A PORTION OF H.R. 3200

Below is a randomly chosen sample of the verbiage in the House of Representatives healthcare bill chosen at random by a Lawyer and some of his comments.

Page 780 of the House Bill is part of Section 1721, setting forth amendments to the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 14 1396b(a)(13), by adding a new paragraph "(C)" as follows:

(C) payment for primary care services (as defined in section 1848(j)(5)(A), but applied without regard to clause (ii) thereof) furnished by physicians (or for services furnished by other health care professionals that would be primary care services under such section if furnished by a physician) at a rate not less than 80 percent of the payment rate applicable to such services and physicians or professionals (as the case may be) under part B of title XVIII for services furnished in 2010, 90 percent of such rate for services and physicians (or professionals) furnished in 2011, and 100 percent of such payment rate for services and physicians (or professionals) furnished in 2012 or a subsequent year;

Try reading this language out loud. Plain English is nowhere to be found. Other equally obscure provisions in this section include a subsection on the "adequacy of payment for Primary Care Services and reimbursement rates."

The Democrats propose to increase payments using "100% FMAP" (Federal Medical Assistance Percentages) under this new section "(C)":

(3)(A) The portion of the amounts expended for medical assistance for services described in section 1902(a)(13)(C) furnished on or after January 1, 2010, that is attributable to the amount by which the minimum payment rate required under such section (or, by application, section 1932(f)) exceeds the payment rate applicable to such services under the State plan as of June 16, 2009.

(B) Subparagraphs (A) shall not be construed as preventing the payment of Federal financial participation based on the Federal medical assistance percentage for amounts in excess of those specified under such subparagraphs.

VERDICT: Close to incomprehensible. I think this section means that there will be an increase in reimbursements to states for payments to primary care physicians under Medicaid. I could be wrong. There are so many cross-references, that it would take several hours to figure out all the implications and the conditions on which such payments are made, much less the source of revenue for the payments.

What this section does show is the density of the House Bill. Understanding just this single provision is a daunting task. Call it the banality of bureaucracy. Someone, be it a lobbyist or staffer or both, spent an enormous amount of time writing this dense text to accomplish something which is not explained in a form almost anyone could understand or comprehend.

William A. Jacobson is Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School in Ithaca, NY, and author of the Legal Insurrection Blog.

So, do you really want this voted into law??

PANIC POLITICS

A Federal Government organization the CDC which has in previous years made rather conservative estimates has apparently been taken over by the same politicians that are pushing for quick action using scare tactics. The CDC estimated that at least 1/2 the population of the US could (would?) suffer from the Swine Flu (H1N1) and that as many as 90,000 people would(could) die as a result of this PANDEMIC!

Realistic estimates will probably show that a fairly large number of people will contract some form of the flu (upwards of 2 million) while the average number of people who die as a result of the Flu (all forms) may be as high as 45,000. In a Nation of 300 million people, these numbers are not too severe although quite regrettable. In addition, most of these deaths by the flu are, in reality, among people who are the weakest and seriously ill for other reasons.

So, our Government must be pushing the panic button for some other reason. Could it be that the Government wants to show how useful and forward thinking it is and should really be in charge of ALL of our health care needs; and that in our best interests, H.R. 3200 needs to be passed quickly as it is presently envisioned?

By the way, there have been some estimates that the Swine Flu vaccine presently being tested has integral components that previously (within the last 5 years) have caused more harm than good. I wonder what the CDC knows about those evaluations?

JUSTICE ADMINISTRATION STYLE

Three items of interest:

1. The man who was convicted of helping to bring down a commercial airplane killing 270 people has been released from a Scottish prison and returned to lybia.

2. Iranian dissidents in Iraq were (presumably) given protection by the US were recently attacked by Iraqi security forces while US forces looked on.

3. One of the accused Terrorists held by the US has been set free and returned to Afghanistan; the same place where he was caught attacking US soldiers.

Such is the state of US diplomacy and the character and nature of our present Administration.

While at the same time, for, most likely, political revenge against the Republicans and the Bush Administration, the new Attorney General is preparing to assign a special prosecutor to investigate, and punish CIA employees who served under the previous administration. ANY present CIA employee would do well to consider changing their occupations.

