Monday, December 30, 2013

2013 by the Numbers

We have over 130 medical claims, not including prescriptions or recent medical procedures not yet filed with insurance. My youngest has a repeat brain MRI with spectroscopy tomorrow (Dec 31), had an appointment today...sleep study last night (left the hospital at 6am this morning). Swallow study Friday, EKG Thursday....and on and on. 
Hubby Sorting 2013 Medical Bills We've Paid
Our out of pocket medical expenses for 2013 total $27,171.94. We've paid $21,565.67 in flex, cash and credit for out of pocket medical expenses in 2013*. Mostly the latter.... Obamacare has more than doubled our average yearly out of pocket medical expenses. Prior to the law, our average was 10-12k per year. Sad, isn't it?

We have 60K in credit card debt right now. We still owe about $1,000 for 2012 medical expenses and we owe some $6,000 for 2013 medical expenses. We've paid $500 this year toward 2012 medical expenses this year...... Obamacare is harming families with sick kids like mine.

*Final numbers as of December 31, 2013




Sunday, November 17, 2013

Fox & Friends Interview

This is a blast from the past- my interview on Fox and Friends. You Can see it at this link: http://video.foxnews.com/v/4317419/irate-mom-gives-senator-an-earful/

Neil Cavuto Interviews Me 8/19/2013

The day after I confronted North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan, Neil Cavuto interviewed me.

Video: Part of My Confrontation with Kay Hagan from 2010

To view the full WXII video go to this link: WXII Furious Parent Blasts Senator The video here on my blog may not show up on mobile devices.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Boys' Doctor Receives a Noncompliance Letter

The doctor's office called to say they got a letter from UHC telling them they are noncompliant with the new regulations (Obamacare)regarding S&J. They haven't had a *well child* check in 2012 or 2013. In order for them to comply, we have to schedule an appointment we don't want and we don't need, for children who see so many doctors already and know every single detail about their health. SO... add two more appointments in December! All in the name of compliance. We rarely go one week without seeing this doctor and now we go in to waste her time and take time away from others- all to comply with the new CRAP law. Note to OBAMA: my two youngest haven't had well child checks in at least 5 plus years because we see the doctors so much already...... this new reg doesn't help us. Thank you! Obama still sucks.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Kay Hagan Finally Replies

You may have seen Kay Hagan's recent ads. Don't believe her lies. Kay Hagan voted for and continues to support Obamacare 100%. She didn't care about what Obamacare was doing to my family with sick kids when I visited her DC office back in March and she didn't care about the harm it was doing to my sick kids when I visited her office in September, either. Kay Hagan is changing her tune because of the 2014 elections. She knows she has no chance of being reelected if she doesn't lie in her TV ads. Here is her reply (Finally! She had never responded to either visit until now)

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Obamacare is an EPIC Fail (pun intended)

Obamacare is an EPIC fail and we are living it firsthand. Not only does the website not work, but the stupid medical records program the law forces hospitals to use, EPIC, is a failure and could cause deaths because no one can access the freaking health records they NEED! I HATE Obamacare. HATE it! It not only has destroyed my family's finances, it has caused problems with the healthcare my children receive. It needs to be REPEALED! No fixes- just straight up REPEALED. America may never recover from the Obamacare nightmare. My son has surgery next week. We've been at the same hospital for 14 years....yet last year when they switched to the Obamacare mandated medical records system, records could no longer be accessed. They've been working over a year to fix this flaw..... apparently without success. Today at his pre-op appointment, they could not get records which had been there in the past- from his neurosurgery at Duke, a surgery at CHOP, several procedures in Cincy and his muscle biopsy in Atlanta. Two of the physicians said, "The records are there, but they are buried so deep we just can't find them." Tell me, what good does this new system do if they can't actually read about my son's condition. The PA and doctors I spoke to today hate Obamacare and what it has done to our medical system. They said they would call Duke and CHOP today and I emailed the records from ATL to the anesthesiologist. When I mentioned to one doctor today that we'd been in the ER a few times and no one could access the boys' records on this new EPIC (fail) system, she asked if I'd reported it. She said doctors are furious because it makes it hard to treat patients when they can't get to their records. They are "buried so deep" that they just can't get to them easily. We talked about what would happen in Js case if I was not with him to speak for him or if he was incapacitated and unable to speak for himself. It's not pretty, folks. The obamacare sugar coating is melting off..... All of this should have been easy to access. What if we show up next week and they don't have the records they need?

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Bone Marrow Biopsy Day

This is a video I put together from pictures and videos from my boys' bone marrow biopsy day- it's got some fun stuff, but has graphic bone marrow biopsy pics at the end. As of 2013, each of my boys has had over 25 BMBs each.

