by Joel Skousen, World Affairs Brief

I’m not referring to the 2000 page Health Care Reform bill itself, but the title of a devastating Wall Street Journal editorial written by Steve Moore —a frequent speaker at my brother Mark’s annual Freedom Fest gathering in Las Vegas during July. I don’t have the space to reprint it, but you can find it online here. It is comprehensive in scope and devastating in its logic.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703399204574505423751140690.html

As for the content of the latest iteration of the Democratic reform bill, I offer this additional update courtesy of the Citizen Commission on Human Rights –a mental health watchdog group. The organization warns that the new Health Care bill is filled with agenda items of the psychology lobby and big pharmaceutical companies. All of these will add billions to health care mandates and ensure that the new reforms require billions in increased fees and taxes.

“The newly_forged 1990_page ‘Affordable Health Care for America Act’ (HR 3962) offered by the House of Representatives is filled with mental health provisions intended to prop up psychiatry as well as the pharmaceutical industry with billions in future income. Key mental health components of this House bill:

“Mothers Act: The bill includes the language to ‘expand treatment for postpartum conditions’ and calls for the development of ‘improved screening and diagnostic techniques,’ but makes no provisions to ensure any entities doing such research are free from conflicts of interest or pharmaceutical funding [which is rampant in the industry]. For example, Screening for Mental Health, Inc., and its sub_organization Signs of Suicide, who heavily promote and conduct mental health screening [but who ironically downplay the direct relationship between psychotropic drugs and suicide], received $4,985,925 from pharmaceutical companies prior to 2008, and ten leading psychiatric researchers have been exposed in the last year for failing to disclose millions of dollars in pharmaceutical payments.

“Mental Health Parity: The bill mandates Mental Health Parity, or equal insurance coverage for mental disorders as what are covered for physical diseases, whether under their regular health insurance or whether a person gets their new coverage through the Health Insurance Exchange. Psychiatric patients are traditionally ‘cured’ when their insurance benefits run out. In this bill, those benefits never run out. Considering there are no medical tests to verify the existence of any psychiatric disorder, and without anything other than a psychiatrist’s opinion about whether or not the person’s ‘illness’ is cured, this legislation becomes nothing more than taxpayer funded billions to the psycho/pharmaceutical industry who will continue their jihad of mass drugging of Americans. This provision could easily encompass all 374 diagnoses in psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, covering everything from Phase of Life Problem to Arithmetic Disorder. Section 214, Page 100

“Home Visitation Programs for Families with Young Children or Families Expecting Children: The bill creates a home visitation program for families with young children or which are expecting children or who have certain ‘risk factors.’ The program provides assessments regarding matters of ‘age appropriate behaviors,’ for children, prevention of family violence and referral to outside services. – Section 1904, Page 1177

“School Based Health Clinics: The bill includes funding for School Based Health Clinics that will include subjective psychiatric mental health screening (called mental health assessments) of children, and ‘referral to a continuum of services including emergency psychiatric care, community support programs, inpatient care, and outpatient programs’ as part of their ‘comprehensive primary health services.’ This is a direct feeder line for the psycho/pharmaceutical industry directly into our schools. – Section 2511, Page 1352

“Wellness Program Grants for small employers: The grants in the bill serve as an incentive for employers to include ‘mental health’ as part of the Wellness Program Grants to businesses. Part of the program entails a ‘Behavioral Change Component’ that encourages ‘healthy living through counseling’ and may include programs relating to ‘tobacco use, obesity, stress management, depression and mental health.’ – Section 112, Page 67

“Federally Qualified Behavioral Health Centers: The bill creates new ‘Federally Qualified Behavioral Health Centers’ and in order for existing community mental health centers to qualify, they have to provide, among other things, ‘mental health screening, assessment, and diagnosis,’ as well as ‘outpatient clinic mental health services, including screening, assessment, diagnosis, psychotherapy and medication,’ in addition to “crisis mental health services including 24_hour mobile crisis teams.’ _ Section 2513, Page 1367″

Health Insurance News had this to say about other kinds of mandates the government has in mind—specifically about vaccines. “The Federal Government’s proposed mandatory health insurance will mean mandatory vaccinations/immunizations. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says that for anyone who refuses to keep up_to_date vaccinations, under the new health reform, you will not be able to obtain any health care you may need until immunizations are current [the same kind of tactic used to force public school children into having immunizations as a condition of enrollment].

