Good Morning,

We will get to the debate in one second. I wanted to share with you one particular comment left on the ‘And so the rationing begins’ story. Diana wrote:

“The law is to prevent hospitals from releasing a patient too early!!! If she comes back with a different diagnosis, the hospital WILL be paid. I read the bill, and understood it, you would think a doctor would have the brains to read it, too.”

Unfortunately Diana is DEAD WRONG. These facts are important as we have only 15 days left before we head to the polls to elect a new President and hopefully a new Senate.

If the accounts from our readers were not enough http://thedifferencesofus.com/2012/10/22/ntkn-disbelieve-at-your-own-peril/

please read this link for further verification which states: A large percentage of the hospitals….. have suffered abnormally high readmission rates of which they had little or no control. Despite this well-known fact, readmissions are counted against the facility just the same.

What Are Some of the Causes for Readmissions?

• Senior patients often get readmitted for unrelated reasons to the original admission. An example of this would be a patient who had an inpatient stay for a cardiac event. Several days after discharge, the same patient is in the yard and falls, breaking a hip and then is readmitted for care. Regardless of the fact that it is an unrelated event, it still counts as a readmission for that hospital. (This is one area that many hospital executives are fighting with Congress/CMS as it does not appear to meet “true readmission” criteria.)
• Planned readmissions are counted as part of the criteria. Planned readmissions include chemotherapy patients, conditions identified that require surgery, but is not emergent, a patient may have the surgery scheduled for a later date, and be discharged. When the patient checks back in for the surgery, that patient is counted against the hospital.
• Safety Net Hospitals serve the poor/indigent population with no means for follow up care often suffer from illnesses such as: obesity, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, all chronic illnesses with multiple hospitalizations.  http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/blog/wildcard-wednesdays-rage-against-readmissions/

As noted yesterday ““In October 2012, the Obama administration starts awarding ‘bonus points’ to the hospitals that spend the least per senior…And it whacks the higher spending hospitals with demerits, not only for what they spend on a patient while the patient is in the hospital, but also what is spent on that patient for the three months after hospitalization. So hospitals also get hit with demerits for recommending physical therapy after the patient leaves the hospital, or even recommending a doctor’s visit; it’s all counted. These regulations are not going to wring out the fraud, waste, and abuse. No, they are going to force these hospitals to provide a lower standard of care.”

To that response we received this one from Robert: (which seems to have ceded our readmissions point):

“Still the bottom line question to all opponents of Obamacare (and with the understanding that bugs no doubt still have to be worked out as was the case when Medicare was new): how does one afford private insurance if it is not supplied by an employer or the government? Simply going to an emergency room as Romney recently suggested is not a very good solution to middle class people who have to then pay the bill, often with their homes or children’s education funds. Conservatives, please tell me what should be done, and none of that 47% are “losers” garbage, please!”

To which we responded:

Fair question although I do not consider being denied service as ‘a bug’. However, to answer your question the ObamaCare bill is more than 2,400 pages long, relies on a dense web of regulations, fees, subsidies, excise taxes, exchanges, and rule-setting boards to give the federal government extraordinary control over every corner of the health care system. The costs are commensurate: Obamacare added a trillion dollars in new health care spending. To pay for it, the law raised taxes by $500 billion on everyone from middle-class families to innovative medical device makers, and then slashed $500 billion from Medicare.

Obamacare was unpopular when passed, and remains unpopular today, because the American people recognize that a government takeover is the wrong approach. While Obamacare may create a new health insurance entitlement, it will only worsen the system’s existing problems. When was the last time a massive government program lowered cost, improved efficiency, or raised the consistency of service? Obamacare will violate that crucial first principle of medicine: “do no harm.” It will make America a less attractive place to practice medicine, discourage innovators from investing in life-saving technology, and restrict consumer choice.

In short, President Obama’s trillion dollar federal takeover of the U.S. health care system is a disaster for the federal budget, a disaster for the constitutional principles of federalism, and a disaster for the American people.

According to MITT’S PLAN
On his first day in office, Mitt Romney will issue an executive order that paves the way for the federal government to issue Obamacare waivers to all fifty states. He will then work with Congress to repeal the full legislation as quickly as possible.

In place of Obamacare, Mitt will pursue policies that give each state the power to craft a health care reform plan that is best for its own citizens. The federal government’s role will be to help markets work by creating a level playing field for competition.

Restore State Leadership and Flexibility

Mitt will begin by returning states to their proper place in charge of regulating local insurance markets and caring for the poor, uninsured, and chronically ill. States will have both the incentive and the flexibility to experiment, learn from one another, and craft the approaches best suited to their own citizens.

Block grant Medicaid and other payments to states
Limit federal standards and requirements on both private insurance and Medicaid coverage
Ensure flexibility to help the uninsured, including public-private partnerships, exchanges, and subsidies
Ensure flexibility to help the chronically ill, including high-risk pools, reinsurance, and risk adjustment
Offer innovation grants to explore non-litigation alternatives to dispute resolution
Promote Free Markets and Fair Competition

Competition drives improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, offering consumers higher quality goods and services at lower cost. It can have the same effect in the health care system, if given the chance to work.

Cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits
Empower individuals and small businesses to form purchasing pools
Prevent discrimination against individuals with pre-existing conditions who maintain continuous coverage
Facilitate IT interoperability
Empower Consumer Choice

For markets to work, consumers must have the information and the power to make decisions about their own care. Placing the patient at the center of the process will drive quality up and cost down while ensuring that services are designed to provide what Americans actually want.