Bone Marrow Donor Drive

I like to share this video now and then. Back in 2006, my son almost went to transplant. We did a donor search and he did not have a match in the bone marrow donor registry, so we held a bone marrow donor drive. This is a video I created from the event:

Friday, November 8, 2013

Obamacare Killing this Man with Cancer

Get out the kleenex before watching. This man has cancer. His policy was cancelled and he cannot afford an #Obamacare policy. He was paying $180/mo and the exchange policies would cost him $1500/mo with high deductibles and OOP Maxes- MRIs not covered. He's decided to let "nature take its course" and pay the fine if he lives that long #MakeDCListen The #ACA is killing people. I hope my anonymous commenter will tell me how wonderful Obamacare is because this man is dying but someone else saved a few cents on their premiums. I'm sick of liberals who think it is okay for others to die because there are a few fictitious people supposedly being helped by this crap law. Tell that to this man. FYI- this man admits voting for Obama.

Our President and Senators are Idiots

Richard Burr said defunding Obamacare was the dumbest idea he'd ever heard. Yet he continues to say it is harming the American people. Kay Hagan wrote this on her FB page today:

  • North Carolinians deserve health care that works. An apology is only helpful if it's followed by direct and meaningful action to get the Affordable Care Act working.

    The Administration needs to step up and fix problems with the ACA so North Carolinians can access affordable health insurance. Read my new blog post on efforts to fix implementation of ACA: http://1.usa.gov/1aczTdP.
Have you ever heard such stupidity from someone who voted for it and fought the Republicans for trying to delay the individual mandate!? Kay thinks the good folks of North Carolina will forget she voted for this and for 5 years supported every single thing Barack Hussein Obama has done. She thinks she can change her tune a year before the election and all will be well. She only cares about her re-election and not the American people. Certainly not my kids- I visited her DC office in March and September and have yet to get even a form letter from the senator in reply. 

Barack is out there apologizing and saying people will be better off, they just don't know it yet.  What a completely moronic statement. Read about it and watch the video of the commander in chief saying this here

More priceless stupidity from the idiot in chief- he blames insurance companies for dropping policies that his stupid crap law made illegal. So they follow HIS namesake law and the moron blames them. It doesn't get any more idiotic than this. See the report here.

Canada

I just returned from a medical conference in Canada. Had a great time. One person made nasty comments about the TEA Party, which I found very bizarre, but other than that, most Canadians accepted my conservative personality. Only had a few people shake their heads at my bumper stickers as I drove through. One very liberal American doctor took the opportunity to slam the American government shutdown before asking one of her questions of the presenter. I found that to be a bit unprofessional at a medical conference. Can you image what would happen if a conservative did that?

From the conference, I gather that healthcare for sick kids isn't so bad in Toronto or Ontario, as a whole. I've heard many horror stories from families across Canada, so it was nice to know things at Sick Kids is a bit different. BUT, since I have no first hand experience, I can't say for sure.

Here's a sad story that was told to me firsthand. This dad explained that when his son became an adult, he was transferred into adult care. His wife couldn't keep her job because they ended up spending too much time at the hospital- they would show up for an appointment, sit all day and then be told at 4pm, no more patients would be seen, They'd try to squeeze them in the next day, perhaps...sometimes taking weeks to get in again, only to have a few moments with the doctor. He said this happened all the time, that it was the norm. Sadly, his son developed leukemia and passed away. He didn't have a matched donor. 

Since I was at a medical conference, I didn't get into politics. I just listened.  I was horrified at what I was hearing. I find the experience he described to me unacceptable. It's where America is headed. Soon, because of Obamacare regulations and doctor shortages, we will find ourselves waiting to be seen and then turned away. I found it amazing that he never blamed socialized medicine for this situation. I don't think it ever occurred to him that it should not be the norm. He was frustrated, but accepted it as if there really was nothing he could do to change it.

A free-market that creates an atmosphere where doctors want to practice would go a long way in correcting the flaws of socialized medicine. I'm afraid of where America is headed. It also scares me that Kool-aid drinkers keep posting anonymously on my blog and accept that 99.9% of Americans are harmed by Obamacare and rejoice that they find a .01% good story about Obamacare. And that's only .01% good on the surface...once that diabetic realizes the deductibles, OOP Maxes and copays are too high to afford, the lower premiums won't mean squat.


Saturday, November 2, 2013

Obamacare Rollout Makes the Case for Small Government

I love this OpEd from October 31, 2013 in the NY Post. Yes, the Obamacare rollout does make the case for small government. It echoes what we on the right have been shouting for years now, "We don't want the government who can't run the post office, DMV, medicaid, and medicare taking over our entire healthcare system!" Obamacare needs to be repealed.

