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Home Healthcare Providers Shanghaied into Socialist Run Union Without Consent

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Many decades ago, unions played an important role in getting thousands of Americans better work conditions, hours and pay. However, in the last few decades, they have helped drive the overall cost of living higher, forced thousands to join unions and pay dues even though they didn’t want to join, and they have become strong political entities pushing socialist agendas.

If you live in a state that is NOT a right-to-work state, you are forced to join a union and pay monthly dues, even if you don’t want to join. Our state is that way and if you want to get a job at local grocery store like Kroger, who only pays minimum wages and offers part time hours to start, you also have to pay union dues out of the meager earnings. For years, some of have referred to this as legal extortion and compared unions to illegal protection rackets – pay or suffer the consequences.

During the 2012 presidential campaigns, one very socialist union, the SEIU, paid protesters $11 an hour to be bussed to Mitt Romney campaign events to disrupt the event.

In 2014, the Wisconsin Education Association Council (the state’s teachers; union) spent $1.6 million of union dues money to campaign against Gov. Scott Walker during a recall election which he won.

In 2014, Adam Neuman was one of many teachers in Michigan who decided to opt out of the union after the passage of a law in 2012. He felt the union was too politically active in all the wrong areas and didn’t want his dues used for those purposes. After opting out of the union, he was shocked when he got paycheck and saw an $80 deduction from the school district. He inquired into the matter knowing that he should no longer be paying union dues and was shocked to learn that the deduction is not considered dues, but part of a program known as ‘release time’ which is a politically correct way of saying that the deduction is earmarked to pay the salary of the union officials.

In 2015, it was revealed that the National Education Association (NEA), one of the most liberal, socialist and powerful unions in America, was hosting the Read Across America initiative and guess who is taking a key role in the initiative? Yep! The GLSEN is an active participant with the goal of pushing their theme of acceptance of the LGBT perverted lifestyle and they want to reach all grade levels, even down to kindergarteners.

In 2015, the NEA again made news when it was learned that they were spending millions of dollars of union dues to help keep illegal aliens in the United States.

Now we are learning that the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) has shanghaied thousands of home healthcare providers into joining the union and paying union dues without their consent according to Forbes:

“In 2013, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) got one of its favored politicians, Minnesota governor Mark Dayton, to sign an order declaring that home healthcare providers who receive Medicaid money to care for disabled family members were government employees. But they were “employees” only because that made them eligible for unionization. The SEIU figured that it had a good shot at finagling a victory in an election, which would then lead to a nice infusion of new dues money.”

“The election, conducted under the auspices of the friendly state bureaucracy, was done entirely through mail-in ballots and under its rules, a victory required only a majority of the votes cast. When the votes were counted in 2014, 3,543 were in favor of the union and 2,306 against. There were about 27,000 home healthcare providers, so with just 13 percent of the total number, the SEIU was declared the representative of all 27,000.”

“Nearly 24,000 home caregivers had become union members without their consent or even over their dissent.”

Further investigation has discovered that some of the ballots on the union vote were mailed to vacant houses and business, leading many to believe the election results were a fraudulent attempt to enslave the thousands of healthcare workers and make them part of the SEIU.

Although it only took 3,543 questionable votes to pass the union bill, opposition has gathered over 6,000 signatures in a call for another vote, but so far that call is being denied.

America needs a national law that makes the entire country a right work nation, meaning that NO ONE will be forced to join a union and pay union dues if they don’t want to. Should not we all have that freedom?

Obvious & Elusive Key to Real Healthcare Reform

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What are the principles that made America the great, powerful and prosperous nation it once was?

How prosperous are nations who have embraced the various forms of socialism? Generally, these nations have a few wealthy individuals who control and dictate all of life to the majority of the citizens and what has happened to most of them? Why did the former Soviet Union collapse from within and why did the Berlin Wall come down, leading to a unified Germany?

Why has the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, been such an utter failure?

Would you believe that all of these things are tied together? It’s called socialism and socialistic economy.

The Soviet Union collapsed because their socialist economy collapsed from within. The Berlin Wall was torn down when the socialistic economy of East Germany collapsed, leading to a unified Germany.

Obamacare failed because it’s a socialistic program to force government control over the people and health industry. Think about it, Great Britain launched their socialist national healthcare system, known as the National Health Service in 1948. For over a decade, it has been plagued with financial woes.

