[Publib] Health care: was 1st Amendment Rights

[Robert Balliot]

Fred,

Almost every public library in the country has benefited from federal
grants.  Every State in the
country has benefited from federal highway funds and clean water provisions.
Every State has
benefited from federal education funds.

 According to Aug. 6 NYT one of the groups against health care
reform is organized by  -

"Rick Scott <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html?_r=2>
the former head of Columbia/HCA, a for-profit hospital chain.
Mr. Scott was forced out of that job amid a fraud investigation;
the company eventually pleaded guilty to charges of overbilling state and
federal health plans,
paying $1.7 billion — yes, that’s “billion” — in fines. You can’t make this
stuff up."

It looks like fraud might account for a big chunk of the increases to
government health care.
Isn't it ironic who that argument comes from?

R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com



On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 4:53 PM, Fred Beisser
<fredbeisser at mesanetworks.net>wrote:

> You are right, Robert. Education, public libraries, public roads and public
> water supplies are locally funded issues that are not funded by the federal
> government. Federal government funding of certain interstate roads began in
> 1956 during Eisenhower's administration with "The Federal-Aid Highway Act of
> 1956" for national defense purposes (some 41,000 miles of interstate).
>
> I am unclear as to what the Iraq National Library and Archive has to do
> with this discourse. It is my understanding that much of the holdings were
> destroyed apparently at the direction of Saddam Hussein or his loyalists to
> eradicate records of the Ba'athist regime between the years 1958 and 1979.
>
> I don't have the power to undo the spending that was authorized for the war
> in Iraq; it has no relation to this issue and is funded as a national
> defense item(s). Contact your representative and senators about unfunding
> the remainder of any budget line items related to it.
>
> My real concern is that  "curing" the health care system not be done
> helter-skelter, but rather through well thought out analysis and discussion
>  and with transparency in the legislative process.  Also, remember that when
> Medicaid was created in 1987 it was supposed to cost $100 million a year.
>  But by 1992, only five years later, the costs had already risen to $11
> billion.  That cost 5 years later was not the estimated $100 million but the
> equivalent of $11,000 million.  Federal Medicaid outlays were estimated to
> be $204 billion in 2008 with over 49 million enrollees.
>
> Think about the Congressional Budget Offices's $1 trillion estimate for
> Obama-Pelosi care and do the math considering the traditional
> underestimating for which the government is well known. It is not something
> to move ahead on without due consideration.
>
> Have a great weekend.
>
> Fred
>
>
>
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