DON'T BE TAKEN IN

I normally view certain Blogs and sources on the internet for news as well as opinion. There are some sites that have been completely trustworthy in portraying news and information correctly and they have proven themselves to me. But, be careful, because some who I have trusted, may be wrong or will provide misinformation. I expect some types of whimsey on special days such as the First of April, and expect to see some good humored fun.

Recently yesterday, a local Blog that provides news of my locale, Gila County AZ provided a link to a UTube video in which the announcer described with a witness how deranged and misguided the Weather Channel is by preferentially talking about the weather (as if it were wrong). Further investigation showed the blog had included a "funny" story from "The Onion" but failed to warn anyone about the nature of the content. Review of entries at onion.com showed it to be a spoof website with many whimsical stories (President is a Bipolar, etc).

I was nearly taken in by this but, fortunately for me, I did some further investigation. The moral of this Blog entry is: Don't believe everything you see or hear on the internet, and be certain to check and verify stories through independent means. BTW, SNOPES is not unbiased or independent (left leaning), and in some cases not very diligent about checking facts; so be careful.

One other outcome is that I am now quite hesitant to believe anything I see on the Blog that spoofed me, which is sad since I really trusted it to provide me with good local news.

A SMALL BIT OF POLITICAL HUMOR

At one time I believed that US Politicians were the only foolish politicians in the world; at least the only ones who were dumb enough to show their ineptness. But, now I find that the ability to be foolish is probably universal. Witness the Australian politico's interview.

GOVERNMENT RUN PROGRAM

If anyone thinks that a Government Run Healthcare system would be better than what is available now, look at the early results of the massive Government run Cash for Clunkers program. The now 3 Billion dollar program that has probably obligated 1/2 of that amount at this time involving more than 338,000 trade in vehicles is showing signs of bureaucratic bungling. It appears that as of 8/16/09 only 2% of the car dealer claims have completed processing. Most of the rest of the claims have been rejected due to unspecified errors. So, either the Nation's car dealers are a group of dullards that can't fill out a form properly, or the forms are poorly constructed and difficult to comprehend, or the administrators(bureaucrats in DC) are incompetent fools that are conducting Government business as usual (maybe they are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the claims?)

The reasons for the inability of the program to run efficiently are not too important as the lesson that may be learned from it. Imagine now how your Government Run Healthcare program will work because the same dealers (Doctors, hospitals, etc), and Forms, and Administrators (Government Bureaucrats) will staff this program. Only, this time, people will be affected because life or death decisions would probably be in contention. Such a system (estimated to be in the Trillion dollar not a paltry billion dollar program) will be 10 times worse and much more inefficient!

Do not allow the Government to become the major player (any more than they already are) in Healthcare.

HEALTH CARE CONCERNS

The Administration is trying to defuse the negative aspects of the proposed Healthcare Reform measure/bill/proposed law overhaul. One major aspect of this effort is the Administrations declaration (& Senate concurrence) is that there is presently NO Healthcare bill being considered since nothing has been submitted for debate and approval. However, since the House of Representatives have passed a bill and sent it to the Senate for match up and there are some Senate Committees that have viewed and sent on for Senate approval, that contention is a very poor subterfuge designed to limit debate on the actual proposed content of the Healthcare Initiative. According to one version of the various plans being considered, the following information has been determined (by unknown people or organizations). If any of this is really true, we the people need to be very concerned about our future and the direction that this country is headed. It is relatively unimportant what these provisions would apply to, but only that they are being considered. Our privacy and personal security is, in my opinion, in grave jeopardy. Even if the below items are only paraphrased or an interpretation of the legalese contained within the bill, be concerned.

