Per today’s N&O, it appears Medicaid service providers in NC can expect another reduction in reimbursement rates: In the current state budget, Perdue and the legislature agreed that Medicaid reimbursement rates would be reduced by $26.6 million or 1.35 percent, if the state found it necessary to close a gap in federal Medicaid funding. Perdue’s [...]
- Apr26
Next Up for Health Care “Reform”: Price Controls and Rationing
Last month, I exposed the fallacy that somehow government can “cut costs” of medical care and health insurance. This WSJ article tells us that federal lawmakers are now considering a bill that I warned would be coming: a measure to impose price caps in health insurance. When President Obama signed his health-care reform last month, [...]
- Apr23
Obamacare: Restricting Access to Medical Care
Perhaps contributing to President Obama’s recent dip in North Carolina opinion polls is that more people are realizing the ”universal coverage” provided by Obamacare does not mean universal access to medical care. In other words, expanding (by force) insurance coverage for tens of millions more Americans will drive up demand for medical care. Conversely, “cost control” [...]
- Mar31
DHIP:Big government comes to your neighborhood
Yesterday’s News & Observer had a short story on the U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin’s appearance in Durham to praise that city’s Durham Health Initiative Project (DHIP). DHIP is project between Duke Medicine and local government which attempts to map the health maladies of all of Durham — neighborhood by neighborhood –and then convince individuals to get care. The [...]
- Mar26
Questions for the N&O
The N&O has unabashedly supported the push for “Obamacare” – or whatever name you want to put on the recently approved bill that further politicizes our health insurance and medical care industries. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, they pen this recent commentary celebrating the bill’s passage. The article makes many bold assertions that are [...]
- Mar23
Obama & Pelosi’s Gift to Health Insurance Industry
Sheldon Richman lays out why the health care “reform” package approved by the U.S. House Sunday night is a big gift-wrapped present to the health insurance industry: Note that the attention of nearly all the “reformers” is on the insurance industry. What ostensibly started out as “health-care reform” quickly became health-insurance regulation. A common theme [...]
- Mar17
Obamacare: Cutting “Costs” = Cutting Care
Economist William Anderson refutes the oft-repeated fallacy that Obamacare will somehow “cut costs” in the delivery of medical care in this Freeman article. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Obama’s plan will produce “savings” in medical procedures. Not surprisingly, much of the media (and especially the New York Times), has been echoing the same chorus. [...]
- Mar12
AFP’s New Healthcare Ad
Our friends at Americans for Prosperity are up with a new health care ad featuring a breast cancer survivor reminding us the ramifications of passing Obamacare.
- Feb12
Self-Contradiction from NC’s Radical Left-Wingers
The folks over at the NC Justice Center offered up a double-whammy this week of self-contradiction. First up, Adam Searing penned this op-ed in the N&O urging Congress to pass some version of health care “reform” (public opinion be damned, of course). He points out that, under the current, mostly-government run system, “Health insurance has [...]
- 1Feb02
Obama Favorable Up in January
NC voters’ opinion of Pres. Barack Obama inched up in January and now is at 52% favorable, 37% unfavorable or a +15 spread, the widest its been since the beginning of the health care debate last summer. Obama’s favorability rating basically fell off a cliff once the health care reform measure was launched last July [...]
- Jan27
Random Question
When talking about health care reform, liberals often declare that it is simply unfair that the poor don’t have access to the same top quality care available to the rich. So why don’t they support a system (vouchers) where the poor can have access to the same top quality education currently only accessible to the rich [...]
- Dec08
Polling the Health Care Bill
Support for Obamacare continues to struggle in North Carolina according to our latest poll with only 40% supporting and 48% in opposition. We’ve had the public opposed to the bill by an 8-10 point margin since September and it doesn’t seem much has changed despite all the rhetoric and debate on both sides. The breakdown [...]
- 2Oct08
Will Someone Please Tell Kay Hagan Where Babies Come From?
Over on the blog of Mark Binker at the Greensboro N&R, he has a clip of Sen. Kay Hagan speaking on the Senate floor decrying the difference in cost of health insurance between men and women. She tells a story of how a 22 year old female staffer in her office would have to pay [...]
- Sep15
Watch This Hand, Not This One With The N&O
Watching a master illusionist can be hypnotic. Your mind gets caught up in the incredible while trying to figure out the reality of what you’ve just seen. A brief in the “Under The Dome” blog does just such a maneuver when it refers to Christian ministers trying to “nudge” Sen Hagan on Healthcare. The note [...]
- Sep08
Civitas Poll: Voters Deeply Divided on Health Care
Results of our new poll released today show NC voters are deeply divided on the President’s health care plan. With few voters in the middle or ambivalent on the issue, Obama’s address to Congress tomorrow night is probably going to do very little to soothe either side. Of the 662 registered voters we surveyed, 47.6% [...]
- Aug29
Does WakeMed hospital endorse ObamaCare?
Is WakeMed supporting ObamaCare? On September 3rd they are allowing Organizing for America to use the WakeMed North Healthplex for a rally in support of “Health Insurance Reform,” the new name for Health Care Reform (ObamaCare) which may shortly be changed to KennedyCare. As I posted in January, Organizing for America is President’s Obama political arm or permanent political campaign. This is [...]
- Aug13
Shameless Self Promotion
I will be on State Governmment Radio with Dana Cope from the Service Employees International Union local 2008. We discussed health care, the legislative session and other topics including John Edwards and Elvis Presley. Tune in and listen: WDOX WPTF WSJS 570 AM 680 AM 620 AM People In Politics Friday @ 8 [...]