By NCMEC

As families take to the highways and airways this summer, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) wants to remind parents and guardians about some tips to help make the traveling experience more enjoyable and minimize some of the potential risks. 

Whether traveling solo or with family, parents and guardians need to talk with children about safety before boarding a plane, train, or bus this summer season.

Crowds are greater this time of year and children may easily become separated from their parents and guardians.

If that should happen, parents and guardians need a plan and children should be taught what to do.

And remember: child safety is a year-round priority. Parents and guardians need to look out for kids and keep communication lines open 365 days a year!

If your child is flying or riding a train or bus this summer, NCMEC urges parents and guardians to remember the following travel safety tips:

• When you make reservations for your child, specify whether your child will be traveling alone.

• Whenever possible, book a non-stop flight or direct route. Avoid booking the last flight of the day.

• Plan to visit the airport, train or bus terminal prior to departure. Let your child know what to expect, so the experience will not be so intimidating.

• In case of delay or cancellation, remain at the station or gate until the train, plane or bus departs.

• Make sure children travel with proper identification and parents or guardian contact information.

• Always have a back-up plan for the person or people meeting the plane at the destination, in case they are delayed.

• Encourage children not to become too friendly with other passengers or to reveal any personal information.

• Remind them that the flight attendant is the adult to go to if they are uncomfortable or need assistance.

Editor’s Note: Safety Tips adapted from Know the Rules…When Your Child is Flying Unaccompanied, and Know the Rules…When Your Child is traveling unaccompanied by Bus or Train.

Copyright © respectively 2000 and 2000 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). All rights reserved.

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So what is the matter with Barak Obama?

Conservatives have been asking this question for some time. I’ve written a number of articles trying to solve the mystery.

Even some liberals are starting to wonder. James Carville railed about Obama’s blasé attitude after the catastrophic oil spill.

The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd revamped Obama’s “Yes We Can” motto into “Will We Ever?”

The liberal women of the TV show “The View” have expressed sympathy for Michelle Obama’s living with a man so out of touch.

Peggy Noonan, hardly a vehement Obama foe, recently pronounced him disconnected.

Obama’s odd mannerisms intrigue a psychotherapist like me. He also presents a serious diagnostic challenge.

For one, Obama’s teleprompter and the men behind the Blackberry keep him well-scripted. We know so little about the facts of his life.

But it’s more than just a lack of information. Obama himself is a strange bird. He doesn’t fit easily into any diagnostic category.

Many people attribute Obama’s oddness to his narcissism. True, Obama has a gargantuan ego, and he is notoriously thin-skinned.

Yet a personality disorder like narcissism does not explain Obama’s strangeness: his giggling while being asked about the economy; his continuing a shout-out rather than announcing the Ft. Hood shootings; or his vacations, golfing, partying and fundraising during the calamitous oil spill.

Take also Obama’s declaring on the “Today Show” that he wants to know whose @#!*% to kick. Consummate narcissists would never stoop to this vulgar display of adolescent machismo.

Obama is flat when passion is needed; he’s aggressive when savvy is required. What’s most worrisome is that Obama doesn’t even realize that his behavior is inappropriate.

So if it’s not just simple narcissism, what is wrong with Obama? Since I’ve never evaluated him, I can’t say for sure. But I can hazard some educated guesses.
If I saw a client as disconnected as him, the first thing I would wonder: Is something wrong with his brain? And I’d consider the following theoretical diagnostic possibilities.

– Physical problems: There are a multitude of physiological conditions that can cause people to act strangely.

For instance: head injuries, endocrine disturbances, epilepsy, and toxic chemical exposure.

It makes me wonder: Did Obama ever has a head injury? His stepfather in Indonesia was purportedly an alcoholic abuser.

Was Obama subject to any physical abuse?

– Drugs and alcohol: Damage to the brain from drugs and alcohol can also cause significant cognitive impairments.

Obama once said that there were 57 states — and didn’t correct himself.

Memory problems can be caused by both illicit and prescription drug use. Obama admits to a history of drug use in his youth. Did his usage cause some damage? Does Obama still use?

– Asperger’s Syndrome: Also known as high-functioning autism, Asperger’s causes deficits in social skills.

A person with Asperger’s can’t read social cues. Consequently, he can be insensitive and hurtful without even knowing it.

Could Obama have Asperger’s? He might have some mild traits, but certainly not the full-blown disorder. In contrast to Obama, those with Asperger’s get fixated on some behavior, like programming computers. Obama lacks this kind of passion and zeal.

– Mental Illness: Obama’s family tree is replete with the unbalanced. His maternal great-grandmother committed suicide. His grandfather, Stanley Dunham, was particularly unhinged:

He was expelled from high school for punching his principal; named his daughter Stanley because he wanted a boy; and exposed young Barry to not just drunken trash talk, but unrestricted visits with alleged pedophile Frank Marshall Davis (who might or might not be Obama’s biological father). Barack Sr. was an abusive, alcoholic bigamist.

