obama healthcare
ObamaCare: Democratic healthcare reform
Summary (posts follow):
Desite what you've heard, the healthcare reform push from Barack Obama and the Democrats would include illegal aliens as discussed here. At townhall meetings, several people have asked whether illegal aliens would be covered and been told no. The problem is that they weren't asking the right questions; they should have asked whether there were any enforcement provisions (see the link above) or they should have asked this question.
Last modified Aug 25, 2009
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):
An Obamacare benefit to the GOP: more Job Creators - 02/27/14
Could Obamacare end up being an electoral boon for the GOP? Let me explain in the context of the video below. The video - from Time Warner Cable News - shows a Job Creator complaining that he can't expand his business to two more locations: if he does he'll hit the 50 employer limit imposed by Obamacare and have to either pay a fine or provide healthcare to his employees.
Tea Party Patriots, ForAmerica mostly ignore immigration for futile anti-Obamacare effort ("Exempt America" tour) - 08/22/13
The Congressional townhall events of August were a perfect time to block comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty), yet few have showed up so far. The reaction to amnesty in 2013 is much more muted than it was in 2007.
Oops: "Hispanics" now want GOP to stop opposing Obamacare - 04/01/13
In negotiations, when you show weakness and make weak demands, your opponents tend to take advantage of that.
Thus it is with the GOP quest for racial power (link):
Immigration reform may make millions eligible for Obamacare (amnesty, healthcare) - 01/26/13
From The Hill ( peekURL.com/z286S6Y ):
Comprehensive immigration reform could make millions of people suddenly eligible for assistance under President Obama's healthcare law, assuming a final deal paves the way for undocumented immigrants to receive papers.
Illegal aliens are now prohibited from purchasing coverage through the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges, which will launch next year.
Once again: how to block or modify the healthcare reform bill - 12/22/09
The reason why Obama healthcare is currently poised to be signed into law is, to be frank, because the leaders of the opposition are either incompetent or corrupt. They either don't want to block it and hope to get in on the gravy train, or they just aren't smart enough to figure out how to block it. Those opposition leaders include the GOP, the tea parties, pundits, and major bloggers.
"Death panels" in health care bill can't be repealed; ACORN and others can get funding - 12/22/09
The latest news on the Obama healthcare front is that the "death panels" part of the legislation - the part that doesn't exist even though it does exist - cannot be repealed per language inserted by Harry Reid (link). The subsection about the "Independent Medicare Advisory Board" says:
it shall not be in order in the senate or the house of representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.
According to an update however, it could be effectively repealed by refusing to fund it.
In related news, Roland Burris...
Politifact "Lie of the Year" misleads (Angie Drobnic Holan; Sarah Palin's "death panels") - 12/19/09
Politifact has named Sarah Palin's claim about there being "death panels" in Obama healthcare as their lie of the year; it was the top "lie" selected by both their editors and their readers.
Illegal aliens would get employer-funded health insurance under House, Senate healthcare bills - 11/30/09
From this:
Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants could receive health care coverage from their employers under the [House and Senate] bills winding their way through Congress, despite President Obama's explicit pledge that illegal immigrants would not benefit... The House bill mandates, and the Senate bill strongly encourages, businesses to extend health care coverage to all employees. But the bills do not have exemptions to screen out illegal immigrants... A rough estimate by the Center for Immigration Studies suggests that the practical effect of the mandates would be that about 1...
Hospital program fails due to illegal alien care; Kevin Sack /NYT fails to report on proper policy - 11/21/09
Kevin Sack of the New York Times offers "Hospital Falters as Refuge for Illegal Immigrants" (link) about a hospital in Atlanta (Grady Memorial Hospital) that closed their outpatient dialysis clinic due to losing millions of dollars providing unreimbursed care to i
Roundup of legal and illegal immigrant coverage by Obamacare - 11/04/09
Julia Preston of the New York Times has a roundup of the current state of Obamacare as it relates to coverage of legal immigrants and illegal aliens here. While near the beginning she does try to pretend that the Democrats wants to prevent illegal aliens from receiving benefits, she also includes quotes from those working to stiffen the identification requirements and correctly pointing out what the Democrats are trying to do. Per her, the battle now is over whether legal immigrants will be covered immediately or whether they'll have a waiting period. She also includes this:
"You can either...
Jim Geraghty, Glenn Reynolds promote anti-intellectualism (10/7/09 edition; Steve Israel townhall) - 10/07/09
Last night, Rep. Steve Israel of New York held a townhall meeting that per this consisted mainly of shouting and other anti-intellectual behavior. One question that was asked of him is provided at the link, and it isn't a good question.
