Tamzin Rosenwasser, MDBy: Tamzin Rosenwasser, M.D.

We hear much talk about preventive care, but nobody has defined it. From the content of the discussions, I deduce that what the health bureaucrats actually refer to would be better characterized as “early detection.” Early detection is what occurs when a physician finds a disease in its early stages that might have been prevented by earlier measures. But who can take those measures? Not the physician, only the patient. There is only one person living the patient’s life; it is the patient. I cannot live his life for him.

Let’s consider obesity, and intake of harmful substances. If I have a dog, I can control the dog’s life so that it takes in only whatever food I give it, and is protected from harmful substances. But as a physician, do I portion out my patients’ food daily? Of course not. Am I in charge of restricting their lives so they cannot have access to cigarettes, or too much booze? No.

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The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) along with 5 individual physicians (Janis Chester, M.D., Mark Hauser, M.D., Leah S. McCormack, M.D., Guenter L. Spanknebel, M.D., and Graham L. Spruiell, M.D.) filed an Amicus Brief asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm Judge Roger Vinson's ruling declaring ObamaCare Unconstitutional. The brief states in part, "Amici believe ACA is unconstitutional. If upheld, ACA will harm patients and undermine, in fundamental and dangerous ways, the practice of medicine...," and they "urge the Court to affirm Section 1501’s [the individual mandate to buy insurance] unconstitutionality and to further hold that Section 1501 is not severable from the remainder of ACA. Read the brief below or CLICK HERE to download a pdf copy. Amicus Brief filed by AAPS in Florida vs. HHS - Challenge to ObamaCare

By: Jane M. Orient, M.D.

Jane M. Orient, M.D.Politicians love to boast of the benefits they shower on favored constituents with their right hand. But as with the amazing feats performed by magicians, the unwary audience is watching the wrong hand.

It may seem that in government the right hand often doesn’t know what the left is doing. However, it is surely obvious that the goodies in the right hand did not materialize out of thin air. They had to be taken from somewhere.

Usually that somewhere is taxes. Even doctors know that. For example, while bemoaning the coming cuts in their pay from Medicaid, some ventured to say out loud, at a medical society meeting, that there is an answer to the problem: we just need to raise taxes.

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On April 26, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case (Sorrell v IMS Health) concerning the sale of prescription records by data mining companies. In challenging a Vermont statute that limits the sale of data for marketing purposes, IMS Health argues that there is a First Amendment right to harvest and sell medical records data.

With all the "privacy notices" they receive, and frequent references to "HIPAA" (the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), patients may assume that the federal government is protecting their privacy. This was never true, and recent health reform laws do even more to accomplish the government’s goal of having all medical records in one vast "interoperable" data base.

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On April 28, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona shot down the basic cornerstone of state-based efforts to replace “ObamaCare” with free-market approaches to lowering costs and improving quality. She vetoed a bill (S.B. 1593) allowing small businesses and individuals to buy medical insurance across state lines, just as most larger companies already do under the federal Employee Retirement Security Act, ERISA.

About 60% to 70% of employers have more than 100 employees and thus fall under ERISA. Freed of state mandates, they can buy their insurance in any state that gives the best price and the best packages of benefits. The rest of us–individuals and small businesses—are chained to the insurance companies and mandates in our respective states of residence, and tied to whatever deals that these companies cut with the state government.

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In a press reslease issued today, AAPS Executive Director, Jane Orient M.D., inquires:  

“What went on in the backroom meetings of the Obama Administration and the SEIU, AARP, AMA, and other special interests during the health care push?” AAPS encourages the House Energy and Commerce Committee to do a very thorough probe.

“The government wants patients and doctors in a fishbowl, while officials stay behind the equivalent of the police interrogator’s two-way mirror,” Dr. Orient said. “That needs to change.”

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Wayne Iverson, MD
AAPS California Chapter CoordinatorLast year President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as ObamaCare, amongst a flurry of protests and concerns about the burdensome costs and impossibilities of complying with the regulations. Within months, large corporations demanded waivers while small business are left scrambling to meeting compliance under the new federal healthcare reform law. Individuals have seen their insurance premiums automatically increase 15-20% in 2010. The insurance companies claim they have to start charging more now because in years to come they will have more costs under the new law. So onerous and disruptive to the American way of life, over half of the states in America filed lawsuits challenging PPACA. Judge Vinson issued his final ruling on the lawsuit in Florida, agreeing with the attorneys representing 26 states and declared ObamaCare to be unconstitutional.

