June, 2017, Part 2, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science: Look At The Numbers and Blow And Blow YourMind

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

• Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
• Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
• Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control of our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical posts listed on the right side of this page.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) A recent scare that global warming/climate change advocates tried to peddle was that manmade climate change was increasing the likelihood and severity of droughts. They would point to the massive drought that California has been experiencing the past few years as conclusive proof that manmade climate change was leading to devastating drought conditions. In fact, one advocate claimed that California had entered a permanent state of drought, again all caused by mankind’s energy foolishness.

But then it started to rain in California. It rained so much that construction of a new NFL stadium had to be significantly delayed because of the large amount of rain, causing the to be built stadium to be not available to host a Super Bowl a few years down the road. So much for a permanent drought condition, it is raining so much that building construction has had to be delayed.

But Philip Hodges, writing for the Eagle Rising website, outlined how little drought there actually is in the country today, as reported by USA Today:

• Despite climate change advocates’ predictions of severe drought conditions, the U.S. drought situation is at a 17 year low.
• The Federal government announced recently, via its U.S. Drought Monitor, that only 6.1% of the lower 48 states are in a drought condition today.
• This is a record low in the history of the 17 year old Monitor, lower than the previous low of 7.7% way back in 2010.
• According to meteorologist Brad Rippey of the U.S.Department of Agriculture: “Drought has certainly been disappearing at a rapid rate this spring.” 
• California, which has been a multi year drought condition, has only 8% of its territory in a drought condition, close to the national average.
• The record high for the Monitor was September, 2012 when 65.5% of the country was in a drought condition.

Another lie or misinformation from the climate change advocates. Five years after the Monitor showed that 65.5% of the country was in a drought condition, it is now a fraction of what it was back then despite who knows how much carbon mankind has thrown into the atmosphere since 2012.

Real data shows that the severe weather that was predicted, in this case prolonged and deadlier droughts, has not materialized as predicted. Just another grossly inaccurate prediction from the people that continue to say things without science, facts, or reality to back them up.

2) The article cited in the previous discussion went on to document how many other times that global warming/climate change advocates’ views and predictions of the world did not line up with the realities and data sets of the world including, citing Marc Morano of Climate Depot as his source:

Extreme Weather: Scientist to Congress in 2017: ‘No evidence’ that hurricanes, floods, droughts, tornadoes are increasing – Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. of University of Colorado

Tornadoes: NOAA Tornado data revealing 2016 as ‘one of the quietest years since records began in 1954’ and below average for 5th year in a row

Hurricanes: 1) Inconvenient NOAA report: ‘It is premature to conclude (AGW has) already had a detectable impact on’ hurricanes & 2) NOAA: U.S. Completes Record 11 Straight Years Without Major (Cat 3+) Hurricane Strike & 3) 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers reveal the lack of connection between hurricanes & ‘global warming’

Floods: ‘Floods are not increasing’: Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. slams ‘global warming’ link to floods and extreme weather – How does media ‘get away with this?’http://www.climatedepot.com/2016/08/23/floods-are-not-increasing-dr-roger-pielke-jr-slams-global-warming-link-to-floods-extreme-weather-how-does-media-get-away-with-this/ – Pielke Jr. on how extreme weather is NOT getting worse: ‘Flood disasters are sharply down. U.S. floods not increasing either.’ “Floods suck when they occur. The good news is U.S. flood damage is sharply down over 70 years,” Pielke explained.

Heavy Rains: 1000 year rainfall study suggests droughts and floods used to be longer, worsehttp://www.climatedepot.com/2016/05/13/1000-year-rainfall-study-suggests-droughts-and-floods-used-to-be-longer-worse/

Extreme weather used to be blamed on ‘global cooling’ in the 1970s and early 80s Flashback NOAA 1974: ‘Extreme weather events blamed on global cooling’ http://www.climatedepot.com/2016/09/08/flashback-noaa-1974-extreme-weather-events-blamed-on-global-cooling/ – NOAA October 1974: ‘Many climatologists have associated this drought and other recent weather anomalies with a global cooling trend and changes in atmospheric circulation which, if prolonged, pose serious threats to major food-producing regions of the world’

I love his last point where as recently as 1974 the Federal government was predicting a global cooling disaster in the making. Funny, how within just a few years the data showed the complete opposite, global warming. Nothing in Mother Nature changes that quickly.

Bottom line is that scientists, data, reality, and research contradict all of the natural disasters, droughts, hurricanes, etc. that were predicted to have occurred already that have not occurred.

