Free Republic

At last night’s presidential debate, Barack Obama led the charge for government run health care by declaring in no uncertain terms that health care is a “right”. I suppose he thinks Tom and the boys accidentally left that one out of the Constitution. Or maybe it is an extension (in his mind) of the right to life. But let’s think about this a minute. When our American form of government was created to form “a more perfect union” by insuring the “rights” of its citizens, it recognized only the “inalienable rights”. And to protect those rights, which I’m pretty sure...

For the second time in three years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have established a government-run universal health care system. Senate Bill 840 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, would have set up a single-payer system in which the state would assume the role that private insurance companies now play. In his veto message, the governor said he could not support "a bill that places an annual shortfall of over $40 billion to our state's economy."

Cancer patients are to be denied drugs which could keep them alive after the NHS rationing watchdog ruled that they are too expensive. Patient groups said the decision, announced today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), would condemn many sufferers of kidney cancer to an "early death". Four prohibited medicines include Sutent, which can prolong life in kidney cancer patients by up to two years. Nice said the drugs were too expensive, at about £24,000/year per patient, for the benefits they offered and would mean the health service was less able to afford more cost-effective drugs...

As this presidential campaign continues, the candidates' comments about health care will continue to include stories of their own experiences and anecdotes of people across the country: the uninsured woman in Ohio, the diabetic in Detroit, the overworked doctor in Orlando, to name a few.But no one will mention Claude Castonguay — perhaps not surprising because this statesman isn't an American and hasn't held office in over three decades. Castonguay's evolving view of Canadian health care, however, should weigh heavily on how the candidates think about the issue in this country. Back in the 1960s, Castonguay chaired a Canadian government...

What word does Barack Obama and his supporters keep chanting? “Change!” Like a drumbeat, Obama’s chant for change runs nonstop in an endless loop. But how does Obama want to change America if he becomes president? Here are six different areas he would like changed. For starters, Obama received a 100 percent rating from NARAL (a pro-abortion group) in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Why do they hold him in such high esteem? Because he supports every pro-abortion bill that comes along. He wants tax dollars for abortions, he voted against notifying parents of minors about abortions, he supports partial-birth abortion,...

THE medical establishment is in revolt against Labour's policy of denying National Health Service treatment to patients who pay privately for cancer medicines. The outcry from eminent consultants and doctors' leaders came as news emerged of two more patients whose NHS care was removed while they were dying of cancer. Baroness Ilora Finlay, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, said the issue went to the heart of the purpose of the health service. Finlay's intervention, in an article for The Sunday Times, comes after it emerged that a man dying of kidney cancer had to battle for NHS care...

A Grandmother whose free NHS treatment was withdrawn because she paid privately for anti-cancer drugs has died. Yesterday Linda O'Boyle's husband condemned the policy behind the decision and said it had made his dying wife's last months even more stressful. Mrs O'Boyle, 64, had been receiving state-funded treatment - including chemotherapy - for colon cancer. But when she took cetuximab, a drug which promised to extend her life but is not available on the NHS, her health trust made her start paying for her care. Mrs O'Boyle, an NHS occupational therapist, is believed to be the first person to die...

Here is a glimpse of the future if we elect a social democrat! http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2008/05/23/5646336-sun.html

The Securities and Exchange Commission, shifting its position, has told companies they must allow shareholders to vote on a proposal for universal health insurance coverage. The shareholder proposal asks companies to adopt "principles for comprehensive health care reform" like those devised by the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. The institute says health insurance should be universal, continuous, "affordable to individuals and families," and "affordable and sustainable for society." Under the commission's rules, a company does not have to allow shareholders to vote on a proposal if it "deals with a matter relating to the...

Eye specialist Sarah Anderson works at York Hospital. Her father Ian has been refused Sutent, a new cancer drug, which could provide the only real chance of prolonging his life. Sarah, 40, lives in York with husband, Bill, a computer programmer and their twins, Douglas and Ryan, five. As an ophthalmologist, I have spent my working life in the NHS. And for all its perceived failings, I have been proud of its fundamental role in our society - to provide equality of care for all. Of course, I've heard the term postcode lottery but as a doctor I've only ever...

