Showing posts with label healthcare reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthcare reform. Show all posts
Friday, April 06, 2012
Mr Obama said earlier this week that the Court would be taking an "unprecedented, extraordinary step" if it struck down the law, which forces all Americans to buy private health insurance or face fines.
He noted that its "unelected" justices, whose sceptical questioning during hearings last week led experts to predict the law was doomed, would be rejecting the will of a "democratically-elected Congress".
The remarks prompted sharp responses from critics who accused the President of ignoring 200 years of US legal precedent despite having been a constitutional law professor before entering politics.
Nikki Haley, the Governor of South Carolina – one of 27 states suing the administration over "Obamacare"– accused him of "bullying the Supreme Court".
Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said that Mr Obama had "crossed a dangerous line" with his comments, adding: "I would suggest the president back off." » | Jon Swaine, Washington | Thursday, April 05, 2012
Sunday, July 18, 2010
THE NEW YORK TIMES: As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.
The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely to appeal especially to small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees, but are concerned about the ever-spiraling cost of coverage.
But large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs.
The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices. >>> Reed Abelson | Saturday, July 17, 2010
Socialized medicine begins here! Consider this the start of the dismantlement of the old system of medicine provision in the States. By the end, the patient’s opinion will matter far less than the doctor’s. The state will control your healthcare and the management thereof. This is the price Americans will pay for being taken in by a smooth talker! – © Mark
Sunday, July 11, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The future health care in both countries must involve a mix of state and private provision, says Janet Daley.
This week, the Coalition will offer an example of how coping with an economic crisis may serve a reforming purpose. Having to cut back the power and the expenditure of the state will provide a rationale for dismantling the monolithic, bureaucratic monster that the NHS has become. In his health White Paper, Andrew Lansley will apparently propose sweeping away the command-and-control structure in which clinical decisions are taken and hospital procedures commissioned by Primary Care Trust administrators, rather than by general practitioners who actually come face-to-face with people in need of medical help.
Fine. But if GPs are to inherit all the authority in this system, then it should be possible for patients to choose – and change – their family doctors easily and without recrimination. For, alas, Mr Lansley has decided to pass on the powers that he is confiscating from the abolished PCT mandarins exclusively to doctors rather than to patients. This is a real missed opportunity, but never mind: he is at least facing the right way, devolving decision-making down to levels where it can be done with more responsiveness and sensitivity to individual needs, rather than with the impersonal, blanket uniformity of a target-driven central authority.
The US government, meanwhile, is galloping doggedly in the opposite direction, bizarrely determined to occupy precisely the ideological ground which Britain is abandoning. Barack Obama has, indeed, appointed a man as head of the American public health care programmes who professes a passion (no other word will do) for some of the most discredited features of our NHS. Dr Donald Berwick is to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which effectively means that he will be in charge of Obamacare – the new universal health care system on which the President has staked his political credibility.
The appointment has created an extraordinary kerfuffle, partly because it was made under highly contentious circumstances – as a “recess” appointment which allowed it to bypass Congressional approval – but primarily on account of Dr Berwick’s widely disseminated statements extolling the virtues of the most disliked aspects of state-funded medical care as we know it.
Dr Berwick professes a love (which he describes in ecstatic terms that will have a tragicomic ring to most British ears) of just those evils of a national health system with which we are exasperated: the calculated rationing of treatment, and the ruthless enforcement of uniform cost limits, which often puts the most advanced medication and procedures out of reach of patients whose lives might have been extended or transformed by them. Dr Berwick thinks that our own dear National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) – which is scarcely ever out of the headlines for denying some poor suffering victim a remedy that is available in other countries – is simply wonderful. Continue reading and comment >>> Janet Daley | Saturday, July 10, 2010
Americans will come to rue the day they ever elected B. Hussein Obama into office. He is nothing other than the iPresident. That ‘i’ stands for the Internet, through which he got elected; but it also stands for incompetence, inexperience, insincerity, incapability, irrationality, immaturity, oh and, of course, Islam! – © Mark
Monday, June 14, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Barbara Bush, one of George W Bush's daughters has admitted that she supported President Barack Obama's health care legislation.
In the latest example of a member of the former Republican president's family disagreeing with his key policies, Miss Bush, 28, said health care should be a right for everyone, not a privilege.
"Why do, basically, people with money have good health care and why do people who live on lower salaries not have good health care?" she said on Fox News.
"Obviously the health care reform bill was highly debated by a lot of people, and I'm glad the bill was passed," she said.