3) The Independent Journal Review recently compiled a bunch of data charts from the past few years that showed that manmade global warming/climate change may actually be a myth, especially if you look at historical data, with historical data being over thousands and millions of years in order to get at the long term climate shifts of the earth. That article can be accessed at:

http://ijr.com/the-declaration/2014/05/139936-25-images-prove-climate-changes-whether-man-anything/

As you read the article and look at the charts, you will see the data indicates that in the history of the Earth, carbon dioxide levels have been much higher than they are today, high levels attained without the help of mankind. Earth's temperature has been much higher than it is today, high temps that were attained without the help of mankind. Hurricane volume and activity is down, contrary to what global warming advocates predicted. Tornado levels are down, contrary to what global warming advocates predicted. And on and on and on.

Data and reality are wonderful things. They actually show reality, not what politicians like Al Gore want reality to be. Which reminds me of an old saying: “There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” And the numbers and trends illustrated in this article certainly should devastate many opinions of global warming advocates, assuming their minds are open enough to dump the hysteria and believe the numbers.

And even if mankind is changing the climate a substantial amount, what in the world makes anyone think that people like Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and the rest of the inept people sitting in Congress and the Federal government can do anything about it efficiently, effectively, and constructively? As pointed out in the article, “Do government bureaucrats who can't even run Amtrak or the Post Office actually think they can control the weather like a thermostat?” Doubtful, very doubtful.

That will do it for today’s lesson in reality relative to climate: the numbers, history, and common sense do nothing to reinforce the concept that mankind is devastating the climate, it is plain as day for anyone without a closed mind or a mindless desire to follow what politicians tell us.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

June, 2017, Part 1, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science: Obama Still Peddling Non-Facts, Spring Snows In Colorado, and More

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

• Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
• Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
• Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control of our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.
• To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical posts listed on the right side of this page.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1)For years and years people like Al Gore yelled and ranted that mankind was causing severe global warming that would burn up the planet and lead to all kinds of problems. When all of those predictions were wrong in so many ways, the global warming clan rebranded their effort to “climate change,” an even more amorphous term that allowed them to claim that anything that happened in the weather and climate was caused by man. It also released them from any kind of verification and measurement of their claims since everything was caused by manmade climate change.

Changing the brand to climate change was probably a good thing for them, given what happened in Colorado in late April. According to Valerie Richardson, writing for the Washington Times on April 29, 2017, at least one of the so-called “People’s Climate March” that was scheduled in Colorado on a recent Saturday had to be cancelled because of a major snowstorm.

Kind of ironic that over a month into spring that a climate change rally had to be shut down because of COLD weather and too much snow. Imagine how embarrassing it would have been in global warming was still the rage, kind of tough to justify global warming when a heavy snowstorm hits just prior to May.

And this was not just a bunch of snow flurries. Over a foot of snow fell in some places in Colorado and at the march in Denver, that was not cancelled because of snow, at least one substantial snowman was witnessed at the rally.

Again, thank the lord that global warming went away and became climate change or else it would have been embarrassing.

2) Global warming/climate change types like to claim that the “science is settled,” that just about every scientist in the world believes that mankind is causing catastrophic global warming and climate change impacts on the Earth. We have shown many, many times how this myth, “the science is settled,” is incredibly biased and wrong.

But the best way to prove a scientific theory wrong is with actual data. Consider a recent article in the UK Telegraph that reviewed the work of real scientists in Denmark relative to the Earth and climate change:

• Joseph Curl, writing for the Daily Wire website on May 8, 2017, reviewed the results of work done by the the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) which was written up in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper.
• The DMI found that the Earth had not warmed up in the past 19 years, killing any and all global warming forecast models that predicted the Earth would be much warmer today than it was 20 years ago.
• The DMI findings included the reality that December temperatures in the Arctic have been steadily less than minus 20 degrees C.
• The Arctic ice pack has returned to where it was 13 years ago.
• The Arctic ice pack is much thicker than it was as measured back in 2008.
• The Greenland ice cap got larger last winter than at any time in years.
• And although temps were very high in some places in 2016, giving the hold out global warming advocates hope, higher temps that were caused by the presence of a very strong El Nino, satellite images show that as the El Nino has dissipated, global temps have dropped more than .6 degrees C, the same thing that happened 17 years ago when a similar El Nino Had made 1998 the so-called “the hottest year on record.”
• The article cites other research which found that “a natural cooling cycle that occurs every 230 years began in 2014 and will send temperatures plummeting even further by 2019.” and that “Scientists are also expecting a “huge reduction” in solar activity for 33 years between 2020 and 2053 that will cause thermometers to crash.”
• This other research shows that climate is severely affected by activity on the sun and given that the sun activity is entering a quiet period, we can expect a cooling trend on Earth if past history repeats itself.

