BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

ObamaCare: NO EXIT by SCOTT GOTTLIEB Perhaps the most common question I'm asked about ObamaCare is: "Will I be able to buy my way out of it?" The answer is: "Not unless you're very rich." The plan before the Senate creates a set of 50 state-based insurance "exchanges" that are established as markets for health plans. Consumers must buy policies from their employers or through the exchanges — but, either way, their choice of coverage is limited to one of four basic insurance plans that the government sanctions. Private insurers will still compete to offer policies but must model their coverage on one of these four templates. In short, the Senate bill explicitly standardizes health benefits and then establishes elaborate mechanisms (including subsidies and penalties) to pay for them. Here's the rub: While these four plans vary from low- to high-cost options, the benefits offered under them are pretty much the same. The difference between the chea...

by Ed Morrissey Concerned Women for America has a series of humorous videos highlighting their objections to ObamaCare. They cleverly use one of the most annoying inventions of the modern age, the voice-mail menu system, to underscore their specific points as well as an unsubtle reminder of the bureaucracy to come after the government-forced overhaul of the American medical system. The first video actually has a human being pick up the phone, although the caller may not be terribly happy that she did in the end: Next, CWA depicts what elder care will be like once the government-imposed overhaul fails to control costs and top-down rationing has to be implemented instead. It’s, ah, considerably shorter: CWA has more of these videos at their site, and more to come as well.

JUST CLICK HERE ASK THE OBAMA-MAGIC 8-BALL! O.K. So it's the Onion... still closer to the truth than MSNBC or Fox. Obama: Health Care Plan Would Give Seniors Right To Choose How They Are Killed President Barack Obama held a nationally televised address Tuesday to "clarify any misunderstandings" about his health care proposal, assuring Americans that under the new bill senior citizens—and not the federal government—will have the right to choose how they are executed. Enlarge Image Obama The president vows to systematically eliminate all American seniors in a manner of their choosing by 2011. "Let me dispel these ridiculous rumors once and for all and set the record straight: Under my plan, seniors are going to be killed the way they want to be killed, end of story," said the president, who acknowledged that "wiping out" the nation's elderly population has always been his No. 1 priority. "If your grandmother would rather be euthanized in the pri...

From FEMISEX: An astute reader sent this to us. From the WSJ: WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A group of anti-abortion Democrats opposed to U.S. House health-care legislation in its current form have emerged as a major obstacle to Democratic leaders' goal of passing the measure by August. A group of 20 House Democrats signed a letter sent Friday to House Democratic leaders stating they "cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan." FemiSex posted on this last week. Read it again.. And remember that THIS moment in time (Blue White House, Senate and House) will be followed by times when Reds will be in control. There is no doubt that a public plan will crowd private insurance out of the picture in the long haul. And then women will be dependent upon the vagaries of Congress to pay for their contraception, hormones, reproductive care. It is no big stretch to im...

By pm317 Who fell for these words and voted for him? He played you like a violin, didn’t he? Would you vote for him again in 2012? Words and promises during the campaign were thrown around willy-nilly with no intention of following through them. It was all a masterful strategy to hoodwink and bamboozle the voters. The irony is that Obama warned the voters that they would be hoodwinked and bamboozled but the voters didn’t realize the guy warning them was also the perpetrator. He has gone back pretty much on everything he promised during the campaign. He has developed a pattern of saying one thing and doing just the opposite. If Obama had done things like he said he would and he had a coherent plan that made sense, people would not be opposed to health care reform. Everybody wants reform but they are confused and nervous about what is being thrown at them right now. Obama has been one gaffefest after another through all this and has lost control of the message starting with saying his gr...

By pm317 Caring for disabled children must be stressful for parents. While they worry about their own mortality as they age, they have the additional burden of worrying about the future of their children who completely depend on them. One such parent is Mike Sola, who lost his cool in a town hall meeting with his congressman, John Dingell. Do we blame him for being disruptive or recognize that he is just frustrated with these two-timing politicians? A must-see video below. IF YOU ARE READING THIS ON AN AGGREGATOR - CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ABOVE VIDEO Pelosi and Hoyer have written an op-ed in the USA Today branding people like Mike Sola as disruptive, un-American and so on. What I see in Sola is an angry parent, helpless and worried. Where the hell is the compassion for his plight? If Obama has answers to Mike Sola’s situation, why are we not hearing it? As indicated in the video, Congressman Dingell lied about an amendment to that effect. But I agree with Mr. Sola that if the bill is wr...

By CRAIG DELLA PENNA “The Health Insurers Have Already Won” reads the Business Week title. Go here for article. “Is Obama Punking Us?” reads the title of Frank Rich’s column in the NYT. Go here for article and please see Ani’s post here for a more in-depth look at Rich’s column. Rich actually has an epiphany: “The larger fear is that Obama might be just another corporatist, punking voters much as the Republicans do when they claim to be all for the common guy.” All I can say, Frank is “Well… Duh!” it only took you 545 days to figure out what we knew and told you way back in February 2008. No grass grows under your toes, boy. These are the latest in a growing stream of pundits experiencing the OMO (‘Oh, My Obama’ – formerly ‘Omigod’) syndrome, they’re waking up and saying ”Wha.. wha happened?”. The answer, of course, is: “Well, while you were stoned on your acid-infused Kool-Aid, somebody stole your country, guess who?” So, here’s the skinny on the healthcare reform ‘debate’, as ...

In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me — and by that time no one was left to speak up. - Pastor Martin Niemöller I am a disabled - woman - over 50. Three strikes? Are they coming for me? then you? Why everyone in the heath care fight—including Obama—plays on the anxieties of the elderly. By Christopher Beam First came the "birthers." Now, as President Obama makes a final push for health care reform, we have the deathers. Many senior citizens are concerned that health care reform would mean cuts to Medicare. That much was clear at a town-hall meeting hosted Tuesday by the American Association of Retired Persons at wh...

Before digesting the below, take a couple minutes to read Chaim's great post on "Obamacare" - Here. by Bronwyn's Harbor At the top of PBS’s latest Bill Moyers Journal , Moyers chose clips of the “usual suspects” opposed to Obama’s health care proposal - a Republican legislator shouting “socialism,” Glenn Beck, Michael Steele, and Bill Kristol, who worked to “drive a stake through” the heart of health care reform in 1993 and 2009. The problem with the GOP’s stock opposition language is that it inaccurately describes what’s really wrong with Obama’s plan, which enriches the profit-motivated private sector and strengthens its controls over policies, at the expense of average Americans forced to sign up. The real reason insurance companies brought back “Harry & Louise” ads: Obama’s plan rewards private health insurance companies with expanded enrollments but little reward for the Americans “mandated” (forced) to buy these plans. (See Paul Krugman’s blog post, “ Why m...