Sarah Palin Was Right. . .

Obama Brings Back End of Life Counseling
When it was discovered that ObamaCare included funding for end of life counseling, Controversy erupted and that language had to be stripped from the bill Obama eventually signed. So, how is it that end of life counseling is now being funded by the Federal Government? Through Regulation, of course. The New York Times reported that this is the way President Obama will operate for the next two years. The final version of the Health Care Legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, a...

'Death panels' controversy: Is Obama avoiding Congress?
President Obama talks with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the Oval Office Nov. 4. Health and Human Services has included expanded 'voluntary advance care planning' consultations in the rules it is writing for the health-care reform law. Critics deride the idea as 'Death Panels.' In a move that could resuscitate the partisan battle over what Sarah Palin dubbed "death panels," the Obama Administration is set to implement a Controversial federal health-care provi...

This Week's Health Industry News
With the Congress in adjournment and many business people taking off the time between holidays, we do not expect any substantive health industry news this week. But we could be surprised. Take, for instance, the news reported Sunday by our colleague Robert Pear in Washington. The Obama Administration, through an administrative rule, is resurrecting the notion of end-of-life planning services for older Americans — the same sort of planning that was falsely characterized as “Death Panels”

Sneaking end-of-life consultations into Obamacare
Jae C. Hon/AP Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made the term"Death Panels"famous during the debate over ObamaCare last year. A new Regulation has revived the debate. During the debate over ObamaCare last year, Controversy erupted over a Medicare provision related to end-of-life consultations with doctors. Following well-publicized criticism from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin concerning government "death panels," the provision was promptly dropped. But now the New York Times reports that it has be...

The future of health care in the Tampa Bay Area
Beginning on January 1, 2011 the effects of the initial policy implementations of the Health Care Reform Act will be felt by both physicians and their patients. In speaking with family physicians, general practitioners and specialists in the Tampa Bay area, many have decided that they will retire or find another job prior to January 1, 2013, when they must begin to confer with the government in deciding your care or course of treatment. With over thirty million people being added to the health c...

President Gets Around Annoying Voters, Instills Death Panels By Regulation
Some of you may have missed this story since it was published on the day after Christmas (and a Sunday at that), but Obama’s Death Panels are back, this time via the president’s fiat regulatory powers. Since it was easy to have missed, I’ve decided to post the story today (Monday) so that more people might see it now that Christmas and the weekend both are over. You might recall the end of life care policies that were once in ObamaCare. You might also remember the political fir...

Republican Congressman-Elect: Obamacare Rationing Is Being Hidden From The Public
Over the holiday, when the nation was busy with friends, family and celebration, the Obama Administration quietly broke news of a new Regulation to implement a part of ObamaCare that Congress specifically did not authorize. Specifically, a provision that would have the government paying doctors to convince patients not to seek extraordinary end-of-life treatment. “The longer this goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it,” said Democrat Rep. Blumenauer from Oregon. Now Con...

Death is too important a subject to be left to the mercy of rampaging, reality-defying numbskulls
What was old is new again: Since the "Death Panels" lies are back, it seems only appropriate to bring back this offering by the great R. J. Matson from last year's Holiday Season. by Ken I know we're supposed to make nice to those poor misunderstood Teabaggers, and bow before the legitimacy of their grievances. It's just kind of hard when, besotted by their newfound power, they're off on a screaming rampage, wildly wielding their weapons of psychotic destruction against every vestige of realit...

Sneaking It In
Human Events: Bureaucrats Secretly Implement ObamaCare by Tony Lee 12/27/2010 When ObamaCare passed in the partisan manner in which it did, the liberal establishment and its ever growing army of pipsqueak transcribers in the mainstream media said ObamaCare’s passage would be a boon for Democrats and mocked those like Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli who spoke out against ObamaCare and called the measure Unconstitutional, particularly the Individual Mandate requirement that would com...

White House Pushing Back Against Revived Chatter About End-Of-Life Planning
The White House is denying that a new Medicare Regulation revives language dropped from the Health Care Reform Bill that covered voluntary end-of-life planning sessions between doctors and patients. The policy was removed from the Health Care bill after Republicans and right-wing opponents of the bill construed the provision as creating "Death Panels" for old people. The New York Times reported yesterday that beginning January 1st: Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the...

Obama administration will enact end-of-life planning for Medicare
In a nod to sanity, the Obama Administration will pay doctors for end-of-life planning advice provided to Medicare patients, a provision dropped from the Affordable Care Act after the "Death Panel" lies were allowed to rule the day. Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an “advance directive,” stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make Health Care decisions for themselves. While the new law does ...

New Medicare regulation brings back end-of-life consultations
The New York Times reported Sunday that under a new Medicare Regulation, doctors will receive payment for advising patients on end-of-life care.   Elderly patients may be advised to adopt so-called "advance directives" to forgo life-sustaining treatment. During the heated debate over the new Health Care law, the idea of limiting Health Care to the elderly sparked Controversy.  Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin referred to the consultations as "Death Panels", and Democrats removed...

