Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R) of Louisiana must not have gotten the message from House Republicans that no one in the GOP caucus – repeat no one – would vote with Democrats on a sweeping overhaul of the US healthcare system.

The first Vietnamese-American elected to the US Congress, Cao last year defeated incumbent Rep. William Jefferson, after the eight-term Democrat was indicted for bribery

In a vote late Saturday night, Representative Cao – a vulnerable freshman in a Democratic district still devastated by hurricane Katrina – broke ranks, casting the lone Republican vote for the legislation.

“I have always said that I would put aside partisan wrangling to do the business of the people. My vote tonight was based on my priority of doing what is best for my constituents,” he said in a statement after the vote.

In Cao’s district, 3 out of 4 voters chose Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections. In 2004, President Bush won only 24 percent of the vote here.

For the rest of this story:

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/11/08/joseph-cao-the-lone-republican-who-voted-for-healthcare-bill/

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Democratic-controlled House has narrowly passed landmark health care reform legislation, handing President Barack Obama a hard won victory on his signature domestic priority.

Republicans were nearly unanimous in opposing the plan that would expand coverage to tens of millions of Americans who lack it and place tough new restrictions on the insurance industry.

The 220-215 vote late Saturday cleared the way for the Senate to begin a long-delayed debate on the issue that has come to overshadow all others in Congress.

A triumphant Speaker Nancy Pelosi compared the legislation to the passage of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare 30 years later.

Obama, who went to Capitol Hill earlier on Saturday to lobby wavering Democrats, said in a statement after the vote, “I look forward to signing it into law by the end of the year.”

“It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it,” said Rep. John Dingell, the 83-year-old Michigan lawmaker who has introduced national health insurance in every Congress since succeeding his father in 1955.

But minority Republicans cataloged their objections across hours of debate on the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation.

For the rest of this story:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091108/D9BREBKG1.html

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – After a landmark win in the U.S. House of Representatives, President Barack Obama’s push for healthcare reform faces a difficult path in the Senate amid divisions in his own Democratic Party on how to proceed.

On a 220-215 vote, including the support of one Republican and opposition from 39 Democrats, the House backed a bill late on Saturday that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The battle now shifts to the Senate, where work on Obama’s top domestic priority has been stalled for weeks as Democratic leader Harry Reid searches for an approach that can win the 60 votes he needs to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.

“Take this baton and bring this effort to the finish line,” Obama urged senators on Sunday in an appearance at the White House, saying passage of healthcare reform would represent “their finest moment in public service.”

Democrats have no margin for error — they control exactly 60 seats in the 100-member Senate. Some moderate Democrats have rebelled at Reid’s plan to include a new government-run insurance program, known as the “public option,” in the bill.

Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, renewed his promise on Sunday to help Republicans block a final vote if the bill contains the government-run insurance option backed by Senate liberals

For the rest of this story:

http://www.reuters.com/article/sarahPalin/idUSN0823070020091108

By MARK MIX  – Wall Street Journal

In the heated debates on health-care reform, not enough attention is being paid to the huge financial windfalls ObamaCare will dole out to unions—or to the provisions in the various bills in Congress that will help bring about the forced unionization of the health-care industry.

Tucked away in thousands of pages of complex new rules, regulations and mandates are special privileges and giveaways that could have devastating consequences for the health-care sector and the American economy at large.

The Senate version opens the door to implement forced unionization schemes pursued by former Govs. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois in 2005 and Gray Davis of California in 1999. Both men repaid tremendous political debts to Andy Stern and his Service Employees International Union (SEIU) by reclassifying state-reimbursed in-home health-care (and child-care) contractors as state employees—and forcing them to pay union dues.

Following this playbook, the Senate bill creates a “personal care attendants workforce advisory panel” that will likely impose union affiliation to qualify for a newly created “community living assistance services and support (class)” reimbursement plan.

The current House version of ObamaCare (H.R. 3200) goes much further. Section 225(A) grants Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius tremendous discretionary authority to regulate health-care workers “under the public health insurance option.” Monopoly bargaining and compulsory union dues may quickly become a required standard resulting in potentially hundreds of thousands of doctors and nurses across the country being forced into unions.

Ms. Sebelius will be taking her marching orders from the numerous union officials who are guaranteed seats on the various federal panels (such as the personal care panel mentioned above) charged with recommending health-care policies. Big Labor will play a central role in directing federal health-care policy affecting hundreds of thousands of doctors, surgeons and nurses.

For the rest of the article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574400571702189240.html

WASHINGTON (AP) – House liberals pleaded with President Barack Obama on Friday to push for creation of a government-run health care program as the Senate’s chief negotiator said he won’t wait much longer for Republicans to compromise amid dwindling chances for a bipartisan bill.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., held a nearly two-hour teleconference with his small group of negotiators, who call themselves the “Bipartisan Six.” Afterward, Baucus was careful to leave the door open to a long-sought deal, but he clearly signaled the time has come for him to move ahead.

“I am committed to getting health care reform done—done soon and done right,” Baucus said in a statement. He is considering making a formal proposal to the group of negotiators.

Obama, meanwhile, tried to placate disgruntled House liberals who fear he is too eager to compromise with Republicans and conservative Democrats to get a bill. In a phone call from the Camp David, Md., presidential retreat, Obama spoke to leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and other liberal-leaning House groups.

