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W.H.O: “FLU PANDEMIC!” THE ANTIDOTE? ‘OBAMACARE’!
The W.H.O. has just announced that there is a worldwide Flu Pandemics! It is being called the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. And the antidote? ObamaCare!
Of course, what other solution could there possibly be?
NOT! The Obama socialized, nationalized, homogenized health steamroller is up and running and set to crush anything or anyone in the way of attempting its attempt to socialize 17% of the national economy by.
Now with the WHO ‘scare tactics’--Boo! Flu! Ooooh, perhaps a political panic more than a pandemic)--it should be much easier for national healthcare to annihilate private sector ‘competition’ by the U. S. government offering federal cradle to grave healthcare. (See Steve Forbes’ editorial in Forbes Magazine below.)
“Without private insurance and caregivers, the quality of health care in America will decline. Medicare and Medicaid work adequately only because people subsidize those programs with $90 billion a year from private insurance plans. Take that money away and both programs will collapse under the waste, fraud and abuse that abound in both,” states Forbes.
But the ‘fine print’ of this political pandemic is that virtually all the flu cases are mild and no more deadly now that it had been prior to the so-called pandemic. Try as they may and try as they might, all they can come up with is 141 deaths. And for this they want us to socialize nearly one third of our nation?
The last real pandemic was 41 years ago — the Hong Kong flu of 1968 — that killed about 1 million people. But even ‘normal’ flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year. And, of course, abortionists kill around 3,000,000 U.S. citizens in the US alone each year, but the government doesn’t count them—too young to vote.
But is national healthcare the only workable option to protecting America from swine and bird flu and any other ailment that may rear its ugly head? “YES!” That’s the collective answer from three expert guest panelists on this topic. Interview one, two or all three:
Panelist #1: James Lansberry resides in Central Time.
Panelist #2: Ron Greiner resides in Eastern Time.
Panelist #3: Craig R. Smith resides in Pacific Time.
PANELIST #1: JAMES LANSBERRY:
Yes, there is a better way and James Lansberry, president of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, would be delighted to share with your audience a healthcare concept called “Shared Care,” that has been working successfully in the private sector for decades.
Shared Care is not health insurance but it provides medical care for thousands at a mere fraction of the cost of traditional health insurance and for pennies on the dollar compared to the grossly inefficient government healthcare plans.
Essentially the way Shared Care works is that people of Faith and embracing traditional values, agree to live their lives in ‘low risk’ fashion, meaning not engaging in dangerous lifestyles of sexual promiscuity, etc., and to attend church at least twice a month. Remarkably when this criterion is met, the vector of healthcare expense plummets, allowing each member to help meet the needs of others, thus the phrase: Shared Care.
Stated Lansberry, “Health care and bioethical issues may be the most important public policy issues facing governments on both the federal and state levels. The decisions that are made in these arenas will have a profound effect on every family in the country. Often the politicians talk of the importance of issues like portability and affordability in health care. Health care sharing ministries offer a viable, vital, faith based health care solution that is both affordable and completely untied to employment. And how much more caring can health care get than real people helping one another?”
In addition to being the president of Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, James Lansberry is vice president of Samaritan Ministries International, a health care sharing ministry representing more than 13,400 households in all 50 states.
Health care sharing ministries provide a unique way for followers of Jesus Christ to meet one another’s health care needs without using health insurance.
Other people with affinity groups might consider grouping together in similar shared care concepts. Of course, groups widely known for actively engaging in ‘progressive’ lifestyles proven to be far more dangerous than in mainstream communities, would likely have larger ‘per person’ medical needs to share within their alternative community.
ABOUT JAMES LANSBERRY AND SAMARITAN MINISTRIES…
James Lansberry, president of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, is a Peoria-based expert available to comment on a variety of issues related to health care, including alternatives to traditional health insurance, the economics of health care, health care public policy, health care and tax policy, and the health care industry in general.
Lansberry also is vice president of Peoria-based Samaritan Ministries International. He is a frequent radio guest and an occasional preacher/speaker at churches and conferences. His articles have been published in Heritage Forum, the Journal of Modern Ministry, and Every Thought Captive. He has been interviewed by the CBS Evening News, U.S. News and World Report and the Washington Post.
The Alliance, with offices at 2400 W. Altorfer Drive, Peoria, was formed in 2007 to track and address public policy developments that could affect member ministries, which include Samaritan and Medi-Share. The two ministries provide health care cost-sharing arrangements among persons of similar and sincerely held beliefs.
Additional information on the Web: www.healthcaresharing.org or at:
www.samaritanministries.org
PANELIST #2: RON GREINER: Founder of Insurance Processing Corporation
Discusses the Republican antidote to ObamaCare: Health Savings Accounts (HSA)
Consumer health insurance expert Ron Greiner of www.save101.com suggests a win–win for US citizens, big corporations and big government: “Health Savings Accounts” (HSAs).
