Tag Archives: medicare

Apr 15 2015

“Doc Fix” Heading to the President

 

 

Last night, the United States Senate passed the legislation to amend the “doc fix.”

This bipartisan, bicameral legislation is now heading to the White House and is expected to be signed by the President.

 

From: Poliquin, Press

Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 12:43 PM
To: Poliquin, Press
Subject: Preserving and Protecting Medicare

 

 

Preserving and Protecting Medicare

 

WASHINGTON – Today, the House of Representatives passed legislation, with strong bipartisan support, to help strengthen Medicare. This legislation will stop a 21% cut to reimbursement rates for doctors who see Medicare patients that would have occurred on March 31. These cuts would have negatively impacted Mainers who rely on these Medicare services. Congressman Bruce Poliquin released the following statement:

 

“For the last decade, Washington has kicked this can down the road and left Maine seniors who rely on Medicare services uncertain of whether or not they will receive care each year. That’s an irresponsible way to govern and it’s unfairly burdening our Second District seniors and medical practitioners.

 

“It’s imperative for Congress to protect and preserve Medicare and make it more accessible for our seniors. The Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act provides the first-step in preserving and protecting Medicare for our seniors. This bill will repeal the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and provide better access to health care for our seniors while helping our taxpayers save money.

 

“While this bill is not perfect, it’s an important pathway to allow seniors to continue to see their trusted doctors by making Medicare more accessible and strengthen Medicare for future generations.”
Mar 28 2015

Clumsy, Emily, Clumsy

In another clumsy move from Emily Ican’tfunctionintherealworldsoI’lljustrunforCongressagain Cain, the erstwhile Democrat immediately falsely accused the Republican balanced budget proposal, passed by the House, of hurting seniors. What a novel scare tactic?  We haven’t heard that before, have we? Yes, that’s sarcasm.  Ironically, the professional student turned professional politician has made no effort to retract her claim even in light of the bi-partisan bill to protect Medicare for seniors, supported by Bruce Poliquin, that has passed the house. Its still more than ironic that no Democrats have even made mention of the ongoing investigation into Operation Choke Point, which was used by the FDIC to target businesses.  Bruce Poliquin has been very vocal in his disapproval of these unconstitutional acts, but the perpetually campaigning Emily Cain seems to have developed an aversion for facts and protecting Maine businesses from government overreach.

There is no word yet from Cain’s running mate, Blaine Richardson, on his opinion on her opinion or if he has an opinion other than “I just hate everything Bruce Poliquin does”.

Aug 20 2012

Ploys, Tones and Sentiments

 

Liberals have added a new hurdle to the implementation and acceptance of truth.  One must use the right tone when expressing facts or those facts will be discarded as false.  The arrogance of this sentiment is stunning to be kind.   To exercise some sort of parental discretion over Maine residents by threatening to disallow an individual’s defined arguments in the platform of civil debate simply because their tone was not correct, is appalling at best.  This is the latest diversionary tactic by the media to cover for their President.

The Kennebec Journal recently posted an article “fact checking” Jason Savage, which quickly spiraled into a hit piece rather than the truth seeking they espoused.  The theme of the article centered on the issue of the billions of tax cuts that MediCare will endure as a result of ObamaCare, which is now law.  While they admitted the numbers and facts are true, they proposed that argument, presented by the Director of Maine People Before Politics, should be disregarded as false, or “mostly false”, on the basis of the poor tone that Mr. Savage used.  Mostly false, is this a bad sequel to The Princess Bride?

Anyway, the Journal went on to cite the AARP.  Yes, the same AARP that named a strong supporter of Hugo Chavez as “Person of the Year”.  They quoted a doctor, who rattled off the infamous “as long as there are no changes” line, ignoring that the costs of ObamaCare have been arcing upwards since its implementation.  But my favorite line of “defense” is this little jewel of wisdom by the author, “ Still nothing is really ‘robbed’, the way almost anyone uses the word, and that money is coming largely from reduced payment to hospitals, other health providers and insurers.”  So it’s really not robbery to not pay for services rendered as long as you “mostly pay”, or how about “hardly pay”, or, if ask Maine’s hospitals, “never pay”?  Really?  Miracle Max would be so proud.  Fact: Partial payment is not full payment.  Oh, did I just use the wrong tone?

In the heated East-West Highway debate, Senator Doug Thomas and the Governor have wisely called for a slowdown to the process to allow for all the facts to be presented amidst all the din and noise.  Thomas’ opponent has mocked this call for caution as a political ploy.  He neglects to acknowledge that he helped sponsor Doug Thomas’ bill, which was a call for a fact-finding investigation of the possibility of the Highway. So Mr. Hebert Clark of Millinocket (D) voted for the bill before he voted against it despite the fact that the bill he voted for but is now against has yet to reveal the information that he voted for and is now against.  But at least his tone was right.

But herein lies the biggest quandary.  How can one strike the right tone when those who stand in judgment of the tenor are tone-deaf to anything but their own sound?