Department of Health Announces Possible Measles Exposure in Berks County

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Obama picked a number out of thin air in trying to justify government takeover of the health care system.

The Real Number of Uninsured Americans | The Weekly Standard

Pennsylvania Ranks 30th in Protecting Kids from Tobacco

In the Weekly Republican Address, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell discusses the flawed health care bill passed by Democrats and why it should be repealed and replaced.

McConnell says, "In one of the most divisive legislative debates in modern history, Democrats decided to go the partisan route and blatantly ignore the will of the people. Americans opposed this legislation, and, now theyre clamoring to see it repealed and replaced. Democratic Leaders and White House officials may be celebrating their victory this week, but most of the rest of the country is not. Most people arent interested in celebrating a bill that makes their lives more complicated, takes more out of their paychecks and puts decisions theyre used to making themselves into the hands of federal bureaucrats."

Originally posted at TONY PHYRILLAS

Even if Nancy Pelosi conjures up parliamentary tricks to pass Obamacare, expect a long legal battle as states line up to sue the federal government over the unconstitutional federal takeover of the health-care system. Pennsylvania is one of 37 states that have threatened to sue over Obamacare.

From The Associated Press:

Idaho's governor on Wednesday became the first state chief executive to sign a measure requiring his attorney general to sue the federal government if the U.S. Congress passes health care reform that forces Americans to buy insurance.

"What the Idaho Health Freedom Act says is that the citizens of our state won't be subject to another federal mandate or turn over another part of their life to government control," Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter said.

Constitutional law experts say Otter's action is mostly symbolic because federal laws supersede those of the states. But the movement reflects a growing national frustration with President President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Similar legislation is pending in 37 other states nationwide.

Democratic leaders in Washington D.C. are hoping to vote on the U.S. health care bill this weekend, but it is not clear if they have enough votes to pass it. The bill is Obama's top domestic priority and the health care issue could help determine whether Democrats retain control of Congress in the November election.

Last week, Virginia legislators passed a measure similar to Idaho's new law, but Otter was the first state chief executive to sign such a bill, according the American Legislative Exchange Council, which created model legislation for Idaho and other states. The Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit group promotes limited government.

Otter, a Republican, already warned U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in December that Idaho was considering litigation if health reform went through.

From a new "Fact Check" by The Associated Press on Obamacare:

Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.

Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say. If cost controls work as advertised, annual increases would level off with time. But don't look for a rollback. Instead, the main reason premiums would be more affordable is that new government tax credits would help cover the cost for millions of people.

I cannot believe Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have been lying to us all this time!

Shocking AP Fact Check: Premiums Will Rise Under ObamaCare | NewsBusters.org

When billionaire Warren Buffett (the second richest man in America behind Bill Gates) speaks, people tend to listen.

From POLITICO:

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett advised President Barack Obama on Monday to scrap the health care bill and start over.

In an interview with CNBC, Buffett said the current bill does not focus on controlling costs, which he sees as the central problem that must be addressed to reform the system. He added that while he does not like the Senate bill, he'd vote for it in preference to doing nothing.

"What we have now is untenable over time," said Buffett, an early supporter of Obama's candidacy. "That kind of a cost compared to the rest of the world is really like a tapeworm eating, you know, at our economic body."

Read the full story below:

Warren Buffett would scrap health care bill - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com

If the Obama Administration is starting to feel like the movie, "Groundhog Day," you're not far off. After wasting an entire year pushing a government takeover of health care that the majority of Americans oppose, Barack Obama is still peddling the same snake oil.

From Investor's Business Daily:

Health Reform: The linchpin of ObamaCare 2.0 is that 31 million uninsured will be covered at little added cost. But in fact, White House estimates for low costs are based on little more than accounting tricks.

The president's plan "puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years — and about $1 trillion over the second decade — by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse," the White House says on its Web site.

Sound too good to be true? It is.

None of the numbers can be believed. The plan is a result of blatantly dishonest accounting for the real costs of the program, while grossly overstating its benefits. Americans should know the actual 10-year cost is closer to $2 trillion over 10 years, not the $950 billion claimed, when all the actual costs are toted up.

How can there be such a wide gap? Mainly because the president's plan doesn't provide benefits until the second half of the first decade. So it pretends that it will "only" cost $950 billion. But once the program kicks in, the full 10-year cost of benefits will be included — at a real current cost of $2 trillion or more.

Or, as columnist Charles Krauthammer, himself a trained physician, told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly: "It's a trick. The way the Democrats got under (the spending limit imposed by Obama) was by making 98% of the expenditures, the benefits that you and I would get under the bill, occur in the second half of the decade."

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.

New Ads Targeting 18 Reps - Urge Them to 'Start Over' on Health Care

From state Sen. John Rafferty:

Seeking to keep doctors in Pennsylvania, state Sen. John C. Rafferty Jr. R-44th Dist., joined medical representatives at a Harrisburg news conference Wednesday to push for legislation he is sponsoring that would create an MCARE Commission to oversee the future disbursement of MCARE Funds.

Rafferty was joined by Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, president of the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society, who said the legislation is crucial to keeping young orthopaedic surgeons in the state and make health care available for more state residents.

Under Senate Bill 1174, the MCARE Commission will consist of representatives from the physician and hospital communities, the four legislative caucuses, the administration and a medical student.

