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We need to get back to reality. We do not need Obama Care. We do not need insurance. What we need is individual responsibility. I do not say this lightly. I am a cardiac patient. It is true that I have turned my life around. I would be happy with anything that happens because I am a Christian. I have made every effort to get every medical help that I could possibly use. But, I stand here tall and believe that if we live well, we can overcome anything.
Yesterday, small business owner Bill Feinberg testified before the House Small Business Committee about how the new health care reform law affects his business. We caught up with him during a committee recess and he summarized his testimony in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jvZbPWFCSo
What are your thoughts? How should the health reform law be changed so that it doesn’t harm businesses and the economy?
dehydration and malnutrition neglect at bettendorf health care nursing home in iowa almost cost my dad his life on february 6th 2011. the nurses and doctors refused him the hospital. they stated he always asked to go. i requested he go to the hospital a week before
they refused saying he really didnt need to go and that he was just very ill due to his copd and emphysema. they told me he just didnt have long to live and those were some of the signs and that i should have hospice for more support and to help him be comfortable. at the same time contradicting themselves as the doctor had cut back his pain medication and his breathing treatments. they also did not have him on any set schedule for the pain medications and were told he could only have them three times a day.
he couldnt even stand he was so weak on february 6th. on thursday feb 4th hospice came in without my knowledge when i was not there and later told me he refused their services.
they stated he definitely qualified as a terminally ill declining health patient. i asked why i was not told first. they stated no one told them that i was to be notified first.
four days later they called me again and i told them he was now in the hospital
just 4 days later after she had seen him without notifying me first as they were instructed to do the hospice lady then changed her story immediately saying oh he didnt seeem ill to me when i seen him just 4 days ago!!!???? and that he still qualifies for their services if i wished to work with her??? i thought patients who are dying only qualify for their services?? dont think so!!
he complained of pain constantly and feeling very sick.
they blew him off.
it almost cost him his life.
my sister and i and other family members went together and demanded they send him that very minute to the hospital seeing how poor his health was and that things just didnt seeem right at the facility.
i stated that i was on my way there to demand he go even if i had to call 911 myself.
when i arrived i asked when the last time he had been weighed.
the nurse on duty whom i had to search for(think she was off watching the superbowl)
she said his chart said he weighed 119 pounds. however that was wrong information as he only weighed 84 pounds when he arrived and had seeemed to have lost even more weight while declining in health.
she became irritated with me for saying the chart was wrong and demanded an aide go get a scale.
that is when the medics arrived.
they did call only when we gave an ultimatum and went in with several family members together.
we also just found a website called- bettendorf health care- in iowa website that states all of their records of all complaints of residents and inspections of things wrong wth the facility.
i called and spoke with the director who did not know anything about any of my concerns and did not seem to be taking notes.
i had spoken to her a week after he had arrived on january 14th 2010 to recover from a stay at the hospital. she said she didnt know how his admitting paperwork and information had been missed except that they were short an admitting person who had just quit.
had anyone even known what to do with him the first week he was there??
i asked her on february 7th several questions-she seemed to give contradicting answers on every single thing i had been previously told by her and several of the staff in previous inquiries.
i asked if i seemed to have such important concerns and complaints to address why she had not gone to get my dads chart since she said she didnt even have his chart in front of her.
she stated then that she did have his chart in her office of his paperwork but not the nurses chart.
she also had no knowledge of why he would have been out of pain medication from midnight to 6 p the next day (i know because of a previous incident a couple weeks earlier when i asked if he couldnt have pain meds. they said they didnt know. i requested they check his chart to see when he had one last. they did and said that it had been midnight the day before. that nurse stated that if someone forgets to order medication that happens.(the director said she had no knowledge of that happening since meds can be ordered with just a phone call and delivery right away all hours of the day and night she asked who i had dealt with. i told her it would be easy to know if she looked at his chart for the times i stated.
they about killed him and now she tells me that i should have dealt with the director of nursing (becky instead of her the director of admissions) because becky knew my dad real well. oh really? did she? why did he almost die then?
on february 7th while retrieving my dads items-i asked a visitor in the next room over if she was doing ok with her mom there. she stated she did have an incident with a major urinary infection of her mom which would have been very obvious to anyone who helped change the urine bag with blood in it.
only when she brought it to a nurses attention was a doctor called to treat that.
bettendorf health care has a high urinary infection rate of residents. that is a symptom of dehydration.
my dad arrived at the hospital near death. the ER found that he was severely dehydrated and had pneumonia and would have died without medical attention if it had waited any longer. he has been on iv bags of fluids all night and day and antibiotics-he has low kidney function as well.
so before choosing this facility be sure to consider the facts listed. they did not seem to improve his quality of life rather almost killed him and wrote it off as he is ill anyways-going as far to tell me those are symptoms of his illness. (they are actually all near death symptoms of malnutrition and dehydration (and pneumonia).!!
they also have 73 patients the average for iowa facilities is 57. the hours and qualifications of staff are way under the national average.
they are way understaffed for the number of patients they have.
i searched for a nurse tonight to help a resident calling for help as i walked by his room. i found three young aides in a small back room that holds a fridge. i insisted they come help.
