Tag: Health

HEALTH: It’s irresponsible to report “covid deaths” as a fact

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://patch.com/new-jersey/southbrunswick/s/ifxgn/covid-added-to-vaccine-schedule-new-strains-hit-nj?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert

Health & Fitness
COVID Added To Vaccine Schedule, New Strains Hit NJ
New Jersey also reported its highest number of COVID hospitalizations since early August.
Josh Bakan, Patch Staff Verified Patch Staff Badge
Posted Fri, Oct 21, 2022 at 10:21 am ET

*** begin quote ***

Forty-three people in New Jersey died from the virus in the past week, according to the CDC. Federal officials reported about 2,400 deaths from COVID complications around the nation during that timeframe.

*** end quote ***

It’s irresponsible to report “covid deaths” as a fact unless there is an autopsy. Based on the currently available reporting, the government facts as well as CDC / FDA data is at best “unreliable”. One has to question the narrative based on all the money flowing around “covid deaths”, the payoffs to Big Pharma, and lack of transparency. “I wouldn’t believe you, if your tongue came notarized.” … attributed to Judge Marilyn Milian, but may have an earlier history.

—30—

INSPIRATIONAL: Wife uses all her abilities to find a treatment for her dying husband

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/she-found-phage-enemy-of-bacteria-to-save-husbands-life/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_medium=weekly_mailout&utm_source=27-07-2022

When Antibiotics Failed, She Found a Natural Enemy of Superbug Bacteria to Save Husband’s Life
By Judy Cole – Jul 23, 2022

*** begin quote ***

Tom Patterson was dying in a U.S. hospital from a massive bacterial infection he’d contracted while traveling in Egypt. Doctors gave him a prognosis of days.

Fortunately, his wife, Steffanie Strathdee, happened to be an infectious disease epidemiologist, who was not going to give up searching for the needle in a haystack required to cure him.

*** and ***

However, with more than 10 million-trillion-trillion unique phages on the planet, identifying a handful that specifically fed on the Acinetobacter baumannii afflicting Tom was a task akin to finding one tiny star in a huge galaxy.

The deadly superbug is nicknamed Iraqibacter because wounded combat troops sometimes contracted it in Iraq—and it ranks No. 1 on the World Health Organization’s list of dangerous pathogens. Undaunted, Strathdee quickly began networking to get Tom the treatment he so desperately needed to survive.

*** and ***

Help from Texas A&M, the FDA, and the U.S. Navy

Her first task was appealing to scientists to track down and purify samples of phages that fed on the specific strain of bacteria that was killing Tom. Texas A&M University biochemist Ryland Young, who’s been tracking phages for more than four and a half decades, was eager to help. Researchers from the U.S. Navy soon signed up for the mission as well.

Strathdee’s plea to the FDA to fast-track a “compassionate use” order allowing doctors to implement an experimental treatment was granted in record time. A scant three weeks later, Tom was injected with his first intravenous dose of a purified “phage cocktail” from the team at Texas A&M. Seeing no negative effects, he received his second IV dose, courtesy of the U.S. Navy, two days later.

*** end quote ***

Very impressive effortt by this woman.

And I often don’t have good things to say about the Gooferment, its politicians and bureaucrats, or bureaucracies in general.  Here the stars aligned and everyone perform far above expectations to save the man’s life.

From the movie “Master & Commader”, “an extra ration of rum for these men” and women.

The effort be all was nothing less that “heroic” and I don’t apply that adjective often if at all.

God Bless All of them.

—30—

HEALTHCARE: Fully Private, No-Insurance Hospitals are possible

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://mises.org/wire/how-fully-private-no-insurance-hospitals-help-common-man

How Fully Private, No-Insurance Hospitals Help the Common Man
04/14/2022 Daniel Diefenbach

*** begin quote ***

How does one make an economic decision when the price of a good is not evident? To any adherent of the Austrian school, this of course is impossible. There is no way to decide whether to purchase something if the only way of knowing the price is after committing. For example, who would fill up their car only to see what the price was at the end? No one. In no aspect of life would this make sense, yet it is the standard in the American healthcare system.

**

In June 2021, the Mises Institute held the Medical Freedom Summit in Salem, New Hampshire, and one of the speakers was Dr. G. Keith Smith of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, an institution that is truly free market and receives no money from the federal government. He spoke of the successes of his business and of the simple model he and Dr. Steve Lantier established in 1997. Smith describes their first patient experience as follows:

*** and ***

He later told the story of a Georgia man who was quoted $40,000 for his surgery at home. The Surgery Center of Oklahoma quoted him $4,000. Upset at having lost a patient to them already, the man’s hometown surgeon decided to match the price. The patient told Dr. Smith that the Surgery Center of Oklahoma “had saved him $36,000 and … hadn’t even performed his surgery.”

*** end quote ***

Once again we learn that the Gooferment has really really messed up “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else like our lives.

Just separate “health insurance” from employment by making health insurance premiums deductible from the top line, just as it is for businesses, and level the playing field.

After all you don’t lose your car insurance when you change jobs.  Why should health insurance be any different?

Argh!

—30—

TECHNOLOGY: Add your COVID vaccination … but should you? (IMHO NO!)

