Kathryn Perkins I
saw this and thought of you, and your argument with Lawson above. I
count my blessings to be an American and can't imagine what it must
really be like to be oppressed. I couldn't have said it better than
whoever wrote this. I would like to add however that many women in
America are in terrible circumstances and to those women I hope we can
work together to find real solutions with out just fighting over things
to which it seems there will be no peaceful solution (example: pro life /
pro choice)
"I am not a "disgrace to women" because
I don't support the women's march. I do not feel I am a "second class
citizen" because I am a woman. I do not feel my voice is "not heard"
because I am a woman. I do not feel I am not provided opportunities in
this life or in America because I am a woman. I do not feel that I
"don't have control of my body or choices" because I am a woman. I do
not feel like I am " not respected or undermined" because I am a woman.
I AM a woman.
I can make my own choices.
I can speak and be heard.
I can VOTE.
I can work if I want.
I control my body.
I can defend myself.
I can defend my family.
There is nothing stopping me to do anything in this world but MYSELF.
I
do not blame my circumstances or problems on anything other than my own
choices or even that sometimes in life, we don't always get what we
want. I take responsibility for myself.
I am a mother, a
daughter, a wife, a sister, a friend. I am not held back in life but
only by the walls I choose to not go over which is a personal choice.
Quit blaming.
Take responsibility.
If
you want to speak, do so. But do not expect for me, a woman, to take
you seriously wearing a pink va-jay-jay hat on your head and screaming
profanities and bashing men.
If you have beliefs, and
speak to me in a kind matter, I will listen. But do not expect for me to
change my beliefs to suit yours. Respect goes both ways.
If
you want to impress me, especially in regards to women, then speak on
the real injustices and tragedies that affect women in foreign countries
that do not have the opportunity or means to have their voices heard.
Saudi Arabia, women can't drive, no rights and must always be covered.
China and India, infanticide of baby girls.
Afghanistan, unequal education rights.
Democratic
Republic of Congo, where rapes are brutal and women are left to die, or
HIV infected and left to care for children alone.
Mali, where women can not escape the torture of genital mutilation.
Pakistan, in tribal areas where women are gang raped to pay for men's crime.
Guatemala,
the impoverished female underclass of Guatemala faces domestic
violence, rape and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan
Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of
women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages.
And that's just a few examples.
So
when women get together in AMERICA and whine they don't have equal
rights and march in their clean clothes, after eating a hearty
breakfast, and it's like a vacation away that they have paid for to get
there...
This WOMAN does not support it." Ashley Judd
House approves bill gutting ObamaCare, cutting Planned Parenthood
Oct. 6, 2015: The HealthCare.gov website is displayed on a laptop screen in Washington. (AP)
The bill passed 240-189.
Though Republicans have gone after the Affordable Care Act before, as well as Planned Parenthood, this bill is unique in that it uses a parliamentary tactic to make it easier to pass the Senate. Republicans wrapped the bill in a procedure that would shield it from a Senate filibuster -- meaning it will need only 51 votes to pass that chamber, as opposed to 60.
But it’s no guarantee that the 54 Senate Republicans would back it, as it faces potential opposition from moderate Republicans concerned it goes too far and GOP senators running for president saying it doesn't go far enough. A pair of presidential contenders -- Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. -- along with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, sent a letter this week to House Republicans urging opposition to the bill, saying "This simply isn't good enough."
Still, House Republicans cast the bill as a way to would help them sharpen political differences with Democrats for next year's elections.
"This is our best opportunity to date to put the bill on the president's desk and show the American people where his priorities lie," said Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn.
The legislation would eliminate the health law's requirements that most people who don't have employer-provided health coverage buy individual policies, and that most companies provide medical insurance. It would also eliminate the statute's taxes on medical devices and high-priced insurance policies.
It also prevents Planned Parenthood from getting federal money for a year -- the GOP reaction to secretly recorded tapes that showed the group's officials describing how they sometimes provide researchers with tissue from aborted fetuses.
Democrats called the debate a political charade and a waste of time, saying the House has voted 61 times to repeal all or part of Obama's prized health overhaul since the GOP took control of the chamber in 2011.
"This is a hyper-partisan document that is just talking points for extremists," said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif.
In a statement promising Obama's veto, the White House said the GOP measure "would take away critical benefits and health care coverage from hard-working middle-class families."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Illegal secrecy' shields Obamacare workers
Watchdog sues HHS to obtain records, background checks
- Text smaller
- Text bigger
You may already think that Obamacare is criminal – the way it tells consumers what coverages they must purchase, what price they must pay and what lifesaving coverages are included – or not. And there are those fines.
Criminals, that is.
The fact that they could be already has been confirmed by then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who recently resigned some six months after the catastrophic failure of the Obamacare government website rollout.
It was during a November 2014 Senate Finance Committee hearing when Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas was asking questions about the evaluation process the government has for checking the backgrounds of Obamacare “navigators” – those individuals hired by the government to obtain confidential information about taxpayers and help them through the system.
Cornyn asked Sebelius, “So I want to ask you about the navigators … isn’t it true that there is no federal requirement for navigators to undergo a criminal background check, even though they will receive sensitive personal information from the individuals they help to sign up … for the Affordable Care Act?”
“That is true,” Sebelius said.
“So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them?” Cornyn asked.
“That is possible,” Sebelius said.
Now officials with the government watchdog group Judicial Watch say they have filed a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services to get records about those workers – who are costing taxpayers some $67 million.
It’s reported that HHS has hired about 50,000 such “navigators” to direct applicants enrolling in Obamacare through the maze of demands. Many work for community organizing groups that have gotten grants from the federal government.
Judicial Watch said it is seeking “Any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to contracts awarded to private entities to provide navigators to assist individuals obtaining health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to federal requirements for the above-mentioned navigators, including but not limited to background checks and qualifications.”
“The Obamacare navigator program seems as corrupt as any Chicago patronage operation – and is a danger to the privacy of millions of Americans who are participating in Obamacare,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The use of Obamacare navigators and the Healthcare.gov web site should come with consumer warnings. The Obama administration’s illegal secrecy about these Obamacare navigators should make Americans very nervous.”
National Review Online has reported that among the groups to whom federal tax money is being delivered is Local 100 United Labor Unions, which Judicial Watch said is “a New Orleans group run by ACORN founder Wade Rathke.
“Local 100 is a ‘sub-grantee’ providing navigators for the Southern United Neighborhoods group, which received a $600,678 grant to promote Obamacare enrollment. It also received a $270,193 grant for similar work in Arkansas and a $486,123 grant for Louisiana,” the article reported.
Also included in the drop locations for federal money was the National Urban League, which was paid $376,000 for its Obamacare outreach in Texas, as well as such “leftwing groups” as Planned Parenthood and the Virginia Poverty Law Center Inc., the watchdog organization reported.
“Serious questions have also been raised about the requirements to be an Obamacare navigator and the screening given to those who are hired,” it said.
It was only last August when 13 state attorneys general warned the federal government that training and safeguards in place for the navigators were inadequate.
They said in a letter that the background system “pales in comparison” to what is typically required for workers in programs receiving federal health dollars.
“It is not enough simply to adopt vague policies against fraud,” they wrote.
In January, National Review said as many as 43 convicted criminals were working as navigators in California alone.
It was earlier this year that WND reported state lawmakers, stunned by the federal government’s apparent oversight, were taking action.
The Goldwater Institute said Arizona, Colorado and Virginia were among the states considering laws that would attempt to safeguard Americans’ sensitive identity information from “third-party Obamacare navigators” who have not undergone background checks.
In Colorado, Republican Rep. Janak Joshi, a doctor for over 30 years, affirmed that “patient privacy is of paramount importance.”
“It’s outrageous that the government officials we trust to keep us safe would move forward with a program that lacks the most basic protections for Americans’ privacy,” he said.
The institute said the bills that have been introduced establish background checks and disqualification procedures for felons seeking positions that would give them access to bank account numbers, tax information and other details.
The legislation also would let state authorities revoke Obamacare navigator grants for negligent loss of private information.
“With the continued refusal of Obamacare’s implementers to put identity theft safeguards into the navigators’ program, Americans have no reason to believe that their privacy will be protected,” said Goldwater Institute health-care policy analyst Christina Corieri, who worked with lawmakers to draft the legislation. “It’s now the duty of state lawmakers to forge their own protections for citizens.”
More than 120 “navigator” grants have been issued in 34 states. The list of recipients is a veritable “who’s who” of the left-wing political machine, including organizations with ACORN ties like Southern United Neighborhoods and the Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation.
That group, Goldwater confirmed, recently settled a $1.725 million lawsuit for fraud committed under another government program.
Federal rules don’t preclude groups or individuals convicted of fraud or identity theft from serving as navigators, even though navigators have unprecedented access to the financial, health, employment and identification records of private citizens.
The bills – which also are being considered in Louisiana and South Carolina – would demand background checks and bar those with felony convictions or misdemeanors involving fraud or dishonesty.
The existence of fraud among Obamacare navigators has been documented by investigative reporter James O’Keefe.
He said, “Lying about incomes and smoker status came natural to the navigators we encountered.”
O’Keefe has released a video revealing that navigators advise undercover actors to to leave cash unreported.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/illegal-secrecy-shields-obamacare-workers/#7wJzIL3Z7XQZMGpw.99
Illegal secrecy' shields Obamacare workers
Watchdog sues HHS to obtain records, background checks
- Text smaller
- Text bigger
You may already think that Obamacare is criminal – the way it tells consumers what coverages they must purchase, what price they must pay and what lifesaving coverages are included – or not. And there are those fines.
Criminals, that is.
The fact that they could be already has been confirmed by then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who recently resigned some six months after the catastrophic failure of the Obamacare government website rollout.
It was during a November 2014 Senate Finance Committee hearing when Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas was asking questions about the evaluation process the government has for checking the backgrounds of Obamacare “navigators” – those individuals hired by the government to obtain confidential information about taxpayers and help them through the system.
Cornyn asked Sebelius, “So I want to ask you about the navigators … isn’t it true that there is no federal requirement for navigators to undergo a criminal background check, even though they will receive sensitive personal information from the individuals they help to sign up … for the Affordable Care Act?”
“That is true,” Sebelius said.
“So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them?” Cornyn asked.
“That is possible,” Sebelius said.
Now officials with the government watchdog group Judicial Watch say they have filed a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services to get records about those workers – who are costing taxpayers some $67 million.
It’s reported that HHS has hired about 50,000 such “navigators” to direct applicants enrolling in Obamacare through the maze of demands. Many work for community organizing groups that have gotten grants from the federal government.
Judicial Watch said it is seeking “Any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to contracts awarded to private entities to provide navigators to assist individuals obtaining health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to federal requirements for the above-mentioned navigators, including but not limited to background checks and qualifications.”
“The Obamacare navigator program seems as corrupt as any Chicago patronage operation – and is a danger to the privacy of millions of Americans who are participating in Obamacare,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The use of Obamacare navigators and the Healthcare.gov web site should come with consumer warnings. The Obama administration’s illegal secrecy about these Obamacare navigators should make Americans very nervous.”
National Review Online has reported that among the groups to whom federal tax money is being delivered is Local 100 United Labor Unions, which Judicial Watch said is “a New Orleans group run by ACORN founder Wade Rathke.
“Local 100 is a ‘sub-grantee’ providing navigators for the Southern United Neighborhoods group, which received a $600,678 grant to promote Obamacare enrollment. It also received a $270,193 grant for similar work in Arkansas and a $486,123 grant for Louisiana,” the article reported.
Also included in the drop locations for federal money was the National Urban League, which was paid $376,000 for its Obamacare outreach in Texas, as well as such “leftwing groups” as Planned Parenthood and the Virginia Poverty Law Center Inc., the watchdog organization reported.
“Serious questions have also been raised about the requirements to be an Obamacare navigator and the screening given to those who are hired,” it said.
It was only last August when 13 state attorneys general warned the federal government that training and safeguards in place for the navigators were inadequate.
They said in a letter that the background system “pales in comparison” to what is typically required for workers in programs receiving federal health dollars.
“It is not enough simply to adopt vague policies against fraud,” they wrote.
In January, National Review said as many as 43 convicted criminals were working as navigators in California alone.
It was earlier this year that WND reported state lawmakers, stunned by the federal government’s apparent oversight, were taking action.
The Goldwater Institute said Arizona, Colorado and Virginia were among the states considering laws that would attempt to safeguard Americans’ sensitive identity information from “third-party Obamacare navigators” who have not undergone background checks.
In Colorado, Republican Rep. Janak Joshi, a doctor for over 30 years, affirmed that “patient privacy is of paramount importance.”
“It’s outrageous that the government officials we trust to keep us safe would move forward with a program that lacks the most basic protections for Americans’ privacy,” he said.
The institute said the bills that have been introduced establish background checks and disqualification procedures for felons seeking positions that would give them access to bank account numbers, tax information and other details.
The legislation also would let state authorities revoke Obamacare navigator grants for negligent loss of private information.
“With the continued refusal of Obamacare’s implementers to put identity theft safeguards into the navigators’ program, Americans have no reason to believe that their privacy will be protected,” said Goldwater Institute health-care policy analyst Christina Corieri, who worked with lawmakers to draft the legislation. “It’s now the duty of state lawmakers to forge their own protections for citizens.”
More than 120 “navigator” grants have been issued in 34 states. The list of recipients is a veritable “who’s who” of the left-wing political machine, including organizations with ACORN ties like Southern United Neighborhoods and the Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation.
That group, Goldwater confirmed, recently settled a $1.725 million lawsuit for fraud committed under another government program.
Federal rules don’t preclude groups or individuals convicted of fraud or identity theft from serving as navigators, even though navigators have unprecedented access to the financial, health, employment and identification records of private citizens.
The bills – which also are being considered in Louisiana and South Carolina – would demand background checks and bar those with felony convictions or misdemeanors involving fraud or dishonesty.
The existence of fraud among Obamacare navigators has been documented by investigative reporter James O’Keefe.
He said, “Lying about incomes and smoker status came natural to the navigators we encountered.”
O’Keefe has released a video revealing that navigators advise undercover actors to to leave cash unreported.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/illegal-secrecy-shields-obamacare-workers/#7wJzIL3Z7XQZMGpw.99
The obama regime says shame of the VA and the politicos who run it
While
President Obama was in Alaska last week taking selfies and renaming
mountains, the Department of Veteran Affairs Office of Inspector General
released a devastating report that more than 300,000 military veterans
may have died while waiting for health care at the VA. Well it's
the obamam regime fault He will not step down he was the one who
started obamacare he will not take responsibility for his own action and so Veterans died -- not on the battlefield by enemy fire -- but in a "death
by bureaucrat," at the hands of the grossly mismanaged Veterans
Administration.
The way veterans are treated in this country is a colossal failure of big government and it's got voters across America and members of our military steamed.
"It's put up or shut up time for Washington. When will they wake up and realize that the VA's government-run health care system is failing veterans?" said Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America. "More money and more staff has not worked and is not the answer. The answer is real accountability throughout the system, and real choice for veterans.
"Until a veteran has the choice to seek care either at the VA or outside the system, the VA will continue taking them for granted and treating them like a number," the two-time Bronze Star recipient and Army veteran told the Herald.
Our veterans have sacrificed life and limb to protect our freedom and our way of life. Yet when they get home wounded, sick and in need of medical treatment, they fight an even greater battle -- dealing with bloodless bureaucrats and a broken government-run health care system.
Nurse Ratched looks like Florence Nightingale next to some of the VA administrators who are putting our heroes on long waiting lists and not processing their claims properly.
If denying an American soldier adequate and timely medical care isn't a human rights violation, then what is?
But the reality is too many politicians on both sides of the aisle pay lip service to the serious problems and say, "We must fix the VA." Then it stays broken and more and more veterans suffer -- and possibly die -- getting substandard health care year after year.
Enough is enough.
All Americans must hold our elected officials accountable. Including our current commander in chief, who prefers to spend his time participating in a reality TV series than visiting a VA hospital, rolling up his sleeves and actually getting to work fixing the toxic system.
If you want Obamacare, voters should take a good look at the Veterans Administration and see how that's going. Then ask yourself: If big government can't administer timely and quality health care to our veterans, how are they going to handle the entire country?
Adriana Cohen is co-host of "Herald Drive" on Boston Herald Radio weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. Follow her on Twitter @AdrianaCohen16.
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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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The Best Example for obamacare is this story Share this with friends
Story on obmacare felix from New Mexico losses his left toe and right thumb gets surgery done By Doctor Bam Boo Box and What happens next... The Two surgeon teams where Dr. Zip-it and Dr. Cut-it They put the left toe on the right thumb and the right thumb on the left All Done By Doctor Bam Boo Box At Slice-them and Dice-them Hospital
Lol! Beer & Colonoscopy
It was my first time visiting Dr Putz for a colonoscopy.
I went into his office for my first rectal exam.
His new blonde nurse, Evelyn, took me to an examining room.
She told me to get undressed and have a seat until the doctor could see
me. She said that he would only be a few minutes.
After putting on the gown that she gave me I sat down.
While waiting I observed there were three items on a stand next to the exam
table:
A Tube of K-Y jelly,
A rubber glove
And a beer
.
When Dr. Putz finally came in I said, "Look
Doc, I'm a little confused.
