Tag Archives: medicare

6 Things Americans Did Not Vote for in 2012

Tomorrow, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will release the latest version of his infamous Republican budget plan — you know, the one that ends Medicare as we know it. As we await this plan, it’s worth considering a few things that voters did not choose in the 2012 election.

Paul Ryan: In selecting Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney put Ryan and his ideas front-and-center in the election. Voters said thanks but no thanks to Ryan and his radical ideas. Ryan even lost his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.
A Republican House of Representatives: President Obama was easily re-elected and Democrats expanded their majority in the Senate, so why are we stuck with a GOP-controlled House of Representatives? Gerrymandering. Democratic House candidates won more than a million more votes than Republican candidates, but districts drawn by Republicans for Republicans allowed the GOP to hold on to their majority. This isn’t even disputed by the Republicans. In fact, they brag about it.
The Middle Class Footing the Bill: The centerpiece of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s economic proposal was a tax plan that raised taxes on the poor and middle class in order to slash taxes for the wealthy. By contrast, President Obama proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The GOP budget’s tax proposals is nearly identical to the Romney-Ryan plan rejected by voters in November.
Ending Medicare: Mitt Romney not only chose Paul Ryan, he wholeheartedly embraced Ryan’s controversial plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher system that stands to double seniors’ out-of-pocket health care costs. Romney and Ryan lost key states with senior-heavy populations, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and New Hampshire.
Repealing Obamacare: Not only did voters not vote for the team that wanted to repeal Obamacare, Mitt Romney says that the president won because of Obamacare. Nevertheless, the GOP budget plan to be unveiled tomorrow will once again call for repealing Obamacare — except for its $716 BILLION in savings from Medicare. Despite demonizing the president for the cuts throughout the campaign, Ryan’s plan keeps those cuts in order to to pay for new tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street banks.
European-Style Austerity: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan proposed unrealistic draconian spending cuts, while the president proposed investments that will create jobs now and grow the middle class and our economy over the long run. The American people rejected the former and gave an Electoral College landslide to the latter. Nevertheless, the GOP budget plan will feature the kind of unrealistic draconian spending cuts that will make it impossible to make investments in the middle class.The GOP plan will slow down the economy and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs. It’s the same kind of austerity that has led to shrinking economies and record-high unemployment in Europe. Austerity isn’t working there and it won’t work here.

BOTTOM LINE: Paul Ryan and his policies were soundly rejected by voters last November. Instead of doubling down on extreme and unpopular ideas like ending Medicare as we know it and raising taxes on the middle class in order to slash taxes on the wealthy, Republicans should come back to the table and agree to deal with our fiscal challenges in a responsible, balanced manner.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Key senators reach agreement on path to earned citizenship.

After watering down Wall Street reform, former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) becomes bank lobbyist.

GOP senator takes credit for anti-rape law he voted against.

Awash in profits, corporations shift even more money to tax havens.

The ridiculously biased and incorrect text books approved under Bobby Jindal’s education reform.

GOP hypocrisy on including Obama policies in their budget exposed.

Top GOP strategist: GOP “doesn’t give equal opportunity to women.”

What Paul Ryan really means when he says “pro-growth tax reform.”

The good news about human nature: most people aren’t jerks.

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Beware: The Scooter Store

02/23/2013 Nativegrl77

David Sell, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: Friday, February 22, 2013, 3:01 AM

In TV ads, the Scooter Store suggests to seniors and others needing motorized scooters and wheelchairs that they can be had for almost no cost because the company will handle all the messy paperwork with insurers, particularly Medicare.

Wednesday and Thursday brought another example that nothing is free. Somebody – often taxpayers – has to pay.

About 150 state and federal law enforcement officers raided the company’s headquarters in a San Antonio suburb. The action was another phase in an ongoing health-care fraud investigation of the Scooter Store, which has an outlet in the Philadelphia region.

A spokesman for the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Medicare and Medicaid, would say only that the agency “executed a search warrant at several locations of the Scooter Store and that we were part of a multiagency task force.”

The San Antonio Express-News reported that OIG was joined by the FBI and the Texas Attorney General‘s Medicaid fraud unit.

The Scooter Store’s Philadelphia outlet is in Trainer, Delaware County. The manager declined to give his name and referred a reporter to the national office, which did not respond to phone and e-mail requests for comment.

