Thousands of Doctors Dropped by Insurer After Obamacare Funding Cuts

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Photo Credit: WNDBy Newsmax Wires.

United Health Group has dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company’s other healthcare business.

The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services.

“Medicare Advantage, an alternative to traditional Medicare, combines hospital and doctor coverage and often includes prescription drugs and perks like gym memberships,” the Journal explained. “Enrollment has more than doubled since 2004 to 13 million in 2012, which represents about 27 percent of Americans on Medicare.

“The federal government pays private insurers a per-capita fee to manage the benefits. The rate is currently about 12 percent more than the average Medicare patient spends annually. The Obama administration plans to cut those extra payments to insurers by about $150 billion over the next 10 years to help pay” for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

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Why the Obamacare Insurance Delay Isn’t Legal

By John Yoo.

I agree with Adam below that President Obama does not have the legal authority for his health care decision yesterday, though the issue is not easy to resolve. The legal complexity might allow the White House to get away with another lawless act—as it has with the delay of the employer mandate, the waiving of welfare work rules, the free pass for marijuana users, and the non-enforcement of immigration laws.

The President announced on Thursday that, for the next year, anyone can keep the health plans that they held before the passage of Obamacare. Obamacare requires all individual to purchase health care. The problem is that the Administration, acting pursuant to the Affordable Care Act, has the authority to define what qualifies as health insurance. The Obama administration notoriously defined acceptable health care policies to only include those that met minimum requirements, including prenatal care (even for men). Pre-existing health care plans will be lost, because most of them do not meet these criteria.

Initially, Obama’s decision might seem to rely on the safe ground of the delegated authority under the ACA to define insurance policies. Obama could just order HHS to alter its regulation so that any and all insurance policies could meet the insurance mandate.

The problem with Obama’s suspension, as I understand it, is that any regulation must undergo what is known as “notice-and-comment” under the Administrative Procedure Act. All regulations—issued pursuant to authority delegated to the executive branch by Congress—must first be publicly proposed, and then wait for a period of time for the public to make comments. Then the agency must issue the regulation with reasoned explanations for its policy choices. Changes to existing regulations usually must undergo the same process.

Obama’s decision yesterday, however, apparently is not to forego “notice-and-comment” rulemaking. If the President wants to snuff out the raging political fires engulfing his Administration, his one-year delay has to have immediate effect. Obama cannot wait around for the normal procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act.

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Man Tased, Arrested Over Leash-Law Violation

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Photo Credit: Opposing Views California resident Gary Hesterberg was running the trails with his two dogs at Rancho Corral de Tierra in San Mateo County last year when he was stopped by a park ranger for not leashing his terrier (his other dog, a beagle, was on a leash). When the ranger, Sarah Cavallaro, would not let Hesterberg walk away after a verbal warning, he accused her of unlawful detainment and attempted to leave anyway. She tased him, and he collapsed to the ground. Then police came to arrest him, and detained him for eight hours.

Hesterberg is suing for violation of his Fourth Amendment rights as well as battery. The 9th Circuit could not decide his case in a summary judgment , so the plaintiff is now headed for trial.

Witness John Bartlett described the scene to the San Francisco Chronicle: “He said something about ‘are you going to arrest me,’ something like that, and the next thing I heard was a shot and a scream of agony from him as he fell on his back. He seemed to be out for two or three minutes.”

Bartlett also said, “It did rattle me. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m 77 years old, never had such an emotional reaction to something. I didn’t know if the guy was dying. For a leash on a dog…”

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The U.S. May be Hitting its Ethanol Limit. So EPA Wants to Relax its Biofuels Goals.

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Photo Credit: Chuck Olson / FlickrWhen it comes to ethanol, the United States may have reached its limit — at least for now.

Back in 2007, Congress passed a law that would require the nation to use more and more ethanol and other biofuels each year. But for reasons of chemistry and economics, those targets are becoming increasingly difficult to fulfill.

That helps explain why, on Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency took the unusual step of proposing to cut its biofuels targets for next year. The agency will require gasoline refiners to use just 15.2 billion gallons of biofuels in 2014 — down from 16.55 billion gallons this year. The new target is 14 percent lower than the original goal envisioned by Congress.

The EPA’s move is a victory for gasoline refineries, which have long argued that the original targets were unworkable. And it’s a fairly big setback for the biofuels industry, at least for the time being.