During the debate over the bill last year, her father, whose government made no effort to reform health care despite steeply rising costs, said he was worried that reform would encourage government to supersede the private sector in proving health insurance. The bill was opposed by every Republican in Congress. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Monday, June 14, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a splash even before he opened his mouth as he arrived with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy to give a no-holds-barred speech at Columbia University.
Amid blogger reports of strains in their marriage, Mr Sarkozy and his former supermodel wife made every effort to appear the happy couple, walking closely together and clasping hands as they mounted a staircase into an auditorium packed with students, faculty and other spectators.
The French first lady, elegant in a swept-up chignon and form-fitting black top with grey skirt, at times threatened to upstage her husband, who scolded his American hosts about health care and for not paying enough attention to the rest of the world.
However, Mr Sarkozy is in hot water at home. His poll ratings are at record lows of around 30 per cent and there are widening cracks in his conservative party.
In New York, though, he basked in the rapt attention of hundreds of Columbia students and even jettisoned a prepared speech. "Speeches kill off creativity," he said. "I'm going to speak from the heart."
"Welcome to the club of states who don't turn their back on the sick and the poor," Mr Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. health care overhaul signed by President Barack Obama last week.
From the European perspective, he said, "when we look at the American debate on reforming health care, it's difficult to believe."
"The very fact that there should have been such a violent debate simply on the fact that the poorest of Americans should not be left out in the streets without a cent to look after them ... is something astonishing to us."
Then to hearty applause, he added: "If you come to France and something happens to you, you won't be asked for your credit card before you're rushed to the hospital." >>> | Tuesday, March 30, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy to Bury the Hatchet >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, March 29, 2010
LE FIGARO: Sarkozy appelle Obama à «écouter l'Europe» >>> Par Alain Barluet | Lundi 29 Mars 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Out of America: Healthcare reform, standing up to Israel, and a nuclear treaty have transformed his presidency
What a week it has been. Congress passed the most far-reaching social legislation in four decades. The US and Russia agreed the most important arms control agreement since the end of the Cold War. And an American president, his patience exhausted with Israel's procrastination over what some still describe as "the Middle East peace process", dared send off a visiting Israeli prime minister with a flea in his ear. In short, it was the week that made Barack Obama*. >>> Rupert Cornwell | Sunday, March 28, 2010
* What a load of socialist, anti-Israeli BS you talk, Mr Cornwell! Healthcare reform was passsed against the wishes of the majority of Americans, Barack Hussein Obama showed himself up to be the petulant, rude, tantrum-prone greenhorn he is, and a nuclear treaty has been agreed upon at a time when we know not what is going to happen with al-Qaeda, to say nothing of Iran. Only time will tell how “great” this week has been, Mr Cornwell. The week may well prove to be Obama’s undoing! – © Mark
Thursday, March 25, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Democrats who supported sweeping changes to America's health care system have been subjected to death threats and vandalism as the tide of anger and outrage over the bill grows.
The FBI has been called in to investigate after bricks were thrown through Democrats' windows and menacing phone messages were left for politicians who supported the bill.
Four Democratic offices across the country have been targeted and [at] least 10 members of Congress have reported some sort of threat. No arrests have so far been made.
The brick flung through the window of a county Democratic Party office in Rochester, New York, over the weekend had a note attached: "Extremism in defence of liberty is no vice," roughly quoting 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
Some of the anger over the bill spilled over in a flood of obscenity and threat-filled phone and fax messages to the office of Rep. Bart Stupak. His office released some of the messages it has received since the health care bill passed.
"I hope you bleed ... (get) cancer and die," one male caller told the congressman.
A fax with the title "Defecating on Stupak" carried a picture of a gallows with "Bart (SS) Stupak" on it and a noose attached. It was captioned, "All Baby Killers come to unseemly ends Either by the hand of man or by the hand of God." >>> | Thursday, March 25, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Barack Obama's historic US healthcare legislation is to be returned to the House of Representatives for a new vote because of a procedural "violation", only a day after it was signed into law.
Two Republican challenges on points of order under budget reconciliation rules have been upheld, forcing another vote by the House just days after it passed the package on Sunday.
The points of order involved the revamp of the student loan programme included in the package, a spokesman for Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, said.
Under the reconciliation rules, each provision in the package must have a budgetary impact.
The decision came as the US Senate met in a middle-of-the-night session to try to finalise details of the Bill, which was signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday.