This is my first exam.
I know what the K-Y
is for,
And I know what the
glove is for,
But can you tell me what the BEER
is for?"
At that, Doctor Putz became noticeably outraged and stormed over to the
door.
He flung the door open and yelled to his new blonde nurse,
"Damn it, Evelyn !......... I said a BUTT LIGHT
is for?"
At that, Doctor Putz became noticeably outraged and stormed over to the
door.
He flung the door open and yelled to his new blonde nurse,
"Damn it, Evelyn !......... I said a BUTT LIGHT
Health Care
Watchdog report: HealthCare.gov still has security issues
Despite efforts to protect patient information on the HealthCare.gov website, a new government watchdog report scheduled to be released Thursday says security issues are still a concern.
According to the Government Accountability Office report, “weaknesses remained in the security and privacy protections applied to HealthCare.gov and its supporting systems.”
The agency will present its findings to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday.
In the report, the GAO makes six recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services to implement security and privacy controls to protect sensitive material. The report also makes 22 recommendations to resolve technical weaknesses in security controls.
Problems with the site ranged from the agency not setting up an alternate processing site for HealthCare.gov systems to allow them to be recovered if the site was hacked or went down to the strength of passwords.
“In addition to these weaknesses, we also identified weaknesses in security controls related to boundary protection, identification and authentication, authorization and configuration management,” the report states. “Collectively, these weaknesses put HealthCare.gov systems and the information they contain at increased and unnecessary risk of unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification or loss.”
According to the GAO report, HHS has agreed with three of the six recommendations and has agreed with all 22 technical recommendations.
Many Republican lawmakers have criticized the technology used to run and maintain the HealthCare.gov site since it was launched last fall. They argue that the Obama administration rushed through the system despite knowing problems existed.
HealthCare.gov is used in 30 states as a one-stop shop for health-insurance plans. Signing up for plans as well as applying for tax credits requires them to enter personal data about themselves including their Social Security number.
The government report says the agency in charge of the site also failed to ensure system-security plans were in place and instead was relying on a draft data-use agreement with a contractor who is paid to verify user identities.
The newest security warnings follow demands earlier this month from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa that a key ObamaCare official testify before his committee after the Obama administration revealed hackers successfully breached the site.
Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement that Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “must testify” before Sept. 18 to discuss “transparency, accountability, and information security.” regarding the federal website.
The health care site had numerous technical
problems when it was launched last fall and was initially unworkable for
most consumers. Among the issues that concerned the administration's
own technical experts at the time was that security testing could not be
completed because the system was undergoing so many last-minute
changes.
The part of HealthCare.gov that serves as the
entry way for consumers eventually passed security certification, but
the GAO revealed that security testing continued well into this year on
other important components that deal with health plan information and
financial management. The administration said that's because those
components were still in stages of development.
The report also confirmed security flaws in
state computer systems linking to the federal network, a problem
reported earlier this year by The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Recipe To Make Cannabis Oil For Chemo Alternative
Rick Simpson has dedicated his life to helping suffering patients (with all types of diseases and disabilities) with the use of natural hemp oil.
Rick Simpson’s Hemp Oil Proves Effective In Curing Cancer
Rick Simpson is a medical marijuana activist who has been providing people with information about the healing powers of Hemp Oil medications for nearly a decade now. Rick cured himself of a metastatic skin cancer back in 2003, and has since then devoted his life to spreading the truth of hemp oil. He has met an absurd amount of opposition and lack of support from Canadian authorities, as well as pharmaceutical companies, government agencies for health, and UN offices. Despite that fact, Rick Simpson has successfully treated over 5,000 patients (free of charge), and believes that all forms of disease and conditions are treatable. He states that it is common to have all types of cancer and diseases cured with the use of high quality hemp oil as a treatment.Rick has treated patients will all types of conditions including, but not limited to, cancer, AIDS, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, leukemia, Crohn’s disease, depression, osteoporosis, psoriasis, insomnia, glaucoma, asthma, burns, migraines, regulation of body weight, chronic pain, and mutated cells (polyps, warts, tumors).
“Run From The Cure” Official Video Documentary
This documentary “Run From The Cure” was made by Christian Laurette in 2008 and shares Rick Simpson’s story. The movie features interviews with people who were cured by Rick’s oil, but were refused from testifying on Rick’s behalf in the Supreme Court of Canada in his 2007 trial. This video documentary does a great job explaining the medicinal benefits of hash oil.Rick Simpson believes that the oral ingestion of hemp oil seeks out, and destroys cancer cells in the body. When used as a topical, hemp oil can control or even cure various skin conditions such as melanomas.
However, as with any ‘drug’, too much hemp oil may cause some side effects; the most notable three are hungry, happy, and sleepy. This is an extremely safe medication compared to the hundreds of drugs that are approved with little to no study, and provided to patients that experience horrible side effects including death. Nobody has ever died from cannabis in any form.
Rick Simpson’s Hash Oil Recipe
To make the Rick Simpson’s hash oil, start with one ounce of dried herb. One ounce will typically produce 3-4 grams of oil, although the amount of oil produced per ounce will vary strain to strain. A pound of dried material will yield about two ounces of high quality oil.IMPORTANT: These instructions are directly summarized from Rick Simpson’s website. Be VERY careful when boiling solvent off [solvent-free option], the flames are extremely flammable. AVOID smoking, sparks, stove-tops, and red hot heating elements. Set up a fan to blow fumes away from the pot, and set up in a well-ventilated area for whole process.
1. Place the completely dry material in a plastic bucket.
2. Dampen the material with the solvent you are using. Many solvents can be used [solvent-free option]. You can use pure naphtha, ether, butane, 99% isopropyl alcohol, or even water. Two gallons of solvent is required to extract the THC from one pound, and 500 ml is enough for an ounce.
3. Crush the plant material using a stick of clean, untreated wood or any other similar device. Although the material will be damp, it will still be relatively easy to crush up because it is so dry.
4. Continue to crush the material with the stick, while adding solvent until the plant material is completely covered and soaked. Remain stirring the mixture for about three minutes. As you do this, the THC is dissolved off the material into the solvent.
5. Pour the solvent oil mixture off the plant material into another bucket. At this point you have stripped the material of about 80% of its THC.
6. Second wash: again add solvent to the mixture and work for another three minutes to extract the remaining THC.
7. Pour this solvent oil mix into the bucket containing the first mix that was previously poured out.
8. Discard the twice washed plant material.
9. Pour the solvent oil mixture through a coffee filter into a clean container.
10. Boil the solvent off: a rice cooker will boil the solvent off nicely, and will hold over a half gallon of solvent mixture. CAUTION: avoid stove-tops, red hot elements, sparks, cigarettes, and open flames as the fumes are extremely flammable.
11. Add solvent to rice cooker until it is about ¾ full and turn on HIGH heat. Make sure you are in a well-ventilated area and set up a fan to carry the solvent fumes away. Continue to add mixture to cooker as solvent evaporates until you have added it all to the cooker.
12. As the level in the rice cooker decreases for the last time, add a few drops of water (about 10 drops of water for a pound of dry material). This will help to release the solvent residue, and protect the oil from too much heat.
13. When there is about one inch of solvent-water mixture in the rice cooker, put on your oven mitts and pick the unit up and swirl the contents until the solvent has finished boiling off.
14. When the solvent has been boiled off, turn the cooker to LOW heat. At no point should the oil ever reach over 290˚ F or 140˚ C.
15. Keep your oven mitts on and remove the pot containing the oil from the rice cooker. Gently pour the oil into a stainless steel container
16. Place the stainless steel container in a dehydrator, or put it on a gentle heating device such as a coffee warmer. It may take a few hours but the water and volatile terpenes will be evaporated from the oil. When there is no longer any surface activity on the oil, it is ready for use.
17. Suck the oil up in a plastic syringe, or in any other container you see fit. A syringe will make the oil easy to dispense. When the oil cools completely it will have the consistency of thick grease.
At The Dawn Of A New Age In Medicine
Rick Simpson states that hemp oil rejuvenates vital organs, and that it is not uncommon for people to report the oil making them feel 20 to 30 years younger a short while after beginning treatment. In a message from Rick on his website, he proclaims, “Once the public becomes aware of the fact that properly made hemp medicine can cure or control practically any medical condition, who is going to stand up against the use of hemp?”“We are at the dawn of a new age in medicine and a new day for mankind. Not only can hemp save the world, it can eliminate a great deal of human suffering and can even put an end to starvation. What are we waiting for?” –Rick Simpson
Credits: HempForFuture, where this was originally featured.
The Boston Globe Reports
Maryland to reportedly abandon $125M ObamaCare exchange for new system
FoxNews.com
(MarylandHealthConnection.Gov)
The Washington Post reported late Friday that the board of the Maryland exchange will vote on changing the system that has cost at least $125.5 million at a meeting on Tuesday, the day after the end of the first enrollment period under ObamaCare.
Maryland residents will still be able to use the exchange as it is being replaced with technology from the Connecticut exchange, Access Health CT, officials told The Post. The state is expected to tap consulting firm Deloitte for the overhaul.
Maryland's online health exchange has been bedeviled by computer problems that have made it difficult for people to enroll in private health care plans since its debut Oct. 1. Although improvements have been made, computer problems remain.
Maryland and Connecticut are among several states that have built their own health exchanges. So far, the state says 49,293 Maryland residents have enrolled in private health plans as of last week, far short of the state’s original goal of 150,000 enrollments.
O’Malley told reporters on Friday to expect an announcement on the future of the exchange next week, The Post reported.
“We still have stuck applications. We still wrestle with it every day,” O'Malley said. “The clock was ticking, and we have been changing the flat tires on this rolling car for the last five, going on six months now. And it has gotten better with every new fix applied to it, [but it is] still not working as it was supposed to work.”
A report by Maryland analysts last month found that the state's defective health care exchange could cost the state $30.5 million because the state is unable to determine whether people remain eligible for Medicaid due to problems with the exchange. The 31-page report also said "there is significant uncertainty about the way forward" with future information technology spending that will be needed.
Last month, Maryland's health exchange board voted to fire the state's prime information technology contractor, Noridian Healthcare Solutions.
Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland's only Republican congressman, recently announced that the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services had agreed to review the state health exchange after requesting an investigation in February.
Earlier this month, the investigative arm of Congress agreed to look into problems with state health exchange websites. The Government Accountability Office accepted an initial request from a group of House Republicans seeking an audit on how $304 million in federal grants were spent on the Cover Oregon website, which has yet to enroll a single person online without special assistance.
The Obama administration announced Thursday that more than 6 million Americans have signed up for coverage on the ObamaCare exchanges, a number that would appear to mark a spike in sign-ups in recent weeks.
The figure is still short of the 7 million target originally cited, but would fulfill a revised goal set by the Congressional Budget Office and embraced by the White House.
The administration has yet to announce how many consumers actually closed the deal by paying their first month's premium. Some independent estimates are that as many as 10 percent to 20 percent have not paid, which would bring the total enrollment to between 5 million and 6 million people.
The administration also has not said how many of the new sign-ups were previously uninsured.
Monday is the deadline to enroll in the new insurance exchanges, although potentially millions of people will still be able to take advantage of extensions announced this week.
Exposed: Boston Hospital Takes Custody Of MULTIPLE Children Against Parents’ Will
16 hours ago | US | Posted by Kristin Tate![handout_justina_hs[1].r](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u-Btb4ndjQ2ldUSwbIpCemo8iEtWQahHwk0vVhVIwcb2ZwdvfujG1Ir1mD0ZewOHJ7OEZo1_GCRKBeAU4xgXETMFDMboTGX7vvm1gc9J_F6jstjWT_EobePygQzwrK26ee9_V8BSFK0oQGJw=s0-d)
It has been over a year since 15-year-old Justina Pelletier was taken custody by the Boston’s Children’s Hospital. Her parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier, are still fighting to get their daughter back.
Years ago doctors diagnosed Justina with mitochondrial disease, which causes loss of muscle control. Despite this diagnosis, Justina was able to live a happy and relatively normal life with her family in Connecticut. She was very active and enjoyed various sports such as ice skating.
When Justina got the flu last February, she was taken to Boston Children’s Hospital. Doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital claimed that she has somatoform disorder, not mitochondrial disease. Somatoform disorder is a mental disorder — not a physical one, like mitochondrial disease.
After this diagnosis was made, the hospital ordered that Justina be taken off all of her mitochondrial and pain medication. Lou and Linda did not think this was the best plan of action and wanted to bring their daughter home. Officials would not allow that. The parents were subsequently escorted out of the hospital by security personnel. Only four days later, they found out they had lost custody of their daughter due to “both parents’ resistance towards recommended treatment plans” and “overmedicalizing” the girl. They are heartbroken and furious.
Justina’s case has the attention of many citizens around the nation, but it turns out there are other children in similar situations.
According to the Boston Globe, in the last 18 months Boston Children’s hospital took custody of children or seriously threatened to do so at least five times. The Globe reported, “It happens often enough that the pediatrician who until recently ran the child protection teams at both Children’s and Massachusetts General Hospital said she and others in her field have a name for this aggressive legal-medical maneuver. They call it a ‘parent-ectomy.’”
The Boston Globe reported that in most cases where hospitals take custody of a child, parents reject the suggested medical treatment. This typically occurs when doctors diagnose the child with a psychiatric disease, but the parents think the condition is a physical one.
Read more: http://benswann.com/exposed-boston-childrens-hospital-takes-custody-of-multiple-children-against-parents-will/#ixzz2toDZpHUg
Follow us: @BenSwann_ on Twitter
Pediatrician Carole Jenny said, “If the parent won’t work with you, and you really think the child is suffering, you’ve got to act.”
Boston Childen’s Hospital took custody of one 5-year-old around the same time that Justina was admitted. Just like Lou and Linda, the girl’s parents were also escorted out of the facility by security. The 5-year-old’s first night in the hospital was the first time she had ever spent a night without a family member.
In another case, the hospital tried to take custody of Jessica Hilliard’s son Gabriel, who is being treated for mitochondrial disease. Hilliard said, “The fact that Children’s has so much power that they can get us in trouble with a totally different hospital across the city is appalling.”
Boston Children’s Hospital and its representatives refuse to comment on any specific cases, but maintain that decisions are made in the child’s best interest in every case.
But who really knows what is in the child’s “best interest?” Critics of the hospitals’ actions argue that such decisions should be left up to parents.
Those who favor parents’ rights see taking custody as an absurd action where the hospital acts completely out-of-line. Such situations become even more controversial when the parents’ views are backed by other pediatricians.
In Justina’s case, for example, Dr. Mark Korson of Tufts Medical Center sided with Lou and Linda. Korson was previously a pediatrician for Justina and said in an email, “I am dismayed. … It feels like Justina’s treatment team is out to prove the diagnosis at all costs. … The (Boston Children’s Hospital) team has demanded that Justina be removed from the home. … This represents the most severe and intrusive intervention a patient can undergo … for a clinical hunch.”
Follow Kristin on Facebook and Twitter.
Kristin Tate is a multi-media reporter and
commentator. Her work has been featured on sites ranging from the Drudge
Report to Buzzfeed.
Dedicated to fearless reporting, Tate regularly works on undercover
stings with journalist James O'Keefe to reveal government waste, abuse,
and fraud. She is also a reporter for Breitbart News.
Tate was a Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) Chapter President and
Founder. She will continue to fight tirelessly for individual liberty
and free markets through reporting and new media. Follow Kristin on
Twitter @KristinBTate.
oabamacare roll out for OR is Now at 60 million dollars and the website
is still not working.... When oabamcare for the first Roll Out for OR
was at 30 million dollars that was on Dec 3, 2013 now It's Feb 18, 2014
at 60 millions Dollars later of Wasted Tax Dollars for oabamacare and
15,000 people had identity theft happen to them and Just Called Lifelock
Jessica Told me on the phone they can't handle this kind of volume of
Phone Calls
Here is # 1 (855) 661 8127
http://www.lifelock.com
Backlash Against Wendy’s, Taco Bell for Cutting Hours and Blaming Obamacare
Few
things grab the public’s attention like a celebrity-backed boycott,
protest, or backlash against a specific brand or company. Today, Wendy’s and Taco Bell find themselves on the wrong end of just this sort of upheaval.Roughly 100 Wendy’s employees in the Omaha, Nebraska area will have their weekly schedules reduced to 28 hours a week so that they will no longer qualify for the health care benefits that “Obamacare” mandates for full-time employees. A Taco Bell in Guthrie, Oklahoma enacted a similar policy.
Even though these underhanded approaches seem unique to these specific franchises, the backlash against the Wendy’s and Taco Bell corporations has been swift. Celebrities like Castle star Nathan Fillion and comedian Sarah Silverman voiced their outrage via Twitter, and many people pledged to avoid not just those specific locations, but all restaurants owned by the chains in question.
Generally, when situations like this arise, it’s a good PR move for the company to publicly distance itself from the offending franchise. For example, when a Florida Denny’s added a 5% “Obamacare surcharge” to its customers’ checks (yes, really), the company’s CEO publicly admonished the franchise’s owner, thereby making it abundantly clear that the Denny’s corporation did not in any fashion support or encourage such policies. We imagine it’s only a matter of time before Taco Bell and Wendy’s make similar public statements–with major Hollywood voices spreading the word, they should probably do so sooner rather than later.