Since mental illness runs in the family, does Obama have any signs? Yes and no. No, he is not a schizophrenic babbling about Martians. But there are red flags for some other conditions.

While Obama doesn’t appear to hallucinate, he seems to have delusions… His believing he has a Messiah-like special gift smacks of grandiose delusions.

His externalizing all blame to conservatives, George W. Bush, or the “racist” bogeyman hints at persecutory delusions.

Along with a delusional disorder, Obama may fit for a mild psychotic disorder called schizotypal disorder. It may explain some of Obama’s oddness.

People with schizotypal disorder hold bizarre beliefs, are suspicious and paranoid, and have inappropriate and constricted affect. They have few close friends and are socially awkward.

A schizotypal is someone like your strange cousin Becky who is addicted to astrology, believes she is psychic, and is the oddball at social gatherings.

Schizotypal Disorder does ring some bells vis-à-vis Obama. One way the diagnosis doesn’t fit, however, is that schizotypals are generally harmless, odd ducks. Not so with Obama.

– Trauma: My gut tells me that Obama was seriously traumatized in childhood. His mother disregarded his basic needs, dragged him all over the place, and ultimately abandoned him.

But I think there may be something even more insidious in his family background. While I can’t prove it, the degree of Obama’s disconnect reminds me of my sexually abused clients.

With serious sexual abuse, the brain chemistry may change. The child dissociates — that is, disconnects from his being — in order to cope.

Many adult survivors still dissociate, from occasional trances to the most extreme cases of multiple personality disorder.

Apparently, young Barry was left in the care of Communist Frank Marshall Davis, who admitted to molesting a 13-year-old girl.

As a teenager, Obama wrote a disturbing poem, “Pop,” that evoked images of sexual abuse — for instance, describing dual amber stains on both his and “Pop’s” shorts…

Would trauma explain Obama’s disconnect? In many ways, yes. A damaged and unattached child may develop a “false self.” To compensate for the enormous deficits in identity and attachment, the child invents his own personality. For Obama, it may have been as a special, gifted person.

Let’s return now to my original question: What is wrong with Obama?

My guess is a great deal. The answer is complex and likely includes some combination of the above.

Along with the brain issues are personality disorders: narcissism, paranoia, and passive-aggressiveness.

There’s even the possibility of the most destructive character defect of all, an antisocial personality. Untreated abuse can foster antisocial traits, especially among boys.

If my assessment is accurate, what does this mean?

It means that liberals need to wake up and spit out the Kool-Aid…and that conservatives should put aside differences, band together, and elect as many Republicans as possible.

Because Obama will not change. He will not learn from his mistakes. He will not grow and mature from on-the-job experience.

In fact, over time, Obama will likely become a more ferocious version of who he is today.

Why? Because this is a damaged person. Obama’s fate was sealed years ago growing up in his strange and poisonous family.

Later on, his empty vessel was filled with the hateful bile of men like Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers.

Obama will not evolve; he will not rise to the occasion; he will not become the man he was meant to be. This is for one reason and one reason alone:

He is not capable of it.

Source: Paul Reveres Riders

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By MEC

One of the most important tools for law enforcement to use in the case of a missing child is an up-to-date, good-quality photograph.

Noted below are some tips for parents and guardians regarding such a photograph?

• The photograph should be a recent, head-and-shoulders color photograph of the child in which the face is clearly seen. It should be of “school-portrait” quality, and the background should be plain or solid so it does not distract from the subject.

• When possible the photograph should be in a digitized form, and available on a compact disk (CD), as opposed to just a hard copy. This minimizes the time necessary to scan, resize, and make color corrects before disseminating it to law enforcement.

• The photograph should be an accurate depiction of the child, not overly posed or “glamorized.” Nor should other people, animals, or objects be in the photograph. The photograph should not be taken outside, out of focus, torn, damaged, or very small.

• The photograph should have space for accurate, narrative description useful to identify the child such as name, nickname, height, weight, sex, age, eye color, identifying marks, glasses, and braces.

• The photograph should be updated at least every six months for children 6 years of age or younger and then once a year, or when a child’s appearance changes.

• All copies of child’s photograph and information should be maintained in an easily accessible, secure space by the parents or guardian. The photograph and data should not be stored in a public database.

Download the Best Practices Guide for Child ID Kits

Source: Missing Kids

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

Editor’s Note: We at the Chronicle welcome Jeffrey B. English, M.D.  To our staff. He will be writing for us on a regular basis. We hope that you will in join his writing. He will educate you and tell you the truth Obama Care and how it will affect us.