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4034897/posts

You can add your COVID vaccination certificate to the Apple Wallet… but should you?
TNW ^ | 2/2 | Callum Booth
Posted on 2/2/2022, 5:01:47 PM by nickcarraway

*** begin quote ***

Spoiler: Yeah, why not?

The modern world hurts my brain. Let’s take the news that Apple enables users to store their COVID vaccination certificates in the Wallet and Health apps as an example.

When I first heard about it, I was pumped. Flashing my QR code to enter a restaurant or grab a coffee would be far simpler if it sat in my Apple Wallet. Friends, the time I’d save!

But, of course, the world had something to say about that.

We talked to 4 successful entrepreneurs This is what they wish they knew before getting started

While putting my digital certificate of vaccination in an easy-to-access place is cool… is it safe? And because I can do it, does that mean I should?

Something that seemed simple on the surface is actually a minefield. I wanted some clarity on this issue.

*** and ***

COVID vaccine certificates in the Apple Wallet app: not a huge concern To put it bluntly: there are no obvious dangers of moving your vaccine certificate to the Apple Wallet. This does come with a large caveat though, as this is only true if you tightly control what apps can access your data.

In this way, vaccination certificates differ from digital IDs. The majority of the former are digital by nature, while the most common forms of identification (driver’s licenses and passports) are paper-based. Digitizing them opens a huge and wriggling can of worms — while the vaccine pass system could actually benefit from being incorporated into the Apple Wallet.

So, there you have it! A little bit of respite before the modern world messes with our heads again.

*** end quote ***

It’s just too easy for the Gooferment make this the digital version of “show me your papers”!

It’s a BIG “NO” for me.

—30—

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Crony Capitalist Medicine?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://www.ac2news.com/2018/01/do-we-have-a-free-market-medical-system/

Do We Have a Free-Market Medical System?
Posted on January 19, 2018 by Hunter Lewis

*** begin quote ***

Edward K. Glassman, my long ago Harvard classmate, author of Dow 36,000 (predicting Dow at that level by 2005), and current director of the George W. Bush Institute, extolls our free market medical system at FoxNews this week. The first reader to comment on the article agrees that we have a “ free market” system, but thinks that “profit based healthcare” should be “outlawed.” Another reader thinks that we actually have “socialized medicine.”

So what do we have? I think the most apt description would be “crony capitalist” medicine, one in which powerful special interests conspire with government officials to create legally mandated monopolies, with the specific goal of thwarting free market competition.

Here is how it actually works:

[Excerpts follow … …]

  • Most people wonder why there are no visible prices in medicine.
  • These monopolies are further sweetened for doctors by legally barring nurses, 
  • drug companies claim a legal monopoly when they patent a drug. The drug research may have been done by the government or by a university using government money 
  • the FDA approval process eliminates any competition 
  • FDA enforcement

No, this is not a free market system nor anything remotely close to one. 

*** end quote ***

It’s obvious that Obama/SCOTUS/Trump care merely seeks to perpetuate and extend this corrupt cronyism.

The obvious solution is to withdraw consent as much as possible.

Seek to avoid the “medical establishment” as much as possible.

Take all their diktats as recommendations. Take responsibility for your self. Take issue with the powers that be at every opportunity.

# – # – # – # – #

 

HEALTH: DVT prevention; your responsiblity — not the airlines or the Gooferment

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.popsci.com/legroom-blood-clots

Health
How to prevent blood clots as airlines squeeze you into tighter spaces
THE POTENTIALLY FATAL CONDITION IS LIKELY TO INCREASE AS LEGROOM DECREASES
—BUT IT’S TOTALLY PREVENTABLE
By Claire Maldarelli

*** begin quote ***

The bottom line, Stewart says, is that as long as people continue to practice unhealthy plane habits, the rates of DVT will either remain the same or increase—but with a little knowledge (and movement), the condition could be completely prevented.

*** end quote ***

It’s a systemic problem we have the airplanes, their design, and the Gooferment. No one is responsible for the result —  crippled and even dead people!

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

INSPIRATIONAL: All the Body Parts You Can Donate

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://vitals.lifehacker.com/all-the-body-parts-you-can-donate-to-a-good-cause-1789732939

All the Body Parts You Can Donate to a Good Cause
Beth Skwarecki Tuesday 10:00am Filed to: BODY HACKS 

*** begin quote ***

Bone Marrow

Who needs it? People with leukemias and lymphomas, bone marrow diseases, and immune system disorders like SCID may need a bone marrow transplant. They can’t just use any bone marrow, either: the donor’s tissue type has to match the recipient’s. Most patients who need a transplant can’t find a family member whose tissue type is a close enough match to allow them to donate. That’s why registries are so important—maybe you are someone’s match.

Who can donate? Guidelines for who can donate bone marrow are similar to those for donating blood. In addition, you have to be a good tissue match for the person who needs bone marrow. People are most likely to match with someone else from their racial or ethnic background, so registries especially need people whose heritage is African, Latino, Native American, Asian, or mixed race. Most doctors will request a donor who is under 45 years old, since younger people’s cells make for more successful transplants.

How to donate: Sign up for the National Marrow Donor Program. As part of the registration process, you will swab your cheek and send the swab for testing. This is how they know what tissue type you are. Once you are on the registry, there’s about a 1 in 500 chance that you will end up being somebody’s marrow donor.

