Our employees should be fired.
If you think that our employees (elected officials) are doing a good job, you need to read this article which appeared in The Washington Post:
“Will the sequester’s cancer cuts get fixed?
Posted by Sarah Kliff on April 4, 2013 at 10:02 pm
(bigstock)
Medicare said Thursday that it does not have the power to reverse automatic spending cuts that are causing cancer clinics to turn away thousands of patients.
“We are unaware of any authority that could exempt Part B drugs from the sequestration requirements,” Medicare spokesman Brian Cook said.
The sequester is a series of across-the-board budget reductions that Congress allowed to go into effect when it could not agree on a spending plan earlier this year. As an unexpected consequence of the sequester’s cut to Medicare, cancer clinics are finding that they cannot afford to continue administering some chemotherapy drugs.
Ted Okon, executive director of the advocacy group Community Oncology Alliance, said he has heard from dozens of legislators in both parties interested in reversing the cuts.
“Some members have called over to Medicare and some want to start a letter to ask the administration to stop the cuts,” Okon said. “There’s really an outpouring of support.”
Others, including Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), argue that Congress — not the White House — needs to fix the law. He became aware of the issue after a clinic in his district notified patients it would stop seeing Medicare patients should the sequester come into effect.
“My sense is this is really Congress’s job,” Courtney said. “This was fully predictable because Medicare was not exempt from the sequester. It’s on our plate.”
Legislators had tried to shield Medicare by limiting its cut to 2 percent of its overall budget. That is a fraction of the cuts made to other federal programs.
But oncologists argue that the cuts have a much deeper effect on chemotherapy treatments because of the way they are covered. Medicare pays doctors who administer chemotherapy for the average sales price of the drugs, plus 6 percent for storage and other overhead costs.
Because doctors cannot change the price of the drugs, they say that the entire 2 percent cut must come out of the 6 percent add-on. That causes them to lose money on certain treatments, the doctors say.
“I don’t think legislators truly understood that the drug side was going to get hit,” Okon said. “I’ve had people ask if this is some kind of April Fools’ joke.”
Susan Greenberg, an oncologist in New Jersey, has begun urging patients she has turned away to call their members of Congress on the issue.
“The congressmen are our employees; they work for us,” she said. “I’m asking my patients to get out there and start complaining that their employees aren’t doing their jobs.”
What is it with us people , we moan about slavery….Yet we elect our own SLAVEMASTERS !!!
Mr Irish,
Two very good points, sir!
Big Al
Tony, we live in a world of programmed idiots where the harshest condemnation on the part of the public is reserved, not for those who defraud the government but for those who insist on bringing the facts to life. DT
Medicare spending was NOT cut. PERIOD. IT HAS NEVER been cut. PERIOD.
So someone is lying.
I suggest the liar be fired.
Who is telling the truth, CFS?
Please provide documentation for your comment. I am not doubting you, I want to put this on the site!
My friend this has gotten downright terrifying!
Big Al
I can refer you to the Budget, however, the allocation of spending within a department is a bureaucratic excutive decision, not determined by Congress.
If you want the multipage budget documents, tell me and I will give URLs.
Here is the ACTUAL LAW, in synopsis form:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-112publ25/pdf/PLAW-112publ25.pdf
Note this is a government document.
3 or 4 pages in you will find the actual spending NUMBERS. NOTE NO DECREASE.
Of course, how the spending is actually allocated between departments is an executive decision and if some bureaucrat decides to make politically-motivated misallocation decisions, that is something else.
Congress did not cut medicare spending, never has.
I am not saying medicare might have thought it was going to get more than it did.
From memory, and this number could be wrong, Medicare was originally allocated a 6.4% increase and this was trimmed to 4.4%.
As someone who has paid $10,000 a dose for anti-caner medication three times now, I am personally glad, I could afford to go outside the system, even though eligible for medicare, I demand the best treatment, and know, even before Obamacare cripples the system of healthcare in the US, relying on any system, be it national health or insurance, which limits cost is guaranteed not to provide the best care. Sorry, folks, but without health, not much else matters.
Historically the US has never turned away cancer patients, even when government was closed down for a couple of weeks under Clinton, over budgetary concerns, healthcare for medicare cancer patients was never reduced. This time it is pure politics, and the politician responsible for this decision should be stripped of his/her benefits. It will never happen, of course, because the general public is too passive and gullible.
One way to balance the budget is for end result of universal coverage to amount to much less care.
In the end we want care not coverage.
It will be like Dicken’s most powerful indictment of Scrooge the line he wrote for the miser “If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
For this is what Obamacare is destined to become.
In the environment of the unsustainable in not so many words Scooge’s Malthusian depopulation death wish be front and center prevailing policy.
As Obama said http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo
‘take the pain killer’ and we will bury you in the morning.
There exists a culture of truth, light and life.
This culture is opposed by a culture of deceit, dark and death.
Pick a side…………………………
A better reading edited version:
One way to balance the budget is for the end result of universal coverage to amount to much less care.
In the end we want care not coverage.
It will be like Dicken’s most powerful indictment of Scrooge with the line he wrote for the miser “If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
For this is what Obamacare is destined to become.
In the environment of the unsustainable in not so many words Scooge’s Malthusian depopulation death wish will be front and center prevailing policy.
As Obama said http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo
‘take the pain killer’ and we will bury you in the morning.
There exists a culture of truth, light and life.
This culture is opposed by a culture of deceit, dark and death.
Pick a side…………………………
DB, are there no poor houses, BAH, Humbug. DT
“A day of pay without any work….you give one December 25th off and you expect to have them all off. Hardly, justification for picking a mans pocket.”