Dr. English is a Board Certified Neurologist with sub-specialty training in Clinical Neurophysiology.  He is in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Dr. English is the Clinical Research Director at the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Atlanta, a non-profit organization for the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis. 

He helped develop and helps run the Center.  He is also a national speaker on multiple sclerosis and on the economics of health care delivery. 

He admits to having “no formal economic background,” just extensive “real life, in the field” experience.

We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

Obama care= HMOs on Steroids!

When I review the health care law written by politicians who have never worked in the health care industry, I am reminded of the “Island of Misfit Toys” from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. 

(Actually, that’s insulting as I think that elephant with the red spots was kind of cute.) 

After they take all of our money for 4 years without giving us anything in return, they will be forcing the entire US population under a Government run HMO. 

I guess no one told them that the HMO test is over and it failed miserably, was inefficient, and didn’t save money. 

At least with the HMOs of the 80s and 90s, if a patient was upset they could complain to the company, raise h*ll, and get somewhere. 

Ever tried to complain to the Federal Government (or even find someone to complain to, for that matter)?

In Massachusetts, universal coverage mandates were instituted a few years ago.  The system is failing, access to doctors decreased, delay in care set national records, and they are about to institute capitates care as the costs soar. 

At least Obama care knows this is going to happen and has a plan.  In 2014, they will be promoting “health homes.” 

 In 2015, they will institute lump sums to provide care (which means capitation and rationed care).  An appointed panel will decide the “fair costs” for all services. 

By 2015, the politicians will have set into place a system by which they decide what care you receive, what everything costs, where you need to go and how quickly you get there, and you will have to go through a federal bureaucracy to complain or improve the system. 

Make no mistake about it, health homes will be the worst HMO

You can imagine. 

Many of your visits will be “free of charge” without a single co-pay.  We will all get the preventative care we need.  The model sounds good on paper (or in Candy land). 

There will be groups of health care providers and educators who are working together to coordinate your care. 

(Notice, I didn’t necessarily say these were groups of doctors or nurses.) 

They will make sure that you are educated about your disease and they will make sure you come for all of your visits. 

They will be able to track your appointments and make sure you get tests at the right time (like blood tests for people on cholesterol medications). 

In fact, the tracking system will be so good with electronic medical records (EMR) that the health home and Uncle Sam will know if you have been taking your medications correctly as they will be linked to your pharmacy.

It’s a good thing the politicians with no experience are working on the health care system.  I mean, why haven’t the millions of doctors or health administrators thought of these coordinated systems? 

Wait, I think my “common-sensitometer” is going off.  Now I remember why we don’t have all these employees to educate patients on their disease and diet and track them down when they fail to comply with our recommendations. 

Insurance doesn’t pay for this.  Already, our office has 5 employees per physician, where we used to have 2 physicians per employee.  Our overhead keeps on growing as our reimbursement goes down. 

I think that adding another layer of employees might be difficult for us as we are losing money.

Why haven’t doctors worked together to coordinate care as proposed under Obama care?  Why aren’t the primary care physicians all working closely with specialists, therapists, and educators? 

Oh yeah, now I remember.  That’s an anti-trust violation and the Government has blocked this for years.  Physicians working together are called collusion and carries hefty fines.

So, now that we understand why doctor’s offices don’t provide these services already, let’s examine how Obama care will provide it in the future.  If we can’t afford it now, where will this money come from in the new system? 

Correct me if I am wrong, but even the most optimistic economist believes the new system will not save money. 

What happens when we are paying for computers, for employees to track down patients to make sure they get their labs done correctly, and for employees to educate everyone during their visits? 

What happens when we are paying for all the new bureaucratic positions like the 16,000 new IRS agents? 

You guessed it, we will have less money for patients’ diseases and we will ration care.  Put another way, the money in the health care basket is not going to change, so it will be shifting from patients to employees and administrative costs. 

That’s why Great Britain’s National Health Service employees are over 1.5 million people (the 3^rd largest single employer in the world) and less than half are related to patient care.

I read a great article on March 29^th online.  It discussed a current health home model set up by a primary care group in Virginia, at Fairfax Family Practice. 

They had computer tracking, employees to educate, and all the coordinators to provide care with all their physicians.  Sounded great and got you all excited about the future of Obama care. 

However, at the end of the article, they mentioned the fact that the group had been given a $1.2 million grant. 

Under Obama care, the $1.2 million dollars to provide these services will not be from a grant, but will come from higher taxes and rationing as these services will be mandatory.

A physician from Fairfax Family Practice correctly admitted at the end of the article that his preventative care system had not proven to save money. 

The model certainly had some great ideas and the Dartmouth health care map that we have heard so much about has shown us that throwing money at specialty services does not equate to savings either. 

We do know, however that the Obama care model has failed in Massachusetts, Tennessee, Great Britain, and Canada. 

