Related: Why Obama Wants A Health Care Bill This Year
"In health bill, billions for parks, paths; Supporters cite prevention, but add-ons’ critics see pork" by Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | July 9, 2009
So when do they pay for ACTUAL CARE?
WASHINGTON - Sweeping healthcare legislation working its way through Congress is more than an effort to provide insurance to millions of Americans without coverage. Tucked within is a provision that could provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and even farmers’ markets.
I think TUCKING IT is the right term, taxpayers, 'cause that's what you are getting: TUCKED!
The add-ons - characterized as part of a broad effort to improve the nation’s health “infrastructure’’ - appear in House and Senate versions of the bill.
Critics argue the provision is a thinly disguised effort to insert pork-barrel spending into a bill that has been widely portrayed to the public as dealing with expanding health coverage and cutting medical costs. A leading critic, Senator Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, ridicules the local projects, asking: “How can Democrats justify the wasteful spending in this bill?’’
They don't try to justify it; they just do it.
But advocates, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, defend the proposed spending as a necessary way to promote healthier lives and, in the long run, cut medical costs.
What a disappointment he turned out to be.
Also see: Meet Your Antiwar New England Liberals
And why ain't he dead yet? Globalist's life-saving technology?
Most people with his disease don't last a year.
Gonna 'die' right before the health vote, Ted?
The Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Act; sounds good, don't it?
“These are not public works grants; they are community transformation grants,’’ said Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Kennedy, chairman of the Senate health committee whose healthcare bill includes the projects.
Whatever they are they DON'T BELONG in a HEALTH BILL!!!
“If improving the lighting in a playground or clearing a walking path or a bike path or restoring a park are determined as needed by a community to create more opportunities for physical activity, we should not prohibit this from happening,’’ Coley said in a statement.
Readers: $80m in US funds for bike projects unspent in Mass.
Bailout Bill Benefited Bicycles
The Senate health panel’s bill does not specify how much would go to the community projects. A Senate staff member said the amount of spending will be left up to the Obama administration. A House version of the bill caps the projects at $1.6 billion per year and includes them in a section designed to save money in the long run by reducing obesity and other health problems.
Readers: Boston Globe Bullies
It is not clear yet how the money would be allocated. The legislation says that grants will be awarded to local and state government agencies that will have to submit detailed proposals. The final decisions will be made by the secretary of Health and Human Services. The proposal was inserted at the urging of a nonprofit, nonpartisan group called Trust for America’s Health, which produces reports about obesity and other health matters.
So SOME AGENDA-PUSHING OUTFIT used its WELL-CONNECTED INFLUENCE to get PORK, huh?
Oh, well; as in Massachusetts.... The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts' Democracy
Part of the group’s proposed language for the community grants was inserted into the Senate bill. It called for “creating the infrastructure to support active living and access to nutritious foods in a safe environment.’’ The group provided examples of grants for bike paths, jungle gyms, and lighting, though the Senate bill doesn’t list those specifics.
Jeffrey Levi, the group’s executive director, said that “it is easy to satirize’’ the projects, but they are needed to improve America’s health....
Now the influence-peddling becomes even clearer!
See: Stimulus Bill is For Jewish Interests Only
While many may think the healthcare bill strictly aims to increase coverage, Levi said that is a mistaken impression. “This isn’t just about health insurance,’’ he said. “This bill is about creating a healthier country.’’
Yeah, it's ABOUT DOUGH!!!!!!!
The idea of using the healthcare bill as a vehicle for preventing diseases has bipartisan appeal. President Obama has called for “the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that’s one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.’’
How about giving us the health plan we give you instead of this s***?
--more--"
Or how about TAKING YOUR OWN ADVICE, you fat-assed f***s?
"Healthy habits may cut price of insurance; Senate bill offers workers incentive" by Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | July 15, 2009
Workers who quit smoking, lose weight, and eat right could have their health insurance premiums cut by as much as half, possibly saving them thousands of dollars per year, under a measure inserted with little notice this week into the Senate healthcare overhaul bill.
The move represents a potential breakthrough on one of the most controversial elements of healthcare overhaul: how to get Americans to improve their well-being without turning government into a medical version of Big Brother.
Yeah, it's OKAY to have BIG BROTHER START WARS and SPY on you, but GOD FORBID he actually HELP YOU!
Related: Sicko
I mean, these people -- the MSM -- are INCREDIBLE!
Under the plan, individuals would have a strong financial incentive for jumping on a treadmill or signing up for smoking cessation classes, moves that would not only prolong their lives but also reduce the financial burdens of behavior-related disease on the healthcare system.
“Money talks,’’ Senator Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who helped broker the deal reached Monday night, said in an interview. “People react to incentives that involve cash.’’
It doesn't just talk, Judd: It SCREAMS!!!
***************
The bipartisan agreement by members of the Senate health committee could still unravel as the bill makes it way through other committees in the Senate and House. But after months of focus on how to provide coverage to the uninsured, it represents a stark acknowledgment by senators that overhauling the nation’s healthcare system must include measures to make Americans more health-conscious.
Anyone ever see their fat lard asses crawling around Capitol Hill?
And they are gonna lecture us starving suffering folk?
Previous measures aimed at convincing Americans to get in shape and lead healthier lifestyles have had mixed success....
Yeah, because WE DON'T LIKE some ASSHOLE PINHEAD with a FAT ASS LECTURING US about .... well, anything!!!!!
Safeway’s program has been widely hailed. In May, President Obama praised “companies like Safeway that have been able to hold their costs flat for their employees at a time when other companies are seeing double-digit inflation in their healthcare.’’ Obama cited benefits to employees “as a consequence of them stopping smoking or losing weight or getting exercise.’’
This is all about MONEY, not YOU, citizen!