ObamaCare rollout makes the case for small government


This is smart government?
In the days after the 2008 election, when Barack Obama was putting together his team, the president-elect declared that “what the American people want more than anything is just common sense, smart government.” He repeated this theme in his first inaugural, when he promised “government that works.”
We thought of these words as we watched the president’s Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, flounder her way through even the most basic questions about ObamaCare.
How many people had signed up? Not sure, because the data isn’t reliable. Weren’t you warned about problems? Yes, but no one had any idea they were this serious. What about the security? Well, we really can’t say for certain. As if to underscore the debacle, the HealthCare.gov Web site was down during most of her testimony.
The question is, why? Remember, this rollout was put together by the smart people. They had Silicon Valley at their disposal. They had the elite universities. They were hailed for their innovative use of social media during their campaigns.
Yet when it came to the signature issue of the Obama presidency, with years to prepare, they put up a Web site that has more bugs than a Brazilian rain forest.
Today, President Obama, Sebelius and their team are no longer telling us how smart they are. They have now switched to saying how dumb you are to fixate on the president’s repeated promise, that if you liked your health-care plan and your doctors, you could keep them. Apparently, you are way too stupid to appreciate that ObamaCare is giving you something better.
Be thankful for inadvertent blessings. For a president and health and human services secretary who came to office promising smart government are now doing more to advance the conservative argument for smaller, more limited government than Republicans could ever hope to.

Friday, November 1, 2013

People are Finding out that Utopia doesn't Exist

The folks in Washington are certainly finding out that Utopia doesn't exist. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, if you like your plan you can keep your plan. It was all a lie to sell utopia to the American people. Those of us on the right tried warning folks. We knew this would happen...... but it all fell on deaf ears. We were called crazy extremists, tea baggers and unpatriotic Americans.

We know many SDS families who go to Seattle Children's Hospital and many whose kids have had transplants there... folks from all around the country. BUT...we now live in a communist world where only certain people will still be allowed to go to the best hospitals in the United States. Those who have not had to buy insurance off the govt exchange, Congress and their staff or those who can afford to pay cash for services (until Obama puts and end to that) will be able to go- all others are screwed, It won't matter that they are one of the best children's hospitals in the world. It won't matter if your child is dying. It won't matter if you have kids with Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome like mine and that Seattle Children's is one of two centers in the United States that has the most successful survival rates in bone marrow transplants in these SDS kids. 

Left off many networks, Seattle Children’s sues

People buying insurance through the exchange may not realize that the pediatric hospital is not in the health plan’s network of providers, Children’s officials say.
Special to The Seattle Times

Seattle Children’s filed suit Friday over the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s “failure to ensure adequate network coverage” in several health plans being sold through the state’s new online insurance marketplace, called Washington Healthplanfinder.
Most plans available through Healthplanfinder for coverage in 2014 do not include Children’s among their in-network providers, which hospital officials say could significantly disrupt and delay care for children in need of the hospital’s services.
In King County, seven insurers are offering plans through the exchange. Only two — Group Health Cooperative and Community Health Plan of Washington — include Seattle Children’s in their provider network.
The five that do not are Premera Blue Cross, LifeWise Health Plan of Washington, Bridgespan, Molina Healthcare and Coordinated Care. Families that enroll in those plans could face significantly higher cost-sharing amounts they have to pay if they seek care at Children’s rather than at in-network providers.
Children’s officials say they are worried that families may sign up for coverage without realizing that the pediatric specialty hospital is not in most of the plans’ networks.
Healthplanfinder opened for enrollment Tuesday, as did other health-insurance exchanges around the country established under the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The lawsuit underscores a concern that has emerged in Washington state and elsewhere that many health plans sold through the exchanges may have “narrow networks” of providers compared with those offered in commercial health-insurance products.
Children’s officials say the hospital’s exclusion from the exchange plans represents a significant change for the pediatric hospital, which has typically been included in most health plans in the state’s commercial market.
“The notion that a major insurance plan is going to exclude us from their network is truly precedent-setting and represents a new level of degradation in children’s access to care,” said Dr. Sandy Melzer, the hospital’s senior vice president and chief strategy officer.
Insurers say they are trying to balance the need to offer adequate networks of providers with market demand for affordable health insurance.
“Affordability is still the single most important concern,” said J. Mario Molina, president and CEO of Molina Healthcare, which is offering exchange health plans in several states, including Washington.
The Children’s suit specifically mentions Molina and one other insurer — Coordinated Care — and asks for a reversal of the insurance commissioner’s decision to approve those companies’ exchange plans.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler initially rejected Molina and Coordinated Care’s plans, citing the inadequacy of their provider networks among the reasons. But his office later reversed that decision.
Insurance Commissioner spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis said the office takes concerns about access to care seriously.
“We are reviewing Children’s petition to see what lies at the heart of their concerns and will see how it gets resolved through the legal process,” she said.