I have close friends in England who have shared their struggles with the National Health Service. One friend had to wait 7 months to have her extremely inflamed and painful gall bladder removed because of the NHS red tape, She and others I know in the UK have told me that as the NHS runs into more financial difficulty, the taxes to pay for it have gone up and their coverage has gone down. A growing number of common medical procedures that were once covered are no longer covered, meaning that the British people are having to pay more and more out of pocket for their medical needs.

Now, the Republicans in Congress are trying to come up with a workable replacement for Obamacare, but they have been trapped by the socialist Democrats to replace one failed socialist national healthcare system with another national socialist healthcare system that will also be destined to fail.

The simple and best solution is to look at what made America the great, powerful and prosperous nation it once was.

America was built on a free market system with healthy business competition. Generally, when a number of companies compete for the same business, it keeps the prices lower.

Once source points out:

“Health care reform is an enormous challenge because when it comes to economic policy, Republicans always have an uphill battle. Their free market solutions are harder to sell in a nation that has long had one foot in the socialism door.”

“Republicans express their belief in the free market, especially when they’re out of power and running against liberals and their failed policies, but they have a tougher time governing on conservative principles once in office. They often operate on flawed assumptions, seeking to accomplish contradictory goals and operating in an environment with two-year election cycles, which discourage making correct decisions for the long term.”

“But the GOP must recapture its belief in free market principles and muster the patience and political courage to promote them. Competition and free markets are the best avenues to economic prosperity, liberty and, in the case of health care, accessibility, affordability and quality. Yes, we must support some kind of safety net, but it ought to be designed to be short-term in as many cases as possible and should create incentives to encourage people to help themselves.”

So, what is the obvious and seemingly elusive key to real healthcare reform? The Promotion of a free market system with healthy competition between healthcare providers. If only Republicans in Congress would take the lessons of American history and use them to reform healthcare from what the socialistic Democrats forced upon on us to something that will be economically more feasible for the American people and the insurance companies.

Key Points to GOP Healthcare Plan

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The news is full of all kinds of reports on what’s in and not in the proposed GOP healthcare plan which Republicans hope will replace Obamacare. Realize that most of the reports the public are hearing or reading are coming from ultra-liberal mainstream media outlets who are bent on destroying everything done by conservatives, Republicans and the Trump administration.

The relationship between liberals (mainstream media and Democrats) and conservatives (Republicans and Christians) has been described in terms generally used in divorce cases – IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES.

The American Culture & Faith Institute conducted a survey which clearly displays the deep divide between the two warring political factions in our nation. One interesting facet of the survey is that the single most important issue causing the irreconcilable differences between the two political worldviews has to do with one’s worldview of God.

In the survey, WORLDVIEW SURVEY REVEALS “IRRECONCILABLE” DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONSERVATIVES AND LIBERALS, they asked 20 key questions. Their report states:

Drawing from a nationwide survey of adults that measured how many people have a biblical worldview, the research discovered that people who are politically conservative are more than twice as likely as those who are politically liberal to have biblical positions on the twenty belief indicators tested by ACFI. In addition, the survey found that political conservatives are about 60% more likely to hold biblical positions on those indicators than are those who qualify as politically moderate.

There were 15 belief statements among the 20 included in the survey for which conservatives were substantially more likely than liberals to hold a biblical point of view – that is, a difference between the two groups of at least 25 percentage points. Those included the following differences:

  • Saying that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator of the universe who still rules it today (a 43 percentage point difference between the two segments)
  • Strongly agreeing that the main purpose of life is to know, love, and serve God (40-point gap)
  • Asserting that everyone is a sinner in need of a savior, repentance and forgiveness (39-point difference)
  • Believing that the Bible is the word of God, with no errors (38-point gap)
  • Strongly disagreeing that Satan does not exist but is just a symbol of evil (36-point gap)
  • Saying that God created human beings in what is pretty much their present form, just as the Bible says (34-point difference)
  • Strongly agreeing that the Bible is totally accurate in the life principles it conveys (33-point gap)
  • Believing that God is aware of everything happening and remains actively involved in peoples’ lives (33-point difference)
  • Believing that the Bible is the most reliable source of absolute moral truth (32-point gap)
  • Believing that the most important indicator of personal success in life is one’s commitment and obedience to God (31-point difference)
  • Believing that success is best indicated by commitment and obedience to God (31-point difference)
  • Firmly asserting that their religious faith is very important to them (31-point gap)
  • Contending that there are moral absolutes that are unchanging (30-point difference)
  • Saying it is very important to be engaged in developing a deeper relationship with God (27-point difference)
  • Saying it is very important to increase their personal understanding of God’s ways, as described in the Bible (27-point gap)

