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A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001. The researchers, who released their analysis today [Tuesday], pointedly say the health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not significantly affect this grim picture. The...

While normal everyday oblivious Americans were preparing their beds to sleep Saturday night their elected officials quietly passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Indeed, the passage of this act deals one of the final death blows to the Constitution and with it our liberties. As I ponder upon this momentously horrid occurrence it is as if I have just woken up from a nightmare and been thrown directly into the plot of George Orwell’s 1984, with no hope of escape. As this thought grabs hold I am lead to ponder more and more about America and...

Everyone knows that if you don't pay to maintain and repair your car, you limit its life. The same is true as human beings age. We need medical care to avoid becoming clunkers -- disabled, worn out, parked in wheelchairs or nursing homes. For nearly a half century, Medicare has enabled seniors to get that care. But ObamaCare is about to change that, by limiting what doctors can provide their aging patients. The Senate Finance Committee health bill released last week controls doctors by cutting their pay if they give older patients more care than the government deems appropriate. Section...

Free Speech: The Senate votes against transparency as the administration silences a private insurer for exposing the president's health care proposal. Meanwhile, AARP is allowed to tout reform as it awaits payday. We weren't surprised when the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday voted 12 to 11 against allowing two weeks for the Congressional Budget Office to complete its cost analysis of the health care bill pushed by Montana Democrat Max Baucus and to put the bill online in its original wording. Instead, the Senate panel passed another amendment to require the committee to post the full bill online in "conceptual"...

When inflation hits, every dollar in your bank account is worth less each day. Deflation is just the opposite: You put your feet up and watch your money grow in value. The latter is what is happening now to America's seniors. And politicians think they should not have to stand for it. The other day, the federal government announced that for the first time since cost-of-living adjustments were begun in 1975, Social Security recipients will not get an annual raise in their monthly checks. This decision is not the result of a fit of fiscal austerity or a sadistic desire...

<p>An Everett nursing home is facing a lawsuit after an elderly resident's genitals disintegrated while staff allegedly failed to act.</p> <p>Charles Bradley, then 93, arrived at Everett Care & Rehabilitation in the winter of 2004, suffering from the usual maladies of old age, according to court documents. He continued to live at the nursing home until two weeks before his death, which came on March 31, 2008, when he was rushed to the emergency room with a life-threatening -- but previously undetected -- malady.</p>

EVERETT, WA — An Everett nursing home is being accused of neglecting a 97-year-old man and allowing his penis to slowly rot off. A lawsuit was filed against the Everett Rehabilitation and Care Center earlier this week. The lawsuit alleges that nursing home staff failed to adequately care for a patient who had developed penile cancer. The man died March 31, 2008, about two weeks after he was rushed to the emergency room and doctors made the grim discovery. They were the first to report that the man's penis had disintegrated, Seattle attorney James Gooding said Thursday. “They were shocked...

Report: Ginsburg Released From Hospital After Fall Reuters reports that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was taken to the hospital after experiencing drowsiness and falling. FOXNews.com Thursday, October 15, 2009 Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reportedly was released from the hospital Thursday after falling from her seat on an airplane. Reuters reports that Ginsburg was taken to the hospital after experiencing drowsiness and falling. She was later found to be in stable condition.

When 87-year-old Alice Jadwigia Armstrong looked up from her hospital bed and saw the smiling face of Sister Lourdes Miranda, she was visibly buoyed by the nun’s presence. Clasping the hand of the Little Sister of the Poor, the white-haired woman seemed transported to the security of her youth. “I like her because she reminds me of my mother,” Armstrong said with a laugh. “You can depend on her.” Sister Lourdes, one of 17 Little Sisters who minister at St. Martin’s Home for the Aged in Catonsville, laughed warmly. The Cuba native reached out and tenderly brushed Armstrong’s cheek with...

Senior citizens appear to have dodged the bullet when it comes to swine flu. It's a good time to be at Presbyterian Village retirement communities. Out of the more than 1000 seniors who live there - there has been not one case of the swine flu. "I've been very surprised, because of the vulnerability of the elderly, so I was surprised that it just seems to be the young people," said Patricia Tharp, a resident. The medical director is not surprised, saying the fact that the elderly have lived longer, plays a key role. "It's thought that they built up...