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OKLAHOMA CITY -
The Taco Bell in Guthrie cuts its full-time employees' hours to avoid mandates under the new health care law.
Now, a mother of three who works at that restaurant is speaking out.
Under the Affordable Care Act, any company that has more than 50
full-time workers falls under the new health insurance mandate.We talked to the company that owns the Guthrie restaurant today, and it confirmed the cuts. Now, employees there aren't allowed to work more than 28 hours a week.
Johnna Davis has worked at the Taco Bell in Guthrie since September. She's seen a 200 dollar cut in her paycheck since a new store policy went into effect.
"What we were being told was one thing, and that was, ‘we're going to offer benefits, we'll just keep all of our full time employees and then come December, their whole story changed," Johnna Davis said.
She says her manager held a meeting before Christmas, saying employees' hours would be cut in the new year.
"They informed everybody that nobody was considered full-time any longer, that everybody was now considered part-time, and [they] would be cutting hours back to 28 hours or less due to Obamacare," Davis said.
Under the Affordable Care Act, companies are required to provide insurance to its full-time employees, or face fines. Davis would've qualified for an insurance plan.
"Several of the other people I work with, some of them are single parents, and we do the best we can, and 28 hours a week just isn't going to cut it for the bills," Davis said.
Now this single mother of 3 is looking for a new full-time job. Nearly 20 employees their have seen their hours cut.
Treadwell Enterprises out of Missouri owns that restaurant in Guthrie. The company told News 9 that it's retaining full time hours for most of its full-time supervisors and managers.
Treadwell Enterprises released the following statement Monday to News 9:
"Treadwell Enterprises, like most businesses, is still researching what the Affordable Care Act means to our operations. Regardless of the conclusion of our analysis, we will comply with this law, as we do all laws."
This is beyond laughable. The deadline to enroll in Obamacare has been extended another 24 hours until 11:59 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
The roll-out of Obamacare is starting to resemble the deadlines for my Econ 102 class second semester of my senior year of college. Just a reminder, the Affordable Care Act is a federal law, not a blow-off course in college to fill up credits.
At midnight Monday, the official deadline arrives for Americans to sign up through the new federal health insurance exchange for health plans that begin Jan. 1. But, without any public announcement, Obama administration officials have changed the rules so that people will have an extra day to enroll, according to two individuals with knowledge of the switch.The president himself has yet to enroll in an insurance plan.
Over the weekend, government officials and outside IT contractors working on the online marketplace’s computer system made a software change that automatically gives people a Jan. 1 start date for their new coverage as long as they enroll by 11:59 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
The roll-out of Obamacare is starting to resemble the deadlines for my Econ 102 class second semester of my senior year of college. Just a reminder, the Affordable Care Act is a federal law, not a blow-off course in college to fill up credits.
Taco Bell Franchise Cuts Worker Hours To Avoid Giving Them Health Coverage Under Obamacare
By Scott Keyes
on
January 8, 2013 at 10:15 am
on
January 8, 2013 at 10:15 am 
"Taco Bell Franchise Cuts Worker Hours To Avoid Giving Them Health Coverage Under Obamacare"
A Taco Bell in Guthrie, Oklahoma is cutting
all its restaurant workers’ hours to part-time in order to skirt
federal law requiring them to provide health insurance for employees.Nearly 20 employees work for this particular Taco Bell franchise. They were informed just before Christmas that everyone’s hours would be cut to 28 hours or less per week because the owners disliked the Obamacare requirement that large companies had to help provide health coverage for workers.
Among those employees affected is Johnna Davis, a single mother of three who relied on her full-time hours to support her family. News 9 has more on her struggle:
Johnna Davis has worked at the Taco Bell in Guthrie since September. She’s seen a 200 dollar cut in her paycheck since a new store policy went into effect.The Guthrie restaurant is owned by a Missouri-based company named Treadwell Enterprises, which told News 9 that it would allow supervisors and managers to work full-time, but not workers.
“What we were being told was one thing, and that was, ‘we’re going to offer benefits, we’ll just keep all of our full time employees and then come December, their whole story changed,” Johnna Davis said. [...]
Now this single mother of 3 is looking for a new full-time job. Nearly 20 employees their have seen their hours cut.
Taco Bell is not a struggling brand scraping by to make ends meet. The company saw a banner year in 2012, with its parent corporation enjoying a 73 percent jump in profits in the beginning of the year and an additional 23 percent increase later in the year.
Other restaurants have attempted this ill-conceived move as well. This fall, when a Denny’s franchise announced it would cut its workers’ hours to avoid the health care law, the corporate office distanced itself from the move. Similarly, when Darden Restaurants, which includes Olive Garden and Red Lobster, looked to cut hours, the public backlash resulted in a hasty 37 percent drop in profits. Other restaurants have attempted (and mostly retracted) the same ploy, including Papa John’s and Wendy’s.
Call for comment from Taco Bell’s corporate offices was not immediately returned.
Pete Sessions: GOP Will Win Big in 2014, Repeal Obamacare
Hi, my name is Danielle O'Dell, and this is a mousetrap
In the next few seconds, this mousetrap is going to do what mousetraps are DESIGNED to do...It's going to kill the mouse...
By snapping its neck in two...
If you're squeamish, remember it's just an illustration...
I realize this is an unpleasant thing to see...But I wouldn't show it to you unless I needed it to make an important point...
A point about YOU...
About the coming catastrophe called "Obamacare"...
And about the vital choice you have to make...
The choice is simply this...
You can either get MAD about Obamacare...
Or you can get RICH from it...
The decision is totally up to you...
You see, Obamacare is a lot like a mousetrap...
First comes the cheese...
And then...
SNAP!!!
Then comes the hammer!Everybody knows how a mousetrap works...
But nobody knows how Obamacare works...
Not even the people who wrote the legislation and voted for it...
Especially not them!
And certainly not the people – like you and me – who are going to have to live under the yoke of this law...
But in the next few weeks, the American people are going to learn that Obamacare works a lot like a mousetrap...
YOU play the part of the mouse...
And the IRS plays the part of the hammer...
First you get a tiny taste of cheese...
Then the hammer comes down on the back of your neck...
But here's the point I want you to remember...
A few smart mice get away with the cheese, don't they?
And in the next three minutes I'm going to show you how to be one of the mice who gets away with the cheese...While everyone else gets the hammer...
In fact, in this free video I'm not only going to show how to avoid getting your financial neck broken by Obamacare...
I'm going to show you how to MAKE money on Obamacare!
When all your friends and neighbors are complaining about Obamacare...
Writing angry letters to their congressmen...
And crying for repeal...
YOU'RE going to be crying all the way to the bank!
More about that a little later in this free video. But first...
What exactly is the "cheese" when it comes to Obamacare?
Well, that's the part of the law that everyone LIKES...
And you've already gotten a little taste of that, haven't you?
For example...
Everyone likes the fact that you can put your adult children under the age of 26 on your own insurance policy, right?
And everyone likes the fact that you no longer have to worry about pre-existing conditions when applying for health insurance...
And thank heaven there are no more annual or lifetime caps on the amount of benefits you can receive from your insurance company...
That's the cheese of Obamacare!
And the folks who designed Obamacare made sure the cheese came FIRST...
Just like the folks who design mousetraps...
But sometime within the next few weeks or months...
THE HAMMER WILL FALL!
What exactly is the hammer when it comes to Obamacare?
Well, according to The Wall Street Journal, your health insurance premiums could double... or even triple in the years ahead...
According to analysts at the IRS, the CHEAPEST health insurance policies available to the typical American working family will cost about $20,000 per year...
Even though President Obama promised that healthcare premiums would go DOWN by $2,500 per year...
But your health insurance premiums are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cost of Obamacare...
The bigger cost is TAXES...
Did you know there are no fewer than TWENTY new taxes or tax hikes that come with Obamacare...
By calling it a tax, not a penalty, Chief Justice John Roberts admitted it was the largest tax increase in the history of the United States...
BUT HE VOTED TO LET IT HAPPEN ANYWAY!
What that means, of course, is...
The IRS will give even MORE power to frighten and force American citizens into paying higher taxes...
In fact, the Obama administration has given the IRS an extra $500 million to enforce the rules and regulations of Obamacare...
And don't be surprised if unemployment goes from bad to worse...
In fact, it's already starting to happen...
Which may be the reason why the Obama administration decided to postpone the so-called "Employer Mandate" until January 1, 2015...
That's safely AFTER the midterm elections, by the way...
Even workers who are lucky enough to keep their jobs will see their PAYCHECKS CUT...
Because the law says that if you only work 30 hours a week, your employer doesn't have to buy insurance for you...
Employers aren't stupid...
They'll start turning some of their full-time employees into part-time employees...
By cutting their hours from 40 to 30 per week...
And speaking of cutting back, don't be surprised if doctors start to disappear, too...
Some doctors will go bankrupt under Obamacare. Some of them will go into other lines of work. Some will take early retirement...
More importantly, thousands of bright young men and women will choose NOT to become doctors in the first place...
Who can blame them?
Obamacare will impose punishing paperwork burdens on doctors, hospitals, and the rest of the healthcare system...
Who wants to spend 8 years in medical school and residency just to become a poorly-paid paper pusher?
As a result, YOU are going to wait longer to see a doctor...
Don't believe me?
Romneycare in Massachusetts has ALREADY had this effect...
The average waiting time to see a doctor in Massachusetts has gone from a miserable 33 days to an appalling 55 days...
No wonder Congress tried to weasel out of this law almost as soon as they passed it...
"This wonderful new law applies to YOU but not US," they said...
And they tried to pass a bunch of "waivers" to their buddies in labor unions and nonprofit organizations like AARP, too...
But perhaps the WORST part of Obamacare is what it does to the tradition of individual liberty and economic freedom in this country...
The federal government now has the power to FORCE you to buy something you don't want...
What's next, I wonder...
Will you be forced to buy solar heating panels...
Hybrid cars...
Twenty-year Treasury bonds that pay an interest rate of 0.001%?
Obamacare will turn millions of honest, hardworking Americans into criminals if they don't buy health insurance...
The good news is that they CAN'T put you in jail for not buying health insurance...
The bad news is that once you've finished paying the penalties, pushing the paperwork, and getting the red tape off your neck...
You may WISH you were in jail...
Because prisoners are EXEMPT from Obamacare...
LUCKY THEM!
Now, let me ask you a question...
ARE YOU ANGRY YET?
Are you really hot under the collar? Ready to write your congressman? Eager to take to the streets with a protest sign and a megaphone?
Forget about it!
Obamacare has passed the Congress and passed the Supreme Court. It went into effect on January 1 of this year. It's the law of the land...
The chances of repeal are somewhere between zero and none. So let me give you some better advice...
Don't get angry...
GET RICH!
You see, despite all the horrors of Obamacare that I just laid out for you chapter and verse...
Obamacare is going to be very, very good to some people...
In fact, a few people are going to get CRAZY RICH from Obamacare...
And there's no reason why you can't be one of them...
That's why I've put together this special free report...
And, by the way, this will only be on the internet for a very short amount of time...
My colleagues already think I'm giving away too much information for free...
"If you tell everyone how to make money on Obamacare in a free report," they say...
"People will rush into those investments and they'll no longer be affordable to the average investor"...
But I've managed to convince them to let this free report stay online just a little while longer...
That's why I need you to pay very close attention for the next 5 minutes...
But there's no need to take notes or go back to the beginning...
Because I'm ready to send you TWO FREE BOOKS and a SPECIAL FREE REPORT that will tell you everything you need to know...
Not only about how to SURVIVE under Obamacare...
But how to THRIVE under Obamacare, too...
When it comes to surviving Obamacare, I want to send you a FREE COPY of Dr. Betsy McCaughey's New York Times bestseller...
BEATING OBAMACARE: Your Handbook for Surviving the New Health Care Law...
This book flew off the shelves of bookstores nationwide at $14.95 a pop...
But I want to send it to you absolutely free...
I also want to send you a FREE copy of a new special report by investment genius Keith Fitz-Gerald called...
OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH!
And finally I want to send you a FREE copy of Keith Fitz-Gerald's investment masterpiece...
THE MONEY MAP METHOD: Lifelong Wealth in a Forever-Changed World.
What is the Money Map Method?
It's a unique new system for turning the misadventures, mistakes, and malfeasance...
Of power-mad politicians...
Incompetent central bankers...
And greedy Wall Street manipulators...
INTO MORE MONEY FOR YOU!
Hard to believe?
Keep listening...
Because I'm going to let Keith Fitz-Gerald himself explain how the Money Map Method works in just a minute...
But first let me tell you more about the blockbuster book by Dr. Betsy McCaughey that I want to send you for FREE...
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi famously said about Obamacare...
"We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it!"
Now the bill has passed. The Supreme Court has put its rubber stamp on it. But to this day...
Hardly anybody knows what's in it!
But Dr. Betsy McCaughey is one of the few exceptions...
She has read and studied all 2,572 pages of it...
What's the big deal about reading the bill, you ask...
Well, let me give you an idea of what one short paragraph of the Obamacare bill looks like...
Oh, heck, you get the idea...1) Subparagraph (B) of section 6724(d)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to definitions), as amended by Section 1502, is amended by striking "or" at the end of clause (xxiii), by striking "and" at the end of clause (xxiv) and inserting "or" and by inserting after clause (xxiv) the following new clause: "(xxv) section 6056 (relating to returns relating to large employers required to report on health coverage)."
As you can see, in order to fully understand the Affordable Care Act...
You not only have to read the bill itself...
But you also have to read literally hundreds of other laws, rules, and regulations in the federal code...
But Dr. McCaughey has not only done this...
She's done something even more important...
She's broken all of this down into manageable chunks and put it into plain English...
She took 2,572 pages of government gobbledygook...
And put it into 162 pages of simple advice and valuable warnings...
So you won't be blindsided by these new rules and regulations when they kick in on January 1, 2014...
And by the way, she's just the person to do it...
As a constitutional scholar with a Ph.D. from Columbia University...
Dr. McCaughey is in a unique position to decode the legalese and explain what it means to YOU...
Perhaps you've seen Dr. McCaughey interviewed about Obamacare on CNBC, Fox News, or in the pages of The Wall Street Journal...
CNBC's Larry Kudlow says...
"Betsy McCaughey is THE expert. She knows what's on every page of this law. She's read this job-killing law so you don't have to."
And Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, says...
"Betsy McCaughey demystifies the Affordable Care Act and tells the American people in a straightforward way what's in store for them."
What IS in store for you?
Well, let me just give you a sneak peek at what's inside this $14.95 bestselling book before I send it to you absolutely free...
But let me give you fair warning before I proceed...
Some of what you'll hear in the next three minutes is going to make your hair stand on end...
It's going to make your blood boil, your jaw drop, and your eyes pop out in disbelief...
But let me remind you...
I don't want you to get MAD about Obamacare. I want you to get RICH on it. More about that in just 3 minutes...
First the bad news from Dr. McCaughey...
On page 17 of your free book, you're going to find out why you could get slapped with a very large fine for not having health insurance...
Even if you DO have health insurance!
On page 50, you'll discover why up to ONE HALF of all employers in this country could stop offering health insurance to their workers...
On page 35, you'll see why your doctor will soon be forced to choose between the medically-appropriate treatment for you...
And the "officially approved" treatment...
Think you'll be okay because you're a top executive at your company with a "gold-plated" insurance plan that covers your entire family?
Think again!
The new law says that everybody from the CEO to the janitor has to have the exact same insurance policy. See page 48 for the details...
Speaking of your family, did you know there's NOTHING in Obamacare about covering spouses and children?
So if your family is currently covered by your employer's insurance, don't be surprised if that coverage vanishes overnight. See page 49...
If you decide to buy insurance on one of the new "health exchanges," the good news is that you can choose between Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum plans...
The bad news is that (except for the deductible) they're all exactly the same!
Which means that buying an Obamacare insurance policy is like buying a Model T from Henry Ford...
"You can get a Model T in any color you want," said Ford...
"As long as it's black."
The dirty little secret about Obamacare is that millions of Americans will simply be moved over to Medicaid...
Since doctors and hospitals LOSE money on Medicaid patients, they'll make up for their losses by overcharging YOU...
That's why you can expect to see your own premiums rise, even if you have private insurance...
Free preventive care sounds sensible, right?
See page 60 to find out why you'll be paying for a colonoscopy even if you don't want one...
You'll also pay for substance abuse coverage on your insurance policy – even if you've never touched a drink or a drug in your life...
Maybe you think you're going to be safe from all these changes because you're on Medicare...
But I've got some bad news...
The government is paying the bill for Obamacare mostly by taking money from the coffers of Medicare...
About a half TRILLION dollars, to be exact...
In other words, Obamacare takes a half trillion dollars out of the pockets of elderly sick people...
... to give health insurance to healthy young people!
Does that make any sense to you?
In fact, Obamacare actually gives brownie points to hospitals who spend the LEAST on senior citizens...
Don't believe me? See page 73...
Senior citizens will have an especially hard time getting the medical services they need most...
On page 78 of your free book, for example...
You'll find out why hip replacements, knee replacements, and cataract surgery will be especially hard to get from Medicare in the months ahead...
Which is why you should get some of those procedures done NOW if you can...