Amy Snow Landa is a Seattle freelance writer. This story was produced through a partnership with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

We Told You So

It's hard to gloat about saying "we told you so" when every single thing we told you about Obamacare will have an affect on American family- especially families like mine with sick kids. Remember, I told you a few weeks ago that I looked at the BCBS plans offered on the NC exchange? None of the lower tier plans covered any of our boys' out of state specialists- they had "limited" doctor lists in the lowest cost plans and then the "expanded doctor list" on *medium* cost plans. I didn't bother to look at the $1700/month plan to see if it had the option to keep our specialists because we can't afford $1700/month. The news is coming out-  Hospitals not on Obamacare, insurance companies ending plans that don't comply with the law and forcing folks to buy higher cost plans that they can't afford in order to comply with the law.
 

Top Hospitals closed to Obamacare enrollees because less choice is better for your health. Not being able to go to the top hospitals in the nation when you have a serious or rare condition and want to be treated by the best in the world, just isn't an option in the communist world of Obamacare. This is what you get when you pay more for less coverage. From the Breitbart article link:

"President Obama and Democrats are spinning their broken "you can keep your insurance if you like it" promise with another false reassurance: that under ObamaCare you will receive better insurance. Now we are learning that if you have been forced into the ObamaCare exchanges, you will not have access to many of America's top hospitals, unless of course you want to pay out-of-pocket:
[R]esponding to Obamacare caps on premiums, many insurers will, in turn, simply offer top-tier doctors and hospitals far less cash for services rendered.
Watchdog.org looked at the top 18 hospitals nationwide as ranked by U.S. News and World Report for 2013-2014. We contacted each hospital to determine their contracts and talked to several insurance companies, as well.
The result of our investigation: Many top hospitals are simply opting out of Obamacare.
Chances are the individual plan you purchased outside Obamacare would allow you to go to these facilities. For example, fourth-ranked Cleveland Clinic accepts dozens of insurance plans if you buy one on your own. But go through Obamacare and you have just one choice: Medical Mutual of Ohio.
If the insurance President Obama forced you to cancel was accepted by any one of these hospitals, that promise about being able to keep your plan and doctor will really hit home.
This is not the first report that shows ObamaCare is worsening health care for some. Wednesday, CNN reported that victims of the federal exchange policies will have their options limited all over the country.
When Democrats talked about "Two America," I was under the mistaken impression they were speaking out in opposition to such a thing"

From this Breitbart article titled "Obamacare wipes out Insurance in Three States":

"CNN reports that thanks to ObamaCare Virginia, Kentucky, and Idaho alone are wiping out hundreds of thousands of individual health insurance plans. Just in Kentucky, 300,000 are expected to lose the insurance President Obama repeatedly reassured them over four years they could keep:

Virginia, Kentucky and Idaho have told insurance companies that they must scrap insurance plans that don't meet the minimum coverage requirements laid out in the Affordable Care Act. Some states allow insurers to amend their current plans to include the new benefits, such as maternity care and prescription drug coverage, required under Obamacare.

But these three states have determined that with so many changes required under Obamacare, it's easier to start over than to try to bring existing plans into compliance.

Ronda Sloan, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Insurance, explained the policy this way: "In this case, you're talking about an entirely new product. They had to file a completely new policy. ... It was easier just to start from scratch."

That means that about half of the roughly 600,000 people in Kentucky's private insurance market will have their current insurance plans discontinued by the end of next year. Private insurance only makes up part of the state's insurance market, which also includes employer-based coverage, and Medicare and Medicaid."




 OBAMA LIED.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Democrat Staffer Now Admits She was VERY Wrong about Obamacare

Amazing! These stories keep coming out and I keep saying, "We told you so!"  What took them so long? I've been telling people about our cost increases since Obamacare became law. Healthy folks are just figuring it out......  I hope it isn't too late to save the nation.

