Medicaid Expansion in Ohio: Are Hospitals and Insurance Companies Too Big (and Powerful) to Fail?

Marianne, Ohio Tea Party Patriot co-coordinator, published her op-ed on Ohio Medicaid expansion in The Blaze yesterday:

ARE HOSPITALS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES TOO BIG (AND POWERFUL) TO FAIL?

What would cause an otherwise fiscally conservative budget hawk to push for Medicaid expansion - an unsustainable, broken system that provides substandard, if any, care to those in need - and turn his back on the very constituents that supported him?

Money.

When Governor Kasich made his announcement to support Medicaid expansion in Ohio, it made no sense to anyone who knows the Governor’s fiscal policies or congressional history. The only plausible explanation was that it’s campaign season.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was intentionally constructed to turn health care providers into lobbyists for Medicaid expansion, by phasing out federal funding that currently offsets some of the charity work hospitals are mandated to provide.

The Ohio Hospital Assoc. (OHA) claims that Medicaid must be expanded to care for the poor, but only 16 out of the 88 hospitals in its network would have reported a loss had they not received charity offsets, and only 30 hospitals reported charity offsets exceeding 1% of their total revenue (Ohio Hospitals Would Net Millions Without Charity Care Funding). But the OHA insists that its members need more taxpayer funding. Really?

Former OHA President and CEO James Castle was paid over $600,000 by the hospital lobbying group in 2011. The current chair of the OHA Board James Pancoast (who is also CEO of Premier Health Partners) was paid over $800,000 in 2011. The Cleveland Clinic – the model of health care according to President Obama – paid the most recent past chair of the OHA, Fred DeGrandis, almost $900,000. And the list goes on (Ohio Hospital Association Millionaires Want More of Your Money)

What about insurance companies? Rep. Barbara Sears, who recently introduced House Bill 176 to expand Medicaid in Ohio, manages the employee benefits division at Roemer Insurance, and over 27% of the donations made to her campaign account came from the health care industry alone. Rep. Sears’ top donor, Ginni Ragan, has been identified as a supporter of the ACA Medicaid expansion. Other top donors were Friends of Ohio Hospitals, the OHA, Aetna, Humana, Merck and Novartis, just to name a few (source: Ohio Secretary of State).

Who was one of the top contributors to Governor Kasich’s campaign? Barbara Mixon, wife of Mal Mixon who owns Invacare Corporation (manufacturer and distributor of home and long-term care medical products) and is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation (Followthemoney.org).

It is these same organizations that have threatened to pull their campaign funding from anyone who opposes Medicaid expansion.

What these organizations, the Governor and other Medicaid expansion proponents seem to have forgotten is that regardless of the money in their campaign coffers, without the grassroots conservative vote, they cannot win. Governor Romney is a perfect example of what happens when the grassroots conservatives are left uninspired and feeling betrayed.   

Ohio Senate passes budget : Update on Ohio Medicaid Expansion

From Marianne / Ohio Tea Party Patriots: 

Ohio Budget Passed

Last week the Ohio Senate passed a budget.  The good news is it did not include Medicaid expansion.  The bad news is, the fight is far from over.

The more conservative members of the House continue to fight against Medicaid expansion, but are up against other members, and our Governor, who will personally and politically benefit from the expansion, as well as the gargantuan American Hospital Association and the Ohio Hospital Association which stand to gain $13 billion over the next seven years with this expansion.

Who else gains from the expansion?  It's not the taxpayer, and most likely not those in need.  Click Here to Read Marianne's recent Op-Ed regarding who's behind the push for Medicaid expansion.

If Medicaid expansion is not passed, the AHA and the OHA will most likely use their power and money to get it on the ballot this fall. 

They must be exposed for the self-serving bullies that they are.

# # #

Amnesty vote scheduled for Tuesday: Kill. The. Bill.

NumbersUSA reports that

The Senate will vote on the Schumer-Rubio-Obama Amnesty bill on Tuesday, June 11th at 2:15 p.m. 

The bill can be killed with this first vote if it doesn't get 60 YES votes.There has been plenty of debate about this bill or the plans for this bill since January. After the Judiciary Committee made it clear that this bill will provide amnesty/work permits to 11 million illegal aliens before any new enforcement -- and will issue 33 million work permits to foreign citizens over the first ten years -- there is no need for more debate to know it is time to just kill the bill.

Details on the bill in a PDF file here. 

And from Ohio Tea Party Patriots:

Ohioans Are Against the 

Senate's Amnesty Bill

Brown and Portman Must Respect the Will of the People

(Washington, D.C.  June 7, 2013)  A statewide poll of likely Ohio voters finds strong opposition to a bill before the U.S. Senate that would grant amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens and dramatically increase overall immigration to the United States. According to the poll, 56 percent of Ohio voters oppose S.744, the Gang of Eight immigration bill - including 38 percent who said they are "strongly opposed."  Click Here to See the Poll.

Rep. Labrador has left the Amnesty Gang of Eight due to his concern over the taxpayers having to foot the health care bill of illegal immigrants.  Read More

Call Senators Portman and Brown and tell them they were elected to respect and represent the will of the people.

Rob Portman      Contact Information                            

Sherrod Brown   Contact Information

Schedule a few minutes on Monday to call both Senators. You might also wish to call Sen. Marco Rubio’s office at 202-224-3041 or e-mail him here. What a disappointment he is!

