"Quality Bonuses"--Grease for the Squeaky Wheels

One hand giveth while the other taketh away--and both hands live in the White House.

— Millions of seniors in popular private insurance plans offered through Medicare will get a reprieve from some of the most controversial cuts in President Obama's healthcare law.

--LA Times 4-20-11

The ability to arbitrarily punish and reward groups and individuals is one of the key problems with politicizing an economic activity. Rule by Men instead of Rule of Law.

Once power is concentrated in the hands of the few, the threat to liberty accelerates--Newton's laws of motion applied to political power instead of mass.

While I was in Washington DC last week, several different people remarked that a key strategy for supporters of the health care control law will be to keep potential complainers happy---and quiet. The waivers, and now out-right hush money like Medicare Advantage "quality bonuses" are just two ways this will be accomplished.

There are only two ways to rid ourselves completely of this terrible law--either the Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional, or opponents take control of the government in 2012. Both of these pathways require continued popular discontent.

We must do everything we can to keep this issue fresh in the minds of voters. It truly has life and death consequences--for both our liberty and our access to affordable, trust-worthy medical care.

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Why the ACA is wrong and must be repealed.

The Black Ribbon Project is participating in the Independent Women's Voice ObamaCare Video Contest. The deadline of midnight March 19th is approaching fast, but it's not too late to add your own original contribution. First prize is $5000---but the competition is pretty stiff. All entries will be posted on their website, however, so it's a great way to spread your personal message.

The Black Ribbon Project supports repeal of the ACA because of the way it tramples on the doctor-patient relationship--but more than that, it endangers the roots of civil society.

What a great challenge to get to meat of the matter in under one minute!

Be sure to check out the website and vote for your favorite. Some are really quite good!

IWV You Tube Channel

Shameless request: Vote for my video. From what I can tell, the winner is whoever gets the most viewer votes. Any winnings I receive will go to The Black Ribbon Project.

How to Defend Health Care Freedom

Last fall, I was invited to speak about the Black Ribbon Project at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons. I took the opportunity to share a few of my thoughts on the principles we need to promote to effectively defend health care freedom and the doctor-patient relationship. I am pleased with how much I was able to cover in just 25 minutes. Let me know what you think!

Testimony on Fiscal Consequences of PPACA

Richard Foster, Chief Actuary, Center for Medicare and Medicaid.
1/26/11 Testimony before the House Committee on the Budget


McCLINTOCK: “True or false: The two principle promises that were made in support of Obamacare were one, that it would hold costs down. True or false?”

FOSTER: “I would say false, more so than true.”

McCLINTOCK: “The other promise… was the promise that if you like your plan, you can keep it. True or false?”

FOSTER: “Not true in all cases.”

A Tale of Two Emails on repeal of the PPACA

I recently received two emails. One is from the White House with the Orwellian title, "Protecting Your New Freedoms Under the Affordable Care Act." The other, "What Repeal Really Means" was from Chris Jacobs of the Republican Policy Committee.

Read both releases carefully.

Our President claims he can offer people the chance to be free from the demands of reality by making others pick up the tab.

But no one can be free from the requirements of reality---the necessity of creating the values you need to sustain your life. Freedom is not a metaphysical concept but a political one, one whose true meaning is to be free from the coercive acts of others.

If allowed to stand, the PPACA will extend the power of government, further depriving us of the freedom we need to sustain our lives: the freedom to use our own minds, set our our values and priorities, and to act on our own choices. The PPACA will extend the current erroneous legal precedent that government can rightfully dictate the contents of private contracts and exchanges, along with regulating items we produce for our own private use as "interstate commerce" (see Wickard v. Filburn.) In addition, the government will be allowed to dictate what we must and must not purchase, and with whom, and for what price.

The PPACA is one of the biggest intrusions into our economic freedom in recent years. No individual or business will be left unaffected--and few, if any, restrainsts will be left on the power of government over our economic lives. And since freedom is of a piece, loss of economic freedoms will eventually require the erosion of freedom in all other realms.

What does repeal of ObamaCare really mean? It means resurrecting the Rule of Law and reasserting the Constitution as a limit on government power, and the purpose of government as the protector of individual rights.

The main issue is not whether or not repeal will add to the deficit, or if repeal will save jobs.

The main issue is that repeal will restore essential freedoms and take a step in the right direction of limiting the intrusion of government into our private lives.

ObamaCare must go so we can live our lives in freedom.

A solution which destroys freedom, is no true solution at all.

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Federal Judge Rules Individual Mandate Unconstitutional

U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled today that the individual mandate of the ACA (a.k.a. ObamaCare) is unconstitutional.

“Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market. In doing so, enactment of the (individual mandate) exceeds the Commerce Clause powers vested in Congress.” from newsok.com

I have previously read that due to the lack of a severablity clause, if any part of the law is ruled unconstitutional, the whole bill will have to be thrown out. Unfortunately, it turns out to be more complicated than that.

Here is the best explanation I have yet come across:

A Guide to Severability and ObamaCare

[T]he lack of a severability clause wouldn’t necessarily result in the overrule the rest of the legislation, which mostly have to do with spending and rationing — the expansion of Medicaid, Medicare cuts, and sweeping regulatory authority — and isn’t wrapped up in the mandate. This has been the Court’s approach to other issues, such as the recent Sarbanes-Oxley ruling, another law which lacked a severability clause, where they invalidated a portion of the law and allowed the rest to stand.

Some proponents of the ACA believe that the health of the individual mandate would move us closer to implementing a single payer system. (See Ezra Klein's article in today's Washington Post.) The danger of this is only too real.

The best way to prevent that from happening is to continue to speak out against ObamaCare as a whole.

Even a Supreme Court ruling that the individual mandate is unconstitutional will not save us from the multitude of other violations of life, liberty and property intimately woven throughout the ACA.

Preservation health care freedom and the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship requires the complete REPEAL of the ACA, and the extraction of government from the business and practice of medicine.

For more analysis on today's reading see:

Individual Mandate in Heath Reform Law Ruled Unconstitutional by Federal Judge on Medscape.com

ObamaCare Is Unconstitutional by Grace-Marie Turner

Full Text of the Opinion

Health Reform Will Survive it Legal Fight by Eric H0lder and Kathleen Sebelius

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Debt Reduction and Health Care Freedom

Two for the price of one.

With the national debt rising to dangerous levels, serious cuts to government spending are paramount. President Obama’s debt commission has made some interesting recommendations–but even better are the following proposals…

Read more here.