Amendment to require photo ID for ObamaCare services defeated in Senate (Baucus bill) - 09/30/09
The mainstream media, Barack Obama, and others have repeatedly claimed that the various Obama healthcare plans wouldn't include illegal aliens. For the reasons outlined at the link, that's false. And, their false claims are further undercut by repeated attempts by the Democrats to render ineffective attempts at enforcement, like this latest where an amendment to the Max Baucus bill was blocked:
The bill... would require applicants to verify their names, places of birth and Social Security numbers. In addition, legal immigrants would have to wait five years, as under current law, after...
Democrats: cover legal immigrants in Obamacare, give illegal aliens access (Honda, NCLR - 09/28/09
Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times offers "Liberals seek health-care access for illegals":
Fearful that they're losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access.
..."Legal permanent residents should be able to purchase their plans, and they should also be eligible for subsidies if they need it. Undocumented, if they can afford it, should be able to buy their own private plans [even on the proposed Exchange]. It keeps them out of the...
Did Joe Wilson vote to give healthcare to illegal aliens in 2003? (Donny Shaw, Sunlight) - 09/19/09
The short answer is "no". The reason why there's even a question is because it's part of the campaign by Obama supporters to smear Joe Wilson for his "You lie!" outburst during a recent Obama speech. While that campaign rages on even today, here's a recent flashback to Sep. 11.
Obama snubs Fox to discuss domestic policy with foreign citizen (Jorge Ramos, Univision) - 09/19/09
On Sunday 9/20/09, Barack Obama will be appearing on five (5) Sunday talk shows to promote Obama healthcare. One stop he won't be making is at Fox News; Chris Wallace isn't too happy about being snubbed [1] and neither are various GOP leaders [2].
Instead of reaching out to Fox's viewers and deflecting what would assuredly be lightweight questions, Obama will be appearing on Univision's "Al Punto with Jorge Ramos". Ramos is a Mexican citizen who has no interest in becoming a U.S. citizen; he says he might want to run for office in Mexico one day. Despite that, he has no qualms about...
Rep. Luis Gutierrez wants illegal aliens in healthcare exchange; emulate Blue Dogs for amnesty - 09/15/09
Rep. Luis Gutierrez - a buffoonish fervent supporter of illegal immigration - recently spoke out in favor of allowing illegal aliens into the Obama healthcare "exchange".
E.J. Dionne sells Obamacare for illegal aliens - 09/15/09
EJ Dionne of the Washington Post writes of the Joe Wilson "You lie!" outburst and the topic of illegal aliens being covered under Obama healthcare (link). In this bit he lets you know that he's just a disingenuous hack whose opinions can't be trusted:
For the record, Wilson's premise is itself untrue: The framers of the various Democratic health-care bills did all they could to make sure their proposals wouldn't help illegal immigrants. Yes, a few might slip through the cracks and -- horrors! -- get assistance. But the health reformers wrote language as tough as it could be to make sure this...
FactCheck furiously spins healthcare coverage for illegal aliens; Obama still right! - 09/11/09
FactCheck offers "Obama’s Health Care Speech/We fact-check the president's address to Congress and the nation" (factcheck.org/2009/09/obamas-health-care-speech) which to a certain extent contradicts claims made by their own director Brooks Jackson back on August 14. At that time, he said it was "False" that "Illegal Immigrants Will Be Covered" under the House bill; his claim itself is false.
With the new article they're at least admitting that those who point out that illegal aliens would be covered "have a point", but they furiously spin things - surprise! - to Obama's benefit:
[In his...
Senate tightening rules on illegal aliens in healthcare reform? (after Joe Wilson's "You lie!") - 09/11/09
From this discussion of Senate negotiations over their version of Obama healthcare:
The controversy over Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's shouting out "You Lie!" at the President over his claim that illegal immigrants wouldn't benefit from health-care reform apparently sparked some reconsideration of the relevant language. "We really thought we'd resolved this question of people who are here illegally, but as we reflected on the President's speech last night we wanted to go back and drill down again," said Senator Kent Conrad, one of the Democrats in the talks after a meeting Thursday morning. (...
Angie Drobnic Holan of Politifact misleads about healthcare reform bill covering illegal aliens - 09/10/09
Angie Drobnic Holan of Politifact offers "Joe Wilson of South Carolina said Obama lied, but he didn't" [1] about Obama's claim that illegal aliens wouldn't get benefits under Obama healthcare.
