The freedom of America's people has been slowly eroded for the past 200+ years since the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. That erosion continues at an accelerating rate. If we, the people, do not wake up and start taking back our Liberty, we will soon find that we have no trace of it left.
Open letter to Senator Orrin Hatch
I just heard your statement on full body imaging. You, sir, are an idiot! There is absolutely NO excuse for such an invasion of privacy! There are more effective, less expensive and less invasive methods to screen for explosives. This is just one more invasion of privacy and the right to be secure in ones person. What is next, full strip and cavity searches?
There is great wisdom in the statement “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve niether Liberty nor Safety.” (Benjamin Franklin).
When terrorists force us to give up our freedom, they have won. There is no such thing as government provided security. The only true security comes from one’s own spiritual and temporal preparedness, government can only provide invasions of privacy and a pretense of security, which history has proved repeatedly, provides no real security. Personal safety comes only from each individual being able to protect and defend himself, not being stripped of the means of self defense by a tyrannical government.
If you were even half of the man you claim to be, you would be taking strong, decisive, action to restore the liberties of the American citizens and stop the continued onslaught against our rights and freedom!
True Solutions for President Obama’s “Status-Quo” Health Care Reform
This is a piece originally written by Rusty Scalpel for publication on another site. Readers of Free Market Physician will recognize common themes accompanied by statistics that have not previously been published on this site. In particular we would point out the author’s finding that 24-38 cents of every dollar paid for doctor’s visits with health insurance is consumed by the billing process. This number was arrived at through extrapolation of data in a well-known New England of Journal article. To the best of our knowledge, this figure is not published anywhere else on the Internet.
President Obama says it is time to escape the status quo of the United States health care system. He proposes mandates and funding to provide health insurance for all Americans. Although such a plan may appear reasonable, it will only perpetuate the high costs that now make health care unaffordable. A real solution to high prices is eliminating insurance companies from the doctor-patient relationship. Health care can be made affordable through patients’ direct management of their health care expenditures and direct payment for health care services.
Health care plus insurance is more expensive than health care on its own. The price of a health insurance policy is the price of health care, plus the cost of the health insurance industry itself: underwriting, facilities, legal fees, and the salaries of over 469,000 insurance company employees and 881,000 insurance-related employees. Americans pay for these costs, plus the cost of their health care, every time they pay for their health insurance policy. Health insurance cannot make health care cheaper- it inherently adds to the cost.
A classic study published in the New England Journal of Medicine illustrates this point. It shows an average overhead for American health insurance companies of 11.7%, as of 1999. Add to this a very reasonable industry average profit margin of 3.4% and we see that about 15% of money paid to insurers never reaches health care providers. Americans paying for health care with comprehensive health insurance are only using their money at 85% of its potential.
However, this is not the end of money wasted through the use of health insurance. Those involved in health care are acutely aware of how much time and money is spent billing Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance to receive reimbursement for services provided. Many clinics hire as many employees for the billing department as they have doctors and nurses, who also spend significant time in billing. This raises overhead costs, which are passed on to patients.
Doctors offices have an average overhead of 26.9%, according to the NEJM article. Of course, not all of this overhead is due to billing. But the study indicates that a minimum of 10.8% is due to insurance billing. So between 11 and 27 cents of every dollar paid by insurance companies to doctors offices is consumed by the billing process.
A little multiplication (not addition) to combine these losses with the 15% insurance company losses reveals that for every dollar the insured patient spends on health care, only 62 to 76 cents will be applied to true health care costs. The rest is lost in the handoffs between the patient and the insurance company and between the insurance company and the doctor.
This is why President Obama’s plan will perpetuate the status quo. It ensures that all Americans will continue to pay into a health care pot that will leak 24 to 38% of the water put into it. His proposed regulations on the industry will not help the situation, either. Profit margins are not high enough to sustain the losses the stick-it-to-the-industry regulations will inflict. The most likely outcome of his health care plan will be the sinking of the insurance industry, with every single American chained to the deck.
What then, is the solution to the status quo? Instead of moving toward a universally insured society, we should be moving to a sparsely insured society. Instead of mandating health insurance for all Americans, we should be liberating Americans to make their own health care decisions. We should allow them to decide whether or not they can afford the additional 24 to 38% they must pay to have health insurance services added to their health care.