Why not support States and entrepreneurs to test outcomes with patient-centered models before the Government goes down a path that has already failed?

Source:  Basil & Spice

By Kevin Fobbs

How unique is it that only in Washington D.C. that God’s Day of rest is being used to put Life to death by the millions with a vote on Obama care. There are words that can be used like “what’s wrong with these people?”

Yet for the 50 million babies who had their life extinguished by Roe V. Wade is was genocide.

For the possible 50-plus million more who may fall victim to the Obama care vote, the vote can only be defined as planned Futurecide.

Some detractors to right for life may say futurecide is not a word to be found in a dictionary or to be looked up in a thesaurus.

Yet for the millions of voices that may never be born it certainly applies and very on target.

Futurecide is the planned and legalized method being used by Congress to allow a nation to kill or use genocide against future unborn generations.

The halls of Heaven have to be filled not with anger but with weeping at how a nation birthed on Christian faith, and raised up with the spirit of our Founding Fathers could have erred so greatly.

The hosts of Heaven must be mourning how these Congressmen and women could be guided by suspect motives and guileless political opportunism could have in effect murdered the future.

What are an unalienable right or liberty and justice for all when the all is defined as not yet born?

Do the Constitutional protections not seem self-evident? Yes fellow citizens there is a tragedy in the making and it is cold, and it is calculating and it is wrought with pretentious compassion.

Yet this compassion is based upon the possibility that the possible fixes for allowing the current health care bill to go forward outweighs the probable loss of even one life because the bill is more important than life unborn let alone 50 million more lives.

Those in Ann Arbor, or Chicago, or Houston or anywhere else in America who feels that it is hopeless to care because the shouts for Obama care are causing you distress.

You are not alone:

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Even though the logic used against the stand for life stands justice for the least of American’s unborn citizens right on its head don’t let it dissuade your conviction.

Even if the Obama care bill may trivialize civil rights for those whom who cannot be heard, seen or spirit touched, don’t give in.

Ann Arbor has a Congressman in Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) who will stand against Obama care even as a vote on Sunday is taken; the day of rest for God who created life and the entire world.

This is as bitter an irony as the mind of man can conceive since convinced by Satan to just take a bite from the apple and as Satan suggested to Adam, “don’t worry it will all be better soon.”

Congress has asked its members to vote life out of existence as the Supreme Court did to more than 50 million unborn in its historic Roe v. Wade decision.

Americans of faith may not be able to see into the future but they can certainly learn from the past. This vote must not be an end of the Life effort.

• On Monday Life supporters must walk on even more determined.
• On Tuesday Life supporters must stay strong for babies who need to take their first birth of life.
• On Wednesday Life supporters must pray strong for life defenders.
• On Thursday Life supporters must organize one more effort for life.
• On Friday Life supporters must each one support one life legislator until there is a tide of life sweeping America.
• On Saturday Life Supporters must email a life organization with your support to assist them in preserving the future.
• On Sunday Life supporters should use the power of God’s gift to ask him strengthen the spirit as well as the soul of America so that his word can help the beacon light of Life illuminate yet one more week

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1: 9

This health care or Obama care battle may seem like it is likely won, but the battle against futurecide is not over.

The future of life is not over as long as Americans of faith are willing to do act as well as criticize.

In 1894 President Theodore Roosevelt said criticism can be necessary and useful at times:

 “But it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness.

It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without him sharing the stress and the danger.”

If there is a vote against life on Sunday, life supporters cannot mourn the loss of a cause but only of a battle.

Be a doer of deeds for life that day and every day, because it is the future of life that must be protected.

Do you agree or disagree. Please write a brief comment and let me know below or at: http://tinyurl.com/y857nuy

Source: Renew America

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

While the press attention is diverted to talking about the sexual preferences of a NY congressman and the details of the so-called ‘reconciliation bill’ we are not reminded about a key element of the Senate Health-care bill that is certainly of questionable constitutionality!

In section 3403 (starting at page 1,000) of the bill we find the following on pages 1019 and 1020: ‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON CHANGES TO THE BOARD RECOMMENDATIONS.— ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, or amendment, pursuant to this subsection or conference report thereon, that fails to satisfy the requirements of subparagraphs (A)(I) and (C) of sub- 4 section (c)(2).

Specifically the bill states that neither the US Senate nor the US House of Representatives can change or remove the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (IMAB) which is created to “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending.”

This is the panel that Sarah Palin aptly named a ‘death panel’ charged with determining which procedures/medications/treatments are acceptable, based on financial considerations for all people covered by Medicare. And, since many insurance companies use the Medicare rules for their own procedures this will affect the entire population.

Based on this section alone our elected representatives will not be able to amend or change this in any way through future actions. In other words, this bill binds all future legislatures.