Sixty Per Cent of Physicians Surveyed Oppose Switching to a National Health Care Plan Written by Cisco Monday, 07 April 2008 With apologies to the leftist anti-war crowd, I will steal and bastardize one of their favorite mantras: “Ackerman lied, health care freedom died.” Now that I have said it, I have to admit that it does not have all of the fluidity of the anti-war slogans. Maybe that is because “Ackerman” has three syllables and “Bush” has just one. Or maybe that is because you need to be a brainless leftist in order to construct a really enjoyable brainless...

Once they discover that she is Dr. Kate, the supplicants line up to approach at dinner parties and ballet recitals. Surely, they suggest to Dr. Katherine J. Atkinson, a family physician here, she might find a way to move them up her lengthy waiting list for new patients. Those fortunate enough to make it soon learn they face another long wait: Dr. Atkinson’s next opening for a physical is not until early May — of 2009. Now in Massachusetts, in an unintended consequence of universal coverage, the imbalance is being exacerbated by the state’s new law requiring residents to have...

Five myths of health care 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 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. Below, I debunk the five most prominent health-care myths: (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...

Inside Sylvia de Vries lurked an enormous tumour and fluid totalling 18 kilograms. But not even that massive weight gain and a diagnosis of ovarian cancer could assure her timely treatment in Canada. Fighting for her life, the Windsor woman headed to the United States. In Pontiac, Mich., a surgeon excised the tumour - 35 centimetres at its longest - along with her ovaries, appendix, fallopian tubes, uterus and cervix. In addition, 13 litres of fluid were drained during that October, 2006, operation. And there was little time to spare: Had she waited two weeks, she would have faced potential...

Follow the logic: 1.) Government routes funds -> subsidy to cover some of the bill -> Insurance industry gets a dramatic influx of income -> most influential lobbyists get the exclusive subsidy contracts -> unfair competition and antitrust complaints -> legal framework gets delayed 2.) Unions lose bargaining power as they no longer have the required negotiation of health insurance for workers -> kicking unions in the mouth even more in the face of an already unregulated globalized workforce -> unemployment 3.) No requirement to insure workers -> less workers for same productivity due to weakening Unions -> corporations get...

More than 400 Canadians in the full throes of a heart attack or other cardiac emergency have been sent to the United States because no hospital can provide the lifesaving care they require here. Most of the heart patients who have been sent south since 2003 typically show up in Ontario hospitals, where they are given clot-busting drugs. If those drugs fail to open their clogged arteries, the scramble to locate angioplasty in the United States begins. While other provinces have sent patients out of country - British Columbia has sent 75 pregnant women or their babies to Washington State...

Doctors have launched an internet campaign to shame Gordon Brown over a war hero who has been told he will have to go blind in one eye before he will get NHS treatment. More than 100 GPs have sent £5 cheques to Downing Street, made out to the Prime Minister, which they want to be put towards the cost of a cure for Second World War pilot Jack Tagg. Mr Tagg, 88, suffers from "wet" macular degeneration, the main cause of sight loss in Britain, affecting a quarter of a million people. It can lead to blindness in as little...

A couple who were advised to abort their baby when doctors said he had a rare brain disorder have spoken of their joy after their "miracle son" was born in perfect health. Little Brandon Kramer was diagnosed with rhomboencephalosynapsis – a condition so rare it affects fewer than one in a million people worldwide – while he was still in the womb. Doctors warned his mother and father that Brandon would be born deaf and blind and would probably survive only for a couple of hours. It is believed to be the first time in Britain that the condition has...

AN astonishing survey of medics for their in-house Doctor magazine has revealed they believe those suffering from what they see as self-inflicted diseases, like smokers, drinkers and the obese, should not receive free treatment. Have they got a point? PHIL DOHERTY reports . . . WHEN football legend George Best underwent a liver swap operation because of years of drinking it is said to have led to a fall in those signing up to donor cards. The argument was he brought it on himself and the organ should have been given to a more deserving cause. That the Manchester United...

As a half-time practicing orthopedic surgeon in Tacoma and a half-time faculty member in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, I have come to appreciate the differences of these two health care systems, both of which are often touted as the very best. As I have spent more time in Canada, I have started to appreciate the way its system affects doctors and their patients. The revelations have been nothing short of astonishing.

