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The author who turned Georgetown University into a horror scene in “The Exorcist” plans to sue the school in church court, charging that his alma mater has strayed so far from church doctrine that it should no longer call itself Catholic. William Peter Blatty, who graduated from Georgetown in 1950, says the “last straw” was the university’s speaking invitation to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius, who addressed graduating public policy students on Friday (May 18), has been criticized by conservative Catholics for approving a mandate that requires many religious institutions to cover employees’ birth control costs. The...

(CNSNews.com) – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday that youth violence is a “chronic health issue” that can lead to asthma, obesity, or depression for "the youth who are involved," although she did not make clear whether she was speaking solely about the victims of youth violence or the perpetrators or both. “But it's important to remember--you just heard from the law enforcement side of this--it’s important to remember that the costs of violence go beyond deaths or injuries or tolls on families and communities,” Sebelius said at a Department of Justice conference Monday on youth...

The Obama administration has chosen to ignore the First Amendment and add insult to injury for Catholics whose schools, hospitals and charities help make this nation great. Now the real fight begins. Religious leaders had feared the worst from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her Department of Health and Human Services, which since September has been considering whether to exempt Catholic and other religious employers from a regulation mandating insurance coverage for sterilization and contraceptives, including some that cause abortion. But on Friday afternoon, Sebelius announced the bad news in the most offensive way possible. Refusing even the smallest compromise with...

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new guidelines in Washington Monday requiring health insurance plans beginning on or after August 1, 2012 to cover several women's preventive services, including birth control and voluntary sterilization. According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the decision is a part of the Affordable Care Act's move to stop problems before they start. "These historic guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need," she said in a news release. More at Link...

Health insurance plans must cover birth control as preventive care for women, with no copays, the Obama administration said Monday in a decision with far-reaching implications for health care as well as social mores. The requirement is part of a broad expansion of coverage for women's preventive care under President Barack Obama's health care law. Also to be covered without copays are breast pumps for nursing mothers, an annual "well-woman" physical, screening for the virus that causes cervical cancer and for diabetes during pregnancy, counseling on domestic violence, and other services. "These historic guidelines are based on science and existing...

In a letter to several pro-life groups complaining about President Barack Obama’s decision to drop some of the conscience protections for medical professionals, the administration is defending the decision. Several pro-life groups sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warning her of the alarming effects on patients that will follow the Obama administration’s recent move to strip the medical community of key conscience protections on abortion. As LifeNews.com reported in February, the Obama administration overturned some of the conscience protections the Bush administration put in place to protect pro-life medical workers who don’t want to be involved in certain...

RICHMOND, Va. – President Barack Obama's administration on Monday asked a federal judge in Virginia to dismiss the state's lawsuit alleging Congress overstepped its constitutional bounds with the new health care reform law. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued in a motion filed hours before a midnight deadline that the law is well within the scope of the Constitution's Commerce Clause. Virginia's Republican attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond less than eight hours after Congress enacted the law. It argues that requiring people to buy health coverage or pay a fee exceeds...

Medicine: The administration's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid is a fan of Britain's National Health Service and rationing services. He believes in less discretion for your doctor, more power for your government. 'The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open" is what Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, said in an interview published in Biotechnology Healthcare in June 2009. The question is whether the Senate will confirm Berwick with open eyes. Berwick says: "NICE is...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama has picked a top health policy expert to run Medicare and Medicaid, an administration official said on Saturday, filling a role at the heart of his historic healthcare reform. Obama plans to nominate Dr. Donald Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services, the official said.

Obamacare Strategy is to Reduce Company Profits

Kossack Mote Dai's discovery that "objective" analyst and MIT economist Jonathon Gruber has received a sole-source contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services since June 19, 2009 to consult on the “President’s health reform proposal" has gained some larger attention. Marcy reported that he has two contracts for a total of $392,600 to consult on the plan. The issue is that Gruber has consistently been referenced by the White House as an objective analyst in support of the bill--including the controversial excise tax--without disclosing his role as a contractor on the issue. Link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/8/823043/-Transparency-Problem-in-HCR-Debate

Sebelius Says U.S. Will Donate Part of H1N1 Vaccine Supply to Foreign Nations Before Meeting This Nation’s DemandThursday, October 22, 2009 By Chris Neefus      ....... Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) asked Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebilius why the United States should get vaccinations ahead of people in other countries, including those in countries that are producing the vaccine for the United States. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)When Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) had his turn to question Sebelus, he raised the issue of whether the United States was "entitled" to the vaccine more than other nations. "Why should we be more entitled, the U.S. be more   entitled to...

