Representation?

When will we all wake up and see what is going on? We acknowledge the signs of what is happening but we really don’t connect the dots very well. We don’t connect one action with another let alone link three, four or five incidents together. We don’t want to believe our elected officials are really bad people. Oh, we will say they are inept or dumb or out of touch but we will not believe they would purposely hurt us. But they will.

I have written my Congressman and Senators and I’ve heard back from them. The bottom line is they don’t care about what we, the citizens want. I asked Senator Specter, last December, not to support the health care reform bill in front of him. He sent me a canned message three months later, just like Senator Casey and Congressman Doyle. His support for the current health care legislation is even more encompassing that what is already on the table. He looks at this legislation as only the beginning of health care reform. He believes that it may take a few more bills over the next few years to expand government health care and elevate it to a right of all citizens. That’s code for socialized medicine.

Senator Specter wants health care to become a right and he wants that health care to include abortion. That’s not all, by supporting the current legislation he supports reducing Medicare costs, that’s code for reducing benefits. That means take health care away from senior citizens. Senator Casey, in his response said the bill slashes hundreds of billions from Medicare to fund a new government program, cuts to hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices that care for senior citizens. That is code for euthanasia. He went on to say the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that health care reform will cost $871 billion over the next ten years and is projected to reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion during the same period. None of them mention the additional taxes we are going to pay to fund the trillion dollar cost.

I do not believe that abortion is health care and I do not believe euthanasia is health care. My representatives do not support my beliefs. My President wants a health care bill on his desk by the end of the week and insists he will get it.

I’ve got a suggestion for all those elected officials who say this health care bill will work as good as they say it will. If you are so sure that you can make our health care system better, start by; funding the already existing veterans hospitals so they can take care of all of our veterans, totally fund the Veterans Administration to take care of Gulf War Syndrome, totally fund the Veterans Administration to take care of our Atomic Vets, totally fund the Veterans Administration to take care of our Agent Orange Vets, totally fund Tri-Care (military health insurance) for active duty and retired veterans that can be used in any health care facility in the United States, and while you’re at it reduce the wait time for the 90,000 veterans still waiting for their cases to be rated.

It is time we all say no to socialism and let freedom ring. We need to take our country back from this type of politician. They are a cancer to our liberty and freedom. The door bell is ringing gentlemen, it’s time you get out of our house.

Hospitals

Braddock Hospital closed and the residents of the area were jumping up and down about how UPMC was only interested in profits and not the needs of the poor people in Braddock. The people of Braddock weren’t watching as their hospital stopped being profitable and went into the red. The people will not have a hospital just down the street anymore. But should they have been surprised? What has happened to our health care system generally and our hospitals specifically?

St. Johns General Hospital went out of business a few years ago. It changed its name to St. Johns ADR Center before it closed but nobody thought much of the name change or the change in services. The McClure Avenue hospital is nothing but a vacant lot now.

Divine Providence Hospital went out of business also. Well, it didn’t go out of business exactly, it lost the Divine Providence Sisters, changed its name a few times and it is more than a vacant lot so I guess it has not gone the way of St. Johns yet.

Before we go the way of Braddock we should start paying attention. Should we be looking at Suburban General Hospital, I mean Allegheny General Hospital Suburban Campus, or is it Drexel Campus? How many beds does the “Campus” maintain now and how many did they maintain 20 years ago?

Today more ambulances pass Suburban Campus for Allegheny General on the northside or UPMC in Oakland. Some-times emergency cases that would come to Suburban go to Passavant in the North Hills. We have lost the cardiac rehab facilities and who knows what else. The reason the ambulances are by-passing Suburban is because of what cases the hospital is prepared to handle. What the hospital is prepared to handle is dictated by the management of Allegheny General Hospital.

The time to think about what is going on at Suburban is now, not when the emergency room closes. We can’t be like the people of Braddock and object when the facility doesn’t make enough money to support what use to be a 200 bed hospital. We can’t claim it is greed on the part of the hospital when it isn’t profitable anymore. Businesses must make money or they can’t exist and that includes hospitals.

The facility is changing, our general hospital doesn’t exist anymore. The question is, will it be a hospital for long or is it on the way to being a big doctors office? I think the AGH management team needs a 20 Week Challenge on being honest about what is going on with our hospital, or did they tell us when they changed the name to Campus?

Mandated Health Care

It seems like this issue is talked about too much but we are on the verge of institutionalizing another benefit as an entitlement for some of our citizens. Since the Great Depression we have been instituting one entitlement after another. I don’t want to be misunderstood, I’m not opposed to helping others in a lot of ways including health care. I think churches and private social service agencies such as Lutheran Service Society, Catholic Charities, Brothers Brother, the V.F.W., American Legion and the Salvation Army do a good job already. And we can’t forget our hospitals and the Hill-Burton Act services they give to the poor. What I am not in favor of is the government getting involved by taxing one group of people so others don’t have to purchase health care, get a job, or pay their mortgage.

