Update: Reid files cloture motions; TheHill: ‘Pharma deal holding up bipartisan rx health amendment’
Update from Kaiser, appears Dingy Harry is going to pull a fast one and IS blocking the RX Reimportation Bill from a vote, 200 Billion a year Americans spend on their RXs. Well this is just one more nail in the electoral coffin for the Democratic majority:
CongressDaily: ”Senate Majority Leader [Harry] Reid plans to file a package of cloture motions next week that would allow a final vote on healthcare legislation before the Senate goes home for Christmas, a leadership aide said today.” He plans to offer ”simultaneous cloture motions” for the overall bill, for a substitute amendment and for a manager’s amendment containing “key compromises.” The plan “came to light as senators from both parties wondered why leaders have not scheduled a vote on an amendment to allow reimportation of cheaper prescription drugs, which appears to have enough votes to pass” (Friedman and Edney, 12/10).
In a time of incredibly high unemployment, at least three Democratic Senators are blocking a bipartisan amendment that has the votes to pass, that will save many Americans hundreds of dollars a year or more on their health care costs..
…Democratic senators from states home to pharmaceutical companies, including Tom Carper (Del.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.), object to the amendment, citing concerns about ensuring the safety of medicines entering the U.S. supply chain from foreign sources. Congress Daily has reported that Carper (D-Del.) placed a hold on the amendment, but his office refused to comment to The Hill….
Okay neoprogs and libs still believing in Teh Oneness, riddle me this. Why oh why would The Hill which loves them some Obama report that the WH deal and the 3 Pharma state DEMOCRATIC Senators are blocking a TRUE BIPARTISAN, COST SAVING BILL THAT HAS THE VOTES TO PASS, THAT THIS PRESIDENT CAMPAIGNED ON??? Because it is true.
The message did not seem mixed to McCain, whom Obama defeated in the race for the White House last year. “The fix is in,” he said.
Durbin, asked if they are WHIPPING AGAINST THIS AMENDMENT, didnt say No, he said ‘well we did ask how they are voting…” THE FRAKKERS!!! One of the ONLY effective price reforms that will directly, immediately LOWER healthcare costs to AMERICAN CONSUMERS and they are KILLING IT?
Please call these yahoos and tell them WE DEMAND A VOTE!! Prescription reimportation should be allowed in FREE MARKETS with OPEN TRADE!!!!
A deal between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry is holding up a bipartisan amendment to allow the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from abroad, according to a member of the Senate Democratic leadership.
…Dorgan’s measure, which would permit bulk exports of medicines from countries such as Canada, enjoys broad and bipartisan support and likely has the backing of more than 60 senators, which would guarantee its adoption on the healthcare reform bill.
Tension between the White House and Democratic supporters of the so-called drug reimportation amendment is primarily behind the delay, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday.
“There’s a political subtext here,” Durbin said. “It has to do with whether or not we can do as part of the impact on pharma in this bill and whether or not there are other things that are higher priorities.”
The White House and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) struck a deal this summer to limit the drug industry’s financial exposure under reform to $80 billion over 10 years, though its terms have never been fully disclosed.
President Barack Obama was one of the 35 co-sponsors of Dorgan’s drug reimportation legislation when Obama served in the Senate. In addition, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was a leading supporter of the House version of the bill when he served in the lower chamber….
HYPOCRITES!!!! And these Obots who railed against the Big Dawg and HRC are silent on this????? WTH???!?!?!?
Megan McArdle: Health Care Cost Containment is the Laffer Curve of the Left..
…I’d say we have substantial empirical evidence that we are not going to control the health care cost inflation which is busting Medicare’s budget, much less the new costs the administration is planning to add. We have been trying to control health care costs since the 1970s made it clear that Medicare was going to get really, really expensive. And any idea that you care to name, from comparative effectiveness research to healthcare IT to preventive medicine . . . these have all been on the table for more than thirty years, under one name or another. They haven’t happened.
The answer that those promising magical cost reductions need to ask is “Why haven’t they happened?” and “What has changed to make them feasible now?” But when I ask this question, I get angry demands that I put forward my plan for cost control, rather than merely critiquing everyone else’s. This seems rather like demanding that I put forward my design for a perpetual motion machine before I am allowed to point out problems in the US energy market.
