France wants health care system more like US while we're trying to do what they've done which doesn't work.

Here's an example of why not to embrace more government health care. What's happening where it exists. Here's a story, "France Fights Universal Care's High Cost" on the problems with French health care which widely touted as the model for where US health should go.

France claims it long ago achieved much of what today's U.S. health-care overhaul is seeking: It covers everyone, and provides what supporters say is high-quality care. But soaring costs are pushing the system into crisis. The result: As Congress fights over whether America should be more like France, the French government is trying to borrow U.S. tactics.

In recent months, France imposed American-style "co-pays" on patients to try to throttle back prescription-drug costs and forced state hospitals to crack down on expenses. "A hospital doesn't need to be money-losing to provide good-quality treatment," President Nicolas Sarkozy thundered in a recent speech to doctors.

And service cuts -- such as the closure of a maternity ward near Ms. Cuccarolo's home -- are prompting complaints from patients, doctors and nurses that care is being rationed. That concern echos worries among some Americans that the U.S. changes could lead to rationing.

The French system's fragile solvency shows how tough it is to provide universal coverage while controlling costs, the professed twin goals of President Barack Obama's proposed overhaul.

In an effort to control costs, bureaucrats are rationing care by deciding who will and won't get services rather than allowing people to make those decides through market forces. Again, government isn't the answer but rather the primary problem in our health care problems.

Heading for a crash -- Congress, Obama and out of control spending

At a time of incredible financial and economic uncertainty, President Obama presented to Congress and the American people a very bold plan for the future of America -- finding a cure for cancer, universal health care, free education and a host of other things. Of course the question is how to pay for it all. Well, raise taxes and continue to pile up debt through more government spending. Of course, recent Republican presidents and republican Congresses were guilty of deficit spending, but it's breathtaking what President Obama and the democrat Congress are proposing and doing, especially at a time of great instability.

My take is their policies will only make a bad situation worse and result in even greater financial and economic distress.I think we're seeing the confluence of at least two things which will create the perfect economic storm. One, is the economic and financial crisis brought on by greed, corrupt and people living beyond their means. People, corporations and the government have been living beyond their means, on borrowed money, and that's merely coming home to roost.

And two, faulty ideas and understanding of what to do about the financial and economic problem. Instead of seeing part of what's happening as a necessary correction to living beyond our means and cleaning up bad debt, economic and financial policy makers think all that they need to do is pump more money into the economy to keep the good times rolling. Thus, we see a very loose money supply and very low interest rates in hopes of warding off a collapse and keep things rolling along.

And now in Washington, DC the politicians in charge, Obama, Reid and Pelosi and their advisers have drunk deeply at the well of Keynesian economic theory which says government spending is what's necessary to jump start the economy and get things flying once again. The result a $1.75 trillion dollar deficit with more to come. And out of a desire to mitigate the deficit, Obama is proposing significant tax increases on the wealthy - those making over $250,000 a year - which will only discourage small business owners from expanding their businesses and creating jobs. In other words, Obama and the Keynesian economists are looking back to FDR as their example both for spending and raising taxes. The actually result then and now will be a prolonged period of economic crisis rather than a shorter one. The Great Depression went on for over a decade. It had a period of seeming recovery but quickly lapsed back into a depression with high unemployment and a dropping stock market. Punitive tax increases were imposed on the wealthy and companies by FDR which only retarded economic growth. So too today. What they didn't have then which we do now is have significant debt issues which will only worsen the wrong moves by policy makers and give us much less room for maneuvering.

Moving towards an universal health care system will be costly and mean rationing of health care and diminution of quality of care. Climate legislation will be costly to business and do little or nothing for the environment. I sense the liberals are seeking to pass all their agenda and spending items now as quickly as possible, "while the gittin's good."

I think Keynesian ideas about government stimulus have given Congressional liberals the justification for indulging themselves at precisely the time when we can least afford to be indulging ourselves. All it means is the economic problems we see now are only a foretaste of things to come.

Things may recover briefly in terms of a stock market run up but we will be "paying later" in a big way.

First step towards nationalized, government directed health included in national economic stimulus bill

The financial and political leviathan called the economic stimulus bill is being criticized for the amount of money it's spending, $800 to 900 billion, what it's being spent on, and how much it will actually stimulate the economy. But there are other provisions discovered in the bill which should also give lawmakers pause.

Earlier, I mentioned the provision which prohibits funding to public facilities which are used for worship services. Now there's a provision which is a key building block for moving towards a national health care system.

According to a Bloomberg news story:

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

New Penalties

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

For a government run or directed health care system to work, it's essential they gain access to all patients' medical records and in turn start to decide who can receive what treatments. Universal, government run health care means bureaucrats will start injecting themselves into what were formerly patient-doctor decisions.

This has been fought in Minnesota for a number of years where certain legislators have attempted to exert more state control and regulation of health care. With the Obama Administration, the same effort is now being made in Congress. The ultimate consequence of more government involvement in health care is rationing and reduced health care quality.

U of MN official program calls for challenging white privilege, universal health care, abortion rights, living wages, and same sex marriage

Here's an email message put out by Anne Phibbs, Director of the GLBTA (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Ally) Programs Office at the University of Minnesota. The official pro-homosexual advocacy program of the University of Minnesota subsidized with our taxpayer dollars.