The decision is a major blow for the Democrats and could set up another politically difficult vote in the House, which narrowly passed the $940 billion (£630 billion) overhaul to cap a year-long political struggle. >>> Times Online | Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: In a sign of political battles to come, 14 US states filed lawsuits on Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of health care reform just moments after President Barack Obama signed it into law.
Other states are expected to join the fight against the far-reaching reforms which could place huge burdens on state budgets. Many are also considering legislation to block a provision which requires most people to buy insurance or pay a fine.
"This lawsuit should put the federal government on notice that Florida will not permit the constitutional rights of our citizens and the sovereignty of our state to be ignored or disregarded," said Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum.
Mr McCollum, a Republican who is running for state governor in the upcoming election, said the federal government had no right to impose a "tax on living" by forcing people to buy insurance.
The historic $940-billion overhaul will extend coverage to some 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured, ensuring 95 per cent of US citizens under age 65 will have health insurance.
The lawsuit filed in a Florida federal court calls the reform bill an "unprecedented encroachment" on state sovereignty by requiring states to spend billions on expanding health care coverage to the poor. >>> | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
THE NEW YORK TIMES: For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.
Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.
Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction. This fact helps explain why Mr. Obama was willing to spend so much political capital on the issue, even though it did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate. Beyond the health reform’s effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan. >>> David Leonhardt | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: The US health reform Bill was signed into law by President Obama today in a momentous - and momentarily profane - White House ceremony.
Using a rack of 22 pens that will each become cherished souvenirs, Mr Obama signed a measure that ends America’s longstanding distinction as the only advanced economy to lack basic healthcare coverage for all.
The legislation brings into effect immediate changes to the rules governing American health insurers, but also injected new urgency into Republican efforts to repeal the Bill or defeat it in the country’s courts.
The President welcomed “a new season in America” after “a century of trying and a year of debate” – and said he looked forward to a political season when the heated rhetoric of that debate would “confront the reality of reform”.
Moments earlier, after Joe Biden, the Vice President, introduced Mr Obama in the East Room of the White House, he leaned in to give his boss a hug and was caught by a microphone saying in the President's ear: “This is a big f***ing deal”. >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: It was the memorable sound bite they did not dare script. The Vice President helped immortalise the official signing of healthcare legislation today with an earthy reminder of its historic importance.
“This is a big f***ing deal,” Joe Biden whispered into the President’s ear in the East Room of the White House where Barack Obama was about to sign the healthcare bill into law. The microphones and television cameras captured his words for posterity.
Mr Obama barely flinched as he stepped forward to address a crowd of congressmen and invited guests before adding his signature to the vital House Resolution 3590, which paves the way for near-universal health coverage in America. >>> Nico Hines | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: A triumphant President Barack Obama signed an historic health care reform bill into law on Tuesday, declaring that it represented what "generations of Americans have fought for, and marched for, and hungered to see".
But even as he celebrated the end of 14-months of often bitter struggle, he was preparing to sell the scheme to a still-sceptical public.
The new law, which came after united opposition of Republicans on Capitol Hill as well as dozens of conservative Democrats, will extend health insurance to millions of uninsured.
"We have now just enshrined the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health," Mr Obama said at a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: A day after winning the health reforms on which President Obama has staked his first term in office, the White House dismissed threats to repeal the historic Bill and challenged Republicans to fight it on its substance.
Republican lawyers in at least 12 states announced repeal attempts yesterday, based on claims that the Bill to extend health insurance to 95 per cent of Americans for the first time infringes on states’ rights.
Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s press secretary, tried to disarm the legal threat that is turning into the spearhead of an angry Republican backlash to the Bill. “A lot of big pieces of legislation are challenged in some ways,” he said in the first White House briefing since Sunday’s late-night vote. Asked if he thought that the appeals would succeed, Mr Gibbs said: “We don’t.”
He also hinted at the battle to come in which Democrats will dare Republicans to claw back the new benefits and tax credits being made available to middle and lower-income Americans in the next four years as part of the $940 billion (£622 billion) legislation.
“If people want to campaign on taking tax cuts away from small businesses, taking assistance away from seniors getting prescription drugs, and a mother knowing that [her] child can’t be discriminated against by an insurance company . . . then we’ll have a robust campaign on that,” Mr Gibbs said.
It is a campaign for which Republicans are planning even as Democratic leaders in the Senate prepare to push through the final elements of a complex reform package that seemed dead just two months ago, but is now destined to change American society. >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
If you thought this was merely healthcare reform, think again! President Barack Hussein Obama has just managed to pull off the biggest change in American politics – ever.