They haven’t happened because lobbying groups put the kaibosh on it, and so will patients and physicians and facilities who spend billions covering uninsured at Uncle Sam’s request already, namely Baby Boomers who are about to see their Medicare bennies GUTTED under Team TOTUS’ proposed 600 Billion in cuts..they won’t stand for it and I don’t blame them. They are trying to redistribute health care as they are housing and transfer payments…take bens from the elderly and give them to the uninsured/underinsured. That is not the way to go and it will not succeed…it will be another house of cards to come tumbling down later…
To those who say, pretty reasonably, “Why not demonstrate that you can control these costs in Medicare before asking us to believe you can do it with a broader program?” the response is something like a snapped, “But I don’t want to just control Medicare costs! I want universal coverage!” Ah. Well, Republicans don’t want to maximize tax revenue; they want to cut taxes. This does not make their now-deliberate wishful thinking any prettier. Nor obligate the rest of us to fulfill their desire at the expense of sound budget policy.
Both Medicare cost control and Republican tax cuts are like the Red Queen’s strategy in Alice in Wonderland: “Jam yesterday, and jam tomorrow, but never jam today”. They promise sweeteners to sell their favored policies, but when the day actually arrives, time and time again we’re left holding an empty jar….
Health Care: Video Update: Flashback – Dems on Medicare Cuts: TOTUS prepares to throw trial lawyers unda da bus…
Most important update – contact your Congress Critters!
Update: And I have another common sense question here, when parents divorce often a QMCSO Qualified Medical Child Support Order is issued by the court ordering parents to cover the children to age 18, you know like normal people do in America, the age of attainment being 18. Well if TOTUS MANDATES covering these ‘children’ to age 26, I for one would expect that the court would have to come back for that and readdress the issue.
Who is paying for this ‘child’s” coverage after age 18 when the parents are divorced?
So now we have to deal with our EXes for another 8 years after the kids are legally emancipated? Good luck getting deadbeat parents who dont pay child support to age 18 now to insure their children for 8 years BEYOND the attainment of adulthood….
more work for those backed up child support courts in the making…so cheeto eating Obots can coast til they are 26?! ugh
Frakkin ridiculous is what it is, no doubt TOTUS was in law school until age 26 and that is how he came up with this number, TOTALLY UNFEASIBLE IN PRACTICE..much like socialism..hmmmm….
Video from VerumSerum by way of Ed at HA:
Follow us at: twitter.com/verumserum. While President Bush was in office, the Democrats spoke out vehemently against any proposed cuts in Medicare & Medicaid. Now that President Obama has proposed $622B in Medicare/Medicaid cuts to help pay for his healthcare plan, where are the Democrats now?
This is a rant zone….
BWAAAAAAHAAAAAA!!!!
OMG!! Hillyarious!!!!!
To sell Obamacare, TOTUS is going to tell the AMA that he will pass or enact some sort of ‘best practices’ protections for them…not a cap on medical malpractice verdicts which would be the only real way to reduce those unneccessary expenses they are so concerned about….
…There have been indications Obama has been quietly making a case for reducing malpractice lawsuits to help control costs, long a goal of the AMA and Republicans.Obama has not endorsed capping jury awards Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Monday that controlling the cost of malpractice insurance would have to be a part of the Obama administration’s overhaul of the health care system.
Daschle… said much of the unnecessary annual health care cost can be attributed to doctors ordering extra tests and taking extra precautions to make sure “they aren’t sued.”…
Politico covers what TOTUS is expected to say to the AMA here
…AMA President Nancy Nielsen said Sunday that the group is looking for a fix to the Medicare payment system that has cut doctor fees, and medical liability reform that puts caps on noneconomic damages.
The Obama administration outlined an additional $313 billion in new proposed savings Friday to pay for the president’s health care plan
. The savings would come from cutting or reducing the growth of payments to hospitals, medical equipment manufacturers and laboratories – though the major cuts don’t target doctors, White House budget director Peter Orszag said Friday….
Whenever Peter Orzsag is going on and on and on about how some states like Wisconsin use less medical care and how they plan to get the rest of the states to act like WI, I laugh and wonder how many doctors are in WI, how many specialists, what is their civil litigation system like there, how strong are their personal injury med mal attorneys lobbying groups there, what is the demographic of those living there….THOSE are the differences no doubt..