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by Jane M. Orient, M.D.,

Rep. Paul Ryan has gotten some very important things right. First, $1 billion may be real money, but it's nothing compared to our federal deficit. We need to talk in terms of thousands of billions, i.e. trillions.

Second, we have to stop the hemorrhage from entitlements, or we will bleed to death. Ryan suggests a switch to a defined contribution plan.

His plan for Medicare doesn't start until 2021, by which time the patient may be dead. Worse, the defined "contribution" of about $15,000 per beneficiary will go to a "health plan"-even though Ryan explains brilliantly that we got into our current mess because of third-party payments.

Why wait? And why not fix the major flaw, recognizing that benefits belong to the beneficiary, not to the middlemen? 

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This 1974 AAPS Newsletter article decries the fiscal irresponsibility of Nixon's proposed budget deficit of $9.4 Billion. Compare that to the $1.6 Trillion ($1,600 Billion) estimated budget deficit of 2011! [Note the mention of the $125 Million Nixon spent on developing HMOs.]  CLICK HERE to browse all 1974 AAPS newsletters.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

From the Medical Freedom Report Podcast:

ObamaCare, Corporate Welfare, & Revolving Door Lobbying by aapsonline

President Obama fashions himself a scourge on special interests, yet the corporate and union lobby influence is ubiquitous in his “hallmark” legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In this podcast with Michael Ostrolenk, Timothy P. Carney, formerly of Human Events and protege to the legendary journalist Bob Novak, and now Senior Political Columnist for the Washington Examiner, exposes the features written into ObamaCare to benefit the well-connected special interests at the expense of American citizens as a whole.

Drug company and big insurance lobbyists “at the table” extracted corporate welfare trophies like limits on HSA drug purchases to prescription, rather than over-the-counter, drugs, expanded Medicare prescription drug subsidies, and not to mention the individual mandate to buy health insurance.

And now that the bill has become law, the Congressional staffers that wrote the bill have fled their government jobs for the “Great Health Care Cash-out” to lobby for corporate-friendly implementation regulations of the provisions of the PPACA. Listen to learn more about the shocking truths about how big government and special interests are colluding to control the agenda in DC for the benefit of both parties and the detriment of our liberties. 

THANKS TO YOU, the Texas House Public Health Committee passed medical board reform by a landslide vote of 7-2. This bipartisan bill, CSHB 1013, was first on the agenda today and only two committee members voted against it. In addition, nearly a majority of all the House members have also signed on in support of this landmark legislation.

Full Story-http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/site/article/victory_7-2_vote_passes_tmb_reform_in_the_texas_house_public_health_committ/

Too many physicians endorse the “single payer” concept. Some are legitimately frustrated by the increasing difficulty in getting paid by private insurance companies and so called “health maintenance organizations.” My response is, “What if the single payer is Medicaid?” Unless ObamaCare is defeated in the Supreme Court, or defunded/repealed by Congress, we may soon be in a position to answer that question.

Full Article-http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/site/article/obamacare-endgame-medicaid/

The Umpqua River Outside Roseburg, ORTake Back Medicine is pleased to welcome a new partner in distributing liberty-minded and Constitutionally-sound information.  The Roseburg Beacon a conservative newspaper in Roseburg, Oregon has commenced publication online in addition to it's existing print version, which will continue. 

Congressmen Chaffetz and Polis introduce historic Free Speech About Science Act

From our friends at ANH-USA:

For Immedate Release: April 5, 2011 Contact: Darrell Rogers 202.467.1986

Washington, DC – Today, Congressmen Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced the Free Speech About Science Act (HR 1364). This landmark legislation protects basic free speech rights, ends government censorship of science, and enables the natural health products community to share peer-reviewed scientific findings about natural health with the public.

Gretchen DuBeau of the Executive and Legal Director of The Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA) says this legislation is critical because “current FDA regulations prohibit dietary supplement manufacturers and food producers from referring to any scientific studies on the health benefits of a food or natural substance.”