Part of the solution requires a cultural shift. America must see health insurance for what it really is. Health insurance does not guarantee health, just as life insurance does not guarantee life. Health insurance is meant to protect finances against health expenditures that would cause a financial wipe out. Most consumers are looking for a plan to protect their finances from a major emergency. A catastrophic (high deductible) plan is what they need and can purchase for well under $100 a month.
Unfortunately, what most consumers purchase is comprehensive health insurance. This insurance costs hundreds of dollars a month. Instead of serving as a rainy-day account for emergencies, it becomes the account through which all health expenditures are paid. The insurance company determines a monthly payment that on average should cover all health expenses, plus operating costs. These plans are too expensive for most Americans. Instead of protecting finances from an emergency, comprehensive plans turn out to be a catastrophe all on their own.
Another part of the cultural shift involves health care providers. They too have fallen into the health insurance net. Involvement with insurance companies proves expensive and painful for them, just as it is for the patients. Not only must they participate in the costly and aggravating billing process, but insurance policies interfere with their treatment plans. Medication and treatment decisions are made not on the basis of patient need, but on the basis of insurance coverage.
The solution to patient problems was catastrophic insurance plans. The solution to doctors’ headaches and additional expenses (which they must pass on to the patients) is fee-for-service, cash-only clinics. By eliminating third-party payers these clinics have incredible potential to save patients money. They bill patients directly at the time of service for services received. They restore the patient-doctor relationship. Doctors are able to prescribe and treat based on patients desires and ability to pay, not on insurance companies’ payment plans.
Coupling catastrophic insurance plans with fee-for-service clinics can have profound financial effects for patients. Imagine if instead of paying into a comprehensive insurance plan every month, patients paid for catastrophic plans and then deposited the remainder of what would have gone into the comprehensive plan into a savings account. This account could be used to cover routine medical needs and cover the deductible should a true catastrophe occur. The money stays in patients’ bank accounts instead of becoming part of the operating budget of the insurance company. Patients earn interest on the account and are actually able to maintain the assets in their accounts from year to year.
Not only are Americans free to grow richer by managing their own medical expenses, but they empower themselves in their relationships with health care providers. They now have bargaining leverage as individuals or groups because they, not insurance companies, are the payers. In addition, instead of getting every possible procedure after a deductible has been met, they become conservative spenders. They analyze whether a service has value to them and spend accordingly. They ration their own health care based on their needs instead of allowing insurance or government to do it for them.
In short, we turn patients into consumers. They are not beggars or government dependents to be seen at the leisure and pity of physicians, politicians and third-party payers. They are empowered American consumers. They are free men and women, masters of their own lives and their own property. Such liberty is not status quo. It is an American phenomenon and America’s legacy. Let’s not forfeit that legacy for President Obama’s status quo government-controlled health insurance.
Rusty Scalpel
Taken from http://freemarketphysician.blogspot.com/2009/10/president-obamas-health-care-failure.html
Are you a Thief?
Have you taken one of the recent Cash for Clunker rebates? If so, then you are a thief. For that matter, if you are taking any of the many “stimulus” package or other government handout programs, then you are also a thief.
You say that is a strong accusation? Well, look at it this way, every dime that the government spends or gives away has to come from somewhere, and the only place government can get that money is by taking it from someone else, by force or threat of force. That makes you a thief by proxy. Instead of doing your own dirty work, you have the government do it for you. With the national debt where it is, to a large degree it is your and my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren from whom you and everyone else taking these “handouts” are stealing.
Think about it!
Take Back Utah
Utah Land Use Statistics
The federal government controls nearly 65 percent of the land in the state of Utah, as opposed to states like Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York or Virginia where the federal government controls less than 2% of the total land mass of those states.
* New York State has 30,216,320 acres only 234,000 acres of federal land. One percent of the land mass is federal.
* Pennsylvania has 29,475,200 acres of land and only 677,000 acres of federal land. That amounts to 2.3% of the land mass.
* Illinois has 36,058,700 acres of land and only 490,300 acres of federal land or 1.4%.
On the other hand …
Utah has 52,696,960 acres of land, and a staggering 33,258,253 acres of federal land 63%. Nevada has 70,264,320 acres of land, and (are you ready?) 54,159,458 acres of federal land. That is 77%. Idaho 60%, California, 44.7% Colorado, 36% Oregon 52% Wyoming 54%.