There are two ways you might be asked to donate. The older method is a surgery where you get a giant needle in your hip. It’s great for medical TV, but not very common anymore. These days it’s more likely that you will get five daily injections of a medication called filgrastim that causes your bone marrow to release stem cells into your blood. When you donate, a machine will spend several hours filtering those cells out of your blood. In the meantime you can watch movies and chat with friends. If you’ve been put off of donating bone marrow because you were afraid it was a huge, painful needle, don’t be.

*** end quote ***

What better way to celebrate the Christmas season?

Helping your fellow human being.

Will it hurt? Maybe. But imagine how it would be to be on the other side of it. Needing but not having a donor.

Wish I was under 45.

Maybe because Our Girl Frau Reinke passed away from an unknown blood disease makes this more impact with me. 

p.s., I’m a platelet and organ donor. (Platelet donations is a two hour process where, I swear, they remove them from your butt via a handy vein. I know it comes from one’s butt because that’s the only part of me that hurts. And, no, I am NOT supine on my wallet, funny people!)

Give life.

Dona Nobis Pacem

# – # – # – # – # 

 

POLITICAL: Obamacare death spiral?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/26/susan-parnell-the-obamacare-death-spiral-may-have-/

*** begin quote ***

According to the Manhattan Institute, premiums climbed by 41 percent on average from 2013 to 2014, and premiums are likely to rise sharply again after two insurance company bailout programs included in Obamacare expire in 2017.
 
The other sign health insurance markets are in the early stages of a death spiral is the age mix of those buying policies through Obamacare. Originally it was estimated that around 40 percent of enrollees had to be in the relatively healthy 18 to 34-year-old age segment, so their premiums could be used to pay for the health expenses of older, less-healthy enrollees. So far it appears only some 28 percent of enrollees are in that coveted age group, which also comprises around half of the uninsured.
All of this means insurers are getting a risk pool that is less healthy than expected, and more premium hikes are around the corner. While subsidies hide some from the full impact, others in the middle class will not be shielded.
 
It will undoubtedly take a few years to know for sure, but for anybody concerned about setting off a death spiral or thinking Congress surely didn’t intend to do so, don’t worry. It looks like it’s already here, whether Congress intended it or not. 
 
*** end quote ***
 
Like Social Security, it’s fiscally unsound — in addition to being immoral, ineffective, and inefficient.
 
Why Statists — on both the left and right — think that they can ignore the “Laws of Economics” is a mystery to me. Like the time the Louisiana Legislature voted to repeal the “Law of Gravity”! Just because the “laws” of Economics are a little more subtle, doesn’t mean they exist. 
 
In this case, the invisible hand of the free market is going to slap the politicians and bureaucrats upside the head and say “fools”!
 
Where insurance is virtually unregulated — life insurance for example — it’s cheap, easy to get, and simple. (You die; you get paid!) Across the spectrum of “insurance”, the more regulation, the more expensive. Until you get to “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else whatever this is. Most regulated; impossible.
 
And, this fluff about “pre-existing” conditions, is like being able to buy “fire insurance” after the fire!
 
Also, the routine heath care tests? That’s like “insuring” your cars oil changes. Makes no sense. Go to Jiffy lube for 30$ (but don’t buy the air filters); “insure” it and the paperwork alone will make it $100 at least.
 
Argh!
 
So, because there were some without “insurance”, the liberals decided to fool us into a USSR style system. Argh! 
 
Anyone figure out if “we” just took all the money spent on Obamacare, we could have give every uninsured a Congressional style plan.
 
But, then they wouldn’t have their power over a seventh of the economy.
 
Anyone think this is going to work out well?
 
# – # – # – # – # 
 

HEALTH: The Gooferment should get out the “heath” business completely

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.newser.com/story/177742/big-problem-with-last-weeks-big-cholesterol-news.html

Big Problem With Last Week’s Big Cholesterol News
THE ONLINE RISK CALCULATOR MAY SIGNIFICANTLY INFLATE RISK
By Kate Seamons, Newser Staff
Posted Nov 18, 2013 7:27 AM CST

*** begin quote ***

The changes to the way doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering statins were described last week as “tectonic” and “profound”; today, the New York Times uses the phrase “major embarrassment.” The issue: the online risk calculator introduced by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology to flag candidates for statins may overestimate risk—hugely. The issue was apparently identified a year ago by two Harvard Medical School professors who had reviewed a draft version; their input never made it to those developing the calculator, and the professors noticed the same errors in the final calculator when it was revealed publicly on Tuesday.

*** end quote ***

And, there was the announcement by the Gooferment that dietary cholesterol doesn’t impact blood cholesterol numbers.

Disputing decades of “settled science”.

Then, into my email box drops this gem.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/optimal-cholesterol-level/

Transcript: Optimal Cholesterol Level

*** begin quote ***

The optimal cholesterol level, the optimal “bad cholesterol” LDL level, Is 50 to 70. Accumulating data from multiple lines of evidence consistently demonstrate that that’s where a physiologically normal LDL level would be. That appears to be the threshold above which atherosclerosis and heart attacks develop.

