Re: Big Brother Coming Soon

[Guest guest]

After reviewing a link from below, why not continue to trust this new

administration as an administration that would not allow lobbies to control how

government in America should function? Everything President Obama has stated

about health care, to me, have made sense and valid. I don't feel President

Obama would allow drug lobbies to influence the bill enough for it to be amended

for the profit goodness of a lobby.

I think comparing the FDA drugs that work and those that do not will benefit the

American people greatly and should help stabilize the cost of biomedical drugs.

There are too many drugs that have complex names in different classes that

simply do not work.

The issue is who will oversight a comparison impartially, and how much influence

will private insurance companies have.  Drugs should be cost effective for all

in this country.

Personally, I just received a letter in the mail from my insurance company

stating, they do not cover Androgel any longer in their formulary. Am I

complaining on here? NO!

I have the option to inform my Endo doc and have him write a statement to them,

why I need this medication over the other medications for hypogandism. I

understand I can take shots which are cheaper, but now I am in school with a

busy schedule and I did try the shots a couple of years ago and couldn't get the

doses right, the gel is ideal for me.

My doctor hopefully will work with me on this and have my insurance cover this.

This doesn't work on every insurance, so do what you can on yours. If you can

afford it and its 110% safe and legal, order it online or buy half of the cost.

But fight rather than complain before you gave fighting a chance.

>I appreciated this post & the potential impact this could have on TRT.

>

>~Xian

>

>

>>

>> Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey

>>

>>

>> Commentary by Betsy McCaughey

>>

>> Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether

>> President Barack Obama's stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax

>> breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

>>

>> Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health

>> provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the

>> handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the

>> Health and Human Services Department.

>>

>> Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because

>> they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH,

>> pdf version).

>>

>> The bill's health rules will affect " every individual in the United

>> States " (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked

>> electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records

>> at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial.

>> It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

>>

>> But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National

>> Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments

>> to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems

>> appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and

>> " guide " your doctor's decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the

>> stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in

>> his 2008 book, " Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care

>> Crisis. " According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and

>> " learn to operate less like solo practitioners. "

>>

>> Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important,

>> but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

>>

>> New Penalties

>>

>> Hospitals and doctors that are not " meaningful users " of the new

>> system will face penalties. " Meaningful user " isn't defined in the

>> bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to

>> impose " more stringent measures of meaningful use over time " (511,

>> 518, 540-541)

>>

>> What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the

>> electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or

>> you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In

>> his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make

>> the " tough " decisions elected politicians won't make.

>>

>> The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating

>> Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal,

>> Daschle's book explained, is to slow the development and use of new

>> medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He

>> praises Europeans for being more willing to accept " hopeless

>> diagnoses " and " forgo experimental treatments, " and he chastises

>> Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

>>

>> Elderly Hardest Hit

>>

>> Daschle says health-care reform " will not be pain free. " Seniors

>> should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead

>> of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

>>

>> Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The

>> stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness

>> standard set by the Federal Council (464).

>>

>> The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in

>> Daschle's book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a

>> formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years

>> the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are

>> more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the

>> elderly, such as osteoporosis.

>>

>> In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with

>> macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye

>> before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took

>> almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its

>> decision.

>>

>> Hidden Provisions

>>

>> If the Obama administration' s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate

>> in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing.

>> Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years

>> and sacrifice later.

>>

>> The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical

>> and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much

>> hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this

>> bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined

>> (90-92, 174-177, 181).

>>

>> Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle

>> supported the Clinton administration' s health-care overhaul in 1994,

>> and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle

>> wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount

>> an opposition. " If that means attaching a health-care plan to the

>> federal budget, so be it, " he said. " The issue is too important to be

>> stalled by Senate protocol. "

>>

>> More Scrutiny Needed

>>

>> On Friday, President Obama called it " inexcusable and irresponsible "

>> for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill

>> needs more scrutiny.

>>

>> The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It

>> produces almost 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Yet

>> the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost

>> problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and

>> innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn.

>> This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.

>>

>> (Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an

>> adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed

>> are her own.)

>>

>> To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at

>> Betsymross@. ..

>> Last Updated: February 9, 2009 00:01 EST

>>

>

[Guest guest]

U U wrote:

> After reviewing a link from below, why not continue to trust this new

administration as an administration that would not allow lobbies to control how

government in America should function? Everything President Obama has stated

about health care, to me, have made sense and valid. I don't feel President

Obama would allow drug lobbies to influence the bill enough for it to be amended

for the profit goodness of a lobby.

>

> I think comparing the FDA drugs that work and those that do not will benefit

the American people greatly and should help stabilize the cost of biomedical

drugs. There are too many drugs that have complex names in different classes

that simply do not work.