As the report stated:

“The ACFI survey revealed that the link between ideology and beliefs helps explain the recent election results. ‘Election surveys have pointed out how significant people’s candidate preference in the presidential race was to their hopes for the future,’ said Barna. ‘In that light, the Worldview Measurement Project surveys demonstrate the power of worldview, even in elections. Among all adults, those with a biblical worldview were more likely to vote than were those who did not. That is because a biblical worldview informs people that participating in the direction and leadership of society is a personal duty. Further, among voters who have a biblical worldview, 68% voted for Donald Trump and 27% voted for Hillary Clinton. Their primary motivation had to do with restoring traditional moral values. Among voters who do not have a biblical worldview, Mrs. Clinton held a 47% to 44% edge. She was the preference of those without a biblical worldview primarily in the hope of adopting more postmodern values’.”

It also explains why so many liberals are up in arms over everything President Donald Trump says and does. It often has nothing to do with what he actually does or says, but has everything to do with the irreconcilable differences between the two political factions, and until something breaks this deeply divided feud, nothing will ever be accomplished without major turmoil, bickering and lawsuits.

Knowing this, then realize that at this point, many of the details of the GOP healthcare plan are known, many are not and most could be in a state of flux and subject to change. However, here are several key points to report at this early stage:

1) The insurance mandate that penalized taxpayers from not having healthcare insurance goes away.

2) Instead of federal subsidies, individuals may qualify for ‘advanceable’ tax credits to help in the purchase of healthcare insurance. The tax credit amounts will generally range from $2,000 to $4,000 a year for lower and middle income families, depending on income, family size and age. Many critics say that the replacement of subsidies with the tax credits will leave millions of lower class and elderly people without healthcare due to the costs.

3) Pre-existing medical conditions will still coverable, but like Obamacare, nothing in the new plan says the coverage for pre-existing conditions will be affordable.

4) A broader selection of different types of policies will be available, including catastrophic policies.

5) Children up to the age of 26 will be allowed to remain under their parent’s healthcare policy.

6) Although Medicaid may first expand, it will eventually be reduced.

7) Most of the hidden and not-hidden taxes invoked by the Affordable Healthcare Act will be repealed. Some of those taxes involved prescriptions, over the counter medications, medical devices, etc.

8) The coverage for the ten essential healthcare benefits outlined in Obamacare will still be required. However, after December 31, 2019, those essential benefits will no longer be required in all policies, but will still be available depending on the needs of the policy holder. How this may help is an older couple will no longer have to pay for maternity or contraceptive coverages they no longer need, now will individuals be forced to pay for state Medicaid coverage they don’t need.

9) Under Obamacare, tax-exempt health savings accounts were capped at a maximum of $3,400 for individuals and $6,750 for families. The new limits would be raised to $6,550 for individuals and $13,100 for families.

One thing to consider with all the hype thrown at Obamacare and the GOP replacement healthcare is that it really only effects less than 10% of the entire US population. One report says that only 7% of the American population purchases their own healthcare insurance. Based on the population clock kept by the US Census, the current population is approximately 324.67 million meaning that only around 22.7 million are actually affected by the biggest story in the media. If you’re one of those, then it is a big deal and you’ll want to follow along and learn as much as possible of what kind of coverage you’ll get and how much it will cost you.

SCOTUS Nominee Gorsuch Could have Impact on Medical Industry

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www.abcnews.go.com

In 1986, then President Ronald Reagan nominated a member of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to fill the Supreme Court seat of Justice William Rehnquist. The nominee was 50-year-old Antonin Scalia, who was known as a strong conservative. He was also said to be an originalist and textualist, meaning that he strongly adhered to the US Constitution and the meaning intended by the Framers who wrote our founding document.

Scalia served on the high court for nearly thirty years. During that time, he was considered to be the champion of conservative jurisprudence. He fought for the America our Founding Fathers established. He didn’t try to make it into anything different like so many liberal judges are trying to do these days.

When Scalia died suddenly, it was a shock to the conservative half of America. He was the counterbalance of the ultra-liberal rulings of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who many had hoped would leave the high court long before Scalia.

