Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – Who Should Decide?

Majority of Americans Believe Future of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Should be Left Up to Military Commanders

Zogby Poll Finds
Thursday, May 27, 2010
By Nick Dean

Homosexual activists on the West Lawn of the Capitol during a rally in Washington on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
(CNSNews.com) – Fifty-nine (59) percent of Americans think military leaders, rather than Congress, should be making the decision about the military policy on homosexuality, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Family Research Center.

The Zogby International telephone survey, which was conducted May 17, asked 2,063 people: “As pertains to homosexuals openly serving in the military, do you believe this decision is best made by military leaders or Congress?”

Only 21 percent said Congress should make the decision — and 18 percent answered neither or “not sure.”

Despite that majority, Senate Democratic leaders announced plans on Monday to fast-track a bill that would repeal the current “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. A vote on that bill could come this week.

On Monday night, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), along with Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), announced they had developed a compromise amendment to their legislative proposal that initiates a fast-paced process to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Levin is expected to add the amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill. (more…)

Why Donald Berwick is Dangerous to Your Health

Why Donald Berwick is Dangerous to Your Health
By &Hal Scherz

President Obama’s nomination of Donald Berwick M.D. to head HHS’s Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) eliminates any lingering doubt he seeks to impose state-run medicine and a European style health care system on America . But before Dr Berwick gets an official nod of approval for the federal government’s most important health care appointment — the CMS covers over 100 million Americans, has an annual $800 billion budget that is larger than the defense department’s and is the 2nd largest insurance company in the world, the US Senate may want to consider the nominee’s remarkable and quite literal attachment to the socialist health-care model.

“I am romantic about the NHS. I love it.” Dr Berwick says about probably the best-known case of socialized medicine — Britain ’s National Health Service (NHS). “All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at healthcare in my own country,” he says about a US health care system that is “bloated,” runs in “the darkness of private enterprise,” and has “tremendous excess capacity.”

Rationing — Dr Berwick uses the “r” word himself — is why he much prefers the “politically accountable” British system. About Britain’s rationing board, The National Institute for Clinical Health Excellence (NICE), Dr Berwick says: “NICE is not just a national treasure; it is a global treasure”.  In using “quality adjusted life years” per British pound to make treatment decisions, NICE mandates that Britain cannot afford to spend, except in unusual cases, more than $22,000 to extend a life 6 months. But despite its Orwellian acronym and properly polite British exterior, NICE harbors a deep bureaucratic aversion to extended care for the elderly and those with chronic disease, an approach which Dr. Berwick explicitly endorses. (more…)

Texas Doctors Are Opting Out Of Medicare

By TODD ACKERMAN
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
May 17, 2010, 11:02PM

Texas doctors are opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of seniors unaffordable.

Two years after a survey found nearly half of Texas doctors weren’t taking some new Medicare patients, new data shows 100 to 200 a year are now ending all involvement with the program. Before 2007, the number of doctors opting out averaged less than a handful a year.

“This new data shows the Medicare system is beginning to implode,” said Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the Texas Medical Association. “If Congress doesn’t fix Medicare soon, there’ll be more and more doctors dropping out and Congress’ promise to provide medical care to seniors will be broken.”

More than 300 doctors have dropped the program in the last two years, including 50 in the first three months of 2010, according to data compiled by the Houston Chronicle. Texas Medical Association officials, who conducted the 2008 survey, said the numbers far exceeded their assumptions. (more…)