Camelot Lost - The Kennedy's

In the spirit of kindness and in the belief that we are all members of mankind’s great family…if I am allowed to use the word “mankind”…it would be appropriate to comment on the passing of Ted Kennedy.

My claim to fame with the Kennedy clan involved the 1960 election when Presidential candidate John Kennedy visited the area. His motorcade passed through the Canfield green on his way to downtown Youngstown, and the streets were lined with admirers. My parents were big Kennedy fans, and brought me to witness the event. We were standing front row on the street when Kennedy passed by in his convertible. I reached up to shake his hand, and grabbed his thumb. I didn’t let go. I can still hear my mother screaming to let go of his thumb as either he was going to fall out of the car, or I was going to be dragged by the car. It’s hard to forget something like that.

Ironically, my son just returned from a trip to Oklahoma and Texas. While there, he visited Dallas and the Texas School Book Depository Museum. He was able to look out the window that Oswald used. It sounds kind of creepy to me. He brought me back a book about the assassination, and I was reading it the night before the Senator’s death.

I often wondered what this country would have looked like if Kennedy had not been assassinated. He was withdrawing our advisers from Vietnam. It was Lyndon Johnson who followed Robert McNamara’s advice and escalated our involvement. If the Kennedy view had prevailed, I supposed the cultural revolution of the late 1960’s would never have happened, or at least have been substantially less provocative, as it was the war that fueled the movement. I would even go so far as to say as I doubt that Barack Obama would be president right now.

Although they were fascinating people, the Kennedy’s were typical liberal hypocrites. They were big believers in “do as I say, not as I do.” When the courts forced integration through forced bussing, the Kennedy’s hid behind the walls of their Hyannis compound and sent their kids to private schools. While forcing “mixed” development communities, they still hid behind the walls of their Hyannis compound, making sure there was no encroachment on their property. When they wanted the rest of us to use alternative energy sources, they fought to keep a wind farm from being installed off the coast of Cape Cod by their Hyannis compound. Chappaquiddick became a household word representing how the rich can get away with anything. And when Ted Kennedy became terminally ill with brain cancer, he got the best medicine could offer…using experimental techniques that would not be available to you and I under the proposed health care plan. There was no cost benefit analysis to see if extending his life by an extra three months was worth the cost of all of the procedures and medicine.

Notwithstanding, the passing of Ted Kennedy represents the end of an era. The tragedy that has surrounded this family is inexplicable. In the face of continued adversity, these folks lived large and left their impact on our country. Whether that impact is good or bad is a decision I will leave to you.

But somehow, I just can't get that picture of that 10 year old little boy waiting on the Green in Canfield for the Kennedy motorcade, and grabbing a hold of his thumb. Reality and dreams often clash, and in life we deal with reality. His death marks the end of the Kennedy dream, no matter how unrealistic. As the song says: "Don't let it be forgot / that once there was a spot / for one brief shining moment/ that was knows as Camelot!"

Death Panels

Was Sarah Palin right referencing death panels in her criticism of Obama’s health care reform bill? Well, yes and no. She was making reference to the portion of the bill that provides for “voluntary” end of life counseling. In reality, what that provision does is to provide reimbursement to doctors for providing the service while simultaneously spelling out the nature of the service and how it should be provided. On its face, it sounds legit. But read in conjunction with other portions of the bill, one could easily reach the death panel conclusion.

The bill states the following:

“SEC. 123. HEALTH BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—There is established a private-public advisory committee which shall be a panel of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced, and premium plans.

(1) RECOMMENDATIONS ON BENEFIT STANDARDS.—The Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall recommend to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this subtitle referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) benefit standards (as defined in paragraph (4)), and periodic updates to such standards. In developing such recommendations, the Committee shall take into account innovation in health care and consider how such standards could reduce health disparities.


PART D—COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH

COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH

SEC.1181. (a) CENTER FOR COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH ESTABLISHED.

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality a Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (in this section referred to as the ‘Center’) to conduct, support, and synthesize research (including research conducted or supported under section of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003) with respect to the outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of health care services and procedures in order to identify the manner in which diseases, disorders, and other health conditions can most effectively and appropriately be prevented, diagnosed, treated, and
managed clinically.”

(THE BILL THEN GOES ON TO ESTABLISH A LONG LIST OF RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE COMMISSION INCLUDING THE GATHERING OF MASSIVES AMOUNT OF DATA)

Included in the duties of the commission:

“(K) make recommendations to the center for the broad dissemination of the findings of research conducted and supported under this section that enables clinicians, patients, consumers, and payers to make more informed health care decisions that improve quality and value.”

What does all of the above mean? It means the government sets the standards for what medical treatment is acceptable and what is not acceptable. The Agency for Comparative Effectiveness will provide the information to the Benefits Advisory Board as to what treatments you will receive under the government mandated plan. Included in the massive amounts of information the government will be gathering, will information like is it worth it to fix the hip of a terminally ill cancer patient, if you are overweight and need a bypass, will the estimated length of life justify the expense of the surgery.