In a recent email sent to her former boss, Rep. Foster, and other Democratic colleagues, she reportedly wrote [emphasis added]:
“I spent two years defending Obamacare. I had constituents scream at me, spit at me and call me names that I can’t put in print. The congressman was not re-elected in 2010 mainly because of the anti-Obamacare anger. When the congressman was not re-elected, I also (along with the rest of our staff) lost my job. I was upset that because of the health care issue, I didn’t have a job anymore but still defended Obamacare because it would make health care available to everyone at, what I assumed, would be an affordable price. I have now learned that I was wrong. Very wrong.”
 The Blaze reports on it here 


She learned that President Obama’s promise, “if you like your health plan, you can keep it,” was not true for everyone.
When Foster lost his reelection bid, Klinkhamer was out of a job and in need of individual insurance. Three years ago, she reportedly paid $225 a month with a $2,500 deductible. Her rates steadily increased and she was paying $291 a month with a $3,500 deductible as of Sept. 1, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Then she got “the letter” that people across the country are currently receiving in the mail.
“Blue Cross stated my current coverage would expire on Dec. 31, and here are my options: I can have a plan with similar benefits for $647.12 [or] I can have a plan with similar [but higher] pricing for $322.32 but with a $6,500 deductible,” Klinkhamer wrote.
“Blue Cross also tells me that if I don’t pick one of the options, they will just assume I want the one for $647. … Someone please tell me why my premium in January will be $356 more than in December?” she added.
Klinkhamer says she is still a Democrat and believes in “health care for all,” but argued “this is not affordable to me.”

NBC News Reports Obama Knew Millions Would Lose Insurance

My family has been feeling the crushing blow since Obamacare passed. We tried telling the left it was a disaster. They refused to listen and refused to allow Republicans in on the meetings while they were drafting the law. We screamed about how horrible it was going to be when they rammed it down our unwilling throats in the middle of the night using parliamentary tricks to get it through.

The main stream media ignored it. Harry Reid continued to call us anarchists for opposing Obamacare as the left repeatedly yelled "It's the law!" Now NBC reports that Obama knew millions would lose their insurance because of the law. It's about time. We knew it! We told them this was going to happen. It was his plan.

NOW NBC Investigates and reports: 

Obama admin. knew millions could not keep their health insurance


By Lisa Myers and Hannah RappleyeNBC News
President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.
This story has been republished here
Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.” 
None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date -- the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example -- the policy would not be grandfathered.
Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, “40 to 67 percent” of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”
That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.
Yet President Obama, who had promised in 2009, “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan,” was still saying in 2012, “If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”
“This says that when they made the promise, they knew half the people in this market outright couldn’t keep what they had and then they wrote the rules so that others couldn’t make it either,” said  Robert Laszewski, of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a consultant who works for health industry firms. Laszewski estimates that 80 percent of those in the individual market will not be able to keep their current policies and will have to buy insurance that meets requirements of the new law, which generally requires a richer package of benefits than most policies today.
The White House does not dispute that many in the individual market will lose their current coverage, but argues they will be offered better coverage in its place, and that many will get tax subsidies that would offset any increased costs.
“One of the main goals of the law is to ensure that people have insurance they can rely on – that doesn’t discriminate or charge more based on pre-existing conditions.  The consumers who are getting notices are in plans that do not provide all these protections – but in the vast majority of cases, those same insurers will automatically shift their enrollees to a plan that provides new consumer protections and, for nearly half of individual market enrollees, discounts through premium tax credits,” said White House spokesperson Jessica Santillo.“Nothing in the Affordable Care Act forces people out of their health plans: The law allows plans that covered people at the time the law was enacted to continue to offer that same coverage to the same enrollees – nothing has changed and that coverage can continue into 2014,” she said.
Individual insurance plans with low premiums often lack basic benefits, such as prescription drug coverage, or carry high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. The Affordable Care Act requires all companies to offer more benefits, such as mental health care, and also bars companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions.
Today, White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the president’s promise that consumers would be able to keep their health care. “What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there are going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act to create minimum standards of coverage, minimum services that every insurance plan has to provide,” Carney said. “So it's true that there are existing healthcare plans on the individual market that don't meet those minimum standards and therefore do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act.”
Courtesy of Heather Goldwater
Heather Goldwater, 38, of South Carolina, says that she received a letter from her insurer saying the company would no longer offer her plan, but hasn't yet received a follow-up letter with a comparable option.
Other experts said that most consumers in the individual market will not be able to keep their policies. Nancy Thompson, senior vice president of CBIZ Benefits, which helps companies manage their employee benefits, says numbers in this market are hard to pin down, but that data from states and carriers suggests “anywhere from 50 to 75 percent” of individual policy holders will get cancellation letters. Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, who chairs the health committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, says that estimate is “probably about right.” She added that a few states are asking insurance companies to cancel and replace policies, rather than just amend them, to avoid confusion.
A spokesman for America's Health Plans says there are no precise numbers on how many will receive cancellations letters or get notices that their current policies don’t meet ACA standards. In both cases, consumers will not be able to keep their current coverage.
Those getting the cancellation letters are often shocked and unhappy.
George Schwab, 62, of North Carolina, said he was "perfectly happy" with his plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield, which also insured his wife for a $228 monthly premium. But this past September, he was surprised to receive a letter saying his policy was no longer available. The "comparable" plan the insurance company offered him carried a $1,208 monthly premium and a $5,500 deductible.And the best option he’s found on the exchange so far offered a 415 percent jump in premium, to $948 a month.
"The deductible is less," he said, "But the plan doesn't meet my needs. Its unaffordable."
"I'm sitting here looking at this, thinking we ought to just pay the fine and just get insurance when we're sick," Schwab added. "Everybody's worried about whether the website works or not, but that's fixable. That's just the tip of the iceberg. This stuff isn't fixable."

