Re: OT: Foulball

["Kid" <kid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> the methodology used in the clinton news
>
> network supposed poll was 18% republican and 47% dumocRAT respondents.
>
> and you bought it hook line and sinker.


this the kind of health care the Osama's are gonna bring us?

Rationing from Michelle.  Here's a challenge to the ABC News Obamacare
infomercial producers. I dare you to ask President Obama this
question: What have you done for Dontae Adams, lately?

***

The Obamacare horror story you won't hear
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009

The White House, Democrats, and MoveOn liberals are spreading health
care sob stories to sell a government takeover. But there's one health
care policy nightmare you won't hear the Obamas hyping. It's a tale of
poor, minority patient-dumping in Chicago - with First Lady Michelle
Obama's fingerprints all over it.

Both Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Democrat Rep. Bobby
Rush of Chicago have raised red flags about the outsourcing program,
run by the University of Chicago Medical Center. The hospital has
non-profit status and receives lucrative tax breaks in exchange for
providing charity care. Yet, it spent a measly $10 million on charity
care for the poor in fiscal 2007 when Mrs. Obama was employed
there-1.3 percent of its total hospital expenses, according to an
analysis performed for The Washington Post by the non-partisan Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability. The figure is below the 2.1 percent
average for nonprofit hospitals in surrounding Cook County.

Rep. Rush called for a House investigation last week in response to
months of patient-dumping complaints, noting: "Congress has a duty to
expend its power to mitigate and prevent this despicable practice from
continuing in centers that receive federal funds."

Don't expect the president to support a probe. While a top executive
at the hospital, Mrs. Obama helped engineer the plan to offload
low-income patients with non-urgent health needs. Under the Orwellian
banner of an "Urban Health Initiative," Mrs. Obama sold the scheme to
outsource low-income care to other facilities as a way to
"dramatically improve health care for thousands of South Side
residents." The program guaranteed "free" shuttle rides to and from
the outside clinics.

In truth, it was old-fashioned cost-cutting and favor-trading
repackaged as minority aid. Clearing out the poor freed up room for
insured (i.e., more lucrative) patients. If a Republican had proposed
the very same program and recruited black civic leaders to front it,
Michelle Obama and her grievance-mongering friends would be screaming
"RAAAAAAAAACISM!" at the top of their lungs.

Joe Stephens of the Washington Post wrote: "To ensure community
support, Michelle Obama and others in late 2006 recommended that the
hospital hire the firm of David Axelrod, who a few months later became
the chief strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Axelrod's firm recommended an aggressive promotional effort modeled on
a political campaign-appoint a campaign manager, conduct focus groups,
target messages to specific constituencies, then recruit religious
leaders and other third-party 'validators.' They, in turn, would write
and submit opinion pieces to Chicago publications."

Some health care experts saw through Mrs. Obama and her public
relations man, David Axelrod-yes, the same David Axelrod who is now
Mr. Obama's senior adviser at the White House. The University of
Chicago Medical Center hired Axelrod's public relations firm, ASK
Public Strategies, to promote Mrs. Obama's Urban Health Initiative.
Axelrod had the blessing of Chicago political guru Valerie Jarrett -
now White House senior adviser.

Axelrod's great contribution: Re-branding! His firm recommended
re-naming the initiative after "[i]nternal and external respondents
expressed the opinion that the word 'urban' is code for 'black' or
'black and poor'..Based on the research, consideration should be given
to re-branding the initiative." Axelrod and the Obama campaign refused
to disclose how much his firm received for its genius re-branding
services.

In February 2009, outrage in the Obamas' community exploded after a
young boy covered by Medicaid was turned away from the University of
Chicago Medical Center. Dontae Adams' mother, Angela, had sought
emergency treatment for him after a pit bull tore off his upper lip.
Mrs. Obama's hospital gave the boy a tetanus shot, antibiotics, and
Tylenol and shoved him out the door. The mother and son took an
hour-long bus ride to another hospital for surgery.

I'll guarantee you this: You'll never see the Adams family featured at
an Obama policy summit or seated next to the First Lady at a joint
session of Congress to illustrate the failures of the health care
system.

Following the Adams incident, the American College of Emergency
Physicians (ACEP) blasted Mrs. Obama and Mr. Axelrod's grand plan. The
group released a statement expressing "grave concerns that the
University of Chicago's policy toward emergency patients is
dangerously close to 'patient dumping,' a practice made illegal by the
Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act (EMTALA)" - signed by
President Reagan, by the way - "and reflected an effort to 'cherry
pick' wealthy patients over poor."

Rewarding political cronies at the expense of the poor while posing as
guardians of the downtrodden? Welcome to Obamacare.