“This raid is a welcome step toward cracking down on waste and fraud in Medicare payments for motorized wheelchairs involving the Scooter Store,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) said in a statement. “I have urged action to stop abusive overpayments for such devices – costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and preying on seniors with deceptive sales pitches.”

The cost of health care is a huge component in local, state, and national debates about how to solve budget challenges. In recent years, the federal government has increased efforts to scrutinize billing practices and thwart fraud, with durable medical devices being one area of particular concern.

Blumenthal is among the congressional leaders who have urged federal authorities to crack down on what they view as deceptive advertising that results in some angry seniors and bills for all taxpayers.

As Blumenthal noted, this is not the first time the Scooter Store has faced allegations of fraud.

In 2007, the company settled a civil suit with the Justice Department by paying $4 million and forgoing $13 million in Medicare claims after the government alleged the company submitted false claims for power wheelchairs that, among other things, beneficiaries did not want, did not need, or could not use.

The company’s five-year corporate integrity agreement with the government was due to expire in 2012 but remains open. The company was also supposed to reimburse the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) $19.5 million for overpayments between 2009 and 2011, according to the San Antonio newspaper. However, senators criticized the CMS for not pushing for more reimbursements, based on an outside audit of the company’s operations.

The company’s website has a specific category of products called “Medicare-Reimbursable Power Chairs,” with several listed for $3,699. It posed the question many seniors would ask: Is the power chair or scooter entirely covered by my insurance?

The answer had a few caveats, including the Medicare requirement to meet with a doctor to determine mobility needs. It also said: “If you qualify, Medicare may cover up to 80 percent of the cost of your power chair. Your supplemental insurance may pay the remaining 20 percent. In most cases, our customers pay little to nothing for their power chairs.”

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Truth

02/11/2013 Nativegrl77

We The People So you know we’re not here to blow sunshine up your nether regions. We’re not out to preach. Our only goal is to make sure everyone gets the unfiltered, unadulterated facts about tobacco. So every smoker and non-smoker can agree on one thing: they know what’s up.

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is talk cheap or Republicans

02/11/2013 Nativegrl77

We hear pundits, hosts and journalists ask if the talk is cheap, but it turns out republican talkers are and until you actually listen or read between the wall of words do you find out what exactly are Republicans at the local, state and federal level doing, saying or pushing… and it’s all about austerity, the privatization of ALL Social Services, controlling women’s choices and even more cheap talk. While March 1st looms, the American media asks who is to blame for the Sequester , are more gun safety laws practical, why did Republicans reject VAWA while seemingly pushing us into questioning drones when 90% of us prefer drones to boots on the ground. I am all for following the rules regulations … our constitution, but there is a fine line that the professional left is crossing when the focus should be on the clock that republicans still seem to be trying to turn back . As March Madness gets closer and closer we see republican members of Congress say Election2013 taught them there is a need to be more practical … but all you have to do is tune into republican debates and the votes being recorded on the floor of Congress to find out just how cheap the talk truly is.

The fact is even after stating they know they need to open up their party to more diversity, republicans continue to support rep.Paul Ryan and his pathway to prosperity, yet, it still seems to favor only the wealthy. In 2012, Mr. Ryan seemed to have promised to save Medicare, close loop holes and of course cut spending by trillions. The problem is, it will still be off the backs of those in need and with the hit our economy took it amazes me that the Republican Party of No thinks Americans don’t see that Mr.1% and his crew are still in full effect though it’s 2013, but then again cheap words can mask the most blatant of realities. It only takes a republican secret filibuster blow for the Middle and Lower classes to suffer on the way toward that republican mission to cut slash and burn public service jobs while handing out thousands in tax breaks to millionaire and billionaire … friends

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EXCLUSIVE: Morgan Freeman’s marriage equality message

11/26/2012 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Morgan Freeman is the voice behind equality in a new ad for HRC – our team was so moved to work with Morgan on it, and the ad gives me chills.

Here’s part of what Morgan had to say:

“Freedom, justice and human dignity have always guided our journey toward a more perfect union.

Now across our country, we are standing together for the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love. And with historic victories for marriage, we’ve delivered a mandate for full equality.”

Check out Morgan Freeman’s entire ad now, and then share the video far and wide with your friends, family, and neighbors.