It was also reported that the new health care reform bill was submitted with a provision that those doctors and hospitals who are not ‘meaningful users’ of the new reform system will also be faced with fines and penalties. As well as the Secretary of Health and Human Services will be ‘permitted to impose more stringent measures of meaningful use over time.’” This is in line with a trend that already exists in part. Dr. Bill Sardi reports that drug reps, who buy government data on prescriptions written by each physician, came to him to complain that he was not using their drugs in treating his clients—and not so subtly threatening to report him to the medical boards who could have denied him his license.

There have been a lot of numbers thrown around about the numbers of uninsured. Michael Quinn explains the discrepancies, which are huge: “Who’s exaggerating? Who’s misleading the American public? If the Democrats can’t even figure out how many people are uninsured, how can we possibly trust their 1,990 page ‘solution’? The 46 million figure comes from the 2007 Census Bureau report. So, why did Obama reference 30 million uninsured in his speech? Maybe it was because 9.3 million of those were non-citizens. Since the Democrats didn’t want to let the public know they were going to cover illegal aliens, Obama backed them out of his figure.

“Another 6.4 million actually are enrolled in Medicaid but mistakenly tell the Census they have no health insurance. Another 4.3 million are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP but have not signed up. In addition, scores of the 46 million could theoretically afford health coverage, but choose not to purchase any [like those of us who use alternative medicine and good nutrition to avoid problems]. In 2007, 17.6 million of the uninsured had annual incomes of more than $50,000 and 9.1 million earned more than $75,000. Sally Pipes documents in the Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen’s Guide, that those making more than $75,000 per year are part of the fastest growing segment of the uninsured population. These people have exercised their freedom and decided not to buy insurance. That is their choice and not the responsibility of government or taxpayers.

“Taking these facts into consideration leaves 8.4 million people truly without insurance. Many of the 17.6 million people who make more than $50,000 per year choose not to purchase health insurance because they are self employed. The tax code exempts people from paying taxes on health care benefits purchased through their employer, while denying the same tax advantages to individuals. Ending this discrimination would make health care more affordable to those who are self-employed or not covered through their workplace. This would allow Americans to have health care policies that are portable, so it would reduce the gaps in coverage people can face when they quit or lose a job.”

FLU HYSTERIA IGNITES THE UKRAINE

Dr. Bill Sardi comments on the much higher than normal swine flu rate, or claims, in the Ukraine and the rumors swirling around the internet about the Baxter Labs contaminated vaccines. “OK, they have the flu hysteria going in the Ukraine, a country (if you can call it that) of 46 million, where 1 in 100 are reported to have come down with the flu and less than 100 deaths—not even confirmed to be from H1N1 pandemic strain. This could be regular seasonal flu) in a country where population has declined by 2 million in recent years, largely due to over_consumption of alcohol (~22% of Ukrainians consume heavy amounts of alcohol daily). Cigarette consumption is also up in The Ukraine which depletes vitamin C, making those who do acquire the flu more vulnerable to mortal outcomes.

“But the New York Times reports it as a flu pandemic and there are other reports circulating that the flu in The Ukraine is an engineered biological weapon and a former Israeli microbiologist named Joseph Mosse (supposed a Mossad intelligence agency guy, arrested and then released in Los Angeles for making this claim) had predicted a biological weapon was being made in the form of a flu shot, so now you have imagined ‘real’ intrigue.

