President Obama has been railing AGAINST Medicare Advantage. This Medicare supplement was created for seniors to have better benefits and more choices through private options. Currently, 20%, 1 in 5, of all Medicare recipients have Med. Adv. will incredible positive results¹: patients stay in the hospital 18 days less than Medicare patients, 27% fewer visits to the ER, and a 42% lower re-admission rate to the hospital.

The enhanced benefits focus on reduce out-of-pocket costs, coverages for prescriptions, wellness programs, disease management and care coordination programs. All of the preachings on preventative care, reduction of costs to the individual and quality seem to been missed by the Democrats promoting the current bills.

We don't know what the final bill will entail, but the House Bill (HR 3200) cuts $172 billion and the Max Baucus Senate bill cuts $113 billion from Medicare Advantage.

"If you like your insurance, you can keep it" -- unless you have Medicare Advantage. The NY Times is practicing more irresponsible journalism:

"Although Republican rhetoric has triggered fears that Medicare Advantage enrollees might lose their coverage entirely if private plans drop out of the system, the real effect of the bill would likely be modest on average." while stating the truth elsewhere: "The value of an enrollee's added benefits would shrink by more than half from current levels but would not disappear; they would still be worth about $500 a year in 2019.

Your benefits WILL shrink to half and that's descibed by the NY Times as "MODEST on the average."

Humana launched a major campaign to inform patients and encourage them to speak out against this reform. Medicare responded with an intense investigation² into the claim "millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable" -- the exact thing that the NY Times has confirmed, but described as modest.

So why is AARP so supportive of this reform? Maybe this is because AARP offers Medigap - a competitor to Medicare Advantage(MA).

When you have MA you don't need Medigap. Preventative care, eye exams and hearing aids are all extra benefits through MA so Medigap (i.e. AARP) is losing revenue. Irony compounds irony as the majority of MA recipients are poor blacks and hispanics - the same folks Democrats and the President claim to protect.

Special interest politics...hmmf, are any of us surprised?

I'm not.





1. http://www.ahipresearch.org/pdfs/CAvsNV.pdf

2. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125349705522626821.html

http://townhall.com/columnists/DickMorrisandEileenMcGann/2009/10/03/obamacare_cut_the_elderly_and_give_to_aarp

http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=1524

Cram & Ram Healthcare

Move over CAP and Trade, here comes Healthcare Reform. The midnight addition of 300 pages to the Cap and Trade Bill is nothing compared to the Clock & Dagger tactics by the Senate to help push a healthcare bill through.

Committee Chairman Max Baucus "We are now closer than ever before to finally passing reform that will offer security to those who have coverage and affordable insurance to those who don't."

Among the changes to this final draft(see link below):

• Bill would impose a 40 percent excise tax on insurance plans in excess of $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families.


• An amendment approved on a 13-10 party line vote raises those levels for retirees and high-risk professions, such as coal miners, to $9,850 and $26,000 respectively.


• states to negotiate deals with healthcare plans for those on low incomes. This NOT a lift or change to the interstate restrictions that limit insurance companies to certain states.


• set a $500,000 limit on the amount of executive pay that health insurance companies can deduct from taxable income. Cap on executive pay (put in by Blanche Lincoln)
• would bar insurance companies from denying coverage or charging higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions


• exempt more lower income people from the requirement to purchase insurance and delay implementation of penalties for failure to purchase insurance.
• bill would have allowed hardship waivers only if the cost of insurance exceeded 10 percent of a person's income. The amendment lowered that threshold to 8 percent.
• bill eventually would impose a maximum tax penalty of $950 for individuals and $1,900 for families that fail to purchase insurance
• allow states to negotiate with insurers to arrange coverage for people with incomes slightly higher than the cutoff for Medicaid, the government healthcare program for the poor
• committee's bill would create nonprofit insurance cooperatives to create competition -- CO-OPS are an important codeword for government run "public options"

The hold ups have been resolved as fees and excise taxes are negotiated to sound less. Don't forget that we WILL ALL get a tax increase next year as the Bush tax cuts will all expire.

They brag about "lowering the penalty" - penalty?

This "penalty" is NOT a tax though. Right?

Remember when this process would take months and the predictions were maybe the end of the year. I've railed over and over again on how the House is ready to go. I truly expected the Nancy Pelosi and the House to push a bill forward and pressure the Senate to follow suit.

