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Sunday, November 01, 2009
Posted
11/01/2009 08:44:00 PM
by Dr. Saunders (0) comments  
Posted
11/01/2009 08:25:00 PM
by Dr. Saunders Can Congress require every person to buy health insurance? In short, no. The Constitution assigns only limited, enumerated powers to Congress and none, including the power to regulate interstate commerce or to impose taxes, would support a federal mandate requiring anyone who is otherwise without health insurance to buy it? Even if Obamacare passes, it will be overturned as unconstitutional. Central Planning is antithetical to the founders intention. The Federalist Society gives a compelling argument against the individual mandate. Here is a favorite exerpt: As part of comprehensive legislation to change the health care system in the United States, several key congressional leaders – and President Obama – are proposing a new federal law to require every American to purchase health care insurance coverage, a so-called “individual mandate.” Failure to comply with this mandate to purchase health insurance would subject a person to fines, penalties, or excise taxes. This individual mandate, if passed, would be an unprecedented federal directive that might call into question the constitutionality of such an action under Congress’s taxation or interstate commerce “regulatory” authority, as well the ramifications of such a mandate under the First Amendment’s “free exercise” protections and Fifth Amendment protections against governmental “takings.” (0) comments
Posted
11/01/2009 08:17:00 PM
by Dr. Saunders From Rasmussen Reports Republican Robert F. McDonnell has now opened a 13-point lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds with less than a week to go in the race for governor of Virginia.
HELLO Republicans! These are CONSERVATIVE candidates that are winning. Might be a good idea to nominate a Neo-Con in 2012. (0) comments
Posted
11/01/2009 08:02:00 PM
by Dr. Saunders GOP Candidate Drops Out of Special NY Congressional Race, Leaving Democrat and Conservative Party Candidate in Two-Way Race This is an interesting wake-up call to the Republican party. It shows that a third party "Conservative" style party could possibly win in the General election? I hope the idiotic Republican's wake up and smell the coffee. The conservative agenda is what America needs most now. (1) comments
Monday, October 26, 2009
Posted
10/26/2009 06:22:00 PM
by Dr. Saunders As the Juntoboys roving reporter I found the following images interesting. Firstly, it is I and my lovely wife in front of our 1st President's home in Virgina at his Mt. Vernon estate. Inside the estate was the second picture which is a "period" piece from Washington's time. "Beware the Tax Collector" says the sign with tar and feathers at the ready. Just down the street was the 3rd photo. "Paid for by the Investment and Recovery Act" aka the So-called stimulus/porkulus law. My how things have changed.    (1) comments
Friday, October 02, 2009
Posted
10/02/2009 05:01:00 AM
by Tom Check out his backtrack on "racist" Obama opponents. (0) comments
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Posted
9/17/2009 04:09:00 PM
by E I sure wish ACORN had been exposed a year ago.
(0) comments
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Posted
8/26/2009 07:44:00 PM
by Dr. Saunders There was a great story on NPR today that bares taking a look at in it's entirety. My favorite quote of the story, "We believe, after looking at the evidence, my co-author [David Blumenthal] and I, that if the true cost of Medicare had been known — if Johnson hadn't basically hidden them — the program would never have passed. America's second-most beloved program would never have happened, if we had had genuine cost estimates." Hilarious how the Left sees the world, "Beloved Program", It is going bankrupt ya know! This story was written with the premise, "This is how we did it before and maybe how we can do it again." But what it really shows is the deception and suppression of facts that the Democratic Left engaged in back during the "Great Society" and how they are continuing the same tactics today. The only difference is that blogs, talk radio, and alternative media help expose the truth without filtering from the State owned media. (0) comments
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Posted
8/15/2009 12:06:00 PM
by Tom It was certainly a shot in the arm to see the CEO of Whole Foods make a case for the free market in his Wall Street Journal article. If you haven't seen it, you can read it here. He's been taking a lot of heat so I left this comment on his blog: I don't understand the outrage leveled against you. The point of shopping at Whole Foods is to rely on healthy living to avoid the medical system as much as possible. A government medical plan is going to disproportionately subsidize the very people who eat junk food and let themselves go. Those of us who shop at Whole Foods for health reasons benefit the most from a free market system. I guess I overestimated the number of pretentious people who shop there only to make themselves feel socially conscious. I'm happy that you stood up for the consumer and I'll be back to Whole Foods again and again. Labels: Political Philosophy (0) comments