After placing two more ultra-liberals on the Supreme Court, Barack Obama was ready to do so again. However, knowing that he would never get the Republican controlled Senate to confirm another ultra-liberal, he tried to nominate someone he felt was more of a moderate – Judge Merrick Garland of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. As we all know, the GOP Senate refused to hold confirmation hearings on Garland or any nominee until after the election.

Now, the responsibility of replacing Scalia on the high bench has fallen on President Donald Trump who appointed 49-year-old Judge Neil Gorsuch. In 2006, then President George W. Bush appointed Gorsuch to the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, located in Denver, Colorado.

According to the Washington Post:

“Our analysis suggests that if confirmed, Gorsuch might be the most conservative justice on the Supreme Court.”

A Gorsuch confirmation could also have an impact on the medical industry. According to the Star Tribune:

“But one of the most strongly expressed opinions Gorsuch would bring to the nation’s highest judicial body is a belief that federal law protects medical device makers from lawsuits filed by patients injured by their products.”

“As an appeals court judge in the U.S. 10th Circuit, Gorsuch wrote an important 2015 opinion that denied a woman the right to sue Medtronic for injuries she said were caused by the company’s improper off-label promotion of its Infuse bone graft…”

“In the Caplinger opinion, Gorsuch asserted: ‘Nothing depends on whether the plaintiff seeks to use state law to impose requirements for off-label uses or on-label uses. Rather, by its terms, the statute pre-empts any effort to use state law to impose a new requirement on a federally approved medical device’.”

“Gorsuch added that ‘a state’s judgment that a device is unsafe for a particular off-label use could require design changes that adversely affect the device’s safety for on-label uses’.”

“Having a Supreme Court justice who takes such an approach is good news for the medical device industry, which employs tens of thousands of workers in Minnesota and is home to one of the country’s most robust medical technology sectors, said John Dornik, an attorney at the Minneapolis firm of Siegel Brill, who also teaches product liability at the University of Minnesota.”

Some may look on this as a negative from the patient point of view, but others look on it as a positive for the medical device industry and a boon for jobs and medical research. One thing is for sure, if confirmed Neil Gorsuch could and probably will have an impact on the medical industry for years to come.

Your Health Skeletons May Come Back to Haunt You

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Everyone has some sort of skeletons hidden away in the closets of their past. Things they’ve done, said, should have done or didn’t do that they don’t want anyone to know about or hide from themselves. Some call it guilt. Others chalk it up to that embarrassing and sometimes uncontrollable time in our lives called youth or our teen years.

Some of these skeletons we hide away may have been something we did that was illegal or just wrong. A sin which we are now ashamed of. Some may be bad habits that we finally grew out of or changed. They tell us that with age comes wisdom, but we’ve all met some people that seem to defy getting any wiser as they grow older.

If someone asked you about the skeletons in your closet, would you even consider the fact that they may be talking about health-related skeletons? How many of you ever consider the fact that these health-related skeletons of our past may have a significant influence on our future health?

Obviously, one of the first skeletons most people think of is smoking. Did you smoke in your youth or sometime in your past, but quit? Did you know that how long your smoked and how long ago you quit may still be affecting your health today or in the future? Ask yourself if you quit smoking over a decade earlier if you are safe now? According to a report released by Fox News:

“You smoked a pack a day a decade ago
Safe: (Eh, almost.) It’s better if you never did. But kicking the habit before age 39 cut men and women’s smoking-associated risk of death from any cause by 90 percent in a 2013 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. That’s the equivalent of nine extra years to pile candles on your birthday cake.”

What about your lack of activity? What if you were lazy or married to your desk job and just didn’t have time to exercise? What if you were a couch potato?

“Your butt used to be glued to your couch
Safe: A 2014 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that when older adults logged just one moderate or vigorous exercise session per week, they were three and four times, respectively, more likely to age healthfully — even if they used to be complete couch potatoes.”

What about your sleeping habits? The news has been filled for years with reports of how important it to your health to get enough sleep every night, but could your lack of enough sleep be one of your health skeletons hiding in your closet?

“You skimped on shut-eye regularly
Safe: Sleep deprivation is no joke. “You’re taking away vital energy that your brain needs to properly function,” Peterson, who also works with the digital health platform Zocdoc, told Fox News. “But luckily, most of the effects quickly disappear after giving your body the time it needs —and deserves — to rest and repair,” she said. The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults younger than 65 aim for seven to nine hours per night.”