AZ and FL likely have many more hospital admissions cuz AZ and FL have many retirees who …you know…. get ill… b/c they are …you know…. older….Orzsag wants to stop what he calls ‘unnecessary readmissions to hospitals in the last 6 months of life’ which he claims do not show a better result than states like WI where apparently people arent so pesky about calling 911 when the elderly stop breathing or something…
Uhmm no thanks I will pass on having a pencil necked geek decide if I need to be readmitted. Hospitals are already wigging out over Team TOTUS proposed cuts…
..For instance, Obama wants to cut federal payments to hospitals by about $200 billion and cut $313 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years. He also is proposing a $635 billion “down payment” in tax increases and spending cuts in the health care system…
How will TOTUS stop lawsuits against hospitals and physicians who refuse to readmit a patient who THEN DIES? they cannot, they cannot legislate away the right to sue apparently and they are unwilling to cap verdicts cuz lawyers lobby too hard and donate too much…
thus the tests will continue, and I for one am perfectly fine with that..
Many Gen Yers who like the proposal may not remember the absolute nightmare that was HMOs before states started passing coverage mandates..
Anyone else here have to pay for their pesky anesthesia during labor? I did in 89. Yep, 42 HOURS OF LABOR and the HMO said the anesthesia was not medically necessary, thus I paid for it. I was also almost kicked out of the hospital in 24 hours after having my baby because the HMOs used to do that to CONTAIN COSTS..sound familiar? yeah it is the Orszag Plan.
States and even the feds then MANDATED a length of hospital stay for women after giving birth to put an end to that. That is where we are headed. Every time the Medical Panel of SOOPERGENIUSES decides to limit something, some lobbyists will find the patient group or vice versa and Congress Critters will act..
This will ADD to administrative expenses as all states become as overly regulated as California and more manual claims processing becomes necessary to keep up with all the rule changes….
I worked for a PI Med Mal Wrongful Death firm in NYC for a time. One patient who was in her 20s was obese. She had a persistent cough. Her PCP, mindful of his HMO handlers, did NOT send her to an outpatient facility for a portable chest xray and she did not fit in the xray machine in the HMO radiologists office. So he said she had bronchitis and gave her an RX. Long story short. She had cancer, it went undiagnosed for too long and she was terminal. God Bless her.They should have referred her for the damned xray.
I do not believe this is the way to go with our health care system. Letting the elderly go untreated to save money is the plan. Sheboresus slid around it like an eel this weekend, it is rationing and Americans won’t stand for it. If they get it through, we will simply see massive scandal later when people die after being denied testing and treatment..
…Kathleen Sebelius ducked on Sunday when John King ask her about the prospect of comparative effectiveness research as a slippery slope toward medical rationing.
“There is fabulous health care being delivered at lower costs all across America,” she replied in an appearance on “State of the Union.” “Comparative effectiveness research says, ‘does paying twice as much in McAllen,Texas, as in some other part of the country deliver better care?’ And the answer is ‘no.’”
She added, “If three tests don’t produce a better result than one test produces, I’d rather have the one test, thank you very much.”
TOTUS CANNOT promise best practices protection! He cannot get it through Congress which is HEAVILY lobbied by the Bar association and the entity previously known as the Trial Lawyers Association. Just go ask Johnny Edwards about a doctor NOT DOING a test..he will dance all the way to his 140,000 sf house…
This TOTUS plan would have the additional liability of limiting economies of scale in many diagnostic tests. If the test isnt done more and more the price wont drop and the technology wont get better..this will kill promising new gene therapy also, if Team TOTUS wont pay for granny to get a new hip they certainly will not pay for all the experimentation and promising gene therapy coming from the very SCIENCE he claims to cherish….what was the point of the stem cell testing if the pesky elderly cannot have the gene therapy for Alzheimers?
What government panel will find it cost effective to cure someone who has Alzheimers? How much work or tax dollars can they get from that elderly person?
Scary.
Keith Hennessey on the Draft Health Care Bill…Adds Medical Advisory Council…kills self-funded plans for small business…requires ‘children’ be covered to age 26 under parents plan…
Keith Hennessey.com, via Glenn at Instapundit:
Over the weekend a draft of Senator Kennedy’s (D-MA) health care bill leaked. After playing with Adobe Acrobat, here is the text of the draft Kennedy bill as a text file (173 K), and as a single Acrobat file (3.4 MB). Unlike the leaked version, both of these are searchable.
