Interesting Question

Rush Limbaugh, who is vacationing in Hawaii, was rushed to Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii yesterday with chest pains.  According to thinkprogress.org,this is

the same medical center that a United Press International reporter misidentified in an article published in 2008 as the facility in which President Obama was born. Though the error was corrected to accurately indicate that Obama was born in the Kapi’olani Medical Center, the mistake fueled “birther” conspiracy theories that Limbaugh then dedicated significant airtime to promoting. Since then, Limbaugh has gone as far to state that Hawaii “morphed into Kenya one day in 1961 [the year Obama was born] and reverted back to Hawaii the next day.”

Meanwhile, some of Limbaugh’s right-wing colleagues have spent the past week slamming Obama for vacationing in Hawaii over the holidays, which “to many Americans seems like a foreign place.”

My question is, will birthers believe Limbaugh was admitted to the hospital if the Hawaiian government fails to release a hospital admission form?

Some Positive Information from the Health Care Bills

FYI-David M. Herszenhorn summarizes some immediate benefits of the Senate and House health care bills at http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/health-bill-benefits-for-the-impatient :

--Within six months, the Senate bill approved last week would allow dependent, unmarried children to remain on their parents’ policies until their 26th birthday; the House bill would allow an additional year of dependent coverage, until the 27th birthday. Right now it varies from state to state.
--The Senate bill would also bar insurers from denying coverage to children under 19 years of age based on pre-existing medical conditions. And the House bill would require insurers to cover reconstructive surgery for children born with deformities.
--In many cases, the requirements, including the extended coverage for adult children, would apply only to new insurance plans, though insurers could apply the changes to existing policies.
--Many major provisions in the health care legislation would not take effect for several years. New federal subsidies to help moderate-income Americans afford coverage would not begin until 2013 under the House bill, and 2014 under the Senate bill. A new requirement that nearly all Americans obtain insurance would take effect at the same time that the subsidies become available.
--No annual or lifetime limits. Both the Senate and House versions of the legislation ultimately seek to prevent insurers from imposing annual or lifetime limits on coverage in new health policies. In the final package of amendments to the Senate bill, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, added new language giving the secretary of health and human services the authority to regulate annual limits from six months after the bill is enacted until the broader insurance provisions take effect in 2014. Such limits are a serious concern to people with chronic illnesses like cancer that can require expensive treatments within a relatively short period of time, and the change proposed by Mr. Reid was prompted by inquiries from the American Cancer Society.
--Limits on insurance company profits. Beginning in 2011, the Senate bill would set tight restrictions to force insurance companies to spend the bulk of their revenues on providing medical care to beneficiaries. The legislation would require insurance companies in the large group market to spend at least 85 percent of their revenues on care and insurers in the individual market to spend at least 80 percent of revenues on care. Critics of the private health insurance, including Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, and Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said setting such requirements on what insurers call “medical loss ratios” was needed to tamp down on profiteering.
--Short-term expansion of state high risk pools. To help people who cannot obtain insurance because of pre-existing conditions, both the Senate and House bills would provide $5 billion to increase the availability of coverage through state high-risk insurance pools. This provision would take effect 90 days after enactment of the legislation, but many details remain to be worked out.style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
--New financing for community health centers. The House bill provides $12 billion in additional financing for community health centers, which serve needy populations, particularly in rural areas. Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, won the inclusion of $10 billion in financing for community health centers in the Senate bill. The final dollar amount will be decided in negotiations between House and Senate leaders, but the money would be available for five years beginning in the current fiscal year.
--Closing the Medicare drug “doughnut hole”. The legislation would increase the amount of drug costs covered by Medicare by $500 in 2010. And beginning on July 1, 2010, the bill would provide 50 percent discounts on brand-name drugs and biologics that low- and middle-income beneficiaries have to pay for themselves once the coverage gap known as the doughnut hole begins.
--Prohibition on rescinding existing coverage. Both the House and Senate bills would bar insurance companies -from rescinding existing coverage other than “in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact.”
--Small business tax credits. The Senate bill would offer tax credits to small businesses beginning in 2010 for up to 35 percent of premium costs. The full credit would be available to firms with 10 or fewer employees and average annual wages of $25,000. Reduced credits would be available to firms with up to 25 employees and with average annual wages of up to $50,000.
--Patient protections. For new health plans, beginning six months after enactment of the legislation, the Senate bill would prohibit insurers from requiring prior authorization before a woman sees an obstetrician or gynecologist. The bill would also require coverage for emergency care.
--Discrimination protections for lower-income workers. The Senate bill would bar group health plans from setting any eligibility rules for coverage that favor higher-wage employees. This provision would take effect six months after enactment of the legislation.
--Cobra extension through 2013. Anyone currently paying for an extension of health benefits as permitted under federal law — for instance, after a loss of employment — would be permitted under the House legislation to continue Cobra coverage until the major insurance coverage provisions of the legislation take effect in 2013.
--Reinsurance program for early retirees. Both the House and Senate bills would provide federal financing for a new reinsurance program to encourage employers to maintain health benefits for employees and early retirees age 55 to 64.
--Consumer assistance provisions. Both the House and Senate bills would begin to impose new requirements aimed at making it easier for consumers to interact with insurers, including a requirement that health plans adopt uniform descriptions of plan benefits and appeals procedures and that they begin using identical forms.