So now we know for sure what we had suspected all along. Now we know what he was talking about when he spoke about “change we can believe in”. For with this bill, Obama has managed to turn America away from raw capitalism. From now on, America will be working ever so assiduously towards Obama’s dream of a socialist state. Capitalism has seen the failure of the banking sector; and government intervened. We now see government intervening in the health of the nation. This is Obama’s coup de grâce. He has dealt capitalism as we have known it in America its death blow. America will never be the same again.
If you think this healthcare reform will end with this bill, think again. It will not. This health bill will usher in a multitude of changes down the road. All sorts of side industries will spring up in the new nanny state. Health and social workers, for a start, will be legion in years to come. They will interfere in many aspects of a person’s life. Personal responsibility has been dealt a nasty blow with this bill; and Obama knows it.
Furthermore, it will be very difficult to turn back from here, because these will become entitlements. Entitlements, once granted in a democracy are very difficult to take away from the electorate. Politicians depend on the voters to be re-elected, remember?
The cost of this healthcare bill is already astronomical. If you think it will end with this tab, think again. The costs of universal healthcare just increase and increase – always! The government can never find enough money to satisfy the needs of the healthcare system. There will be nurses and supervisors and managers and managers’ managers, and social workers and para-medics, to say nothing of equipment which is becoming evermore sophisticated and evermore expensive. Then there'll be all the free-loaders who will fly to America from abroad to take advantage of the first-rate healthcare that will be available to them – for free! To provide all these resources the healthcare system will need revenue; so, in years to come, taxes will have to increase and increase – steadily.
America has just taken a giant step into the unknown! Now Americans know exactly what change they can believe in. And these seismic changes really do usher in a black day for America. My commiserations. – © Mark Alexander
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THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama has convinced Democrats in the US Congress to pass his historic health care reform bill, handing the president a victory that will give nearly every American the right to health coverage and could define his time in office.
“We proved we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling big challenges,” said Mr Obama. Reprising his campaign mantra he added: “This is what change looks like, tonight we answered the call of history.”
His victory came by a narrow margin of 219 to 212, with all Republicans and 34 Democrats opposing. But it secured the most sweeping domestic reform since the 1960s that a few weeks ago seemed dead and buried when the Democrats lost a crucial Senate by-election in Massachusetts.
Though the president will sign last night’s bill into law, the process will not end until later in the week, when Democrats in the Senate are expected to complete a complex set of manoeuvres that will create a compromise bill.
The president therefore avoided a victory lap in comments made from the East Room of the White House shortly before midnight in Washington, though privately White House advisers said this was “a wonderful, wonderful night” and some could not contain their smiles as the president made his short, televised address.
As hundreds of angry protesters outside the Capitol chanted “Kill the Bill”, Democrats were able to muster they votes they needed after the president reached a last minute compromise with anti-abortion congressmen.
He agreed to issue an executive order as soon as the bill was passed that would prevent any circumvention of the existing ban on federal funding of elective abortions, which a small group of Catholic Democrats said was threatened by the language of the bill.
“This bill is complicated, but it’s also very simple: illness and infirmity are universal, and we are stronger against them together than we are alone,” said Steny Hoyer, the Democratic House Majority Leader before the vote. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Monday, March 22, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The passage last night of Barack Obama’s health care reform bill through the House of Representatives is yet another blow to freedom in America inflicted by the Obama administration. The legislation, which comes at a staggering cost of $940 billion, will hugely add to the already towering national debt, now at over $12 trillion. It is yet another millstone round the necks of the American people, already faced with the highest levels of unemployment in a generation.
It is also a great leap forward by the United States towards a European-style vision of universal health care, which will only lead to soaring costs, higher taxes, and a surge in red tape for small businesses. This reckless legislation dramatically expands the power of the state over the lives of individuals, and could not be further from the vision of America’s founding fathers. It has also been rushed through Congress without proper scrutiny, in the face of overwhelming public opposition, and with not an ounce of bipartisan support.
Above all the health care bill is a thinly disguised vanity project for a president who is committed to transforming the United States from the world’s most successful large-scale free enterprise economy, to a highly interventionist society with a massive role for centralized government. The United States has thrived as a nation for over 230 years precisely because of its love for freedom and its belief in free markets. Read on and comment >>> Nile Gardiner | Monday, March 22, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Barack Obama is wrong to suggest he knows what change looks like but right to urge the public to get ready
There was no champagne for the President, at least not in public. Instead there was a short walk to the microphone at ten to midnight and a low-key speech to weary reporters. Embedded in it were six words that he had waited a long time and twisted a lot of arms to say: "This is what change looks like".