That’s what we start out at birth with, that’s what fellow primates have, that’s the level seen in populations free of the heart disease epidemic, but we can also look at all the big randomized controlled cholesterol lowering trials. This is graphing the progression of atherosclerosis versus LDL cholesterol. More cholesterol, more atherosclerosis, but if you draw a line down through the points, you can estimate that the LDL level at which there is zero progression is down around 70. 

*** and ***

Atherosclerosis is endemic in our population in part because the average person’s LDL level is up around 130, approximately twice the normal physiologic level. The reason the federal government doesn’t recommend everyone doesn’t shoot for even just under 100, is that despite the lower risk accompanying more optimal cholesterol levels, the intensity of clinical intervention required to achieve such levels for everyone in the population would financially overload the health care system. Drug usage would rise enormously. But they’re just assuming drugs are the only way to get our LDL that low, but those eating really plant based diets may hit the optimal cholesterol target without even trying. Just naturally nailing under 70.

*** end quote ***

As regular readers know, I’m changing my diet from mostly meat based to mostly plant based.

In part, because of these “scary videos”.

It’s amazing that “We, The Sheeple” have never heard this simple way of avoiding some really nasty health consequences.

I’m sure my maternal Grandmother would have never fed her family “things that would kill them”.

She died of Colon Cancer. If she’d known, maybe she’d have lived to a ripe old age.

So once again, we have the Gooferment mis-informing us either due to stupidity or laziness, or is there a bunch of Crony Capitalists in the woodpile somewhere.

Drugs are expensive and profitable. A vegan diet not so much so. 

I remember one nutritionist on the boob tube pleading that “if your food comes in a box, then you would be better off eating the box!”. 

I laughed at the time, but many a true word is carried in a joke!

# – # – # – # – # 

RANT: Obamacare should be rolled back

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

“Stupid.”

That’s what the architect of ObamaCare called you, the American voter.

He said they wrote the law specifically to confuse voters, to conceal what the law was about.

But now ObamaCare is going to face a day of reckoning.

# – # – # – # – #   

Argh! “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else

But, I think we should thank these bozos for getting “health insurance” disconnected from “employment”.

Like “car insurance”, it should have ZERO connection to your employer.

</EXTREME RANT>

All due to the wage and price controls of WW2.

Aggravated by the Crony Capitalist tax code that allows business to deduct “health insurance expense” but employees can not!

<EXTREME RANT/>

I hope that the R’s will correct this aspect.

If I was an R, I’d be passing bills like a machine gun. Then BHO44 can veto or sign. “We, The Sheeple” can make judgments from there.

# – # – # – # – #   

GOVERNACIDE: An “Obamacare” death

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

2014-Jul-08

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/woman-class-action-lawsuit-against-xerox-dies

Posted July 1, 2014 – 11:41am Updated July 1, 2014 – 4:42pm
Woman in class-action lawsuit against Xerox dies
By JENNIFER ROBISON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

*** begin quote ***

Time ran out for Linda Rolain.

The Las Vegas woman died Monday, less than two weeks after her family went public with details of how enrollment trouble through the Nevada Health Link insurance exchange kept her from getting treatment in January for an aggressive brain tumor.

Rolain was one of about 150 Nevadans suing Nevada Health Link contractor Xerox for enrollment mixups that left them without the health insurance they paid for.

Rolain is the first to die of complications from an illness that her family said went untreated for lack of coverage. But observers close to her case say she may not be the last, because others are in similarly urgent situations.

*** end quote ***

Now no one is saying that without the screw up she would have survived, …

… BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), …

… … … it couldn’t have helped and may well have shortened her time.

The hubris of Gooferment politicians and bureaucrats is stunning.

Remembering that the whole “benefits” issue is the direct result of Gooferment meddling.

  •  WW2 Wage and Price controls forced companies to offer “benefits” as non-cash compensation
     
  • The Tax Code gave corporations breaks on “benefits” that individuals didn’t get (A corporation can deduct healthcare insurance costs, but an individual tax payer can’t!)
     
  • The Gooferment created Medicare and forced the old into a Gooferment “reservation”. (Medicare works as well as the VA healthcare and Indian healthcare.)
     
  • Obamacare

The Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient!

This is the first death; there will be more.

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICAL: WW2 wage and price controls cause today’s problems

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2014/07/time-to-cut-employers-out-of-healthcare.html

Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Time to cut employers out of the healthcare loop
Daniel Froomkin asks one of the right questions in the wake of yesterday’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case: “Why should employers have anything to do with people’s health insurance anyway?”

# – # – # – # – #  

I, for once, agree.

I would say why should Gooferment or its corporations be in charge of “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else?

Look at “life insurance”. “Cheap”, easily available, and virtually unregulated.

Even “car insurance” is relatively the same when compared to “health insurance”.

When you think about it, the current “system” comes from the WW2 wage and price controls. There, the Gooferment, created the problem and “they” keep “rescuing” us from the problem they created.

Could we at least consider an alternative?

If the problem was “uninsured”, (which I dispute), then could “we” NOT bought every uninsured person a policy and avoided the financial and systematic débâcle that was Obamacare?

I think that you liberals think that only the Gooferment can solve “problems”. When in actuality, it causes the problem it seek to proclaim it’s solving.

