Needed: Shakespearean Healthcare Reform!

Or,..."First thing we do, we kill all the lawyers!"

I don't normally post about my regular job, being a paramedic, on this blog. Its sometimes boring, sometimes mind-numbingly stupid in its scope of human depravity, and not nearly as glamorous as Wyatt's job as a police officer, or Captain America's fire captain.

Then I read stories like this and it makes my head explode!



JEMS
OrlandoSentinel.com
2010 Apr 7
This massive $10 million jury award to a plaintiff in Florida presents a dilemma to ambulance services called on to transfer patients in labor from one hospital facility to a specialty care facility. On September 21, 2003, EVAC Ambulance, a respected high-performance, EMS agency, was dispatched to handle this inter facility transfer of a patient in labor and the crew responded with a duty to act as they would have to the home of a patient in labor.

The paramedic in charge was advised that the patient was 25-26 weeks pregnant and had been experiencing contractions approximately four minutes apart. The transferring physician reported the patient’s cervix was minimally dilated. An emergency transport was initiated and approximately fifteen minutes into the transport, the patient began experiencing contractions three minutes apart - lasting thirty seconds in duration.

Moments later, the patient’s amniotic sac ruptured and immediately following the sac rupture, the infant presented in the breach mode. The infant was successfully delivered, wrapped in a silver swaddler and ventilatory support was started. Due to the infant’s mottled skin color and flaccid condition, immediate CPR was started and continued for approximately eight minutes until the infant’s color improved, had slight movement and a weak cry. The mother and premature newborn were diverted to Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford for stabilization where they were further treated. The infant was transferred to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando and treated in their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Feel free to read the case dissection by AJ Heightman, a well-respected leader in the EMS field.

Here's my enraged take on the whole story:

1 - the local hospital probably doesn't have high-acuity OB/GYN doctors. Why? They're the biggest targets of malpractice cases in the US (source) (source). Many give up because they can't afford the insurance premiums. Because of that, the available appropriate facilities are few and far between, placing the care of the mother and child into the hands of (relatively) less-trained pre-hospital care providers for the transport.
2 - Normal gestation is 36-40 weeks. This baby was at 25 weeks, which holds a greater than 50% mortality rate. The deck was stacked again the baby long before the paramedics got involved.
3 - The mother had multiple disease processes going on in her reproductive system. That stresses the baby (note I refuse to say fetus) even more! Could a possible lack of pre-natal care contributed in an way?

So, instead, mom's now $10M richer, a great EMS provider's reputation is tarnished, and some bottom-of-the-pond scum lawyer got his 20%!

I'm disgusted!!!

No Longer the "Butt" of a Frat Joke?

Cancer Society Urges Docs to Stop Most Common Prostate Cancer Test

ATLANTA – New advice from the American Cancer Society puts a sharper focus on the risks of prostate cancer screening, emphasizing that annual testing can lead to unnecessary biopsies and treatments that do more harm than good.

The cancer society has not recommended routine screening for most men since the mid-1990s, and that is not changing. But its new advice goes farther to warn of the limitations of the PSA blood test that millions of American men get now. It also says digital rectal exams should be an option rather than part of a standard screening.

The new advice is the latest pushback from routine screening to hunt for early cancers. Last year, a government task force said most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and a doctors group said most women in their 20s don't need annual Pap tests.

American men have long been urged to have prostate cancer screenings, but over time studies have suggested that most cancers found are so slow-growing that most men could have avoided treatment.

Blue State Turns Brown!!!

CNN: Brown wins Massachusetts Senate race

Boston, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Republican Scott Brown has won Tuesday's special election for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy, CNN projects based on actual results.

Brown, a Massachusetts state senator, had 52 percent of the vote to 47 percent for state Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic contender, with over 69 percent of precincts reporting in results from the National Election Pool, a consortium of media organizations including CNN. Independent candidate Joseph Kennedy, a libertarian who is not related to the Kennedy political family of Massachusetts, had 1 percent.

At stake was President Obama's domestic agenda, including health care reform.

Brown Beats Coakley in Massachusetts Senate Race
FOXNews.com

Republican Scott Brown is the winner of the Massachusetts race for U.S. Senate.

The state senator whose campaign surged in the final weeks of the race becomes the first Republican to be elected to the Senate from the Bay State since 1972.

He also breaks the Democrats' 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in Washington, posing big problems for President Obama's agenda.

Blue State About to Turn "Brown?"