Heather Goldwater, 38, of South Carolina, is raising a new baby while running her own PR firm. She said she received a letter last July from Cigna, her insurance company, that said the company would no longer offer her individual plan, and promised to send a letter by October offering a comparable option. So far, she hasn't received anything.

"I'm completely overwhelmed with a six-month-old and a business,” said Goldwater. “The last thing I can do is spend hours poring over a website that isn't working, trying to wrap my head around this entire health care overhaul."
Goldwater said she supports the new law and is grateful for provisions helping folks like her with pre-existing conditions, but she worries she won’t be able to afford the new insurance, which is expected to cost more because it has more benefits. "I'm jealous of people who have really good health insurance," she said. "It's people like me who are stuck in the middle who are going to get screwed."

Richard Helgren, a Lansing, Mich., retiree, said he was “irate” when he received a letter informing him that his wife Amy's $559 a month health plan was being changed because of the law. The plan the insurer offered raised his deductible from $0 to $2,500, and the company gave him 17 days to decide.
The higher costs spooked him and his wife, who have painstakingly planned for their retirement years. "Every dollar we didn't plan for erodes our standard of living," Helgren said.
Ulltimately, though Helgren opted not to shop through the ACA exchanges, he was able to apply for a good plan with a slightly lower premium through an insurance agent.
He said he never believed President Obama’s promise that people would be able to keep their current plans.
"I heard him only about a thousand times," he said. "I didn't believe him when he said it though because there was just no way that was going to happen. They wrote the regulations so strictly that none of the old polices can grandfather."For months, Laszewski has warned that some consumers will face sticker shock. He recently got his own notice that he and his wife cannot keep their current policy, which he described as one of the best, so-called "Cadillac" plans offered for 2013. Now, he said, the best comparable plan he found for 2014 has a smaller doctor network, larger out-of-pocket costs, and a 66 percent premium increase.
“Mr. President, I like the coverage I have," Laszweski said. "It is the best health insurance policy you can buy."

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Watch Barack Obama Lie

Lies, lies, everywhere lies...... this 13 minute video shows Barack Hussein Obama himself speaking- and contradicting himself. We tried to tell folks before he was elected, before Obamacare was rammed down our unwilling throats and have not stopped. Yet, when we point out his lies- we are called the liars- even with prrof HE said these things.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

LIFE: The First Unalienable Right

You cannot say you believe in our founding documents and then say LIFE is not the first unalienable right. 
The Declaration is clear. Life IS the first unalienable right- without it, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are not possible. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..." 
Democrats will tell you abortion is the law upheld by the Supreme Court. They said that same thing about slavery in the 1860s after the Dred Scott v Sanford SCOTUS decision,a 7-2 declaration that slavery was constitutional in 1857. SCOTUS is not infallible! SCOTUS ruled that segregation was constitutional (Plessy v Ferguson 1896) and that the interment of Americans was constitutional (Korematsu v United States 1944). Roe v Wade (1973) will also be overturned one day, too. LIFE is the first unalienable right that our Creator gives us- without life, none of our other unalienable rights can be realized.
Democrats are also saying the same thing about Obamacare. They keep repeating what they repeated about slavery, "It's the law, the Supreme Court declared it Constitutional". We will win the battle against Obamacare just as we will win the battle against abortion. It's not the first time the Supreme Court has gotten it wrong.