This does not pass the basic smell test and should be brought to the attention of the American public!

What else do we need to know?

Source: All American Blogger

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

I am firmly against the Obama Care initiative and was appalled when the AMA initially was supportive of the measure. 

I do not belong to the AMA and would not re-join based on their actions since they do not represent the majority of doctors (in my opinion) regarding this matter. 

It all boils down to this: Obama Care will lead to many physicians leaving medicine as represented by a recent poll in the New England Journal of Medicine.  No doctor I know wants to work for the government. 

No doctor I know wants more government intervention or oversight in their medical practice.  No doctor I know wants to get paid less for what they do. 

Also, a lot of physicians work alone or in a small group and will be subject to a marked increase in taxes on their small businesses as well as a forced “buy-in” for medical insurance for their employees (who may already have coverage through their spouses). 

With all of the negatives mentioned above, how can we expect any promising young people to want to enter the medical field?  We can certainly expect some of the best and brightest current physicians to leave medicine. 

This will leave us with a greater percentage of physicians who are willing to work for less and may have received their training in places other than America. 

I am confident that we will be left with a system that is inferior to our current system and we all get to pay more for it!  

If I were able to make a living in another field, I would also consider leaving medicine.  On a personal note, one of the physicians in our practice (who is one of the best and brightest I mentioned above) will likely leave the practice of medicine due to the negatives mentioned above.  

I am sure I would not be able to find another doctor to take her place who “matches up” with her abilities.  

Also, if one of our physicians leaves, we will likely not be able to keep all of our employees given the above  financial factors that Obama Care forces upon us. 

I can only hope that our president will see what the proposed changes will do the physicians, their employees, and their families and not force this plan on us.   

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

I am begging you, stop Obama Care. Health care has been life and death to me since the death of my first best friend from muscular dystrophy as a sophomore in high school.

It has been life and death to me since I worked in a hospital over summer break from college and my first patient suffered pain, agony, and distention from lethal colon cancer.

It has been life and death to me since I entered medical school 30 years ago and became a warrior against illness and injury.

In these modern times, and with our modern technologies, the power in health care should be flowing to patients, doctors, and nurses so that they can save more lives. Instead, with Obama Care, the power is going to third parties.

People will die. You might die. Some of your loved ones might die. Future patients are sure to die.

This is not like college where education was all good and fun. This is not like the first two years of medical school, when professors taught what they researched in laboratories and had no urgency about it.

This is crunch time, this is third and fourth year medical school being taught by actual doctors who have seen patients twisting in agonizing pain, and fighting against all odds to live.

This is the actual practice of medicine by attending physicians where patients live and die based on your decisions.

Everything is life and death now. The game has changed.

It’s time for the truth.

Sarah Palin was right about the “death panels.”

Senator Grassley was right about when he said they’re “…going to pull the plug on grandma.”

“Death panels” are government bureaucrats. Death panels are when third parties stand between you and your doctor. Death panels are when you do not have control over your own body.

Death panels are when third parties deny you the treatments doctors have prescribed for you. Death panels are when the Government takes your money from you, redistributes it, wastes it, runs out of it, rations it, makes you stand in line for health care, and ultimately denies you the care you need.

Recently five doctors recommended an antibiotic and Medicare still denied it. Medicare remember, denies you treatment “regardless as to medical necessity.” Medicare is no way to run health care.

God help you if your life actually depends on the government, Medicare, or Medicaid, or any other third party. Insurance companies that become too powerful via crony capitalism do the same thing – “death panels” again.

There is a vastly superior way to do health care reform. It’s called “Patient Power.” We can have patients have more control over the money so that they get what they want, and get what their doctors and nurses want them to have, instead of what corrupt and selfish third parties want.

Third parties want money. Patients want to live. Doctors and nurses want to help.

Suddenly today, we have the technology to vastly improve the science of medicine by setting up social networking for physicians, nurses, and all allied health care professionals.

Health care professionals have secret inside medical information that needs to be made public, that can direct research, and that can save your life.

We can use the social networking of doctors to eliminate all the overhead expenses wasted by the government and insurance companies to establish protocols for what they will pay for.

We can use this social networking to determine reimbursement based on science instead of politics. This will lower costs for all the third parties. This will end the waiting and delays.

This will save lives. Bureaucrats are incompetent to make medical decisions and my reforms would kick them out of the decision-making process.

We can have price transparency, which is a bipartisan idea, and should have been the one good idea to come out of President Obama’s health care summit.

I am sure that many or all Republican doctors in Congress would agree with Representative Dr. Steve Kagan, a democrat, who introduced a bill in congress that is languishing in committee called The “Transparency in All Health Care Pricing Act of 2010.”

Dr. Kagan’s bill, according to his website: “would finally allow patients to see the price of a pill before they swallow it, allowing patients to receive the highest quality care at the lowest possible prices.”