Voter Enthusiasm a Problem for Coakley, Polls Suggest FOXNews.com

The bad breaks keep piling up for Martha Coakley in her bid for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, with a string of gaffes causing her problems, Democratic strategists predicting the worst and the latest polls suggesting the state attorney general's campaign is missing the kind of enthusiasm that Republican Scott Brown has generated.

"We are in deep s--- if we lose on Tuesday," a Democratic operative said.

A new poll out of Public Policy Polling on Monday underscored the depth of Coakley's challenge.

The poll showed Brown leading 51-46 overall, 64-32 among independents and winning 20 percent of the vote from those who backed Obama in 2008. On the flip side, the survey showed Coakley pulling just 4 percent of the vote from those who backed John McCain, in the 2008 presidential race.

Hell, even left-leaning CeeNoNews has hit the panic button:

Brown looks to pull off huge upset in Massachusetts From Jim Acosta, CNN
January 18, 2010 10:37 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- Democrats are scrambling to hold onto the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in a surprisingly close race in Massachusetts that could imperil President Obama's agenda.

Polls published in the last week of the race show Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley in a dead heat, worrying Obama and Democrats about the possibility of losing what once was considered one of their safest seats.

A Brown victory would give Senate Republicans the votes to stop the health care bill -- and the rest of the president's agenda -- through a filibuster, a tactic they employed after Democrats took control of Congress after the 2006 elections. However, they have been unable to use that tactic after Democrats gained their 60-vote majority in the Senate in 2008.

Shoobie - Doobie - Do?

Speaking of,...Fox29's own Steve Keeley

Everystoned must get body?

N.J. Legislature Approves Medical Marijuana Bill

TRENTON, N.J. - The Legislature approved a bill that would make New Jersey the 14th state to allow chronically ill patients access to marijuana for medical reasons.

Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine supports the legislation and could sign it before leaving office next week, making it law.

The bill, signed Monday, allows patients with ailments such as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis to buy up to 2 ounces (57 grams) of marijuana a month at state-monitored dispensaries. Fox 29's Steve Keeley reports that would allow patients to make about eight marajuana joints per day.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, a Democrat, was a co-sponsor of the bill and pushed for it for years. He said medical marijuana can alleviate suffering and there's no evidence it increases overall drug use.

"I don't think we should make criminals out of our very sick and terminally ill," he said.

Incoming Republican Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, said he supported the concept of the bill but remained concerned that a loophole could lead to abuses.

A compromise bill was worked out after some other lawmakers expressed similar concerns. For example, a provision allowing patients to grow marijuana was removed.

Driving while high would continue to be against the law.

The other states that permit medical use of marijuana are Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

And the Healthcare Rationing Has Already Begun

Creeping in on little cat's feet, comes the first acknowledgment of medical rationing from the Obamessiah's unofficial Surgeon General:



We're now on the same playing fields as European Health models??

1900 screenings to save 1 life??

And THIS coming from the queen of medical objectivity, huh??

Great Outcomes from Government-Run Healthcare,...

Medicare is, after all, operated by the US Government, right?

One in four hospitalized heart failure patients with Medicare back in hospital within a month

Study highlights:

• Roughly a quarter of Medicare patients hospitalized for heart failure are back in the hospital within 30 days.
• 
  The rehospitalization rate for these patients, who are over age 65, remained the same from 2004 though 2006

DALLAS, Nov. 10, 2009 – Almost a quarter of heart failure patients with Medicare are back in the hospital within a month after discharge, researchers report in Circulation: Heart Failure, a journal of the American Heart Association.

Each year, from 2004 through 2006, more than a half million Medicare recipients over age 65 went to the hospital for heart failure and were discharged alive. And each year, about 23 percent returned to the hospital within 30 days – signaling a need to improve care, researchers said. Readmission rates for all causes were almost identical all three years.

“I was hoping for improvement and was disappointed to find that was not the case,” said Joseph S. Ross, M.D., M.H.S., the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “Despite the increased focus on the need to reduce readmissions, about a quarter of patients are back into the hospital within 30 days.”

Healthcare Plan Derailing?

Oh, Great Lord Obama,...Tell Pelosi to Get on the Same Page, Please!!

Will Reid Retreat? Resistance to Government Health Plan Could Force Compromise
Democratic aides say Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who does not have the 60 votes needed to kill a filibuster on his health care bill, could end up falling back on an alternative plan pushed by Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe.