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Obama administration has aroused a fierce First Amendment controversy after threatening companies selling private Medicare coverage not to tell their customers that current health care legislation would result in benefit cuts - or else face a lawsuit. The administration and Senate Democrats justify the move by saying the claim, spread by at least one such company, is patently false. Yet some say the administration is the one twisting the facts to help the unpopular legislation: critics note that even the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office agrees that the legislation would...

The government is investigating a major insurance company for allegedly trying to scare seniors with a mailer warning they could lose important benefits under health care legislation in Congress. The Health and Human Services Department launched its investigation of Humana after getting a complaint from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a senior lawmaker usually viewed as a reliable ally of the insurance industry. "It is wholly unacceptable for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject — particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform," Baucus said Monday, disclosing the HHS investigation.

America's first family will get vaccinated against swine flu when they are advised to, President Barack Obama said in a television interview broadcast Sunday. "We want to get vaccinated. We think it's the right thing to do. We will stand in line like everybody else and when folks say it's our turn, that's when we'll get it," Obama told CNN's "State of the Union." With the northern hemisphere entering its autumn flu season and infection rates again beginning to spike, many Americans are waiting for the first deliveries of (A)H1N1 vaccines, expected to come in the first weeks of October....

Hundreds of federal health officials are earning more than cabinet secretaries because of a program intended to recruit and retain a handful of top-level scientists. The program is known as Title 42, after a provision in federal salary regulations. It was set up for "rare" cases to attract and keep "extraordinary individuals" in the health sciences who might otherwise defect to private-sector jobs, according to an October 2000 memo from a Department of Health and Human Services unit that sought permission to pay these individuals outside normal civil-service rules. An HHS memo from late 1999 promised to "ensure that these...

The Washington Post the other day posted a lengthy interview with Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Catholic. A pertinent excerpt: MS. ROMANO: You are also a pro-choice Catholic, and I was reading some stories out of your home state recently where one of the bishops took an action. Can you tell us a little bit about that? SECRETARY SEBELIUS: Well, the Archbishop in the Kansas City area did not approve of my conduct as a public official and asked that I not present myself for communion. MS. ROMANO: What did you think about that? SECRETARY SEBELIUS:...

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told me on ‘This Week’ the President will go beyond language in a House bill to make sure no public money goes to pay for abortions under health care reform. Abortion foes argue language in the House bill has too many holes and that taxpayers could potentially subsidize abortions. Sebelius told me there will be no uncertainty with the President's plan. “In fact recently the Catholic bishops came out, after the President’s statement saying that his statement about what he intends in the plan that no public fund would go to fund abortion and the fact...

Contact: Derrick Jones, National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), 202-423-3329 cell, mediarelations@nrlc.org   WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, appearing on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, addressed questions pertaining to the effect of health care legislation on abortion policy. George Stephanopoulos has posted a partial transcript of the exchange on his blog at blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/09/sebelius-president-rules-out-public-funding-for-abortion.html.   What follows is a reaction from Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the national federation of right-to-life organizations: "For months, the President, his staff, and his congressional allies have misrepresented actual...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that a massive school closing wouldn't stop the spread of the swine flu virus, saying vaccinations must be the defense against a menace that one report said could infect up to half of the population. "What we know is that we have the virus right now traveling around the United States," Sebelius said in a nationally broadcast interview. "And having children in a learning situation is beneficial ... What we learned last spring is that shutting a school down sort of pre-emptively doesn't stop the virus from spreading." Sebelius appeared on...

Swine flu could infect half of the U.S. population and kill as many as 90,000, more than twice the number of casualties incurred in a typical seasonal flu. The White House said in a report today that President Obama has been encouraged to push for quicker and more widespread vaccine production and appoint a staffer to be in charge of the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. "This isn't the flu that we're used to," said Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Thirty to 50 percent of the country's population will be infected in...

[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 160 (Thursday, August 20, 2009)] [Notices] = [Pages 42077-42079] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: E9-20021] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HHS. ACTION: Notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: This notice announces the intention of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the proposed information collection project: ``2010-2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component.'' In...

Aug 16 2009, 9:11 pm by Marc Ambinder Administration Official: "Sebelius Misspoke." An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "misspoke" when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option "is not an essential part" of reform. This official asked not to be identified in exchange for providing clarity about the intentions of the President... A second official, Linda Douglass, director of health reform communications for the administration, said that President Obama ... had not backed away from that belief, and that he still wanted to see a public option in...

