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I sat through the whole session of Obama’s speech last night and I didn’t see any details offered on how $900 billion won’t add to the deficit.

I heard some really interesting stuff like competition, allowance for those with preexisting medical conditions to have health insurance and I was excited by that, because I am a huge fan of clamping down on insurance monopolies and increasing competition and providing health coverage to all.

But I was disappointed to find out that the President didn’t offer details especially how it’s not going to add to the Budget deficit. I am a concerned independent voter who doesn’t want my kids and future generation of Americans caught up with a bill they can’t pay for.

Can someone offer details on how we are going to not add to the budget deficit?

Oh, we’re going to pay for it with the fraud and waste we take out of medicare and medicaid..

Now, doesn’t this make you wonder, why did our government not take the the fraud and waste ouit of medicare before this???
Or wasn;t it worth being concerned about?. After all, what’s a few billion here and there?

With alarming impunity the province’s ‘independent examiners’ bully injured Canadian workers, auto accident patient – claimants and disabled veterans out of their diagnosis, treatment and compensation.

Here in “Beautiful British Columbia”, CANADA, the Insurance Corporation Of British Columbia (ICBC), “Worksafe BC”, the medical and legal systems and all of their alleged ’systems of checks and balances’ are run by the province – a most blatant, parasitic and destructive conflict of interest…

Subsequently, it is extremely unlikely most patient – claimants with significant injuries and insurance interests will get an affirmative neurological and/or orthopaedic diagnosis anywhere in BC, but this influence (whether it be due to the specialist’s fear of repercussion or collusion) isn’t restricted to the province.

In an effort prevent Joker from getting his diagnosis, treatment and compensation for injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident (mva) in ‘98, ICBC sent him to see their Vancouver orthopaedic HIRED GUN/MEDICAL PROSTITUTE Dr Joseph Schweigel, who has obviously sold his Oath and soul for a few hundred grand/yr in insurance blood money.

You can look him up on ” ratemds.com ” and see that his track record speaks for itself:

http://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/81119/BC/Vancouver/Schweigel

At the time of the accident The Joker (AlAmatol @ rate md’s.com – his comment on Schweigel’s profile is @ 5/14/07) was running up and down mountains on the North Shore, earned $10K/mo (paying $5K/mo in TAXES!) doing on set special effects on the Vancouver TV series “The Crow; Stairway to Heaven” and had an extremely lucrative, environmentally, industry and public health friendly tattooing system going to market with the industry leader.

Because of the Joker and his youngsters are out millions and still requires surgery for which he continually gets the “run around” on the public system.

As a patient – and after ten and a half years – he’s lost confidence and turned to naturopathic and alternative medicine.

As a filmaker, he’s in a prime position to show how the BC medical – legal – insurance system destroys carreers, lives and entire families.

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Kieran has been confirmed as ‘unfit for work’ but under the new system he’s examined by an independent medical examiner employed by a private health care company, which will determine whether he is fit enough to return to work.

Catch up on 4oD: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefit-busters/4od

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Winter Soldiers tell their story
FOR THREE days, a steady stream of U.S. military veterans took the stage to describe their experiences from the front lines as part of "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

Their eyewitness accounts of free-fire zones in dense civilian areas, house raids that terrorized residents, indiscriminate shootings, severe beatings and torture of detainees, and the medical neglect they faced upon returning home riveted the audience of several hundred people who attended the event in Silver Springs, Md.–and many more who followed the hearings through the independent media.

The fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has been accompanied by a deluge of media coverage focused on the supposed successes of the surge of U.S. troops to Iraq ordered by George Bush in early 2007.

More at :
http://socialistworker.org/2008/03/21/winter-soldiers
I don’t really care what john kerry did so thats not really relevent. I think that their testimony was actually needed to counter all the government propaganda. They don’t need to provide a space to the pro-war crowd since they already have the full support of the ruling class and plenty of channels that will put it out. What we don’t have anywhere are soldiers speaking out about their experiences and why they turnned them against the war. I think it is increadibly important that this information gets out to others who are questioning what is going on as well.

Sometimes, veterans do the right thing for the wrong reasons.
Drawing attention to Medical support stateside for wounded Vets is certainly necessary. I for one have read scattered reports about the level of services for vets, some good, some bad.
As for your reference link, I went no further than "socialist……." to understand why it would be critical of the U.S. However, feel free to forward the web site to Obama, which I’m confident, already reads daily.

This is powerful. Noah Logue is a deaf student at a local special needs college in St. Louis. Noah currently is able to afford the equipment necessary for him to communicate and lead an independent life. Under Obamacare Noah may not qualify since he is special needs citizen. Noah asked Dem operatives if he is going to be punished under Obamacare.