Meanwhile,....over on the other side of The Hill:

Pelosi Unveils Health Bill With Government-Run Insurance Option
Speaking on the West Front of the Capitol surrounded by Democratic lawmakers, Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House's version of a health care reform bill will include a government-run insurance option and extend coverage to 36 million uninsured Americans.

No So Fast Harry!

Lieberman Announces Opposition to Health Care Bill With Government Plan
The announcement is a blow to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and signals that he does not yet have the votes to advance the health care bill.

Independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman said Tuesday that he would back a Republican filibuster against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care reform bill if a government-backed insurance plan remains in the package.

The announcement is a blow to the Democratic leader and signals that he does not yet have the votes to advance the bill. While Reid needs just 51 votes to pass the package, he needs 60 votes to crush a filibuster.

"If the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage," Lieberman told reporters, adding that he's willing to vote to bring the bill to the floor for debate.

Capitalism and the Republic Saved at Least for Another Day!

Senate Panel Votes Down 'Public Option'

WASHINGTON (Sept. 29) - In a long-anticipated showdown, liberal Democrats twice failed on Tuesday to inject a government-run insurance option into sweeping health care legislation taking shape in the Senate, despite bipartisan agreement that private insurers must change their ways.

The two votes marked a victory for Montana Democrat Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, who is hoping to push his middle-of-the-road measure through the panel by week's end. It also kept alive the possibility that at least one Republican may yet swing behind the overhaul, a key goal of both Baucus and the White House.

Whomever that "republican" is, he'll be roadkill by 2010,...mark my word!

Joe Wilson for President 2012!

From RedState:

A Black Man Became a Walking Red Herring Tonight

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Wednesday, September 9th at 9:15PM EDT

This was not a speech worthy of a national night of media coverage before a joint session of congress.

This was a partisan speech full of rubbing Republicans’ noses in his legislative policy preferences.

Americans tonight are suffering pre-traumatic hemorrhoid disorder, knowing Barack Obama’s government is about to rape their wallets, destroy their wages, and force government healthcare down our throats.

We were treated to a vainglorious, pompous ass playing politics with healthcare while accuses everyone else of playing politics. And he spent the whole hour lying through his teeth.

Barack Obama has signed on in toto to the Democrats’ healthcare plan, including a public option. He said that the plan won’t fund abortions. But it will. In fact, the Democrats specifically cut out of the legislation clear language to prevent funding of abortions. Moreso, the Hyde Amendment, which Barack Obama hides behind, would not apply to this legislation because the Hyde Amendment only applies to Department of Health and Human Services appropriations and, get this, the Democrats have decided that healthcare expenditures will not be in the HHS budget. Therefore, abortions will be paid for.

More importantly, Barack Obama said the plan will not cover illegal aliens. This is a lie. Joe Wilson was right. The legislation clearly says it will not fund illegal aliens BUT the legislation also prevents anyone from checking on the citizenship status of any person seeking healthcare. He is trying to have it both ways.


John Lewandowski over at PAWaterCooler shows us more of the classic MSM-slanted umbrage we've come to know as partisan media reporting.

Obama,..Kennedy, ChappquidiCare (whatever) Going Down for the Count?

Hope for Health Bill Compromise Fades

WASHINGTON (Aug. 29) - Signaling a fading chance for compromise, a leading Republican negotiator on U.S. health care legislation on Saturday criticized Democratic legislative proposals as budget-busters that would reroute spending for the elderly and restrict medical choices.

The criticism from Sen. Michael Enzi echoed that of many opponents of the Democratic plans under consideration in the U.S. Congress. But Enzi's judgment was especially noteworthy because he is one of only three Republicans who have been willing to consider a bipartisan bill in the Senate.

Delivering the Republicans' weekly radio and Internet address, Enzi said any health care legislation must lower medical costs for Americans without increasing deficits and the national debt.

"The bills introduced by congressional Democrats fail to meet these standards," he said.

Enzi, together with Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Olympia Snowe of Maine, has been holding periodic talks with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus. But the chance of a bipartisan breakthrough has diminished this month in the face of an effective public mobilization by opponents of Democratic proposals.

One More Time, FOLKS: NO MEDIA BIAS!

ABC, NBC Won't Air Ad Critical of Obama's Health Care Plan
The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama's health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot -- particularly in light of ABC's health care special aired in prime time last June hosted at the White House

The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama's health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot -- particularly in light of ABC's health care special aired in prime time last June and hosted at the White House.