Similarly, the senate doctors, Dr. Tom Coburn and Dr. John Barrasso, both republicans, say on their website that:

“For a vibrant health care market to function properly, patients must know what services cost….” I am totally behind price transparency as the first, and most important, step in health care reform. It will empower patients.

My friend had open heart surgery. He was never told the price of anything in advance, not during the pre-surgery period, the hospital stay, the post-surgery recover at home, or during rehabilitation.

It was only when he saw his bills after all was said and done that he discovered highly questionable charges.

There were many charges he, and I, thought were ridiculous. Charges that would never happen if prices were public.

I had a complete blood count, commonly known as a CBC, last year. No one involved could tell me the price.

“What do you care?” the entire health industry says, insurance pays for it. Well guess what? I do care. You cannot drive prices down if no one knows the prices.

Sometimes I use coupons. Sometimes I read ads. I use that information to help buy things for less. In health care, you cannot do this.

Patients cannot spend their money from Medicare, Medicaid, insurance companies, or out of their own pocket wisely if they don’t know what anything costs.

Please stop Obama Care. Please pass the bipartisan “Transparency in All Health Care Pricing Act of 2010″ instead.

This will drive prices down, allowing more health care at lower prices, which will in turn increase access to care. Price Transparency will empower patients and start them down the road to “Patient Power,” which is where we really need to be.

I have a degree in economics. I have a medical degree. What we need to save the most lives possible is to reduce prices and improve medical science.

We have outstanding ways to do both of these things with the latest Internet technologies and information technologies.

None of these great ideas are in Obama Care. Obama Care is not the best care. I know better ways exist. That is why I am against Obama Care. Its life and death to me; not politics. I am non-partisan.

I dramatically titled this “Obama Care Will Kill Future Patients Compared to What Could Be. Please Stop Obama Care” for a reason.

Every time you tie the hands of doctors and nurses by letting third parties dictate care, people on the edges will die.

People who need action right now to live, who are delayed by third party bureaucracies will die.

People who have to appeal to third party panels to get life saving drugs or procedures and are denied will die.

Patients severely traumatized, severely injured, or severely ill, who are on the verge of death, which need cutting edge medical treatment or innovation will die.

A patient under the care of another doctor, who has been seriously injured, recently called me. She lamented, “My doctor knows what he wants to do to help me, but all my care is being dictated by third parties.” She is needlessly suffering.

We don’t need third parties telling doctors what to do. We don’t need Obama Care panels telling doctors what to do.

We don’t need insurance company panels telling doctors what to do.

We need doctors and nurses who save lives daily telling us what to do.

We have 800,000 doctors and three million nurses. We can hook them all together with a new thing called the Internet. We have the technology now to let them all rank the science behind medical treatments and to set up all the reimbursement decisions in advance.

We can eliminate all the third party red tape and free up doctors, nurses, and allied professionals to save people’s lives. Instead, Obama Care will put roadblocks and paperwork between your doctors, nurses, and you.

Health care reform is no joke to me and it shouldn’t be to you either. Your life is at risk, your kid’s lives are at risk, and your loved one’s lives are at risk. Let people who really know how to reform health care do it, instead of politicians.

Reform health care in a way to maximize the science, to drive prices down, and to maximize innovation of cures.

For example, a fabulous new anti-cancer pill may appear in the medical literature. Randomized controlled studies may show that it works to extend life.

You’re wonderful and well-trained physician may be ready to give you this medication based on the latest and greatest medical studies, because without it you will be dead in weeks. But, he or she can’t.

The drug is not on some list yet, it hasn’t passed through some committee yet. You will die – killed by the government or an insurance company panel of bean counters.

An incredible new antibiotic may be invented. It has virtually no side effects compared to existing antibiotics. Randomized controlled studies show that it works for your disease.

Your doctor prescribes it. But, you can’t have it. It is not in the drug compendia yet. The horrible infection devastates your body as you fight the government.

Many doctors and nurses write letters supporting your cause. But the government can’t move fast enough. Too bad for you. Your infection becomes a chronic disability.

When there is one minute left, and the decision needs to be made that will save your life, who do you want making that decision?

A government bureaucracy, an insurance panel, or the physician at the peak of his or her career?

You have a choice. We can institute health care reform that is sure to improve the science of medicine, that will share what all doctors and nurses know with you, that is sure to enable health care providers to react quickly and efficiently, that is sure to save more lives than ever before, or we can hang the albatross of Obama Care around our necks.

The most offensive thing about Obama Care is that there is so obviously a better way to do health care reform.

A way that empowers patients, doctors, and nurses, instead of third parties, and a way that will save more lives.

