Health Care

[Cleo's Mom 257]

I'm pretty sure Laura Bush's trips to Paris and Budapest were paid for with tax payer money as well as her month long trip to Africa with her two daughters.

But of course the hypocritical republicans will justify those trips. They were for this or that, blah, blah, blah.

I don't ever recall the cost of Laura Bush's trips being a point of contention, even as soldiers were dying because of an unnecessary war her husband had started costing billions we had to borrow from China and which contributed to our debt.

No, there was no outcry then. But why now with Michelle Obama. Well, the republicans have nothing to offer the american people. Nothing but tax cuts for the rich and deregulation of corporations. So, they have to deflect from this by picking on Michelle Obama.

Their criticism of her isn't creating one new job or helping us become energy independent or fixing our crumbling infrastructure. It is just a deflection from the fact that

THEY HAVE NOTHING............

[pattygreen 5]

I'm pretty sure Laura Bush's trips to Paris and Budapest were paid for with tax payer money as well as her month long trip to Africa with her two daughters.

And at that time, were the people screaming about financial reform, or were the people going through a hard economic time of depression? I think not. That's why no one cared.

But of course the hypocritical republicans will justify those trips. They were for this or that, blah, blah, blah.

I don't ever recall the cost of Laura Bush's trips being a point of contention, even as soldiers were dying because of an unnecessary war her husband had started costing billions we had to borrow from China and which contributed to our debt.

No, there was no outcry then. But why now with Michelle Obama.

It MUST be cause she's black!

Well, the republicans have nothing to offer the american people. Nothing but tax cuts for the rich and deregulation of corporations. So, they have to deflect from this by picking on Michelle Obama.

Their criticism of her isn't creating one new job or helping us become energy independent or fixing our crumbling infrastructure. It is just a deflection from the fact that

THEY HAVE NOTHING............

.......................................................................

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Six million jobs were lost under the bush regime.

Unemployment went from 4% to 8.1%

Two costly wars (that weren't paid for and added to our deficit) were started costing the lives of thousands.

The recession and bank bail out started under bush.

And still, no complaints about Laura Bush's travels, the cost of the plane or security. Hmmm.

That's because the conservative media gave her a free pass and the democrats were busy trying to get this country out of the messes bush made and didn't have to focus on the first lady like the party of no has to do now.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 11, 2010

Obama Improves, More See Bush Responsible for Economy

Raleigh, N.C. –

After an unusually bad July in PPP’s national poll, President Barack

Obama has seen a lot of improvement on several fronts. His national approval rating has

rebounded, moving from 48-47 in June, to 45-52 last month, back to 47-48 now. For five

of the last eight months, Obama has been one point above or below breaking even; in

others, he was two points below and four points above.

PPP has asked voters’ approval of Obama’s health care plan for 12 months now, and with

46% approving and 48% disapproving,(within the margin of error) that is the highest level of approval and the

second best approval margin since the first month, September 2009, when it was 45-46.

This marks a huge shift since July (40-53). (People are starting to see the lies about healthcare for what they are)

In another improvement for Obama, 50% still say they prefer having Obama as president,

compared to 43% who would rather have George W. Bush back. In April, Obama won

only 48-46. While independents this year generally favor Republican candidates and

disapprove of Obama, they prefer Obama against Bush, 53-36, versus April’s 49-37.

When asked who they think is more responsible for the state of the economy, 49% picked

Bush, to 40% choosing Obama. Independents say Bush, 52-38. Fewer Republicans,

75%, pick Obama than Democrats pick Bush, 81%.

public policy polling

People are starting to see through the lies about healthcare as well as realizing all the things this democratic congress has gotten accomplished: successful stimulus that created or saved jobs, healthcare reform, financial reform, equal pay act, state aid for teachers, police, firefighters and medicaid, etc..saving more jobs...etc...

Edited August 14, 2010 by Cleo's Mom

[pattygreen 5]

TEN POOREST CITIES

City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level

1. Detroit , MI 32.5%

2. Buffalo , NY 29..9%

3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8%

4. Cleveland , OH 27.0%

5. Miami , FL 26.9%

6. St. Louis , MO 26.8%

7. El Paso , TX 26.4%

8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%

9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%

10. Newark , NJ 24.2%

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007

What do the Top Ten Poorest cities (over 250,000) with the highest

poverty rate all have in common?

Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) has not elected a Republican

mayor since 1961.

Buffalo, NY (2nd) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1954.

Cincinnati, OH (3rd) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1984.

Cleveland, OH (4th) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1989.

Miami, FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor.

St. Louis, MO (6th) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1949.

El Paso, TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor.

Milwaukee, WI (8th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1908.

Philadelphia, PA (9th) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1952.

Newark, NJ (10th) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1907.

It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats Yet they are still POOR!