Proving Gun Control Wrong: A Research Report by my 10th Grader


Keep in mind that this is his second research report ever and he did this on his own. 
Proving Gun Control Wrong
By
J Curran
English 10
Seton Home Study School
09/12/13



The gun was first made around the tenth century by the Chinese.[1]  The gun slowly evolved since then, into the gun that is around today.  A portion of Americans want to control which U.S. citizens are allowed to own a gun.  Even though the second amendment protects the God-given right of every U.S. Citizen to bear arms, many Americans still want to take this right away.  Society benefits from firearms in the hands of responsible citizens, and attempts to keep firearms away from these citizens do more harm than good.
  Gun control is exactly what it sounds like, controlling guns.  Gun control is good until a point where it does more harm than good. (Felons and convicted criminals are US Citizens and lose their right to bear arms, which is technically gun control)  There have been a couple of ways America has banned guns.  In 1994, there was a ban nicknamed the assault weapons ban and the ban revolved around specific semi-automatic weapons and weapons that look “scary”.  This ban had a big loop hole, if the gun was made before 1994, it was legal to have, sell, or buy.  The ban didn’t help in anyone’s favor because there were about 1.5 million “assault” weapons in 1994.[2]
Gun control laws may help if criminals care about the law, but they do not and that is why they are called criminals.  A Justice Department survey of felons showed a surprising 93% of criminals that obtained a handgun received it “off the record”.[3]  “Off the record” is basically receiving a gun from a non-licensed gun dealer such as a friend.  “Off the record” can also mean by stealing a gun.  Gun control only keeps U.S. citizens from obtaining firearms.  Robbers and intruders will always have ways of getting weapons, whether it is from the black market, across borders, or illegal street sales.  New gun laws will not do much in stopping them.
  The Justice Department of America conducted a study about felons and came up with three results.  Three-fifths of felons that were polled were in agreement that a criminal is not willingly going to mess around with an armed victim.[4]  Just under three-fourths of criminals avoid robbing a house when people are home because they might be shot.[5]  Another result is about 57% of the felons polled were more worried about armed U.S. citizens than a police officer.[6]  The Justice Department survey proves that armed citizens are doing good rather than harm.
  Armed citizens will do more good than harm.  Banning guns does not help much because guns do not kill people.  People kill people, the guns cannot just aim and fire at an object themselves.  People can also use other weapons to kill people, such as knives or arrows.  As Shane said to little Bob in the famous western book, “A gun is just a tool.  No better and no worse than any other tool, a shovel- or an axe or a saddle or a stove or anything. Think of it always that way. A gun is as good- and as bad- as the man who carries it.”[7]
       The right to bear arms is protected by the second amendment of the U.S. constitution.  The U.S. second amendment states that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed.  Any gun control law would go against this amendment.  The founding fathers made the constitution for a reason and that is to constitutionally protect our God given rights.  The Second Amendment guarantees the people a way to defend themselves, should the need arise. In past times, arming the population was a safeguard against possible government tyranny and dictatorship.  Today, many citizens still see their right to bear arms as an important means of self-defense as they also fear that gun control would be the first step towards the people’s rights being removed little by little.
       There are many statistics that show gun control not doing what it is intended to do.  For instance, as of 2004, only 1.6 percent of deaths were caused by firearms of any sort.[8]  There were in fact more deaths by motor-vehicles than firearms.[9]  Children’s deaths by firearms rate went down from 2000 to 2007 from 86 deaths to 65 deaths.[10]  Also, in 2001, there were only 72 accidental firearm deaths for children under age 15, as opposed to over 2,100 children who drowned.[11]  These statistics prove one of my points.  However there will be some to show the opposite, that gun control works, but throughout research via the internet, one may come across that there are few statistics to show gun control actually working.
       A criminal is someone who breaks the law in such ways as: stealing or murder.  Gun Control, if passed, would be a law.  Now if someone is planning on murdering, they would not care about a gun law.  It would be similar to a criminal wanting to kill in someone’s house, but he would not because it would be breaking and entering.  Gun Control will not stop criminals, only U.S. citizens, from carrying guns.
       There are many more statistics to show gun control not working.  In 2007, 3 years after the 1.6 percent of firearms death, there were 123,706 fatal accidents and only 613, 0.5 percent, were caused by firearms.[12]  There are also some facts about gun control in separate states.  In Florida, from 1970 to 1987, the crime rate has ranged from ten to fifteen murders per one hundred thousand people.[13]  This may not seem like much, but if the population[14] is taken into account, it shows a substantial amount of deaths.  In the 1970’s, about 850 people died per year[15], but by the 1980’s, there were 1364 people who died per year from firearms[16].  In October 1987, the Florida right-to-carry law became effective[17]; the murder rate immediately started dropping. Thirteen years later, and the rate was down to five murders per hundred thousand.[18]
       In the year of 1976, The District of Columbia passed a law prohibiting Washington residents from legally possessing handguns.[19]  Private residents had to have their gun unloaded and either dissembled or a trigger lock on the gun if they had one.  In the years following until this ban was deemed unconstitutional in 2008, the murder rate averaged seventy three percent higher than before the ban in 1976.[20]  During this same time, the United States’ murder rate averaged eleven percent lower[21] than before 1976.  Because of this ban, the murder rate spiked at the highest, eighty murders per hundred thousand.[22]
       The crime rate will be more likely to go down if firearms are in the hands of responsible citizens.  Since gun control limits citizens’ ability to carry, it would not work.  Examples of Florida and D.C. prove guns help crime.  Many Americans are still fighting on both sides of this argument, but history has proven gun control will not work.