"The major focus of this legislation is to allow practitioners who pay into this fund to control its disbursements and to keep insurance rates at a high level to protect doctors and patients," Rafferty said. "The MCARE fund should not be used as a checking account to be tapped by the Administration when state funds are low. Those who pay in should be able to determine how it is used."

Rafferty said his legislation would also ensure that future physicians will have a part in decisions, since they will pay the MCARE liabilities for their entire careers.

The MCARE Fund is a medical liability coverage fund run by the state of Pennsylvania. Currently, physicians are required to have $500,000 in primary liability coverage plus $500,000 in excess coverage above that. They can get the first $500,000 layer either in the private market or through the Joint Underwriting Association. They get the second layer from the MCARE Fund.

The MCARE Abatement Program subsidizes 100 percent of the MCARE surcharge for high-risk specialty surgeons and 50 percent of the MCARE surcharge for other healthcare providers. The program is the keystone of the medical liability reforms enacted during 2002 and 2003.

The program was renewed annually three times. In late December 2007, however, it became evident that the General Assembly could not agree on how to allocate the MCARE Fund's surplus, and the MCARE Abatement Program was not renewed by the year-end deadline.

If the MCARE phaseout schedule contained in Act 13 remains, in a few short years physicians may be required to carry $1 million of private market coverage while continuing to pay MCARE annual assessments. This eventual outcome creates a huge medical liability burden for society members and puts in place a significant barrier to recruiting the best and brightest young orthopaedic surgeons to Pennsylvania. SB 1174 will finally put physicians in the decision loop in regard to their money.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)— the nation's largest nonpartisan individual membership association of state legislators — congratulates Pennsylvania State Reps. Matthew Baker and Curt Schroder for filing House Bills 2053 and 2179, which protect the right of individuals to make their own health care choices.

Pennsylvania joins 31 other states where legislators have introduced, or will introduce, legislation modeled after ALEC's Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, according to a press release issued today by ALEC.

Under the legislation, any state attempt to require an individual to purchase health insurance — or forbid an individual from purchasing services outside of the required health care system — would be rendered unconstitutional. The measure may also cause a federalism clash if Congress passes a law with either of these provisions.

Baker and Schroder will hold a joint press conference Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg to discuss their efforts.

Read the rest of the ALEC press release at the link below:

Pennsylvania Legislators Stand for Health Care Freedom

The Wall Street Journal believes Barack Obama can salvage what's left of his failed presidency by listening to the American people instead of the "Democratic delusionists" who have been advising him over the past year.

Tuesday's stunning victory by Republican Scott Brown, which the newspaper calls a "historic election rebuke," was a clear signal that the majority of Americans want Obama to rethink most of his policies, especially government-run health care.

From the editorial:

Yesterday's vote wasn't a repudiation of Mr. Obama's Presidency, or at least it needn't be. The President remains more popular than his policies, and voters want him to succeed. But they are also telling him he needs to steer a more moderate, less partisan course, returning to the pragmatism and comity that shaped his political rise but have vanished in his first, squandered year.

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.

Who you gonna trust with your family's health care? Harry Reid and Barack Obama or your doctor?

More than 500,000 U.S. doctors oppose the Obamacare bill about to be rammed through the U.S. Senate.

From TakeBackMedicine.org:

To date 43 state, county and national medical societies, representing nearly one‐half million physicians, have stated their public opposition to the Senate healthcare overhaul bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590). It is time for Congress to slow down, take a step back, and change the direction of current reform efforts to ensure that it is done right!

For more information, visit TakeBackMedicine.org

National Report: Pennsylvania Drops from 26th to 34th in Funding Programs to Protect Kids from Tobacco

Syndicated columnist and liberal icon Nat Hentoff plans to publish a three-part series on the many troubling aspects of Obamacare. Hentoff is scared to death about a government takeover of health care and says you should be too.

The highlights below are from his first column, "Be scared: Obamacare endangers Americans' lifespans"

Hentoff writes:

Much of the press coverage of the Democrats' health-care legislation, now fiercely embattled in Congress, focuses on the public option, the actual long-term costs and tax increases, and the amendment barring funding for abortions, but the cold heart of Obamacare is its overpowering of the doctor-patient relationship — eventually resulting in the premature ending of many Americans' lives for being too costly.

To call the dangers of this legislation "death panels" obscures the real-life consequences to Americans, not only the elderly, of a federal government-run health-care bureaucracy. In the Senate bill, for instance, Medicare doctors whose treatments of certain, mostly elderly, patients costs more than a set government figure each year, will be punished by losing part of their own incomes.

Is this what presidential candidate Barack Obama meant by "Change we can believe in?" Even if you voted for him, is this the change you will believe in if your doctor is overruled by the government in his or her treatment decisions about you?

Remember those federal bureaucrats recently ruling on breast cancer screening? Dr. James Thrall, chairman of the American College of Radiology and a Harvard Medical School professor, said the resulting furor of dissent by doctors showed (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 18) that rulings "based on costs and large group averages, not individuals" lead him to fear that, "we are entering an era of deliberate decisions where we choose to trade people’s lives for money."

Is there anything you want to say to your representatives in the House or Senate before the final vote is taken? If you don't act urgently now, you may become part of another collective statistic — American annual death rates.

I'm scared, and I do mean to scare you.

We do not elect the president and Congress to decide how short our lives will be. That decision is way above their pay grades.

Read the full column here.