So, pick your scientists, the ones in Denmark doing real measurements of reality or Al Gore types who are still frantically trying to prove that mankind is causing all kinds of havoc despite the history of failed climate and global warming predictions.

Keep in mind that if the sun is quieting down and that causes a sudden drop in temps, agriculture output will also drop dramatically, causing all kinds of food supply problems. So this is not an academic exercise, getting it wrong will have implications that extend to life itself. Which is why global warming doubters like myself would like to see a mature, adult conversation that includes ALL of the available climate research and datas, not just the subset of data that global warming/climate change advocates tend to use.

3) Julie Kelly, writing for the National Review on May 29, 2017, reported on Obama’s speech at a recent symposium entitled, “The Global Food Innovation Summit.” Rather than focus on food, he focused on climate change and the same old myths that he peddled when President:

• He blamed climate change for “wildfire seasons that are longer and more dangerous,” ignoring the reality that we have often reported on, using real government data, that the number and extent of wildfires has been declining in the U.S. over time.
• He continued to blamed the wave of immigrants flooding into Europe and climate change as much as the war in Syria, a connection that he continues to not be able or willing to prove.
• He claimed that some states were “seeing floods on sunny days,” an assertion that makes no sense or was proved by any data he provided.
• He claimed that food prices were spiking but government statistics show that food prices in the U.S. have risen slowly and at about the same rate of overall inflation over the past 20 years and some of the increase in prices can be attributed to the Federal government causing a lot of farmland to be converted over to ethanol production vs. food production.
• He blamed climate for being a significant contributor to the political unrest in North Korea and Venezuela which could not be any further from the truth, food shortages in those countries are due mostly to despotic leaders.
• But then he claimed that, “Food production is the second-leading driver of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions . . . and if we don’t change course, the World Bank predicts that by 2050, agriculture and land use change may account for as much as 70 percent of global GHG emissions.”
• Which reveals an extreme contradiction in his own reasoning and reality since as the author points out, “In short, we aren’t making enough food because of climate change . . . but making all this food is causing climate change.”
• He also had to drop in the favorite lie of climate change advocates, “Ninety-nine percent of scientists who study climate change carefully . . . will tell you that it is indisputable that the planet is getting warmer and the only real controversy is how much warmer will it get,” making this quote despite the reality that for the past 20 years or so the planet has NOT gotten any warmer and let’s remember that the 99% number he quotes is wrong based on the source of such nonsense (the source claims 97%) and the source’s research, as we have often pointed out, is totally bogus and invalid from a statistical point of view.

As he did when he was President, Obama throws out “facts” that are easily proven to be wrong or outright lies, never providing any real basis for his opinions. As the narcissist he is, he just expects the masses to bow down to his wisdom whenever he pontificates, even if he contradicts himself as he did at this gathering. Or as Ms. Kelly points out, “Instead, Obama’s comments were yet another example of the kind of meandering, vague, and contradictory collection of hypothetical scenarios that the climate tribe loves to peddle.”

That will do it for today: an ex-President still not proving he understands reality or providing sound data that supports his vague assertions, scientists in Denmark that prove it is okay to be a global warming doubter, and cold and heavy snow in Colorado in the spring, not what global warming models ever predicted. More to follow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

May, 2017, Part 5, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: Personal Disasters That MIllions Have Had To Endure Because Of Obama Care

Every month for years now we have had to discuss how bad Obama Care is turning out to be under the continuing theme, “the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care.” This month is no different. As the legislation continues to march through America, driving up health care and health insurance prices as it serves as dead weight on economic growth, it cements its rightful place as the worst piece of legislation Washington has ever produced.

It never had a chance to be successful since it really never addressed the underlying root causes of our ever increasing health costs in the country:

• Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, resulting in obscenely high obesity rates for the country.
• Our food chain is infested with overdoses of high fructose corn syrup, salt, sugar, and other unhealthy additives.
• Americans smoke too much.
• Americans do not exercise enough.
• The country is in serious need of health care tort reform.
• Barriers to insurance company competition across state lines need to come down.
• Obama Care never “followed the money” to find out who is actually profiting from the ever escalating healthcare costs in this country and how to get those factors under control.
• Obama Care never got the immense amount of fraud and abuse in current government healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid, under control in order to save money to efficiently fund other government health care initiatives.
• Obama Care never put serious research money towards curing the major diseases that drive high healthcare costs such as high frequency cancers and dementia type diseases.