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Posted
8/12/2009 09:50:00 PM
by Tom Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!! In a recent speech the President said that doctors are paid more for amputating the limb of a diabetes victim than they are paid for keeping that same patient healthy to prevent the amputation. He got to the heart of something important in the reform debate that I don’t think he realized. Much of the debate is about the intentions of the government rather than the incentives that such a sweeping bill would create. Obama does not want to euthanize your grandmother, but he did recently question whether his own grandmother should have received a hip replacement near the end of her life. What he was addressing is that the government is not going to be able to conquer the scarcity of resources. No one can. The difference in the government plan is that a civil servant will decide who gets what instead of an insurance adjuster. Democrats are not going to outlaw private health insurance. That’s what doomed the 1993 plan. But the incentives in the bill will make many corporations decide to end their own health insurance plans because those plans will become more costly with the reform. Many corporations are longing for the government to take this expense off their ledgers, so in some ways the reform is corporate welfare. The President does not want to implement Soviet style rationing. But someone is still going to have to manage scarce resources and people won’t all get what they want even if they are paying a greater amount of the taxes to create such a plan. Cancer survival rates are higher in American than in Canada and Great Britain because it’s more likely here that you’ll get timely treatment under the current system. Medicare is growing broke without any nefarious plan from Obama. In fact, the way the government has mishandled Medicare should give anyone pause that national health care won’t find the same problems. One thing that the President will not address is the lottery lawsuits that are causing so much of the health care expense in this country. There are places in America with inadequate OBGYN doctors because the malpractice insurance is too costly for a small town practice. Great Britain has a loser pays system and that keeps the frivolous suits from coming before a judge. Here attorneys can make litigation so expensive that insurance companies will settle cases because it would be more cost-prohibitive to win. Rather than trust the intentions of any politician we need to ask whether the incentives of a reform plan are likely to create unintended consequences that are worse than the current problems. And likewise we should ask what incentives a health care bill should have to ensure that we’ll get the results that we the taxpayer desire. Neither is being addressed in the debate. It's become a sporting event in the media. Labels: Political Philosophy, Politics (0) comments
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Posted
7/29/2009 09:27:00 AM
by E I ain't no genius, but this doesn't sound good. Here are the numbers for the first nine months of the 2009 U.S. fiscal year, which ends September 30th. Federal receipts are down 18% from 2008 levels. Individual income tax receipts are down 22%, and corporate tax receipts are down 57%. Meanwhile, federal outlays are up. . . a lot. The budget deficit for the nine months now stands at $1.086 trillion versus a deficit of $286 billion over the same nine months of fiscal year 2008. (1) comments
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Posted
7/22/2009 08:15:00 PM
by Dr. Saunders SirSaunders' Analysis: Obama: "It meets with my agenda to tax the Rich" Further Socialist agenda proof. "We have to make the changes, Doctors are paid for quality not quantity care." In other words, Doctors will become Government bureaucrats, employed by Gov. not the patient. Reporter--"Why the rush to pass by August?" Obama: "I'm rushed from families everyday that are getting clobbered by healthcare costs, can you help?" Ahhhhh!! It's an emergency!! What it really means, I know 2010 the Dems will get booted out and I'll never get anything passed. "I'm not going to sign a bill that will add to our deficit or will work. My measure is listening to the American people and healthcare experts and have shown in some communities that healthcare can deliver a better result." ??? How can he ever sign ANY bill that meets the standard of not adding to the deficit or adding to healthcare inflation. Certainly the current House bill does that. I see this an an outright lie! This is absurd. He simply won't get a bill that doesn't do that. See CATO's commentary on this. Further, now the AMA support the house bill because they've paid off the Dr's by increasing the medicare reimbursement for them. It's good for me right now, but won't be for the overall healthcare system in the future. "I haven't really been blaming the Republican's" Then he went on the blame the Republican's except for Olympia Snow and other RINO's who voted for the stupid Stimulus package. Why are these people in the GOP? Sacrifices: Reporter--"People will have to give up tests, end of life care, etc." Obama--"They'll have to give up paying for things that don't make them healthier." IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS MR. PRESIDENT IF I CHOOSE TO SMOKE, EAT A DONUT, EAT A BUCKET OF LARD, or SIT ON MY FAT BUTT!! Geesh! Talk about a Statist!! Blah blah blah, I got tired of listening and switched over to a MASH re-run. (0) comments