The 33-second ad by the League of American Voters, which features a neurosurgeon who warns that a government-run health care system will lead to the rationing of procedures and medicine, began airing two weeks ago on local affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. On a national level, however, ABC and NBC have refused to run the spot in its present form.

"It's a powerful ad," said Bob Adams, executive director of the League of American Voters, a national nonprofit group with 15,000 members who advocate individual liberty and government accountability. "It tells the truth and it really highlights one of the biggest vulnerabilities and problems with this proposed legislation, which is it rations health care and disproportionately will decimate the quality of health care for seniors."

TRY NO TO LAUGH TOO HARD AT THE NEXT PARAGRAPH:

"The ABC Television Network has a long-standing policy that we do not sell time for advertising that presents a partisan position on a controversial public issue," spokeswoman Susan Sewell said in a written statement. "Just to be clear, this is a policy for the entire network, not just ABC News."

Joe says "Whoa!"

Is the Obamessiah's church of cards collapsing?

Lieberman Suggests Putting Off Parts of Health Care Reform Until After Recession
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent senator counted on by Democrats in the health care debate, says there's "no reason" Congress has to completely overhaul health care while there's still a recession.

WASHINGTON -- An independent senator counted on by Democrats in the health care debate showed signs of wavering Sunday when he urged President Obama to postpone many of his initiatives because of the economic downturn.

"I'm afraid we've got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy's out of recession," said Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. "There's no reason we have to do it all now, but we do have to get started. And I think the place to start is cost health delivery reform and insurance market reforms."

The Senate requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and advance a measure to an up-or-down vote. Senators from both parties said that Democrats might use a voting tactic to overcome GOP opposition, abandoning the White House's goal of bipartisan support for its chief domestic priority.

Democrats control 60 votes, including those of two independents, but illness has sidelined Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. The party's leaders also cannot be assured that their moderate members will support every health care proposal.

"I think it's a real mistake to try to jam through the total health insurance reform, health care reform plan that the public is either opposed to or of very, very passionate mixed minds about," Lieberman said.

Talk about resorting to this maneuver comes as Republicans dig in against the idea of a government-run insurance program as an option for consumers and a requirement that employers provide health insurance to their workers.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans would like to start over "with a genuine bipartisan approach."


Hmmm,..no wonder the DNC tried to oust him in 2006!

Now, What's the Obamessiah's Excuse?

Canadian Health Officials: Our Universal Health Care Is 'Sick,' Private Insurance Should Be Welcomed
Monday, August 17, 2009

Dr. Anne Doig, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association, said her country’s health care system is “sick” and “imploding,” the Canadian Press reported.

“We know there must be change,” Doig said in a recent interview. “We’re all running flat out, we’re all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands.”

Canada’s universal health care system is not giving patients optimal care, Doig added. When her colleagues from across the country gather at the CMA conference in Saskatoon Sunday, they will discuss changes that need to be made, she said.

“We all agree the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize,” she said.

Current president of the CMA, Dr. Robert Ouellet, will make a presentation at the conference about his findings when he toured Europe in January, and met with health groups in several countries.

Ouellet has said that “competition should be welcomed, not feared,” meaning private health insurance should have a role in the public health system.

Doig said she isn’t sure what kind of changes will be proposed when the conference wraps up, but she does know that changes have to come – and fast. She said she understands that universal health care, while good in some ways, has not always been helpful for sick people or their families.

"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now — if it keeps on going without change — is not sustainable," Doig said.

Click here to read more about this story from the Canadian Press.

So, Where IS America, Arlen?

After weeks of Town Hall meetings, common citizens venting their fury at a coming Socialist society and Congress critters cowering in fear, THIS is Specter's response:

Specter Says Town Hall Protests Not 'Representative of America'
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
By Merrill Hartson, Associated Press

Washington (AP) - Sen. Arlen Specter said Wednesday he thinks people who have been angrily disrupting town hall meetings on overhauling the health care system are "not necessarily representative of America," but should be heard.

"It's more than health care," said Specter, 79, who earlier this year left the Republican Party and became a Democrat. "I think there is a mood in America of anger with so many people unemployed, with so much bickering in Washington ... with the fear of losing their health care. It all boils over."

Specter and Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, appeared on a nationally broadcast news show Wednesday, a day after town hall meetings they hosted erupted in the same kind of catcalls, jeers and shouting that has characterized many such forums in recent weeks. "There were a couple of tough moments," McCaskill said of her experience, "but it lasted two hours and there were thousands of people there."