You cannot resolve any problem unless you understand and address the underlying root causes. No difference here: Obama Care legislation never addressed these listed root causes and thus, has no chance of ever being successful.

But it is not just missing the root causes of our healthcare costs that makes Obama Care so horrible. It resulted in millions of Americans losing access to their favored doctors, hospitals, and insurance policies. It has caused insurance premiums, deductibles and copays to escalate substantially. It will likely add trillions of dollars to the national debt. It has exposed millions of Americans to higher than necessary identity theft chances. It has created government bureaucracies that are wastefully spending taxpayer wealth and being exploited by criminal elements. It has stifled economic growth and job creation.

These are just a sample of the types of idiocy that we have been reviewing for the past several years in this blog relative to Obama Care., To read those past posts, just enter the phrase, “the unfolding disaster,” in the search box above.

Today we will close out this month's updates on the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care with real life stories from real life Americans on how ObamaCare has screwed up their lives. The source of these stories is, as always, the following website:

www.ourhealthcarestories.com

We can talk about the number of jobs lost because of Obama Care we can talk about the trillions of dollars Obama Care will cost the country, we can talk about the number of insurance companies that are pulling out of Obama Care markets, we can talk about the number of Obama Care co-ops that have already gone bankrupt, but those cold numbers, while informative. Do not capture the agony, stress, and added household expenses this legislation has caused real Americans with real health care stories. These are their Obama Care horror stories:

DAVID, NEVADA: I was really looking forward to my $2,500 savings I was promised. My total yearly cost instead went up by $2,620 with a higher deductible. President Obama could not have been this far off in his prediction which means he knew he was lying and said it anyway.

JANET, MONTANA: I have been upset for some time with ObamaCare and Medicare. My daughter cannot get ObamaCare as she is below the poverty line, and she cannot get Medicaid either. I thought ObamaCare was here to help people like her. Just like she was my caregiver for over two years, but could not receive any payment from the government as she had not taken the caregiver course at the community college. This woman was better than any of the caregivers that have come out of the course. I needed someone five days a week, with my husband taking over at night and on the weekend. Most caregivers do not work that many days, or do the many things she did.

She still comes here if she is not at work at her part-time job. That's all anyone around wants to hire you for, and not enough hrs. that you could get any benefits. I bought gas and helped with her groceries some. People in her position have fallen through the cracks and no one is interested in doing anything for her. So I am not enamored with Obama Care or Medicaid.

STEVE, ALABAMA: Like many, my health premium has nearly doubled ,and my deductibles and co-pays have increased some four fold. Yesterday my wife, who has a serious illness that has attacked her eyes over the years, learned that she could no longer receive a prescription that her doctor wants to write for her. This drug would help maintain her condition as to avoid flair ups with her eye problems. Her doctor informed her he can no longer prescribe the medication due to the recent health care law changes.

TINA, VIRGINIA: In the fall of 2013, Cordova received a memo regarding the company-wide decision that the Cheesecake Factory would no longer offer plans to part-time employees starting in January of 2014—the famed start date for Obamacare coverage. The memo instructed employees to go to the ACA website for new coverage options.

When the Obamacare website went live in October of 2013, Cordova tried and failed to log on every day for the first week. Two weeks later, she was able to access the information she needed. “The cheapest plan was $170 in premiums and it offered way less services. I didn’t qualify for a subsidy,” she recalled.

[. . .] Cordova ended up settling for a non-ACA plan with a $169 premium and slightly higher copays.

EMILY, FLORIDA: I'm a retiree that worked for a Fortune 500 Company and had Wonderful Insurance Coverage which included Medical, Hospital, Dental, Rx, Vision and Mental Health. Due to Obamacare I lost my Insurance because of the Employee Mandate. I have Epilepsy, as a result I find myself in the emergency room often and admitted to the hospital all too often. 

Also, my prescription drugs cost are very high. The ACA did not meet my needs and what came close was not affordable and deductibles were very high. I took a policy on my own which was 3 times what I contributed through my employer but I had to cancel it because I could no longer afford it. So I have no insurance except Medicare. I had to go to the Hospital last week for 5 days, I don't know how I'm going to pay the bill.

MARY, MICHIGAN: Supporters of Obamacare have argued that the insurance plans being canceled offered substandard coverage. Swanson said that was not the case for her family. "Our coverage from before was far from substandard. It was excellent," she said during a phone interview.