Ambulances are being used as waiting rooms outside hospital emergency units in order to meet Government pledges on treatment times, a union has claimed. The Department of Health denied the target was causing undue delays. It said the four-hour limit for A&E waiting starts 15 minutes after the ambulance arrives, regardless of whether a patient has been handed over.

A Winnipeg case currently winding its way to its grim conclusion pits the children of Samuel Golubchuk against doctors at the Salvation Army Grace General Hospital. According to the pleadings, Golubchuk's doctors informed his children that their 84-year-old father is "in the process of dying" and that they intended to hasten the process by removing his ventilation, and if that proved insufficient to kill him quickly, to also remove his feeding tube. In the event that the patient showed discomfort during these procedures, the chief of the hospital's ICU unit stated in his affidavit that he would administer morphine. Golubchuk...

Clinton Care 2.0: Clinton's new health care proposal is as intrusive as the 1993 version by Clint Bolick Largely lost amidst attention over Super Tuesday was Sen. Hillary Clinton's admission on Sunday that her proposed universal health care program would come with a huge dose of government coercion. Associated Press reported that Clinton said she would achieve universal coverage by "going after people's wages" and "automatic enrollment." The healthy must support the sick, the senator insists, and must be forced to join a government health insurance program willingly or not. Ironically, liberals who are fighting for government-compelled health care are...

Botched abortions mean that scores of babies are being born alive and left to die, an official report has revealed. A total of 66 infants survived NHS termination attempts in one year alone, it emerged. Rather than dying at birth as was intended, they were able to breathe unaided. About half were alive for an hour, while one survived ten hours. The figures are the first to give a national picture of the number of babies who survive abortion but are left to die. Experts previously believed the phenomenon was limited to a handful of cases a year. The babies...

WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans. The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC's "This Week," she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment." Clinton said such measures would apply only to workers who can...

On Monday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "universal" health-care plan was shot down by a committee in the state's Senate, 7-1. The most vociferous opponents were not fiscal conservatives, but labor unions that launched a last-minute revolt against its most crucial feature: an individual mandate that would have forced everyone to buy coverage. This defeat has national political implications. Hillary Clinton, for example, has denounced Barack Obama for refusing to include an individual mandate in his health-care plan. Yet many California unions argued that a mandate would force uninsured, middle-income working families to divert money from more pressing needs toward coverage...

An 11-year-old boy from Britain, who was deaf for nearly 10 years, was suddenly cured when a thick piece of cotton popped out of his ear, according to a report in the Daily Mail. Jerome Bartens was diagnosed as deaf in his right ear when he was just two-years-old. Click here to read the full story and see pictures Over the next nine years, he struggled to live a normal life as a young boy — but everything changed when he felt a sudden pop in his right ear while playing a game of pool with friends. He put his...

Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives. # Have your say: Should lifestyle play a role in deciding who gets NHS treatment? Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone. Fertility treatment and "social" abortions are also on the list of procedures that many doctors say should not be funded by the state.

When U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., showed television viewers the Christmas presents she wants to give us if she is elected president, her most important was universal pre-kindergarten, following closely after universal health care. Clinton was reminding us of her status as the grand dame of the ideology expressed in her favorite African slogan, "It takes a village to raise a child." Indeed, there seem to be many busybodies who believe the village, i.e., government functionaries, should make major decisions about the upbringing of children, including what they are taught and how they are medicated. They may approach this incrementally,...

I often hear numbers ranging from 14 million to 20 million illegal aliens in America. I also often hear numbers ranging from 40 million to 45 million uninsured people in America. Is it safe to say that 14 million of the 40 million uninsured are illegal aliens? If so, does anyone know where I might find data to back up that argument besides just my gut feeling? Any help would be most appreciated!

Patients could be required to stop smoking, take exercise or lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested. Health premiums slashed for gym users In a New Year message to NHS staff, the Prime Minister indicates people may have to fulfil new "responsibilities" in order to establish their entitlement to care. The new conditions could be set out in a formal NHS "constitution", Mr Brown says. In his open letter to doctors, nurses and other health workers, the Prime Minister promises to press on with Tony Blair's reforms of the NHS, pledging...