Trust me, I know firsthand the effects of too little sleep. Between living in constant pain and having 3 distinct sleep disorders, I feel extremely fortunate if I get between 4-5 hours sleep a night. It’s generally closer to around 3 hours of sleep in an 8-hour period. Consequently, I feel like I have chronic fatigue. I can fall asleep very easy but I can’t stay asleep. A result of my sleep deprivation and chronic pain has resulted in a suppressed immune system, leaving me susceptible to far too many of the illnesses that sweep through the area.

What about stress in your life? Is stress something you used to have, but have finally gotten away from it and hid it in your health closet?

“You let stress build up
Not safe: Unfortunately, getting keyed up from even minor things can drag down your health a decade or two in the future, a 2014 study in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine suggests. However, having a better perspective on those stresses — not letting them bother you — can mitigate those ill effects.”

There are other health skeletons hidden in many closets that can have a direct impact on your current and future health. Too much exposure to the sun or use of tanning beds may have left your skin with enough damage that years down the road can develop into skin cancer.

Diet is another big skeleton in many health closets. Regardless if you are overweight, underweight or perfect weight, your past diet may still have an impact on your future health. Like those salty fries, potato chips and popcorn? If you have or are susceptible to high blood pressure, you need to consider cutting your salt intake as that has a direct impact on your blood pressure which can lead to other serious and fatal conditions.

“You loved your BBQ and burgers
Tie: Loading up on red meat is linked to weight gain and developing diabetes. However, over a four-year period, reducing red meat consumption by at least a half serving per day can drop your likelihood of the disease by 14 percent, a 2014 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests. Peterson advised eating no more than 15 ounces of red meat per week.”

“You considered cookies a food group
Safe: Unfortunately, the sugar industry has historically downplayed the health effects of sugar, research reveals. And while eating too much of the sweet stuff can boost your odds of dying from heart disease by nearly threefold, according to a 2014 study in JAMA Internal Medicine, other research from 2015, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism suggests you can undo some of the metabolic damage in a week or so of cutting down your consumption.”

Eventually, our past habits, those health skeletons in our closets, may and often to come back to haunt us in the future. What skeletons are in your closet? Are there any that you can eliminate? If not, what can you do now to try to keep them in the closet as long as possible?

See your doctor and get regular check-ups. Be honest with him or her because the more they know of your skeletons, the better they will be able to help you keep them there or help you deal with the ones that won’t stay hidden.

Some of my health skeletons came back to haunt me. I let myself get very overweight, knowing there is a family history of Type 2 diabetes. Once I was diagnosed as having the same, I stayed on a diabetic diet for a while but then stopped. After nearly 2 years of not watching what and how much I was eating, I ended up in the hospital with a severe bout of vertigo. I found out that my blood glucose and blood pressure levels were dangerously high. Once I got home, I took action and made changes. With my doctor’s supervision, I went on a strict diet and began walking 1-2 times a day. I lost over 80pouds, brought my blood pressure and blood glucose levels down and my last A1-C was below the diabetic level.

Democrats Blast Republicans for Trying to Fix Their Disastrous Healthcare System

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Photo: cbsnews.com

For reasons, completely unknown, the Democrats decided to tap former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to deliver the liberal party’s rebuttal to Trump’s address to Congress. With many prominent Democrats in Washington DC, it was more than a surprise to learn that Beshear was chosen for the sacred honor of ripping the President’s address to shreds. Perhaps one reason is the Beshear is a devout Obamanite disciple and did everything his master asked him to do.

Ask yourself why would the Democrats choose someone who just lost his political office to a Republican political novice who sounds a lot like Donald Trump? Republican Matt Bevin is a businessman who, like Trump, opposed many of the bureaucratic dictates of the Obama administration and defeated Democrat Jack Conway by a 511,374 to 426,620 vote margin.

Steve Beshear was elected governor of Kentucky in 2007. He had a big political following in the good ole boy state since he served in the state House of Representatives, state Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor. Once Barack Obama was elected, Beshear quickly made it known that he supported Obama’s socialist agenda 150%.

He couldn’t wait to implement Obamacare in Kentucky. When he was selected to be the mouthpiece for the Democratic slander of President Trump, Beshear was touted as being a champion of Obamacare in his state. All the media outlets bragged about how Beshear’s implementation of Obamacare lowered the state’s uninsured rate from 20% to 7.5%.

What they didn’t report is how much that was costing Kentucky taxpayers and how some people in Kentucky still could not afford the outrageous premiums associated with Obamacare.

