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Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Health Care Myths
Source: Lt. James “EMO” Tichacek, USN (Ret)
Director, Retiree Assistance Office, U.S. Embassy Warden & IRS VITA Baguio City, RP
http://post_119_gulfport_ms.tripod.com/rao1.html
Health Care Myths: Fictions don't become facts through repetition. Keep that in mind next time you hear a politician breathlessly decry the horrors of the American health-care system and then explain how he/she intends to fix it. Some of the most popular talking points in the health-care debate pass as the gospel truth simply because, well, they're popular - not because they're true. Granted, statistics and surveys can substantiate most anything you want them to just by the way you ask the question or collect the information. However, the following five items you should take with a grain of salt the next time they are discussed:
Myth (1) Forty-seven million Americans do not have health insurance. This figure comes from the U.S. Census Bureau. What most people don't know, however, is that the Bureau counts anyone who went without health insurance during any part of the previous year as "uninsured." So if you weren't covered for just one day in 2007, you're one of the 47 million. That also includes 10.2 million illegal immigrants, and about 14 million people who are eligible for public health-care programs like Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program but have yet to enroll. And nearly 10 million of the uninsured have household incomes of more than $75,000 - so they can probably afford to buy health insurance but choose not to.
Myth (2) Universal health-care coverage can be achieved via "individual mandate." According to the federal census, nearly two-thirds of the uninsured are aged 18 to 34. This makes sense - healthy people aren't going to pay for expensive insurance they'll never use. Those who support an "individual mandate" believe by legally requiring all Americans to buy health insurance the young and the healthy will increase the size of the risk pool and therefore lower premiums for everyone. As a way to enforce an individual mandate, some suggest garnishing wages. But many states require insurers to charge everyone the same rate. So, young people would end up paying far more in premiums than they should - or could - pay. It's patently unfair to force people to purchase insurance they can't afford. Even in Massachusetts, which offers substantial premium subsidies for low-income residents, the government had to exempt a fifth of Bay Staters from the individual mandate because insurance was still so expensive. And, the plan is already $147 million over budget. The real way to attract young adults into the insurance market is to lower premiums - not to impose draconian sanctions.
Myth (3) Expensive prescription drugs are a big reason health-care costs increase. The real price of prescription drugs is actually decreasing. In 2007, inflation rose more than 4%, while drug prices increased just 1%. So in real terms, drugs were 3% cheaper last year than in 2006, on average. What's more, drug spending is but a small slice of total health-care spending - less than 11 cents out of every health-care dollar goes to prescription meds. And drugs actually reduce health-care costs in the long-term. Medicare, for instance, saves $2.06 for every additional dollar it spends on pharmaceutical drugs, according to a paper recently published by the National Bureau for Economic Research. Prescription drugs often obviate the need for expensive surgeries and hospital stays.
Myth (4) Drug importation will save patients a fortune. At most, according to the Congressional Budget Office, foreign drug importation would save Americans 1% over the next decade. Brand-name drugs are cheaper in foreign countries because their governments impose price controls. Drug-makers can only afford to sell pills at cut-rate, controlled prices in Europe and Canada because Americans pay full price. If American politicians allow foreign drugs to enter the U.S. market, they'll in effect import price controls too. Such action will not only create practical problems, like shortages but also deny firms the return on investment necessary to plunge into the next round of research and development into new cures. It takes nearly $1 billion to bring a new drug to market. Investors are willing to make such a risky investment because the rewards of developing a cure for Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, AIDS or diabetes are considerable. If the profit motive vanishes, the miracle cures for which America's drug industry is responsible would vanish.
Myth (5) The state-run health-care systems in Canada and Europe are better and cheaper than America's. Those who make this claim usually note that life expectancy is higher in Canada and Europe. But life expectancy is influenced by a number of variables aside from the quality of a country's health-care system - like diet, genetics, exercise, smoking, pollution and even marital status. A study published last year in the British medical journal the Lancet suggests America is much better at treating cancer than Europe or Canada. Researchers found Americans have a better survival rate for 13 of the 16 most prominent cancers. An American man has nearly a20 % better chance of living for five years after being diagnosed with cancer than his European counterpart. This study's findings tell us a lot more about the quality of a health-care system than life expectancy rates do, because the relationship between treatment and outcomes is tighter, clearer and more direct. [Source: Washington Times 21 Mar 08 ++]
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Sunday, April 22, 2007
Planned Parenthood Abortionists recruiting gradeschool kids
My wife and I are legal guardians of our oldest grand daughter who is eleven years old.