UPDATE 6/6/13: Add Senator Kelly Ayotte to your list. Here's her op-ed on why she will vote yes. Her phone numbers are at the bottom of the op-ed page. 

There was some good news yesterday (Thurs.), reported at National Review online:

The House of Representatives voted 224–201 Thursday morning to deny funding for the Obama administration’s controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. The policy, which was implemented via executive order in June 2012, effectively assumes the enactment of the DREAM Act, legislation that has failed to pass Congress on multiple occasions, and has raised concerns about executive overreach.

It’s a start. 

Are your papers in order?

It's not just the IRS. Now The Capitol Police are dragging their feet in the process to approve a routine permit for a Tea Party Patriots event scheduled for later this month. (It is distressing to read this report; The Capitol Police did a fantastic job at the first Taxpayer March on DC in Sept. 2009). Via Gateway Pundit here

The Tea Party Patriots were planning a rally in Washington DC on Wednesday June 19th [2013]. 

But they ran into a wall. 

The Capitol Police want to see their websites first.

Kevin Mooneyhan from the Tea Party Patriots described this latest Tea Party challenge:

Below is the timeline of events surrounding our June 19th rally at the Capitol.  

We haven’t done anything to publicize this event yet because we wanted to make sure we had the permit in hand. You know, follow the rules, do the right thing, etc.

Event Date: June 19, 2013 

Permit Submitted: 5/22/2013 via fax

Scroll through the timeline over at Gateway Pundit. 

Outraged?  Take heart. If you missed testimony in DC today by patriots, here is a good report at PJ Media.

Hey Patriots! Captain America comes to Cleveland

In the midst of major concerns such as Medicaid expansion in Ohio, Common Core curricula, IRS and DOJ scandals, and on and on – well, here is a brief diversion.

Captain America comes to Cleveland

Captain America “is an American fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. . . . Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif. . . . [He is] an intentionally patriotic creation who was often depicted fighting the Axis powers of World War II.”

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier"  is being filmed in Cleveland this summer. From The Plain Dealer on May 31:

And so, the traffic nightmare for West Siders begins today as filming for "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" continues in and around downtown. The West Shoreway was closed around 4:30 a.m. [yesterday] for filming.

The filming on the bridge this afternoon involved over a hundred vehicles, including service and technical vehicles. The sequence will probably end up as a few seconds in a high-speed freeway chase with one guy beating up another guy on the hood of a car. All the cars in the scene were driven out into position across the bridge, ready to move in both directions. Lots of waiting. Then the stunt car, pulled by a truck with crew and camera, moved into place. When the sequence began, vehicles started crawling in synch at maybe 15-20 MPH. We watched two takes. Here’s a video of the not-yet-high speed action sequence, shot from a balcony with a bird’s eye view. Watch for the action behind the camera truck with the white screen, about halfway through. (There is an embiggen button bottom right on the video frame.) 

If it looks a bit grainy, try the one posted on YouTube here. 

Now back to reality!

Memorial Day: more than a parade or a backyard barbecue

From the Memorial Day website here:

Memorial Day used to be a solemn day of mourning, a sacred day of remembrance to honor those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms. Businesses closed for the day. Towns held parades honoring the fallen, the parade routes often times ending at a local cemetery, where Memorial Day speeches were given and prayers offered up. People took the time that day to clean and decorate with flowers and flags the graves of those the fell in service to their country. 

We need to remember with sincere respect those who paid the price for our freedoms; we need to keep in sacred remembrance those who died serving their country. We need to never let them be forgotten. However, over the years the original meaning and spirit of Memorial Day has faded from the public consciousness. “Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.” -- General Logan - May 5, 1868 

On Memorial Day we need to stop and pay with sincere conviction our respects for those who died protecting and preserving the freedoms we enjoy, for we owe those honored dead more than we can ever repay.

“If it is considered a holiday, why is it so? I consider it to be a national day of mourning. This is how we observe this day in our home. Because of what that day represents the rest of the days of the year are our holidays.” -- F L Lloyd West Chester, Pa USA - February 26, 2000

And from the home page:

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance“ resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”

The Moment of Remembrance is a step in the right direction to returning the meaning back to the day. What is needed is a full return to the original day of observance. Set aside one day out of the year for the nation to get together to remember, reflect and honor those who have given their all in service to their country.

But what may be needed to return the solemn, and even sacred, spirit back to Memorial Day is for a return to its traditional day of observance. Many feel that when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it made it all the easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: “Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.”

On January 19, 1999 Senator Inouye introduced bill S 189 to the Senate which proposes to restore the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day back to May 30th instead of “the last Monday in May”. On April 19, 1999 Representative Gibbons introduced the bill to the House (H.R. 1474). The bills were referred the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Government Reform.

To date, there has been no further developments on the bill. Please write your Representative and your Senators, urging them to support these bills. You can also contact Mr. Inouye to let him know of your support.

Remember and honor.

Lots of IRS Protests across the country - and in Cleveland

Today, Tea Party Patriots across the country protested the egregious abuse of power by the IRS, in particular its partisan targeting of conservative groups seeking 501(c)(3) or (4) classification and harassing contributors to the Romney campaign.

Among the blogs covering the protests in front of IRS offices nationwide, with photographs, are Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, and Gateway Pundit.

The Plain Dealer report of the Cleveland protest is here. Over 50 patriots gathered downtown, most carrying signs. Report your story or forward photos to Tea Party Patriots.