HARTFORD, Conn. – The nation's nursing homes are perilously close to laying off workers, cutting services — possibly even closing — because of a perfect storm wallop from the recession and deep federal and state government spending cuts, industry experts say. A Medicare rate adjustment that cuts an estimated $16 billion in nursing home funding over the next 10 years was enacted at week's end by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — on top of state-level cuts or flat-funding that already had the industry reeling. And Congress is debating slashing billions more in Medicare funding as part...

On Sept. 23, Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., introduced H.R. 3631, which would freeze all Part B premiums for one year--including those for couples with incomes over $170,000. It would pay for the $2.8 billion cost by raiding the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund and the Medicare Improvement Fund. This legislation came up the following day and passed the House by a vote of 406 to 18. Of course, nothing is really paid for here. Federal borrowing will be $2.8 billion higher than it would otherwise be--and all to primarily benefit 2.1 million seniors who could very easily afford to...

How wide is the line between the right to die and the duty to die? I’m afraid we may find out soon enough. Regular BreakPoint listeners have heard me speak about the impact of declining birth rates around the world. One consequence is that older people comprise an increasing percentage of the population in places like Japan and Western Europe. This increases economic pressures on these countries since an aging population requires more services while having fewer young workers to pay for them. One doctor has come up with a way to address the imbalance between pensioners and workers—that is,...

After World War II, the U.S. government invested an enormous amount of money in medicine; medical research, medical procedures and medical technologies. This investment made contemporary scientific medicine into American medicine, characterized by a continuing flow of new treatment possibilities. These advances raised all kinds of ethical questions. Some were personal and individual, others were social and political. Both type questions are addressed by a new academic discipline called bioethics. The first attempt to develop a scientific medicine took place in Greece in the 5th century B.C. It was called Hippocratic medicine. Closely linked with this first scientific medicine was...

I have been posting my thoughts on Barry since November of last year. I have read many articles, and am beginning to understand who this guy is. Recently I read where Obama has determined that a WWll era National Guard unit in Alaska cannot have a pension, a federal pension, due to the fact, that their service was not a Federal Service, but a State Service. (Link to Story, below) Sounds pretty cut and dry, right? Well, what struck me was this attitude, or should I say this position, sounded like something that isn't in the news so much anymore,...

Update. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to the Washington Hospital Center Thursday after falling ill at the Supreme Court. Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Ginsburg fell ill after receiving an intravenous iron therapy. Arberg said Ginsburg felt better after being attended by a physician at the court, but was taken to the hospital as a precaution. Ginsburg's health has been a concern since the 76-year-old justice was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year. In February, doctors removed her spleen and a tiny tumor on her pancreas. Ginsburg said the operation was a complete success, and that she was...

The ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee is demanding answers from the government agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid after it ordered a private health insurance company to stop informing its enrollees about looming Medicare cuts under President Obama's healthcare plan. In a letter last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) informed Humana that it had launched an investigation of the health insurance company's marketing practices. CMS has also ordered Humana to stop telling its enrollees that President Obama's proposed healthcare plan could lower their Medicare Advantage benefits. Medicare Advantage plans are private plans...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after feeling ill at work.

GALVESTON, Texas — When most people think of insulin, they think of diabetes — a disease that arises when, for one reason or another, insulin can't do the critical job of helping the body process sugar. But the hormone has another, less well-known function. It's also necessary for muscle growth, increasing blood flow through muscle tissue, encouraging nutrients to disperse from blood vessels and itself serving as a biochemical signal to boost muscle protein synthesis and cell proliferation. Recently, scientists have recognized that loss of responsiveness to insulin plays a major role in the loss of physical strength that occurs...

THE elderly were the first group to turn against President Obama's health-care pro posals, alienated by the plans to cut $500 billion cut from Medicare. The young and the uninsured may be the next to jump ship -- out of worry over about the huge premiums they'd have to pay. Requiring everyone to buy insurance will impose a massive tax on all who now are uninsured. The Congressional Budget Office projects that it would force the middle-income uninsured to pay on average more than 15 percent of their income. The poor will still have Medicaid. But for those earning more,...