David Herszenhorn of NYT misleads about ObamaCare - 09/10/09
David Herszenhorn of the New York Times offers "Check Point: Examining Obama’s Assertions" (link). He lists some of the things Obama was truthful and not truthful about in last night's speech; reviewing all of those for accuracy is left as an exercise.
Obama health care speech: September 9, 2009 - 09/09/09
Barack Obama will be giving a healthcare speech on September 9, 2009 and either we'll be covering it live, or you will by leaving comments. If you'll be watching the speech, please leave a comment pointing out the things he's lied or misled about or the things he doesn't mention. A transcript of the speech will be posted here as soon as it's available.
UPDATE: You can watch this online at whitehouse.gov/live
I'm going to leave watching it up to you, please leave a comment.
The tea parties, angry townhall ranters didn't have much impact on Obamacare "debate" - 09/08/09
If the tea parties and angry townhall ranters had much of an impact on the "debate" over Obama healthcare, one would expect them to be crowing about it and one wouldn't expect to see things such as a Gallup poll showing the poll numbers of the plan mostly unchanged from the beginning of August to the end.
Al Franken shows incompetence of Tea Party leaders, how they help Obama - 09/05/09
The attached video shows U.S. Senator Al Franken discussing Obama healthcare with a group of his constituents at the Minnesota State Fair.
Joshua Hoyt of ICIRR misleads about healthcare for illegal aliens (Mark Kirk) - 08/31/09
Josh Hoyt - director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights whose president is linked to the Mexican government - offers "Congressman Kirk's Immigrant Blind Spot May Cost Him Dearly" (huffingtonpost.com/joshua-hoyt/congressman-kirks-immigra_b_272713.html). He's very "concerned" (as in the type of troll) about Rep. Mark Kirk's stance on immigration-related matters. Unfortunately, "concerns" such as he has strike a chord with certain Republicans who then - instead of doing the smart thing and trying to take power away from people like Hoyt - give in to their far-left...
Sharon Begley of Newsweek dissembles about healthcare for illegal aliens - 08/31/09
Sharon Begley of Newsweek offers "The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate" (link), which contains a section discussing whether illegal aliens could receive healthcare under the House bill. Unlike FactCheck, she doesn't outright mislead and say they won't be able to get it, but she misleads nonetheless:
Illegal immigrants will get free health insurance.
The House bill doesn't give anyone free health care (though under a 1986 law illegals who can't pay do get free emergency care now, courtesy of all us premium paying customers or of hospitals that have to eat the cost). Will they be...
Blogger: FactCheck misattributed chain email to me ("Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200") - 08/30/09
FactCheck offers "Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200" (factcheck.org/2009/08/twenty-six-lies-about-hr-3200), a discussion of a chain email for which they say:
A notorious analysis of the House health care bill contains 48 claims. Twenty-six of them are false and the rest mostly misleading. Only four are true.
FactCheck recently misled about illegal aliens being covered under the House bill and for that and other reasons they aren't a credible source. However, I'm going to leave pointing out what if anything they got wrong in this case to those who are experts on the bil.
In this case, they make...
Obama administration wants artists to push their agenda (NEA, serve.gov) - 08/26/09
A couple weeks ago, representatives of the Obama administration held a conference call with dozens from the art world in which those officials encouraged the artists to push issues that are also being pushed by the Barack Obama administration, including healthcare reform and cap and trade. The details are in this long, disjoined report from someone who took part in the call. Those on the call stressed the role of the art community in getting Obama elected (including referencing Shepard Fairey's posters and the "Yes We Can" song) and apparently wanted them to continue.
Backed by the full...
Illegal aliens can get healthcare benefits under House bill: Congressional Research Service (HR 3200) - 08/26/09
The Congressional Research Service - part of the Library of Congress - now confirms that illegal aliens will be able to access healthcare benefits under the House healthcare reform bill (HR 3200).
Little Green Footballs has ObamaCare questions - 08/24/09
Someone associated with Little Green Footballs has compiled a list of questions about Obama healthcare here. There are several dozen questions and they're encouraging their readers to go ask them at townhalls and the like.
Brooks Jackson of FactCheck misleads about illegal aliens and ObamaCare - 08/24/09
On August 14, Brooks Jackson, Viveca Novak, Lori Robertson and Jess Henig of FactCheck offered the misleading article "Seven Falsehoods About Health Care" (factcheck.org/2009/08/seven-falsehoods-about-health-care), proving once again that Fact Check is not a credible source.