…Here are 15 things to know about the draft Kennedy-Dodd health bill.
- The Kennedy-Dodd bill would create an individual mandate requiring you to buy a “qualified” health insurance plan, as defined by the government. If you don’t have “qualified” health insurance for a given month, you will pay a new Federal tax. Incredibly, the amount and structure of this new tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS), whose only guidance is “to establish the minimum practicable amount that can accomplish the goal of enhancing participation in qualifying coverage (as so defined).” The new Medical Advisory Council (see #3D) could exempt classes of people from this new tax. To avoid this tax, you would have to report your health insurance information for each month of the prior year to the Secretary of HHS, along with “any such other information as the Secretary may prescribe.”
- The bill would also create an employer mandate. Employers would have to offer insurance to their employees. Employers would have to pay at least a certain percentage (TBD) of the premium, and at least a certain dollar amount (TBD). Any employer that did not would pay a new tax. Again, the amount and structure of the tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and HHS. Small employers (TBD) would be exempt.
- In the Kennedy-Dodd bill, the government would define a qualified plan:
- All health insurance would be required to have guaranteed issue and renewal, modified community rating, no exclusions for pre-existing conditions, no lifetime or annual limits on benefits, and family policies would have to cover “children” up to age 26. (more…)
Update: Scroll Down for update: Megyn Kelly Shouts Down Bernie Sanders On Dem-Only Nationalized Healthcare Plan…0 GOP invited to summit
Clip courtesy of mghoft:
“Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer reported on the Democrat-only meeting with President Obama on the nationalized healthcare plan they are planning on ramming through Congress.”
Bernie is VERY CONCERNED that he be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that there is NO PLAN.
this is part of Daschles book on how to ram through health care with no debate or dissent, dont reveal the plan until the vote, HA! frakkers..
I want my pap smear, NEVER thought I would have to demand a pap smear, sheesh am I right ladies, least favorite thing about being a woman? pap smears and mammograms
but ya know UK wont pay for them the way we do as part of routine care, cost control….
Hey nitwits on the Hill! You cant work we GEN Xers until we are 85 unless you give us our damned hip replacements- Bernie I am talking to you!
Update: In the clip, Bernie makes a lot out of the high administrative cost of benefits in CA, staying it is a rip off. Maybe he should consult with an insurer before he makes these invalid assumptions. no doubt they were briefed by the SEIU at the ‘summit’ lol.
As someone who spent 20 years in various aspects of medical insurance, the bulk of it in claims processing, let me attest to the fact that the reason it is much more expensive to adjudicate medical claims for CA insureds is the incredible number of state mandates on benefits in CA.
For example, I have worked in situations where we had to set the software up to kick out virtually every CA claim for manual adjudication, because the software cannot handle the multiple state mandates, eligibility and timely processing edits on auto adjudication.
It is a well known pearl of wisdom among health insurance workers who are in the know, to live in CA if you plan to have a baby since their maternity leave is the best, the same thing is true of their state mandates for health care and benefits. A person has to manually look at most of their claims, well woman exams are different there, pregnancy is different there, pre existing is different there, anything they could think of to legislate they did and continue to do
No doubt that is one reason why CA is broke…do they not realize the same economic motivations that would impel a business or a person to move in to or out of a state, ie tax rates, regulation, ALSO impel people to move to a state for better Nanny benefits? again no doubt why CA has such a large drain on its social services..it is basic economic theory and human behavior…
To quote Field of Dreams, If you cover them, they will come…
Update 2:MO Crowds Protest TOTUS at town hall: Crowds for Me but Not for Thee: Obama bashes Tea Parties…
Update 2: Instapundit has it via Gateway Pundit, hundreds of Tea Party protesters showed up at TOTUS’ town hall in MO, BWAAAHAAAAA! And recall at the MO Tea Party they marched to Clare McCaskill’s office, Disclaimer I cant stand clare and her two faced ‘take Big Dawgs help to win while bad mouthing him to the media’ ways..ugh clare….
MO Tea Party Protestors Greet Obama in St Louis ; FM Radio host Dana Loesch addresses crowd (Gateway Pundit)
Phoenix Tax Day Tea Party (Photo Credit: Brad)
ginaswo