>

> The issue is who will oversight a comparison impartially, and how much

influence will private insurance companies have. Drugs should be cost effective

for all in this country.

>

> Personally, I just received a letter in the mail from my insurance company

stating, they do not cover Androgel any longer in their formulary. Am I

complaining on here? NO!

>

> I have the option to inform my Endo doc and have him write a statement to

them, why I need this medication over the other medications for hypogandism. I

understand I can take shots which are cheaper, but now I am in school with a

busy schedule and I did try the shots a couple of years ago and couldn't get the

doses right, the gel is ideal for me.

>

> My doctor hopefully will work with me on this and have my insurance cover

this.

>

> This doesn't work on every insurance, so do what you can on yours. If you can

afford it and its 110% safe and legal, order it online or buy half of the cost.

But fight rather than complain before you gave fighting a chance.

Here's the kind of s**t you can look forward to under government control

of medical information. I'm never ever ever, not ever, a fan of

government control in any form. My ideal if government that it's

purpose is to protect natural rights, not take them away or create

artificial ones. The " right " to pursue medical care, treatments, and

practices however one desires should not be abridged or taken by " force " :

--

Vitamin D Council Newsletter

Friday the 13th, February, 2009.

Emergency!

On Friday, February 6, 2009, Medicare announced its intention to stop

paying for vitamin D blood tests in many Medicare districts. If this

rule passes, the change will quickly extend to all Medicare districts.

Private insurers will then follow suit, denying payment for vitamin D

blood tests, even for the diagnoses of vitamin D deficiency. Medicare

proposes to pay for vitamin D blood tests for only few limited

indications, such as rickets, osteomalacia and chronic renal failure.

http://www.ngsmedicare.com/NGSMedicare/lcd/dl29510_c_lcd.htm

This rule change flies in the face of an enormous amount of

research, some of it published in the last few months. For example,

several weeks ago, the British Journal of Cancer reported that in men

with prostate cancer, those with highest vitamin D blood levels were 7

(seven) times more likely to survive than were men with the lowest

levels (RR 0.16). If any media stories appeared about this amazing

discovery, I am unable to locate them.

Association between serum 25(OH)D and death from prostate cancer

<http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v100/n3/abs/6604865a.html>

Apparently, Medicare's reasoning is not understood in England. A week

ago, researchers at Oxford discovered the long-sort genetic link vitamin

D has with multiple sclerosis. According to Medicare's new rules, if

you have MS, or don't want your unborn baby to develop it, or have a

family history of MS, or just don't want to get MS, you will have to pay

for the blood test to decide how much vitamin D you should take to

optimize your 25-hydroxy-vitamin D level.

MS link to vitamin D deficiency hailed by politicians as giant leap

forward

<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article5672308.ece>

If you are pregnant, and want to reduce your risk of caesarian section

by four-fold, you will have to anti up.

Low vitamin D may increase chance of a caesarean delivery

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/2008/dec/23/low-vitamin-d\

-may-increase-chance-of-a-caesarean-delivery>

Patients with diagnosed colon cancer are 48% less likely to die if their

vitamin D levels are high. If you have this dreaded cancer, how do you

know if your levels are high?

Vitamin D May Promote Colon Cancer Survival

<http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/06/19/vitamin-d-may-pro\

mote-colon-cancer-survival.htm?loomia_ow=t0:a41:g12:r2:c0.435747:b21357641>

If you fear getting demented, pay up. Recent research indicates people

with impaired cognition are twice as likely to have vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D is mental health aid

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7845703.stm>

If you have Parkinson's disease, or don't want to get it, get our your

wallet.

Study finds link between low vitamin D and Parkinson's disease

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/2008/oct/16/study-finds-l\

ink-between-low-vitamin-d-and-parkinsons-disease>

Even the American Academy of Pediatrics recently stated,

/ " Given the growing evidence that adequate maternal vitamin D status is

essential during pregnancy, not only for maternal well-being but also

for fetal development, health care professionals who provide obstetric

care should consider assessing maternal vitamin D status by measuring

the 25-hydroxy-vitamin D concentrations of pregnant women. " /

Prevention of rickets and vitamin D deficiency in infants, children, and

adolescents.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18977996?ordinalpos=1 & itool=EntrezSystem2.PE\

ntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum>

That is, although the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests vitamin D

blood levels be measured in all pregnant women. Expectant mothers,

concerned about their baby's " fetal development, " will soon have to

pay for the only test that will do what the American Academy of

Pediatrics now advises, tell them if they and their fetus are vitamin D

deficient.