Here’s the back story: In 2007, Congress updated its Renewable Fuel Standard, which set rough targets for the amount of ethanol and other biofuels that had to be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply each year. By 2013, that target rose to 16.55 billion gallons — and it was supposed to keep rising until it hit 36 billion gallons in 2022.

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The 23 Most Revealing Words Obama Spoke

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Photo Credit: art_es_annaPresident Obama uttered a surprisingly revealing 23-word sentence Thursday that reveals so much about his thinking and why his second-term is shaping up as worse than Jimmy Carter’s last.

But, first, let’s get this straight right off the bat: President Obama is not a dummy.

He acts like a dummy, an arrogant one at that. The chief executive of the United States tries to convince the world he’s a dummy, bizarrely claiming he didn’t know so many stupid, illegal, corrupt, partisan, lying things were going on in his administration lo these past 1,760 divisive days.

He naively expected Iran to cave to the kind of political muscle that works back home in the Windy City. Obama painted himself into a red-lined corner on Syria, only to have his south side saved humiliatingly by Russia’s shirtless President Putin.

And apparently the White House did not pay its cable bill this fall. Because according to Kathleen Sebelius, the president was unaware the ObamaCare rollout was an utter disaster for days after the Oct. 1 limp launch. Does anyone ever talk to anyone else on Obama’s team?

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White House Defends Obama’s Executive Authority to Act on Health Insurance Without Congress

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Photo Credit: AP/ Evan VucciWhite House press secretary Jay Carney defended President Barack Obama’s authority to take unilateral action on health insurance plans – even comparing it to the administration’s action last year not to prosecute certain illegal immigrants.

Carney also reiterated the pledge to veto House bill to allow people to keep their insurance plans cancelled as a result of Obamacare, even after 39 Democrats joined the House Republican majority to support the bill.

The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) would allow anyone who had a health insurance policy cancellation, or would get a cancellation, to keep their plan, thus keeping Obama’s broken promise that if you like your health care, you can keep it. The administration objects because it would allow new policies that do not comply with Obamacare to still be sold.

Thus Obama unveiled his own plan on Thursday, to preempt the House vote, that would administratively waive insurance companies from having to comply with Obamacare standards for one year, but also require those insurance companies inform consumers that tax credits and other benefits of the Affordable Care Act plans.

But some have questioned Obama’s ability to take such an action without Congressional authorization. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney took a question about the president’s authority, and said that the health care law defers certain discretion to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

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Bill Gates Backing Gun Control Measure

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Photo Credit: Brian Ach/Getty Images for The Lasker FoundationKPLU reported Wednesday that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda have contributed $25,000 apiece to the Initiative 594 campaign, joining a growing list of wealthy Seattle-area supporters of the 15-page gun control measure, as confirmed by Public Disclosure Commission documents obtained yesterday by Examiner and The GunMag.com.

Gates and his wife made the donations Oct. 29, according to filings with the PDC.

The PDC documents reveal a curious array of contributions from people who list their occupations as “retired” or “not employed” along with others whose occupations range from “venture capitalist” to “volunteer,” with attorneys, doctors, investors and other professionals, along with housewives and homemakers. Their contributions range upwards to the $165,000 donated by Nick Hanauer and the $50,000 from Lenore Hanauer. Many of the contributions were for $1,000 or more.

The overwhelming majority of contributors list their addresses in Seattle, with a smattering located in Medina, Woodinvile, Mercer Island, Sammamish, Kirkland, Shoreline, Bellevue, Normandy Park, Lake Forest Park and Issaquah.

KPLU said the donor list, which stretches to about 135 pages, “reads like a who’s who list.”

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Homeland Security: Immigrant Family Members Of U.S. Military Members Will No Longer Be Deported

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Photo Credit: opposingviews.comMillions of members of the U.S military were born abroad. Many of these people have undocumented family members living in the United States.

For years, U.S. military service member advocates have argued that the nation’s current deportation policy often places undue stress on these members. The idea of deporting the loved ones of someone serving their country just doesn’t quite seem right.

Today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security made an announcement that should alleviate some of these stresses. Undocumented family members of U.S. military members will no longer be deported. Instead, they will be given a “parole in place” permit that will allow them to apply for permanent legal status while remaining in the U.S.

Read more from this story HERE.