“At the core of the newly proposed (AHIP) mandate is that all Americans must buy health insurance. Unfortunately, the government will be doing the selling so there will be no managed competition among agents. And we all know how the consumer fares when there’s no competition. Worse yet, the ‘community rating’ concept means there will be no medical underwriting. So, the young and healthy will pay a lot more to spread the risk,” said Greiner.
ABOUT RON GREINER…
Ron Greiner started in the insurance industry in 1987 as an agent for a large national insurance agency. In 1993 he started his own insurance agency in Omaha, Nebraska selling health and life insurance. His job functions included recruiting and training insurance agents. In 1994 and 1995 Greiner’s agency became the largest in the United States selling health insurance for Time Insurance Company, America’s oldest health insurance company. Consumers know Time Insurance Company as Assurant Health.
Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) were signed into law in August of 1996 as a federal test for self-employed people. Greiner immediately saw the advantages of America’s first tax-free savings account and he enrolled the first MSA in the USA in October 1996. Congress renamed MSAs to Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and made them available to all Americans, under the age of 65, in 2004. For the last 12 years Greiner’s agency, Insurance Processing Corporation (IPC) has focused entirely on enrolling consumers into tax-free MSAs and HSAs and the accompanying low cost health insurance.
Greiner also had the first press release in America on Medicare’s new option - tax free MSAs. He has senior clients in Medicare’s MSA program since the first day the program was available, 1/1/2007. The MSA in Medicare has gotten very little attention from the Nation’s press. With this option Medicare pays for the senior’s health insurance then makes a deposit into the senior’s MSA at the bank, all tax-free.
Before entering the insurance industry Greiner was the Director of six Richard Simmons Anatomy Asylums in Denver, Colorado. These facilities had 300 employees and 30,000 members. He learned about weight loss and exercise as a student. Greiner went to Iowa State University on a wrestling scholarship.
Greiner and his agency are based in Tampa Bay, Florida. IPC services clients nationally with online enrollments at www.save101.com.
PANELIST #3: CRAIG SMITH: CEO Swiss America Corporation
“We cannot afford Obama Healthcare Reform. If we truly want to reform healthcare we need to start with tort reform. We need to stop lawyers from frivolous lawsuits that employ junk science to sue doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies for billions. If you get the lawyers out of medicine, you'll get medical costs down dramatically." –Craig Smith
“Now is the defusing this $100 Trillion Healthcare Time Bomb. We need to explore serious, alternative free market solutions to fix our broken Medicare and Social Security system, instead of asking Americans and their employers to embark on a grandiose experiment in socialized medicine. Such an experiment could drive federal taxes up by 80%.”
“It sounds to me like the government is about to mandate participation in the biggest Ponzi scheme since The Social Security Act of 1935!”
“The prospect of government mandating employers to provide coverage to all full- time workers should terrify business owners. The idea of forcing employers to pay for a government run health care system or pay the equivalent to the Treasury. What is the difference? This is going to cost jobs at a time when can least afford to lose them.”
“What we are facing is not just a health care crisis, but a looming government revenue crisis. It’s a double whammy. As the Social Security surplus disappears, it forces us to confront the true size of our deficits. Unless we can find a workable fix in the next decade, all those IOUs will have to be paid back by the next generation.”
“The Medicare and Social Security crisis requires a substantial overhaul of the system. It's time to get the government's hands out of our pockets and instead allow the free market privatization of our retirement options. Great Britain and Australia have both proven privatization of Social Security to be successful. Privatization produces; more income, boosts private savings, triggers economic growth and minimizes tax burdens.”
ABOUT CRAIG SMITH…
Craig R. Smith is the CEO of Swiss America Corporation and author of many articles and books including Black Gold Stranglehold and Rediscovering Gold in the 21st Century.
As an economic analyst, Craig instantly engages audiences with his common-sense perspective on national and global economic trends.
Over the past three decades he has been interviewed on over 1,500 radio and TV programs including: FOX News, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CBN, TBN, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Newsweek.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES MAY BE HELPFUL WITH SHOW PREP:
THE NEW YORK TIMES/ June 12, 2009
W.H.O. Raises Alert Level as Flu Spreads to 74 Countries
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and ANDREW JACOBS
GENEVA — The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring a swine flu pandemic — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years, news services reported.
The move came after an emergency meeting with flu experts here that was convened after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, which reported 1,224 cases on Wednesday, and rising numbers in Britain, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia.
In a statement sent to member countries, the W.H.O. said it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, indicating a global pandemic outbreak, The Associated Press said, attributing the information to health officials from Scotland, Indonesia and Thailand. An official announcement of the change was due at 6 p.m. Geneva time Thursday (12 p.m. in New York).