/I could go on and on. Now is the time the Vitamin D Council needs your

help. I want you to do two things:

1) Email the person taking comments, Medicare's Ms. Oliveri, at

//.Oliveri@.../ <mailto:.Oliveri@...>/, and tell

her your feelings about this proposed rule change. Include your

reason why this test is crucial for the health of Americans.

2) Send an email to your Congressperson and ask them to

investigate Medicare's " Draft LCD for Vitamin D Assay Testing

(DL29510). " Tell your representative not to let this happen. Simply

fill in your state and zip code, go to your Congressperson's website,

and click on " contact. " /

Write Your Representative

<https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml>

Of course, this rule change will help the finances of the Vitamin D

Council, as it will increase sales of ZRT's in-home Vitamin D test

<http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/deficiency/am-i-vitamin-d-deficient.shtml\

>,

which generates ten bucks per test to us. However, this rule

change will end up killing Americans. We cannot let it happen.

I can't stress enough how important this is for the public health of the

United States. On February 21st, in just nine days, Medicare will not

allow any further input by citizens, so email both

/.Oliveri@.../ <mailto:.Oliveri@...> and your

Congressperson <https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml> right

now.

/ Cannell, MD

The Vitamin D Council

9100 San Gregorio Road

Atascadero, CA 93422

/

--

Steve - dudescholar4@...

Take World's Smallest Political Quiz at

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

" If a thousand old beliefs were ruined on our march

to truth we must still march on. " --Stopford

[Guest guest]

> If we move to " socialized medicine " what will happen to our private

> practice Dr's?? Will they be allowed to continue to practice

> medicine as they do today, or will they fall under scrutiny by the >

Federal Government and be limited on how they diagnose our needs?

1) socialism has little to do with medicine... it's the control of the

means of productivity by the workers... the union movement. if doctors

chose to unionize under the new plans then MAYBE you could call it

" socialism " ...

2) I know in France (where you can still get a housecall on the

national health plan) there are still " private " doctors... they CHOOSE

to not take part in the government medical system and their patients

(usually foreign nationals etc) pay them directly. Same in the UK.

They still have to have the appropriate licenses and still face the

same " scrutiny " in how they practice... but they charge their patients

whatever they want directly since they choose NOT to work for the

government.

but there aren't many... my cousin is an MD in Paris and he chooses to

work for the national health service... specifically SOS Medicin which

is like a mobile on call doctor's service... if you're sick in your

hotel at night you can ask the front desk to call and you'll get a

housecall to the hotel... " free "

of course if it's just traveler's diarrhea you can still get mild

opiates like paragoric OTC... or if you've just got a sore back from

hauling luggage across the airport you can get acetaminophen with up

to 20mg of codeine per tab otc too.

the movie " Sicko " has a huge section on medical care in France and

it's accurate.

[Guest guest]

> why not continue to trust this new administration as an

> administration that would not allow lobbies to control how

> government in America should function? Everything President Obama

> has stated

you mean like how he stated he wouldn't be appointing former lobbyists

to departments they had been lobbying?

then did just that?

all that proved was that he'd say one thing then immediately do another.

[Guest guest]

IMO this is neoconservative blather.

Gracia

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey

Commentary by Betsy McCaughey

The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It

produces almost 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Yet

the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost

problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and

innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn.

This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.

(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an

adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed

are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at

Betsymross@...

Last Updated: February 9, 2009 00:01 EST

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06:51:00

[Guest guest]

On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:06:50 -0700, you wrote:

>Vitamin D Council Newsletter

>

>Friday the 13th, February, 2009.

>

>Emergency!

>

>On Friday, February 6, 2009, Medicare announced its intention to stop

>paying for vitamin D blood tests in many Medicare districts. If this

>rule passes, the change will quickly extend to all Medicare districts.

>Private insurers will then follow suit, denying payment for vitamin D

>blood tests, even for the diagnoses of vitamin D deficiency. Medicare

>proposes to pay for vitamin D blood tests for only few limited

>indications, such as rickets, osteomalacia and chronic renal failure.

More nonsense. You won't find this written anywhere reputable. (The

Vitamin D. Council is a one man operation - a psychiatrist who

specializes in making money as an alarmist on the AM radio circuit.)

What's in dispute is insurers paying for expensive alternative

therapies without a proven track record.

http://renalweb.groupee.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5711014023/m/2191074023

and the appropriate tests:

http://www.aruplab.com/AboutARUP/PressRoom/Articles_LandingPages/vitaminD_orderg\

uidelines.jsp

This is also interesting on the issue:

http://www.thepatientreport.com/2009/01/08/nations-biggest-medical-lab-says-its-\

vitamin-d-test-was-flawed-in-last-two-yearsoffers-repeat-at-no-cost/

Quest was giving erroneous test results and billing as much as $200

for a $40 test.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/business/08labtest.html