After only a month in office, Bevin announced that he had put a plan in motion to transition from a state healthcare exchange program to using the federal exchange. In his statement, he stated that it makes no sense to pay twice for the same thing, meaning that those of us in Kentucky are paying taxes to support the federal exchange program and we pay state taxes to support the state exchange program. That’s an example of the failed economic plans of the Democrat Party.

Perhaps another reason so many people in Kentucky were able to get healthcare coverage under Obamacare is that they were able to qualify for the federal subsidy. We live in Kentucky and know of a number of residents who were able to purchase healthcare coverage only because they qualified for a federal subsidy. Every one of them said that without the federal subsidy, they would not be able to afford coverage because the costs were so high.

How high are the costs of Obamacare in Kentucky? My wife has a heart valve issue that is controlled with medication. I have Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and am overweight. When we priced an Obamacare policy in the Blue Grass State, we were shocked at the high price. The cheapest plan we could find was a bronze tier plan that had a $4,000 deductible and once that was met, would only pay 60% of covered expenses, which really equates to paying less than 50% of medical costs. How much did this great healthcare policy cost? $816 a month or nearly $10,000 a year. That’s like making a second mortgage payment each month for a plan that would still cost us thousands of dollars out of pocket.

Speaking from a diner in Louisville, Beshear stated:

“Even more troubling is that you and your Republican allies in Congress seem determined to rip affordable health insurance away from millions of Americans who most need it.

“So far, every Republican idea to ‘replace’ the Affordable Care Act would reduce the number of Americans covered, despite promises to the contrary.”

Oh really? Didn’t Obama promise that everyone in America would be covered under the Affordable Care Act? Didn’t Obama promise that the Affordable Care Act would lower the costs of healthcare insurance and increase the benefits, services and options everyone would have.

Millions of Americans lost their healthcare insurance under Obama. Millions saw their premiums skyrocket while the benefits, services and options drastically decreased. Thousands of doctors left the medical profession, numerous medical facilities and hospitals stopped taking Medicaid and other Obamacare patients because they were not getting paid as promised and many insurance companies have dropped policies and withdrawn from Obamacare.

And Beshear has the gall to criticize President Trump and Republicans for wanting to fix what they failed to deliver in the first place? This whole mess was created by liberal Democrats, not Republicans, so why are Republicans being vilified for wanting to fix or replace the Democrat’s disastrous program.

GOP Obamacare Replacement

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During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He and others have pointed out the many problems associated with Obamacare.

Millions of Americans have seen their premiums skyrocket and their coverage decrease meaning they are paying more for less. A growing number of doctors left their private practices, either joining a larger medical group or finding a whole new profession because under Obamacare, they earn less and have more rules and restrictions and paperwork. A number of hospitals have stopped accepting patients on Obama’s expanded Medicaid because they are not getting reimbursed for services as promised and are losing too much money. Obamacare established a number of co-ops to help provide coverage for lower income people, however, the majority of the co-ops have failed and closed. A number of the major healthcare insurance companies have dropped many of their Obamacare policies and others have or are planning to completely withdraw from providing any Obamacare policies. Millions of Americans have had their healthcare policies cancelled on them.

On a more positive note, a number of lower income individuals were able to purchase healthcare coverage with the help of the federal subsidies. Additionally, many people with pre-existing conditions were also able to obtain healthcare coverage for the first time in years.

However, even though Obamacare promised that pre-existing medical conditions would be covered, it never promised that coverage would be affordable. My wife has a minor heart condition that is treated with medication. I am overweight and have Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. When we shopped for healthcare, the cheapest policy we found was a bronze-tier plan that had a $4,000 deductible and then would only pay 60% of covered items and we all know how ‘covered items’ works. For this wonderful healthcare insurance policy, it would have cost us $816 a month. Like most Americans, there was no way we could afford to pay that much a month for so little coverage. It was cheaper to pay the tax penalty for the first couple of years. Thankfully, we both have Medicare now which although not great, is better than nothing.

In the wake of the election, President Donald Trump has vowed to keep his promise on Obamacare and has tasked Congress to come up with a workable replacement.

In the meantime, many Americans have been protesting and telling their politicians in Washington DC and the liberal media that they fear they will lose their current healthcare coverage if Obamacare is repealed. Trump has tried to reassure the worried public by saying that everyone will be covered, but saying and doing are two different things.