This next homeowner is a force to be reckoned with. He's 91, he was buck naked, but he and his dog decided to go after a would be burglar. He held the man at gunpoint until police arrived. Deputies say they found the would be burglar on the back porch by the pool drunk and trembling, probably not how he thought it would all go down. He got more than he bargained for when he decided to mess with this elderly man and his trusty rottweiler mix. 91-year-old Robert Thompson and his 5-year-old dog Rett tag-teamed a thug trying to...

It’s a sad fact that muscles shrink as adults age. But new studies are starting to unravel how this happens — and what to do about it. Past research has shown that the bodies of older people build muscle from food less efficiently than young people. Now researchers at the University of Nottingham in England have also found that a mechanism that prevents muscle breakdown works less effectively in people over the age of 65, resulting in a “double whammy” effect. For the elderly, less muscle mass means not only a loss of strength, but also increases the likelihood of...

A report [by the Patients Association, an independent charity] presented a catalogue of end-of-life cases that demonstrated, in its words, "a consistent pattern of shocking standards of care." It provided details of what it described as "appalling treatment," which could be found across the NHS. A few days later, a group of senior doctors and health-care experts ... expressed concern about ... a program ... involving withdrawal of fluids and nourishment for patients thought to be dying. Noting that in 2007-08, 16.5% of deaths in the U.K. came after "terminal sedation," their letter concluded with the chilling observation that experienced...

KTLA News 5:55 PM PDT, September 12, 2009 LA JOLLA -- A well-dressed elderly man carrying an inhaler or oxygen tank robbed a bank in La Jolla Satruday, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation officials. The man presented a note to a teller at the San Diego National Bank and made off with an unknown amount of cash. It's unclear whether the suspect had a weapon. The robber is described as a 6 foot, 4 inch tall man in his 70s with white hair, a gray mustache and glasses. Bank Tellers say the white-haired man was wearing glasses and had...

<p>MANCHESTER, N.H. – A 114-year-old New Hampshire woman who loves the Boston Red Sox, Hershey's Kisses and ice cream is believed to be the oldest American.</p> <p>Mary Josephine Ray secured the title of the oldest person in the US after the death of Gertrude Baines on Friday in Los Angeles.</p>

Newsweek, in all of its wisdom, is still arguing that Sarah Palin lied about the death panel provisions in ObamaCare, but we really should have a death panel anyways. The author of the below piece, Evan Thomas, writes that his 79 year old mother wanted to die but the doctors wouldn't let her because the assisted living facility she was staying at was sustained by Medicare. He didn't like this and muses on how we can fix health care in this country by, you guessed it, getting people into hospice care and out of hospitals. People need to die and...

Reliapundit alerts us to breaking news: Gertrude Baines, who lived to be the world's oldest person on a steady diet of crispy bacon, fried chicken and ice cream, died Friday at a nursing home. She was 115. Baines, who remarked last year that she enjoyed life so much she wouldn't mind living another 100 years, died in her sleep, said Emma Camanag, administrator at Western Convalescent Hospital. The centenarian likely suffered a heart attack, said her longtime physician, Dr. Charles Witt. An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death. ...Staff at Baines' nursing home described her as a...

The Left is terribly concerned that "we" are spending too much money on keeping people alive as they get older. But Ted Kennedy didn't seem to mind that "we" provided state-of-the-art cancer care for him, presumably through his wonderful insurance as a US Senator; I have yet to hear of a single "Man or Woman of the Left" -- as they like to dub themselves -- who would object to healthy (and wealthy) aging for themselves. I don't see George Soros checking out the suicide clinics in Holland. I don't hear any eagerness to cut short Jimmy Carter's lifelong support...

First, the bad news. For the first time since 1975, Social Security recipients are being told they won't be receiving an annual cost of living increase in their monthly benefits. At the same time, their Medicare premiums will go up, so monthly checks will actually shrink next year. Not to worry, though. Here's the good news. Seniors may not have to live on such meager funds for long because the government is going to help them plan how they want to die. This benevolent plan is in Section 1233 (p. 424) of the health care reform bill known as "America's...