# – # – # – # – #    

INSPIRATIONAL: “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.impactlab.net/2014/05/24/3-predictions-by-vinod-khosla-for-the-future-of-health/

May 24th, 2014 at 8:25 am
3 predictions by Vinod Khosla for the future of health

*** begin quote ***

According to a newly released report, he predicts:

1. 80 percent of what doctors do, diagnostics, will be replaced by machines

2. Medicine will become tailor-made for each patient

3. Consumer-driven tech will create better incentives to keep people healthy

*** end quote ***

Amazing predictions.

But the economic engineer will have to drastically change.

Will people be “smart” enough to manage their own health?

Not coming out of Gooferment Skrules!

They can’t balance a checkbook or other simple tasks.

But they are good test takers.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICAL: OBAMACARE nukes incentives

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579367143880532248

The Economist Who Exposed ObamaCare
The Chicago professor examined the law’s incentives for the poor not to get a job or work harder, and this week Beltway budgeteers agreed.
By JOSEPH RAGO CONNECT
Feb. 7, 2014 6:30 p.m. ET

*** begin quote ***

Another way of putting it is that taking away benefits has the same effect as a direct tax, so lower-income workers are discouraged from climbing the income ladder by working harder, logging extra hours, taking a promotion or investing in their future earnings through job training or education.

*** end quote ***

The bad news just keeps rolling in.

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICAL: Tim Kaine opposes repealing the ACA

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment
January 15, 2014

Mr. Ferdinand Reinke 
1641 International Dr Unit 414
McLean, VA  22102-4831

Dear Mr. Reinke:

Thank you for contacting me about the health care reform law, known as the Affordable Care Act.  I appreciate your taking the time to share your views.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.  I support the ACA as an important first step towards putting patients in charge of their own health care decisions and slowing the growth of health care costs.  Health care cost increases have bankrupted hundreds of thousands of people and imposed real financial burdens on businesses.  I find it intolerable that the wealthiest nation in the world spends more on health care than any other nation yet we receive second-rate results for our money.  ACA curbs the worst insurance company practices and increases access to affordable and quality health care to the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured. 

Because of the ACA, millions of children can remain on their family’s health insurance until they are 26 years old and insurance companies are prohibited from denying care to those with pre-existing conditions.  Seniors can receive free preventive care that will help reduce the cost and incidence of chronic diseases and purchase more affordable prescription drugs.  Forty-seven million American women now have access to preventive health services.  Small businesses are eligible for tax credits to help defray the costs of purchasing insurance for their employees.  And insurance companies are required to rebate excess premiums to their customers.  These measures represent just some of the positive effects of ACA. 

I oppose repealing the ACA and the benefits described above.  I acknowledge we have more to do to lower health care costs while improving the quality of care.  Other nations have shown it can be done through promoting preventive care, effectively using technology, paying our health care providers by patient outcomes, and finding ways to reduce defensive medicine and lower malpractice premiums without taking rights away from patients. 

Controlling the cost of health care is essential to reducing the deficit and our national debt.  I am ready to work with anyone interested in finding smart savings in health care, especially in Medicare.  Inaction is not a solution to our problems.  There are many good ideas for improving our health care system and through common ground and compromise, we can find credible solutions.

I will continue to work on improving ACA and reducing the cost of health care for Americans.  For more information about ACA, including how it will affect you, details about every feature of the law, and to read the text of the law itself, please visit www.healthcare.gov.

Thank you again for contacting me. 

Sincerely,

Signature

Tim Kaine

# – # – #  

Not very responsive to my “stop it” request.

# – # – # – # – #   

 

 

 

 

 

January 15, 2014

Mr. Ferdinand Reinke 
1641 International Dr Unit 414
McLean, VA  22102-4831

Dear Mr. Reinke:

Thank you for contacting me about the health care reform law, known as the Affordable Care Act.  I appreciate your taking the time to share your views.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.  I support the ACA as an important first step towards putting patients in charge of their own health care decisions and slowing the growth of health care costs.  Health care cost increases have bankrupted hundreds of thousands of people and imposed real financial burdens on businesses.  I find it intolerable that the wealthiest nation in the world spends more on health care than any other nation yet we receive second-rate results for our money.  ACA curbs the worst insurance company practices and increases access to affordable and quality health care to the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured. 

Because of the ACA, millions of children can remain on their family’s health insurance until they are 26 years old and insurance companies are prohibited from denying care to those with pre-existing conditions.  Seniors can receive free preventive care that will help reduce the cost and incidence of chronic diseases and purchase more affordable prescription drugs.  Forty-seven million American women now have access to preventive health services.  Small businesses are eligible for tax credits to help defray the costs of purchasing insurance for their employees.  And insurance companies are required to rebate excess premiums to their customers.  These measures represent just some of the positive effects of ACA. 

I oppose repealing the ACA and the benefits described above.  I acknowledge we have more to do to lower health care costs while improving the quality of care.  Other nations have shown it can be done through promoting preventive care, effectively using technology, paying our health care providers by patient outcomes, and finding ways to reduce defensive medicine and lower malpractice premiums without taking rights away from patients. 