Einstein once said, 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing

over and over again and expecting different results.'

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them,

what they could and should do for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln

And...Mr. Obama, you are no Abe Lincoln!

[pattygreen 5]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 11, 2010

Obama Improves, More See Bush Responsible for Economy

Raleigh, N.C. –

After an unusually bad July in PPP’s national poll, President Barack

Obama has seen a lot of improvement on several fronts. His national approval rating has

rebounded, moving from 48-47 in June, to 45-52 last month, back to 47-48 now. For five

of the last eight months, Obama has been one point above or below breaking even; in

others, he was two points below and four points above.

PPP has asked voters’ approval of Obama’s health care plan for 12 months now, and with

46% approving and 48% disapproving,(within the margin of error) that is the highest level of approval and the

second best approval margin since the first month, September 2009, when it was 45-46.

This marks a huge shift since July (40-53). (People are starting to see the lies about healthcare for what they are)

In another improvement for Obama, 50% still say they prefer having Obama as president,

compared to 43% who would rather have George W. Bush back. In April, Obama won

only 48-46. While independents this year generally favor Republican candidates and

disapprove of Obama, they prefer Obama against Bush, 53-36, versus April’s 49-37.

When asked who they think is more responsible for the state of the economy, 49% picked

Bush, to 40% choosing Obama. Independents say Bush, 52-38. Fewer Republicans,

75%, pick Obama than Democrats pick Bush, 81%.

public policy polling

People are starting to see through the lies about healthcare as well as realizing all the things this democratic congress has gotten accomplished: successful stimulus that created or saved jobs, healthcare reform, financial reform, equal pay act, state aid for teachers, police, firefighters and medicaid, etc..saving more jobs...etc...

Keep telling yourself that. Maybe it will become true. :cursing:

[Cleo's Mom 257]

More recent and accurate data reflecting the recession, not old news from 2008.

America's 10 Poorest Cities

October 19, 2009

From the South to the West Coast, These Are the Places Where People Are the Poorest

The Great Recession is rewriting the rules of American poverty. Data from the Census Bureau, released in September, show that during the first year of the recession, incomes fell farther and poverty leaped higher than during almost any other time in a generation.

In 2008, U.S. median income fell to $50,303 from $52,163 in 2007. That 3.6% decline is the largest one-year drop since records begin. The poverty rate increased to 13.2% from 12.5%, meaning the recession has brought 2.6 million more Americans into poverty. The Economic Policy Institute projects that in the next two years, incomes could decline by another $3,000 and poverty could increase by 1.9 percentage points.

From Forbes.com

Just as the recession has changed the map of unemployment (see "Stars and Jobless Stripes"), it has redrawn the contours of poverty.

In Depth: America's 10 Most Expensive Cities

To find out who is being hit worst, we used new data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey. Although the Census Bureau defines poverty simply as people earning below a certain income level, (which varies based on family size) we also looked at per capita incomes for a region, the percentage of food stamp recipients, the percentage of people under age 65 receiving public health care and the unemployment rate.

Poverty may once have been worst in the Deep South. And cities on the border with Mexico are plagued with poverty. But the recession--and the decline of American manufacturing--has left Rust Belt cities with comparable levels of poverty. The problem is concentrated in these three regions. All 10 cities on our list are southern cities, border cities or declining manufacturing centers. (not exactly democratic areas)

Four southern cities make the list: Pine Bluff, Ark.; Albany and Macon, Ga.; and Rocky Mount, N.C. (all republican areas)In these cities, per capita incomes are between $18,000 and $23,000, but the bottom 20% are bringing in between $7,500 and $8,500.

The most impoverished region is at the southern tip of Texas. (I'm not sure you could find a democrat in Texas)The metropolitan statistical areas for McAllen and Brownsville, Texas, have the lowest incomes and most food stamp recipients of any in America.

"When looking at the entire [metro area] we have a lot of communities that do have large pockets of poverty," says Mike Perez, the city manager of McAllen, Texas. "A lot are recent immigrants--that's part of it. There's a language barrier. And because they're recent immigrants, they don't have the education. That's tied to having jobs that pay well. It's a bit of a vicious cycle."

Edited August 15, 2010 by Cleo's Mom

[loserbob 11]

Could you please repeat that?

Patty I think you forgot something, I say I think because I sure as hell aint reading all that. Anyway, you forgot billions and billions of dollars on 2 wars, for what? You tell me what was accomplished by Bush starting 2 wars. It wasnt the billions we've borrowed to fund the war, it cant be the thousands of dead, injured soldiers who came back to this country(if they where lucky enough)to find their jobs had been filled by someone else. So what was accomplished? Your right, Bush got even richer!