As President Obama once said to an elderly woman at a town hall meeting...
"Maybe you'd be better off not having the surgery and taking a painkiller instead."
You're going to need a LOT of painkillers when the Obamacare hammer falls...
But wait, you say, "I'll be okay, because I have a Medicare ADVANTAGE plan"...
I hate to burst your bubble...
But on page 82 of your free book, you'll find out why Medicare Advantage is targeted for HUGE cuts under Obamacare...
Many Medicare Advantage providers will simply choose to go out of business...
Or suppose you have a very good income and you've covered your family with a premium private insurance plan...
Good for you...
But under Obamacare, your insurance company will be nailed with a 40% tax for selling you a "Cadillac" plan...
A tax which they will certainly pass on to you...
As I mentioned earlier, there are no fewer than TWENTY new taxes or tax increases that come with Obamacare...
Some of these taxes have absolutely NOTHING to do with health insurance, medicine, or healthcare. For example...
If you sell your vacation home for a profit, you'll be hit with a special Obamacare tax...
Don't believe me? See page 89...
The same goes for selling stocks and bonds...
Or the money you make on rental property or dividends...
The government wants to dip their beak in all of it to help pay the enormous bill on Obamacare...
But you can deduct your medical expenses on your tax return, right?
Not like you used to...
Now you'll have to spend a full TEN PERCENT of your income on medical expenses before you can deduct a dime...
But perhaps worst of all is that Obamacare just isn't very good coverage – especially if you happen to get sick...
You see, the emphasis in Obamacare is on "wellness" and "prevention"...
So sick people will get shortchanged...
The underlying principle behind Obamacare is to spread the healthcare coverage widely and thinly...
Which means that people who need a LOT of coverage will be forced to go to the end of the line...
So if you or someone you love has cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, or some other serious condition...
You need to be very, very worried about Obamacare...
AND THAT'S WHY YOU NEED DR. McCAUGHEY'S BOOK!
As I said before, it could soon be yours absolutely free. No postage or handling. And it's yours to keep forever...
But Dr. McCaughey's book is not the ONLY thing I want to send you for free...
Because it's not enough just to SURVIVE Obamacare...
I want you to THRIVE under Obamacare...
And for that, you're going to need your second free gift...
OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH! by Keith Fitz-Gerald.
This is the special report that will show you how to make money with Obamacare...
How is that possible?
How can you possibly turn a profit from a government boondoggle like Obamacare?
The answer is simple...
It's something we call the Money Map Method...
The Money Map Method is a unique system for tracking the movement of enormous sums of money...
Government spending...
Central bank cash...
And large private investments...
Wherever they flow around the world...
Remember when "Deep Throat" told Woodward and Bernstein that the key to solving the mystery of Watergate was to...
FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Well, that's what the Money Map Method does...
Only we don't just follow the money. Our analysts find out where the smart money is going before it gets there...
So you're in a perfect position to profit when the money starts falling...
As the old song goes...
When it's raining pennies from heaven, don't run under a tree...
In other words, when your fortune is falling over town...
The Money Map Method makes sure your umbrella is turned upside down!
To tell you more about how the Money Map Method works, let me introduce you to our Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald...
Keith has been called "The Indiana Jones of Investing"...
Because he travels around the globe in search of investment opportunities created by the new global economy...
You may have seen Keith interviewed on Fox Business, CNBC World, BBC, CCTV or Business News Network...
Or perhaps you've seen his ideas quoted in publications like The Wall Street Journal, Wired, or Forbes.com...
His bestselling book Fiscal Hangover is considered an essential read for serious investors in the Great Recession...
No wonder such financial superstars as Peter Schiff, Dr. Mark Skousen, Jon Markman, and Paul Forchione have praised his work.
As Dr. Mark Skousen says, "If you don't follow his advice, you will be left behind."
So let me ask you to give your attention to Keith for 5 minutes as he describes the Money Map Method in more detail...
And tells you SPECIFICALLY how you can make money from Obamacare...
Keith...
Thank you, Danni. And if you don't mind, let me give you a word of advice...
When it comes to singing "Pennies from Heaven," please stick to your day job...
But you're absolutely right. That old song makes a very good point...
When it's raining pennies from heaven, the LAST thing you want to do is run under a tree...
When your fortune is falling all over town...
You want to turn your umbrella upside down!
And that's exactly what I'm going to show you how to do in your FREE report...
OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH!
Let me give you just one quick example of what you'll find in this free special report...
Everybody on Wall Street ASSUMES that Obamacare will hurt companies that depend on hourly-wage workers the most...
Especially fast-food companies...
Because fast-food companies are going to have a hard time giving health insurance to millions of employees who barely make minimum wage...
It makes sense, right?
But wait...
The folks who run these giant fast-food chains aren't stupid...
If they simply take their 40-hour-per-week FULL-TIME employees...
And turn them into 30-hour-per-week PART-TIME employees...
They won't have to pay a penny in health insurance!
And all that savings will go right to the bottom line...
In other words, Obamacare will FORCE these companies to become even more profitable than they are today...
They may WANT to be generous to their employees...
They may WANT to provide free health insurance to everyone who works for them, not just upper management...
But Obamacare will make it downright STUPID for them to do so...
When it comes to a choice between LOSING money or MAKING money, you know which way they'll decide...
Take a look at McDonald's, for example...
Ticker symbol MCD...
You may have noticed that McDonald's stock has been flat recently...
Because most folks on Wall Street think they'll be HURT by Obamacare...
Very few people on Wall Street right now realize that McDonald's will be greatly HELPED by Obamacare...
Now is McDonald's some over-the-counter penny stock that I'm asking you to take a flyer on?
Heck no!
McDonald's is one of the nation's biggest blue-chip stocks...
With a solid-gold brand name and an unbeatable track record... a true "glocal" which you'll learn all about in the Money Map Method.
Like Coca-Cola, it's the kind of stock that Warren Buffett has built his $50 billion fortune on, because...
It's ULTRA-SAFE...
It throws off reliable INCOME...
(McDonald's has raised its dividends every year since it started paying them way back in 1976)...
And it has great potential for GROWTH...
Because there are 3 billion people in the developing world who are just now joining the global economy...
As these folks get more disposable income, they aren't going to want to keep eating rice and gruel...
They're going to want BURGERS AND FRIES!
So invest in McDonald's, because unlike many other American companies...
McDonald's will not only remain unscathed by Obamacare...
Obamacare will actually FORCE McDonald's to become more profitable than it is today!
But at roughly $90+ a share, it's not easy for the average investor to take a large position in McDonald's...
Nor is it the kind of stock that could double or triple in value over a short period of time...
Because blue-chip stocks like McDonald's don't usually do that...
But in your free report...
OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH!
I'm going to give you the names of some OTHER companies that depend on hourly-wage workers...
And just like McDonald's...
Obamacare will actually FORCE these companies to turn full-time workers into part-time workers...
And they'll apply the savings directly to the bottom line...
But unlike McDonald's, these companies have low stock prices that not only give you easy access...
And great value for your investment dollar...
But they also hold the potential for skyrocketing in price over the next few years as they spread around the world...
HINT...
In China nowadays, Colonel Sanders' chicken is more popular than General Tso's!
But fast food is just the tip of the iceberg...
Take drug companies, for example...
Many of them have been beaten down by investors recently because some of their key patents are expiring...
Lipitor®, the popular cholesterol drug from Pfizer...
Plavix®, the blood thinner from Bristol-Meyers Squibb...
And the diabetes drug Actos® from Eli Lilly are just a few examples...
These cash cows are stumbling toward the slaughterhouse of generic medicine...
But according to a recent article in Forbes...
Obamacare "will pave the way for a major rebound" in sales for Big Pharma over the next decade...
Why?
Millions of new customers, that's why!
"Thanks to an additional 32 million formerly-uninsured citizens becoming potential customers," says Joshua Owide of GlobalData...
Drug companies could see...
"$115 billion of new business over a period of 10 years."
That's $115 BILLION with a "B"...
And up to $35 billion of it will be pure profit...
In your FREE report, I'll let you know exactly which pharmaceutical stocks are likely to benefit most...
But I've got something even juicier for you in your FREE report...
Buried in the 2,572 pages of the Affordable Care Act are two little paragraphs that could make you very rich indeed...
When you clear away all the government gobbledygook, one of these paragraphs says...
The federal government may enter into contracts with private companies to buy vaccines...
And the other paragraph says...
The government not only will be buying more vaccines, but it also will be promoting their benefits...
Organizing the inoculation of millions of Americans with vaccines...
And encouraging state governments to do the same...
To put this in street language, the U.S. Government is about to become the world's biggest "pusher" of vaccines!
In other words, the vaccine business...
Which used to be a slow-moving "backwater" of the pharmaceutical industry...
Is about to shoot up like a geyser...
Some analysts say the vaccine market could expand by 15% a year for the foreseeable future...
According to the World Health Organization, the vaccine market could be worth $100 billion by 2025...
Or four times what it is today!
So how can YOU make money on this?
Well, you could buy GlaxoSmithKline, which is the market leader in vaccines with 23% global market share...
Unfortunately, at roughly $50 a share for GSK, the potential for growth is limited...
But what if I told you there was another stock that's currently selling at only $1.90 a share...
And this company actually MAKES their own vaccines in the laboratory by synthesizing them out of DNA...
So theoretically, they can attack virtually ANY infectious disease around the world...
From AIDS... to Bird Flu... to Typhoid... you name it!
Buy 10,000 shares of this company and you'll pay only $19,000...
But if Obamacare causes it to rise to $5 a share, your position could be worth $50,000....
If it goes to $10 a share, you'll have $100,000...
And if it goes up to $25 a share, you might be sitting on a quarter of a million dollars!
Will it be like raining pennies from heaven?
Better than that, my friend...
It will be more like standing in front of a FIRE HOSE spraying hundred dollar bills...
And you could have that fire hose aimed right at your wallet if you invest in this stock and the 3 other vaccine stocks I'll tell you about in your FREE copy of...
OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH!
I'm going to tell you how to get your hands on this unique and very special report in just a few minutes...
But first let me give you a peek at the bigger picture...
Because figuring out how to make money from Obamacare is just one small example of how my Money Map Method works...
You see, the world of investing has changed...
The old investment strategies have gone the way of the gold watch, the dependable pension plan, and tax-free muni bonds that pay 5% a year...
Today, we're in an era of ZERO interest rates... NEGLIGIBLE growth... and MASSIVE government spending...
Like Obamacare, for example...
How do you make a profit in this environment?
How do you find the opportunities to make money in this new globalized and government-manipulated economy...
And, trust me, there ARE opportunities...
No scratch that. There are actually MORE opportunities available to investors today than there were in the last century...
When you could get in on the ground floor of companies like Microsoft, Apple, or Berkshire-Hathaway...
But how do you SPOT them?
That's where the Money Map Method comes in...
Because the Money Map Method is a simple, no-nonsense approach designed to help you CAPITALIZE...
... on the COLOSSAL shifts in social, political, and economic power that are taking place all around you. For example...
As I mentioned a moment ago...
More than 3 BILLION people in the developing world are going to be entering the global economy for the first time over the next decade...
These folks are going to want cellphones, toothpaste, television sets, DVRs, dishwashers, and deodorant...
Huge amounts of money will be made in this tectonic shift of global economics...
But huge amounts of money will be LOST, too.
And if you're clinging to a portfolio of somewhere between $300,000 and $1,000,000 dollars...
You not only have to figure out how to reach TWO MILLION – and fast!
(Because that's what financial planners say is the minimum needed for a comfortable retirement nowadays)...
But you've ALSO got to hang on to what you've got...
Because there are enormous RISKS you face in this economy, too. Your money is threatened by...
- Misguided central bankers whose bird-brained fiscal policies will
turn your bond yields and bank interest into a trickle of pennies...
- Greedy Wall Street manipulators whose only goal in life is to earn
gigantic annual bonuses by coming up with new ways to fleece small
investors...
- And small-minded politicians whose answer to every economic problem is MORE SPENDING and MORE DEBT...
And grow it safely enough so you can't be harmed...
In short, you have to reach the stage where you have so much money that the dopey politicians...
Money-grubbing Wall Street sharpies...
And misguided government bureaucrats can no longer hurt you...
Or, as we say around here...
GROW YOUR MONEY OR LOSE IT!
How?
With the Money Map Method, that's how...
But before I tell you exactly HOW the Money Map Method works, let me whet your appetite by showing you how WELL it works...
We back-tested the Money Map Method against the S&P 500 Index Fund over a 12-year period...
Not just ANY 12-year period...
We chose the twelve years between 2000 and 2012...
Because they were among the most turbulent years in the history of the stock market...
During this period, there were two costly wars...
Two major recessions...
The dot.com stock market crash of 2000...
The fiscal crash of 2008...
And no fewer than THREE investment "bubbles" when some stocks grew well beyond their actual value...
Then came plummeting back to earth...
No wonder the S&P index posted a lousy 10.7% – over 12½ full years!
But guess what...
The Money Map Method would have actually GAINED 270% in value over the same period...
And this was achieved by choosing SAFER investments than the broadly-diversified S&P 500 index fund...That's why the Money Map Method is such a powerful tool for making money...
Because it not only PROTECTS your portfolio by putting you on the firm foundation of global blue-chip stocks...
And it not only gives you INCOME by concentrating on stocks that pay reliable and steady dividends...
But it also gives you the potential for EXPONENTIAL GROWTH by identifying the little-known stocks that are poised to take off like a rocket on the launchpad...
These are investments that truly MATTER...
With huge opportunities to double and even triple your money...
No wonder I get so many letters from my readers saying...
"Thank you, thank you, thank you..."
For tipping them off to triple-digit gainers like these...
- 102% on Altria Group...
- 117% on NetQin Mobile...
- 135% on Yanzhou Coal Mining Company...
- 211% on Gilead Sciences...
- 215% on Navios Maritime...
- And 351% on Sinovac Biotech, Limited!
Or you'd be up watching this video all night...
I'd rather take a minute to answer the more pressing question that's on your mind right now. Namely...
"How are such gains possible?"
It's possible because the Money Map Method is based on three simple principles:
- It reveals to you the ongoing transfer of wealth AWAY from the
"nanny states" of the West and toward the new business centers around
the world...
- It shows you how you can save more and invest better DESPITE radically changing financial realities in the days ahead, and...
- It helps you build, maintain and protect your wealth SAFELY, while you hit some doubles, triples, and even a few home runs along the way...
Because I'm going to send you ANOTHER free report that spells out the Money Map Method for you in detail...
More about that in just 3 minutes...
For now let it suffice to say that the key principle of the Money Map Method is our unique approach to allocation...
Which we call our "50-40-10" strategy...
Unless I miss my guess...
As soon as you heard the word "allocation," you probably thought of another word...
Diversification!
Because for as long as you've been interested in the stock market...
You've been told that diversification is the key to enjoying growth without facing too much risk...
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" is the well-worn advice you've heard a thousand times...
Well-worn and... well, WRONG!
I believe diversification is a good way to get poor slowly...
If you look at the people who make serious money in the markets – people like Warren Buffett, for example – their investments are not diversified...
They're CONCENTRATED!
In Buffett's case, most of his $50+ billion portfolio is focused on railroads, insurance, and a handful of rock-solid consumer product companies like Coca-Cola...
Intelligent concentration, not mindless diversification, is the key to successful investing...
That's why the core principle of the Money Map Method is our three-step concentration strategy which we call 50-40-10...
Bear in mind, the Oracle of Omaha himself quipped that diversification is for people who don't know what they're doing.
Well we do...
Fifty percent of our recommended portfolio goes into what we call BASE BUILDERS...
These are solid, conservative, high-value investments where the emphasis is on capital preservation...
Because I believe that the return OF your money is even more important than the return ON your money... especially now.
Forty percent goes into GROWTH & INCOME stocks...
Because I believe a steady flow of dividends is the key to growing your portfolio...
Finally, ten percent of our portfolio goes into what we call ROCKET RIDERS...
Although they carry more risk, these stocks are so well positioned to take advantage of global economic changes...
That they can give you double-, and even triple-digit returns on your money...
The beauty of this system is that it really DOESN'T MATTER which stocks you buy or when you buy them...
If you happen to pick a stock or fund that doesn't outperform over a given period of time, no big deal...
Because once you know where to CONCENTRATE your investments...
Making steady gains can become as reliable as clockwork...
When you follow this method, your money is invested in large, stable companies – most of them right here in America – that do business all around the world...
Because tracking the flow of capital around the world is the key to accumulating wealth in the new global economy...
Which is why the Money Map Method is designed to...
FOLLOW THE MONEY!
We follow it wherever it goes around the globe...
Like China's huge investment in renewable energy sources, for example...
Or the enormous "bet" that the United States is making on Obamacare...
This is where the BIG MONEY is headed right now...
And the Money Map Method is like a financial "Global Positioning System" that puts you in the proper position to make a profit...
But please understand one thing...
I'm not talking about politics here...
It doesn't matter to me whether you think Obamacare is good for America or not...
It doesn't matter to me if you believe in global warming or if you're a skeptic...
I have my opinion and you have yours...
What matters is that enormous sums of money are going to be poured into these areas by governments, central banks, and private investors...
And you're either going to have your "umbrella turned upside down"... or you're going to get soaked!