Dennis…..I said it before & i will say it again……You really have to write a book……..
or perhaps a comedy sketch that truly mirrors Govd. accitions……You could be the next CARLIN…………
Portugal was beginning to introduce austerity measures (Hence the protests and riots) and it was actually beginning to cut the rate of growth of debt.
Now on Friday, (sarcasm on) A group of wise men sitting on an elevated dais dressed in funny costumes have decided that the Portuguese democratically-elected Government’s Austerity program was unconstitutional. (Sarcasm off) The constitutional court stuck down all attempts by the government to cut spending and have thus guaranteed a Portuguese financial collapse!
Did senility set in?
Let me be more precise. Actually 4 out of 9 austerity measures were declared unconstitutional.
These include the suspension of civil servants holiday pay (even though they don’t actually work on Holidays), the cut in pensions, the tax on unemployment and health benefits and the cuts in government-funded salaries for teachers, researchers, and scholarship holders. All told around 1.3 bln euros of savings (~1% of GDP) were disallowed. and the court decision is retroactive to the start of the year and the government will have to compensate the government workers and pensioners. (Good luck on trying to sell bonds at reasonable interest rates for that!)
The g
In Italy still without a Government, Retailers that sell goods and services to the Central Government, have not been paid for those goods and services to the tune of 90 billion euros over the last year or so. The situation was getting so bad for many businesses they were no longer able to afford to continue. Faced with losing their own benefits, politicians and bureaucrats announced on Saturday they would start paying off some of their debts. (Projected rate is 45 billion euros over the next year.)
As I told you a couple of days ago the Big Zero’s budget proposal due on April 10 will includge extra government fu nding for pre-kindergarten education. Here is one of his mouthpieces explaining kids are NOT the responsibility or obligation of the parents, but society’s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N3qtpdSQox0
Meanwhile in Greece, property tax collection has always been aproblem, this year cities have attached property tax payment to Electricity bills. Appromimately 30,000 houses have their electricity turned off for non-payment of electricity or tax bills.
It would be funny if it were not so serious for the Portuguese.
The Eurocrats, peeved at the Portugal Constitutional Court, issued this communique this evening:
The European Commission welcomes that, following the decision of the Portuguese Constitutional Court on the 2013 state budget, the Portuguese Government has confirmed its commitment to the adjustment programme, including its fiscal targets and timeline. Any departure from the programme’s objectives, or their re-negotiation, would in fact neutralise the efforts already made and achieved by the Portuguese citizens, namely the growing investor confidence in Portugal, and prolong the difficulties from the adjustment.
The Commission therefore trusts that the Portuguese Government will swiftly identify the measures necessary to adapt the 2013 budget in a way that respects the revised fiscal target as requested by the Portuguese Government and supported by the Troika in the 7th review of the programme.
Continued and determined implementation of the programme offers the best way to restore sustainable economic growth and to improve employment opportunities in Portugal. At the same time, it is a precondition for a decision on the lengthening of the maturities of the financial assistance to Portugal, which would facilitate Portugal’s return to the financial markets and the attainment of the programme’s objectives. The Commission supports that such a decision be taken soon.
The Commission will continue to work constructively with the Portuguese authorities within the parameters agreed to alleviate the social consequences of the crisis.
The Commission reiterates that a strong consensus around the programme will contribute to its successful implementation. In this respect, it is essential that Portugal’s key political institutions are united in their support.
The issue of recompense has to do with the complexities of MEDICARE PART B and PART D vis a vis oncology therapies.
Medicare Part B covers doctor visits and outpatient hospital services. Part B also covers the drugs that are infused (given in a vein through an IV) or injected (given as a shot) in a doctor’s office or treatment center. Many chemotherapy (chemo) drugs and the anti-nausea drugs used along with chemo are given by IV infusion in a doctor’s office or clinic. This means they are still covered under Part B.
The difference in coverage for cancer drugs under Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D is blurred when it comes to chemo drugs given by mouth and anti-nausea drugs given by mouth (these may be called oral drugs). Some of these drugs are covered under Part B, but others are covered under Part D.
It’s important to understand the difference between drug coverage under Part B and coverage under Part D because your out-of-pocket costs will vary depending on which part covers each drug.
For services covered under Medicare Part B, patients must first pay the annual deductible that is set by Medicare each year. After that, Medicare pays 80% of all costs. This means that under Part B, patients must pay 20% of the drug’s cost no matter how high their total medical bills run. (Many people with Medicare have supplemental or Medigap insurance – or other ways – to cover their out-of-pocket costs under Part B.)
Part D is different. After you pay a certain deductible for your drugs, you must pay 5% of your drug costs for the rest of the year unless you reach the donut hole. Again, this deductible amount is set each year. In 2013, the deductible amount for Part D is set at $325.
Clear?
This 30 second clip from MSNBC argues that parents don’t own their own kids, the state does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3qtpdSQox0
This type of thinking chills me to the bone, and I don’t even have any kids.
How else can a totalitarian control freak society indoctrinate its future citizens?
First control the media,
then control education,
then control future generations
The Big Zero is EVIL.
greek banking merger stopped:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324504704578409190228421854.html
u forgot destroy the family and
destroy religion
Time to recognize that everything is intentional. It all makes sense if the objective is to steal all the wealth, including the US Treasury, let the serfs die off and run the world markets from a controlled Central Banking System owned by the Elites. Any other speculation does not hold water compared to this long term plan of transfer of wealth and destruction of democracies. The sheeple need to act.
“BLOODY GREAT”….They take away the money that can safe lives…..Yet still find plenty to give to the war machine to take lives , People need to wake up & smell the evil.