RUTHFULLY YOURS

Abysmal payments. Lack of information. Even questionable business practices.

Those are all complaints physicians have had in the early stages of working with health insurance companies selling plans through the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance marketplaces, also known as exchanges.

MedPage Today asked several attendees at this week’s American Medical Association’s interim meeting about their experiences with the new plan offerings. Responses from those with experience dealing with them on the whole weren’t positive.

“Neither the patients nor the physicians know if they’re in network or not,”said Steven Larson, MD, of Riverside, Calif., chairman of the California Medical Association’s Board of Trustees.

It has been a common complaint thus far, as plans have been slow to report or update provider networks for exchange plans.

Michael Sexton, MD, of Novato, Calif., said some physicians have received a letter stating they are in network for a plan unless they say otherwise. “One doctor told me he saw a document from a plan — with his [own] signature on it — that he never saw before.”

Richard DePersio, MD, from Powell, Tenn., said that one health insurer had contacted his practice about working with him, and he hadn’t heard of the plan before. Even worse, they offered rates lower than what Medicaid pays.

“I think everybody has an uncomfortable feeling about what is happening,” DePersio said.

IF YOU FLUNK THE TEST IS THERE A REMEDIAL COURSE ON DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (ALSO KNOWN AS ISLAMOFRIENDLY INFIDELPHOBIA)???

On 10/30/13, Stetson Universities Cross Cultural Center and Multicultural Student Council presented a lecture on ‘Addressing Islamophobia: Proactive Efforts to Address Hate and Bias on and off Campus’ led by Amer F. Ahmed.

Amer F. Ahmed, Associate Director, Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, University of Michigan supports Islamic Religious Apartheid and called all non-Muslims a violent threat to Mecca. Ms. Yolany Gonell, Director of Diversity & Inclusion stood silent as Mr. Ahmed was making these vile statements during his lecture. Mr. Ahmed’s comments make a mockery of diversity and Inclusion.

Mr. Ahmed’s lecture was advertised as open to the public and all were welcome. I had my video camera set up to document the event when Stetson Public Safety Officer Sgt. Casey told me I could not film under threat of arrest.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-ongoing-erasure-of-europe

In “The Regulator’s Cucumber Syndrome” I discussed how the EU is obsessed with controlling the European’s material existence. In this column the subject is how the EU is planning to control his spiritual existence.

The Gates of Vienna published a startling, translated column by German attorney Michael Schneider about an Organization of Islamic Conferences-approved (OIC) “framework” sponsored by the European Parliament, “which seems likely to be implemented across the EU. The proposed law would devise a draconian new form of politically correct ‘tolerance’ and impose it on European citizens and institutions by establishing bureaucratic bodies with the authority to enforce it.”

The irony in the title of the proposed legislation was obviously lost on its authors, “A European Framework National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance,” for it is nothing but a blueprint for imposing across-the-board “intolerance.”

Schneider opens his essay with:

Anyone who speaks and writes about the abrogation of freedom in Europe is accused of being a pathological conspiracy theorist. So it is advisable to be a little more specific, and name names.

As the world’s 5+1 powers resumed nuclear negotiations with Iran in Geneva on Wednesday, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attacked Israel and the U.S., saying the Islamic regime is using those negotiations as a gimmick to get stronger.

Khamenei, in a speech to thousands of commanders of the Basij militia, which has been suppressing millions of Iranians seeking freedom from the mullahs’ rule, referred to the negotiations and said: “Some have translated [Iran’s] ‘heroic flexibility’ [in] stepping back from goals and values of the Islamic regime [to achieve a nuclear settlement] and some enemies based on this have claimed retreat by the Islamic Republic.”

However, Khamenei said, that is a “misunderstanding.”

“The ‘heroic flexibility’ means an artistic maneuver and the use of different tactics to reach different goals and ideals of the Islamic regime,” he said. Stalling tactics for more than a decade have allowed Iran to greatly enhance its nuclear capability, allowing to mobilize as a fully-armed nuclear nation within weeks.

Khamenei had previously supported the negotiations by the regime’s new government under President Hassan Rouhani and talked of “heroic flexibility,” implying that the regime will give up some ability of its nuclear program.

However, as the Daily Caller previously reported, the Iranian delegate demanded U.S. and Western recognition of Iran’s right to nuclear enrichment and the removal of major sanctions on its banking and oil industries, which have paralyzed the Islamic regime’s economy. In return, Iran offered only to stop its uranium enrichment at the 20 percent level, a level that is much higher than needed for peaceful purposes.

“The holy Quran necessitates this decree for all prophets, faithful and the ordinary people where all of us must answer in the face of our covenant to God,” Khamenei said. “[B]ased on the clear decree in the Quran, this covenant [is] to stand against the enemy in the fronts of military, political and economy and also not back down from the enemy.”

Khamenei called Israel a “rabid dog,” “unclean,” “illegitimate” and “a bastard.”