“While the New York Times couldn’t resist running the phony Ukrainian story about a flu outbreak, its story did have the integrity to point out, at the bottom, that the flu hysteria there appears to be politically motivated. One politician is blaming the other for not being prepared for the flu outbreak, so Ukrainians are whipped up into fear, wearing masks, forgoing assemblage, washing their hands, but still drinking their alcohol and smoking their cigarettes and begging for more Tamiflu.” Bottom line: while flu percentages are almost double Western Europe, they are still far from epidemic levels.

Vaccines and Autism: Dr. Mercola interviewed Dr. Russell Blaylock recently regarding the huge risk of vaccines for pregnant women: “It is known that stimulating a woman’s immune system during midterm and later term pregnancy significantly increases the risk that her baby will develop autism during childhood and schizophrenia sometime during the teenage years and afterward.” Dr. Michael Bronze, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, writing for emedicine medscape.com (WebMD), states that the risk of a pregnant women being hospitalized with the H1N1 infection is 0.32 per 100,000 pregnant women (which is 1 in 300,000 pregnant women) –certainly not worth the risk of making her baby susceptible to autism.

AUDIT THE FED BILL GUTTED

Ron Paul alerted his supporters this week that his bill to audit the Fed had been gutted in committee, just as I had predicted. The Feds aren’t about to let the public see the financial conspiracies going on behind the scenes at the US Treasury. Drew Zahn of WorldNetDaily.com summarized Ron’s report. “The [Paul plan to Audit the Fed] compiled over 300 co-sponsors in the House before being sent to committee. But in a telephone interview with a Bloomberg reporter, Paul said the teeth have been ripped out of the bill. ‘There’s nothing left; it’s been gutted,’ Paul told Bloomberg the bill has been stripped of provisions that closed loopholes protecting the Fed, including exemption from audits of transactions with foreign central banks and protected communications between the Board, reserve banks and staff.” Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., was responsible for stripping Paul’s bill of its enforcement teeth. Zahn reported that “Watt has significant connections to the banking industry,” including Bank of America, which is in Watt’s congressional district. BoA is headquartered in Charlotte, NC; however Watt is clearly taking orders from the White House, not Bank of America.

RON PAUL WON IN NEVADA

As I reported last year, Ron Paul was kept from winning the Republican convention delegates in Nevada when the establishment Republican leaders shut down the nominating convention when it became obvious Paul supporters were in the majority. They never even allowed the ballots that had been cast (before they turned out the lights at mid-day) to be counted. Finally, they have been unsealed and counted—after it is too late to do anything about it.

The 3 top vote getters were “Robert Terhune, 288 votes; Marla Criss, 283 votes; and Pat Kerby, 283 votes –all committed to Ron Paul.” We can never trust the Republican party again, even at the state level.

NY REPUBLICAN LEADERS BETRAY CONSERVATIVES

This proved all too true in this week’s New York congressional battle which revealed just how far party leaders have strayed from their conservative roots. The official Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, was a pro-abortion liberal that the party base simply could not tolerate despite pressure from state Republican leaders. She withdrew over the weekend in order to avoid an embarrassing defeat. A rival third party candidate Doug Hoffman (Conservative Party) stood alone against the Democrat. Showing her true colors, Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat Bill Owens rather than support a real conservative. This split off enough votes to ensure a Democratic victory.

The Democrats didn’t fare as well in the two state governorships up for grabs in New Jersey and Virginia. Both Democratic governors were ousted—a partial sign of public discontent with the Democratic direction the nation is taking under Obama.

I cringed as more and more television pundits took pains to avoid attributing any of these Democratic failures to Obama. The Left clearly is looking to protect the president, though I think it will be futile in the long run after the onerous Health Care Reform bill passes. My other prime complaint is the media’s insistence upon calling liberal Republicans like Dede Scozzafava “moderates” and all Leftists as “progressives”. —Pure Orwellian double speak! [END]