This is a video of an old man (the likes of which actually built this country) at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire. From what I understand, the old guy asked if the people in front of him were even from NH- he implied the congresswoman packed the small venue with supporters/friends. He is then dragged away by guys in black- what uniforms are the officers wearing?

New information has surfaced regarding euthanization of elderly patients at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina. A doctor has admitted administering a lethal dose of morphine to one patient knowing that it would kill her. "There's no question I hastened her demise," Dr. Ewing Cook told an independent investigation organization. "I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the [hospital] floor." The patient, Jannie Burgess, 79, was suffering from uterine cancer and kidney failure. "To me, it was a no-brainer -- and to this day I don't feel bad about...

Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) of Wyoming delivered the weekly Republican address Saturday on the loss of Senator Kennedy and the importance of getting health care reform done right. Senator Enzi discussed how the Democrats are rushing a health reform bill through congress that will ultimately "raid Medicare", raise costs and increase the deficit. And, he urged lawmakers to listen to what the American people are saying and scrap the Democrats’ current plan in order to "enact common sense reform that will actually cut costs." Here's the video: Senator Enzi: ObamaCare to Cut Billions from Elderly

Death, Republican Style It's the GOP that's out to get Granny.

A provision for an end-of-life “death panel” in Barack Obama’s health care reform plan, brought to light by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, already exists in legislation passed earlier this year under the Stimulus Bill.- This is already funded and law. Probably helps explain why the bill was rushed, without being read.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police are unraveling a home invasion and burglary that began at an elderly couple's home and ended with a 15-year-old suspect shot to death on a nearby street.

What do the liberals at AARP think about the latest from Obama as reported by AP: No cost-of-living increases forSocial Security recipients for the next two years! The Social Security COLs, as everyone knows, are rigged to provide a tiny increase each year, much less than the true cost-of-living increase for seniors. Not only will these pittances be suspended for the next two years, but the Medicare premiums paid by the same seniors will INCREASE. These Medicare premiums are automatically DEDUCTED from the Social Security payment every month. This means that America's seniors will receive a REDUCTION in.benefits in 2010,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975. By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly. ''I will promise...

A Camden, NJ woman has been sentenced to a maximum of 25 years behind bars for beating an elderly, infirm Cherry Hill man to death after she was caught stealing money from him. Yolanda Steele, 34, avoided a possible murder conviction and life prison term by pleading guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated manslaughter. In court on Friday, she sat stonefaced as relatives of the victim, 82-year-old Sidney Wenof, gave heart-wrenching victim impact statements. The victim's daughter, Ellen Sands, asked Superior Court judge Irvin Snyder for the strongest possible punishment: "They are called houses of correction. Unfortunately, there is...

Southwest Detectives are going door to door trying to get information about a robbery and assault that left a 100-year-old man beaten to the ground. According to police, the disturbing attack happened in broad daylight on the 6700 block of Grovers Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. "He placed his hands around his neck, threw him to the ground and began striking his head against the cement sidewalk," said Lt. John Walker. "He took the man's groceries and $30 out of his pocket and fled on foot." Neighbors, who said the man was "very nice" and "friendly," are shocked and concerned that...

This is another important story being smothered by the Democrat controlled media. The Obama administration has quietly announced there will be no raise in social security payments next year and maybe not until 2012, a presidential election year. Citing a 2008 third quarter cost of living decline, Congress has voted no cost of living increase in next year’s Social Security checks for the first time since 1973. The Democrats are pointing to their own prediction of a “… [steady] decline in consumer prices through the first three quarters of this year…” Based on this they claim to foresee no need...

<p>Robert Reich, the former Labor secretary, scholar and commentator, called Tuesday for a “march on Washington” on Sept. 13 —“Grandparents Day” — in support of a health care bill that offers a public option.</p> <p>While he said organizing was not his strength, he would be prepared to assist. “If enough people feel that’s the best way for their voices to be heard, and can’t be heard in any other way, then we march,” Reich said in a reader question-and-answer session in POLITICO’s Arena.</p>

WASHINGTON — White House officials and Democrats in Congress say the fears of older Americans about possible rationing of health care are based on myths and falsehoods. But Medicare beneficiaries and insurance counselors say the concerns are not entirely irrational.