NHS U-turn on prostate cancer treatment By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent Last Updated: 2:55am GMT 17/12/2007  Have your say      Read comments A life-saving treatment will be denied to tens of thousands of victims of Britain's most common male cancer after a U-turn by the NHS rationing body. NHS's disservice to those with prostate cancerXeloda pill is new breast cancer hopeHave your say: Should cancer patients be denied this treatment?The groundbreaking ultrasound therapy has been shown to kill nine out of 10 prostate tumours, and five years after treatment, 80 per cent of patients show no sign of the cancer recurring....

The end of employment-based health insurance isn’t in sight yet, but a study released this morning raises the possibility of a “tipping point” that will cause employers to consider alternatives. The Employee Benefit Research Institute said that “if one larger employer actually did drop its health benefits, others might follow for competitive reasons.” The report, published this morning on www.ebri.org, said work-based health insurance benefits, which are held by the majority of Americans who have health insurance, are still a competitive reason to attract employees.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer said the state will commission an independent research group to help New York develop a universal health coverage plan. The Department of Health and the Insurance Department will award the $470,000 contract to the Urban Institute, an independent, nonpartisan policy research group, to analyze proposals and develop a ‘‘strategic roadmap’’ to universal health insurance. Health Department officials said the Urban Institute would receive a two-year contract, but officials in the governor’s office expect the group to begin work by March 1 and to have a final recommendation to Spitzer by next summer. The contract must be approved...

OLLEGE PARK, Md., Nov 29 (Reuters) - Public health advocates on Thursday called for tighter restrictions on salt content in food, arguing that cutting the nutrient's overuse by most Americans could save thousands of lives annually. Excessive salt in Americans' diets is a major factor in high blood pressure and increases risk for heart disease, while most Americans exceed recommended limits, according to health experts. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) cited these factors in urging stricter regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at a public hearing, held on Thursday at the FDA. Trimming the...

ROCHESTER, N.H. - In the hours before he allegedly took five people hostage at Hillary Clinton's campaign office Friday, Leeland Eisenberg sat drinking rum and cokes with his stepson in his trailer. He drank heavily, and in a fog of frustration and delusion, said he could no longer afford his medication for bipolar disorder, his stepson, Benjamin Warren, said by phone last night. Unemployed, Eisenberg had no money to see a doctor; a local hospital turned him away when he went for help, Warren said.

Unhealthy Freedoms By Bethany Stotts, November 21, 2007 Since the release of the 2006 Census results, the American public has been inundated with media campaigns such as the American Medical Association’s (AMA) “Voice for the Uninsured” campaign. A variety of interest groups, associations, and politicians— including but not limited to HealthCare-NOW, the American Medical Student Association, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and John Edwards—have argued that the 47 million Americans without health insurance is an unfair byproduct of our society and have pushed to institute universal healthcare. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) declared this September, “That is the tragedy at the heart...

Mother-to-be flees as social workers warn her they will take her baby away at birth By PAUL SIMS 20th November 2007 A mother-to-be has fled her home after social workers threatened to take her baby within minutes of the birth. Fran Lyon, 22, hopes a new local authority will take a different approach. She insists that the mental health problems she had as a teenager - she started self-harming at 15 and has been treated at psychiatric hospitals for borderline personality disorder - are now behind her and there is no evidence she will harm her child. Miss Lyon moved...

SAN FRANCISCO - Forget the driver's license and credit cards. The most important piece of plastic in Cheng Wang's wallet is his new medical identification card featuring a picture of a heart and this city's signature skyline. Wang, who has diabetes and other ailments, says the Healthy San Francisco program saved his life. When he immigrated here in May to be closer to his elderly mother, the 64-year-old Taiwan native brought enough pills to last seven months. When those ran out, he didn't know what to do. He had no medical insurance. And it scared him. Then he learned about...

A British woman planning to start a new life with her husband in New Zealand has been banned from entering the country - because she is too fat. Rowan Trezise, 33, has been left behind in England while her husband Richie, 35, has already made the move down under leaving her desperately trying to lose weight. When the couple first tried to gain entry to the country they were told that they were both overweight and were a potential burden on the health care system. Robyn Toomath, a spokesman for New Zealand's Fight the Obesity Epidemic and an endocrinologist said...