Page
22	Mandates audits of all employers that self insure
42	Healthcare Commissioner decides what benefits you will receive
50	All non-citizens will receive free healthcare services
58	Every citizen will receive a National ID Healthcard
59	Government will have direct access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transactions
72	All private healthcare plans will conform to Government rules to participate in healthcare exchange
127	AMA sold physicians out – the governt rules to participate in healthcare exchange the government will eventually set wages
145	Employer must auto-enroll employees into the public government run plan. No alternatives.
149	Employer with payroll over $400K who doesn’t offer public option will be taxed 8%
150	Employer with a payroll of $250K-400K who doesn’t offer public option will be taxed 2-6%
167	Any individual who doesn’t have acceptable healthcare will be taxed 2.5%
195	All officers and employees of the Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to all American financial and personal records
203	The tax imposed under this section will not be treated as a tax. Yes, it really says that.
239	Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid, seniors, and the poor.
241	Doctors, no matter what specialty you have, you will be paid the same
253	Government sets the value of doctor’s time, professional judgment, etc
265	Government mandates and will control productivity for private healthcare industries
272	Cancer patients will receive rationing
280	Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions
298	Doctors will be penalized if treating a patient that results in re-admission
317	Doctors will be prevented from owning or investing in healthcare companies
318	Prohibition on hospital expansion without government approval
335	Government mandates establishment of out-come based measures
341	Government will have the power to disqualify plans
354	Government will restrict enrollment of special needs individuals
425	Government will provide approved list of end-of-life treatment and appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time
427	Government will dictate how your life ends
430	Government decides level of treatment for end-of-life
489	Government will cover marriage and family therapy, and can intervene in your marriage
494	Government will define, create, cover, and ration mental health services

SCARY PRONOUNCEMENT

The President had a new Website created in which the Administration is collecting a listing of all people who do not support the Administration's position on Healthcare and probably anything else that is counter to the leadership. There have been some ominous statements and conjecture about the purpose of gathering these lists. It seems to be a very un American activity.

I will be pleased to have my name added to the list of objectors on this website. Anyone else? Hopefully, the website list will be quite large.

LEAD IN

I intended this to be a lead in to the previous Blog idea.

These are pronouncements by past and present Democratic leadership; note the obvious differences.

Subject: Words of wisdom, and then just words

Great Orators of the Democratic Party

'One man with courage makes a majority.'

- Andrew Jackson

'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.'

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

'The buck stops here.'

- Harry S. Truman

'Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for

your country.'

- John F. Kennedy

And for today's Democrats...

'It depends what your definition of 'IS' is?''

- Bill Clinton

'That Obama - I would like to cut his NUTS off.'

- Jesse Jackson

'Those rumors are false .... I believe in the sanctity of marriage..'

- John Edwards

'I invented the Internet.'

- Al Gore

'It doesn't matter if the planet is cooling and plants need it to live. We still have to ban carbon dioxide.'

- Henry Waxman

'The next Person that tells me I'm not religious, I'm going to

shove my rosary beads up their ASS.'

- Joe Biden

' America is--is no longer, uh, what it--it, uh, could be, uh what it

was once was...uh, and I say to myself, 'uh, I don't want that future, uh, uh for my children.'

- Barack Obama

'I have campaigned in all 57 states.

- Barack Obama

'You don't need God anymore, you have us democrats.'

- Nancy Pelosi

'Paying taxes is voluntary.'

- Harry Reid

'Bill is the greatest husband and father I know. No one is more

faithful, true, and honest than he.'

- Hillary Clinton

'The days of "traditional values" and strong foreign policy are over.'

- Chuck Schumer

'I do not regard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as problems, I regard

them as great assets. I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. Fannie and Freddie pose no threat to the Treasury.'

- Barney Frank

POLITICIANS

My last Blog entry dealt with broken promises. The lesson from this is -- DON'T TRUST POLITICIANS - . They will promise you anything to get your favor, and, when the promise no longer suits their purpose, they will renege. We will soon forget about it anyway; RIGHT?

So, as we may expect to see Terrorist combatants on US soil, so we will also see tax increases for everyone. And, some of these tax increases will be blatant appeals to our perceived needs.

This type of treatment may be expected from Democrats as well as Republicans. Witness the attempt by Arizona's Governor to raise the sales tax by 1 % even after a majority of the citizens rallied against such a move. In the end, the politicians will win either by deception or by fraud.