Not only do they control the land, with the anti-development, preservationist philosophy which is currently in vogue, there is great pressure to restrict multiple uses of public land even though “multiple use” is the theoretical underpinning of the concept of “public land”.
Take Back Utah is dedicated to reversing this trend and securing local rights as defined by federal law. Federal land agencies must honor and obey the intent of Congress in the Federal Land Management Policy Act (FLPMA) legislation that repealed the RS2477 statute, but preserved existing rights of way created prior to this act. To date, federal land agencies have yet to recognize one of those right of ways.
They have pushed cattlemen out of historical grazing rights, cut off access to mineral and other resource extraction, all at a cost to the well being of the nation, and to the very existence of local rural communities.
This imbalance must end. To do it you will have to become an activist. Take Back Utah urges your support.
Please lend your support, your name to the cause and your presence at our rally on August 8th. It will be a vehicle parade from the Salt Lake City office building (Washington Square) at 500 S. and State St. and travel north up State St. to the Utah capitol building. It is not the message you will hear that is important. It is the message you will deliver by being there in person. We urge your support.
For more information visit http://www.takebackutah.org
Ted Nugent on Gun Control
This man has it right!!
We The People Stimulus Package
There are a couple of points in this that I disagree with, but overall it is the right message. Rather than eliminating the Electoral College, we need to restore it to its original purpose and operation. Mandatory Universal Service amounts to slavery, voluntary service builds character.
The object of the game is to destroy American capitalism by having the government take over everything!
Tokens include a bus, a teleprompter, a sprig of arugula and a waffle iron.
Wanna play? No??? Too bad, you’re already playing… And quite frankly, in this game, nobody wins!
History Lesson
I had forgotten all of this… Do you remember when the senators were giving Ollie North such a bad time? This brings it all into perspective doesn’t it? Have a great day.
Do you remember 1987…
Thought you might be interested in this forgotten bit of information…
It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt.Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration.
There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning!
He was being drilled by a senator; ‘Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?’
Ollie replied, ‘Yes, I did, Sir.’
The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, ‘Isn’t that just a little excessive?’
‘No, sir,’ continued Ollie.
‘No? And why not?’ the senator asked.
‘Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir.’
‘Threatened? By whom?’ the senator questioned.
‘By a terrorist, sir’ Ollie answered.
‘Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?’
‘His name is Osama bin Laden, sir’ Ollie replied.
At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn’t pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn’t. A couple of people laughed at the attempt… Then the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?’ the senator asked.
‘Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of’, Ollie answered.
‘And what do you recommend we do about him?’ asked the senator.
‘Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth.’
The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.
By the way, that senator was Al Gore! (Thank you Al, you are such an embarrassment to Tennessee !!)
Also:
Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him… As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called ‘political prisoners.’
However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands, The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, ‘insisted’ that all prisoners be released.
Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked us by flying an airplane into Tower One of the WorldTrade Center… This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified. It was censored in the US from all later reports.
People ask Why?
Why I Carry a Gun
My old grandpa said to me son,’ there comes a time in every man’s life when he stops bustin’ knuckles and starts bustin’ caps and usually it’s when he becomes too old to take a whoopin’.
I don’t carry a gun to kill people.
I carry a gun to keep from being killed.
I don’t carry a gun to scare people.
I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.
I don’t carry a gun because I’m paranoid.
I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.
I don’t carry a gun because I’m evil.
I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.
I don’t carry a gun because I hate the government.
I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.
I don’t carry a gun because I’m angry.
I carry a gun so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.
I don’t carry a gun because I want to shoot someone.
I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.
I don’t carry a gun because I’m a cowboy.
I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.
I don’t carry a gun to make me feel like a man.
I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.
I don’t carry a gun because I feel inadequate.
I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.
I don’t carry a gun because I love it.
I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.
Police Protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves.
Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.
Personally, I carry a gun because I’m too young to die and too old to take a whoopin’.
..author unknown (but obviously brilliant)
Remember the Shot Heard Around the World
On April 19, 1775, the first battles of the American Revolution were fought at Lexington and Concord. Let them serve as a reminder that people determined to secure their freedom can win against all odds.
While I do not advocate armed rebellion, we must stand up and take back our government to restore our Liberty.
The proper role of government is to protect the rights of the people. Anything less is dereliction of duty, anything more is usurpation of power. –Ezra Taft Benson