Obama’s Dr. Death Tells Indiana to Fund Planned Parenthood
Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com
The Obama administration today denied Indiana’s use of its new state law that would deny millions in taxpayer dollars to the Indiana affiliate of the nation’s largest abortion business.
Governor Mitch Daniels signed the law, which would cut off anywhere from $2 million to $3 million the Planned Parenthood abortion business receives in federal funds via the Indiana government through Medicaid.
Daniels said that “any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions.”
However, the Obama administration has told the state it can’t implement the new law, with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick denying a request to deny funds saying the federal Medicaid law stipulates that states can’t exclude providers based on the services they provide.
National Journal. “We assume this decision is not unexpected.”
Berwick also said the law makes it so states can’t prohibit access to family planning, which is provided under federal law. His department released a memo advising states that they can’t exclude abortion providers from receiving taxpayer funds via Medicaid.
“Medicaid programs may not exclude qualified health care providers — whether an individual provider, a physician group, an outpatient clinic or a hospital — from providing services under the program because they separately provide abortion services,” Center for Medicaid Director Cindy Mann wrote in the memo.
Obama Stands By Rationer and Judicial Extremist Nominees Berwick and Liu
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com
Despite longstanding attempts to redefine Barack Obama as a down-the-middle centrist, Obama’s radical colors keep showing. Just today, the media announced he is standing by his nominations of the most conspicuous advocate of health care rationing, Dr. Donald Berwick, and a revolutionary in black robes named Goodwin Liu.
Most Congressional Democrats have given up on confirming Rationer-in-Chief Donald Berwick — but Barack Obama is keeping the faith. The White House put out the word that Berwick will not be thrown under the bus despite the mathematical impossibility of his being confirmed by the Senate.
“The president stands firmly behind the nomination of Don Berwick because he’s far and away the best person for the job, and he’s already doing stellar work,” according to Jay Carney, White House spokesman and trendy-word-user. Carney said Americans should support the “stellar” Berwick, because he is “implementing delivery system reforms that will save billions in excess costs and save millions of lives.” This tranquil-sounding phrase means Berwick is pressing forward with ObamaCare. A full 42 Republicans wrote a letter asking Berwick be withdrawn because of his….
Doctor Death Defeated? Dems Pull the Plug on Donald Berwick
Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com
Senate Democrats have officially given up their fight to confirm Donald Berwick, the rationing advocate President Barack Obama nominated to become the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the chief implementer of Obamacare.
Berwick has been deluged with criticism from pro-life advocates, who cite his fondness for rationing and his failure to level with a Senate committee about his pro-rationing views.
Obama previously used a recess appointment to place Berwick in the prominent position after the Senate couldn’t find enough votes to overcome a Republican-led filibuster against his nomination. A recess appointment can be used when the Senate is not in session but the appointment is temporary and Berwick, if not confirmed by the Senate, has to leave the position by the end of the year. In January, Obama renominated Berwick to his current post.
However, a Politico report today indicates Democrats have given up any hope of confirming Berwick following a letter they received signed by 42 Republican senators who said they would continue pressing a filibuster against him. A White House spokesman indicated top Democrats “can do the arithmetic” and see no way to obtain the 60 votes necessary to cut off debate and proceed to a vote on Berwick’s nomination.
Democratic Senate Finance Committee staffers, according to Politico, met with top health care lobbyists on Friday and said the Berwick nomination is officially dead and there will be no committee hearing on his nomination. They said top Democrats would eventually discuss the “next steps” for a new nomination for the post.
Berwick Sidesteps Questions About Health Care Rationing
Jim Angle, FoxNews.com
Dr. Donald Berwick, the man in charge of Medicare and at the heart of implementing President Obama’s health care law, faced a barrage of questions from House Republicans over concerns about the plan and on his own controversial past positions.
But Berwick mostly praised the embattled new law and sidestepped questions about his own opinions on government-run health care.
A main Republican concern about the law is that the $575 billion it requires in Medicare reductions will make it hard for seniors to find doctors and other providers.
“Medicare actuaries predict that because of the cuts in the Democrats’ health care law, 725 hospitals, 2,352 nursing homes and 1,587 home-health agencies will become unprofitable,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp noted in questioning Berwick Thursday.
Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, says 300 doctors in his state have already dropped Medicare patients…
Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., wanted to know if there was “anything at all” Berwick would change.
The two jousted for a few moments as Berwick declined to offer any flaws and finally, in a line reminiscent of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s famous claim that Congress needed “to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” Berwick finally offered the following: “Over time we are going to learn about this bill, sir….”
Obama Renominates Rationer-in-Chief Berwick
Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com
Late Wednesday night, President Barack Obama renominated “rationing czar” Donald Berwick to his current post as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the chief of implementation of the Obamacare law.
Berwick has been deluged with criticism from pro-life advocates, who cite his fondness for rationing and his failure to level with a Senate committee about his pro-rationing views.
Obama previously used a recess appointment to place Berwick in the prominent position after the Senate couldn’t find enough votes to overcome a Republican-led filibuster against his nomination. A recess appointment can be used when the Senate is not in session but the appointment is temporary – he could serve through this year in his current role but not beyond that.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, ranking Republican on the committee that oversees Medicare, told the Washington Post he is disappointed Obama chose to renominate Berwick to the position…
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, calls Berwick “the most important man that you’ve never heard of” and he called on lawmakers to ask about “his radical plans for health care.”
“Berwick, whom the President entrusted with $962 billion dollars, heads up the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid–a job he was never approved by Congress to do,” he said. “Instead, the White House, sensing that his pro-euthanasia socialist views would pose problems even for his own party, made Berwick a recess appointment.”