In other words, you're either going to be crushed by this tectonic shift of global wealth...
Or it's going to make you very rich!
By the way, please don't worry if this video is rushing by too fast for you to take in some of these techniques and tactics...
Because I've put them all into another FREE BOOK which I'd like to send you today. It's called...
THE MONEY MAP METHOD: Lifelong Wealth in a Forever-Changed World.
This 77-page book is yours to keep absolutely free...
In a moment, I'll tell how to get your hands on it...
But first let me give you a free peek at some of the shocking facts and unusual research advice you'll find inside...
On page 7, you'll find out why we'll NEVER see a strong recovery from this recession...
And why that won't stop you from making money in this market!
On page 10, you'll learn why the next economic downturn in America will be WORSE than the last one...
But why you do NOT have to worry about a global economic meltdown...
Want to know why slow-growth periods like right now are actually the BEST buying opportunities?
See page 11...
Find out on page 12 how the Federal Reserve Board is engineering the mother of all financial catastrophes...
And what you can do about it WITHOUT turning tail and getting out of the market...
(Which, by the way, is the WORST mistake you could possibly make right now)...
Discover on page 15 which nations around the world are poised for EXPLOSIVE growth in the years ahead...
Why are some of the world's richest and smartest people moving to Singapore, for example?
Fortunately, you don't have to move there to take advantage of what they know. See page 17...
Here's how you can actually make MORE money in dividends than you originally paid for the stock! Page 26...
(Altria Group is a great example. It's paid investors back 1,000% in dividends alone over the years!)
How to spot "diamond-in-the-rough" stocks: Page 29...
Why boring, ugly, and bruised stocks are among your best bets. Page 30...
Why the old Wall Street saying – "Cut your losses and let your winners run" – has it exactly BACKWARDS! Page 37...
What is the "Hindenberg Omen" and how does it signal the onset of a market crash? Page 43...
Why you need to focus on what the world NEEDS, not what it WANTS. Page 45...
The simplest and surest way to make money in a down market. Page 46...
(George Soros made a BILLION DOLLARS using this simple trick)...
Why there's still money to be made in bonds – even though everyone is heading for the exits. Page 52...
I don't care how much money you have right now or how old you are...
Whether you're just starting out...
Or getting ready to retire...
Or enjoying your golden years now...
The Money Map Method offers a simple, no-nonsense approach that can help you save more... invest better... and build real wealth in the years ahead...
REMEMBER...
Sitting on the sidelines is the WORST thing you can do in this new global economy...
Because if it's raining pennies from heaven, the LAST place you want to be is taking shelter under a tree...
That's why I want to send you all 3 of these books and special reports absolutely free...
- BEATING OBAMACARE: Your Handbook for Surviving the New Health Care Law by Dr. Betsy McCaughey. It's a $14.95 New York Times bestselling book that's yours free...
- OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH! Your free guide to getting the cheese from Obamacare... while everyone else gets the hammer. And...
- THE MONEY MAP METHOD: Lifelong Wealth in a Forever-Changed World. Your free "GPS" for following the flow of money around the world and putting yourself in the perfect place to profit...
Why three free gifts?
Well, it's just my way of getting you acquainted with the Money Map Report...
The Money Map Report is my monthly research report that takes the principles of the Money Map Method outlined in your free booklet...
And uses them to give you specific suggestions about which stocks to buy, which to hold, and which to sell short...
Each issue of the Money Map Report contains a model portfolio that not only follows our 50-40-10 allocation strategy to a "T"...
But also REBALANCES that portfolio as often as necessary to make sure your investments are giving you...
- SAFETY FIRST! Because 50% of the portfolio is invested in rock-solid, conservative companies that do business around the world...
- STEADY INCOME! Because 40% of the portfolio is in
reliable growth and income stocks – some of which actually can pay you
TEN TIMES MORE in dividends that you paid to buy them...
- AND EXPLOSIVE GROWTH! Because 10% of the portfolio is invested in "Rocket Rider" stocks that are perfectly positioned by the Money Map Method to be wherever in the world it's raining money...
"I've followed your recommendations and I'm up $45,000," says Paul Westing.
"I'm not a wealthy man at 62 so I'm careful with my investments," says Roger Levac. "Thanks to Keith Fitz-Gerald, I've already had returns of 94% and 64% with a total profit of $15,000."
Robert Monrose says "I've only been a member for about 6 months, and I've already made between $40,000 and $50,000."
And William Coon wrote me this touching and deeply satisfying letter...
"I say this from the bottom of my heart. I was down over $325,000 when the market tanked last year. Thanks to you and your team I made it all back and I'm up over $80,000."
And on and on it goes...
Every day my mailbox is stuffed with letters like these from Money Map Report subscribers...
These folks gladly pay $199 for a full year of information, research advice and guidance that's not available anywhere else at any price...
That's less than the cost of a good pair of running shoes nowadays...
Yet you'll even pay less! (More about that in a moment)...
And you'll get so much more than just 12 issues.
For example, you'll also get...
- FREE WEEKLY EDITIONS OF THE MONEY MAP REPORTER: Direct
from my keyboard to your inbox, I'll send you a weekly update on all
the positions in our portfolio and let you know when to make a move and
when to sit tight...
- FREE EMAIL ALERTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: If there's an opportunity developing in the market that can't wait until the next issue of Money Map Report, I'll fire off an email to you as soon as I find out about it...
- FREE SAFETY SWITCHES: The same goes for
investments that are ripe for plucking. When it's time to exit a
position, I'll immediately let you know when and how to do it...
- FREE INVESTOR BRIEFINGS: In which I'll discuss new
global trends I've identified and how you can put yourself in the right
place at the right time to take full advantage of them...
- FREE 24/7 ACCESS TO THE MONEY MAP WEB PORTAL! Your members-only website that gives unlimited, free access to every issue of the Money Map Report, plus every alert, recommendation, and briefing...
- FREE "BOOTS ON THE GROUND" REPORTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD!
No, it's not because I'm as handsome and dashing as Harrison Ford, let me assure you...
It's because I'm constantly traveling around the globe in search of those hard-to-find places where...
Extravagant government spending...
Loose-money policies of central banks...
And the "smart money" of private investors...
Have COME TOGETHER in one place...
To create a situation where money is falling from the sky...
And I'll shoot you an email from my cellphone to make sure you're there with your umbrella turned upside down...
Finally...
- YOUR 3 FREE BONUS GIFTS! Your free copy of Dr. McCaughey's bestselling book, BEATING OBAMACARE... your free copy of OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH... and your free copy of THE MONEY MAP METHOD...
Frankly, the Money Map Report has become more than just a business for me in recent years...
It's a mission... my mission.
I'm on a mission to help every middle-class American who has managed to put aside a few dollars for their retirement...
To PROTECT your money from the risks posed by...
Incompetent politicians...
Loose-money central bankers...
And greedy Wall Street bankers and brokers...
My mission is to help you GROW your savings safely and surely...
Until you reach the $2-million-dollar figure that not only guarantees a good retirement...
But also puts you beyond the point where you need to live your life in a constant state of worry and fear...
That's why I've decided to cut the price of the Money Map Report in HALF if you click here within the next 5 minutes...
Instead of paying $199 for the next 12 issues of the Money Map Report – and all the freebies, bonuses and benefits I've just described – you'll pay only...
$49.50!
That's actually MORE than half off – or a savings of 75% – for as long as our supplies of these important books last...
Why so little?
Because, frankly, financial newsletters like the Money Map Report only succeed if subscribers stick with us for a long time...
But I can't convince you to stick with us for a long time until I've first convinced you to give us a try...
That's why I'd like you to try the first 3 ISSUES of the Money Map Report on a completely risk-free basis...
Read the first 3 issues of the Money Map Report without any risk or obligation...
Take full advantage of my weekly bulletin, the Money Map Reporter...
Get the FREE email alerts... FREE safety switches... FREE investor briefings... and my FREE "boots-on-the-ground" reports from around the globe...
Put your own portfolio into the 50-40-10 structure that positions you for maximum safety... steady income... and spectacular growth...
In other words, take full advantage of the Money Map Method for 3 FULL MONTHS...
And if, by any chance, it doesn't help you...
STRENGTHEN THE SAFETY of your investment portfolio...
INCREASE THE INCOME you get from your investments...
AND LIGHT THE FUSE OF EXPLOSIVE GROWTH by pointing you toward "Rocket Rider" stocks that have the potential for double- and triple-digit gains...
Simply let me know and I'll send you...
ALL OF YOUR MONEY BACK!
Not a pro-rated refund. Not a refund on unmailed issues. Not a "conditional" refund of any kind...
But an unconditional, no-questions-asked, 100% refund on every penny you paid...
Even better, you can...
KEEP your free copy of Dr. McCaughey's bestselling book, BEATING OBAMACARE...
KEEP your free copy of my special report, OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH! and...
KEEP your free copy of THE MONEY MAP METHOD: Lifelong Wealth in a Forever-Changed World...
So please take a moment right now to click here and view our secure order form...
Clicking commits you to nothing...
You can always change your mind at any time...
But you must act fast. For three reasons...
FIRST, because our supplies of Dr. McCaughey's book BEATING OBAMACARE are strictly limited...
As you can imagine, I had to pull some strings with the publisher...
Who happens to be a personal friend of mine...
To get enough copies of this $14.95 New York Times bestseller at a wholesale price that would make this free giveaway feasible...
"Friendship or no friendship," he said, "I can only give you so many copies at this price and no more"...
So you must click here now before others do to make sure we don't run out of books before you order...
SECOND, you must act because if you're in your mid-fifties or older – like me – you don't have that much time to build the kind of portfolio that is...
SO STRONG in its ability to withstand turbulent markets...
SO RELIABLE in throwing off steady income, and...
SO PERFECTLY POSITIONED to take advantage of the global growth opportunities ahead...
That you'll not only have enough money for a comfortable retirement...
But you'll have enough so that it really doesn't MATTER how badly Obamacare undermines the U.S. economy...
Because within the next few weeks and months, the hammer will fall...
The so-called "individual mandate" has already gone into effect...
The "employer mandate" – which is hanging over our economy like the Sword of Damocles – goes into effect on January 1, 2015...
Soon, many of the other disastrous rules and regulations in this 2,572-page nightmare will start to be enforced...
Unless I miss my guess, we should begin to see the devastating effects on the U.S. economy over the course of the next few weeks and months...
But NOW is also when the real opportunities for smart investors kick in...
FINALLY, if you wait until it's OBVIOUS to everyone where the smart money is going...
The big gains ALREADY will be gone...
They'll be scooped up by the investors who got there first...
That's why it's URGENT that you click here now...
It will take you to a secure order form...
And that form will tell you exactly how to get your...
FREE copy of Dr. McCaughey's bestseller BEATING OBAMACARE...
FREE copy of my special report OBAMACARE: DON'T GET MAD, GET RICH!...
And FREE copy of my strategic manifesto, THE MONEY MAP METHOD...
All of that just for taking a risk-free look at the Money Map Report for 3 FULL MONTHS without obligation or commitment...
When you elect to proceed to the order form...
You'll have a chance to review everything before making a final decision and submitting your order...
So please click here or on the button below right now...
Or if you'd prefer to sign up by phone...
Simply call 1.866.460.9039 or 1.443.353.4384 (for international callers) from 9 am to 5 pm (Eastern Time) – and be sure to mention Priority Code #PROMOCODE#. Because there's no need to get MAD about Obamacare...
When you can get RICH!
Thanks so much for participating...
And have a profitable day!
Sincerely,
Danielle O'Dell
Director of Financial Security Operations
Money Map Press
January 2014
Special Report: Obama's struggle to mend veterans' safety net
WASHINGTON
U.S. President Barack Obama autographs a banner while visiting a wounded service member at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, in this July 19, 2012.
(Reuters) - On a blistering June afternoon, President Barack Obama slipped into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to spend time with soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the most recent of his nearly weekly gestures intended to reinforce his commitment to America's troops and veterans.
Across town that day, hundreds of unemployed veterans shuffled through a wing of the Washington Nationals baseball stadium, many hoping that at this job fair they would catch a break. Among them was Nick Tivas, a 23-year-old Iraq war veteran with a buzz cut and a grievance against the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A collection agency has come after the former infantryman, he said, and he's looking for work because he thinks he'll have to drop out of community college after a dispute with the VA over education benefits. He also complained that it had been nearly a year since he filed a disability claim for a knee injury, with no word from the VA.
"I have a feeling I'll have gray hair and grandchildren and still be dealing with some kind of problem from the VA," he said.
The two scenes unfolding in the capital that day played out on opposite sides of a chasm: on one side, Obama's pledges in support of America's returning warriors; on the other, the limits of what he has been able to do to mend a tattered safety net for the nation's 23 million veterans.
"We cannot expect our young men and women to serve in our armed forces if we are not making sure that when they come home, they are getting the treatment they deserve," Obama said on the campaign trail in 2008.
Four years later the U.S. president can take credit for one of the most comprehensive efforts since World War II to overhaul the VA. His 2013 budget request for the VA is more than $40 billion, or 41 percent, bigger than the one he inherited when he took office, helping to cover construction of hospitals and clinics, staff increases, and expanded disability benefits. That has come despite the warning from some in the outgoing George W. Bush administration that the VA apparatus "is broken, just play defense," according to a member of Obama's transition team.
Yet, based on interviews with veterans, their advocates, and VA and other administration officials, as well as a review of available data, life for many veterans has grown more challenging under Obama's watch.
Veterans returning home today join lines for disability payments much longer than those Obama called intolerable in 2008. Their chances of finding jobs in a bleak economy are worse than those of most other Americans. Veterans' complaints of employment discrimination by the federal government have actually risen.
Veterans remain more likely to be homeless than the general population. The VA estimates more than 67,000 sleep in shelters and on the streets or are otherwise considered homeless, a figure that is only slightly better than in 2009.
And improved data collection reveals just how bad the problem of suicide is among veterans. According to new data Reuters obtained from the VA, a veteran within the VA healthcare system tries to commit suicide about once every half-hour, on average.
The reasons for this gap between intentions and results are manifold: a troubled economy, a divided Congress, an inefficient bureaucracy. These are compounded by the strain of four more years of conflict on American troops, whose needs will keep growing long after the wars are over.
Eric Shinseki, the man Obama chose to turn the VA into a more veteran-friendly operation, recognizes the urgency of the situation, but also takes a long view. "What (Obama) asked me to do was make those fundamental, comprehensive changes today that would serve the VA for a long time," the 69-year-old secretary of veterans affairs and former U.S. Army chief of staff said in an interview with Reuters. "Not two-year changes or five-year changes, but put in place the processes, the systems, the disciplines, the behaviors that would change this in transformational ways for a very long time."
The problems faced by veterans such as Andy Orellana, a 26-year-old homeless Iraq war veteran in Chicago, are immediate. Earlier this year the shelter where he sought refuge initially placed him on an "overflow" floor with a general population that included ex-convicts.
"One of the guys ... turned to me and was like, ‘What are you in for?' " Orellana said. "I was like, ‘I'm a vet.' "
"We're going to ... cut those backlogs, slash those wait times, deliver your benefits sooner."
-- Obama, to a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, August 17, 2009
In the second year of Obama's presidency, a curious thing happened at the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, Virginia. So many folders stuffed with claims had piled up -- thousands of them, stacked on top of filing cabinets -- that they were declared a threat to the building's structural integrity.
The files were moved, but the national pileup of disability compensation claims has continued. The backlog of claims languishing in the VA system for more than 125 days increased fourfold from October 2009 to mid-July 2012, according to VA data, to 572,856 claims.
Although the VA added staff, ramped up training and processed more and more pension and compensation claims -- topping a million in both 2010 and 2011 -- the average time spent processing each claim grew from 2009 to 2011. (VA data generally refer to the U.S. fiscal year, ending September 30.)
Elizabeth Lyman suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after allegedly being raped in 2008, a Marine at the time and 11 weeks pregnant. It took her two years to navigate the VA system and start receiving disability payments after she filed her claim.
Lyman, who left the Marines in 2010, was part of a lawsuit with 27 others seeking damages for alleged military inaction over rape. A U.S. district court dismissed that case in December, ruling that it lacked the authority to hold Pentagon officials liable. The plaintiffs are appealing.
Meanwhile, Lyman, 29, worries it may be too late to piece her life back together. She developed a drinking problem, and she has nightmares, flashbacks and crying fits. Her parents briefly took over care of her 3-year-old son this year.
"They say (in the Marines), look out for the Marines to the left and the right of you," said the Corpus Christi, Texas, resident. "They didn't do that with me … They failed me in every aspect."
The VA expressed regret over the delay in processing Lyman's claim, blaming "procedures not being followed properly and the volume of claims at the Houston Regional Office." Lyman said she is now receiving a monthly disability payment of $2,873. The VA also agreed to a retroactive payment of $33,867.
In the case of Tivas, the Iraq war veteran, a query by Reuters led the VA to examine his nearly year-old compensation claim for a knee injury, and on July 19, it authorized a monthly compensation award.
But the dispute over his education benefits continues. Tivas says the VA was late handling his paperwork, creating a cascade of troubles and leading him to drop classes. The VA insists he was overpaid, even if late, because he dropped classes. He may be a candidate for a waiver, however, to free him from debt, it said.
