Free Republic

The conviction of disgraced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on both manslaughter and murder charges ought to be, at least in theory, a seminal moment for a country hoping to foster a greater civic unity and recoil from the tumultuous brink of a half-century nadir in racially charged acrimony. Sadly, early indications point toward something closely approximating the precise opposite. Successful criminal prosecutions of police officers for use of lethal force in the line of duty are rare in America, reflecting both the statistical paucity of truly egregious police misconduct and a still-widely held understanding that policing is extraordinarily...

Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Saturday night, following a smaller turnout at the Trump rally in Oklahoma: "Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID Shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud" Let’s be clear: TikTok is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, as we detailed in May here on The National Pulse. The app has removed references to the Tiananmen Square massacre, in line with demands...

There is a reason why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become the face of the Democratic Party. With almost childlike innocence, she challenges institutions in a way that is completely new for left-of-center politicians. Why should anyone be a billionaire? If the country is so rich, why do people work so many hours? Why can’t everybody have higher wages?All these questions have been studied by real economists, of course. But AOC’s naïve approach to public policy leaves no doubt that she couldn’t care less what economists think.If AOC is the voice of the left, New York Times writer Paul Krugman is its...

We all knew that there would be zero bipartisanship this Congress. We started the year with the government in a shutdown over border security. House Democrats retook the majority in 2018. They’re in no mood to play ball with the Trump White House. The fight is over a mere $5 billion for part of the border wall. Reportedly, Trump offered to re-open the government if he got some of the money. Democrats rejected it; they’re more concerned with scoring points. Yet, as the Democrats suit up for battle against the Trump presidency, their left flank could cause trouble as well....

A group of campaigners, including Prof Stephen Hawking, has been given permission to challenge a government health policy in the High Court. They will pursue a judicial review against Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and NHS England over plans to create accountable care organisations (ACOs). These are to act as partnership bodies incorporating hospitals, community services and councils. Campaigners say it risks privatisation, but this is denied by ministers. 'Radical changes' NHS England wants hospitals and other trusts to work closely with GPs and social care services to look after more patients in their communities rather than in hospital. In some...

When John R. Ammon, M.D. finished his rigorous training at Harvard and Stanford 36 years ago, he swore to uphold the all important Hippocratic Oath – which proclaims – “Do No Harm.” Looking forward to working as an anesthesiologist, he believed he would never have to compromise that solemn promise. Yet, for Dr. Ammon, as for so many hundreds of thousands of physicians, that oath is progressively more difficult to keep. Dr. Ammon has spent a lifetime of serving and healing his patients. More than just participating in a practice, his personal belief systems made him keenly aware of –...

Say hello to Obamacare’s latest technocratic gimmick — the Accountable Care Organization (ACO). The first of these federally-chartered Pioneer ACO groups of healthcare providers just recently launched. Proponents of ACOs claim that the new entities will help doctors and hospitals better coordinate care in order to improve the health of Medicare patients and reduce costs. Don’t count on it. Instead of helping doctors and patients to make individualized treatment decisions, ACOs will empower government bureaucrats to consolidate healthcare providers into top-down organizations and dictate how care is delivered — at greater cost. According to Obamacare’s supporters, ACOs will streamline communication...

"Accountable care organizations" push doctors to take on only the healthiest patients.Whenever Congress attempts to “reform” the tax system by passing new laws, they inevitably create new winners and losers. But one group always wins — the consultants and special interest groups best able to “game” the system to their advantage. The same is happening now with Obama’s health care “reform,” except this time the stakes won’t just be money, but Americans’ lives. We’ve already seen such political gamesmanship with the over 1400 ObamaCare waivers granted disproportionately to the president’s labor union supporters or to businesses in the congressional district...

The fundamental flaw with ACOs is the Big Brother approach of controlling costs by dictating how physicians may practice. Doctors may decide they'd rather be 'accountable' to their ACO paymasters rather than patients. A product of last year's massive health-care reform law, ACOs represent the latest government attempt to control escalating health costs. Set to take effect next January, they will use financial carrots and sticks to "encourage" doctors and hospitals to merge into large Accountable Care groups, where they'll give care to Medicare patients according to government "cost effectiveness" guidelines. These ACOs would be rewarded for spending less than...

Key medical providers have taken a stand against Obamacare's initial blueprint so complex it's unworkable. Earlier this spring, the administration released the long-awaited draft regulations for "accountable care organizations," (ACO). These networks of doctors and hospitals would collaborate to keep Medicare patients healthier and share in the savings with taxpayers. Obama's health care overhaul law envisioned that hundreds of such ACO's would be quickly set up around the county to lead a bottom-up reform of America's bloated health care system. However, in an unusual rebuke, a consortium representing premier organizations such as the Mayo Clinic sent a position papaer to...

If ObamaCare really called for the creation of "death panels," the first victim of these in vented tribunals would have been Marcus Welby MD, the character in the hit 1960s television show that followed the daily dramas of a small-town family doctor. The health legislation doesn't call on government tribunals to euthanize seniors, as some fanciful critics claim, but the bill does kill off private-practice medicine. ObamaCare envisions that doctors will fold their private offices to become salaried hospital employees, making it easier for the federal government to regulate them and centrally manage the costly medical services they prescribe. To...

Looks like President Obama sees himself as a god-like visionary who is leading the sheep into a social justice czardom instead of following the will of the “we the people”. .. The key bureaucracy that we all need to know about...is the Accountable Care Organization. ACO is the future of the American health care as envisioned by Obama and voted into reality by the Democrats in Congress. The ACO goal is stated as following: providing quality services to patients while earning a reasonable livelihood in the process. The key word is “reasonable” – the Gov will decide what reasonable...

ANGLICAN COMMUNION OFFICER URGES CAUTION TO CANADIANS By David W. Virtue ST. CATHERINES, ON (5-29-2004)--An envoy from the Anglican Communion office in London warned that any decision to bless same-sex unions by the Canadian Anglican Church could have far reaching implications for the unity of the whole Anglican Communion. The Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, Director of Ecumenical Affairs & Studies of the London-based Anglican Communion Office, told more than 300 delegates to the 37th Canadian Anglican Synod that to proceed might be a price worth paying, "if you conclude that this is where Christ leads." Cameron is thought to reflect...