[loserbob 11]

TEN POOREST CITIES

City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level

1. Detroit , MI 32.5%

2. Buffalo , NY 29..9%

3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8%

4. Cleveland , OH 27.0%

5. Miami , FL 26.9%

6. St. Louis , MO 26.8%

7. El Paso , TX 26.4%

8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%

9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%

10. Newark , NJ 24.2%

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007

What do the Top Ten Poorest cities (over 250,000) with the highest

poverty rate all have in common?

Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) has not elected a Republican

mayor since 1961.

Buffalo, NY (2nd) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1954.

Cincinnati, OH (3rd) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1984.

Cleveland, OH (4th) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1989.

Miami, FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor.

St. Louis, MO (6th) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1949.

El Paso, TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor.

Milwaukee, WI (8th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1908.

Philadelphia, PA (9th) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1952.

Newark, NJ (10th) has not elected a Republican mayor since 1907.

It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats Yet they are still POOR!

Einstein once said, 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing

over and over again and expecting different results.'

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them,

what they could and should do for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln

And...Mr. Obama, you are no Abe Lincoln!

Yah, mayor. He can do alot!

BIGGEST problem, Bush 2000-08, devastating is probably a good word to describe him!

[Cleo's Mom 257]

On Tax Cuts and Stimulus

Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 01:48:48 PM PDT

As we continue to try to stimulate the economy, there is much discussion about continuing the Bush Tax Cuts. One position is they are simulative to the economy, while the other position is that they add to the debt.

Guess what? Tax cuts for the rich depress the economy. Tax cuts for the poor, on the other hand, stimulate the economy.

The real problem in discussing the effects of various stimuli is that, for many politicians, ideology trumps facts. Most recently, McConnell said that tax cuts for the rich paid for themselves, and this week John Boehner refused to say that they did or didn’t pay for themselves when asked by David Gregory.

The idea behind a stimulus is to get money moving and passing through many hands, allowing a high multiplier effect. If the first person gets a dollar and spends 95 cents of it and each recipient of part of his 95 cents spends 95% of it (90 cents), we have $1.85 of economic activity taking place (so far). Next of course, lots of the 90 cents will be spent, with smaller amounts in each cycle (81 cents and $2.66 stimulus after round three) until the money is completely spent.

When someone takes the money out of circulation and saves or invests it, the multiplier stops.

The gold standard for facts in Washington is the Congressional Budget Office, so I will use their figures.

CBO Dollar of stimulation per dollar spent

$1.73 – food stamps

$1.64 – Extending Unemployment Insurance

$1.59 – Infrastructure spending

$1.36 – Aid to states

$1.26 – Refundable tax credit

$1.03 – Temporary tax cut

$1.02 – Non-refundable tax rebate

$.48 – Extend AMT patch

$.37 – Make dividend and capital gains permanent

$.30 – Corporate tax cut

$.29 - Make Bush tax cuts permanent

$.27 – Accelerated depreciation

If we look at the CBO estimates, the payback on the Bush tax cuts is that the economy gets 29 cents of stimulus for every dollar spent. Is this a good investment? $.29 on the dollar? (The rich think so). In other words, the Bush Tax Cuts are de-stimulative – they act to slow down the economy!!

On the other hand, food stamps get $1.73 of stimulus and unemployment insurance gets $1.64 of stimulus. Infrastructure gets $1.59, aid to the states gets $1.36. That is stimulation – we get more economic activity that we put in!

I’m going to propose a hypothesis that is blindly simple and consistent with the facts:

The richer the recipient of money is, the less likely they are to spend it.

To stimulate the economy, raise taxes on the rich and lower them on the poor.

To stimulate the rich, give them tax cuts.

dailykos

Also, a 2008 study by the Center for American Progress documents that investments and economic growth were STRONGER after 1993 tax increases than they were following tax cuts in 1981 and 2001.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Cleo's Mom

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Here's why our healthcare premiums are so high and why healthcare costs are skyrocketing.

Insurance companies don't do a thorough investigation of hospital bills unless they are $100,000+

Thus when a hospital billed the following:

-$1000 for a toothbrush

-$150 for one tylenol

- billed for 41 saline bags when only one was used

they paid it!!!

Are you kidding me? With their obscene profits you'd think they could afford to contract a software engineer to come up with a program to red flag bills that don't seem "right" and then hire enough people to monitor these bills closely.

And the hospitals that try to get away with this abuse should be heavily fined.

[BJean 16]

I paid all of my deductibles up front before my revision surgery. I paid the doctor, the hospital and for all pre-surgical tests. I was told that I had pre-paid EVERYTHING. That was in April. The bills are still trickling in. $13 here, $250 there and practicaly every number inbetween. They claim part of the anesthesia wasn't covered by my prepay, some test or other, some assistant or other, etc. Plus they often bill me twice for the same thing in one month - in other words, double billing. In the first instance it happened, I paid it without realizing it and the jerks billed me again the next month after I had already paid it twice. Who knows what all these random charges are. A lot of them don't even show what the bill is for. Just a charge relating to that surgery. If I don't pay them I'll be reported to the credit companies and wreck my credit. If I try to talk to someone I spend half a day first on hold and then holding while someone is supposedly checking after which they come on the line and promise to call me back.