they said they were not nurses. i insisted anyway.
as they walked out of the room after helping i did state that it shouldnt have taken three of them in the small room to do whatever needed to be done. she replied that they were discussing something. i said they needed to leave the drama at home and start taing care of the patients. she did not argue that fact and walked away.
i didnt see a nurse until on my way out of the facility in the tv area near the front door.
on my way out half the sidewalk was covered with ice. no one had put salt down on the icy sidewalk. i almost slipped on the ice. not a safe place.
when he arrived at the hospital he was slurring his words was very disoriented. the next day with fluids and antiobiotics he wondered how he had gotten there and felt a little better considering he suffered through so much due to major negligence. \
the dietician came in to his hospital room and immediately made up a diet to fit his needs to include diabetic meals nutrition shakes and snacks. she asked if he had been getting that at bettendorf health care. he said no the food was horrible.
bettendorf health care stated my dad slept through meals. they also stated a lot of residents did that. they also stated the kitchen is closed at night when a lot of residents are awake. to be fair they said they did have many snacks in the storage closet that holds a fridge behind the nurses station. seems to be a popular place to find many of the staff hiding out.
i would have demanded help sooner and according to my email below i did have concerns and doubts about this facility i just did not know what to do thinking and being told by nurses staff directors and physicians that he was just dying and fast due to his medical problems they already knew of. i am very angry to see such suffering and neglect could have been avoided if i had known better. i trusted them as professionals and feel it is my fault for seeing my dad suffer.
i am waiting to see if the neglect causing the low kidney function will improve -realized at the hospital due to the nursing home facility dehydration and malnutrition neglect
we are waiting for the doctor to call and the social worker at the hospital to suggest the best place for him to go.
the director also pretty much told me today "in fact you really shouldnt bring him back here if you have so many concerns!!!! " in her words.
when i asked her (diana director of admissions )if they were understaffed she replied no. there is one nurse per wing. there are 3 wings. and if one nurse is busy witha treatment for 30 minutes then someone else is supposed to cover for them. what if all three nurses are busy with one patient each? thats only 3 patients out of 73 who are recieving care at one time. thats 70 medically needy and not always dying or terminal petients(at least when they arrive) patients who receive absolutely no care at all for at least 30 minutes at any one given time.
my dad also had a bloody elbow which was treated and bandaged by the doctor. it was the second week he was there. it still has not completely healed.
he is diabetic with high and low blood sugar levels which need to be closely watched and a strict diabetic regimen diet followed to help him. (that diet was not done or addressed at all)
he does not know how it happened at all.
neither does anyone else who was there with him under their care.
also on february 6th and on many other visits i asked if he was eating and drinking. each various staff member i spoke with(there always seemed to be a different one each time i visited) said sure he had a little breakfast today. they never mentioned snacks or any other meals.
however even on fb 6th i asked why had they not called for an ambulance sooner if he had not been eating or drinking and had requested the hospital> the nurse said oh he drinks fluids all the time.
is that the question i asked her? no. and she got the answer...wrong.
my dad said why would they want him to go to the hospital when i apologized for believing them that he was dying and not doing something to help him sooner. i didnt know what to do!!! he said they wanted him to be sick so they would get paid more for him to stay longer.
seems they are going to run out of patients to "keep sick" if they keep going at this rate~!!
a friend of mine has a relative there as well.for several years. they visit her weekly and have not had any problems. she also has dementia as a resident. would she remember if anything was wrong?hmmm. i wonder.
I'm shocked that people who think not spending billions of dollars won't help us reduce the debt. I'm also amazed at how much worrying we do about the deficit - without talking about the debt at all.
As I understand it, the deficit is this years debt, but the total debt gets a lot less attention - at least when we are talking about solutions. I think we are way past trying to have a good year where we don't go too far into debt. We need a string of good years until we are totally out of debt.
For those who think a big transfer of wealth via government intervention in health care will help, and that repealing it won't, I guess I'd have to refer you to people who study this professionaly: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703954004576089702354292100.html
I guess that doesn't address the issue of whether it will be repealed, doesn't seem like it will. Still, if we could all get on the same page that we have a big whole in the ship, that the golden goose has the flu, that the money tree is being cut down to make money, I think then we could start to talk more realistically - and theory has it, in a democracy that is all you need, right?
I'm sure there is something better than only rich people get to be healthy, and something more realistic than everyone can now have as much of everything as they could ever possibly want. And I'm tired of blaming the politicians.
misinformation: Social Security and SSI
Medicare and Medicaid
We all know what Social Security and Medicare are! But everytime I see something about the costs they are grouped as the same.
Social Security has people paying into the program, and so does Medicare.
SSI and Medicaid are given to people who may have never paid one dime.
Why does the News Media (and the Government Media) always group them together as if they were one and the same thing?
Reclamation - Origin: 1525-35, in sense “a protest”, or “crying out against”.
Repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will not happen as we all know the President will veto any such legislative action if such action ever made it out of the Senate, however, the symbolism of “we the people” and our voice being heard in the House will indeed happen as we reclaim our right to government “for the people and by the people”.