These draconian measures absolutely reflect the views of Barack Obama’s two chief advisors on health care issues: Former Senator Tom Daschle and Dr. Ezikiel Emanuel, brother of Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, who have overtly stated that the lives of seniors are worth less than the lives of younger people.

Actual House Bill Language Relating to Your Current Health Insurance

Below listed is the language which allows you to keep your present health care insurance, but only under very strict and limited conditions.

SEC. 102. PROTECTING THE CHOICE TO KEEP CURRENT COVERAGE.

(a) GRANDFATHERED HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE DEFINED.

Subject to the succeeding provisions of this section, for purposes of establishing acceptable coverage under this division, the term ‘‘grandfathered health insurance coverage’’ means individual health insurance coverage that is offered and in force and effect before the first day of Y1 if the following conditions are met:

(1) LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT.

(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided inthis paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.

(B) DEPENDENT COVERAGE PERMITTED.
Subparagraph (A) shall not affect the subsequent enrollment of a dependent of an individual who is covered as of such first day.

(2) LIMITATION ON CHANGES IN TERMS OR CONDITIONS.

Subject to paragraph (3) and except as required by law, the issuer does not change any of its terms or conditions, including benefits and cost-sharing, from those in effect as of the day before the first day of Y1.

“A WHOLE BUNCH OF STUFF IN BETWEEN”

LIMITATION IN INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

(1) IN GENERAL.—Individual health insurance coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-participating health benefits plan.

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What this means is your current existing policy is grandfathered and you are allowed to keep it. But if it changes in any way, shape or form, your enrollment will be terminated and you may only enroll in an Exchange participating health care plan…which is defined by the government. Translated: they will all look alike.

Why I Am Afraid of Obama's Health Care Plan

The health care debate is spinning out of control, and for good cause. The Obama administration has steadfastly refused to give any details, leaving the digging for facts to the opponents who are not hesitant to express their points of view. This is bad for the health care debate because it leaves the Obama administration open to charges of lying and trickery. It would have been better had they had an open and full debate on the positions they espouse rather than give vague details, if any, of a very bad plan.

Add Obama’s intimidation of debate by asking Americans to spy on other Americans and report “fishy” emails, websites, and casual conversations directly to the White House, and it looks bad for him. Add Nancy Pelosi’s comments that the people showing up at town meetings are organized by insurance companies, and it looks even worse for him. All you have to do is to look at the people attending these town meetings on the videos. Many of them are senior citizens who are more aware of what is going on than one would think. When it comes to health care and money, they know a scam when they see one.

Let’s start with the basics. If you believe like I do that anything the government gets involved in will be filled to the brim with bureaucracy, red tape, inefficiencies and corruption, then on its face, the Obama plan is bad news. I agree that there are many parts of the health care system that need fixing, pre-existing conditions being one of them, but this isn’t reform. This is a blatant government takeover in line with Obama and his cronies overtly stated goal to create a single payer health care system ala Canada and Great Britain. This has been the radical left’s goal since Harry Truman. As a nation, we have rejected that approach over and over again. The London Times reported today that the British system is on the verge of collapse, notwithstanding the rationing of British health care.

What makes this even scarier are the comments made by Obama’s chief health care advisors in written editorial comments and books. Ezekiel Emanuel, the physician brother of Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, has written extensively about the life choices curve, and states overtly that it is better social policy to provide health care to the young as opposed to providing health care to the elderly. He views the Hippocratic Oath as a “problem” to a health care plan. Former Senator and tax cheat Tom Dashcle has also written extensively, saying that we don’t need any more new drugs, and that seniors should learn to accept their physical infirmities and ultimately, their demise. And now you know why the town hall meetings are packed with seniors.

Under the Obama plan, should you lose your health insurance, private insurance could not sell you a new policy directly. You would be sent to a clearinghouse where government approved plans would be offered to you by participating insurance companies. The plans, however, would be identical, and payment of benefits under the plans would be subject to guidelines established by the Federal Health Review Board. Included would be concepts of “comparative effectiveness”, which would allow treatments and medications based on cost rather than effect (eliminating expensive experimental treatments) and “cost effectiveness,” which simply looks at whether you are too old to receive certain procedures. In addition, both of these concepts would be looked at in terms of your overall health condition. For example, an overweight person would be denied knee surgery because of the excess weight. This isn’t fiction. This is what is being done in Great Britain currently.

If you want a glimpse of what a government run health care system looks like, look at the Veterans Administration. On many levels, it operates well. On many levels, it is a fiasco. One only has to look at the distances the Vets have to travel for treatment in order to get the picture of what is coming.

Do I believe that it is the “intent” of Obama and his cohorts to establish the kind of system here that I have described above? No, I don’t. But it is the inevitable course of all government programs that would result in this disastrous consequence. You should be concerned. I am.