As it turns out, the administration's efforts to help veterans are part of the reason for the long waits.
A 2010 decision to acknowledge Vietnam veterans' right to claim compensation for more illnesses linked to the defoliant Agent Orange led to a deluge of claims from older veterans. Likewise, staff had to be diverted to handle a crush of claims when Iraq and Afghan veterans filed to take advantage of education benefits under the 2008 GI bill, which were later expanded under Obama. The president also made it easier to get compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder, ending the requirement that combat troops prove their illness was service-related.
Mostly, though, it is the long and continuing wars overseas that have overwhelmed the claims process. Returning Iraq and Afghan veterans have survived combat injuries at a far higher rate than veterans of previous wars, with record numbers of disabilities.
Retired Air Force Brigadier General Allison Hickey, who is leading the VA's effort to overhaul the claims process, said Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have an average of nine to 11 "contentions" -- or medical issues -- per claim, more than twice the number filed by veterans from the Vietnam era.
"Yes, some of the numbers don't look so great right now. Yes, people are waiting some time. But the solution is where we're going," Hickey said.
That solution entails replacing the VA's paper claims tracking system with an electronic system that has been years in development, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Officials say that if the new system, now in use at four of the VA's 56 regional offices, is fully rolled out by the end of 2013, as planned, the department will meet Shinseki's target of eliminating the claims backlog by 2015.
Even backers of the paperless system are skeptical that the VA can achieve its goal. Others with knowledge of the system warn that speeding up claims doesn't ensure accuracy or fairness and that errors from years past will haunt the VA for decades.
"It's about 10, 15 years too late for whatever they're going to introduce. And I don't have any optimism that it's going to work," said Frank Nebeker, the first chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. He retired from the court in 2000, but periodically returns to serve as a judge.
"Allow All Veterans Back into the VA: When troops serve, they are not divided by income classes or priority groups. Yet, today the VA is picking and choosing which veterans to serve ... As president, one of Barack Obama's first acts will be signing an executive order reversing this ban."
-- Obama's pledge sheet on veterans policy for the 2008 campaign, "Fulfilling a Sacred Trust with Our Veterans"
Worried about ensuring healthcare for wartime wounded and lower-income veterans, the Bush administration in 2003 banned enrollment of certain veterans who had no injuries related to their military service and who had incomes above a set threshold.
The Obama administration raised the income threshold, making an additional 650,000 veterans eligible for healthcare, according to VA data. But he has not fulfilled his promise to let all veterans back into the system, and millions of veterans remain ineligible.
An administration official blamed the economic crisis and ballooning deficits. "Fiscal reality set in," said a veterans' advocate who provided information to the 2008 campaign.
For veterans who have access to the system, Obama's goals for timely mental-health treatment are not being met.
An investigation by the VA's inspector-general in April found that more than half of veterans who needed comprehensive mental-health evaluations had not received them within two weeks of initial contact, the VA's target. That contradicted the VA's annual report to Congress last year, which said 95 percent of first-time patients received a full mental-health evaluation within 14 days.
"VA is failing to meet its own mandates for timeliness and instead is finding ways to make the data look like they are complying," said Washington Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat and chair of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Critics say part of the problem is that staff increases have only kept pace with patient loads. An analysis of VA data shows that the ratio of VA mental-health patients per full-time mental-health worker, at 65 to 1, was roughly unchanged in 2011 from 2006. Data obtained by Reuters shows there were 1,500 VA mental-health job vacancies nationwide at the end of December. In April the VA announced plans to hire 1,600 mental-health clinicians.
Nicholas Tolentino, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, quit his job as a mental-health administrative officer at the Manchester, New Hampshire, VA Medical Center in December over what he said was its failure to provide needed care to veterans.
"The goal was to see as many veterans as possible, but not necessarily to provide them the treatment they needed," Tolentino told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in April. He said the facility manager focused on a veteran's immediate problem, treating it quickly, "usually, with medications … And don't ask further questions about needs, because, and I quote, ‘We don't wanna know or we'll have to treat it.' "
"Fight Veterans Employment Discrimination: ... As president, Barack Obama will invest additional resources into enforcement and investigation in order to crack down on employers who are not following the letter and spirit of the law."
-- "Fulfilling a Sacred Trust with Our Veterans"
As a candidate, Obama called for stricter enforcement of a 1994 law - the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA - that prohibits employers from discriminating against current and former service members, and stressed the need for special help for guardsmen and reservists.
Since 2001, the number of complaints against all employers under USERRA has risen 73 percent, to 1,548 last year. The employer that accounted for the single biggest number of complaints was the federal government, with 286, or 18 percent of the total. That is the highest number since 2006.
"If the federal government, through this law, is imposing this obligation on gas station owners and bar operators and taxi cab companies, (it) ought to be doing at least as much and probably a lot more for its own employees," said Sam Wright, a former Labor Department employee who helped draft USERRA.
Much of the rise in complaints, experts say, was expected with the wave of reserve troops returning home, and attempting to return to their old jobs, after long deployments. An administration official also cited a statistical reason: Veterans make up more than a quarter of the federal workforce, the highest share in 15 years.
Despite a roughly 10 percent rise in the budget of the Labor Department office that handles the complaints, critics say the process remains disjointed and investigations are weak. "Some investigators don't have their heart in it," said Bob Kuenzli, a USERRA investigator who retired in September.
The administration has made high-profile efforts to help returning troops find jobs. It has championed tax credits meant to encourage companies to hire veterans. First Lady Michelle Obama's "Joining Forces" initiative says it has helped more than 90,000 veterans and military spouses find jobs and expects to exceed its 100,000 target by 2013. Obama is pushing Congress to create a Veterans Jobs Corps.
On July 19 the president issued a memorandum calling on federal agencies to protect veteran workers' rights, saying: "No discrimination or unfair treatment based on one's service will be tolerated."
All of which can't mask the grim job market for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans in an anemic economy. Unemployment among this group rose from 7.3 percent in 2008 to 12.1 percent in 2011, when the national average was 8.9 percent. For 18- to 24-year-old veterans, the rate was 30 percent last year, nearly double the 16.1 percent rate for non-veterans in that age group.
At the Washington job fair last month, a pep talk kicking off the event was meant to lift the spirits of unemployed veterans as they passed booths of recruiters from Wal-Mart, McDonald's and other major companies. Andrew Colon winced when a singer told the crowd, "You guys are very lucky to be here today."
"I don't think we're lucky to be here. We're unemployed and we're trying to find a job," said Colon, clutching a bundle of resumes.
Colon, 25, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where in 2009 he helped sort through claims by Afghans seeking compensation for damage by U.S. forces like shot cows and destroyed homes. Now, after earning a degree in May, he's trying to find a job in public relations.
He had no luck at the fair, but an interview he had arranged separately with the Armed Forces Services Corp., a U.S. government contractor, yielded an offer for a job as a new media specialist, contingent on government approval. He's optimistic.
Tivas, meanwhile, didn't drop off any resumes at the fair, his first; he said he was more interested in seeing what it entailed. He was confident about finding work. "I'm the type of person who gets jobs," he said.
"I am going to put in a policy of zero tolerance. We will not have any veteran who is homeless or on the streets when I'm president of the United States."
--Obama in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, May 24, 2008
Andy Orellana will never forget his first night at A Safe Haven, the Chicago shelter where the homeless veteran eventually ended up after an honorable discharge in 2008. Just hours after he arrived and handed over his clothes to be washed in case he had bedbugs, one of the residents was shot while hanging out across the street.
Orellana said he was placed that day onto the overflow floor with some former convicts before being moved to a vet-only floor. "Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves," he said.
The shelter said the shooting was a singular occurrence and that while it doesn't accept violent or sex offenders, many of the homeless have convictions related to drugs, alcohol or theft.
In a room with chipped paint on the walls and his roommate's clothes piled on the bed next to him, Orellana praised the VA treatment he has received for PTSD and depression -- conditions resulting, he said, at least in part from having seen a fellow soldier burn to death in Iraq. Even so, he said, the VA had so far denied him disability benefits.
"I guess they didn't believe me," he said with a shrug.
Reuters has been unable to contact Orellana since shortly after his May interview. A person familiar with his situation said he recently received a U.S. government housing voucher and was searching for an apartment. The VA declined to comment, citing the need to obtain permission from individuals before discussing their cases.
When Obama ran for president, he stated his intention to eliminate veteran homelessness. Once the administration settled in, Shinseki set an ambitious target date of 2015.
But a VA document seen by Reuters -- which a spokesman described as "pre-decisional" -- shows that the target is subject to possible review.
"Things that would make us look at our time line would be things like the military drawdown and how veterans are impacted," said Lisa Pape, the national director for homeless programs at the Veterans Health Administration, in late March. Unemployment rates are a factor, too, "and as you know, they've not been decreasing."
The administration says the number of homeless veterans fell 10.7 percent from 2009 to 2011 - there was a tiny rise in 2010 -- to 67,495. That figure is the result of the latest in a series of methodologies used for the count. Many veterans' advocates and lawmakers say the count is only a rough estimate.
Representative Bob Filner, the top Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, dismissed the data and the 2015 goal. "So you've got 88 percent more to go, so how are you going to do it?" Filner said. "Besides, I don't believe it." He said he thinks the number is actually rising in some parts of the country.
Filner is running for mayor of San Diego, where Phil Landis, president of Veterans Village of San Diego, said he's seeing anecdotal evidence that today's "young veterans fall into homelessness sooner than prior generations."
Shinseki is creating a national registry to track not only those who are homeless but also those at risk of becoming homeless -- an unprecedented effort that has so far amassed more than 400,000 names. Shinseki hopes to be able to swoop in and help veterans, such as those caught up in the foreclosure process, before they end up on the streets.
"I have never been able to solve a problem I couldn't see," he said, adding that the VA was on track to meet his 2015 goal.
The Obama administration has also expanded the use of a housing-vouchers program -- fulfilling one of Obama's campaign promises by allowing more veterans to stay off the streets by renting private housing. The VA estimates that about 40,000 veterans benefit from the vouchers and expects that number to rise to 48,000 by the end of the year and 60,000 in 2013.
* * *
Even if the payoff is still a ways off, the politics of tackling the VA's problems make sense: The military vote could prove decisive in November's presidential election. Many veterans are concentrated in key swing states.
And Obama's choice of Shinseki to run the VA has been popular with many veterans. A Vietnam veteran who lost part of a foot in the war, the former Army chief says he takes the issues personally.
"You don't get too many do-overs in life, and for me, this is a do-over," he said on an April visit to a VA clinic in rural Pennsylvania. "I get a chance to take care of the kids I went to Vietnam with 40 years ago. I get to take care of the youngsters I sent to war as a chief."
(Additional reporting by Alexandra Alper, Matt Spetalnick, Lily Kuo and Eric Johnson; editing by Marilyn Thompson, Warren Strobel, John Blanton and Douglas Royalty)
According to White House correspondent April Ryan, President Obama plans on enrolling in a plan on the Obamacare Marketplace before the end of the day. This, according to Ryan, is "leading by example."
Originally published February 9, 2014 at 2:57 PM | Page modified February 9, 2014 at 10:28 PM
AOL reverses unpopular retirement plan move
AOL Corp. CEO Tim Armstrong has abandoned an
unpopular plan to delay company contributions to employee retirement
accounts and apologized for citing two high-cost births as part of the
impetus for the plan.
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"We heard you on this topic," Armstrong wrote in a letter to employees Saturday.
In a move to cut costs, AOL had decided to pay matching 401(k) retirement contributions in one lump sum at the end of the year. Workers who left the company before the end of the year would have received no contributions, and all workers would sacrifice interest or earnings on those contributions throughout the year.
After a worker backlash, Armstrong said the company would return to depositing matching contributions every pay period throughout the year.
In the letter Saturday, Armstrong also apologized for bringing up specific health care examples during a town hall meeting in which the retirement plan was discussed. During the meeting, Armstrong cited higher health care costs in general and mentioned the high cost of health care for two women who gave birth to "distressed babies."
"On a personal note, I made a mistake and I apologize for my comments last week," he wrote in the letter Saturday.
On Sunday, the author Deanna Fei wrote in an article posted on the website Slate that she was the mother of one of the babies Armstrong referred to. Fei's husband is an editor at AOL-owned Huffington Post.
In the article, which was being widely shared on social media, Fei explains in detail the harrowing and difficult birth of her daughter and excoriates Armstrong for blaming the need to reduce employee benefits on situations like hers.
She wrote that she takes issue with "how (Armstrong) exposed the most searing experience of our lives...for no other purpose than an absurd justification for corporate cost-cutting."