In June, when her husband's appendix ruptured, he spent five days in the hospital. The medical bills totaled about $32,000, Swanson said.

"All we ended up paying out of pocket was $165," she said.

The plan covered annual physicals and mammograms, but not mental health services.

"We didn't care about that," she said.

She's unsure about whether it included maternity coverage, but "obviously, we didn't care about that."

Because both she and her husband are over 55, she said, their rates have jumped substantially.

"We're in the worst spot we could be, because we're over 55 and we're too young for Medicare. And we are self-employed," said Swanson, who participated in a Google Hangout Thursday sponsored by U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, who is a harsh critic of the Affordable Care Act.

ROSE, PENNSYLVANIA: I can not believe what has happened to my health insurance at work. Last year it cost me about 85.00 a month with 80% coverage. This year it doubled! I now pay 171.00 and for less coverage, as with a very high deductible! When I went to the Doctors just recently, they paid only 0.896 cents. Last year they covered the cost at 80%, so I do not know how they calculate or what my deductible is! I have to get blood work done, sure it will cost a lot more this year! When I called my benefits office they claim it's because of the new laws. Tried to cancel my insurance due to the fact I can not afford to pay them, and they claim company policy I can not unless I have a different insurance or leave the job. Why shouldn't I be able to get rid of something I can not afford?

JACKIE, SOUTH CAROLINA: For Jackie Fowler, Obama was correct: She got to keep her plan and her doctors. But that comfort costs a hefty fee. As predicted by the CMS report released last month[ . . .] she and her seven other employees are eight of the 11 million people whose premiums will increase because of Obamacare.

Last year, they paid $24,300 for their institutional group healthcare plan. Now they will have to pay $55,632 in 2014. Non-smokers in their mid-fifties and good health, she and her husband must dole out $2,000 a month for their personal coverage – double what they paid last year.

Fowler and her single fellow female employee had no need for maternity care, so they used to opt out of the coverage. Now, however, even the men in the office must be covered for their next birth.

"I don’t know what we are going to do," Fowler said, citing concern for the company’s longevity.

When asked if they will cancel their group plan and send their employees to the marketplace, Fowler said the options on the website are very limited. Although there are some plans which offer comparable care, "none of [their] doctors or their affiliate hospital are in the provider network." She is forced to choose between her doctor and an enormous insurance bill.

"I don’t know where they get the ‘affordable.’ This is anything but affordable," Fowler said. "We should be saving for retirement, not paying for insurance."

KYLE, ARKANSAS: My plan was not cancelled, it was transitioned to meet the new ACA requirements. The same plan that I had before, now costs me $70 more a paycheck. I have a family of 4, including 2 kids. I went from $204 a paycheck to $274 a paycheck. I get paid 2 times a month so that's $140 a month or $1,680 a year. That's money that would have been spent in the local community on buying goods and services. This figure does not include the slightly increased co pays when I go to the dr or the additional costs for prescriptions. I thought the ACA was going to save me $2,500 a year?

Just a small sample of the agony Obama Care has caused millions of Americans without coming close to fulfilling a single promise that Obama and the legislation promised. More failures next month.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

May, 2017, Part 4, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: The Dental Disaster

Every month for years now we have had to discuss how bad Obama Care is turning out to be under the continuing theme, “the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care.” This month is no different. As the legislation continues to march through America, driving up health care and health insurance prices as it serves as dead weight on economic growth, it cements its rightful place as the worst piece of legislation Washington has ever produced.

It never had a chance to be successful since it really never addressed the underlying root causes of our ever increasing health costs in the country:

• Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, resulting in obscenely high obesity rates for the country.
• Our food chain is infested with overdoses of high fructose corn syrup, salt, sugar, and other unhealthy additives.
• Americans smoke too much.
• Americans do not exercise enough.
• The country is in serious need of health care tort reform.
• Barriers to insurance company competition across state lines need to come down.
• Obama Care never “followed the money” to find out who is actually profiting from the ever escalating healthcare costs in this country and how to get those factors under control.
• Obama Care never got the immense amount of fraud and abuse in current government healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid, under control in order to save money to efficiently fund other government health care initiatives.
• Obama Care never put serious research money towards curing the major diseases that drive high healthcare costs such as high frequency cancers and dementia type diseases.

You cannot resolve any problem unless you understand and address the underlying root causes. No difference here: Obama Care legislation never addressed these listed root causes and thus, has no chance of ever being successful.