I know I’m not alone because the national polls say a majority of people are not in favor of the current health care reform being tossed around by Congress. If that is what the public believes why is Congress continuing to support and push through such legislation. I attended a Senator Spector town hall meeting, where Congressman Murphy was present but he was not given the opportunity to speak even though he tried to speak several times. I have called my congressman, written to my congressman and senators and they have not had the decency to respond and tell me “thanks but I don’t’ agree with you.” Well, I guess they have because they continue to drive on with their agenda.

Congressman Doyles recent newsletter says he is working hard to pass a bill that would “provide affordable, high quality health insurance coverage to millions of Americans who are currently uninsured.” Who says millions of uninsured Americans want health insurance? The Amish people are being excluded from the legislation on religious objection grounds because they take care of each other and they don’t want the government stepping into their affairs.

Young people don’t purchase insurance either, for a variety of reasons, but now they, or their parents, will have to spend money on health care. Even though they will want to spend their money on education bills, a new car, auto insurance, etc.. they will be forced to purchase health care or pay a fine.

Congressman Doyle also wants to “slow the growth of health care costs”. That’s nice but one of the big issues with rising health care costs is legal settlement costs. That’s what lawyers get for handling cases against doctors and hospitals. Most people call that tort reform but there is none of it in the health care reform bill.

He also wants to “increase competition in the health insurance market” and “get health care costs under control”, “to end the near-monopolies” in health care to “help consumers, businesses, and the federal government save money.” However the legislation doesn’t address the lack of portability of our Southwestern Pennsylvania health insurance to other parts of the country or vice-versa.

The problem then rests with the solution. Congressman Doyle wants to make sure that we “pay for these reforms in a fair and equitable fashion.” I say that “fair and equitable” is that I get to choose when I buy insurance and when I don’t. We already know that their fair and equitable fashion is to: force everyone to purchase insurance, fine anyone $750 if they don’t purchase health care insurance, tax existing health insurance plans, tax anyone who makes over $500,000 a year, and reduce or eliminate some already existing health care services from Medicare and Medicaid, unless you live in Nebraska. Oh, and grow the size of the government. Everything we don’t need. It’s time for change.

Health Care Reform

It appears that we are on the short side of getting the federal government involved in all of our health care plans. The debate over the last few months has the government health care supporters saying “the plan”, one of three now being talked about, will not involve all of us. It is only going to work to reduce the cost of health care insurance for all of us. Believe this because the President once told us that 47,000,000 people in the U.S. don’t have health insurance but in the last month he reduced that to 30,000,000. In a matter of two months his figures changed by 26 percent. Watch how long it takes to change the idea that “the plan” will reduce health care costs for all of us.

I’m sure you have heard that the national health care system in Canada and England is better than ours. Well trash that idea. Last week it was announced that UPMC entered in a three-year partnership with Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, part of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. Get this, UMPC is going to develop and expand cancer services offered by the Trust in Reading England. Yes, the UK came to Pittsburgh to improve their health care system. I guess that trashes the argument that socialized medicine is better than ours.

This weekend the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the health insurance companies' lobbying group, released a study it commissioned. The point of the AHIP study was that the health care reforms being considered would increase the cost of health care insurance. The White House naturally disagreed. The White House said that the AHIP released the report in an attempt to confuse the debate around health reform.

AHIP said that the added taxes and fees to support the plan that would be put on insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and device makers would be passed on to the consumer. The White House disagreed believing the added costs would be absorbed by the various companies. The White House said the costs for health care insurance would not go up because we are all paying about $1,000 a year in our health care insurance to pay for uncompensated care. That means services are being provided now to people who don’t have insurance and those who do pay have a little extra added to their bill to pay for the uninsured. I wonder if that covers the bill for 30 million uninsured.

Remember, this group is the same that doesn’t want to get flu shots. We also have the young parents who don’t get their children the required vaccinations shots. It was only a couple of weeks ago when 25 percent of the children in our area were being told not to come to school because their parents didn’t take them to get “free” mandatory inoculations. The way “the plan” is going to reduce the cost of health care insurance is by requiring all people to purchase health insurance. That means that all those young people who choose not to buy health care insurance will be forced to buy it. If you don’t buy insurance you will end up paying a fine or something similar.

That sounds good, except. We have a requirement now that everyone who owns a vehicle must purchase automobile insurance. If one doesn’t purchase auto insurance they can be charged with an offense, fined and maybe go to jail for a while. If we have mandatory auto insurance why do I have to purchase “uninsured motorist” insurance? Mandatory auto insurance has been around for a long time, and it still doesn’t work, ask any police officer.