Controlling the cost of health care is essential to reducing the deficit and our national debt.  I am ready to work with anyone interested in finding smart savings in health care, especially in Medicare.  Inaction is not a solution to our problems.  There are many good ideas for improving our health care system and through common ground and compromise, we can find credible solutions.

I will continue to work on improving ACA and reducing the cost of health care for Americans.  For more information about ACA, including how it will affect you, details about every feature of the law, and to read the text of the law itself, please visit www.healthcare.gov.

Thank you again for contacting me. 

Sincerely,

Signature

Tim Kaine

POLITICAL: Obamacare makes fraud legal

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.strike-the-root.com/has-government-legalized-fraud

Has Government Legalized Fraud?
Column by Lawrence Samuels, posted on December 12, 2013
in Statism Health Care Fraud/Waste/Abuse
Column by L.K. Samuels.

Exclusive to STR

*** begin quote ***

The federal government must have made fraud a legal practice. What else could one conclude in light of Obamacare?

When President Obama, his administration and his Democratic cohorts promoted the Affordable Health Care Act, they advertised it with a slew of silver-tongued falsehoods, eloquent misstatements and outright lies. In other words, Obamacare was passed by Congress under clearly fraudulent statements of epic proportions. Almost every promise devised to sell Obamacare to the public and Congress was untrue. Millions of people have lost their coverage, although President Obama stated in 30 to 40 versions that, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” There were no caveats, no exceptions, period.

And yet Obama and his staff knew for years that millions of health care plans had to be cancelled because they would be considered substandard by the new law. Lisa Myers at NBC News revealed this shame. She said that the Obama administration had known since the summer of 2010 that millions of Americans could lose their insurance under the law, where “50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a ‘cancellation’ letter . . . . ” As more information keeps coming out, it turns out that Obama’s polished statements had been carefully vetted by his staff, but coldly calculated to deceive the buying public.

Any salesman employing such deceitful business practices would be prosecuted in a New York second. But nobody has brought a class action suit against Obama or his administration for massive and unmitigated fraud. No attorney general from any one of the 50 states has filed charges. The conclusion one would have to reach is that the government has the right to commit fraud.

*** end quote ***

It would certain appear that “political lies” have reached a new level of audacity.

“I wouldn’t believe you, if your tongue came notarized.” … attributed to Judge Marilyn Milian, but may have an earlier history.

Clearly, anything that the Gooferment, politicians, or bureaucrats say or publish can not be trusted.

Wonder when the revolution will start?

# – # – # – # – #   

RANT: Obamacare ain’t “insurance”!

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/21/who-said-it-president-obama-or-an-infomercial/

# – # – #  

What a joke?

Billy Mays was more believable.

Consider the CONCEPT of insurance.

A bunch of people, who face the same risk, buy a “policy” that will pay if that event happens.

How is pre-existing coverage “insurance”?

I read somewhere that it’s like buying fire insurance after your house burns down!

Not even the Gooferment can refute economics!

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICS: Obamaccare affects coverage

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL News Alert
IBM to Move Retirees Off Health Plan

*** begin quote ***

International Business Machines plans to move about 110,000 retirees off its company-sponsored health plan and instead give them a payment to buy coverage on a health-insurance exchange, in a sign that even big, well-capitalized employers aren’t likely to keep providing the once-common benefits as medical costs continue to rise.

The move, which will affect all IBM retirees once they become eligible for Medicare, will relieve the technology company of the responsibility of managing retirement health-care benefits.

*** end quote ***

This is just another of the dropping shoes!

I foresee litigation.

Unless the politicians and bureaucrats give the Crony Capitalists a “free pass” because it is a big boost to their plan for “single payer socialized medicine”. 

In any event, the “Age of the Golden Watch” when paternalistic companies could be trusted with the best interest of valuable employees. Foolish meme at its heart. But, if I was an IBM employee, or potential IBM retiree, the hand writing is on the wall.

Yes, the new employment meme should be “Every person for themselves!”.

Cause NO ONE — not your employer, not the folks you buy from, not the politicians — NOBODY is looking out for YOU, but YOU!

Forget that at your own peril.

# – # – # – # – #   

INTERESTING: TheHappy Meal’s Eternal Life

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://youtu.be/FoFpsUvaJlE

This Is Why You Shouldn’t Eat Happy Meals — Six Months of a Happy Meal’s Eternal Life

# – # – #  

In a one minute time-lapse video, it convinces me to stay away from fast food. 

Even though, it tastes good. It can’ the good for you?

Seems like it can’t even grow mold?

# – # – # – # – #   

RANT: ObamaCare “death panels”

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/07/31/Howard-Dean-Admits-Palin-Was-Right-About-Death-Panels

HANNITY: HOWARD DEAN ADMITTED PALIN WAS RIGHT ABOUT DEATH PANELS

*** begin quote ***

FOX NEWS INSIDER – There is more proof that the ObamaCare “death panels” are alive and well. The former head of the Democratic Party, who also happens to be a medical doctor, is sounding the alarm. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Howard Dean calls out a “major problem” with the health care law, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Sarah Palin, who warned against death panels in 2010, reacted on Tuesday night’s Hannity.