It is the biggest mess! And people like patty want to keep this system? They fault our president and congress for wanting to make it better? Are they crazy or just plain stupid? Or perhaps wealthy beyond belief so that it just doesn't matter to them?

[pattygreen 5]

I paid all of my deductibles up front before my revision surgery. I paid the doctor, the hospital and for all pre-surgical tests. I was told that I had pre-paid EVERYTHING. That was in April. The bills are still trickling in. $13 here, $250 there and practicaly every number inbetween. They claim part of the anesthesia wasn't covered by my prepay, some test or other, some assistant or other, etc. Plus they often bill me twice for the same thing in one month - in other words, double billing. In the first instance it happened, I paid it without realizing it and the jerks billed me again the next month after I had already paid it twice. Who knows what all these random charges are. A lot of them don't even show what the bill is for. Just a charge relating to that surgery. If I don't pay them I'll be reported to the credit companies and wreck my credit. If I try to talk to someone I spend half a day first on hold and then holding while someone is supposedly checking after which they come on the line and promise to call me back.

It is the biggest mess! And people like patty want to keep this system? They fault our president and congress for wanting to make it better? Are they crazy or just plain stupid? Or perhaps wealthy beyond belief so that it just doesn't matter to them?

Where, in this president's plan, does he change all that from happening? No where!

[Cleo's Mom 257]

I paid all of my deductibles up front before my revision surgery. I paid the doctor, the hospital and for all pre-surgical tests. I was told that I had pre-paid EVERYTHING. That was in April. The bills are still trickling in. $13 here, $250 there and practicaly every number inbetween. They claim part of the anesthesia wasn't covered by my prepay, some test or other, some assistant or other, etc. Plus they often bill me twice for the same thing in one month - in other words, double billing. In the first instance it happened, I paid it without realizing it and the jerks billed me again the next month after I had already paid it twice. Who knows what all these random charges are. A lot of them don't even show what the bill is for. Just a charge relating to that surgery. If I don't pay them I'll be reported to the credit companies and wreck my credit. If I try to talk to someone I spend half a day first on hold and then holding while someone is supposedly checking after which they come on the line and promise to call me back.

It is the biggest mess! And people like patty want to keep this system? They fault our president and congress for wanting to make it better? Are they crazy or just plain stupid? Or perhaps wealthy beyond belief so that it just doesn't matter to them?

Healthcare Reform Law: Healthcare Fraud and Abuse and

Program Integrity Provisions

March 31, 2010

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, as amended by the Health Care and Education

Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the Healthcare Reform Law), contains more than 32 sections related to

healthcare fraud and abuse and program integrity and makes significant amendments to existing

criminal, civil, and administrative anti-fraud statutes.(This would cover double billing and $1000 toothbrushes) The new program integrity provisions impose

substantial requirements that will compel updates and enhancements to business operations, commercial

transactions, and compliance policies in every sector of the health industry. These provisions establish

fundamental expectations for regulatory compliance, disclosure, transparency, and quality of care and

are matched by extraordinary enforcement provisions that could greatly increase potential legal

exposure.

Healthcare entities should reinforce their broad and sustained commitment to compliance to

successfully implement these provisions.

This alert presents a brief summary of the major fraud and abuse provisions in the Healthcare Reform

Law as well as an overview of the program integrity provisions. Morgan Lewis has also prepared a

detailed chart1 outlining the fraud and abuse and program integrity provisions in the Healthcare Reform

Law, many of which we note became effective on the date of enactment, March 23, 2010, and will

require prompt compliance attention.

These provisions will also significantly impact government audit, investigation, and litigation resources

and the structure for intra-agency cooperation. To address the impact on key program integrity and law

enforcement agencies, the Healthcare Reform Law provides for the HIPAA Fraud and Abuse Control

Program and the Medicare Integrity Program to receive total funding of $100 million for FY 2011

through 2020 under the March 23, 2010 legislation and an additional $250 million for FY 2011 through

2016 under the Reconciliation legislation, for a total of $350 million.

BJean, you should report these double billings, etc. to whoever in your state has authority over hospitals.

[pattygreen 5]

32 sections related to

healthcare fraud and abuse and program integrity and makes significant amendments to existing

criminal, civil, and administrative anti-fraud statutes.(This would cover double billing and $1000 toothbrushes)[end]

Show me the ammendments that protect you from fraudulent charges in your medical bills.