President Obama Signs Landmark Legislation Laying the Foundation for a National Alzheimer Strategy

New Alzheimer's law aims to coordinate efforts, strategy
Alzheimer's disease, already a national epidemic according to experts, got a lift this week. On Tuesday, President Obama signed the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) into law. NAPA's aim is to create a coordinated national strategy that deals with Alzheimer's, a brain-wasting condition projected to leap from 5.3 million cases this year into the double digits by mid-century. No. 6 on the list of top 10 causes of death in the USA, Alzheimer's is the only one without an effective way to preve...

Problems with Health Care Reform
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) allows federal Tax Dollars to directly subsidize Insurance plans that cover Abortions. This contravenes existing law.  The most well-known examples of the prohibition on the use of federal Tax Dollars to subsidize Insurance plans that cover abortions are the Hyde Amendment which applies to programs funded through the Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS) appropriations bill and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). The...

Report: Growth in healthcare costs reached 50-year low during recession
The nation's spending on healthcare grew 4 percent, to $2.5 Trillion, in 2009, according to a new report from the Medicare agency's Office of the Actuary - the slowest rate of growth since the Federal Government began keeping track in 1960. Despite the slowdown in Insurance payments and out-of-pocket spending, the increase in healthcare spending still outpaced the overall growth of The Economy, which contracted by 1.7 percent. On average, Americans spent $8,086 per person on healthcare in 2009...

Admin reorganizes health bureaucracy
The Obama Administration will reorganize and expand its infrastructure for health reform implementation, Politico has learned. The Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, a new division created shortly after the passage of health reform to oversee implementation, will move from Health and Human Services to the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services in two weeks. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset POLITICO 44 The reorganization will include a change in leadership, with cu...

Time to grab the third rail, Madame Governor
Soon, Governor Martinez sends the 2011 Legislature her Budget for fiscal 2012. At last count, she is looking to plug a $400 million gap. She campaigned on the promise that she would not make Spending Cuts to education or Medicaid. Read my lips: ‘Where are you going to find $400 million to plug the gap, Madame Governor?’ The “Third Rail” of politics refers to extremely Controversial issues in which it is observed that, when acting unilaterally, “touch it, and you die...

Transparency, BipartisanshipJust Words?
Remember how, during the past few years, Republicans repeatedly accused the Democrats of a lack of “openness and transparency” in the legislative process, of not allowing adequate time to either review proposed Legislation or to debate it and—in particular in the case of the Health Care bill—of ramming it down the throat of the GOP and of the American People without going through the Bipartisan process, without holding sufficient hearings or markups? In reality, House Democrats ...

Connecticut Informed That Private Insurance Exchanges Are Bad Deals for Consumers, Taxpayers
The subsidized private Health Insurance exchanges created by the new Health Care law are going to do a very poor job of providing affordable Health Care to the Low Income Americans they are meant to serve, according to a new draft report to the Connecticut General Assembly from the Sustinet Health Partnership Board of Directors. From the report (PDF): However, we were troubled by the limits on ACA subsidies for adults with incomes above 138 percent FPL, who fall outside the Legislation’s inc...

Estimate: GOPs symbolic reading of Constitution to cost taxpayers $1.1 million
Stumble This! It will cost Taxpayers over $1 million dollars for Republicans to recite the entire United States Constitution on the House floor Thursday. In a year when Republicans have promised to reduce wasteful spending, it is estimated that reciting the Constitution will cost $1,071,872.87 if it takes three hours to read the document. "When one chamber of Congress is in session but not working, we the people still have to pay for members' salaries and expenses, and for their police protecti...

Is the Administration Cooking the Books on Govts Share of Health Spending?
Something smells fishy here. Today, the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid released its estimates of national health expenditures in 2009.  Interestingly, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services re-categorized about 6 percent of national health expenditures — well over $100 billion — from “government” to “private,” at the very moment that the government share of NHE appeared set to hit 50 percent. Last year, C...

Good news? Recession slowed health care spending (AP)
WASHINGTON – It sounds like good news: The Recession slowed the growth of the nation's Health Care bill to the Lowest Levels ever measured. But a government report Wednesday said medical costs still gobbled up a record share of the overall economy, meaning the slowdown did not change the nation's underlying problem with out-of-control Health Care spending. Americans spent $2.5 Trillion on Health Care in 2009, or $8,086 per person, said the new estimates by number crunchers at Medicare's ...

Good news? Recession slowed health care spending
WASHINGTON (AP) — It sounds like good news: The Recession slowed the growth of the nation’s Health Care bill to the Lowest Levels ever measured. But a government report Wednesday said medical costs still gobbled up a record share of the overall economy, meaning the slowdown did not change the nation’s underlying problem with out-of-control Health Care spending. Americans spent $2.5 Trillion on Health Care in 2009, or $8,086 per person, said the new estimates by number crunchers...

The first pre-emptive surrender of 2011!
The Obama Administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare Regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new Health Care law, administration officials said Tuesday. As I’ve noted before, if I am ever captured by the GOP or other Terrorist organization, please find a skilled negotiator to haggle for my release....

Obama to Speak at US Chamber
The Hill reports: President Obama will address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 7 to discuss jobs and The Economy, an administration official told The Hill on Wednesday. “The president will discuss his commitment to growing the economy and making America more competitive and the importance of working together to create jobs,” the official said. The White House and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have battled over the major issues pushed through by the Obama Administration, includi...