Instead, we heard how the Senate Finance Commitee were voting against the public option, killing the healthcare reform - tons of misinformation.

The end game is still the same: one payer system, a government takeover of healthcare. If this were false then why ignore the bankruptcy of Medicaid and Medicare? If this is so urgent, then why is it now effective until 2013 (right after the re-election)

I only provided one link to paste many of these bullet points presented but you can google up all of the comments from these meetings. We don't know if we are getting to review this bill, so I encourage you to call your House Rep and Senators and DEMAND this bill gets posted on the internet.

DEMAND discussion and ask questions. This is NOT over, so we need to stay vigilent.

This only clarifies the fact that they WILL require everyone to have insurance and there will be a fee/penalty (but definitely is NOT a tax) for NOT having insurance.

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-HealthcareReform/idUSTRE58O6C020091002

MoveOn & Leftists attack their Own over Healthcare

Yesterday 3 Democrat Senator in the Senate Finance Committee dared to vote AGAINST the public option in the healthcare reform. MoveOn.org (and other left leaning organizations) immediately released attack ads against these Senators: Kent Conrad (D-ND), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Max Baucus (D-MT)

This ad (http://healthcarecantwait.com/) by The Progressive Change Campaign Committee & Democracy for America is one example -- this one attacks Baucus: who's the chair of the committee.

Wow, how quickly they turn on their own.

Dissension is only appropriate if it's against Republicans. You MUST the MoveOn political agenda or they WILL come after you.

So, where's the President on this?

Well, he's in Denmark politicking to bring the 2012 Olympics to Chicago. But he's not likely to do more than a offer a few comments without any actions. The White House has mentioned this problem in the past and delivered a few PR friendly "stop it please" sound bites, but MoveOn is calling the shots.

“Senator Conrad is out of step with the country and his political party and needs to be held accountable by his constituents. MoveOn.org’s 5 million members expect the Democrats in Congress to deliver on the promise of change that got them elected.” -- Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org.

Just a Townhall protesters were called racists over healthcare and now Democratic Senators waffling over the "public option" are viewed as betraying their agenda. A single payer, government plan must be implemented to appease these groups.

Get in their way and they will come after you.

Their Own Words: Cass Sunstein

Let's examine the Regulatory Czar, Cass Sunstein.

In this 2003 book, "Why Societies Need Dissent", Cass Sunstein welcomes dissent and promotes openness, attacking "political correctness" in various forms. Sunstein explores how terrorism and violence arises many times from the failure to tolerate dissenting views.

"Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech", from 1995, we find a different tone. Sunstein suggests the First Amendment protects many forms of speech that should never be protected: commercial speech, libelous speech, speech that invades privacy, and certain forms of pornography and hate speech. Sunstein doesn't seem to address defamation and supports the government gaining power over speech.

Dissenters are often portrayed as selfish and disloyal, but Sunstein shows that those who reject pressures imposed by others perform valuable social functions, often at their own expense.

"It is usual to think that those who conform are serving the general interest and that dissenters are antisocial, even selfish. In a way this is true. Sometimes conformists strengthen social bonds, whereas dissenters (endanger those bonds or at least introduce a degree of tension. But in an important respect, the usual thought has things backwards. Much of the time, it is in the individual's interest to follow the crowd, but in the social interest for the individual to say and do what he thinks best. Well-functioning societies take steps to discourage conformity and to promote dissent. They do this partly to protect the rights of dissenters, but mostly to protect interests of their own." - page 212, "Why Societies Need Dissent"

Sunstein is difficult to encapsulate as he supports the State intervening in Free Speech to "reinvigorate processes of democratic deliberation, by ensuring greater attention to public issues and greater diversity of views" but we have to wonder why he's not spoken to support dissent at Townhalls or Protests around the country.

Maybe his pro-government beliefs are deeper than we realize.

In this 1999 article (http://home.uchicago.edu/~csunstei/celebrate.html) he tells us how we should celebrate tax day.

"Do not get up tomorrow and drape your house in black! For tax day is not a day of national mourning. Without taxes there would be no liberty. Without taxes there would be no property. Without taxes, few of us would have any assets worth defending."

This is a disturbing perspective on freedom and the government's role in our lives. Sunstein doesn't seem to support private ownership of property without contributing to the good of the collective.