New Zealand Denies Immigration to U.K. Wife Because She's Too Fat Saturday, November 17, 2007 NEW YORK — New Zealand immigration officials are keeping a U.K. wife from joining her husband "down under" because they say she is too fat, the Daily Mail reports. Click here to read the full report in the Daily Mail. British citizens Rowan Trezise, 33, and Richie Trezise, 35, are living apart as she tries desperately to shed the pounds needed to comply with New Zealand guidelines that immigrants maintain a healthy BMI, or body mass index. BMI is a weight-height ratio that estimates percentage...

Romney plays down health care As Massachusetts governor, he tackled universal coverage As governor, Mitt Romney signed the country's first comprehensive attempt at universal health coverage. On the presidential campaign trail, he has not put health care reform at the top of his agenda, nor has he embraced the central goal of the Massachusetts plan - universal coverage - as an appropriate target for the country. The story sounds like classic stump-speech material. A business leader and friend of then-Gov. Mitt Romney suggested he could make his mark if he solved Massachusetts's health care woes. Romney, a former consultant, took...

'Cockroaches on operating tables during surgery' at RNS A parliamentary inquiry into Sydney's Royal North Shore (RNS) hospital has heard a claim of live cockroaches being killed on operating theatre tables during surgeries. A submission from retired RNS doctor Henry Sleye Hughes also claims some of the hospital's operating tables are so old, one broke in two while a patient was anaesthetised. New South Wales Health Minister Reba Meagher was the first witness to front the inquiry, set up after 32-year-old Jana Horska miscarried in the hospital's emergency room toilets after waiting two hours for treatment. Ms Meagher has told...

It's a sad day for organized labor in California. By organizing a series of small but well-publicized rallies throughout the state, organized labor may have effectively killed the effort to enact one of its most cherished objectives, universal health care coverage. In a misguided attempt to remain relevant, the California labor movement has resorted to a hyperpartisan approach and tactics such as fasting, candlelight vigils and chanting that forces one to assume that labor has lost the ability to do what it is supposed to do best: negotiate. What attracted me to the labor movement more than three decades ago...

Spending Addicts by: Bethany Stotts, October 23, 2007 Contrary to popular public opinion, however, the current debt crisis has little to do with the Iraq War so much as profligate congressional spending, according to Government Accountability Office (GAO) Comptroller, David M. Walker. He told a Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) audience this October that the current fiscal crisis can be largely attributed to “known demographic trends and rising healthcare costs,” and that “the status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable.” Currently, the GAO estimates that each American citizen carries approximately $170,000 in federal debt, or $440,000 in federal debt per household....

MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)! What a crock. For decades Americans have been sold a bill of goods by the New Age movement. We have been told that we must be vaccinated, drugged, poked and prodded by snake-oil salesmen with PHDs. Now we have a movement in this country to force those of us who manifest perfect health to pay for those of you who have succumbed to the debauchery of the medical profession and their minions in the secular humanist world. It is my view that MRSA is nothing more than another tool being used by Clintonesk type people to...

More than one-third of the people in the United States under the age of 65 had no health insurance for some or all of 2006 and 2007, according to Families USA, an advocacy group representing the uninsured. The most recent census data pegs the number of people in the U.S. without insurance in 2006 at 47 million people, but this is an annual snapshot that does not count those who had no health coverage for only part of the year. Of the 89.6 million people who reported that they lacked health insurance for one or more months in 2006 and...

First, I humbly ask before you comment to read my entire post. Then feel free to comment however you wish. I support universal healthcare, even if it means for the government to either mandate or subsidize medical care. I would prefer a mandate, as opposed to an unneeded subsidy, since people should be responsible for their own health. Here's why: I'm sure you are aware of the jist of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986. Essentially, what the law says is that regardless of citizenship, legal status, or ability to pay, hospitals must provide stabilizing care...

Make sure to watch TONIGHT, Friday, Sept 14 ABC at 10 pm EDT And Stossel previews here: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=446

Universal Healthcare on its Way (Rep. Jim McDermott) September 13th, 2007 In this video, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) envisions implementing a universal healthcare system in the U.S. by 2009. Video is at this link: The Hill Blog» Blog Archive » Universal Healthcare on its Way (Rep. Jim McDermott)