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The young star is in a fight for her life against mental illness.
By Asra Q. Nomani
February 12, 2008
I’ll never forget the first time I saw my brother strapped to a gurney. I was just a teen, and he’d been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder, an illness akin to schizophrenia that causes mood swings, psychosis and violent outbursts. Our family had just committed him for psychiatric treatment, and I wept, shouting into the air, "I want my brother back." At home, my parents sobbed. But at least we went through this anguish in private.

So it’s impossible for me to find any entertainment value in the public harassment of Britney Spears, who was released from the psychiatric ward of UCLA Medical Center last week. And as a journalist, I doubt there is news value in it either.

Mental illness doesn’t always elicit compassion; it’s hard to see, so it’s hard to understand. Perhaps in the wake of Spears’ breakdown, California mental health advocates will lobby to change the state’s involuntary commitment laws so that those who are sick get treatment, even if they don’t realize how badly they need it. In the meantime, all of us should reflect on the fact that we wouldn’t be so cruel to somebody diagnosed with another disease. Would we make a sideshow of someone with a brain tumor?

It’s easy to blame the paparazzi and celebrity gossip websites, and, granted, they are the worst. TMZ promoted a video of Spears crying with the headline, "Britney Spears on Suicide Watch?" Over a photo of Spears sitting on a curb after her fight with her manager, PerezHilton.com scrawled "Britwreck."

But the mainstream media are complicit. After Spears’ release (over the objection of her family), A.J. Hammer, host of CNN’s "Showbiz Tonight," stumbled over the pronunciation of Spears’ supposed medications; the words "Burning Britney Questions!" rolled across the bottom of the screen. "Britney’s Mental Illness" was the cover of a recent People magazine. The Daily Telegraph’s website featured this headline: "Mad Britney Spears detoxed by doctors," with a link, "See pictures of the drama here."

By exploiting Spears’ moment of vulnerability, media companies have crossed the line of basic moral decency. To me, this includes Wenner Media, owner of US Weekly and Rolling Stone, which just published an expose of Spears’ mental illness, and even Barbara Walters, who recently reported on Spears’ mental health issues on "The View."

Enough. Time Warner Inc. (parent of CNN, People, AOL and Entertainment Weekly), News Corp. (the Rupert Murdoch firm that owns Fox News and papers around the globe) and others should halt all coverage of Spears until she is healthy. Let’s leave Britney and her family alone.

Responsible journalists long ago came to the ethical determination not to publish the names of rape victims or to air the most gruesome of terrorist videos. We can do the same here. We can get off this maniacal roller coaster that is Britney Spears coverage to remember one important fact: This is a 27-year-old in a fight for her life.

My role model in this debate is photographer Nick Stern, who quit his job Feb. 1 with the Splash news agency because he couldn’t stomach shooting the Spears story any longer. "It’s not journalism. Sooner or later, someone’s going to get killed," he told the Independent in London. "Possibly Britney herself."

Even aspiring journalists are making the right call. At Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies, where I’m a journalism professor, senior Erin Delmore walked off the set of a campus TV talk show. "I’m so done with the Britney coverage," she said. "End it."

Last week, I wrote to my editor at People and told her that I couldn’t continue working as a stringer for the magazine. I’m not being holier than thou. I wasn’t always kind to my brother about his illness. I scolded and nagged him. I called him lazy when he didn’t make his bed, unmotivated when he didn’t get a job and uncaring when he forgot our birthdays. It’s taken more than 20 years for me to understand, deep within my soul, that his mental illness is like a brain tumor, or cancer, or diabetes. It is a disease. It has symptoms such as anosognosia, which means that a person doesn’t think they have an illness, and flat affect, which saps emotional expressiveness. Right now, there is no cure.

When I realized not long ago how cruel I had been, I told my brother what I now tell Britney and her family: "I’m sorry."

Your article is interesting, it made me think. Maybe I’ll stop reading all the gossip columns about Britney, you’re right they are very cruel and we are only fuelling it by reading it, even if its only parcial interest.

The 40 year cannabis prohibition will be looked upon as one of the largest medical blunder in history. There are two choices; We can cower and thus deplorably neglect the weak and sick, or we can strive for greatness by speaking up and becoming a component of the solution.

