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. 

Full Article-http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/site/article/governors_you_can_say_no_to_the_feds/

There are over 20 active lawsuits, including one filed by AAPS, challenging the PPACA. In this podcast, Michael Ostrolenk speaks with Constitutional scholar and best selling author Ken Klukowski about what’s next in the Florida and Virginia Constitutional challenges against the individual mandate to purchase government approved health insurance.  They also discuss the inevitable U.S. Supreme Court review of ObamaCare and implications of the acts lack of a severability clause. In addition to authoring an amicus brief quoted in the Florida decision of Judge Roger Vinson, Mr. Klukowski wrote briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme court in two recent 2nd Amendment cases, D.C. vs. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago.  Michael and Mr. Klukowski touch briefly on future court action to further strengthen individuals’ rights to keep and bear arms. See more of Mr. Klukowski’s writings at Townhall.com.

Listen-http://www.themedicalpodcast.com/2011/02/14/update-on-constitutional-challenges-to-the-obamacare-individual-mandate/

A federal judge in Florida struck down the entire healthcare reform law Monday afternoon, ruling that the requirement for individuals to purchase insurance is unconstitutional and is too central to making the law function.

Full article-http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/141283-federal-judge-strikes-down-healthcare-law

“Show me the man and I’ll find his crime” was a tenet of Stalin’s Soviet Union, but with over 55 new Federal crimes created every year, how close are we getting to it being true here in the United States? In this podcast, Brian Walsh, author of One Nation Under Arrest and chair of the Heritage Foundation’s Overcriminalization Workgroup, joins Michael Ostrolenk to discuss this question.  Listen and learn what Heritage is doing to educate our legislators that the consequence of passing broad and overly vague laws is, as Ayn Rand warned in Atlas Shurgged, “it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking them.” 

Listen-http://www.themedicalpodcast.com/2011/01/28/overcriminalization/

AAPS was founded in 1943 and has been fighting for private medicine in the United States ever since. From defeating the initial attempt in the 1940s to socialize American medicine, to successfully opening up the secret Clinton Health Care Taskforce, and now as the only professional physician organization to challenge ObamaCare, AAPS has consistently stood up for free market and ethical principles in the practice of medicine. AAPS Executive Director Jane Orient, M.D. in this interview with Michael Ostrolenk, gives a historical perspective on these and other AAPS accomplishments.

Listen- -http://www.themedicalpodcast.com/2011/01/19/brief-history-of-aaps-with-jane-orient-m-d/

Eileen Dannemann, President of the National Coalition of Organized Women, speaks with Michael Ostrolenk about the 2500% increase in H1N1 (Swine Flu) Vaccine related miscarriages. The number of spontaneous abortions reported in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reaction Database (VAERS) increased from 7 in the 2008/2009 flu season to 179 in the 2009/2010 season. In addition only 20 such cases were reported in the 20 year period between 1990 and 2009 and the estimates are that only 15% of these miscarriages are reported.  The CDC is seemingly uninterested in this increase.  Additional data and information can be found at www.ProgressiveConvergence.com. 

Listen-http://www.themedicalpodcast.com/2011/01/13/h1n1-vaccine-relate-miscarriages/

A GAO study found that Medicare bureaucrats give incorrect answers to physicians’ questions regarding Medicare regulations 96% of the time! If these Medicare “experts” do not understand the rules how can honest physicians be expected to successfully navigate the Medicare regulation labyrinth?  Michael Ostrolenk speaks with Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D. about how this “Incompetence-Based Bureaucracy” is driving good doctors out of practice and preventing patients from receiving the care they need.

Listen-http://www.themedicalpodcast.com/2011/01/11/medicare-regulations-target-honest-doctors/

This article from the WSJ is quite disturbing.  Maybe we need a new "Just Say NO!"  effort but this time against prescription drug use and abuse.

Full article- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203731004576046073896475588.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook

With the growing list of bailouts and stimulus packages (not to mention Obamacare, and U.S. troop presence in over 200 countries), multi-billion and even trillion dollar expenditures by our Federal Government have become a common occurrence. Where is the money?

To listen-

http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/001473

In a blow to the Obama administration, a federal judge in Florida ruled Thursday that a lawsuit challenging some of the major tenets of health care reform can go forward. The suit was brought by 20 state attorneys general, led by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Full Article-http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/10/judge-allows-multistate-health-reform-lawsuit-to-move-forward.html

Total support for repeal is up four points from a week ago but consistent with opposition to the law for months. Support for repeal has ranged from 50% to 63% in weekly tracking since Democrats in Congress passed the law in late March. 

