Manns Medium

Of all of the information out there about this healthcare debate, none put’s it more in prospective than and article written by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the Associated Press  article titled Undoing health law could have messy ripple effects.   In it he reports the benefits of Obamacare and just how popular it really is despite all of the reporting done by others to the opposite.   To give you an understanding of what these blind benefits are just listen to it as it is spelled out in the next paragraph and then take a listen to why I think all of this is nothing but a pure case of greed. Mr. Alonso-Zaldivar reports that “even if the Supreme Court overturns President Barack Obama's health care law, employers can keep offering popular coverage for the young adult children of their workers. But here's the catch: The parents' taxes would go up.   Better Medicare prescription benefits, currently saving hundreds of dollars for older people with high drug costs, wo...

Yes, that’s right I said it and I will say it again.   I say it because it burns me up to think that an organization so revered and copied as the ultimate organization to provide unequivocal service to the poor and needy in any community from food banks to financial services and not to mentioned spiritual guidance would allow their name to be buried in nothing that has anything to do with their primary and initial purpose for existing.   Do not be fooled, it has nothing to do with religious freedom and everything to do with religion in politics.   It has taken the last great institution and turned it from the goodness spoke of in the Bible to a business. When you hear freedom of religion, think about the purpose of that right granted in the US Constitution.   It is the freedom to worship as you see fit.   That means an individual can choose to take on the label of Catholic, Protestant, Baptist and yes even Atheist if they wish.   It means that no gover...

If you have ever given any thought to this subject then you have probably come to the same conclusion that I have.   If you haven’t then it’s time you spent a few minutes to consider this. If you are pro anything you are for it which means that if you are pro-life then you are for life and not death in many cases but can sometimes get confused when your stance is questioned by situation like going to war.   If you are pro-choice then you are for each individual having the choice and not being forced in one direction or another.   This stance rarely, if ever, provides you with a dilemma because it always goes back to the individual’s choice.   Some have confused this issue with abortion and will scream to the high heavens when a female makes a choice of aborting.   They scream that this is the same as murder and should not be allowed in this society but as they scream to save the life of a fetus, they condemn the doctor or female to death.   These are t...

Dear Rockford Health Physicians ROCKFORD, IL- After coming to you in hopes that you would be able to help me understand my physical pain and especially with my second trip which manifested itself into such a severe headache that I felt my head was going to explode.   It appeared that many there were much more concerned with whether I had any insurance than what was going on.   They asked the questions but never stood still long enough to receive the answers except for one.   Since you appeared to be just as complexes and stumped as I were as to the cause of my suffering, my insistence for an MRI was honored and to my relief there were no bleeding in the brain or busted vessels.   As with the first visit, you subscribed strong headache medication well outside of my affordability range and sent me on my way.   I left there not feeling satisfied but feeling more like some product on a conveyor belt.   It seemed that you were more concerned with getting us i...

For so long so many have had to live with the threat of AIDS and helplessly watch a friend or family member die because of this disease.   Now there may be an answer to this problem and instead of everyone pulling together, the report by Kate Kelland of Reuters News Service titled Special Report: An end to AIDS? seems to suggest the opposite.   In the article she reports that “f or his doctors, Timothy Ray Brown was a shot in the dark. An HIV-positive American who was cured by a unique type of bone marrow transplant, the man known as "the Berlin patient" has become an icon of what scientists hope could be the next phase of the AIDS pandemic: its end ” but leave it to those who did not come up with this idea to find nothing but negativity . ”   F rancoise Barre Sinoussi won a Nobel Prize for her work in identifying Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and was even quoted as saying that “we have to think about the long term, including a strategy to find a cure."   ...

As a former military member, anything that has something to say about the military will always spark my interest.   This article by Donna Cassata of the Associated Press titled Health care costs a hefty price tag for Pentagon is no exception.   Since some find approaching this topic as lethal as touching the third rail in the subway, I’ve decided to offer another way of thinking about this. The article mentions that “costs of the program that provides health coverage to some 10 million active duty personnel, retirees, reservists and their families have jumped from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion in the Pentagon's latest budget request.   The explosive expense of health care rivals what the Pentagon shells out to buy fighter aircraft, submarines and high-tech weapons, and is about half of the $118 billion that the Obama administration wants in the next budget to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”   The problem really isn’t whether the receiver should pay...