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As for anyone who said I was a Republican, you are WRONG.
I used to be registered as an Independent, but changed to Democrat when Kearry & Edwards were runnng.
We do need a socialized medical program in the US, not the band-aid that Bush has given to Part D , medicare, perscription coverage. Many retired or disabled people can better afford to live in Mexico, than in their own country, so we should be able to use our medicare wherever we live, and if the medical bills are lower in Mexico, that only saves America some money. Saving money is what the rich are about as that is why they have shiped our jobs out of the country and treat the people doing our labor the way
Grow up the rich get richer, the low and middle income wage earners continue to struggle. As far as an education, I have one, however my parents weren’t so lucky, so instead of saving my money for my golden years I did as the Bible says, honor your mother and father, give to them first and those who don’t are hippocrites

Well you assumed we are all christian. I am part of the 1%, and that would be 3 million atheists in america. Anyways, you cant blame your financial misfortunes on the government. The middle class’ struggles are nothing more than cry babies who dont consider how much better they are living than the rest of the world.

I know that there are several bills out there on healthcare, all of which have good points and bad points (from what I hear). I’m more of a foreign policy buff, but I figured I would start inching my way into the debate here. I downloaded and have been reading HR 3200, which is the bill that Fox News is out to kill (for whatever reason). So when I started reading it, I thought I would find some offensive stuff (I’m more of a financial conservative), but I have found nothing yet (it’s like 1,000 pages, so I haven’t read the whole thing yet) that has offended me or made me think for one minute that I wouldn’t like the reforms brought about by this bill. Some key points I found in the bill itself (these are my notes):

* Protects rights to keep currently held health insurance policies
* Cannot discriminate based on pre-existing conditions
* Limits the allowed methods of varying premiums
* Prohibits discrimination in benefits
* Requires parity in mental health and substance abuse disorder benefits
* Ensures adequacy of provider networks
* Mandates minimum coverage that includes hospitalization, outpatient hospital and clinic services (including ER visits), private practitioner services (regular doctor visits), supplies necessary for treatment, prescription drugs, rehab, mental health and substance abuse disorder services, preventive services, maternity care, well baby and well child care (oral, health, vision, and hearing services, equipment, and supplies for children under the age of 21)
* Requires fair marketing practices by health insurers (uniform marketing standards)
* Requires fair grievance and appeals mechanisms
* Requires information transparency and accurate, timely plan disclosure using plain language
* Mandates timely payment of claims by insurance companies
* Creates a Health Insurance Exchange with Public Health Insurance option
* Prohibits discrimination in healthcare not offered through exchange
* Offers protections to whistleblowers
* In order to ensure value and lower premiums, all group and individual coverage must meet a specified medical loss ratio
* Ends health insurance rescission abuse, which prevents companies from abusing protections created to prevent fraud (companies unreasonably end coverage based on these protections)
* Creates the opportunity for independent, external, third-party review in cases of rescission
* Creates reinsurance program for retirees
* Mandates affordability premium credits for individuals
* “No federal payment for undocumented aliens.”
* Notes that it is an individual’s responsibility to obtain healthcare
* Outlines employer responsibilities should an employee choose to offer health insurance to its employees

These are just a few of the more important points I have found thus far. From the figures I’ve heard, our government wastes more than $4 trillion on healthcare each year anyway, and that pretty much ANY new program would be less expensive (though a cost-neutral plan would be preferred to save taxpayer dollars). From what I’ve seen, any NEW bill would be better than the system we have now (though I don’t think I would support universal healthcare and drastic changes to the health delivery system). Please give me YOUR OPINIONS on this issue, and please do not recite Fox News, MSNBC, or any other partisan hacks. If I want their opinions I could waste my time by watching their shows.
Sorry about the wall of text, lol.

hotnwell… Will definitely put something up if I find the death panels! lol

ObamaCar… if you didn’t notice the quotes… that is a direct quote from the bill… that’s how i can say that.
I see and hear everyday talk about death panels, socialized medicine, etc. attacks against Obama. The bill Obama supports and all the bills I’ve seen so far are not Universal Healthcare, so what is the socialization argument based on? It is sad that these scare tactics DO work on the American people, and it is even worse that you can easily view the bills yourself but everyone is too lazy.

You are wong about the cost. The US spends 2.2 trillion dollars a year on health care (16% of GDP) and federal sate and local governments combined pays for nearly half. or about 1 trillion. However they collect about 4 trillion in taxes so it is about 1/4 of all the money they spend. Without a public option it will not cut cost which is the real problem, it is just insurance reform that will shift cost but not reduce them. If they can not get a public option through Congress I would prefer it fails and try again later. with something less complicated. that people understand.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Drs. Gwen and Madan Kandula discuss the benefits of choosing a physician who is independent on the Morning Blend.

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