They misleadingly claim that illegal aliens won't be covered under Obama healthcare, pointing to Section 246 of H.R. 3200 which says:
Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.
For why that's highly misleading...
Obama lies about illegal aliens covered under Obamacare; abortions, "death panels" - 08/23/09
In yesterday's radio address, Barack Obama said [1]:
So today, I want to spend a few minutes debunking some of the more outrageous myths circulating on the internet, on cable TV, and repeated at some town halls across this country... Let's start with the false claim that illegal immigrants will get health insurance under reform. That’s not true. Illegal immigrants would not be covered. That idea has never even been on the table. Some are also saying that coverage for abortions would be mandated under reform. Also false. When it comes to the current ban on using tax dollars for abortions,...
New York Times now admits: "A Basis Is Seen for Some Health Plan Fears Among the Elderly" - 08/22/09
On August 13, Jim Rutenberg and Jackie Calmes of the New York Times offered "False 'Death Panel' Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots" (link):
The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama’s health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks... Advanced even this week by Republican stalwarts including the party’s last vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, and Charles E. Grassley, the veteran Iowa senator, the nature of the assertion nonetheless seemed reminiscent of the modern-day...
Chuck Todd misleads about Obamacare (illegal alien coverage, abortions, Calvin Woodward) - 08/19/09
Chuck Todd (and/or Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg) of MSNBC offer this:
One of the reasons why the public appears so wary about Obama’s health-care plans is due to all the misinformation out there. Majorities in [a new NBC News poll] believe the plans would give health insurance coverage to illegal immigrants (55%), would lead to a government takeover of the health system (54%), and would use taxpayer dollars to pay for women to have abortions (50%) -- all claims that nonpartisan fact-checkers say are untrue about the legislation that has emerged so far from Congress....
David Axelrod conflict-of-interest? Getting $2 million from former company that's now pushing Obamacare (PhRMA) - 08/18/09
Obama administration official David Axelrod is due to receive $2 million starting next year from his former company, AKPD Message and Media (he was the sole shareholder and he sold his interest after Obama won). And, per this, AKPD is now receiving "huge fees" "from Healthy Economy Now, a coalition that includes the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA". And, H.E.N. is pushing for healthcare reform.
Is that a conflict of interest? Only someone who specializes in these issues can answer that, but FWIW Robert Gibbs, when asked about this, didn'...
NRA member "Randy the Welder" unwittingly helps Obama at Montana townhall - 08/18/09
The video here from Obama's August 14 health care townhall in Montana shows a local welder taking around a minute to ask him a question. He first points out that he's a proud NRA member, then gives a shout-out to cable news (presumably Fox News), and then launches into an incredibly weak question. He basically wants to know how Obama is going to pay for all this stuff.
Obama administration no longer publicly seeking citizen informants; their plan tracked my satire - 08/17/09
Back on August 4, the White House blog briefly acted like a toned-down earthtones Stasi and said (whitehouse.gov/blog/facts-are-stubborn-things):
If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
Now, per this, emails sent to that address bounce back with a message suggesting that the sender visits whitehouse.gov/realitycheck instead.
In thinking back, I think the Obama administration got this idea from me. In October of last year, I posted the following satirical proposal to a fake blog I created housed at my....
"Becky": poster girl for unwitting supporters of Obamacare (townhall ranter) - 08/15/09
The attached video features someone who, not knowing her real name, I'll call "Becky". Becky is helping push Obama healthcare, even if she thinks she's doing the opposite. She's not alone: all those I've seen so far who think they're opposing Obamacare are in effect either helping promote it or aren't doing as good a job to oppose it as they could.
Ask better questions about illegal aliens receiving healthcare at townhalls - 08/14/09
Apparently some of the questions at recent townhalls have been about illegal aliens receiving Obama healthcare. Unfortunately, if the report at [1] is accurate, the questions have been weak and may have actually helped the Democrats rather than revealed what they intend to do. As detailed by Obama himself, the Democrats do intend to give UHC to current illegal aliens by changing their status first.
Even if Palin is right about "death panels", will her supporters be able to do anything about it? - 08/13/09
I'm not familiar with the details of Obama healthcare so I don't know whether this post is right or not when it says that Sarah Palin wasn't wrong when she wrote the following:
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. Such a system is downright evil.
What I do know is that a wide variety of MSM and non-MSM sources have already mocked her over this....