health care as a political tool

[reb]

i DID NOT SNOPES THIS. reasons: lazy, likely, there is not enough detail yet to reveal if this is really true or not...decide for yourself.



Health Plan Threatens to Feed Your Gun-related Data Into a National
Database
--- And charge you $10,000 a year for the privilege
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
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Thursday, April 2, 2009
In a year when trillion dollar bailouts have become routine, many
Americans have become almost numb to our acceleration towards socialism.
But gun rights activists aren't in that crowd, and so GOA has to inform
you of yet ANOTHER threat to your privacy, the Second Amendment, and
even your wallet.
It is called an "individual mandate" or, alternatively, the
"Massachusetts plan." And over the weekend, both the
Washington Post
and the New York Times worked hard to build momentum for it.
First, a little history.
We alerted you a few weeks ago to the gun control provisions in the
stimulus bill that President Obama signed in February. Our government
will now spend between $12 and $20 BILLION to require the medical
community to retroactively put our most confidential medical records
into a government database -- a database that could easily be used to
deny veterans (and other law-abiding Americans) who have sought
psychiatric treatment for things such as PTSD.
Currently, gun owners can avoid getting caught in this database by
refusing to purchase health insurance or by purchasing insurance with a
carrier that has not signed an agreement with the government to place
your records in a national database.
But that's all about to change. A budget resolution -- to be voted on
this Friday in the Senate -- will be the first domino in a process that
could FORCE you to buy government-approved insurance, thus making it
impossible to avoid the medical database.
Put another way: If you do not have health insurance -- or,
potentially, if you do not have the TYPE of health insurance the
government wants you to have -- the government will force you to
purchase what it regards as "acceptable" health insurance.
And, in most
cases, you will have to pay for it out of your own pocket.
What would all this cost? Based on comparable insurance currently on
the market, it could cost $10,000 a year -- or more.
If you were jobless, the socialists would probably spot you the ten
grand. But if you are middle class and can't pay $10,000 because of
your mortgage payments, your small business, or your kids' college
education, you would be fined (over $1,000 a year currently in
Massachusetts). And, if you couldn't pay the confiscatory fine, you
could ultimately be imprisoned.
Scary, you say. But why is this a Second Amendment issue? Under the
Massachusetts plan, your MANDATED insurance carrier has to feed your
medical data into a centralized database -- freely accessible by the
government under federal privacy laws.
So... remember when your pediatrician asked your kid if you have a
firearm in the home? Or when your dad was given a prescription for
Zoloft because of his Alzheimer's? Or when your wife mentioned to her
gynecologist that she had regularly smoked marijuana ten years ago?
All of this would be in a centralized database. And all of it could
potentially be used to vastly expand the "prohibited persons" list
maintained by the FBI in West Virginia.
How serious a threat is this?
If it gets into the budget resolution the Senate will consider on
Friday, it will be almost impossible to strip out later. It will be as
much of a done-deal as the stimulus package was.
We have asked senators to introduce language to prohibit such an
individual mandate for socialized medicine that would violate the
privacy of gun owners. In the absence of such an amendment, we are
asking senators to vote against the budget resolution.
ACTION: Write your U.S. Senators. Urge them to vote against the budget
resolution if it does not contain language prohibiting a mandate that
Americans buy government-approved health insurance against their will.
Please use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. to send your Senators the
pre-written e-mail message below.
----- Pre-written letter -----
Dear Senator:
A budget resolution that could end up requiring Americans to purchase
expensive health insurance policies against their will is truly
frightening.
And equally alarming is the fact that such mandated health care coverage
could easily become a shill for gun control.
Potentially, anyone who does not have health insurance-- or does not
have the TYPE of health insurance the government wants them to have --
will be forced to purchase "acceptable" health insurance and
pay for it
out of our own pockets.
Based on the cost of comparable insurance currently on the market, that
could cost $10,000 a year -- or more.
That's bad enough. But far worse, such a "Massachusetts Plan" would
MANDATE that an insurance carrier feed medical data into a centralized
database -- freely accessible by the government under federal privacy
laws.
Hence, a kid's statement to his pediatrician about his parents'
firearms... or a dad's prescription for Zoloft because of his
Alzheimer's... or a wife's statement to her gynecologist about her
regular use of marijuana ten years ago... could all turn up in a federal
database and unconstitutionally expand the list of "prohibited
persons."
Individuals would have no ability to opt out.
For all of these reasons, if the budget resolution does not contain
language prohibiting an "individual mandate" regarding health
care, I
would ask that you oppose the budget resolution.
Sincerely,
****************************
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[RBM]

@ reb

First impression - more fear mongering.

How does GOA make money ?

I posted a New Yorker story titled 'The Bell Curve' in a thread which was a case in point of the improvements that could be made in healthcare if the system was upgraded to the 21st century.

Lot's of ' if, maybe, could' etc in what you posted.

My over arching litmus test is: did it come form the present corporate-political system then what you said elsewhere, something like 'distrust, strongly verify'.