Jeers and taunts drowned out both Specter and McCaskill on occasion Tuesday. President Barack Obama was treated more respectfully at his town hall meeting in New Hampshire.

"You'll be gone, by God the bureaucrats will still be here," one man told Specter at a session in Lebanon, Pa.

Specter TEAbagged!

Meet the next "Joe the Plumber," America!!

Embedded video from CNN Video

Arlen Specter hammered by comments at Lebanon town meeting

Specter shouting "I don't need to be here" = kerosene on a raging fire!

The Pitbull Bares Her Fangs Again!

You know she's scaring the liberals when local losers post stuff like this and this!

Palin Calls Obama Health Plan 'Evil'

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Aug. 7) -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama's health plan "downright evil" Friday in her first online comments since leaving office, saying in a Facebook posting that he would create a "death panel" that would deny care to the neediest Americans.

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care," the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote.

"Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote on her page, which has nearly 700,000 supporters. She encouraged her supporters to be engaged in the debate.
The claim that the Democratic health care bills would encourage euthanasia has been circulating on the Internet for weeks and has been echoed by some Republican leaders.

The allegation appears to be based on a provision of the House bill that would require Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling sessions, on a voluntary basis, for beneficiaries who want the service. Medicare already covers hospice care. And legislation passed by Congress in 1990 requires that patients be asked if they have a living will.

Obama addressed the controversy during a July 28 AARP-sponsored town hall.
"Nobody is going to be forcing you to make a set of decisions on end-of-life care based on some bureaucratic law in Washington," he said.

Palin, popular with conservatives in the Republican party, has said she wants to build a right-of-center coalition, and there is speculation she will seek the presidency in 2012. In the two weeks since she resigned, Palin has made only one public appearance, giving a Second Amendment rights speech last Saturday before a gun owners group in Anchorage.

Racism! Racism!

All those who oppose the Obamessiah are racists?

Time's Tumulty Points Readers to Scholar Who Suggests ObamaCare Opponents Racist, Xenophobic
By Ken Shepherd
August 5, 2009 - 13:54 ET

In a one-line blog post, "Health Reform: Euthanasia and Other Rumors," Time magazine's Karen Tumulty pointed readers to a blog post at The New Republic's Web site set on "Exposing the Euthanasia Scare" that has cropped up in the debate over health care reform:

Harold Pollack dispenses with them (and their sources) here.

Tumulty failed to mention the liberal bent of either TNR or Dr. Pollack (Ph.D., not M.D.), which would have been helpful considering her terse blog post practically amounted to an unqualified stamp of approval of Pollack's August 4 item.

Albeit in kinder, gentler language, Pollack posited that opposition to socialized medicine among American senior citizens was due to racism, xenophobia, and homophobia (emphasis mine):

At a deeper level, these talking points go beyond the usual Medicare politics and pander. Seniors comprise right-wing talk-radio's core audience, but the anxiety extends beyond retired ditto-heads. A conspicuous number of scare stories pitched to seniors suggest that the main beneficiaries of health reform will be various frightening others. These listeners have endured dizzying social change, ranging from gay marriage to the rise of immigrants (legal and illegal) as a powerful political and demographic force. This predominantly white group watched an unprecedented youth vote fuel the unlikely ascendance of a black president with an Islamic middle name.

For millions of older people, America suddenly seems very different from the country they once knew. So when President Obama asks seniors to trust him as they trusted many Democrats before him, even his remarkable persuasive powers sometimes fall short.

Betcha He's Re-Thinking Obamacare,...

NB: I'm not making fun at the disease, just the irony of those involved,.....

Dodd Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer, Says He Feels Fine
The Connecticut Democrat, 65, says he feels fine and is "confident we're going to come out of this well."

Sen. Christopher Dodd said Friday he has been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer and will have surgery in August during the Senate recess.

The Connecticut Democrat, 65, says he feels fine and is "confident we're going to come out of this well." He says he was diagnosed about six weeks ago, but the diagnosis will not affect his plans to seek a sixth term next year.

"I'm running for re-election," he told reporters at his Hartford office. "I'll be a little leaner, a little meaner, but I'm running."

Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and is playing a lead role in Congress' overhaul of the nation's health care system. He took that role while his close friend, Senate health committee Chairman Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts fights his own battle with brain cancer.