GOP House Leaders and New Spending Promises
One of the most explicit promises Speaker John Boehner, R-Oh., and the newly empowered Republicans made was to cut Deficits immediately by returning to 2008 spending levels. "Which, if we were able to do with the whole Fiscal Year, would reduce spending by 100 billion dollars," says Representative Mike Pence, R-In. But Republicans won't have a whole Budget year to work with. Congress failed to pass a current Budget even though the fiscal year began last October. So the government is now operatin...

GOP controls U.S. House
Republicans gained 63 seats in the 435-member House in November's Elections, fueled by Tea Party Candidates in Michigan and elsewhere who want a smaller Federal Government, less spending and a Repeal of the Health Care Reform Bill. But with the Democrats retaining control of the Senate -- and President Barack Obama holding a Veto pen -- the result of a divided government could be gridlock. To pass Legislation, including the Budget, accommodations must ...

Faux Blue Dog Collin Peterson Wont Support Obamacare Repeal
These Blue Dogs are a Fraud. They are cloaked leftists who are there and ready to support whatever Socialist Agenda item their back room buddies need them for. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said Tuesday he won’t support a Republican bill to Repeal the 2010 Health Care law — even though he was one of 34 House Democrats who voted against the reform Legislation last March…. Peterson said he’s against scrapping the bill entirely because starting over now could delay necessa...

Death panels no more: HHS drops Medicare reg on end-of-life planning
Actually, there’s no panel involved. What we’re talking about here is paying doctors to remind elderly patients during the annual check-up that they might want to leave some written instructions in case they’re incapacitated and eager to avoid a Schiavo-esque family tug of war. You don’t need a doctor for that, in fact; you can print out your state’s standardized living will form here, fill in the appropriate boxes, and then take it to a local notary for signature...

Constitutional cites, NYT and fundamentalism
The New York Times editorial board wasted little time in attempting to attack the new Republican led House in the way smug elitists usually do … by invoking “Fundamentalism”.   In this case the fundamentalism is an apparent attempt by a party to refocus the Legislation it plans on debating and passing on the “fundamental” legal document of the land. That just won’t do: In any case, it is a presumptuous and self-righteous act, suggesting that they alone understan

Newspaper review
The Rioting at Ford open Prison on New Year's Eve is still being discussed by the papers. Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke is in the Sun's firing line. In the paper's view, the "Ford Fiasco" is a perfect example of the anarchy Mr Clarke's liberal, touchy-feely approach will encourage. The paper says the staffing and reports the West Sussex jail was awash with Alcohol reduces British justice, yet again, to a laughing stock. Penal policies For the Times, the most ala...

South Carolina scrambles to deal with budget shortfall
Wed Jan 5, 2011 3:34pm EST CHARLESTON, S.C., Jan 5 - South Carolina Governor-elect Nikki Haley and state Budget writers are scrambling for solutions as South Carolina faces a nearly $1 billion Budget shortfall in its $5 billion budget. The state has three agencies -- Health and Human Services, Social Services, and Corrections -- operating in unapproved Deficit this month. South Carolina's constitution requires that it operate with a Balanced Budget. Without relief, the Health Care agency has ...

South Carolina scrambles to deal with budget shortfall
The state has three agencies -- Health and Human Services, Social Services, and Corrections -- operating in unapproved Deficit this month. South Carolina's constitution requires that it operate with a Balanced Budget. Without relief, the Health Care agency has said it will begin cutting off Medicaid payments to doctors and other health providers on March 4. The state has cut 20 percent of its operating Budget over the last three years and is plagued with a 10.6 percent Unemployment Rate, one of...

Ex-AUSA in SDNY to Join Sills Cummis & Gross
A former Federal Prosecutor in the Southern District of New York has joined Sills Cummis & Gross P.C. as a member of the firm’s litigation practice group. Hervé Gouraige worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1984 to 1991, mostly under then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani . While in the office he prosecuted business Fraud, Tax Fraud, Health Care fraud and National Security cases. He was the first Assistant U.S. Attorney designated to handle Health Care fraud cases in SDNY. Gouraige...

South Carolina scrambles to deal with budget shortfall (Reuters)
CHARLESTON, S.C., Jan 5 – South Carolina Governor-elect Nikki Haley and state Budget writers are scrambling for solutions as South Carolina faces a nearly $1 billion Budget shortfall in its $5 billion budget. The state has three agencies -- Health and Human Services, Social Services, and Corrections -- operating in unapproved Deficit this month. South Carolina's constitution requires that it operate with a Balanced Budget. Without relief, the Health Care agency has said it wi...

Rep. Gruenhagen brings controversial views to Health and Human Services Committee
With the new Legislature sworn into session on Tuesday, one new official is coming under scrutiny for opinions he’s shared in the letters pages of local Newspapers. Republican Glenn Gruenhagen, elected to the Minnesota House in November to represent Glencoe after Rep. Laura Brod retired, has been assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee. His Controversial public statements about welfare, anal sex, Abortion and Alcoholism — areas the committee oversees — could ma...

N.Y. official picked as Pa.'s health chief
Gov.-elect Tom Corbett has picked a New York Public Health official to lead Pennsylvania's Department of Health. Corbett said Tuesday he would nominate Eli Avila, now the chief Deputy Commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, to his cabinet as health secretary. In his current job, which he has held since May 2010, Avila, 51, oversees 1,600 employees and a Budget of $400 million. If confirmed by the state Senate, Avila will oversee an agency with 1,700 employees and a budg...