To Sunstein: what good is free speech if we're talking about all of the wrong things and NOT the public good, diversity etc...?

From Cass: "There is no liberty without dependency. That is why we should celebrate tax day. as Oliver Wendell Holmes, the great Supreme Court justice, liked to say, taxes are "the price we pay for civilization."

I personally find Holmes to be a "moral relativist" and concerning that Sunstein looks to quote him.

In this interview Sunstein expands and introduces "Libertarian Paternalism" (http://www.grist.org/article/2009-green-nudges-an-interview-with-obama-re)

"The price system can be used in a way that fits with people’s moral obligations."

Hence the reason we will see a flurry of vice taxes. Nudges: is this codeword for taxes and penalties?

This "Regulatory Czar" has some very concerning outlooks on how the government interacts with our daily lives. I like to delve into their works, especially interviews, to better understand where these leaders come from, how they'll views will shape their role as a public servant and execute the President's policies.



http://www.littlemag.com/mar-apr01/cass10.html

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/11/07/sunstein/

Wikipedia: soft paternalism aka libertarian parternalism: a political philosophy that believes the state can “help you make the choices you would make for yourself—if only you had the strength of will and the sharpness of mind."

The Great Parenting War: US vs The World

Ever wander into the wrong public bathroom or at least think you have? I was shopping at Staples and raced into the restroom only to wander - did I see urinals when I came in?

That mini-panic attack is what happens in every parent's head when they are asked why the guy on "Survivor" is naked?

Our society has discarded any and all barriers to shield our youth from sex, violence and various forms of degradation. A friend in our Bible study class announced how the Sims 3 game shocked her with the simulated sex scene under the sheets.

"The Sims 3" is a virtual game rated "T" for teen but the company's criteria for this rating may not be the same for you and me. This is part of the description for this Sims game:

"These avatars often interact socially, which can sometimes lead to mild flirtation or more intimate encounters. Players can choose to “try for a baby” or “WooHoo” with another Sim – the later option being available to both heterosexual and same-sex couples. These two actions cause the selected avatars to jump into bed and go under the covers, where they wriggle, giggle, and moan until confetti bursts over the bed. Sims characters need to maintain their health and hygiene and do so by eating, exercising, bathing, and using the toilet, which is depicted by a blurred, pixilated effect and trickling sounds. Avatars can also vomit, emit flatulence, and wet themselves if no toilet is available or offered." (NOTE: Avatars are the characters)

Rated "T" for teen.

How many 11-year-olds are lobbying for a teen rated video game? This Teen game?



So, let's go back to my "Survivor" nightmare.

Like many football fans I assume I can safely watch the NFL on a Sunday afternoon, but those pesky ads turned my parental universe upside down. First was the aforementioned reality show nudity then it was the gratuitous CSI commercial promoting this week's violent murder mystery and, on this occasion when my daughter was watching, solving a rape case.

When you hear "Daddy, what is rape?" you'd wish you were trapped in a ladies' room stall.

I remember taking my boys to a comic book show and they received some free comics. In fact, this comic "Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk" had a "Free Comic Book Day" sticker on it, so it was widely distributed.

After the show, I began to thumb through a few pages of this "Ultimate" comic from Marvel and I was shocked. Wolverine was lying in the snow, limbless from the waist down trying to remember how he ended up in this predicament. Oh yeah, the character flashes back to a battles with the Hulk who literally had ripped Wolverine in half, tossing him in two separate directions.

This was a FREE comic, given away to countless kids at comic shows and to celebrate "Free Comic Book Day" so I put it where it belonged -- in the trash. I later read on a blog that there is a scene in which the Hulk makes Wolverine choose which leg he would rather Hulk eat.

Long gone are the days of Archie and Veronica.

We need to be honest with ourselves: we cannot shelter our kids from everything. Parents need to be more vigilant and involved than ever. The internet is a wide open access port to the abyss of vile and filth that the world creates each and everyday.

Sims 3 sold 1.4 million copies in its first week. Commercials are incredibly dangerous and unregulated forms of exposure for unwanted questions and topics for kids.

It's out there and we have to be armed and ready to face these challenges.

Prepare yourself or you'll be wishing you were in the wrong bathroom stall trying to survive a panic attack.