Monday, July 13, 2009
Posted
7/13/2009 01:26:00 PM
by E Obama just named Regina Benjamin the new Surgeon General. I remember reading a feature on her years ago in my alumni magazine, how she eschewed the riches due her as a doctor to work with po folks on Bayou La Batre. Bush hates poor people. And black people. He hates anybody of color who is poor and colorful. Obama nominated a woman of color to the Supreme Court and the bad Republicans are yelling at her. Obama loves everybody very much. He loves those who follow him and place their trust in him. He is the lover of the world, bless his soul forever. (1) comments
Monday, July 06, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Posted
6/30/2009 08:56:00 PM
by Tom Sean sent me an article promoting it. Since I went to the trouble of refuting it, I might as well preach to my buddies the choir. As our lawmakers struggle to come up with improvements to our failing health care system, we as concerned citizens have a responsibility to become more knowledgeable about this issue and to lend our voices and opinions to the debate. Since the United States is the ONLY industrialized nation without universal coverage, it may be helpful to compare the systems of other nations in determining what models might work here. In 1787 America became the ONLY one of the aforementioned nations that didn’t have a king or emperor? Europe traded theirs for socialism.
To control costs, the NHS does not cover certain high cost treatments that are often ineffective. The most common complaints about the NHS involve waiting times—particularly for elective surgeries such as hip replacements. These are not small questions. Once you cover everyone in a single system the only point of savings is the individual. Some bureaucrat gets to decide whether you get your transplant. Numerous stories of how people with treatable cancer die in Britain on waiting lists is no small matter either. Britain spends only 8.3% of its GDP on health care, or an average of $2723 per person per year. The World Health Organization (WHO), which ranked the US 37th in the world in overall health care, ranked Britain’s system 18th. Other countries with systems similar to Britain’s include Spain (7th), Norway (11th), and Sweden (23rd). By what criteria does WHO rank each country? I want to know how many people travel from the United States to each of these countries to be treated for rare diseases and vice versa. If their health care is the best then there would be no reason for them to come to America. The health care systems of Germany, France and Japan are “insurance based” systems, similar to the US, but with several major differences. The first is that insurance is provided on a non-profit basis. Why doesn’t the Left put their energy into a non-profit insurance company in this country? If what they say is true they could put private insurance out of business. The second is that insurance is paid for by payroll deduction, similar to the way we pay for Social Security coverage. Another difference is that coverage is universal—no one can be excluded based on age, health status, etc. Unlike Britain, the government does not own or operate hospitals and doctors are in private practice or are employees of hospitals. Well, if the model is Social Security then I know exactly how solvent the system is.
In Japan, employers and employees each contribute 4% of payroll to mandatory national health insurance plans. While taxes are lower, the Japanese pay more in deductibles and co-pays for inpatient and outpatient care (30% for outpatient care and 20% for inpatient hospitalizations.) The Japanese spend 8% of GDP, or an average of $2358 per citizen per year on health care. The WHO ranked Japan 10th and Germany 25th in overall health care. Here we all pay the same amount for the same care as anyone else in our country. But In Japan you are punished for making more money. The country ranked Number One in health care is France. The French system has the most comprehensive coverage in the world, with quality care, excellent choices of doctors and specialists, and with no waiting time. The French system taxes employers 13.1% of payroll and employees 0.75% of payroll. Wrong! French Employers pay nothing. The 13.1% paid by employers is actually wages that the employee never sees. In what way are the choices excellent? And if waiting times in other countries are insignificant then why is it significant to mention that France doesn’t have them? Most people (87%) have additional private for-profit supplemental insurance. Income taxes provide coverage for the elderly and unemployed. The French pay higher taxes, which they accept as a necessity. They spend 11.1% of GDP on health care and costs average $3374 per person per year. Why is private insurance a necessity when they are already paying 13% in payroll taxes?