Obama Creates Death Panels Rejected By Congress
The Obama Administration has secretly crafted a new policy to implement the contentious Death Panels that Congress dropped under immense public pressure from Legislation to take over the nation’s Healthcare System. Under Regulations that will take effect in January, the administration will offer medical professionals monetary incentives to accelerate “end of life care,” which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment. Kept quiet by the administration and

CNN Poll: Americans Still Oppose Individual Mandate, 6 in 10 Oppose Individual Mandate that Requires all Americans to Buy Health
According to a recent CNN/Opinions Dynamics poll , Americans still oppose the Individual Mandate provisions that requires all individuals to purchase Health Care Insurance. By a 60% to 38% margin, Americans oppose the individual mandate. Also, a majority of Americans polled oppose ObamaCare overall. CNN states that the number of people opposed is less than earlier this year. Maybe they would like to check out the Rasmussen Poll, where 60% oppose and want the the government take over of health...

Charles Krauthammer Offends Mark Shields by Saying 'ObamaCare'
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The biggest element in Debt is healthcare expenditures, Medicare and Medicaid, that’s where the money is, even more than Social Security. And the problem with ObamaCare is it freezes in place these huge expenditures. It does not cut costs. There’s going to be an additional half a Trillion in taxes devoted to the ObamaCare plan. And, it, it, it siphoned off whatever cuts you’re going to have in Medicare, half a trillion, for the new entitlements. So there is...

Top 10 Outrageous Quotes From Nancy Pelosi
“Lawmakers say she is consulting marketing experts about building a stronger brand. The most prominent of her new whisperers is Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood director whose films have been works of branding genius. Lawmakers said Spielberg has not reported to Pelosi with a recommendation.” And stop making ridiculous statements… People tend to frown on that. The following are ten outrageous statements made by Pelosi in just the few years. She should avoid making statements lik...

PBS Falls for Castros Potemkin Villages
PBS recently ran a three part documentary about life in Cuba. Here’s a sample. RAY SUAREZ: One of Cuba’s greatest prides is its Health Care system. Cuba’s government promotes the country’s free and universal medical care from the moment a baby is born as the cornerstone of its Communist state. And, according to the World Health Organization, the country has much to boast about. The average Cuban lives to the age of 78. That’s slightly longer than the life span of...

Surprise: Obamacare Face-plants Out of the Gate
One of the first parts of the new Health Care law ready for consumers - special health plans devoted to the Insurance Industry's rejects - is attracting only a fraction of the predicted customers, prompting the Obama Administration and states to step up their strategies to motivate people to buy them. At the same time, since the plans opened for business in the late summer and early fall, the medical bills so far are, in at least a few states, much higher than anticipated, raising the question o...

Obamacare bust
The least surprising news of the year is… From the Washington Post: One of the first parts of the new Health Care law ready for consumers - special health plans devoted to the Insurance Industry’s rejects - is attracting only a fraction of the predicted customers, prompting the Obama Administration and states to step up their strategies to motivate people to buy them. At the same time, since the plans opened for business in the late summer and early fall, the medical bi...

EPA action isn't 'unilateral'
Presidents have, since the days of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, made unilateral decisions arguably outside the scope of their Constitutional power and dared Congress or the Courts to stop them. The practice has increased over time and been made easier by Congress having delegated much of its power to Executive agencies.   The consequence is an administrative state where the elected representatives of the people have a mostly reactive role, acting to check these agencies, rat...

On the Trail of Elusive Facts
Today when I was looking for something else I stumbled upon a headline from the Washington Examiner — “How ObamaCare keeps families trapped in Poverty.” The article, by Mark Hemingway, appeared to be one more attempt to link the “doc fix” Medicare reimbursement issue to the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). As I’ve explained in the past, the Medicare reimbursement shortfalls that have to be “fixed” every year are not the re...

Obamacare: Barely implemented, but already over-budget and under-serving
One of the few programs already active in ObamaCare is the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Program, a temporary measure that provides money for states to establish high-risk Health Insurance pools for people with pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately, the program's results so far leave much to be desired. The problem is not that it isn't working for the people in it. The problem is that very few people seem interested, and the government is paying through the nose just to accommodate the few w...

An added hurdle for bureaucrats
When Scott Walker said he wants to see every Regulation prior to its unleashing - since, after Jan. 3, he'll be responsible for every Bureaucrat in the Executive Branch - his opponents sputtered that this was a power grab. Well, yes. It is a power grab identical to the moment when bus passengers realize the driver's slumped unconscious and someone's got to seize the wheel. And, of course, stomp on the brake: The power that the Governor-elect proposes grabbing is not taken away from any elected...

Reason.tv Replay: Great Moments in Unintended Consequences
This week, Reason.tv is replaying some of its most memorable recent videos. This one originally aired on December 8, 2010. Reason.tv presents Great Moments in Unintended Consequences! All actions have unanticipated side effects, but government acting through Regulation or Legislation is particularly adept at creating disastrous unintended consequences. Great Moments in Unintended Consequences takes a look at three instances of epic government facepalm: Osborne Reef, Corn Ethanol Subsidies, and...

Death Panels Regulation Begins Obamas Rule by Fiat
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com In a foretaste of outrages to come, the Obama Administration managed to sneak out a federal Regulation paying doctors to provide “end of life counseling” to those covered by ObamaCare. The Medicare rule, which Congress never voted on, may encourage thousands to forego lifesaving treatment. This move is a voluntary precursor to the inevitable Rationing engendered by Socialized Medicine. Many conservative media outlets have objected to the pro-death aspe...