ObamaCare Nightmares In The States
A Look At The Mounting ObamaCare Horror Stories Across The Country
DEMOCRATS ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM OBAMACARE AS AMERICANS LEARN THE TRUE CONSEQUENCES OF THE LAW
Heading Into The 2014 Midterms, ObamaCare Continues To Threaten Democrats Fortunes In The U.S. House And Senate. "As Democrats approach the 2014 midterm elections, they are grappling with an awkward reality: Their president's health care law - passed with no Republican votes - remains a political liability in many states, threatening their ability to hold on to seats in the Senate and the House." (Ashley Parker, "On Health Act, Democrats Run In Fix-It Mode," The New York Times , 2/16/14)
"For Democrats Running For Congress In Dozens Of Districts, The Affordable Care Act They Once Boasted About Is One Of The Largest Obstacles To Their Re-Election Bids In November." (Anita Kumar, "With Voters Skeptical, Dozens Of Democrats Inch Away From ObamaCare," McClatchy, 2/20/14)
Democrats Are Crafting Campaign Ads Running Away From ObamaCare. "In races across the country, Democrats and their supporters are tailoring campaign ads in a way that distances the candidates from the health law's problems, casts them as a potential savior, and warns of dire consequences if Republicans are back in charge." (James Hohmann, "Dems' New 2014 Plan: Neutralize ObamaCare," Politico, 2/17/14)
National Journal Headline: "Where Is the Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign?" (Beth Reinhard, "Where Is The Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign," National Journal, 2/6/14)
Obama's Campaign Offshoot - Organizing For Action (OFA) Is Focusing On Other Issues Than ObamaCare. "Even Organizing for Action, the advocacy offshoot of President Obama's campaign, is focusing elsewhere, currently airing ads touting President Obama's support for raising the minimum wage." (Beth Reinhard, "Where Is The Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign," National Journal, 2/6/14)
"The Last Time OFA Ran Pro-ObamaCare Ads Was Last Summer." (Beth Reinhard, "Where Is The Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign," National Journal, 2/6/14)
Vice President Of A Political Advertising Firm: "Pro-ObamaCare Ads Are Like An Endangered Species, Like Seeing A Unicorn Or The Loch Ness Monster." "'Pro-ObamaCare ads are like an endangered species, like seeing a unicorn or the Loch Ness monster,' said Elizabeth Wilner, Kantar Media senior vice president for political advertising. 'Democrats are either not talking about it at all or talking about it needing to be fixed.'" (Beth Reinhard, "Where Is The Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign," National Journal, 2/6/14)
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, AMERICANS ARE FINDING OUT THAT OBAMACARE'S INTENTIONS WERE JUST A MYTH
For People In Rural Areas Across The Country, ObamaCare Is Bringing Higher Premiums And Less Choices
An Analysis By The Wall Street Journal Found That Many Americans That Reside In Rural, Poorer Areas Of The Country Face Limited Health Options And High Premiums On The ObamaCare Exchange. "Hundreds of thousands of Americans in poorer counties have few choices of health insurers and face high premiums through the online exchanges created by the health-care law, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of offerings in 36 states." (Timothy W. Martin and Christopher Weaver, "For Many, Few Health-Plan Choices, High Premiums On Online Exchanges," The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/14)
"Consumers In 515 Counties, Spread Across 15 States, Have Only One Insurer Selling Coverage Through The Online Marketplaces, The Journal Found." (Timothy W. Martin and Christopher Weaver, "For Many, Few Health-Plan Choices, High Premiums On Online Exchanges," The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/14)
The Cost Of A Midlevel Plan For An Office Manager In Rural Florida Was About $200 More Expensive That A Similar Plan Offered In Tampa. "Rebecca Stephens, an office manager from Wauchula, Fla., recently discovered there was only one health insurer offering coverage in rural, low-income Hardee County, and the midlevel plan she wanted to buy cost about $200 more a month than a similar plan in nearby Tampa." (Timothy W. Martin and Christopher Weaver, "For Many, Few Health-Plan Choices, High Premiums On Online Exchanges," The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/14)
Rebecca Stephens: "That It Costs Me More For Health Insurance Than Someone In Tampa Doesn't Seem Equal To Me." "'That it costs me more for health insurance than someone in Tampa doesn't seem equal to me,' said Ms. Stephens." (Timothy W. Martin and Christopher Weaver, "For Many, Few Health-Plan Choices, High Premiums On Online Exchanges," The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/14)
For A Small Business Owner In Rural Georgia, The Cost Of Coverage On The ObamaCare Exchnage Is Unaffordable. If Lee Mullins lived in Pittsburgh, he could buy mid-level health coverage for his family for $940 a month. If he lived in Beverly Hills, he would pay $1,405. But Mullins, who builds custom swimming pools, lives in southwest Georgia. Here, a similar health plan for his family of four costs $2,654 a month. This largely agrarian pocket of Georgia, where peanuts and pecans are major crops and hunters bag alligators up to 10 feet long, is one of the most expensive places in the nation to buy health insurance through the new online marketplaces created by the federal health law." (Jordan Rau, "In Rural Georgia, Federal Health Insurance Marketplace Proves Unaffordable To Many," The Washington Post , 2/1/14)
After Selecting A Plan For Her Son, A Pottery Shop Owner In Rural Georgia Decided To Forego Insurance Coverage For Her And Her Husband As Rates On The ObamaCare Exchange Were Unaffordable. "Even some people who qualify for federal assistance, such as Stacie Brown, owner of a pottery shop, are balking. The cheapest 'bronze' plan for Brown, her husband and son would cost the family $300 a month but not begin paying medical bills until they exceeded the $6,300 individual deductible. The cheapest silver plan would cost $508 a month but not start paying until a $3,000 individual deductible was met. Her son's pediatrician was not in any of the networks, and that was the one medical service she felt sure her family would use. Brown ultimately bought a $256-a-month Assurant Health plan for her son, sold outside the marketplace, which covers his pediatrician and unlimited office visits. She and her husband have decided to forgo coverage for themselves, even though they may face a tax penalty of $700. 'I can't afford the affordable health care,' she said. 'I don't know anyone in this area who can afford it, and I do pretty well in life.'" (Jordan Rau, "In Rural Georgia, Federal Health Insurance Marketplace Proves Unaffordable To Many," The Washington Post , 2/1/14)
Californians Face An Uphill Battle Trying To Access Care Under ObamaCare
In California, ObamaCare Exchange Enrollees Continue To Suffer Roadblocks As They Attempt To Access Care. "After overcoming website glitches and long waits to get ObamaCare, some patients are now running into frustrating new roadblocks at the doctor's office. A month into the most sweeping changes to health care in half a century, people are having trouble finding doctors at all, getting faulty information on which ones are covered and receiving little help from insurers swamped by new business." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Offices," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
After Being Reassured That Her Oncologist Was Covered In A Plan She Chose On California's ObamaCare Exchange, A California Woman Found Out Her Doctor Didn't Accept The Plan She Chose. "Aliso Viejo resident Danielle Nelson said Anthem Blue Cross promised half a dozen times that her oncologists would be covered under her new policy. She was diagnosed last year with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and discovered a suspicious lump near her jaw in early January. But when she went to her oncologist's office, she promptly encountered a bright orange sign saying that Covered California plans are not accepted." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Offices," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
After Signing Up For Coverage, A Woman Had Trouble Finding A Specialist After Four Specialists Refused To Accept Her Plan Purchased On The California Exchange. "Maria Berumen, a tax preparer in Downey, was uninsured for years because of preexisting conditions. The 53-year-old was thrilled to find coverage for herself and her husband for $148 a month after qualifying for a big government subsidy. She jumped at the chance in early January to visit a primary-care doctor for long-running numbness in her arm and shoulder as a result of bone spurs on her spine. The doctor referred her to a specialist, and problems ensued. At least four doctors wouldn't accept her health plan - even though the state exchange website and her insurer, Health Net Inc., list them as part of her HMO network." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Offices," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
The Woman Called Her Health Plan's Provider Network "A Phantom Network." "'It's a phantom network,' Berumen said." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Offices," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
After Enrolling In A Covered California Plan That Offered A Large Provider Network, A Man Found Out That He Could No Longer Access His Family's Orthopedic Surgeon. "Scott Marshutz of Dana Point said he picked a Blue Shield PPO plan in the exchange so he and his wife would have greater choice of doctors But when he booked an appointment recently with his orthopedic surgeon, the doctor's office said it wasn't taking Covered California plans." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Officies," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
In Washington, Hundreds Of Children Are Being Denied Access To Their Doctors
Signing Up For Health Coverage In The State's ObamaCare Exchange Has "Backfired" For A Washington Family. SARAH FINK: "That's why we all pay into the system is because in that moment, when you're in a dire situation, then you hope that the insurance company is going to take care of you." CARTER EVANS: "And what did you find out?" FINK: "That it kind of backfired." ( CBS News, 2/8/14)
A Washington Mother Learned That Her Daughter Was Denied Care After Receiving An Authorization Letter For Care At The Seattle Children's Hospital. CARTER EVANS: "What began as an ear infection for four-year-old Kate Fink soon became much more serious. Her mother Sarah." SARAH FINK: "She couldn't hear out at all in one ear, so that was really scary." EVANS: "Kate's eardrum had ruptured. Her doctor recommended a specialist at Seattle's Children's Hospital." Fink: "What if it's permanent? What if it's you know untreatable?" EVANS: "The care was authorized by Sarah's insurer through Washington State's health care exchange. This is an approval letter for the coverage." Fink: "Yes." EVANS: "Four days later, this is a denial." FINK: "Exactly." ( CBS News, 2/8/14)
CBS News' Carter Evans: More Than 200 Kids Are "Facing The Same Dilemma." CARTER EVANS: "For now, Seattle Children's Hospital is picking up the tab for Kate and more than 200 other patients facing the same dilemma, but eventually their parents may have to pay the bill." (CBS News, 2/8/14)
Dr. Sandy Melzer: "The Exclusion Of A Major Provider Like Seattle Children's From Its Major Insurance Network In This Market Is Unprecedented." CARTER EVANS: "That letter says the hospital is out of network. Is this an isolated incident?"DR. SANDY MELZER: "This is not an isolated incident." EVANS: "Dr. Sandy Melzer is with Seattle's Children's Hospital." MELZER: "The exclusion of a major provider like Seattle Children's from its major insurance network in this market is unprecedented." (CBS News, 2/8/14)
Dr. Sandy Melzer: "We're Seeing Denials Of Care, Disruptions In Care," For Families That Purchased Coverage "They've In Fact Found It's A False Promise." CARTER EVANS: "The hospital is considered in-network on only two of the seven plans from Washington State's health exchange. It's now suing to be included on all of them." DR. SANDY MELZER: "We're seeing denials of care, disruptions in care. We're seeing a great deal of confusion, and at times, anger and frustration on the part of these families who bought insurance thinking that their children were going to be covered and they've in fact found it's a false promise." (CBS News, 2/8/14)
ObamaCare Has Left Hundreds Of Louisianans And North Dakotans Without Access To Life-Extending Care
An ObamaCare Rule To Crack Down On ObamaCare Fraud Jeopardized Coverage For Hundreds Of People With HIV/Aids. "Hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS in Louisiana trying to obtain coverage under President Barack Obama's health care reform are in danger of being thrown out of the insurance plan they selected in a dispute over federal subsidies and the interpretation of federal rules about preventing ObamaCare fraud." (Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen, "Aids Patients In ObamaCare Limbo As Insurers Reject Checks," Reuters, 2/8/14)
Louisiana's Largest Insurer Notified Certain Customers That Their Plans Are Being Discontinued Due To A Decision To Not Accept Third-Party Payments Needed To Cover Premiums. "The state's largest carrier is rejecting checks from a federal program designed to help these patients pay for AIDS drugs and insurance premiums, and has begun notifying customers that their enrolment in its ObamaCare plans will be discontinued. The carrier says it no longer will accept third-party payments, such as those under the 1990 Ryan White Act, which many people with HIV/AIDS use to pay their premiums." (Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen, "Aids Patients In ObamaCare Limbo As Insurers Reject Checks," Reuters, 2/8/14)
Blue Cross Blue Shield On North Dakota Has Also Rejected Third-Party Payments. "The only other carrier that is refusing to accept such payments is Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, according to a CMS official." (Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen, "Aids Patients In ObamaCare Limbo As Insurers Reject Checks," Reuters, 2/8/14)
Robert Greenwald Of Harvard Law School Said That "Insurers Told Health Care Advocates That The November Guidance Requires Them To Reject Payments From The Ryan White Program In Order To Combat Fraud." "The insurers told healthcare advocates that the November guidance requires them to reject payments from the Ryan White program in order to combat fraud, said Robert Greenwald, managing director of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, a position Louisiana Blue still maintains." (Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen, "Aids Patients In ObamaCare Limbo As Insurers Reject Checks," Reuters, 2/8/14)
SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS IN STATES ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE WEARY OF OBAMACARE'S IMPACT
ObamaCare Has Stopped An Arkansas Small Business From Expanding
ObamaCare Forced An Arkansas Furniture Store To Halt Expansion Throughout The State. "'We have been a very blessed company,' said Joe Donaldson, co-owner and General Manager of Sam's Furniture in Springdale. 'We've actually had double-digit increases the last three years in a row.' Donaldson's parents started the furniture company back in 1992 with a handful of other employees. Sam's Furniture now has two locations in northwest Arkansas and employs close to 50 people. Less than two years ago, Donaldson was even ready to expand into central Arkansas with a third location, but his plans changed." (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
Owner Of Sam's Furniture: "We Would've Probably Already Had Been Open In Little Rock With A Third Store If This Whole Health Care Thing Wouldn't Have Taken Place. "But It Scared The Heck Out Of Us." "'We would've probably already been open in Little Rock with a third store if this whole health care thing wouldn't have taken place,' said Donaldson. 'But it scared the heck out of us.'" (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
"So, For Now, An Expansion Into Little Rock - Which Would Add Between 30-40 New Arkansas Jobs - Will Have To Wait." (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
As Sam's Furniture Has Increased Sales, They've Had To Eliminate Jobs To Stay Below ObamaCare's Employer Mandate Or Pay Thousands In Extra Costs. "'We were at about 56 employees when this whole health care thing started,' explains Donaldson, who estimates the HIT will cost his company tens of thousands of dollars in 2014. 'Not only have we grown our volume, but we've had to do it with six or seven less people because we had to get under that 50.'" (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
To Offset Losses From ObamaCare, Sam's Furniture Will Either Raise Prices Or Cut Benefits And Employees. "'I hate to say that businesses will just raise prices, but - in reality - that's what is going to happen,' said Donaldson. 'We're either going to have to raise prices to offset the loss of that margin of profit to basically get over that added expense, or they will cut benefits and cut employees.'" (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
A Utah Small Business Owner Was Forced To Cut Employee Health Insurance After Finding Out His Health Care Costs Would Triple Under ObamaCare
Ogden Small Business Owner Found That The Cost Of His Small Group Health Plan Would Triple Under ObamaCare. "Ogden business owner, Chad Nay was shocked when he found out how much the cost of his group insurance plan was going up under the Affordable Care Act. 'As a small business owner, under 50 employees, the group plan under ObamaCare tripled as far as cost goes of what it would cost me to cover us as a group,' said Nay." (Glen Mills, "ACA 101: Utah Business Owners Are Trying To Find Their Way Through Insurance Changes," KTVX, 2/15/14)
Due To The Higher Costs Faced Under ObamaCare, The Owner Cancelled The Health Plan And Employees Must Now Seek Coverage On The ObamaCare Exchange. "The increased cost wasn't an option, so he decided the best way was for the entire crew at Superior Computers to individually go to the federal marketplace, healthcare.gov, leading to more challenges. 'Now I've got to find a way, how do I help my guys pay for their private insurance they had to get through healthcare.gov,' said Nay." (Glen Mills, "ACA 101: Utah Business Owners Are Trying To Find Their Way Through Insurance Changes," KTVX, 2/15/14)
According To The Owner, ObamaCare Is A "Huge Distraction." "'The thing that is frustrating to me is I'm a business owner, I've got customers I've got to take care of, I've got a business to run and it's a huge distraction having to get all this taken care of,' said Nay." (Glen Mills, "ACA 101: Utah Business Owners Are Trying To Find Their Way Through Insurance Changes," KTVX, 2/15/14)
The Mind Unleashed with James Dysart and 42 others
A Look At The Mounting ObamaCare Horror Stories Across The Country
DEMOCRATS ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM OBAMACARE AS AMERICANS LEARN THE TRUE CONSEQUENCES OF THE LAW
Heading Into The 2014 Midterms, ObamaCare Continues To Threaten Democrats Fortunes In The U.S. House And Senate. "As Democrats approach the 2014 midterm elections, they are grappling with an awkward reality: Their president's health care law - passed with no Republican votes - remains a political liability in many states, threatening their ability to hold on to seats in the Senate and the House." (Ashley Parker, "On Health Act, Democrats Run In Fix-It Mode," The New York Times , 2/16/14)
"For Democrats Running For Congress In Dozens Of Districts, The Affordable Care Act They Once Boasted About Is One Of The Largest Obstacles To Their Re-Election Bids In November." (Anita Kumar, "With Voters Skeptical, Dozens Of Democrats Inch Away From ObamaCare," McClatchy, 2/20/14)
Democrats Are Crafting Campaign Ads Running Away From ObamaCare. "In races across the country, Democrats and their supporters are tailoring campaign ads in a way that distances the candidates from the health law's problems, casts them as a potential savior, and warns of dire consequences if Republicans are back in charge." (James Hohmann, "Dems' New 2014 Plan: Neutralize ObamaCare," Politico, 2/17/14)
National Journal Headline: "Where Is the Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign?" (Beth Reinhard, "Where Is The Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign," National Journal, 2/6/14)
Obama's Campaign Offshoot - Organizing For Action (OFA) Is Focusing On Other Issues Than ObamaCare. "Even Organizing for Action, the advocacy offshoot of President Obama's campaign, is focusing elsewhere, currently airing ads touting President Obama's support for raising the minimum wage." (Beth Reinhard, "Where Is The Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign," National Journal, 2/6/14)
"The Last Time OFA Ran Pro-ObamaCare Ads Was Last Summer." (Beth Reinhard, "Where Is The Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign," National Journal, 2/6/14)
Vice President Of A Political Advertising Firm: "Pro-ObamaCare Ads Are Like An Endangered Species, Like Seeing A Unicorn Or The Loch Ness Monster." "'Pro-ObamaCare ads are like an endangered species, like seeing a unicorn or the Loch Ness monster,' said Elizabeth Wilner, Kantar Media senior vice president for political advertising. 'Democrats are either not talking about it at all or talking about it needing to be fixed.'" (Beth Reinhard, "Where Is The Democratic Party's Pro-ObamaCare Campaign," National Journal, 2/6/14)
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, AMERICANS ARE FINDING OUT THAT OBAMACARE'S INTENTIONS WERE JUST A MYTH
For People In Rural Areas Across The Country, ObamaCare Is Bringing Higher Premiums And Less Choices
An Analysis By The Wall Street Journal Found That Many Americans That Reside In Rural, Poorer Areas Of The Country Face Limited Health Options And High Premiums On The ObamaCare Exchange. "Hundreds of thousands of Americans in poorer counties have few choices of health insurers and face high premiums through the online exchanges created by the health-care law, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of offerings in 36 states." (Timothy W. Martin and Christopher Weaver, "For Many, Few Health-Plan Choices, High Premiums On Online Exchanges," The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/14)