Berwick is an outspoken admirer of the British National Health Service and its rationing arm, the National Institute for Clinical Effectiveness (NICE)….
The Nightmare ObamaCare Wants to Unleash Here
Susan Stamper Brown, FloydReports.com
Another dreamer quietly joined the Obama administration last summer without Congressional approval. Despite resolute promises that Obamacare would not include rationing or result in a single-payer system, please give a hearty and belated welcome to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services director, Dr. Donald Berwick.
Berwick’s unobtrusive entrance could not muffle his history of being a very loud proponent of the troubled British National Healthcare System (NHS). During the NHS’s 60th anniversary meeting in 2008, Berwick scorned America’s ho-hum, less superior, lower quality, fragmented, capitalistic, supply-driven medical system – and praised NHS’s socialized system saying, “Excellent health care is by definition [wealth] redistribution,” and told NHS leaders that “Britain chose well.”
An increasing number of NHS patients may not concur with Dr. Berwick’s assessment. According to the UK Guardian, not long after Berwick’s appointment last year, written complaints ranging from “neglect and misdiagnosis” to a “distinct lack of care and compassion” from caregivers rose 13.4 percent.
Patient complaints along with various audits expose insufficiencies within the NHS. On January 17, 2011, the UK Daily Mail told of an investigation into 15 UK West Midlands hospitals that used “substandard” maternity care including delivery delays, inadequate resuscitation attempts, and failure to properly monitor patients that may have resulted in the unexplained deaths of 21 babies.
A striking 2009 audit found many NHS health care managers prioritized cost cutting over patient care and cited that “appalling standards of care” may have attributed to the deaths of up to 1200 people at one hospital in Mid-Staffordshire where poorly trained and overworked nurses turned off equipment they didn’t know how to work and inexperienced doctors were left alone with post-surgery patients while receptionists were tasked with triage assessment.
In order to meet an NHS-imposed four-hour waiting room limit, doctors left blood-covered, seriously ill patients without pain medication to treat….
Death Panels Re-Defeated? Officials Say Obama Will Reverse Himself
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com
When ObamaCare goes into effect, the president may want to get checked for schizophrenia. Just weeks ago, the Obama administration bypassed Congress to add a “death panels” provision to the new health care law by regulation. Today, a number of “administration officials” have told the New York Times the president will withdraw the federal rule.
Of course, this reversal in no way signals that Barack Obama has changed his goals. This was a defeat forced by an indignant public. This is a defeat for Obama’s administrative lawmaking and a major victory for the Tea Party movement.
In fact, this is the second time the same time they have defeated the creeping threat of euthanasia. Democrats added a provision….
“Death Panels” Regulation Begins Obama’s 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 aspects of this decision. However, they have ignored a vital aspect of this story: the way he implemented the policy. This federal regulation inaugurates Obama’s two-year strategy to rule by executive order. The New York Times reports….
Death Panels Are Back, Says Pro-Life Group
Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com
A pro-life organization that monitors end-of-life issues is worried the infamous “death panels” have been added back into the implication of the controversial ObamaCare health care law.
The so-called “death panels” came under fire when former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin used the phrase to describe the advance care planning consultations found in Section 1233 of the bill before the final version received Congressional approval. The infamous Section 1233 of HR 3200 would have federalized “voluntary” end-of-life “consultations,” and, in three states, had patients advised they could seek a legal assisted suicide.
The section was eventually dropped but the pro-life group LifeTree says the concerns are back again.
Last Monday, The Federal Register (page 73406) published a new funding rule for “voluntary” advance care planning consultations that changes Department of Health and Human Services regulation pertaining to Medicare and Medicaid patients, the group explains….
Voluntary advance planning is defined as:
Verbal or written information regarding the following areas: (1) An individual’s ability to prepare an advance directive in the case where an injury or illness causes the individual to be unable to make health care decisions[; and] (2) Whether or not the physician is willing to follow the individual’s wishes as expressed in an advance directive.
“The new regulation states that advanced care planning consultations will now be offered (and funded) as part of the initial wellness visit for medicare patients and during all subsequent annual visits,” LifeTree says.
The Declaration of Independence is the Key to Impeachment
Ben Barrack, FloydReports.com
When it comes to the impeachment and subsequent removal from office of a sitting president, the ‘how’ is found in the Constitution; much of the ‘why’ is found in the Declaration of Independence. The former was an extension of the latter.
As a Constitutional law professor, Barack Obama is extremely familiar with our founding documents but – quite ironically in light of his nearly palpable contempt for Great Britain – he seems to be channeling the individual most responsible for the Declaration’s authorship – King George.
For example:
He (King George) has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
Two states have passed laws recently that have, in effect, been “suspended.” In the case of Arizona’s SB 1070, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton blocked the most key parts of the law one day prior to its scheduled implementation. This never would have been done had Obama’s Department of Justice not filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona. As for the neglecting-to-attend-to-them part, the law has virtually faded from public view since the ruling.
The other state to have an activist judge rule in favor of the Obama administration – inferred based on the president’s ideology and past statements – is Oklahoma. After 70 percent of that state’s voters decided they wanted to preemptively eliminate the possibility of Shari’a law factoring in to any court rulings there, an activist judge “suspended” the results of the ballot measure.
How courts rule on the multiple lawsuits already filed in different states challenging the legal standing of Obamacare will further demonstrate the degree to which this administration’s luck may not be luck at all.
He (King George) has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
Speaking of Obamacare, isn’t this precisely what happened?….