It's no longer just enough to educate people about making healthy decision. You now have to influence them psychologically to effect true change according to CNBC's Jim Cramer. Cramer, during his "Stop Trading" segment on CNBC's "Street Signs" on Aug. 10, suggested eating so-called unhealthy food be demonized, similar to how the tobacco industry has been - through a publicity campaign that even appeared in movie theaters. ...more (w/video)...

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a brief conference call with SEIU members this afternoon. She hailed them as her “brothers and sisters” and urged them to show up at town hall meetings. She gave the same stultifying mini-lecture about the sanctity of Medicare. “Change is not easy,” she droned. “We need to roll up our sleeves.” No mention of how SEIU thugs rolled up their sleeves and attacked a black conservative protester in St. Louis or ran interference in Tampa Bay. In an attempt to reassure SEIU members that senior citizens would not suffer under Obamacare, Sebelius said “Saving lives...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote an op-ed column for The Washington Post on Tuesday in defense of the Obama administration's efforts to "reform" health care. She wrote: "President Obama and I are working closely with Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate and health care experts to make sure we get the details of health reform right. But we can't let the details distract us from the huge benefits that reform will bring." So, the objective is all that matters, not the process by which we get there? The most important words on a contract may...

The URL will take you to SEIU healthcare page. Posted here is the private email I received this afternoon. Dear Axxxxxx, Join the CallYou're invited to join Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius this Friday, August 7th at 2:30 pm EDT, for an exclusive 'myth-busting' conference call with SEIU members on health care reform. RSVP for the call by clicking here. Right now, opponents of health insurance reform are spreading lies, fabrications and blatant distortions to scare the American people. The myths seem to multiply daily. You've probably heard them yourself, or fielded questions from concerned friends and...

Kathleen Sebilius is supposed to be in Connecticut tomorrow, MONDAY WHERE? WHEN??

Town Hall netting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter at the National Constitution Center in Philly on August 2nd, 2009.

Note: The following text is a quote: News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Secretary Sebelius Makes Recovery Act Funding Available to Expand Health Professions Training HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the availability of $200 million to support grants, loans, loan repayment, and scholarships to expand the training of health care professionals. The funds are expected to train approximately 8,000 students and credentialed health professionals by the end of fiscal year 2010. Today’s funds are part of the $500 million allotted to HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to address workforce shortages under the American Recovery...

"Please carry a message to Mr. Obama that it will be a cold day in hell before he socializes my county," one man shouted at Kathleen Sebelius and other Obama cabinet members."

(CNSNews.com) – The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s health care legislation will give the Health and Human Services secretary the authority to develop “standards of measuring gender” -- as opposed to using the traditional "male" and "female" categories -- in a database of all who apply or participate in government-run or government-supported health care plans.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded to critics who contend that government-run health care will inevitably entail rationing. Conceding that national health systems in Canada and the United Kingdom have been forced to ration care for critically ill patients via lengthy waiting lists, Sebelius insisted that a similar outcome won’t happen here. “First, we will do a better job of managing health care resources,” Sebelius boasted. “Careful cost/benefit analysis will ensure that only those individuals with a positive ratio are scheduled for treatment. We won’t allow waiting lists to be clogged with persons whose cost of treatment exceeds...

The Talk Shows Sunday, June 14th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Vice President Joe Biden.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.THIS WEEK (ABC): Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sebelius; Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Susan Collins, R-Maine; Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday that Americans need a new government-sponsored insurance plan to guarantee choice and competition — especially in rural America. “What the president feels is important is to have some competition and to have a choice,” Sebelius said at a roundtable discussion in Omaha, where she delivered a sales pitch for President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Her appearance was part of an aggressive new administration push to build a groundswell of public support for action by Congress in time for Obama to sign legislation in the fall. Obama himself brought the same...

The Obama administration has recruited yet another Sesame Street character to help push a policy initiative, this time new efforts to raise awareness about children's health and safety. In an obvious snub at Miss Piggy, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius appeared earlier today with Elmo to launch a new public service announcement designed to encourage families with young children to protect themselves from swine flu. HHS will team up with Sesame Workshop and the Ad Council, which will distribute the PSAs to television stations nationwide. Elmo will appear with Sesame Street character Gordon to instructing children to wash...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a House panel Wednesday that a government-run health care plan is needed to keep in check the private insurance industry, which she says wields too much power and often fails to best serve the public.