It is hard to overstate the effect the reforms passed last night will have on the American way of life, because the unknowable changes may be even more profound than those that are already known.
Thirty-two million people will be forced or helped to buy health insurance for the first time. Ninety-five per cent of Americans will thus have coverage, up from roughly 85 per cent. The dream of universal coverage will not become a reality overnight, but it will come closer than ever in US history, and closer to levels taken for granted in other advanced economies. >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Monday, March 22, 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Grosses Thema in der amerikanischen Presse ist der knappe Erfolg von Obamas Gesundheitsreform im Kongress. Die Spaltung, die sich in der Frage zwischen den politischen Kräften abzeichnete, prägt auch die Meinungen in der Medienlandschaft.
Die Kommentare der amerikanischen Presse zur Verabschiedung von Obamas Gesundheitsreform im Kongress sind so kontrovers wie die Haltung der beiden wichtigsten Parteien. Die konservativen Zeitungen stützen die Meinung der Republikaner, wonach die Reform den Vereinigten Staaten eine Schuldenlast von unerhörtem Ausmass auflade. Die linksliberalen Blätter streichen den sozialen Fortschritt heraus, der Ungerechtigkeiten ausgleiche und Benachteiligten den Zugang zur medizinischen Versorgung garantiere. Graben zwischen den Parteien >>> Isabelle Imhof | Montag, 22. März 2010
WELT ONLINE: US-Gesundheitsreform ¬– Obama siegt – zu einem hohen Preis: Es war ein langes Tauziehen zwischen den Demokraten und Republikanern um die Gesundheitsreform. Nun hat der US-Präsident sein wohl wichtigstes innenpolitisches Vorhaben im Abgeordnetenhaus durchgebracht. Die Reform soll fast allen US-Bürgern eine Krankenversicherung garantieren. >>> Von Gabriele Chwallek | Montag, 22. März 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Vote is compared to civil rights legislation of 50s and 60s / Reform leaves nation polarised as backlash begins / Democrats set to pay price in November mid-term elections / Final tally is 219 to 212
Barack Obama hailed the passing of his historic healthcare overhaul last night, declaring: 'This is what change looks like.'
The jubilant president was preparing to sign his £600billion plan into law after the House of Representatives passed the bill in a cliffhanger vote - a victory that U.S. presidents have been trying to achieve for nearly 100 years.
Many are already comparing the vote to just a rung below the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s.
But with the nation polarised by the healthcare debate, many are wondering if Mr Obama has made a historic mistake.
The cost to his party and himself could be crippling, analysts have warned. America is heading into mid-term congressional elections in November - and many are now worried that the Democrats are set to pay a high price for healthcare.
The damage to Mr Obama and his party is already considerable.
The president staked his domestic agenda on healthcare last summer. His stand generated the grass-roots 'Tea Party' movement, sparked angry town hall meetings across the nation, and saw his poll numbers plunge to below 50 per cent in some places.
The political stakes are enormous. But Mr Obama spoke only of victory last night. 'This is what change looks like': Victory for Obama as historic healthcare reform bill is passed (but at what price?) >>> David Gardner | Monday, March 22, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: US health care reform bill: the facts: The US House of Representatives has approved a sweeping $940 billion health care reform bill. >>> | Monday, March 22, 2010
LE FIGARO: Après des mois d'âpres négociations, le président américain a remporté une bataille qu'aucun démocrate n'avait gagné en 100 ans de vie politique : donner à toute la nation une vraie couverture maladie.
«Nous avons prouvé que ce gouvernement, un gouvernement élu par la nation pour servir la nation, continue d'agir pour la nation. Nous avons prouvé que nous restions un peuple capable de grandes choses». Par ces mots, Barack Obama a salué sobrement dimanche le passage du projet de réforme du système de santé américain auquel il travaillait depuis plus d'un an. Une réforme dont il a revu certains objectifs à la baisse mais qui restera probablement le symbole de sa législature et fait aboutir un combat mené par les démocrates depuis un siècle.
Dimanche soir, à l'issue de dix heures de débats, la Chambre des représentants a approuvé par 219 voix contre 212 le texte adopté le 24 décembre par le Sénat, envoyant ainsi à une courte majorité le texte à la Maison-Blanche pour promulgation par le président Obama.