Associated with taxes is another question which I believe I know the answer; Where are the Trillions of dollars coming from to satisfy the Federal Government's latest initiatives such as the "cash for clunkers" program?

Unfortunately, the money is being manufactured without any real support or hope of value items to back it up. In other words, the Government is printing essentially worthless dollars to cover these expenditures. The resultant will be a very high rate of inflation which we will all pay for in the very near future.

PATIENCE

When the new President announced that he was ordering the Military prison at Guantanamo Bay used for suspected terrorists and enemy combatants to be closed within a year, a great deal of concern was raised about what to do with them. I believe that the US citizens were assured that these people would not be brought to US soil. This pronouncement was maid to reduce the public's fears of terrorists being released or escaping in this country. After 6 months, it is apparent that the Government still has not found a viable alternative to the present Prison. However, because the Administration would lose face for a failure to meet the closure goal, something needs to be done quite soon. So, the latest idea is to place these terrorists in a facility in Kansas! Ft Leavenworth military prison where a combination of civilian and military administrators, guards, and other support personnel would be used.

This alternative is considered by the Administration to be the best of a bunch of poor options.

Now, another guarantee, the one where these terrorists will never be detained in the US, is being repudiated and the wishes of the US citizens are being ignored.

Why not just admit that the present facility at Guantanamo Bay is in fact the best location for these people, keep the facility open, and accept that not every idea that is pushed by a political agenda needs to be carried out. But, be careful to keep the Terrorists out of the US.

When is the Main Stream Media going to support the interests of the US citizens by campaigning against such poorly conceived ideas?

WASTEFUL SPENDING

I received the following in an e mail. First, the contents of the e mail, then some questions.

WOW--HERE'S A CHANGE

First Lady Requires More Than 20 Attendants; It's good to be the Queen!

Dr. Paul L. Williams, "In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much," she

said. "See, that's why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service," Michelle Obama No, Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she doesn't perform any official duties. But

this hasn't deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession. Just think Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War. And Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary. How things have changed! If you're one of the tens of

millions of Americans facing certain destitution, earning less than subsistence wages stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart or serving up McDonald cheeseburgers, prepare to scream and then come to

realize that the benefit package for these servants of Miz Michelle are

the same as members of the national security and defense departments and the bill for these assorted lackeys is paid by John Q. Public:

1	$172,200	Sher, Susan	Chief Of Staff
2	$140,000	Frye, Jocelyn C.	Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady
3	$113,000	Rogers, Desiree G.	Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary
4	$102,000	Johnston, Camille Y.	Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady
5		Winter, Melissa E.	Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady
6	$90,000	Medina , David S.	Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady
7	$84,000	Lelyveld, Catherine M.	Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady
8	$75,000	Starkey, Frances M.	Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady
9	$70,000	Sanders, Trooper	Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady
10	$65,000	Burnough, Erinn J.	Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary
11		Reinstein, Joseph B.	Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary
12	$62,000	Goodman, Jennifer R.	Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady
13	$60,000	Fitts, Alan O.	Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady
14		Lewis, Dana M.	Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady
15	$52,500	Mustaphi, Semonti M.	Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary To The First Lady
16	$50,000	Jarvis, Kristen E.	Special Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide To The First Lady
17	$45,000	Lechtenberg, Tyler A.	Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady
18		Tubman, Samantha	Deputy Associate Director, Social Office
19	$40,000	Boswell, Joseph J.	Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady
20	$36,000	Armbruster, Sally M.	Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary
21		Bookey, Natalie	Staff Assistant
22		Jackson, Deilia A.	Deputy Associate Director ofCorrespondence for the First Lady
	$1,256,700

There has never been anyone in the White House at any time that has created such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady's social life. One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer expense, when even:

Hillary had three;

Jackie Kennedy one;

Laura Bush one; and

prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President's own pocket.

Note: This does not include makeup artist, Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom travelled aboard Air Force One to Europe

Now; the questions.

1. Where did the money to fund these assistants come from?

2. What is the authority for hiring them?

3. Why are these assistants necessary?

4. For the sake of equity assume that there was no increase in the public budget; then what other functions or expenditures were eliminated?