Our Medicare system is going broke like Canada. In Canada, all insured people are required to be covered for all medically necessary hospital and physician care without co-pays or user fees. About 70% of total health care spending is financed by the public sector through income taxes, payroll taxes and sales taxes. Many Canadians obtain private insurance to cover prescription drugs, rehabilitation services, vision and dental care, which accounts for the remaining 30%. Canada spends 9.9% of GDP on health care, or $3678 per person. Who decides what is necessary and are they rewarded for turning people down? How is it financed by the public sector? Do they own a football team or Exxon? No, they take the money from productive people. And on top of all those taxes they need private insurance anyway. While Canadians complain of long waits for elective procedures and to see specialists, surveys show that a majority of Canadians are happy with their health care delivery system. House slaves were pretty happy with their lives too in comparison.
China is a communist country. Why doesn’t their socialism cover the best health care possible? According to T.R. Reid, a Washington Post correspondent who has written extensively on health care issues, our fragmented national health care apparatus has elements of all these models. Our veteran’s health care system is like Britain’s, Medicare is like Canada’s, our employer-based insurance is like Germany’s or Japan’s (with the exception that most of the insurance industry in the US operates on a for-profit basis), while our 47+ million uninsured Americans might as well live in India. Really, better in India? Health Insurance came about in the United States during World War II. Before that were people better off in India? No country has the perfect health care system and perhaps none of these systems would be perfect for the United States. You should note however that, contrary to what the scary “Harry and Louise” type ads might imply, in ALL these systems, patients have a choice of doctors! Wrong! You only have a choice of doctors in countries where it pays for the smartest most dedicated people to become doctors. That doesn’t happen in countries that control health care. Medicare is a year behind paying Sir Saunders his money from patients because they can be as late as they want. The US spends a larger percentage of GDP (15.3%) and more per person ($6714) than any other country in the world—and unlike the US, the other 39 countries with established systems cover all of their citizens. Anywhere else in government progressives will point to the amount of money spent and use it as justification for a superior system. Have you ever heard them brag that America’s education is better because we spend less money than Germany? Whether we end up with a hybrid system like we have now or a system like the ones detailed above, we cannot solve our health care problems without finding a way to cover all Americans, without controlling administrative costs and without reducing wasteful, unnecessary and ineffective treatments and procedures. Those efficiencies are impossible without Tort Reform which is not a part of this proposal. And we all know the government is a master at reducing administrative costs. Look at how little the Department of Education, Labor, Commerce etc cost. Labels: Politics (1) comments
Monday, June 29, 2009
Posted
6/29/2009 04:49:00 PM
by E Not what you think. On Flag Day (June 14) my wife and I took a little getaway to a quaint small town in PA. We were strolling about the town when the sounds of live music drew us to the town square, to what turned out to be a Flag Day ceremony presented annually by the Elks lodge. A succession of Boy Scouts, in pairs, marched old flag after old flag to its ceremonial position on the platform. Old men presented a brief history of each flag in what amounted to a pretty comprehensive US history lesson. "The price of liberty is constant vigilance" was a theme. Many versions of the stars and stripes were honored, as well as the POW-MIA flag. The local community band ("All Instruments - No Auditions") performed traditional favorites: The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, a medley of Sousa marches, America the Beautiful, and others. We had followed the band's trailer into town but thought nothing of it at the time. Everyone stood and pledged allegiance to the flag. Finally the flag burning. A beat-up old flag was given an honorable retirement from service -- "presented for inspection and dignified disposal" ... "honorably retired from further service" ... it had "reached its present state through honorable service to our country" ... "worn out in worthy service" ... "retired and replaced" ... "fittingly destroyed." All the vets stood at attention while this was taking place. Man with bugle played Taps as an old vet set the folded flag ablaze in an urn. The event was carried out with assistance from the local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, VFW, and American Legion. It was the kind of afternoon that Manhattan ridicules and that makes me proud to be an American. I really enjoyed it. (3) comments
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Posted
6/25/2009 01:45:00 PM
by E R.I.P. We remember with fondness and gratitude the contribution she made to our young lives.  (0) comments
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