Outline

I. Introduction

II. What Gun Control is
     1. Assault weapons banned
          A. Simi-Automatic weapons
          B. The ban didn’t help anyone
     2. Justice department
          A. Justice Department survey
          B. Justice Department study
III. Armed citizens will do more harm than good
     1. People kill People
          A. Other things can be used to kill
          B. Shane
     2. The Second Amendment
          A. The Founding Fathers
          B. The People’s Rights
IV. Statistics
     1. Overall Firearm Statistics
          A. Firearm deaths
          B. Children’s firearm deaths
     2. A Criminal
     3. State Firearm Statistics
          A. Florida
          B. District of Colombia
V. Conclusion



Bibliography

“4. Problems with Waiting Periods and Background Checks” in “Gun
     Control Fact-Sheet 2004”, (74), September 18, 2008,
     http://www.gunowners.org/fs0404.htm (August, 2013)

Brad Plumer, “everything you need to know about the assault
weapons ban, in one post”, in “Wonkblog”, December 17, 2012,

James D. Agresti and Reid K. Smith. “Gun Control Facts”, Just
Facts, September 13, 2010. Revised February 11, 2013.
http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp (August, 2013)

Jeff Harder, “Who Invented the First Gun”, in “How Stuff Works”


“Residential population”, in “U.S. Census bureau” 2000,

Smith, Guy, Gun Facts. CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform, 2013.


[1] Jeff Harder, “Who Invented the First Gun”, in “How Stuff Works” http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/inventions/who-invented-the-first-gun.htm (accessed August, 2013)
[2] Brad Plumer, “everything you need to know about the assault weapons ban, in one post”, in “Wonkblog”, December 17, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/17/everything-you-need-to-know-about-banning-assault-weapons-in-one-post/ (August, 2013)
[3] Administrator, “4. problems with waiting periods and background checks” in “Gun control fact-sheet 2004” (74), September 18, 2008, http://www.gunowners.org/fs0404.htm (August, 2013)
[4] Ibid “2. Self Defense”, (42)
[5] Ibid, (43)
[6] Ibid, (44)
[7] Jack Schaefer, Shane, (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1949), 49
[8] Calculated with data from:    Administrator, “7. Firearm Statistics” “Gun control fact-sheet 2004”, September 18, 2008, http://www.gunowners.org/fs0404.htm (August, 2013)
[9] Ibid
[10] Calculated with date from:  Administrator, “7. Firearm Statistics” “Gun control fact-sheet 2004”, September 18, 2008, http://www.gunowners.org/fs0404.htm (August, 2013) and James D. Agresti and Reid K. Smith. “Gun Control Facts”, Just Facts, September 13, 2010. Revised 2/11/13. http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp (August, 2013) [122]
[11] Smith, Guy, Gun Facts (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013). 15
[12] James D. Agresti and Reid K. Smith. “Gun Control Facts”, Just Facts, September 13, 2010. Revised 2/11/13. http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp (August, 2013) [120]
[13] Ibid, [107]
[14] “Residential population”, in “U.S. Census bureau” 2000, http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/resapport/states/florida.pdf (August, 2013)
[15] Calculated with data from: “Residential population”, in “U.S. Census bureau” 2000, http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/resapport/states/florida.pdf (August, 2013) and James D. Agresti and Reid K. Smith. “Gun Control Facts”, Just Facts, September 13, 2010. Revised 2/11/13. http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp (August, 2013) [107]
[16] Calculated with data from: Ibid
[17] James D. Agresti and Reid K. Smith. “Gun Control Facts”, Just Facts, September 13, 2010. Revised 2/11/13. http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp (August, 2013) [103]
[18] Ibid, [107]
[19] James D. Agresti and Reid K. Smith. “Gun Control Facts”, Just Facts, September 13, 2010. Revised 2/11/13. http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp (August, 2013) [33]
[20] Ibid, [35]
[21] Ibid, [36]
[22] Ibid