Many liberal critics have been saying that the Republicans have no plan to replace Obamacare with and others are saying that they have no idea how to proceed. No matter what the Republicans do or how good of a replacement they come up with, liberals will still pick and choose on what aspects to complain about. Not everyone will be satisfied and someone will always be unhappy and complain.

A recent report indicates that Washington Republicans are working on a draft for a healthcare replacement of Obamacare. Like most drafts, it is subject to change, so people should not start getting too worked up or bent out of shape over the preliminary reports such as those currently surfacing.

“The Feb. 10 document follows the broad policy outline released by Republicans last week just before they went home for a Congressional recess. It proposes cuts to federal payments to states that have expanded Medicaid and offers tax credits for people to buy health insurance…”

“Under the plan, states that expanded eligibility for Medicaid would see their supplemental federal funding rolled back. The program would also be converted from a federal-state program that pays for all the health care beneficiaries get, to one where Washington sends a fixed amount of money to each state for each Medicaid enrollee.”

“To help people who don’t get insurance through their employer buy coverage, the bill offers age-based tax credits that start at $2,000 for individuals under age 30. It would rise to $4,000 for those over 60. Those credits are unlikely to cover the full cost of a plan that pays for routine health care, but could potentially pay for insurance that protects against a catastrophic health event.”

The problem I see with offering a tax credit is that it only applies when you file your taxes, not when you have to pay out that monthly premium while trying to pay your mortgage/rent, keep the utilities on and food on the table.

Larry Levitt, Senior Vice President at the Kaiser Family Foundation commented about the early draft:

“This would mean fewer people could afford health insurance and that the health insurance would likely cover less.”

Like I said, this is an early draft and subject to a lot of change. I don’t envy those men and women tasked to find a workable placement, but be assured, Republicans are working on a plan and hopefully, it will be better than Obamacare.

Health News Videos: New Technologies Disrupting Healthcare

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Health News Update: Disruptive Healthcare Technologies

New technologies are disrupting heathcare

In this health news update, we review several new technologies currently disrupting the field of healthcare to improve overall health and anti-aging. Exponential change in healthcare is here and it isn’t leaving. Over the next 5-10 years we will see dramatic changes in how we receive healthcare, diagnose disease improve anti-aging technology and treat global health crises. Here are 5 technologies that are leading the charge in 2017.

Artificial Intelligence And The Future Of Health:
Health News about AI: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as the science and engineering of creating intelligent computer systems that are able to perform tasks without receiving instructions directly from humans. It is on the brink of disrupting many industries including healthcare. AI systems have the potential to provide physicians and researchers with clinically relevant, real-time, quality information sourced from data stored in electronic health records (EHRs) for immediate needs. With the introduction of AI to healthcare, we can expect better patient outcomes, more efficient doctor visits, reduction of treatment costs and an end to unnecessary hospital procedures.

Health News About 3D Printing Technology
According to 3dprint.com, one of the faster growing markets to adopt 3D printing technology is the healthcare industry, which has been rapidly developing new medical applications at an astounding rate. What once was just a small blip on the 3D printing radar has grown into its own industry within an industry, and looks to continue to expand exponentially over the next four years.

Drones
When you think of health news, you wouldn’t expect to find information about drones. In fact, your first thought might be about how you will receive your next Amazon delivery, dropped on your doorstep in a matter of hours. But in developing countries facing urgent and deadly healthcare challenges, drones save lives. Using drones to deliver life saving medical supplies is being tested around the globe and the potential for growth is huge.

Mini DNA Sequencer
One of the most interesting bits of health news we discovered while researching this article concerns the Mini DNA Sequencer. Thanks to British company, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, there is now a USB powered genome sequencer that is smaller than most smart phones. What does that mean? We can now monitor the health and diagnose diseases for astronauts in space. We can use the device to learn about mobile DNA sequencing. It has the potential to be part of every aid worker’s field kit as well as medical supplies delivered to communities for improved health education and self-monitoring.

Nanotechnology Health News
According to Singularityhub.com, in the last decade, nanotechnology has advanced and is finding practical applications. Some teams are developing nanoscale patterns on medical implants that can stimulate bone cell growth and positive gene expression. Others are working to make guided nanoparticles that detect (and even destroy) cancer cells. The dream of nanomachines traveling your body and repairing it on the cellular level is a little closer thanks to the development of nanoengines and nanorockets.

Is 100 Years Old The New 60? These Incredible Stories Suggest It Will Be!