Sean Hannity broke down why this is important. First, a high-profile Democrat and one-time medical doctor is admitting that this board is a “health care rationing body.” Second, he pointed out that Dean is acknowledging that IPAB has the authority to “stop certain treatments.”

Finally, Hannity said it serves as another frightening reminder that the American people were misled by the president and other Democrats, including Dean, about ObamaCare. President Obama stated in 2009, “Every credible person who has looked into it has said there are no so-called death panels – an offensive notion to me and to the American people. These are phony claims meant to divide us.”

*** end quote ***

Of course, when “rationing”, there’s a financial incentive to “thin the heard”. Stop paying Medicare, Social Security, and collect the various “death taxes”.

Wake up, Sheeple!

# – # – # – # – #   

INTERESTING: Living longer?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.impactlab.net/2013/07/04/109913/

July 4th, 2013 at 8:15 am
Top 3 challenges of longevity
in: Health & Fitness,Latest Trend,Science & Technology News

*** begin quote ***

In developed nations people are living longer. There are increases in life expectancy at birth ranging from 2.7 years in Greece to 5.1 years in Ireland, between 1990 and 2010.This longevity rise has been attributed to improving health factors, better lifestyles and medical advances. This is giving us reasons to celebrate, but what are the challenges of living longer?

*** end quote ***

Money?

Nursing homes?

Dementia?

Cost of health care?

Seems that the Gooferment has really messed up pensions, Social Security, and now is aiming at health care.

Issue crossword puzzle books to everyone. Sudoku works for the Japanese.

Argh!

Money is a whole other issue. Keep working, slave!

# – # – # – # – #    

CLOUD: GOOGLEHEALTH rip

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

*** begin quote ***

This is an important Google Health service announcement. You are receiving this email because you have an active Google Health account.

As we announced in June, 2011, the Google Health service will be discontinued as of January 1, 2013. After that date, any remaining data in your Google Health account will be permanently deleted, and you will no longer be able to access or download any data from Google Health.

If you want to keep using the data you have stored in Google Health, you will need to take action before December 31st, 2012 to download it or transfer it to another online health service. We’ve made this easy for you. All you have to do is:

– go to the Google Health site at https://health.google.com

– log in with your Google account

– follow the on-screen instructions to download your information and close your Google Health account.

For more information, see our help center article at http://www.google.com/support/health/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1347989

Note that, if you log in to Google Health, and are not given an option to download your data, it means that you do not have any data stored in Google Health and you do not need to do anything more.

If you have not retrieved your Google Health data by January 1, 2013, it will be removed from Google’s systems and permanently and irrevocably deleted. Google will be unable to recover any Google Health data for any user after this date.

For more details on the discontinuation of Google Health, see our blog post at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-on-google-health-and-google.html, and see answers to frequently-asked questions at http://www.google.com/intl/en/health/faq.html.

Note: you will continue to receive periodic service announcements as long as you have an active Google Health account. If you do not wish to receive further announcements, simply go to https://health.google.com and follow the process to download your data (if desired) and delete your Health account.

Thank you for your support and use of Google Health.

The Google Health Team

*** end quote ***

ANYTIME, you have something for “free”, you’re at risk of having “your” data repurposed. Or like Bloomberg did to Merrill Lynch, sold back to you.

“Free” can disappear anytime.

So, the inet is NOT the be all and end all of stuff.

It’s more like a casino or con game.

If you’re not paying for it, it’s not “yours”. And, don’t EVER forget it.

–30–

interesting: Obamacare is NOT about h, hc, or hci; it’s about control

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://personalliberty.com/2012/11/19/obamacares-real-costs/

Obamacare’s Real Costs

November 19, 2012 by Bob Livingston

*** begin quote ***

“The Obama Care Health Care Reform Plan or Health Care For America Plan will cost the average American around $70.”–obamacarefacts.com

First of all, allow me to disabuse you of the notion that Obamacare has anything to do with “health” care. Obamacare is not about health. It’s not about lowering the cost of health insurance. And it’s not about ensuring that everyone is insured.

It is about locking more Americans into the clutches of the Big Pharma/Medical Industrial complex, providing more customers for Big Insurance and confiscating more wealth from individuals and businesses.

The American healthcare system should properly be called “sickcare.” It’s a subtle and esoteric system of population control with prescription drugs issued at the public expense by the drug cartel — the conglomerate of pharmaceutical houses.

They commit population control under the pretense of “healthcare” and make people pay for it. And this medical cartel has no legal liability. It is forced — or at least deceptive — medication. And most doctors don’t have a clue. They write prescriptions based on falsified data and kickbacks — from speaker fees and ghostwriting glowing medical reviews — without regard to whether their patients will benefit.

*** end quote ***

I too am very disillusioned with this whole discussion.

It’s NOT about “Health”, “Healthcare”, or “Healthcare Insurance”. It’s all about “control”.

“Death Panels” was a good two word summary of the Gooferment’s objective.

When we think of the drag that seniors represent in socsec, medicare, and the taxes that they don’t pay, no wonder cigarettes are legal!

The exemplar for this is the (American) Indian Healthcare, wwhere the rule is ‘don’t need anything expensive after June’. Or maybe the VA, “die”!  (Some old vets firmly believe that VA wants to kill them. And, not with kindness.)