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/obamacare-the-neutron-bomb-that-will-decimate-the-us-economy?f=must_reads ObamaCare will act as a neutron bomb on the U.S. economy for systemic reasons. Longtime readers know I have repeatedly explained why healthcare, i.e. sickcare, will bankrupt the nation. ObamaCare simply speeds up the coming collapse. Here are two of the dozens of entries I’ve written on sickcare:  America’s Hidden 8% VAT: Sickcare (May 10, 2012)  […]

http://politicalmavens.com/

Bruce Dern’s default countenance is that of a dour man. In “Nebraska,” he plays the part of an exceedingly dour man – one who is also bitter, withdrawn, resigned, stubborn, taciturn, partially demented, alcoholic and very difficult. The plot of the movie hinges on Woody Grant’s determination to get to Lincoln, Nebraska in order to cash in on a Publisher’s Weekly type flyer promising that he could be a winner of one million dollars – the last opportunity in his collapsed life to regain some pride in himself and some measure of autonomy. Though we can believe that this character might set his clouded mind to undertake this fool’s journey from Montana to Nebraska, it’s harder to believe that his younger son, David, would decide to drive him there. There has been virtually no relationship between Woody and his sons throughout their lives and we discover, as David does, that before he was born, his father was involved with another woman and contemplating divorce from his wife. Yet, despite a serious accident and other difficulties that his father gets into en route, David is determined to keep going in order to satisfy the old man’s demands.

Along the way, we meet a gallery of caricatures: the shrewish wife whose foul mouth and self-referential take on life color all her perceptions; the loutish, layabout cousins who greedily steal the flyer before discarding it as worthless; the rest of Woody’s stonefaced brothers representing the endpoint of pioneer grit; the menacing former partner who tries to extort the promise of a cash settlement once Woody collects his million – all these are cardboard stick figures who exist for cheap comic relief or for generic observations of human nature. There are also the neighbors who wish Woody well and they briefly represent the decency that still exists in a changing America.

The son with the heart of gold and the patience of a saint remains unexplored; we never understand why this nice looking young man was living with such a homely woman for several years. Though it’s easy to figure out what his fear of marriage is about, it doesn’t explain why he couldn’t find someone more equally matched to his attractiveness quotient. “Nebraska” is really about the journey of this son from his vague insecurity and lack of purpose to his re-discovery of some good old-fashioned virtues – defending yourself and your kinfolk, understanding the satisfaction one gains by restoring the dignity of a father who had become an empty shell. David’s driving his father to Lincoln is an altruistic deed for which no public or private acclaim will be given; his mother and brother are opposed to the idea and see the clear solution as putting the old man in a nursing home. To make up for his father’s disappointment at not winning a million dollars, David decides to trade in his car and buy his father the truck he desperately wanted, even though he’s not allowed to drive. The Rocky moment at the end does temporarily restore Woody’s self-esteem and that moment for both of them was worth all of David’s travails.

It’s doubtful that this trip will change Woody’s life in any real way. He will have a truck to look at and a new compressor but he will continue to be a near-catatonic man who stopped caring about his own life and relationships early on and kept hardening his inwardness along with his arteries. It’s David who has the possibility of change and whatever hope exists in the movie by the end is directed towards him. He has summoned the courage to punch the extortionist in the face, he has discovered his capacity for compassion and humanity which inform his moral center, he has performed a noble act for which no thanks were given, save his own realization that he delivered grace to a man who had none.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/20/epic-fail-un-climate-talks-fall-apart-as-132-countries-storm-out/#ixzz2lIDugCEQ Poor countries pulled out of the United Nations climate talks during a fight over transferring wealth from richer countries to fight global warming. The G77 and China bloc led 132 poor countries in a walk out during talks about “loss and damage” compensation for the consequences of global warming that countries cannot adapt to, […]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/moroccan-parliament-moves-to-outlaw-contacts-with-israelis/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=938d91f233-2013_11_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-938d91f233-53476821 THE USUAL SUSPECTS IN CASABLANCA ARE THE MOSLEMS….RSK Even private dealings would be punishable by imprisonment; local NGO calls bill ‘inhuman’ and ‘influenced by Nazi tendencies’   A large majority of Moroccan lawmakers has proposed legislation that would outlaw any contacts with Israelis. If it is passed, even private or indirect dealings with the […]

At a special event Wednesday, Nobel Prize winner Professor Yisrael Aumann told students at Bar Ilan University that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was “making many mistakes” in his policies towards the Palestinian Authority, Iran, and in dealing with foreign pressure to withdraw from areas of Judea and Samaria.

Aumann was speaking at the University’s Student Union sponsored by Project Yuvalim, a new initiative meant to broaden the discussion of Zionist issues on campuses throughout Israel. Headed by activist Yigal Brand, the Project is sponsored by Zionist Council of Israel, a part of the World Zionist Organization.

“Concessions and ‘gestures’ do not bring peace,” Aumann said. We need to understand that if we do not have a right to Hevron, Gush Etzion, or Ariel, we do not have a right to Tel Aviv,” Aumann said.

“We are all ‘Palestinians’,” he said, referring to the fact that until relatively recently, the term “Palestinian” referred not to a particular nation, but to those living in the geographical area that was termed by world powers as “Palestine”.

“Before we try to convince our enemies that the land belongs to us, we must convinced ourselves that this land is holy for us as well. I do not say that as a right-wing supporter of full settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel,” the Nobel laureate said, but from a purely geopolitical point of view.

“The only chance for peace is not to choose the path of concessions – that only leads to war,” Aumann said. “If we were playing soccer, we would look at the best teams in the world in order to learn the best strategies.” In the same way, he said, Israel should look at the powers that managed to keep the peace the longest – with the ancient Romans the most relevant example. “Look at the Roman Empire,” he said. “They managed to keep the peace for 238 years, by preparing for and being ready to fight in wars.”

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/novelists-view-world/2013/nov/21/november-22-1963-and-why-we-wept/ November 18, 2013 — The news refused to sink in. Perhaps Walter Cronkite got it wrong. For many of us it came as a rumor. We heard that President John F. Kennedy had been “seriously wounded” and because we refused believe, we were advised to find the nearest TV. The bistros along Bleecker Street […]