Saturday's mail delivery contained a newletter addressed to my grand daughter from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan.
We are greatly disturbed that this band of baby killers would try to recruit grade school girls.
[psssst! Italicized comments below are mine, but are true nonetheless!]
Planned Parenthood was originally formed as a racist pro-genocide, anti-black organization by Margaret Sanger.
The Truth About Margaret Sanger
Planned Parenthood has morphed into being an equal opportunity pro-genocide organization. They do not care what race, creed or color, as long as they can continue to abort babies.
Who are the PPAM Board of Directors? As of the Spring 2007, Volume 20 - Issue 1 Michigan's VOICE
President = Mary Brown, 1st Vice Pres.= Rev. Mark Pawloski, 2nd Vice Pres.= Paul Pratt, Treasurer = James Richardson, Secretary = Jan Dolan, and Board Members = Mary Currie, Tom Greene, Barbara Hill, Katherine Humphrey, Katie Jacob, Judy Karendjeff, Lori Lamerand, Bob Lohrmann, Mike Nichols, Lisa Oliver-King [dontcha just love those hoity- toity feminist hyphenated names? I wonder if "King" is her domestic partner? ...just idle curiousity.], Sally Shaheen Joseph, and Karen Walker.
One of the articles has the header:
Faith, Choice & Action
On Tuesday, April 24, 2007, join Planned Parenthood Affiliates...
Rev. Dr. Ignacio Castuera (High Priest of the Church of Jesus the Homosexual Abortionist), Chaplain for the Plannned Parenthood Abortion on Demand Federation of America, along with other liberal pro-abortion clergy from a variety of traditions (wicca, satan worship, etc.) will give testimony that a majority of Americans are pro-choice and that a majority of the world's most beloved religions have authentic pro-choice (pro-abortion) positions.
From the Michigan PPAM web page, Prevention First = Healthy Families. Since we know that Prevention = Abortion we can translate that to say Abortion First = Healthy Families by their way of thinking.
In all truth, they never mention Jesus Christ or print the word Christian anywhere in their article. They use heavy implication that they worship something and that a lot of other people do also but they never really come out and say it... maybe because their high sacrament is abortion.
Prevention First = Healthy Families
[translation - Abortion First = Healthy Families]
http://www.ppaction.org/mppan/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=7033190
As the nation’s leading advocate and provider of reproductive health services (abortions), Planned Parenthood...
Nationally, the Prevention [Abortion] First Act, introduced in Congress by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) and Representative Louise Slaughter (D–NY) and cosponsored by Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow (D) and Representatives John Dingell (D–District 15) and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D–District 13), will expand access [to abortion]...
Get fired up for Roe in Lansing
http://www.ppaction.org/mppan/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=5858557
January 21, 2007
4:00-6:00 p.m.
34th Anniversary Celebration of the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v Wade Decision...
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/roe.wade/stories/roe.profile/
...even though Jane Roe (pseudonym) has had a change of heart and now says that abortion is WRONG!
Who is 'Jane Roe'?
Anonymous no more, Norma McCorvey no longer supports abortion rights. From CNN Interactive Writer Douglas S. Wood
(CNN) -- Norma McCorvey won't be celebrating the anniversary of the historic Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
McCorvey is "Jane Roe," the pseudonym she assumed to remain anonymous as the lead plaintiff in the case that legalized abortion in the United States.
"I'm very sad (about the anniversary)," she told CNN Interactive in a telephone interview. "But this year, I've got so much to do, I don't have time to sit down and be sad."
Once an abortion-rights supporter, the 50-year-old McCorvey has switched sides: She's now a vocal anti-abortion activist. She has started a ministry called Roe No More to fight against abortion rights with the aim of creating a mobile counseling center for pregnant women in Dallas.
McCorvey, who was 21 when the case was filed and was on her third pregnancy, never had an abortion and gave birth to a girl, who was given up for adoption.
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