Dimanche après-midi pourtant, l'issue du vote était toujours incertaine. Pendant les débats, les républicains ont réitéré leur opposition à un plan jugé trop coûteux. Mike Pence, numéro trois de l'opposition, a ironisé : «Il n'y a qu'à Washington qu'on peut dire qu'on dépense 1.000 milliards tout en faisant économiser de l'argent aux contribuables». Mais les chefs démocrates ont fini par obtenir le ralliement du démocrate anti-avortement Bart Stupak et de ses partisans. Un précieux soutien rendu possible grâce au compromis passé avec Barack Obama qui s'est engagé à signer un décret pour réaffirmer l'interdiction des financements fédéraux pour l'avortement.
Certains démocrates ont néanmoins refusé de s'engager pour une réforme que les sondages disent impopulaire. Selon un récent sondage du Wall Street Journal, 36% des Américains jugent la réforme positive, contre 48% qui l'estiment négative et 15% sans opinion. Au total, 34 démocrates ont finalement voté contre le projet de loi tout comme la totalité des 178 républicains. 32 millions d'assurés supplémentaires >>> Par Pauline Fréour | Lundi 22 Mars 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama signs health care bill amid warnings of Pyrrhic victory: President Barack Obama will sign into law the historic reform of the American health care system that has eluded his predecessors for a century on Tuesday. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Monday, March 22, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Catastrophic victory. Electoral suicide. An act of political courage that will rescue his presidency. The verdicts on Barack Obama's successful push to pass health care reform by the narrowest of margins are sharply divided.
In the short term, few would dispute that Mr Obama registered a significant political achievement. He showed that Democrats, holding power in the White House and both houses of Congress, could muscle a major bill through. Finally, he did something.
He put his personal prestige on the line by persisting with the measure despite the stunning blow of losing a Senate seat in Massachusetts in January largely because of popular discontent with it. Reforming America's health care system had eluded presidents back to Theodore Roosevelt, who left office 101 years ago.
But one man's courage is another's folly and the victory came at a huge cost for Mr Obama. He campaigned on a lofty vow to usher in a new era of bipartisanship in Washington. That died late on Sunday when health care passed without a single Republican vote – and with 34 Democrats voting against.
Never before had landmark legislation – the bill reshapes one-sixth of the American economy – been passed without even a smidgen of bipartisan consensus.
The process took 14 months and at times showed politics at its ugliest, with closed-door horse-trading (despite Mr Obama's trumpeting of a new transparency) and grubby deals like the notorious "Louisiana Purchase" and "Cornhusker Kickback".
Almost every other political priority was pushed aside and the "laser focus" on jobs that the White House kept promising never materialised. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
FOX NEWS: Never has “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” sounded more like an empty promise.
Pork is the preferred legislative meat for members of Congress, but this weekend they opted for bologna as they tried to convince the public – and themselves – that their so-called “health care” or health insurance “reform” monstrosity will be good for us. At least Castor oil was supposed to work even though it tasted awful. This bill not only tastes bad, it will curdle the best health care system in the world, which could be made a lot better, but will be made much worse with many of the provisions in this legislation.
Democrats now readily admit that Medicare is full of waste, fraud and abuse, but they want us to believe they can run an even larger venture without throwing additional money away. Amazing!
President Obama again claimed in Saturday remarks to the House Democratic caucus that the bill will reduce the deficit by $1.3 trillion. He must know that isn’t true because the money “saved” from Medicare cuts will go to pay for new spending. Only in Washington can you save money and spend money at the same time.
Addressing critics of the bill, President Obama said no one is “going to pull the plug on grandma.” They won’t have to. Grandma will be denied treatment because she will be too much of a financial burden on government. It’s called rationing. Grandma had better start working out, eating lots of oatmeal and hope she doesn’t get sick. Why do you think the president kept mentioning sick children? It’s because children are the ones who will get the most – and best – treatment. Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ezekiel, has said government has a right to decide how many health care dollars you are worth. And if children with a lifelong taxpaying potential are worth more than grandma who is taking more from the tax pot than she is contributing, that’s too bad for grandma.
The president also said the bill will save money by requiring only one test by the doctor “not five tests.” But what if the first test doesn’t reveal the nature of an illness? Suppose a cancer is hiding in one organ and the test is for cancer in another organ? A second (or fifth) test might reveal the location of the disease, but under Obamacare, a government bureaucrat will allow just one test. -- It’s a form of Russian roulette. >>> Cal Thomas, FoxNews.com | Saturday, March 20, 2010
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