Obama Defends Health-Care Law

The Need for Health Reform

Sarah Palin: Statement on the Current Health Care Debate
FACEBOOK: As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.

Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.

We must step up and engage in this most crucial debate. Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back. Ronald Reagan once wrote, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late. [Source: Sarah Palin on Facebook]

Barack Obama's Health Reform Plans Are a Bitter Pill for His Personal Doctor
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama's personal doctor for more than two decades is bitterly disappointed by the health care reforms being pushed through Congress at the urging of his former patient.

Dr David Scheiner remains a big fan of the man he treated for 22 years in Chicago. But does not believe the planned overhaul goes far enough to help the poor and uninsured, and will cost too much because of pressure from the health care industry.

The 71-year-old physician, who has treated low income patients for his entire career in the city's Hyde Park neighbourhood, believes Mr Obama favours an NHS-style "single payer" system, but backed away under pressure from the health industry.

"He's a pragmatist, he wants to get something done" Dr Scheiner told The Sunday Telegraph. "But this time he should have pushed back hard against the health care lobby."

He is bitterly disappointed in the way the reforms are being organised and says he was bounced from the invitation list to a White House event because of pressure from the health lobby.

"I was all set to go to an event, I got an email from the White House the Sunday before and then suddenly I was told 'there were too many people' coming," he said. "I think they knew I was going to ask an awkward question about the single payer option."

He contends that the reforms winding their way though Congress "could bankrupt us because there are no real cost controls and the big beneficiaries will be private hospitals and insurance companies". >>> Leonard Doyle in Washington | Saturday, July 25, 2009