Health Issues

With Michelle Obama coming out and trying to nudge us into making healthy choices in our fast food eating, I wanted to remind everyone of a bill in congress that they tried to sneak in on us with the first health care bill. I just looked it up, and it's still there. It's sitting in committee, I suppose hoping everyone will forget about it. It was actually what got me into this fight. You see, I read most of the first health care bill, the 1500 page one... I have an uncle who is a doctor, and he has a lot of patients who are on Medicare and this would adversely affect him. I was worried for him. I lost his daughter, my cousin, over this. She thought I was saying that he would charge his patients, or dump his patients, actually I don't know what she was saying. I think she was saying I was making it all up because she's an Obamazombie. The Messiah would never do anything to hurt her daddy, and I, her flesh and blood, would. She's only 36 and a product of the liberal educational system. I'm not.

But this bill is called the "Take Back Your Health Act of 2009" 1640. You have to look pretty hard for it, it's buried. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:s1640is.txt.pdf I'm not sure if that link stays active or not, or it's a search link, but that's the link to it in pdf.

Here's the gist of it. If you have a certain condition, which they list, you will be forced to attend lifestyle change classes (if you are on Medicare). These classes will be 72 1-hour long classes. But, they can be with 14 other people, and up to 6 sessions a day, so don't worry, everyone will know you have this condition. Here are the conditions: Coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, prostate cancer and breast cancer. So much for patient/doctor confidentiality, huh? So, it will only take 12 days, at 6 hours a day to fulfill your obligation. Do you have 2 weeks to do your obligatory lifestyle training if you have this condition? This is in addition to your cancer treatment. I suppose they'll make you watch films while you're getting your cancer treatment. What if you fall asleep? Will they come and wake you up? Will they use cattle prods? I know I slept during my chemo treatments. I was there for part of it for almost 8 hours.

Here's what may be provided:

‘‘(A) exercise;
‘‘(B) risk factor modification, including education, counseling, and behavioral intervention (to the extent such education, counseling, and behavioral intervention is closely related to the individual’s care and treatment and is tailored to the individual’s needs);
‘‘(C) psychosocial assessment;
‘‘(D) provider consultation;
‘‘(E) care coordination;
‘‘(F) medication management;
‘‘(G) medical nutritional therapy;
‘‘(H) tobacco cessation;
‘‘(I) outcomes assessment; and
‘‘(J) such other items and services as the Secretary determines appropriate, but only if such items and services are—
‘‘(i) reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or active treatment of the individual’s condition;
‘‘(ii) reasonably expected to improve or maintain the individual’s condition and functional level; and
‘‘(iii) furnished under such guidelines relating to the frequency and duration of such items and services as the Secretary shall establish, taking into account accepted norms of medical practice and the reasonable expectation of improvement of the individual.

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Kind of a blank check, isn't it? Now, speaking of blank check, you may be wondering who is going to pay for all this. Well, you may think since we're talking about Medicare recipients, that the government is picking up the tab....well, not entirely. You see, they foresaw that. This is where rationing comes in. They want you healthy, but it's all on you. They're going to pay half up front. If you don't play ball, you pay the other half, or the doctor has to be nice and write if off. Do you really think he's gonna do that? That's where I lost my cousin. "My dad won't do that to his patients!" Really? Is he gonna go broke? Is he gonna start seeing patients for half price? The government isn't giving him a choice in the matter, he has to put these people with chronic conditions on this program....and if they don't show measurable improvement, he isn't getting reimbursed. Lab reports don't lie.

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‘‘(i) make a payment to such a program in an amount that is equal to 50 percent of the amount established under sub paragraph (A) upon completion of the initial consultation under the program; and
‘‘(ii) subject to the limitation described in sub paragraph (C), make a second payment to a program for the balance of the amount defined in sub paragraph (A) upon completion of treatment under the program.
‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding the provisions of sub paragraph (B), an intensive lifestyle treatment program shall not receive the payment described in sub paragraph)(ii) unless it documents, upon the completion of the program by an eligible beneficiary, that services provided to such beneficiary under the program are beneficially affecting the progression of chronic disease or diseases in the beneficiary, as measured under clause (ii) with respect to 2 or more of the following measures:
‘‘(I) Measures described in subclauses (I) through (V) of section 1861(eee)(4)(A)(ii).
‘‘(II) High density lipoprotein.
‘‘(III) Hemoglobin A1C.
‘‘(IV) C-reactive protein.
‘‘(V) Waist size.
‘‘(VI) Elimination of cotinine
level as evidence that the eligible beneficiary no longer uses tobacco.

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SOOOOO, you have to lower your cholesterol, improve your diabetic outlook, lower your stroke potential, lose weight, or quit smoking, Or they don't reimburse your doctor for the program you just went through. Wow. Can you say rationing, and blackmail? And this bill is sitting in congress waiting to go through. It was a rider on the first health bill, but I wrote every congressman who had an email and asked why. I put it out on Asamom.org. I made as big of a stink as I could. I don't know if I had an effect or not. I'm raising awareness again because it didn't go away. It's still there. And with this congress things don't go away, they just get renamed and recycled.

Lori Ann Smith