Monthly Archives: July 2009

What’s Really In Obama’s Health Care Bill?

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Image via The Patriot Post.

Image via The Patriot Post.

What’s really in Obama’s health care reform bill? Almost no one knows, and here’s why: It’s 1,017 pages long and written in an alien form of bureaucratic English that can barely be decoded by earthlings.

And yet, astonishingly, a U.S. Army translator has been found who speaks “Washington Doublespeak” and he was kind enough to decode the bill and post his plain-language findings over at FreeRepublic.com (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f…).

Snip

From CMS at FreeRepublic.com:

• Page 16: States that if you have insurance at the time of the bill becoming law and change, you will be required to take a similar plan. If that is not available, you will be required to take the government option!
• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (example: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No “judicial review” is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
• Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
• Page 203: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Yes, it really says that.
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected.”
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on “community” input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient’s health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

Monsignor Luis R. Zarama Named Auxiliary Bishop For Archdiocese of Atlanta

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Photo by Michael Alexander, The Georgia Bulletin

Photo by Michael Alexander, The Georgia Bulletin


ATLANTA — Pope Benedict XVI has named Monsignor Luis Rafael Zarama, 50, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, to be auxiliary bishop of Atlanta. The appointment was announced in Washington, July 27, by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory will hold a press conference in Atlanta at 10:00 am, July 27, 2009, at the Catholic Center of the Archdiocese of Atlanta to announce the appointment to the local community.

Archbishop Gregory said, “I am deeply grateful to His Holiness for this appointment which so favorably responds to the growing pastoral needs of our burgeoning local Church. The Holy Father’s selection of Monsignor Zarama from among our own generous and zealous priests is an affirmation not only of the gifts of this very fine priest, but of the quality of all of the priests who serve us. I heartily congratulate Bishop-elect Zarama and I look forward to working with him in the Episcopal service of the needs of all of our people.”

Luis Zarama was born November 28, 1958, in Pasto, Colombia. He entered the seminary of Pasto and the Universidad Mariana, where he studied philosophy and theology, from 1982-1987. He studied canon law at the Universidad Javeriana, in Bogata, from 1987-1991. He was ordained a priest in Atlanta in 1993.

Monsignor Zarama’s archdiocesan assignments have included parochial vicar, Sacred Heart Parish, Atlanta, 1993-1996; Administrator, St. Helena Mission, Clayton, Georgia, 1996-2006; pastor, St. Mark Parish, Clarkesville, Georgia, 1996-2006; Advocate, Court of Appeals, Ecclesiastical Province of Atlanta, 1993-1997; Defender of the Bond, Court of Appeals, Ecclesiastical Province of Atlanta, 1997-present; Assistant Director of Vocations, 2000-present; and Vicar General, 2006-present. He also has been a member of the Committee for Continuing Education of Priests, 1996-present, and a member of the Personnel Board, 2004-present.

In 2007, he was named a chaplain of His Holiness and received the title “monsignor.” He became an American citizen July 4, 2000.

The Atlanta Archdiocese has a population of 6,773,819 people, with 750,000, or 11 percent, of them Catholic.

The Episcopal Ordination of Bishop-Elect Luis R. Zarama will take place on:

Tuesday 29 September, 2009
The Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael

At the Cathedral of Christ the King
Atlanta, Georgia
Contact: Patricia M. Chivers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Communications Director
Monday, July 27, 2009
(678) 480-6865
pchivers@archatl.com

Strong Men/Strong Faith

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Folks,
Please visit the 5 Pages A Day Website
This is a site in progress. I’m honored and privileged to be a part of this new “movement” for men. Stay tuned for updates to this website! Make sure to view the talks that were given by Patrick Lencioni, Matthew Kelly and Allen Hunt at St. Peter Chanel Catholic Church in Roswell, Georgia back in the spring. This was the initial kick off event that drew over 1100 men! Pass the link along to those men (and women) you know who are interested in strengthening their faith.

New dates and cities to be announced soon!