While wholly symbolic in nature the message HR 2 sends is indeed deafening. We sent (voted) in members to balance the branches of government, and to represent us. The repeal of the PPACA is the clearest message to the Executive Branch that our voice “will” be heard, balance has been restored (in part) and that the voice of the center is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
Congress is forced to at least take up a vote on getting rid of ObamaCare. If the Republicans don't make an effort, they are history. Of course the Senate wont let ObamaCare come up for a vote and even if they did, Obama would veto the bill should they succeed.
One can only hope you are correct. Rather than take a radical approach in our new found desire to improve the legislature it might be more prudent to introduce improvements to the legislation over the coming year. Items such as tort reform come to mind as being more important than taking a huge step backwards and trying to start over again.
Repealing PPACA simply to save face and not allow the current administration a win is not as important as moving forward in progressing the insurance reforms we all know have been needed for decades.
Taking a longer term view of political capital expenditure, a better use of our time might be in progressing a balanced budget amendment as we are much more concerned with the health of our economy than with the trivial nature of the PPACA financial impact.
January 19th at 11:59am in Health Care
Given that 26 states have joined in the Florida suit to overturn ObamaCare, plus Virginia and Oklahoma that have suits pending, there are potentially 56 Senators whose careers may be on the line if they vote against the wishes of their states. I'm sure that the 56 doesn't include all of the Republican Senators either. That is why senator Reid is so adamant about letting the bill get to the Senate floor. Keep praying.
January 19th at 9:12am in Health Care
People who have not read Obamacare will say you are wasting your time. You must aggressively lobby Congress to repeal Obamacare and replace the healthcare with legislation that will count and improve our system. Insurance industry drafted Obamacare with hidden taxes and fees that should scare anyone who reads the bill. Keep charging hard, Chamber of Commerce.
Why are you wasting so much time on this issue. It's a done deal and you are just plain trying
to do something that can't happen. Get your act together.
This is bigger than the fact that the bill could bankrupt the country at a time when the country can least afford it. It is bigger than the effect on small businesses. At the heart of the matter, and the reason Tea Partiers and others will keep fighting, is the bill in itself is unconstitutional. To allow it to stand would greatly increase the size and scope of the federal government and what they can do. It sets a terrible precedent. This applies to a lot of other areas of the federal government as well which do effect business, so you can't separate Obamacare from what is going to happen in the future...or from this current economic mess.
January 19th at 11:33am in Health Care
It's the principle of ObamaCare. It is wrong and we need to try to repeal it and fight for what is right. Many of us had the same thoughts you expressed and now look where we are. Maybe there is still hope!!!!!
January 18th at 11:00pm in Health Care
Are their any reports of the effects if the new congress does not fund ObamaCare?
Thank you.
Truthfully, I think the legislators who are so "opposed" to the healthcare reform are just trying to appease the voters who helped them get into office. They know that they will be "on record" as in opposition, but that opposition will fail...
I cannot believe that the legislators are so short sighted.....
I can only hope that they will stop wasting time on this opposition and get on to work that is so badly needed!
January 20th at 10:25am in Effects Of Not Funding ObamaCare
From what I am reading, defunding the health care law will probably do more harm than good, including making an already mamouth and confusing system even more chaotic. Some things may still be enacted, but without proper funding they will be delayed or clumsily put into place -- which is ultimatelty a liability to those supported definding.
Instead, I think it is a better approach to address the most harmful provisions of the law through congressional hearings through the committees, with some jurisdiction over the law. No doubt this process will not be a quick fix, but with new polls indicating close to 50% of Americans opposing the law the work has the firm support it needs to move forward
January 20th at 9:54am in Effects Of Not Funding ObamaCare
@Bob As expected, the vote fell to party lines, meaning that all Senate Democrates opposed and all Senate Republicans supported the measure, bringing the vote outcome to an unfavorable 47-51. This count excludes two abstained votes from Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) .
(You can find this and other vote counts here: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=1&vote=00009).
The U.S. Chamber of Comerce realized the importance of this vote, and may include votes on, or in relation to, this amendment in our annual How They Voted scorecard.
February 4th at 2:56pm in Health Care Repeal
Please make a record of those who voted against repeal. We Americans will unelect them the next time around. That game is over, hear that Obama?
February 3rd at 2:19pm in Health Care Repeal
Well the socialist party has ignored us again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 3rd at 10:21am in Health Care Repeal
PLEASE VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICANS NEW HEALTH CARE. REPEAL OBAMA CARE.
WE LIKED THE INSURANCE WE HAD. THANKS TO OBAMA CARE WE GOT THE BOOT!
January 19th at 4:25pm in Health Care Repeal
Not very likely at all; it is highly unprobable the bill will make it out of the Senate and most certainly would be vetoed by the President --which he has said himself.
The Chamber views votes on H.R. 2 as a symbolic vote and a way to set the tone for improving the legislation in the year ahead -- through piece-meal votes, hearings and other proposals introduced to take the burden of the law off of employers' backs.
Your Congressman or woman still needs to hear from you. Send a letter a letter now here: http://bit.ly/eZPcIo.
January 12th at 1:30pm in Health Care Repeal
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