[reb]

RBM,

i've not been able to find out much about them. i have a neighbor who's a member....he says they fund raise like the nra does. the nra and the goa bad mouth each other....very beneficial.

probably fear mongering, but so was 'wmd'. and then later there was the story of the yellowcake transfer to canada, that only nbc covered (that i could find, anywho). no one screaming about the 'false wmd' ever mentioned that yellowcake. the damned government did not even....and it would have been to bush's public benefit to have done so....so much secrecy....too much.

i always look at the 'if, maybe, could'....Leonardo DaVinci and Jules Verne did, too, and got some pretty good ideas. was hoping this would start a discussion of 'do doctors have any business judging the rest of us and our mental states when the doctors themselves have a high percentage of money grubbing toads just like corporate america and corporations?' perhaps it won't....worth a post, i spose. my experience with a 'top 10 rated healthcare system' here in texas is...they will kill you. they have tried to kill me in the last 3 years perhaps 4 times-allergic to sulfa, and they keep prescribing sulfa containing drugs...i caught on only because i talked to a blue cross pharmacist who told me 'the secret ingredients'. the sulfa allergy is all over my records....god knows what else is...i saw one from another hospital...doctor's notes 'arrogant, pushy white male, well developed, distrusts doctors' lol! it was a female doctor..she coulda put down 'distrusts females' too for that matter....there will be no improvements in health care until we all cease going to doctors as much as we can possibly stand to do.

really, i distrust all sides of the 'change/don't change' equation. they both have an axe to grind, and money to make. i think eternaltriangle said 'sickening'....and i have to agree. it's a jungle out there....Darwin is still right-the best adapted survive, those who do not wither.

[RBM]

@ reb

I'm of the same approach, distrust is a Darwinian survival mode to my way of thinking.

From another blog (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)
is a response that fits into the title:



He may have some questions other than political animosity, but here's my take on why Burr is doing this:

Burr had (has?) some pretty big plans to change the Department of Veterans Affairs, and he was hoping Obama would keep former Secretary James Peake at the helm. Peake was a former Director of QTC Management, which is the single biggest private outsourcing firm for government services like healthcare for Vets. Not surprisingly, as Secretary, Peake pushed hard for privatization, moving to close several VA assessment and treatment facilities. Burr and Peake were peas in a pod, and the shifting of moneys to the private sector was their penultimate goal.

On the legislative side, Burr in the Senate and Buyer in the House were both pushing legislation that, among other things, would change the way disabled veterans get compensated. Some nice-sounding stuff, but the ugly was an effort to base disability compensation on the age and rank of the troop in question. Meaning, a Private would be compensated considerably less than a Lieutenant would be, even if their permanent disability were the same. And if anybody thinks the Private would still get the same amount as he does now, while funds would be added for the officer, think again.

Well, Peake is out now and Shinseki is in, so these dreams aren't coming true anytime soon. And Richard Burr is pissed.

Just a note: stay tuned. I started a little late looking at Liddy's money, and was only able to scratch the surface. I've already got a few Burr money articles in the oven as we speak, and I'll be baking for the next year-and-a-half.


You'll probably recognize this out of the 'privatize all gov. functions' which I'm not inherently against, just the way it's done - as a political tool to continue the oligarchy.

BTW,
RE: yellowcake

You are aware it's been uncovered (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)and filed in the same bin as WMD ?

[reb]

RBM,

no-was not aware of the yellowcake being 'uncovered'. i hit the link, took me to a google page...and the nbc article. dint go further....there is so much intrigue on these things, one cannot tell what is true. i was buying 60mm mortar shell bodies in the first gulf war....C130's were flying out of the local airport one evening every 30 seconds or so....my 'way home' was inline with the runway they were using...amazing sight. j ust stopped on the side of the road and went 'damn..wonder how many have loaded mortar shells in them?' i could NEVER understand why a spec ops team dint drop Saddam and his whole family, instead of the flexing of miltary industrial '$'. maybe that was the whole reason...lol! i swear i try NOT to consider conspiracy theories, but it's really hard not to given the evidence i've seen.

from the front lines at the VA (my experience-just one man's view)....i used to get calls from WWII vets. the phone system like so many others had an 'electronic voice', and these older vets would get confused by the umpty thousand options and bs...most of them hard of hearing (i know you know, but others may not...NO EAR PLUGS to my knowledge anywhere in WWII).

so, i would get their names, their home phone number, and give them my direct office line. i would tell them 'if you do not hear from me or the patient advocate by close of business, call me tomorrow morning...i'm here early. yank my chain, please, as i get busy and might forget.' i would then call the 'patient advocate' and try to hook this person up with the vet in question. usually, i would get the same 'answering system' the vet's got. useless crap. then i would walk the 1/4 mile to the main hospital, where the patient advocate office was...and find the person(s) who would actually call the vet.

when they did not do so/if i got another call from the vet, i would give him/her the direct line to the hospital director, and tell them call me back if they got a run around.

my 'immediate superior' caught me one day...'where are you going?' i told him...'you have project x to finish. get back to your office. if i see you doing this again, i will write you up. it's not YOUR job.'

i learned to wait for the asshole to go to lunch...he took long lunches. then i would go and pound the ground until i found someone who gave a f. thankfully for me, i got to retire before i got caught again, and caught more hell than i was already getting....that's my most pungent memory of the VA. these jerks at the top, they don't care about veterans....makes me recall the stories of how vets got bennies promised to them after WWI....and i bet there are similarities in every u.s.s. of a. war....as to what is promised, and what is delivered. i shudder for my country and the Constitution.

they should at least use the term 'monetize all government functions'...but that's too honest for them and their 'doublespeak' world. i'm shutting up on this...the memory of those old vets...my Dad was one...and how they were treated makes me want a stiff drink...or to boot some ass.

[RBM]

@ reb

My mistake on giving you a google link - since I had read about it as it hit the blogging reporters I saw the link that had the info - it tied back to the Italian intelligence org. and later on some of those players ended in court in Italy. Once the story got to the Italian spooks then to the USA spooks ....

You're right about the level of intrigue.

Your story reminded me of the story about the DC vets hospital that ended up screwing the vets cause they were using the money to by a building across the street. The players, bureaucrats, and civilians were going to make a bunch of $$ - might be off on some facts, it's been a while, a year or two, since the story had legs.