THE woman known as the Dingo Lady has died a month short of her 109th birthday after a life of shooting and trapping wild dogs on her mountain property. Nellie Bowley killed hundreds of the animals that attacked her cattle, goats and geese on the place near Killarney where she lived until two years ago when she moved into an aged care facility. Mrs Bowley bagged her first dog when she was 18 and went on to achieve nationwide publicity. She was in her mid-90s when she shot her last dingo – failing eyesight made it difficult to aim.

Does the AARP not recognize the danger in the wage-stunting impact of ObamaCare, or do they just have another agenda than seniors in mind? My latest column at American issues Project looks at the problems facing another troubled entitlement program, Social Security, and the dangers of more rapid insolvency from a decline in wages caused by Barack Obama’s health-care reform plans.... ObamaCare will depress Social Security revenues, which will either push the program into insolvency or create the needs for tax increases and/or benefits cuts. The pursuit of this kind of government-run system will actively and significantly reduce the living...

Dick Morris: “If the elderly understand that they are the victims, that this is a program to take $200 billion from [elderly] medical care and give it to the medical care of people who are in many cases legal and illegal immigrants… then I think the Democrats may well back down

PRESIDENT Obama has stopped talking about "health-care reform." The new poll-tested phrase of the day is "health-insurance reform." Specifically the president says he wants to protect people with "pre-existing conditions." He would require insurance companies to accept anyone who applies for coverage, regardless of their current health (a rule known as "guaranteed issue") and prohibit them from charging higher premiums to people who are sick (called "community rating"). But if that's what the president wants, he could already have a bill through Congress, with significant Republican support. In fact, even the insurance companies have agreed to it. But the 1,017-page...

Granny Pulls the Plug on ObamaBy: Chris Stirewalt Political Editor 08/13/09 8:46 AM EDT Obama Injects Himself Into Health Talks, Despite Risks Writer David Kirkpatrick confirmed from sources what many have understood for months – that the White House will support a compromise health plan being crafted in the Senate Finance Committee, even though it lacks the public option the president has repeatedly demanded. Health lobbyists and Capitol Hill insiders told Kirkpatrick that the White House has been a shadow negotiator in the ongoing talks in Sen. Max Baucus’ offices, while letting the rest of the process work itself out....

... Conservatives have marshaled various briefs against the Democratic health care proposals. They’ve argued that the plans will be too expensive, that they’ll cramp innovation and raise premiums for the already-insured, that they’ll encourage employers to drop coverage and discourage them from hiring. These arguments have been effective, up to a point. But they aren’t nearly as effective as warning senior citizens that Barack Obama wants to take away their health care. That’s why Republicans find themselves tiptoeing into an unfamiliar role — as champions of old-age entitlements. The Democrats are “sticking it to seniors with cuts to Medicare,” Mitch...

WASHINGTON is all atwit ter about "death panels": President Obama derides the idea that his health-care reform calls for them; the Senate is stripping "end of life" counseling language from its bill -- and last Friday the voice of the liberal establishment, The New York Times, ran a Page One story "rebutting" the rumor that ObamaCare would create such boards to decide when to pull the plug on elderly patients. But all those protests miss the fundamental truth of the "death panel" charge. Even without a federal board voting on whom to kill, ObamaCare will ration care extensively, leading to...

Obamacare means treatment rationing, so getting Grandma plugged in in the first place is the greater peril. By MARK STEYN Syndicated columnist Comments 1| Recommend 4 Some years ago, when I was a slip of a lad, I found myself commiserating with a distinguished American songwriter about the death of one of his colleagues. My 23-year old girlfriend found all the condolence talk a bit of a bummer and was anxious to cut to the chase and get outta there. "Well," she said breezily. "He had a good innings. He was 85." "That's easy for you to say," he said....