End tax discrimination against the individual purchase of insurance
Allow consumers to purchase insurance across state lines
Unshackle HSAs by allowing funds to be used for insurance premiums
Promote “co-insurance” products
Promote alternatives to “fee for service”
Encourage “Consumer Reports”-type ratings of alternative insurance plans

 

Friends, I do not make this stuff up. I do my due diligence to bring you truth in everything reported. I spend many waking hours reading, verifying, reading and verifying. Again I tell you – this rationing has begun and it’s only going to get worse. Please educate people – they truly do not know.

One final word via TPP:

 

 

 

Now, on to the debate:

So, who won? Every left leaning article says Obama. Every right leaning article says Romney. IMO If we ignore everything else and only look to this – we find the answer: “Look at the record,” Mr. Romney said. “You look at the record of the last four years and say: Is Iran closer to a bomb? Yes. Is the Middle East in tumult? Yes. Is Al Qaeda on the run, on its heels? No. Are Israel and the Palestinians closer to reaching a peace agreement? No.”  Winner: Romney.

But, let’s go deeper. It’s no secret that I am beholden to our military so when jokes are made I tend to pay attention. Mr. Obama said “We also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military has changed,” the president said in reply to Mr. Romney’s comment that our Navy ‘is smaller now than any time since 1917’.

Hmm, did you know From 500 yards, every Marine is accurate with a rifle. Attach the OKC-3S Bayonet, and the weapon becomes just as effective in close combat situations. Also a Marine’s multi-purpose fighting knife, the OKC-3S is the weapon of choice when shots can’t be fired. Every Marine receives bayonet training in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) and on the Bayonet Assault Course in Recruit Training. One would think the Commander in Chief would know this.

FURTHER, did you know the U.S. special operations teams that led the American invasion in Afghanistan a decade ago did something that no American military had done since the last century: they rode horses into combat.

With regard to sequestration I turn to the authority on this topic.. Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mark Ferguson who said a few months back:

“Our role is really about the flexibility of forces, that they can move to various regions, both in this region in the Gulf and outside the Gulf… Should sequestration be enacted, the Navy would not be able to support the current national defense strategy and it would cause a reduction in the size of the fleet to the point that we would have to relook at the strategy, the Navy would be reduced both in size and in its presence around the globe.”

Oh, one final point with regard to the military – submarines are boats NOT ships Mr. President.

Okay, moving on…

As to O’s point of our borders being safer – Fast and Furious anyone?

O said he wants to help veterans – yet he is suppressing the military vote.

 

Mr. Obama said that exports to China had doubled during his presidency, which largely reflects the fact that he took over at the depths of a collapse in global trade – a bit like saying that the weather got warmer in the six months after his inauguration in January. Imports from China have also soared, of course, but he didn’t mention that.

 

So, back to the question ‘who won’ let’s worry about more about this question..’who will WE win with’ and to find that answer we shall turn to Monty Pelerin who wrote: Reality is the Difference!

Data, records and performance become drivers around the time of elections. Debates ensure that they become so. When people pay attention, information ultimately gets through. Reality can be hidden or suppressed for a time, but it now dominates this election.

It is reality that has doomed Obama. Four years ago he was isolated from it. He had no data, record or performance. He was the Bagger Vance of politics, appearing out of the mist and running solely on myth and image as created by himself and his handlers.

Obama’s only hope in this election was to suppress reality again for it is a potent contraceptive against the only thing that Obama can trade off — false promises, distortions and propaganda. To understand the realities Obama must now answer for, here are just a few headlines of a recent day:

• Surprise! Jobless claims return to 18-month range 
• Obama Spending, Not Bush Tax Cuts, Drives Deficit
• WELFARE SOARS 32% IN 4 YEARS…
• Now costs $1,030,000,000,000…
• NO SURPRISE: Jobless claims rise 46,000…
• Under president, for every $7 brought in by gov’t, $11 spent…

Obama’s problem relates to his performance. He is now known, has a record and is unable to run away from it. Arguably he has failed at everything, making most matters worse than they had to be. The following political ad shows how Obama tries to escape reality. In essence, he pretends he has just inherited the problem, just as he did four years ago.

 

The debates are over; the facts are in; NOW, its time to elect a President!

 

 

LOCAL:

 

• The New York Times has endorsed Sean Patrick Maloney (over Nan Hayworth) and Kirsten Gillibrand (over Wendy Long). Gosh, even I could have predicted those outcomes. As if we needed one more reason to NOT vote that way!

 

• Do you know Neil DiCarlo? You should: http://neildicarlo.com/   With two weeks left we are pushing hard to the finish line, we are feeling confident and we need your help to ensure a win. This coming Saturday, October 27, we are having our second to last sign wave rally! 10AM to 5pm in Poughkeepsie on Routes 44 and 55, just east of downtown. We need your support to inform other voters that Neil is out there and his supporters are passionate!  Come and spend an hour or five! Thanks to our dedicated core of volunteers who respond regularly to our rally’s! ALSO: Letters to the editor! Speak your mind in the public forum. Neil is the guy we need in Albany!  Very Respectfully, Zachariah A. Chichestern Campaign Manager

 

Journal News Update:

Thank you to those that called. Howard advises that he called Herb Pinder’s line and spoke to the man who answered the phone. It was not Herb. Howard writes “After I clearly voiced my objection to the fish wrapper’s decision to exclude Frank, I was told they did this in the best interest of their readers. I loudly told him it is not in my best interest and I am a reader. How dare the newspaper decide for me who I should hear from. It was not one of my more pleasant conversations”.

As to my email – not one response from them. NOT ONE! Yet, they would like me to spend the money on reading their paper. I will no longer include any links to the Journal News unless this situation gets rectified. I’m done. I am sick and tired of others deciding what we should and should not know.

 

Enjoy your day and KEEP TALKING WITH FACTS!

Lisa