"Consumers In 515 Counties, Spread Across 15 States, Have Only One Insurer Selling Coverage Through The Online Marketplaces, The Journal Found." (Timothy W. Martin and Christopher Weaver, "For Many, Few Health-Plan Choices, High Premiums On Online Exchanges," The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/14)
The Cost Of A Midlevel Plan For An Office Manager In Rural Florida Was About $200 More Expensive That A Similar Plan Offered In Tampa. "Rebecca Stephens, an office manager from Wauchula, Fla., recently discovered there was only one health insurer offering coverage in rural, low-income Hardee County, and the midlevel plan she wanted to buy cost about $200 more a month than a similar plan in nearby Tampa." (Timothy W. Martin and Christopher Weaver, "For Many, Few Health-Plan Choices, High Premiums On Online Exchanges," The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/14)
Rebecca Stephens: "That It Costs Me More For Health Insurance Than Someone In Tampa Doesn't Seem Equal To Me." "'That it costs me more for health insurance than someone in Tampa doesn't seem equal to me,' said Ms. Stephens." (Timothy W. Martin and Christopher Weaver, "For Many, Few Health-Plan Choices, High Premiums On Online Exchanges," The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/14)
For A Small Business Owner In Rural Georgia, The Cost Of Coverage On The ObamaCare Exchnage Is Unaffordable. If Lee Mullins lived in Pittsburgh, he could buy mid-level health coverage for his family for $940 a month. If he lived in Beverly Hills, he would pay $1,405. But Mullins, who builds custom swimming pools, lives in southwest Georgia. Here, a similar health plan for his family of four costs $2,654 a month. This largely agrarian pocket of Georgia, where peanuts and pecans are major crops and hunters bag alligators up to 10 feet long, is one of the most expensive places in the nation to buy health insurance through the new online marketplaces created by the federal health law." (Jordan Rau, "In Rural Georgia, Federal Health Insurance Marketplace Proves Unaffordable To Many," The Washington Post , 2/1/14)
After Selecting A Plan For Her Son, A Pottery Shop Owner In Rural Georgia Decided To Forego Insurance Coverage For Her And Her Husband As Rates On The ObamaCare Exchange Were Unaffordable. "Even some people who qualify for federal assistance, such as Stacie Brown, owner of a pottery shop, are balking. The cheapest 'bronze' plan for Brown, her husband and son would cost the family $300 a month but not begin paying medical bills until they exceeded the $6,300 individual deductible. The cheapest silver plan would cost $508 a month but not start paying until a $3,000 individual deductible was met. Her son's pediatrician was not in any of the networks, and that was the one medical service she felt sure her family would use. Brown ultimately bought a $256-a-month Assurant Health plan for her son, sold outside the marketplace, which covers his pediatrician and unlimited office visits. She and her husband have decided to forgo coverage for themselves, even though they may face a tax penalty of $700. 'I can't afford the affordable health care,' she said. 'I don't know anyone in this area who can afford it, and I do pretty well in life.'" (Jordan Rau, "In Rural Georgia, Federal Health Insurance Marketplace Proves Unaffordable To Many," The Washington Post , 2/1/14)
Californians Face An Uphill Battle Trying To Access Care Under ObamaCare
In California, ObamaCare Exchange Enrollees Continue To Suffer Roadblocks As They Attempt To Access Care. "After overcoming website glitches and long waits to get ObamaCare, some patients are now running into frustrating new roadblocks at the doctor's office. A month into the most sweeping changes to health care in half a century, people are having trouble finding doctors at all, getting faulty information on which ones are covered and receiving little help from insurers swamped by new business." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Offices," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
After Being Reassured That Her Oncologist Was Covered In A Plan She Chose On California's ObamaCare Exchange, A California Woman Found Out Her Doctor Didn't Accept The Plan She Chose. "Aliso Viejo resident Danielle Nelson said Anthem Blue Cross promised half a dozen times that her oncologists would be covered under her new policy. She was diagnosed last year with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and discovered a suspicious lump near her jaw in early January. But when she went to her oncologist's office, she promptly encountered a bright orange sign saying that Covered California plans are not accepted." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Offices," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
After Signing Up For Coverage, A Woman Had Trouble Finding A Specialist After Four Specialists Refused To Accept Her Plan Purchased On The California Exchange. "Maria Berumen, a tax preparer in Downey, was uninsured for years because of preexisting conditions. The 53-year-old was thrilled to find coverage for herself and her husband for $148 a month after qualifying for a big government subsidy. She jumped at the chance in early January to visit a primary-care doctor for long-running numbness in her arm and shoulder as a result of bone spurs on her spine. The doctor referred her to a specialist, and problems ensued. At least four doctors wouldn't accept her health plan - even though the state exchange website and her insurer, Health Net Inc., list them as part of her HMO network." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Offices," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
The Woman Called Her Health Plan's Provider Network "A Phantom Network." "'It's a phantom network,' Berumen said." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Offices," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
After Enrolling In A Covered California Plan That Offered A Large Provider Network, A Man Found Out That He Could No Longer Access His Family's Orthopedic Surgeon. "Scott Marshutz of Dana Point said he picked a Blue Shield PPO plan in the exchange so he and his wife would have greater choice of doctors But when he booked an appointment recently with his orthopedic surgeon, the doctor's office said it wasn't taking Covered California plans." (Chad Terhune, "ObamaCare Enrollees Hit Snags At Doctor's Officies," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/14)
In Washington, Hundreds Of Children Are Being Denied Access To Their Doctors
Signing Up For Health Coverage In The State's ObamaCare Exchange Has "Backfired" For A Washington Family. SARAH FINK: "That's why we all pay into the system is because in that moment, when you're in a dire situation, then you hope that the insurance company is going to take care of you." CARTER EVANS: "And what did you find out?" FINK: "That it kind of backfired." ( CBS News, 2/8/14)
A Washington Mother Learned That Her Daughter Was Denied Care After Receiving An Authorization Letter For Care At The Seattle Children's Hospital. CARTER EVANS: "What began as an ear infection for four-year-old Kate Fink soon became much more serious. Her mother Sarah." SARAH FINK: "She couldn't hear out at all in one ear, so that was really scary." EVANS: "Kate's eardrum had ruptured. Her doctor recommended a specialist at Seattle's Children's Hospital." Fink: "What if it's permanent? What if it's you know untreatable?" EVANS: "The care was authorized by Sarah's insurer through Washington State's health care exchange. This is an approval letter for the coverage." Fink: "Yes." EVANS: "Four days later, this is a denial." FINK: "Exactly." ( CBS News, 2/8/14)
CBS News' Carter Evans: More Than 200 Kids Are "Facing The Same Dilemma." CARTER EVANS: "For now, Seattle Children's Hospital is picking up the tab for Kate and more than 200 other patients facing the same dilemma, but eventually their parents may have to pay the bill." (CBS News, 2/8/14)
Dr. Sandy Melzer: "The Exclusion Of A Major Provider Like Seattle Children's From Its Major Insurance Network In This Market Is Unprecedented." CARTER EVANS: "That letter says the hospital is out of network. Is this an isolated incident?"DR. SANDY MELZER: "This is not an isolated incident." EVANS: "Dr. Sandy Melzer is with Seattle's Children's Hospital." MELZER: "The exclusion of a major provider like Seattle Children's from its major insurance network in this market is unprecedented." (CBS News, 2/8/14)
Dr. Sandy Melzer: "We're Seeing Denials Of Care, Disruptions In Care," For Families That Purchased Coverage "They've In Fact Found It's A False Promise." CARTER EVANS: "The hospital is considered in-network on only two of the seven plans from Washington State's health exchange. It's now suing to be included on all of them." DR. SANDY MELZER: "We're seeing denials of care, disruptions in care. We're seeing a great deal of confusion, and at times, anger and frustration on the part of these families who bought insurance thinking that their children were going to be covered and they've in fact found it's a false promise." (CBS News, 2/8/14)
ObamaCare Has Left Hundreds Of Louisianans And North Dakotans Without Access To Life-Extending Care
An ObamaCare Rule To Crack Down On ObamaCare Fraud Jeopardized Coverage For Hundreds Of People With HIV/Aids. "Hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS in Louisiana trying to obtain coverage under President Barack Obama's health care reform are in danger of being thrown out of the insurance plan they selected in a dispute over federal subsidies and the interpretation of federal rules about preventing ObamaCare fraud." (Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen, "Aids Patients In ObamaCare Limbo As Insurers Reject Checks," Reuters, 2/8/14)
Louisiana's Largest Insurer Notified Certain Customers That Their Plans Are Being Discontinued Due To A Decision To Not Accept Third-Party Payments Needed To Cover Premiums. "The state's largest carrier is rejecting checks from a federal program designed to help these patients pay for AIDS drugs and insurance premiums, and has begun notifying customers that their enrolment in its ObamaCare plans will be discontinued. The carrier says it no longer will accept third-party payments, such as those under the 1990 Ryan White Act, which many people with HIV/AIDS use to pay their premiums." (Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen, "Aids Patients In ObamaCare Limbo As Insurers Reject Checks," Reuters, 2/8/14)
Blue Cross Blue Shield On North Dakota Has Also Rejected Third-Party Payments. "The only other carrier that is refusing to accept such payments is Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, according to a CMS official." (Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen, "Aids Patients In ObamaCare Limbo As Insurers Reject Checks," Reuters, 2/8/14)
Robert Greenwald Of Harvard Law School Said That "Insurers Told Health Care Advocates That The November Guidance Requires Them To Reject Payments From The Ryan White Program In Order To Combat Fraud." "The insurers told healthcare advocates that the November guidance requires them to reject payments from the Ryan White program in order to combat fraud, said Robert Greenwald, managing director of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, a position Louisiana Blue still maintains." (Sharon Begley and Julie Steenhuysen, "Aids Patients In ObamaCare Limbo As Insurers Reject Checks," Reuters, 2/8/14)
SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS IN STATES ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE WEARY OF OBAMACARE'S IMPACT
ObamaCare Has Stopped An Arkansas Small Business From Expanding
ObamaCare Forced An Arkansas Furniture Store To Halt Expansion Throughout The State. "'We have been a very blessed company,' said Joe Donaldson, co-owner and General Manager of Sam's Furniture in Springdale. 'We've actually had double-digit increases the last three years in a row.' Donaldson's parents started the furniture company back in 1992 with a handful of other employees. Sam's Furniture now has two locations in northwest Arkansas and employs close to 50 people. Less than two years ago, Donaldson was even ready to expand into central Arkansas with a third location, but his plans changed." (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
Owner Of Sam's Furniture: "We Would've Probably Already Had Been Open In Little Rock With A Third Store If This Whole Health Care Thing Wouldn't Have Taken Place. "But It Scared The Heck Out Of Us." "'We would've probably already been open in Little Rock with a third store if this whole health care thing wouldn't have taken place,' said Donaldson. 'But it scared the heck out of us.'" (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
"So, For Now, An Expansion Into Little Rock - Which Would Add Between 30-40 New Arkansas Jobs - Will Have To Wait." (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
As Sam's Furniture Has Increased Sales, They've Had To Eliminate Jobs To Stay Below ObamaCare's Employer Mandate Or Pay Thousands In Extra Costs. "'We were at about 56 employees when this whole health care thing started,' explains Donaldson, who estimates the HIT will cost his company tens of thousands of dollars in 2014. 'Not only have we grown our volume, but we've had to do it with six or seven less people because we had to get under that 50.'" (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
To Offset Losses From ObamaCare, Sam's Furniture Will Either Raise Prices Or Cut Benefits And Employees. "'I hate to say that businesses will just raise prices, but - in reality - that's what is going to happen,' said Donaldson. 'We're either going to have to raise prices to offset the loss of that margin of profit to basically get over that added expense, or they will cut benefits and cut employees.'" (J.R. Davis, "Small Businesses Face 'HIT' From New Federal Health Care Law," The City Wire [Fort Smith, AR], 2/18/14)
A Utah Small Business Owner Was Forced To Cut Employee Health Insurance After Finding Out His Health Care Costs Would Triple Under ObamaCare
Ogden Small Business Owner Found That The Cost Of His Small Group Health Plan Would Triple Under ObamaCare. "Ogden business owner, Chad Nay was shocked when he found out how much the cost of his group insurance plan was going up under the Affordable Care Act. 'As a small business owner, under 50 employees, the group plan under ObamaCare tripled as far as cost goes of what it would cost me to cover us as a group,' said Nay." (Glen Mills, "ACA 101: Utah Business Owners Are Trying To Find Their Way Through Insurance Changes," KTVX, 2/15/14)
Due To The Higher Costs Faced Under ObamaCare, The Owner Cancelled The Health Plan And Employees Must Now Seek Coverage On The ObamaCare Exchange. "The increased cost wasn't an option, so he decided the best way was for the entire crew at Superior Computers to individually go to the federal marketplace, healthcare.gov, leading to more challenges. 'Now I've got to find a way, how do I help my guys pay for their private insurance they had to get through healthcare.gov,' said Nay." (Glen Mills, "ACA 101: Utah Business Owners Are Trying To Find Their Way Through Insurance Changes," KTVX, 2/15/14)
According To The Owner, ObamaCare Is A "Huge Distraction." "'The thing that is frustrating to me is I'm a business owner, I've got customers I've got to take care of, I've got a business to run and it's a huge distraction having to get all this taken care of,' said Nay." (Glen Mills, "ACA 101: Utah Business Owners Are Trying To Find Their Way Through Insurance Changes," KTVX, 2/15/14)
The Mind Unleashed with James Dysart and 42 others
The
US Government has known since 1974 that Cannabis cures Cancer. In '72
Richard Nixon wanted a larger budget for his war on drugs. He thought
that if he proved Cannabis caused lung cancer like cigarettes do, he
would get the support he needed. He gave the Medical College of Virginia
2 years to do a study on the effects of THC on the body. In '74 the
study was completed. It turns out, THC when ingested in highly
concentrated forms (such as eating Cannabis oil) will attack any mutated
cells in your body while strengthening and rejuvenating the healthy
cells. They found the PERFECT cure for Cancer. It worked fast, it worked
well, it worked on many different forms of Cancer in ALL stages and it
had ZERO harmful side effects. (Unlike Chemo which deteriorates your
entire body and kills 1 in 5 patients. Not only that, but it dissolves
ALL forms of tumors and can even combat super-bugs like MRSA.) When
Richard Nixon saw the results of the study he was FURIOUS. He threw the
entire report in the trash and deemed the study classified. In 1976
President Gerald Ford put an end to all public cannabis research and
granted exclusive research rights to major pharmaceutical companies, who
set out — unsuccessfully — to develop synthetic forms of THC that would
deliver all the medical benefits without the “high.”
We only found out about the study a few years ago thanks to dedicated medical and law professionals who filed Freedom of Information Requests. The Govt lied for many reasons.. One of the main reasons is Pharmaceutical Companies. They spend billions every year lobbying to keep Cannabis illegal because they make TRILLIONS off Cancer drugs and research. They are already well aware that Cannabis cures Cancer. They have a great con going at the moment. Cancer patients and their loved ones will spend their entire life savings or even sell their houses and businesses in order to pay for Chemotherapy and other Cancer treatment drugs. A lot of the time they spend all that money and their loved one dies anyway. If the public found out that the Government has been lying for over 40 years, that MILLIONS of lives could have been saved and that the dying could grow the cure they need in their backyard... The Public would be going to be all crap...
PLEASE keep an open mind about this. I realize it's hard to believe but I PROMISE YOU, it's true. If you want to know more, you should Google 'Cannabis Cures Cancer'. You will see that there are thousands of published scientific studies, articles, books and documentaries on the subject. Id start with the film 'Run From The Cure'. Its one of my favorites
(Comment from the admin): I feel the need to be EXCEPTIONALLY CLEAR here because many people have attacked me for sharing this information. SMOKING CANNABIS DOES NOT CURE CANCER. EATING CANNABIS OIL DOES. There have been A LOT of skeptics about this. I highly suggest you actually RESEARCH THIS SUBJECT rather than demonize the people that have already actually researched it. Cannabis DOES CURE CANCER... This is not a rumor, this is not some internet hoax.. THIS IS A FACT. Every single person I know that's tried this cure, has successfully cured their cancer. Do you get what I'm saying? I KNOW PEOPLE WHO WOULD NOT BE HERE TODAY IF IT WEREN'T FOR THIS CURE. Plenty of people have posted proof online. Check before you doubt!!
Start here :
Cannabis Cures Cancer and the Government Knows it: http://themindunleashed.org/2013/07/cannabis-cures-cancer-and-government.html
34 Medical Studies Proving Cannabis Cures Cancer: http://themindunleashed.org/2013/12/34-medical-studies-proving-cannabis-cures-cancer.html
A Molecular Biologist Explains How THC Completely Kills Cancer: http://themindunleashed.org/2014/04/molecular-biologist-explains-thc-completely-kills-cancer.html
Recipe To Make Cannabis Oil For Chemo Alternative: http://themindunleashed.org/2014/05/recipe-make-cannabis-oil-chemo-alternative.html
Content and Programming Copyright 2014 By Patcnews The Patriot Conservative News Tea Party Network © LLC UCC 1-308.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE All copyrights reserved By Patcnews The Patriot Conservative News Tea Party Network Copyright 2014 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
We only found out about the study a few years ago thanks to dedicated medical and law professionals who filed Freedom of Information Requests. The Govt lied for many reasons.. One of the main reasons is Pharmaceutical Companies. They spend billions every year lobbying to keep Cannabis illegal because they make TRILLIONS off Cancer drugs and research. They are already well aware that Cannabis cures Cancer. They have a great con going at the moment. Cancer patients and their loved ones will spend their entire life savings or even sell their houses and businesses in order to pay for Chemotherapy and other Cancer treatment drugs. A lot of the time they spend all that money and their loved one dies anyway. If the public found out that the Government has been lying for over 40 years, that MILLIONS of lives could have been saved and that the dying could grow the cure they need in their backyard... The Public would be going to be all crap...
PLEASE keep an open mind about this. I realize it's hard to believe but I PROMISE YOU, it's true. If you want to know more, you should Google 'Cannabis Cures Cancer'. You will see that there are thousands of published scientific studies, articles, books and documentaries on the subject. Id start with the film 'Run From The Cure'. Its one of my favorites
(Comment from the admin): I feel the need to be EXCEPTIONALLY CLEAR here because many people have attacked me for sharing this information. SMOKING CANNABIS DOES NOT CURE CANCER. EATING CANNABIS OIL DOES. There have been A LOT of skeptics about this. I highly suggest you actually RESEARCH THIS SUBJECT rather than demonize the people that have already actually researched it. Cannabis DOES CURE CANCER... This is not a rumor, this is not some internet hoax.. THIS IS A FACT. Every single person I know that's tried this cure, has successfully cured their cancer. Do you get what I'm saying? I KNOW PEOPLE WHO WOULD NOT BE HERE TODAY IF IT WEREN'T FOR THIS CURE. Plenty of people have posted proof online. Check before you doubt!!
Start here :
Cannabis Cures Cancer and the Government Knows it: http://themindunleashed.org/2013/07/cannabis-cures-cancer-and-government.html
34 Medical Studies Proving Cannabis Cures Cancer: http://themindunleashed.org/2013/12/34-medical-studies-proving-cannabis-cures-cancer.html
A Molecular Biologist Explains How THC Completely Kills Cancer: http://themindunleashed.org/2014/04/molecular-biologist-explains-thc-completely-kills-cancer.html
Recipe To Make Cannabis Oil For Chemo Alternative: http://themindunleashed.org/2014/05/recipe-make-cannabis-oil-chemo-alternative.html
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