Illinois Bishop To Hold Exorcism For ‘Sin of Same-Sex Marriage’

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Photo Credit: cnsnews.comAs Gov. Pat Quinn signs a bill in Chicago on Wednesday making Illinois the 16th state to legalize same-sex marriage, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, the Roman Catholic prelate of Springfield, will be performing an exorcism ceremony “in reparation for the sin of same-sex marriage”

“We must pray for deliverance from this evil which has penetrated our state and our church,” the bishop, who testified against the measure before the state legislature in January, declared in a statement.

Quinn, a Catholic, has announced he will sign the bill. “Marriage equality is coming to Illinois. I look forward to signing this landmark legislation on November 20 and celebrating a big step forward with the people of Illinois,” the governor said.

Earlier this month, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, also a Catholic, cited Pope Francis’ recent “Whom am I to judge?” comment regarding gay members of the clergy to justify his support of the same-sex marriage bill, which passed on November 5th.

Without naming Quinn or Madigan, Paprocki accused Catholic politicians of “twisting the words of the pope to rationalize their actions.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Texas Law Professor Tells Symposium: Time ‘To Repeal and Replace Second Amendment’

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Photo Credit: AFP Speaking in a gun violence symposium at University of Connecticut’s School of Law, Texas A&M law professor Mary Margaret Penrose said it’s time “to repeal and replace [the] Second Amendment.”

Penrose said this after expressing her frustration with the fact that President Obama has failed to pass more gun control in the eleven months since the heinous crime at Sandy Hook Elementary.

According to a Connecticut news blog, Penrose said gun laws should be decided on a per-state basis, versus the overarching rules and laws that result from the current amendment…

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Teacher Fired After Kicking Planned Parenthood Out of His Class

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Photo Credit: LifeNews By Brendan O’Morchoe.

As Planned Parenthood loses the control they’re accustomed to have over government funding and legislation, they may be getting a bit desperate. As they’re known to do, the organization takes to bullying when it gets uncomfortable. The Susan G. Komen saga is one example among many: If you try to stand up to us, they say, we’ll make your life hell. Their latest victim is a computer science teacher. At a high school.

That’s right: Planned Parenthood is after the career and livelihood of a distinguished, highly-qualified, good high school teacher, Bill Diss, who had the audacity to tell Planned Parenthood that they were not allowed in his classroom.

Apparently, Planned Parenthood will rally tooth-and-nail to make sure that ‘hostile forces’ stay out of pro-choice women’s uteri (unless, of course, we’re talking about government funding of contraception), but informing Planned Parenthood that it is not welcome in a classroom is against the rules of the (lopsided) game.

Diss has a history with Planned Parenthood dating to 2007 when he led community opposition to a new Planned Parenthood abortion facility being built in a minority neighborhood in Portland. He raised Planned Parenthood’s ire again when a “health education team” came into his computer science classroom uninvited and attempted to enroll his students in the Health and Human Services’ Teen Outreach Program (TOP).

One of TOP’s goals is to prevent teen pregnancy, and the team who came to enroll Diss’ students (using monetary incentives) was hired by—you guessed it—Planned Parenthood. When Diss – unaware of whether the ‘team’ had been background-checked or had received sex/child abuse certifications – asked Planned Parenthood to leave his classroom.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: LifeNews Planned Parenthood Abortion Clinic Caught With Rusty Suction Machines, Expired Drugs

By Cheryl Sullenger.

Operation Rescue has obtained a copy of an inspection report issued by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services detailing 14 pages of violations at the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in St. Louis discovered during an inspection of the facility in January, 2013.

The documents also reveal evidence that Planned Parenthood is working with city officials to prevent the public from obtaining information about 911 calls that has traditionally been within the public domain.

Deficiencies cited during an inspection earlier this year included:

• Violations of infection prevention protocols.
• Rusty surgical tables, suction abortion machines, IV stands, and other equipment.
• “Copious amounts of dust” in surgical rooms and on equipment.
• Hiring individuals without performing a mandated search of the Employee Disqualification List.
• Retained left-over drugs that were supposed to be destroyed after a single use.
• Lack of appropriate drug-handling policies.
• Expired drugs.
• Expired postpartum balloons used to reduce hemorrhage after abortion.

The inspection was prompted by complaints filed by Operation Rescue and other local activists after they had documented numerous medical emergencies at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood facility, raising concerns about the clinic’s safety.

Read more from this story HERE.