Patients and physicians are descending on the US Capitol Tuesday to let Congress know that they do not want the massive government-run plan that Pelosi, Pres. Obama, and Reid are trying to force through this week.  For more information visit http://www.americangrassrootscoalition.org/ and http://www.doctorsandpatients.org .

If you cannot be in DC Tuesday, there are events in your area to express your displeasure with the bill.  Americans for Prosperity are asking citizens across the country to “Honk No” Tuesday at Noon.   Details and a printable sign to hang from your car window are at http://honkno.com/about/ .  (more…)

Late Sunday evening House Democrats posted the shell bill for the Health Care reconciliation package. This is just a shell bill that will be gutted and replaced later in the week. An explanation of this process can be read at: http://spectator.org/blog/2010/03/15/the-health-care-shell-game-beg .

In this alert:

1) Doctors & Patients Needed at Code Red Rallies in DC & other events.
2) House Members to Target with calls, faxes, emails.
3) Videos of physicians speaking out against government medicine.

Speaker Pelosi, President Obama, and Harry Reid have seemingly forgotten the forceful rejection in Massachusetts of their radical agenda.  They are now using every strong arm tactic in their playbook, and even inventing some new ones, to push through healthcare “reform” against the wishes of the American people. (more…)

Any House member who votes for the Senate bill, based on promises of later “fixes,” is virtually certain to be voting for federal funding of abortion.

American Catholic bishops are being kept at the negotiating table with pledges to enact abortion protections as separate legislation amending the Senate bill after it is passed. A vote for the Senate bill now, they say, is just a way “to keep the process moving.”

The pledges, however, are written in disappearing ink, if written at all. (more…)

According to our D.C. intelligence, the House would be in session this evening voting on the Senate-passed “healthcare reform” bill—if Speaker Pelosi had the votes.

She is likely to call the roll immediately if she gets them, so as to not allow time for introspection or reconsideration. The  Leadership does not want Congress to go home for Easter break without having it “done”—lest wavering congressmen get exposed to their constituents.
(more…)

by Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.

The Healthcare Summit made it clear that we face polar opposite choices:

1. Will we have individual control of our healthcare insurance and services? The Republicans presented cogent ideas for free market, patient-centered, lower cost options to improve healthcare delivery and private insurance.

OR

2. Will Washington control our healthcare options? Democrats continued their aggressive push on a radical agenda to transform 1/6 of our economy by government regulation of healthcare with federal panels to tell us what options we are allowed. The Democrats plan is clear: ram their agenda through on the devious tactic of “reconciliation,” AN OBSCURE BUDGET PROCEDURE never intended for such massive social transformation of our economy and infringement of our freedom.

If the “reconciliation” tactic fails, “Plan B” focuses on “insurance reform”–setting up government-dictated coverage and price controls for private insurance companies.

Insurance “reform” has a “take-care-of-you” tone that sounds good: government “protects” people who have pre-existing conditions by requiring insurance companies to cover them and preventing cancellation. Government “protects” us with price controls on what premium increases a company could charge.

So where is the danger in this? Before I answer, let me be clear. I have no love for or loyalty to health insurance companies – private or government run (i.e., Medicare). ALL of them have seriously intruded into the relationship between patients and doctors (more…)

by Richard Amerling, M.D.

The debate raging over ObamaCare has been carried on mostly by politicians, pundits, policy wonks and economists, with little input from those most intimately involved with delivery of health care—medical practitioners. Doctors have too often been marginalized as self-interested. If that were true, there would be far fewer practicing physicians. Of course we are concerned with income, as are all taxpayers and businesses faced with rising costs and taxes. Unlike other businesses, however, most doctors are unable to pass higher costs to consumers due to price controls on reimbursement. When costs outpace income, bankruptcy ensues. This renders discussions of autonomy moot. (more…)