Bad policies in health care are already causing a maldistribution of doctors that hurts everyone. Bad policies are causing ridiculous red tape for doctors and nurses, the wrong research to be done, and unnecessary deaths. I see how government stupidity kills people every day.

Consider it this way. We can unleash on humanity a perfect new vaccine developed by doctors and scientists that will wipe polio off the face of the earth, or we can let politicians produce a flu vaccine that is not effective, that we don’t really need, and has side effects that will destroy lives.

Please save a life in the future. Act today. Call politicians. Spread this essay to everyone you know. Freely re-distribute it.

I give it to you. I know how we can achieve medical care utopia, and that the answer is not Obama Care.

Kill Obama Care before it kills someone you love. Does it right? Put patients in charge with “Patient Power” instead.

Why do I do all this writing on health care reform? Because I will save more lives by defeating Obama Care than any one physician could ever save working for a lifetime seeing patients.

There is a far better way: “Patient Power” health care reform.

You can blast faxes to congress for $20 or so, to about 31 politicians at this site:

I hear you can blast faxes to all of congress if you sign up for the website at:

Please go to this website and join all my physician colleagues in calling, e-mailing, and faxing congresspersons:

Please go to Hannity.com, where Sean Hannity has a frequently updated chart on how the politicians are leaning.

Or go to this website which makes it easy to e-mail congresspersons:
Or go to this website where the former advisor for President Clinton suggests who to call:

Or go to: NRCC

Please contact the “Stupak 7″ and beg them to stand firm against Obama Care:
Marion Berry (AR-01)
Joseph Cao (LA-02)
Kath Dahlkemper (PA-03)
Joe Donnelly (IN-02)
Steve Driehaus (OH-01)
Dan Lipinski (IL-03)
Bart Stupak (MI-01)

To find your representative by Zip Code go here:

To find your senators go here:

My best essay on “death panels” is here:
“‘Death Panels’ are Real and Exist Now”

My health care reform plan, “The People’s Health Care Reform Plan” is here:

My “People’s Health Care Reform Plan – Distribution Party – 2010” can be found here:

My credentials for health care reform are here:

Bradley Hennenfent, M.D.
Physician & Economist

BradMD.com
Facebook.com/Hennenfent
Face book Group:
Twitter.com/BradMD
E-mail: Brad@BradMD.com

Face book Fan Page:

Our President has this vision thing. We all do. It’s the vision of equality and fairness. We all want life to be equal and fair. But it’s not, never has been and never will be -never has been and never will be in most areas from cradle to grave.

What our President doesn’t have is the history and economic thing. Some of us do. It’s the fact of history that the American value system combined with capitalism that get us closest to the vision thing- always close, never there.

Other value systems other ways of shaping economies reach but don’t come close. Most in fact hurt or destroy the vision. 

Some sound nice, resonate with uplifting language, and speak from the heart- “from all with the greatest abilities to all with the most need.” Sounding nice, wishing things, speaking from the heart, hope and change don’t put food on the table.

Most Americans know this. That’s what all the fuss is about. And I know as a doctor who has practiced now for 25 years that it doesn’t put MRI scanners and Mayo Clinics and Pfizer Drug Companies and highly skilled doctors and nurses out there for us to improve our lives.

The vision thing of the president says, if you will it and makes enough rules backed by the power of the United States Government to put people in jail than it will come. 

You fill Washington’s office buildings with tens of thousands of young eager political science, health economics majors and law graduates, full of heart
and brim and you give them plenty of paper to write down their demands and it will come.

It goes something like this. I know, because I’ve been up there on Capitol Hill now three times listening to these wise 28 year old legislative aides-the battalions leading Obama Care and abusing their carbon footprints by creating 2200 page bills.

The best and the brightest think MRI scans are important but the price of one should be based on true heartfelt wishes. The doctor running his business charges $750 but $112 dollars is the correct price.

These figures come basically from the young kind heart. It makes a lot of our leaders feel good.

It sound quite right, just and fair. But this is just a price. Price controls have been tried since ancient times and have always been disastrous. It’s the child- like wish that brings us just a price. It has nothing to do with cost.

It has nothing to do with a well run economy. The physician radiologist who has studied for 14 years after high school running the complex office and providing sophisticated medical care is paid $300,000, half of which is taken from him by force so that the young one in the battalion may spread other wishes around to his neighbors.

The 2 highly trained technologists sitting behind him each cost him $80,000 per year (That’s $160,000 total).  The General Electric MRI scanner by his side designed by top well paid engineers surrounded by fancy shielding and concrete support costs $1.7 million dollars and has a life span of about 7 years.

The service contract paid to GE to keep the scanner running costs him $125,000 per year.

The two fine educated administrators at the front desk each cost $40,000 per year. The office space runs at $40 per sq foot. 

And on and on. And remember, the doctor is not allowed to charge a nickel more than the heartfelt price of 112 lest he be put in jail.