The Senate voted 65-31 to confirm Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as President Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services. Just last week Sebelius again denied protection to the unborn when she vetoed a bill that would provide increased regulations on performing late term abortions. Nineteen Catholic Senators supported the Sebelius nomination and six Catholic Senators opposed. Two Catholic senators who are ardently pro-life supported the governor; Senator Sam Brownback and Senator George Voinovich. Senator Brownback announced his support early on which was a surprise and a major disappointment to many in the pro-life movement. Senator Murkowski, who has a mixed...

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told a gathering of pro-abortion activists that the Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations put in place by the Bush administration to protect medical professionals who work in institutions that receive federal funding and morally oppose certain practices, such as abortion, is “short-sighted” and should be rescinded by President Obama.

When the World Health Organization raised its swine flu threat level last week to suggest the first pandemic in more than four decades was imminent, the group’s director warned that “all of humanity is under threat.” Across the country, it’s looked like that. School closings will keep more than 300,000 Texas students at home this week. Stores have sold out of masks that experts don’t recommend. Sports events and concerts have been canceled. Headlines have warned that “Outbreak Threatens Global Recovery.” By the week’s end, an increasing number of experts were questioning whether it was overreaction. “I don’t see anything...

THE WHITE HOUSEOffice of the Press Secretary ------------------------------------------------ For Immediate Release                            April 8, 2009  EXECUTIVE ORDER ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF HEALTH REFORMBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in the interest of providing all Americans access to affordable and high-quality health care, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1. Policy. Reforming the health care system is a key goal of my Administration. The health care system suffers from serious and pervasive problems; access to health care is constrained by high and rising costs; and...

I would like to personally welcome Kansas Senator Sam Brownback as the latest inductee to the GOP Enema Hall of Shame. www.GOPenema.com is a grassroots movement to cleanse the bowels of the GOP and once again make it the party of conservative principles it once was.... Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) joined home-state colleague Pat Roberts and seven other Republicans Tuesday to help Kathleen Sebelius win approval (65-31) to serve as HHS secretary...

A Kansas pastor says by endorsing Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services secretary, Senator Sam Brownback "violated the scriptures and his own church's teaching" and "betrayed" many conservative Christians who had been his largest base of support. Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) joined home-state colleague Pat Roberts and seven other Republicans Tuesday to help Kathleen Sebelius win approval (65-31) to serve as HHS secretary. The nomination of the Kansas governor -- which Brownback has supported since it was announced almost two months ago -- was controversial because of her failure to pay taxes and her lack of honesty regarding the large...

Sally Pipes, president of Pacific Research Institute, is from Canada. She grew up under a single payer, government is the only provider of healthcare system. Ms. Pipes said in the interview below: “In Canada today, the average Canadian waits seventeen weeks, over four months from seeing a primary care doctor to getting treatment by a specialist. “If that’s what we want in America, then people should support Obama’s public plan which will be part of a national insurance exchange.” WE ARE HEADING STRAIGHT TOWARD SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, REDUCING COSTS BY REWARDING UNDERUTILIZATION, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, DECREASING QUALITY OF MEDICAL CARE. TDC...

Grouped By Vote Position YEAs ---65 Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM) Bond (R-MO) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Brownback (R-KS) Burris (D-IL) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Gillibrand (D-NY) Gregg (R-NH) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kaufman (D-DE) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Lugar (R-IN) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE)...

The 65-31 vote came after Democrats urged quick action so that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius could get to work leading the federal response to the flu outbreak.

The Senate began debate this morning on the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services, with Democrats urging a quick vote on the Kansas governor as Congress and the Obama administration move ahead on health-care reform and seek to address the swine flu outbreak. "It is essential for the health of the nation that President Obama has in place, and the nation has in place, a strong secretary of HHS to make sure our federal efforts on this potential pandemic are able to coordinate," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. Sebelius is the final member...

Kansas Congressman Todd Tiahrt is among members of Congress urging President Barack Obama to withdraw the nomination of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The letter, a copy of which was released to Kansas Liberty by a Tiahrt spokesperson, was drafted by Rep. Doug Lanborn, a Colorado Republican, and will be sent to the president tomorrow. The names of every cosigner of the letter will not be released until Tuesday. The letter is the latest effort by conservatives trying to stall or turn back the Sebelius confirmation attempt. It points to Sebelius’...

Team Sarah, a social networking site of nearly 70,000 of Gov. Sarah Palin's supporters, is hoping its members have a shot at derailing the nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as the president's Health and Human Services secretary. The site, which came into being to support the Alaska governor during her 2008 vice-presidential bid, bills itself as being "dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process." Team Sarah is affiliated with the Susan B. Anthony List, which seeks to elect women who oppose abortion. Today, the website sent out an action alert to its members,...