But it is not just missing the root causes of our healthcare costs that makes Obama Care so horrible. It resulted in millions of Americans losing access to their favored doctors, hospitals, and insurance policies. It has caused insurance premiums, deductibles and copays to escalate substantially. It will likely add trillions of dollars to the national debt. It has exposed millions of Americans to higher than necessary identity theft chances. It has created government bureaucracies that are wastefully spending taxpayer wealth and being exploited by criminal elements. It has stifled economic growth and job creation.

These are just a sample of the types of idiocy that we have been reviewing for the past several years in this blog relative to Obama Care., To read those past posts, just enter the phrase, “the unfolding disaster,” in the search box above.

1) Healthcare does not just include diseases of the body, it should also include dental care. Good dental care is not only critical to having healthy teeth but healthy teeth are essential to keeping other parts of the body healthy. Thus, any health care reform effort that has the primary objective of reducing healthcare costs, like Obama Care, has to also be actively trying to improve dental care.

And not surprising, it is an objective that Obama Care also failed miserably at. Consider the highlights from an article that appeared in the June 2, 2017 issue of The Week magazine. The article, “Straight Talk About Teeth,” by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan, followed the effort of Dee Matello to find the semblance of dental care:

• Matello and her husband own a small vending machine company and earn about $47,000 a year, about half of what they earned prior to the Great Recession.
• Although they are probably within 5% of the median U.S. household income level, they cannot afford health insurance that includes dental care.
• She cracked a molar three years ago but since the cost of repair would have likely been hundreds of dollars, she opted to use the family’s limited funds for more important expenses and go without dental care for the molar.
• She recently waited on line outside of the Wicomico Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland when dentists from five states were meeting to provide free dental care for those like Matello.
• The event promised to provide free dental care for the first 1,000 people in line at the Center and Matello was lucky enough and arrived early enough to grab spot 503.
• She got on line a little before 5:00 am and did not get into the building until 9:44.
• A little after noon, she was called over to have some basic health checks done like temperature and blood pressure, she was getting close.
• However, shortly thereafter the announcement was made that only the first 500 in line would be serviced that day, she would have to come back tomorrow for the actual dental work despite waiting on line for over seven hours.
• Despite the hassle she was grateful to finally have been taken care of and not having to spend the $600 to $800 that the X-ray, exam, and treatment would have cost her out of pocket.

Unbelievable that a working American family has to go through such hoops and hassle to have a single tooth fixed. The article discusses some of the grim realities of dental health in America today, realities that Obama Care obviously did nothing to address or fix:

• During the event in Salisbury, the volunteer dentists pulled 795 bad and rotting teeth and provided over $1 million in free dental care so kudos to them.
• Some Americans spend over a billion dollars a year just to make their teeth whiter while one out of five Americans over the age of 65 do not have any teeth at all in their mouth and millions of people like the Matello family do not have access to quality dental care.
• The problem seems to be far worse in rural areas of this country since these areas tend to be in the lower economic strata and these areas are much more likely to rely on well water (25% of Americans use well water), water that has not been treated with fluoride, an additive to urban and suburban water systems that helps prevent tooth decay.
• Two million emergency room visits a year are related to dental health emergencies.
• Since emergency rooms generally are not equipped handle dental emergencies, the patient is usually sent home after being given either antibiotics or opioids to relieve the pain which sometimes leads to the bigger problem of drug addiction because of uncared for teeth problems.
• The growing opioid addiction in this country also contributes to worst dental health care since drug addiction dries out the mouth which contributes to more cavities.
• Fifty million Americans today live in government designated Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas where get dental help is often difficult or impossible to get.
• Of course, the area around Washington D.C. has one of the highest per capita concentration of dentists in the WORLD so the urgency for dental care is lost on the Washington political class.
• According to the ADA’s Health Policy Institute, more than a third of Americans have not dental health insurance since Medicare does not have dental health insurance, Medicaid in some states does not offer dental health insurance,  and many employer health insurance plans do not cover dental costs.
• Medicaid does provide dental health insurance in some states, assuming you can find a dentist that accepts Medicaid payments since nationwide only about 38% of dentists accept Medicaid dental patients.
• And this lack of coverage and related lack of dental care causes an increase in heart disease, eating problems, depression, and other non-dental health issues, further increasing the health care costs in this country.

Obviously, seven years after it was passed, Obama Care has failed to address and remedy this sad chapter in the American health system. Not when average Americans have to wait for days a a time to hopefully get dental treatment from volunteer dentists. Just another Obama Care unfolding disaster.