Obama's christmas gift - Health Care reform gets through the Senate

President Obama got his Christmas gift a little early as the Senate voted through the health care legislation in it's third and final procedural 'test run'

- Republican senators sought to frame the bill as a tarnished product of backroom deals, with some going so far as to declare it illegal. Despite strong opposition in the Senate and from a large part of the American citizens - Democrats were able to scrape together the 60 votes needed to "win" the vote, while not a single Republican supported the bill.
With final approval of the bill all but certain, Republicans on Wednesday focused on diminishing it in the eyes of the public. In particular, GOP senators questioned a deal struck by Sen. Ben Nelson (Nebraska) - who agreed to support the legislation in part because a provision was added exempting his state from paying part of the cost of expanding the Medicaid program. 

Health Care reform may have been defeated by the Drug Companies

Senators may have been paid off

Nobody on Capitol Hill takes kindly to a spreadsheet that lines up their campaign contributions with their floor votes. But that's what Maplight.org, a nonprofit database operation, has just done, producing a mashup with the tally from the Senate's vote Monday on drug importation and 6 1/2 years of campaign finance data. 

SENATOR	PARTY	PHARMA. $$	VOTE
Max Baucus, MT	Democrat	$261,020	NO
Richard Burr, NC	Republican	$301,898	NO
Orrin Hatch, UT	Republican	$262,950	NO
Joe Lieberman, CT	Independant	$199,540	NO
Mitch McConnell, KY	Republican	$225,900	YES
Arlen Specter, PA	Democrat	$353,550	YES

Studies show that Physicians are happy with Medicare

Physicians may not be enamored of Medicare, but they like it much better than private insurance plans

according to a survey by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).
The association’s Payer Performance Study of more than 1,700 group practices showed that physician groups ranked Medicare Part B well ahead of six of the largest private insurance companies in terms of overall satisfaction, based on data released at the MGMA’s annual meeting.

The survey asked participants, all of whom were MGMA members, to rank seven of the largest payers--Medicare Part B, UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Coventry, and Anthem--on parameters including payer communications, provider credentialing, contract negotiation, payment processing, systems transparency, and overall satisfaction.

Medicare led the pack with a mean aggregate satisfaction score of 3.59 on a 6-point scale (1 = totally dissatisfied, 6 = completely satisfied). Aetna took second place with a score of 3.14.

The big loser? UnitedHealthcare, with a score of 2.45.

Obama Health Care plan turns into Medicare extension?!

Obama announces: Public option - dead, new plan - Medicare extension!

Wednesday December 9th,

President Barrack Obama's health care reform plan that originally involved a 'public option' that would have potentially covered all citizens of the U.S. went out the window.

Instead of the so called 'public option' Obama intends to change the eligible age of Medicare beneficiaries.

The U.S. Senate is now weighing the option of expanding the program to people aged 55 to 64. But many may not be eligible, and those who are probably won't get as great a bargain as seniors enjoy currently, after all - expanding the over fed hog that is government spending can't do anything but raise the cost to the taxpayers!

The idea of expanding Medicare has been a sleeper throughout this entire health care argument. It emerged Tuesday as part of a compromise plan to pacify liberals who wanted a government-run public option as part of reform. President Obama embraced the new plan Wednesday.

Senate Rejects Abortion Ban

The Associated Press reported yesterday that by a vote of 54-45 the U.S. Senate actually rejected an amendment by Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah that would ban insurance plans funded by taxpayer dollars from offering coverage for abortions.

---

^{President Obama delivers a speach on Health Care Reform}

As it stands currently the proposed legislation calls for insurance plans that would receive any federal subsidies in a new insurance marketplace to strictly separate all public funds from private dollars that to be used to pay for coverage of an abortion. However the current proposal does not ba coverage of abortions. In essence instead of flat out denial of coverage the legislation would only mandate where the funds to cover an abortion would have to come from. 


The Senate vote is taken as a victory by abortion rights supporters, however it could complicate prospects for President Obama's health care overhaul plan in the long run.



Personally this comes as a bit of a shock; I was beginning to believe this country had been completely consumed by religion and frankly expected anything covering abortion to be prohibitted almost wihout question. Maybe the corruption in the U.S. hasn't completely taken over yet!

Why Obama is right about health care

Sicko

I am not a movie critic therefore it is out of character for me to recommend you sit down and watch a movie for any purpose other than entertainment but here I will make an exception - no matter how much I disagree with Michael Moore on any of his other views, in Sicko he makes a great point.

Take a good look at some of the stories of health insurance horror and fiscal nightmares brought about by our current health care system.