Caucus leader Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., said the lawmakers expressed their commitment to creation of a government-run plan to compete with private health insurers. On Thursday, they sent Obama a letter saying they could not support a health bill that lacked such a public option.

Woolsey said Obama listened, asked questions and said the dialogue should continue. She said a follow-up meeting will occur next week at the White House. Another participant said the president was noncommittal about the government-run plan.

Senate Finance is the only one of five congressional committees with jurisdiction over health care that has yet to produce a bill. Baucus had held back from convening a bill-drafting session, hoping that his group of three Democrats and three Republicans would reach a compromise behind closed doors that could win broad support. But he faces a Sept. 15 deadline from the Democratic leadership—and the prospect of losing control of the legislation if he doesn’t act.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9AGPV8G1&show_article=1

Face Fwd Comments:

Well Duh!

Here is the problem.  Obama is loosing his grip.  He sees his popularity falling fast (something that he has never experienced before) and has no clue on how to act.  His party, which had such high hopes that they would be able to keep the spending spree going is nnow throwing a fit like a spoiled kid at at Lord and Taylors.  “But mommy, I don’t care if daddy has to borrow the money I want more”.

Obama, can’t decide if he needs to compromise and what it would cost him with his own faithful if he does.  He is is afraid if he does not compromise and tries to carry the bill on his sagging shoulders and  it fails, and his leadership will further be damaged.  Sorry Mr. President, welcome to an America you thought you had destroyed.  We are a long way from being gone and in fact, I’d say that true America, the people that work and produce are about to take the country back.  Stay tuned, the fight isn’t over but I’d say we have landed some strong body shots.

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today. 

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today. The Patients Association said the dossier proves that while the scale of the scandal at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust – where up to 1,200 people died through failings in urgent care – was a one off, there are repeated examples they have uncovered of the same appalling standards throughout the NHS.

While the criticisms cover all aspects of hospital care, the treatment and attitude of nurses stands out as a repeated theme across almost all of the cases. They have called on Government and the Care Quality Commission to conduct an urgent review of standards of basic hospital care and to enforce stricter supervision and regulation.

Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association and a former nurse, said:“For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses.

“I am sickened by what has happened to some part of my profession of which I was so proud.  “These bad, cruel nurses may be – probably are – a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two percent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the Register.”

The charity has published a selection of personal accounts from hundreds of relatives of patients, most of whom died, following their care in NHS hospitals.  They cite patient surveys which show the vast majority of patients highly rate their NHS care – but, with some ten million treated a year, even a small percentage means hundreds of thousands have suffered.

Ms Rayner said it was by “sad coincidence” that she trained as a nurse with one of the patients who had “suffered so much”.  She went on: “I know that she, like me, was horrified by the appalling care she had before she died.

“We both came from a generation of nurses who were trained at the bedside and in whom the core values of nursing were deeply inculcated.”

Katherine Murphy, Director of the Patients Association, said “Whilst Mid Staffordshire may have been an anomaly in terms of scale the PA knew the kinds of appalling treatment given there could be found across the NHS. This report removes any doubt and makes this clear to all. Two of the accounts come from Stafford, and they sadly fail to stand out from the others.

“These accounts tell the story of the two percent of patients that consistently rate their care as poor (in NHS patient surveys).  “If this was extrapolated to the whole of the NHS from 2002 to 2008 it would equate to over one million patients. Very often these are the most vulnerable elderly and terminally ill patients. It’s a sad indictment of the care they receive.” The Patients Association said one hospital had threatened it with legal action if it chose to publish the material.

• Pamela Goddard, a piano teacher from Bletchingley, in Surrey, was 82 and suffering with cancer but was left in her own excrement and her condition deteriorated due to her bed sores.
• Florence Weston, from Sedgley in the West Midlands, died aged 85 and had to remain without food or water for several days as her hip operation was repeated cancelled.

The charity released the dossier to highlight the poor care which a minority of patients in the NHS are subjected to.Ms Murphy said the numbers rating care as poor came despite investment in the NHS doubling and the number of frontline nurses increasing by more than a quarter since 1996.

Face Fwd Comments:

Below is an individuals response to the report.  By the way a fairly typical response.  There is some good in the report but the system overall is filled with rude, uncaring, individuals that seemingly cannot be fired.  Imagine what your health care will look like once the health care workers are organized by one of the unions in the ACORN umbrella.  Imagine receiving care from some one that cannot be fired regardless of their lack of care giving skills

My husband spent almost six weeks at the beginning of the year in London’s Homerton Hospital. The clinical care he received, when he finally received it, was excellent. I remain to this day astonished and upset by the nursing ‘care’ however. The ward was quite dirty and, with only a couple of notable exceptions,the staff was scruffy, indifferent, aggressive and rude. An elderly man in my husband’s ward had had a stroke and had difficulty in communicating. He had no visitors to keep an eye on his care. Seeing the way he was routinely shouted at, ignored, humiliated and made the object of jokes and derision by the ‘nurses’is something I’ll never forget. It made me terrified to be old and alone in a British hospital. The complete absence of any kind of compassion, let alone basic professionalism, was horrifying.