In the FDA’s view, even providing

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Wayne Iverson, M.D. talks with Joe MillerSAN DIEGO, California, Apr 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the past two years, ordinary American citizens from all walks of life rose up and marched under the banner of the Tea Party movement. The full force and effect of this movement was seen by a dramatic shift in the political power structure in Congress after the November 2010 elections. The far left in Washington and the liberal elite media failed to denigrate honest mom and pop American citizens with names like “tea baggers” and “astroturf”, and by calling them “racists”. The march continues with the added focus on fighting voter fraud.

Dr. Wayne Iverson recently attended the True The Vote National Summit 2011 on March 25th and 26th in Houston, Texas, which was attended by approximately 150 people from 27 States. According to Dr. Iverson, “America’s battle for fair and honest elections is well underway. It is obvious that the same folks who were so passionate about how things are run in Washington have the same energy and determination to make certain voter fraud does not occur.”

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AAPS President, Lee Hieb, M.D.AAPS was founded in 1943 to guard against the intrusion of government into the practice of medicine. It is the basic principle of our organization that medicine is a sacred relationship between a physician and a patient—not a relationship between a physician, a government bureaucrat and a patient. We believe in the Hippocratic Oath, and that our duty is to the individual, not the collective, society, or the state.

I used to belong to a number of medical societies. One day I realized that the prime goal of my specialty society was to maintain my specialty’s government reimbursements. And, they do this by using my dues to send a representative to fight against the representatives of other specialty societies whose members have funded them through their dues! That is ultimately an absurd use of my hard earned income. So I only belong to AAPS which, for over 60 years, has stood on the principles I believe in—individual liberty, personal responsibility and the type of limited government that consistutionally has no authority to involve itself in the practice of medicine.

Full Message-http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/site/article/why_aaps_message_from_aaps_president_lee_hieb/

The 50 governors of the United States are beginning to demonstrate some backbone. They now must remind the federal government that with ObamaCare it has overstepped its bounds.

Andrew Cuomo, Democrat governor of New York, divulged the fact that 1 in 4 New York residents is on Medicaid. Medicaid is the social safety net set up in 1965 with the elusive dream of making everyone equal. President Lyndon Johnson actually stated that this program would help eliminate poverty within seven years. Instead, it has served to spread the pain of poverty far beyond what anyone could have imagined. Instead of encouraging the drive and ingenuity of the American spirit, it tells one in four New York residents that he cannot care for himself or his family and is a victim of others.

Full Article-http://www.njaaps.org/op-eds/2011/3/27/governors-you-can-say-no-to-the-feds.html

Standard governing subpoenas for speech activities remains unknown 

By Kristen Rasmussen

Siobhan Reynolds said she has been living “in a constant panic” for the past few years — a difficult-to-describe “madness” she never thought would come at the hands of her government.

The rural New Mexico resident has lived under the threat of a federal indictment and faced court fines that ultimately bankrupted her nonprofit organization, the Pain Relief Network — the lifeblood of her existence since the early 2000s, years before her ex-husband died of a brain hemorrhage.

Reynolds said she believes the hemorrhage was caused by years of abnormally high blood pressure brought on by debilitating joint pain her husband suffered as a symptom of a congenital connective tissue disorder.

The terror was exacerbated by the fact that she endured it, not as a punishment for criminal activity or other wrongdoing, but for speech and other constitutionally protected expressive activities, Reynolds said.

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Not so long ago, hospitals were primarily workshops for physicians, and both hospital administrators and physicians were working for a single purpose: healing the sick. But now many hospitals—whether tax-exempt ("nonprofit") or not—have become big businesses. Their first priority is bringing in more revenue from government and insurers, and decreasing their expenses. Physicians who care about their patients may stand in the way of the business plan.

Read Full Press Release- http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hospitals-make-war-on-doctors-says-association-of-american-physicians-and-surgeons-118511054.html

Speaker Gingrich and Wayne Iverson, M.D.SAN DIEGO, March 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, March 16th in San Diego at the Westin Gaslamp Quarter Hotel, a room packed with local San Diego community leaders listened to the former Speaker of the House's views on the US Government and the current economic environment. Gingrich, an acknowledged historian and author on American history and politics, reviewed the strong faith this country's framers possessed as they put pen to paper codifying the documents that guide all aspects of our society today. "One Nation Under God" and "In God We Trust," firmly a part of American tradition, exemplify the founding fathers' belief that the rights we own are not bestowed by our fellow human beings but a higher source.

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