Even though it came it a little over 2 years ago, I still recommend everyone watch Sicko.

Whether you are; young, old, rich, poor, democratic, republican, liberal or conservative – it makes no difference at all, we all need health care and this movie will open anyone’s eyes to some of the problems with our healthcare system.

To be honest I am not generally a fan of Michael Moore at all!! I find him to be quite obnoxious at times as a matter of fact, but this movie was done well. This particular creation of his is a very good representation of the big issues that Obama is attempting to solve with his reform plan.

I am also not a huge fan of president Obama, I find it hard to trust in any of his plans, efforts or promises thus far and he has made so many in his brief period in office I don't believe I will ever find any sort of faith in his leadership -  BUT  I do agree with the general idea that this country's health care system is in desperate need of reform; if we do not face it soon - it will drag this country to the ground eventually.

On a separate note

– Here is a very well put together blog post about Obama’s plan I found earlier today.
p.s. - his plan is not all that impressive or ingenious 

What do specialists think of the Senate Health Legislation?

 Twenty surgical organizations, led by the American College of Surgeons, sent a letter to the United States Senate in November stating that they are prepared to oppose the Senate’s health care reform bill because it will threaten patient access and harm quality. Surgeons state that as the legislation currently stands, it fails to address some of the fundamental problems that plague the health care system.

“We strongly support health care reform that will expand access to quality surgical and medical care to as many Americans as possible, but we cannot support legislation that puts at risk both quality of care and patient access”

“Our system is badly in need of reform but if the legislation does not address these concerns, it will do little to fix its underlying problems and may make it worse.”

• 
  

  A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS
  

  chair of the American College of Surgeons’ Board of Regents and chief medical officer, Scripps Health.
  

The surgical groups said they plan to oppose the Senate health care reform bill if a number of provisions that were included in the Senate Finance bill are retained. In addition to failing to permanently fix Medicare’s broken physician payment system and to include any meaningful proven medical liability reforms, the surgical community opposes a number of the bill’s provisions including:

• The legislation establishes a Medicare Commission that would shift the responsibility for making difficult Medicare payment and coverage decisions to an unelected Executive branch agency without appropriate checks and balances.

• The legislation includes mandatory participation in the seriously flawed Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) – a program through which CMS is still attempting to address systemic problems dating back to 2007.

• The legislation attempts to improve patient access to certain physician services through reimbursement changes, but funds these changes through payment cuts to all other physicians – thereby exacerbating workforce shortages, including general surgeons.

“The result of these serious deficiencies will make it more difficult for the American people to receive the surgical care they will need in the future. We will work with the Senate to improve the legislation, but if these shortcomings remain in the final Senate bill, we will have no choice but to urge Senators to vote no”

• 
  
  
  

  A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS

  
  
  
  

The American College of Surgeons met with policymakers over the past year to educate them about programs that would improve quality, reduce costs and increase patient access. One such program, the ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP), is helping to prevent thousands of surgical complications each year. Each hospital in the program, on average, is seeing 250 to 500 fewer complications and thus an annual reduction of $3 million in costs. Nine of the top 10 private hospitals in the nation, along with more than 240 additional hospitals, use ACS NSQIP. The ACS believes that these types of quality programs, if supported by Congress, could save the health care system a minimum of tens of billions of dollars over the next decade.

“There are ways to improve quality, cut costs and increase patient access – but the Senate isn’t hearing those of us who are closest to the patient and work in the system every day” 

• 
  
  
  

  A. Brent Eastman, MD, FACS

  
  
  
  

The surgical groups that signed the letter include:

• 
  American College of Surgeons
  
  
• 
  American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
  
  
• 
  American Academy of Ophthalmology
  
  
• 
  American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
  
  
• 
  American Association of Neurological Surgeons
  
  
• 
  American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons
  
  
• 
  American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
  
  
• 
  American College of Osteopathic Surgeons
  
  
• 
  American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics
  
  
• 
  American Society of Anesthesiologists
  
  
• 
  American Society of Breast Surgeons
  
  
• 
  American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
  
  
• 
  American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons
  
  
• 
  American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery
  
  
• 
  American Society of Plastic Surgeons
  
  
• 
  American Urological Association
  
  
• 
  Congress of Neurological Surgeons
  
  
• 
  Society for Vascular Surgery
  
  
• 
  Society of American Gastroitestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons
  
  
• 
  Society of Gynecologic Oncologists
  
  

Technorati Tags: surgery,surgeon,college,news,update,american college of surgeons,health care,reform,debate,medicine,doctor