Link-http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/health_care_law

The personal medical freedoms of Americans have been in many ways on the decline well before the signing of the PPACA last March and the result is often, tragically, lost lives.  Patients looking to innovative, possibly life-saving medical treatments are met by bureaucratic red tape created by government agencies like the FDA and state medical boards.  In this podcast, Benjamin Barr, J.D. of the Wyoming Liberty Group discusses with Michael Ostrolenk an innovative solution to resecure our lost rights – Health Care Freedom Zones.

Listen-http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/001457

'We should cure cancer," James Watson declares in a huff, and "we should have the courage to say that we can really do it." He adds a warning: "If we say we can't do it, we will create an atmosphere where we just let the FDA keep testing going so pitifully." 

Full Article- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519961343438740.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

Once again, the American Medical Association is begging Congress to postpone a fee cut for doctors under Medicare's "sustained growth rate" (SGR) method. Unless Congress acts, doctors' Medicare payments will be slashed 23% on Dec 1, then another 6% on Jan 1. The formula automatically kicks in when Medicare spending exceeds a certain amount.
On what the AMA calls White Coat Wednesday, Nov 17, doctors are urged to call Congress. But the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) advises a different message.

"The AMA and Congress have been playing this game of 'chicken' for more than 8 years," says Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of AAPS. [See: http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/001097] The AMA threatens doctors will quit seeing Medicare patients unless Congress stops the cuts.

"Meanwhile, the AMA and the government collude on a dictatorial system of price controls."

The values for thousands of medical procedures are set by a secretive 29-member panel called the RUC, the Relative Value Scale Update Committee, convened by the AMA. [See Wall Street Journal, Oct 26, 2010. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540440173772102.html?KEYWORDS=Relative+Value+Scale+Update] Once the RUC determines the formula for divvying up $60 billion for physician fees, the government accepts most of the recommendations and applies a "conversion factor" to give each fee a dollar amount.

Doctors who charge a different amount are heavily fined or sent to prison. Because of the price controls or ban on "balance billing," if the Medicare-allowed fee doesn't cover the cost, doctors simply can't provide the service. Patients who are willing and able to pay are not permitted to make up the difference. It amounts to a form of covert rationing.

"In a free-market system, patients and doctors decide on the fee," states Dr. Orient. "That is not necessarily the same as the insurance reimbursement."

Doctors who opt out of Medicare set their own fees, but patients cannot collect Medicare reimbursement for their services.

Instead of asking for more taxpayer money, AAPS asks Congress to restore the freedom of patients and physicians to make their own decisions, including the amount of the fee. Without all the expensive Medicare hassles, fees are often lower.

 

The same day President Obama signed his health care bill, attorneys general in Virginia and Florida — the latter eventually joined by 19 other states — signed legal complaints challenging it. More than 20 lawsuits have been filed across the country, with serious lawyers, scholars, think tanks, and advocacy groups involved directly or as "friends of the court."

More-http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12526

Don Miller, M.D., on what the state-pharma complex has in mind for us.

There are vital health ingredients that we need but can’t get enough of like Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Iodine. Then, there are the harmful elements pushed upon us by the State,which we should not be getting at all, like fluoride which causes brain disorders, vaccines which cause autism and statins which inhibit healthy cells. Dr. Miller keeps close watch on government-enslaved doctors and the lying propaganda of the pill-pushers.

Click for Interview-http://www.lewrockwell.com/lewrockwell-show/2010/10/26/169-keeping-us-sick-stupid-and-broke/

An outspoken pain relief advocate has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to shield her from a grand jury subpoena that threatens her First Amendment right to criticize the government, according to a recently unsealed but still redacted petition in a case that also has implications for journalists called before grand juries.

Full Article- http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=11605

Michael Ostrolenk speaks with progressive blogger Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake.com about the opposition from across the political spectrum to the so called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. One of the main components of PPACA these groups object to is the mandate forcing individuals to buy health insurance from private coroporations – health insurance that they may not want and may not cover care they will need. In this short conversation Michael and Ms. Hamsher look at the resasons, some similar some not, folks from all political points of view dislike this provision.  They also discuss the implications that the unpopular new health care law has for the upcoming elections.

Follow Link-http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/001353

Website dedicated to tracking lawsuits- http://healthcarelawsuits.org/