What in the world happens do you think when some young bureaucrat in Washington sends an order down from on high that from now on $112 is the price? This is the mind set of Obama and Pelosi Care. It’s almost laughable if it weren’t so serious.
Price controls are part of the vision. So is massive rationing. The young president and his restless legions will soon mimic the state government visionaries across the river from me in Virginia.

I spoke to one recently asking why I as a doctor cannot practice medicine in her state and open an MRI scanner. She said, “We know how many MRI are needed here.” I presume she, and our young

and restless across the river on the hill and our President will soon know how many dermatologists, and internists and surgeons will be needed to provide the just fine all- encompassing care they will spread through America.

I presume she’s never considered something called supply and demand and that when you distort the market this way by government dictate liberties are lost and medical care severely hurt. And food just doesn’t get onto the plate. 

But all this has little impact. The visionaries argue that by force they will simply make all well again. They will bend the curve. 112 is the number and all will toe the line. 4.3 MRI scanners per 100,000 citizens are the number and all will toe the line.

All will bend- the doctor, the technologist, the administrator, the GE sales people and engineers,  the real estate agent, and of course the citizen- bend to the will and wishes and fine visions of our government bureaucrat.

But the millions of us Americans who have grown beyond this silliness know the curve will not be bent. The system will be broken and all of us made worse for it.

Wishes are for childhood. We grow and leave them behind and face reality as adults. I wish my great Apple Imac would only cost me 112 dollars rather than the $1700 I paid for it in the free market.

But I know without profit and free markets, adults realizing that good things in life cost money, and that government has no ability to distribute goods and services efficiently or well and should stand far in the background as we seek as Americans to live a happy life as we define it, there will be no Apple Computers or MRI scanners, Mayo Clinics or Lipitor.

Keep pushing President Obama but beware what you wish for. Millions of us who oppose your idea are not ignorant or misunderstanding you, we have some good old American wisdom.

Thank you

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

Editor’s Note: We would like to welcome Dr. Russell Holmes of California to our Staff

We hope that his information will help you to be informed and able you to tell the Politicians we don’t want their Health care.

We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

Below is a communication I sent through Free Our Health Care Now  to my U.S. Representative, Brian Bilbray, and also to all the members of the Blue Dog coalition. 

Usually I try to be slightly more genteel in my effort to win friends and influence people.  Now is not a time to be so subtle.

I am a family physician with added qualifications in geriatric medicine. My family and I strongly urge you to vote no on Obama Care to protect the future of American medicine, its patients, the struggling economy, and your political career. I do not know of anyone who has a comprehensive understanding of the bill who is in favor of it.

I certainly have seen convincing evidence that the main proponents of Obama Care are clueless about American medicine and Medicare.

When President Obama suggested on 06/25/2009 that painkillers were a viable alternative to pacemakers, my colleagues and I had to cringe. When he implied on 07/22/2009 that otolaryngologists were lopping off tonsils for profit, we marveled both at his disconnection from reality as well as his bizarre attempt to insult the team he wishes to manage.

When Representative Louise Slaughter on 02/25/2010 at the Blair House summit offered the gummer bummer story about the lady who wore her dead sister’s dentures, I was truly perplexed. Did this lady not know that dental care is not a benefit of Medicare or was she offering a novel expansion of coverage to save us even more money?

Since President Obama claimed on 07/22/2009 that his plan to add medical coverage for 46 million Americans and illegal aliens was deficit neutral, why not offer dental care for free as well?

The claims are so baffling, that even the Speaker of the House cannot explain them to the American public.

 Her best advice on 03/09/2010 was to “pass the healthcare bill so that we can find out what is in it.” In other words she will force this mystery bolus down the esophagus of America and wait to see what passes.

That is an offer the majority of Americans would not accept from a chef, a gastroenterologist, or Madame Speaker.

Every health care poll indicates that we, the people, are against Obama Care by an overwhelming majority. Some of the revulsion was fueled by the misappropriation of their tax dollars to bribe Congressmen to vote for the Cornhusker kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, Gator Aid, and the special benefits or exclusions for favored constituents (like union members and Congressmen).

Apparently Senator Harry Reid has imported legalized prostitution from his home state to the U.S. Capitol. The American public deserves better than this.

Voters are also wising up to the deceitful gimmicks that will be used to finance Obama Care. We do not want to be taxed now for something we will not want after the next Presidential election.

Paying four years to receive a clunker just does not strike us as a good deal. Representative Paul Ryan, who has researched this bill more conscientiously than the President, Speaker of the House, and Senate Majority leader said, “Hiding spending is not reducing spending.” 

If you consider yourself a servant of the American people and wish to continue in that role, you will vote no on Obama Care. 

Source: Docs 4 Patient Care      Free Our Health Care Now