The tag line at the bottom of the statement, highlights the Leftist ideological bent of the group, e.g. "We recognize the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity, class, ability, ability, age, culture, and all social systems; we are committed to holding ourselves ad others accountable for working against all forms of oppression." Oppression?

In her email letter, Ms. Phibbs calls for her and her fellow GLBTA allies to "Be out and proud and visible -- as a progressive queer/GLBTA movement..."

She notes that she's going to attend an Anti-Proposition 8 rally "as a representative of the thousands and millions of queer and GLBTA activists who understand that our agenda is as much about challenging white privilege, ending gender and sexual violence, creating access for people with disabilities, and ensuring universal health care, access to education, reproductive rights, and living wages - as it is about same sex marriage."

That's quite an agenda for an official program of the University of Minnesota.

"Challenging white oppression." Sounds like U of M President Bruininks might be in trouble.

"Ensuring universal health care"...by the government I'm sure. That's an expensive and controversial proposal.

"Reproductive rights." I didn't realize the University of Minnesota was taking sides in the abortion debate.

"Living wage." What would that mean for the millions of lower wage earners who would lose their jobs?

And of course, last but not least is "same sex marriage." This sounds like the University of Minnesota is in the vanguard of the sexual revolution.

With the state facing the prospect of a several billion dollar budget deficit and the University of Minnesota certain to call for more state tax dollars, I think the the legislature and the governor's office should take a closer look at how the University of Minnesota is spending the money it already receives from the state before making new legislative appropriations to the University of Minnesota.

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GLBTA Programs Office E-Blast Friday, November 14, 2008 Bridging Our Communities Considering Tomorrow's Protests As many of you know by now, tomorrow will be a national day of action for GLBT rights, with protests planned across the country. Information about the protests planned for Minnesota are included at the end of this email. This day of action has grown out of anger and frustration over the passage of Proposition 8 in California and other anti-GLBT legislation in Arizona, Arkansas and Florida. Here at the U of M today, I have spoken with students, colleagues and community members who plan to attend the protests because they are angered by the loss of same sex marriage rights. And I have spoken with others who will not attend, in part because they are frustrated with an organized GLBTA movement that seems to take same sex marriage rights as the primary focal point of its political agenda. In weighing my options, I've decided to attend tomorrow both because I am angry about Proposition 8 and other measures around the country - and because I know that same sex marriage rights cannot be our focus as a movement. I want to attend tomorrow as a representative of the thousands and millions of queer and GLBTA activists who understand that our agenda is as much about challenging white privilege, ending gender and sexual violence, creating access for people with disabilities, and ensuring universal health care, access to education, reproductive rights, and living wages - as it is about same sex marriage. Now, more than ever, we need to be out and proud and visible - as a progressive queer/GLBTA movement that rejects the simplistic politics of separation and division. In support of that vision, I offer here some text from an open letter to the community by organizations involved in the No on 8 effort. This letter addresses some of the painful discussion that is occurring in our communities around who "caused" the defeat of Proposition 8. Please take a moment to read this letter, and to work against a simplistic analysis pitting "the GLBT community" against "the African American community." We are not two distinct communities, but one human community made up of many identities, faiths, beliefs and worldviews. It is my hope that the passage of Proposition 8 can serve as a catalyst - to get us sharing our stories and experiences with people we've not yet talked with. The full text can be found at: http://www.thetaskforce.org/activist_center/take_action "It is natural to analyze what went wrong. But in recent days there has been a tendency to assign blame to specific communities, in particular, the African American community. The fact is, 52 percent of all Californians, the vast majority of whom were not African Americans, voted against us. In addition, the most recent analysis of the exit poll that drove much of this speculation determined that it was too small to draw any conclusion on the African American vote, and further polling shows that the margin was much closer than first reported. Most importantly, though, none of this discourse changes the outcome of the vote. It only serves to divide our community and hinder our ability to create a stronger and more diverse coalition to help us overturn Proposition 8 and restore full equality and human rights to LGBT people. It also deflects responsibility from the group that is responsible for this miscarriage of justice: The Yes on 8 campaign. They waged a deceitful and immoral campaign that brought about this violation of our human rights and dignity." In hope and struggle, Anne Phibbs Director, GLBTA Programs Office The following area protests are being staged on Saturday, November 15: • Minneapolis: 12:30 p.m. assembly at Hennepin County Government Center, 315 South 5th Street • Saint Paul: 3:00 p.m. assembly at State Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard • Duluth/Superior: 12:00 p.m. assembly at MN Power Plaza, Lake Avenue and Superior Street • Fargo/Moorhead: 12:00 p.m. assembly at Fargo (west) side of the Veterans Memorial Bridge on Main Avenue For more information: National Day of Action Minnesota Events Details About the GLBTA Programs Office The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Ally Programs Office is dedicated to improving campus climate for all University of Minnesota students, staff, faculty, alumni, and visitors by developing and supporting more inclusive understandings of gender and sexuality. We recognize the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity, class, ability, age, culture, and all social systems; we are committed to holding ourselves and others accountable for working against all forms of oppression. The GLBTA Programs Office seeks to bridge and build communities that create affirming and welcoming environments in which people can be their whole selves and which honor all identities and experiences. To contact the GLBTA Programs Office, please call 612-625-0537, email us, or visit our website.

This e-mail was sent to ... by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Ally Programs Office at the University of Minnesota, 138 Klaeber Court, 320 16th Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. To stop receiving this e-mail communication, click here to opt-out.