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Is 100 years old about to be the new 60? The folks at Peter Diamandis’ Human Longevity, Inc. think so.  They’ve cited these top five stories from 2016 on longevity research that suggest that the debate on a natural life span limit is far from over.

500-Year-Old Shark Discovered: A Greenland shark that could have been over 500 years old was discovered this year, making the species the longest-lived vertebrate in the world.

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Genetically Reversing Aging: With an experiment that replicated stem cell-like conditions, Salk Institute researchers made human skin cells in a dish look and behave young again, and mice with premature aging disease were rejuvenated with a 30% increase in lifespan. The Salk Institute expects to see this work in human trials in less than 10 years.

25% Life Extension Based on Removal of Senescent Cells: Published in the medical journal Nature, cell biologists Darren Baker and Jan van Deursen have found that systematically removing a category of living, stagnant cells can extend the life of mice by 25 percent.

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Funding for Anti-Aging Startups: Jeff Bezos and the Mayo Clinic-backed Anti-Aging Startup Unity Biotechnology with $116 million. The company will focus on medicines to slow the effects of age-related diseases by removing senescent cells (as mentioned in the article above).

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Young Blood Experiments Show Promising Results for Longevity: Sakura Minami and her colleagues at Alkahest, a company specializing in blood-derived therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, have found that simply injecting older mice with the plasma of young humans twice a week improved the mice’s cognitive functions as well as their physical performance. This practice has seen a 30% increase in lifespan, and increase in muscle tissue and cognitive function.

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Source: http://diamandis.com/tech-blog

10 Reasons Peter Diamandis Thinks The End of Cancer & Disease is Near

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For his 2017 “kick-off” blog, Peter Diamandis has reviewed more than 52 weeks of science and technology breakthroughs. He discovered that scientists have made huge strides in research and testing in 2016 that make the end of cancer & disease a real possibility in the near future.

Most well known as the Founder of the X-Prize, Diamandis is also the Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman of Human Longevity Inc. (HLI), a genomics and cell therapy-based diagnostic and therapeutic company focused on extending the healthy human lifespan.

Here are his top 10 reasons we should all have faith that the end of cancer and disease is in sight.

  1.  Cancer Immunotherapy Makes Strides (Extraordinary Results): Immunotherapy involves using a patient’s own immune system (in this case, T cells) to fight cancer. Doctors remove immune cells from patients, tag them with “receptor” molecules that target the specific cancer, and then infuse the cells back in the body. During the study, 94% of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) saw symptoms vanish completely. Patients with other blood cancers had response rates greater than 80%, and more than half experienced complete remission.

  1.  In China, CRISPR/Cas9 used in First Human Trial: A team of scientists in China (Sichuan University) became the first to treat a human patient with an aggressive form of lung cancer with the groundbreaking CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique.

  1.  NIH Approves Human Trials Using CRISPR: A team of physicians at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine had their project of modifying the immune cells of 18 different cancer patients with the CRISPR-Cas9 system approved by the National Institute of Health. Results are TBD.

  1.  Giant Leap in Treatment of Diabetes from Harvard: For the first time, Harvard stem cell researchers created “insulin producing” islet cells to cure diabetes in mice. This offers a promising cure in humans as well.

  1. HIV Genes Cut Out of Live Animals Using CRISPR: Scientists at the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center at  Temple University were able to successfully cut out the HIV genes from live animals, and they had over a 50% success rate.

  1.  New Treatment Causes HIV Infected Cells to Vanish: A team of scientists in the U.K. discovered a new treatment for HIV. The patient was treated with vaccines that helped the body recognize the HIV-infected cells. Then, the drug Vorinostat was administered to activate the dormant cells so they could be spotted by the immune system.

  1.  CRISPR Cures Mice of Sickle Cell Disease: CRISPR was used to completely cure sickle cell by editing the errant DNA sequence in mice. The treatment may soon be used to cure this disease, which affects about 100,000 Americans.

  1.  Eradicating Measles (in the U.S.): The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that after 50 years, they have successfully eradicated measles in the U.S. This is one of the most contagious diseases around the world.

  2.  New Ebola Vaccine Proved to be 100% Effective: None of the nearly 6,000 individuals vaccinated with rVSV-ZEBOV in Guinea, a country with more than 3,000 confirmed cases of Ebola, showed any signs of contracting the disease.

  1.  Eradicating Polio: The World Health Organization has announced that it expects to fully eradicate polio worldwide by Early 2017.

 

You can read more from Peter Diamandis’ blog here.

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