I had often wondered about the statement made at the healthcare town halls of those who decried that “they wanted their country back”.   I think now the actions of some governors and state house may provide us with a clue of what they meant.   Very few have reported on the recent invasion of Benton Harbor by the new governor of Michigan but mainstream media has been all over the uprising in Wisconsin.   I could not help but see how these and all of the other things happening around this nation was linked and nothing made it even more cleared than this Jennifer Page article titled Martial Law Now a Reality in Michigan which reported that “t he Michigan   AFL-CIO   released a   press release   in response to Benton Harbor: "This is sad news for democracy in Michigan. It comes after the announcement of Robert Bobb in Detroit ordering layoff of every single public school teacher in the Detroit Public School system," says Mark Gaffney, President of Michig...

What does it say about a country and its leaders when a group of lawmakers are able to pass draconian bills like the one written about in Andrew Taylor’s article for the Associated Press titled House passes $6T spending cut plan?   More important what does it say about the people who put them into office?   It says that the excellence of a nation is at stake and if the people fail to correct this problem, the economy will not be the only thing that falls flat on its face. According to the article “t he House has passed a Republican budget blueprint proposing to fundamentally overhaul Medicare for future beneficiaries while combating out-of-control budget deficits. It would impose sharp spending cuts on social safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid.   The GOP proposal passed 235-193, with every Democrat voting "no." The nonbinding plan lays out a fiscal vision cutting $6.2 trillion over 10 years from the budget submitted by President Barack Obama.   It cal...

As a former United States Marine my heart goes out to my fellow marine and his family as profiled in this article by Kimberly Hefling of the Associated Press titled Veterans advocate kills self after war tours .   I can not claim to feel exactly what his family feels right now but I can say that any military member or uniformed person who loses their life through any means, especially a fellow marine, makes me feel empty because even though we may not share the same blood we do share something greater. The article read “ Clay Hunt so epitomized a vibrant Iraq veteran that he was chosen for a public service announcement reminding veterans that they aren't alone.   Hunt found an outlet to help improve the system by doing work with IAVA. He helped build bikes for Ride 2 Recovery and participated in long rides.   Using his military training, he went to Haiti several times and Chile once to help with the countries' earthquake relief efforts. He proudly told his parents of spl...

According to Dana Bash,   Alan Silverleib   and   Deirdre Walsh of CNN in an article titled GOP budget chief calls for $6.2 trillion spending cut this “ 2012 budget proposal would cut $6.2 trillion in federal spending over the next decade while radically overhauling Medicare and Medicaid.   The proposal, drafted by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, would also overhaul key portions of the tax code, dropping the top rate for individuals and businesses to 25% while eliminating a number of loopholes” but what was not mentioned was what was left out of it, so I decided to take at look at the entire plan myself.   I found it in adobe form at www.budget.house.gov .   The plan does mention those things written about in the article above and some other items I thought readers would be interested in knowing which follows.   They call it THE PATH TO PROSPERITY. Streamlining Other Government Agencies (pg 29) • Boost private-sector employment by ...

It’s about time we started to hear some good news about the Affordable Care Act and the entire healthcare bill fought for so hard by so many.   So far all we have been able to hear is negativity and even though it may go quite far in helping with ratings, it does nothing for those who are actually affected by it.   It is a good thing but it is also a limited thing because only a small percentage of those affected may be ever able to explain it and those who we depend on to bring us the news may never find this. It’s an article by Mark Jewell, Associated Press Personal Finance Writer titled Retiree health cost estimate falls, for a change which reports “r ising health care costs are a given. But for the first time in 10 years, the outlook is improving for new retirees wondering whether they'll be able to pay their medical bills throughout their retirements.   A 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $230,000, on average, to cover medical expenses in retirement, ...

I received this email from Mitch Stewart of Organizing for America which informed me of this new development in the Healthcare debate that was not covered by cable news except for the Rachel Maddow Show.   Republicans say that the Affordable Care Act is not a good thing for America and if that is the case President Obama has put the ball back into their court by standing behind a proposal from Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. The new bipartisan proposal -- the Empowering States to Innovate Act -- would allow states to implement health reforms that work for them starting in 2014 -- three years sooner than the date originally laid out in the Affordable Care Act.   Now knowing the history of Republican thinking, it would not surprise me that none of these Republican Governors will take up this challenge and craft legislation that would maintain the principles of the Affordable Care Act but fit the need of each state ...