The current health legislation has over 1,300 pages and it doesn’t include any health care, doesn’t include tort reform, doesn’t eliminate taxes on health care, doesn’t reduce the high cost of medical education, but it does increase costly government mandates on the health care industry. If Congress passes a health care bill what do you think we will have in a few years?


OUTRAGEOUS NEWS

"It could be that the 2016 Games are the last Olympics in the history of mankind. Global warming is getting worse. We have to come up with measures without which Olympic Games could not last long." --Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara 10/1/2009

Health Care

I am surprised by some people who support a National Health Care system who I believe should see it for what it is, the socialization of our health care industry. The health care system in the United States may need some tweaking but not a government take-over. As a matter of fact, the tweaking we need may be to get the government regulation and control out of the system we have now.

There aren’t many out there who believe the already existing national health care system we have is the best in the world. Think about it, is the Veteran’s Administration hospital system the best health care in the world? We formed that system to take care of those of us who were wounded in battle defending our country. And then we have the Medicare system that we designed to take care of our old people, after they have worked their whole life. How’s that working?

It’s not like we don’t have health care, we have the best private health care in the world, and we want to change that? Are we nuts or what? People from around the world come to the United States for the best health care in the world. The people in the U.S. don’t go to other countries and check in to the hospital because they can get better care. I’m guessing that since a national health care plan is better than what we have now our congressmen and senators will get the same health care they are planning for us. Don’t be silly they already have the best health care in the world and they know it. We’ll be allowed to keep ours also but we will have to pay our share of the health care tax to make Medicare solvent, after all we shouldn’t expect a national health care system for nothing.

But maybe we will lose our employer provided health care. A July 17 study by the Lewin Group that was commissioned by the Heritage Foundation projects that if the House bill becomes law, 83.4 million people—nearly half of those with private coverage—will lose private insurance as employers drop their plans. That means we will have the 47 million who supposedly don’t have health care now plus the 83 million who will have their employer bail on private insurance for a total of 130 million on the national health care rolls. That’s almost half of us folks.

Watching the President’s address on Wednesday night I was shocked when he said “end of life care” would be reduced in his plan. He said that we have to reduce the amount of money we spend at the end of one’s life. Will National Health Care encourage our parents to take their own lives? Do we get rid of nursing homes? Does it withhold medical care from the elderly based on a bureaucrat’s decision regarding “quality of life” issues? Does it encourage the rationing of medical services? The bottom line, is Euthanasia included in National Health Care Reform? Dr. Kevorkian, call your office.

While you are thinking about supporting national health care think about these facts from Scott W. Atlas, M.D., he is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at the Stanford University Medical Center:

Fact No. 1: Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the U.K. and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.

Fact No. 2: Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. Breast cancer mortality is 9 percent higher, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher and colon cancer mortality among men is about 10 percent higher than in the United States.

Fact No. 3: Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries. Some 56 percent of Americans who could benefit are taking statins, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons and 17 percent of Italians receive them.

Fact No. 4: Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians. Take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate and colon cancer:
• Nine of 10 middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to less than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).
• Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90 percent of Canadians.
• More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a PSA test, compared to less than 1 in 6 Canadians (16 percent).
• Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with less than 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent).

Fact No. 5: Lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report "excellent" health compared to Canadian seniors (11.7 percent versus 5.8 percent). Conversely, white Canadian young adults with below-median incomes are 20 percent more likely than lower income Americans to describe their health as "fair or poor."

Fact No. 6: Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the U.K. Canadian and British patients wait about twice as long - sometimes more than a year - to see a specialist, to have elective surgery like hip replacements or to get radiation treatment for cancer. All told, 827,429 people are waiting for some type of procedure in Canada. In England, nearly 1.8 million people are waiting for a hospital admission or outpatient treatment.

Fact No. 7: People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed. More than 70 percent of German, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British adults say their health system needs either "fundamental change" or "complete rebuilding."

Fact No. 8: Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians. When asked about their own health care instead of the "health care system," more than half of Americans (51.3 percent) are very satisfied with their health care services, compared to only 41.5 percent of Canadians; a lower proportion of Americans are dissatisfied (6.8 percent) than Canadians (8.5 percent).

Fact No. 9: Americans have much better access to important new technologies like medical imaging than patients in Canada or the U.K. Maligned as a waste by economists and policymakers naïve to actual medical practice, an overwhelming majority of leading American physicians identified computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the most important medical innovations for improving patient care during the previous decade. The United States has 34 CT scanners per million Americans, compared to 12 in Canada and eight in Britain. The United States has nearly 27 MRI machines per million compared to about 6 per million in Canada and Britain.

Fact No. 10: Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations. The top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other single developed country. Since the mid-1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has gone to American residents more often than recipients from all other countries combined. In only five of the past 34 years did a scientist living in America not win or share in the prize. Most important recent medical innovations were developed in the United States.

And we want to change this system, why?