If it was about health insurance, then it wouldn’t be tied to your employment.

Argh!

–30–

INTERESTING: Hollywood will carry the Obamacare “flag”; propaganda?

Published on by reinkefj2 Comments

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/121282.html

September 19, 2012
Yet Another Reason To Torch the TV
Posted by Becky Akers on September 19, 2012 08:10 AM

*** begin quote ***

“Officials in California want prime-time TV shows to help promote President Obama’s healthcare law. … ‘A number of popular television programs and personalities such as Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, the Biggest Loser, Dr. Oz and others will be approached and pitched to incorporate story lines or mentions of health care reform that would reinforce campaign messages,’” according to the “marketing plan” from “California’s insurance exchange — a new marketplace [sic], created by” Obummercare.

Apparently, the idea that propaganda should be subtle and hidden has waned as Our Rulers’ contempt for us waxes.

*** end quote ***

I’ve debated that Obamacare muddles “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, and / or something else.

Now we find out that the Gooferment is using / expect Hollywood to brainwash us.

Sorry, but if any of my favorite comedies pick up this theme. They are toast!

They can join Jane Fonda in my dog house!

# – # – # – # – #   

INTERESTING: 80% of doctors are expendable

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://www.impactlab.net/2012/09/11/technology-will-replace-80-of-doctors-vinod-khosla/

September 11th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Technology will replace 80% of doctors: Vinod Khosla

*** begin quote ***

Health care must be more data driven and about wellness, not sick care.

Eighty percent of doctors could be replaced by machines.

Khosla assured the audience that being part of the health care system was a burden and disadvantage. To disrupt health care, entrepreneurs do not need to be part of the system or status quo. He cited the example of CEO Jack Dorsey of Square (a wireless payment system allowing anyone to accept credit cards rather than setup a more costly corporate account with Visa / MasterCard) who reflected in a Wired magazine article that the ability to disrupt the electronic payment system which had stymied others for years was because of the 250 employees at Square, only 5 ever worked in that industry.

hosla believed that patients would be better off getting diagnosed by a machine than by doctors. Creating such a system was a simple problem to solve. Google’s development of a driverless smart car was “two orders of magnitude more complex” than providing the right diagnosis. A good machine learning system not only would be cheaper, more accurate and objective, but also effectively replace 80 percent of doctors simply by being better than the average doctor. To do so, the level of machine expertise would need to be in the 80th percentile of doctors’ expertise.

*** and ***

Can we do better in being more reliable, consistent, and creating a system process and design that is comparable to highly reliable organizations and industries? Of course. Can we be more systematic and doing the right things every patient every time on areas where the science is known to level of the molecule? Yes. Care must be incredibly simple to access, extremely convenient and intensely personal.

*** end quote *** 

Well, I am not a fan of America’s current “health care” system. Unless you’re trying to change it to the “socialized medicine” system found in the UK, Canada, and Europe.

I want improvement; not a retro grade or down grade to something worse.

And, of course, I think to the way to that is with less Gooferment and more liberty freedom.

After watching Deep Blue play Jeopardy, it’s seems possible. Doctor House could be a less smelly less crazy diagnostician. I’d have  gladly liked my wife’s case presented to Doctor Deep Blue. It couldn’t have had a worse outcome. 

Then look at all the regulation and costs imposed by that regulation.

The FDA, Medicare / Medicaid, Doctor licensing, Nurse Licensing, Pharmacist Licensing, Pharmacy regulation, Hospital regulation, Insurance regulation, State regulation, Federal regulation, financial regulation, tax code manipulation, Medical education regulation, anti-trust legislation that allows the AMA a monopoly, …  

Did I miss any?

Sigh!

How do we get out of this mess?

Let people make mistakes. Shade tree mechanics. Turn it over to WalMart.

Medicine should be patient driven.

Look at pet care. Competitive. “Cheap”. Easily found. No forms. No real regulation.

Imagine if a Nurse could have her own “practice”. Finding sick people and getting them to the doctor or hospital. Physician’s assistants would be an extension of the system. Everyone says early detection is crucial to good outcomes. Everyone says that rapid care is essential to good outcomes. Everyone says that over use of the ER is driving up costs and wait times. 

Yada, yada, yada …

It could be so much better.

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICAL: End “benefits” now

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/one_payoff_to_pass_obamacare_n.html

August 29, 2010
One payoff to pass Obamacare not paying off
Ed Lasky

*** begin quote ***

We know about the backroom deals made to get Congressmen to vote for ObamaCare but there were also favors cut out for unions, drug makers, and even small business to get them to support the program.

Guess what? The “credit” offered to small business to help them pay for the increased health care costs-due to ObamaCare mandates- turns out to be not much help at all.

*** end quote ***

Make a deal with the devil and don’t be surprised when you get cheated.

Not much to say, but dealing with the Gooferment for “special favors” isn’t what business is supposed to be all about.

Remember this whole benefits mess was created by FDR’s wage and price control in WW2. And, generations later we are still screwed by it.

Time to take some bitter medicine.

Phase out “benefits”.

Businesses should pay their workers their full wage. Allow people to buy “health insurance” like car insurance. THen it would be “portable”.

Perhaps then credit unions to offer group insurance to its members?

Argh!

# # # # #