The Senate's Health Care Bill

No public option. No expansion of Medicare to people 55+ years old. No prohibition on the ability of companies to raise premiums for people with pre-existing conditions or older people. In fact, it ALLOWS them to do this. Requires me to buy insurance even when I'm broke.                                                 

Rahm Emanuel SELLS OUT AMERICA

From Brian Beutler at talkingpointsmemo.com:

Obama administration officials were not pleased when word leaked out earlier today that the White House was leaning on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut a deal with Joe Lieberman on a public option alternative--and they gave their counterparts on the other end of Pennsylvania Ave. an earful about it. But in the end, sources are unanimous: The White House wants Reid to hand Joe Lieberman the farm.


An aide briefed on discussions with the White House says that there would be no story if Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel hadn't interceded. The aide confirmed an account, reported by Huffington Post, that Emanuel visited Reid personally, telling him to cut a deal with Lieberman.

Then the aide provided more detail.

Emanuel didn't just leave it to Reid to find a solution. Emanuel specifically suggested Reid give Lieberman the concessions he seeks on issues like the Medicare buy-in and triggers. "It was all about 'do what you've got to do to get it done. Drop whatever you've got to drop to get it done," the aide said. All of Emanuel's prescriptions, the source said, were aimed at appeasing Lieberman--not twisting his arm.


This is the second Senate aide to provide nearly identical accounts of the White House's intervention. It seems very much as if officials there desperately want the Senate to pass a bill, at all costs.

At this point, the Medicare buy-in isn't in exactly what you'd call "good health." But the fact that it hasn't been officially nixed by Reid suggest there's some remaining tension between Reid and the White House over this issue. We'll know soon who wins.

Interestingly, this is consistent with what I, Presiding Pundit, heard early this summer-that Rahm Emanuel was advocating dropping the public option before the blue dogs or republicans even thought of it.  Is Emanuel in bed with the insurance companies?  Maybe he was the real architect of the town hall meeting protests!  (You know I love a good conspiracy story!) When the democrats lose control of the house and/or senate in 2010 for jerking us around on health care, will Rahm Emanuel lose his job?

Excuse my language

But now I am really pissed!

I have not liked that the senate democrats have been watering down the health care reform legislation.  I admit that I have felt defeated during the last several weeks and that it didn't matter what I wrote in this blog, how many times I wrote or called my senators, the Senate Majority Leader or the White House.  Thus, I did not feel sufficiently moved to write in this blog and I turned my attention to other aspects of life.  But when the senate democrats dropped the Medicare expansion portion (allowing people 55+ years old buy into Medicare) of the newest version of the bill because egomaniac, attention-whore Joe Lieberman indicated that he was against it (despite being in favor of it a few months ago), my head exploded.  It is time to pull Lieberman's chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.   The democrats have caved on everything that would make this an effective piece of legislation.  We are left with a bag of dead bones, the only thing alive being the requirement that we all get health insurance, a windfall for the insurance companies and a burden on many of us.  Further, there is nothing to keep them from raising the premiums through the roof.  This is a victory for the insurance industry and the republicans.  Thanks senate democrats, you have royally screwed your supporters and constituents.