In an effort to avoid triggering panic with such an announcement, W.H.O. officials are expected to include a caveat that the flu, which has resulted in mostly mild cases, is not more deadly now that it has been declared a pandemic. Rather, the announcement reflects the global spread of the disease, not an increase in its severity.
According to W.H.O rules, the organization should declare a pandemic once it finds evidence of widespread “community transmission” — meaning beyond travelers, schools and immediate contacts — on two continents.
In its latest report, the W.H.O. said Wednesday that 74 countries had reported 27,737 cases of the disease, and 141 deaths. Since the outbreak started in April, the number of cases and deaths had been heavily concentrated in the Americas, but the rise in cases in Australia and elsewhere appears to indicate community-wide spread in other world regions.
The declaration of a pandemic will trigger drug makers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine and prompt governments to devote more money to containing the virus. While international health officials have said the flu appears to be less deadly than the annual bouts of seasonal flu that sweep the globe each year, they have warned that the virus could mutate into a more lethal strain during the southern hemisphere’s upcoming winter flu season. They are also worried that poorer countries could be overwhelmed with cases they do not have the capacity to treat.
The experts gathered at the request of the W.H.O. director-general, Margaret Chan, who held a teleconference Wednesday with worst affected countries to try to determine if “indisputable” evidence that the spread of the disease met the organization’s criteria for declaring a pandemic.
The last pandemic — the Hong Kong flu of 1968 — killed about 1 million people, news services reported. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.
Meanwhile, efforts to limit the spread of the flu around the world continue. In Hong Kong, which is especially skittish about the flu after its experience with a lethal SARS outbreak in 2003, authorities have ordered all kindergartens, primary schools and day care centers to close after an outbreak of swine flu was reported at a local secondary school. The order, effective Friday, will last at least two weeks and affect about a half million students.
There have been 50 reported cases of H1N1 flu in Hong Kong but health officials said the 12 infected students at St. Paul’s Convent School marked the first cluster of cases. The students are being held in quarantine at a hospital while officials try to determine the source of the infections.
On Wednesday, a 55-year-old man became the first person to contract the case locally in Hong Kong, according to health officials. So far, the city has had no fatalities from the disease.
Hong Kong’s health department says it will order 5 million doses of flu vaccine and open eight flu clinics. “The government is well prepared,” Donald Tsang, the city’s chief executive, said at a news conference on Thursday announcing the school closures. “There’s no need to panic.”
China confirmed 10 new flu cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of infections on the mainland to 111. Health officials say all of the country’s flu cases have involved people returning from abroad. According to the Health Ministry, the 10 new cases included a Canadian-Chinese teenager who had just been in Toronto and two children in Shanghai who had been in the United States. There have been no deaths, and more than half those infected have been discharged from the hospital, the ministry said.
A Health Ministry official on Thursday boasted that the government’s stringent prevention measures have kept swine flu from spreading in China. Every passenger arriving from overseas is checked for fever and those suspected of having had contact with an infected person are placed in quarantine for a week.
“We think the method we are using has been pretty successful,” said Mao Qun’an, a ministry spokesman.
Chinese officials released Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans from three days of quarantine in Shanghai on Wednesday. Mr. Nagin and his wife had been placed in isolation after a passenger who sat one row ahead of them on a flight from the United States came down with a fever.
Mr. Nagin, who had been set to attend a series of economic development meetings, described the experience as “surreal” and said he and his wife had their temperatures taken every three to four hours. “When you see people coming toward you with full hazmat gear on, it’s pretty interesting,” he told The Associated Press after his release, referring to hazardous material protection.
Nick Cumming-Bruce reported from Geneva and Andrew Jacobs from Beijing. Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York. Copyright 2009 The New York Times
Intelligent Investing With Steve Forbes
Real Health Care
By Steve Forbes May 19, 2009
Get ready for a summer flu of unprecedented severity. Sometime in June the Obama administration will introduce its plan to deal with the problem of 46 million Americans who, either by choice or lack of means, don't have health insurance. To deal with the problem, he'll socialize 17% of the national economy. And once the government has that control, it will never give it up.
"Medicare for everyone!" will be the rallying cry of the health care socialists. They'll demonize private insurers as heartless profiteers and the government will offer coverage through its own health care company. They'll call the public option a choice, but it's really just a way to crowd private insurers out of the market.
Without private insurance and caregivers, the quality of health care in America will decline. Medicare and Medicaid work adequately only because people subsidize those programs with $90 billion a year from private insurance plans. Take that money away and both programs will collapse under the waste, fraud and abuse that abound in both.
We can help the uninsured get access to coverage, but we have to be smart about it. Let’s stop trying to offer dollar for dollar coverage. Catastrophic insurance is what most people need and it's quite affordable. Let people buy insurance across state lines so we have a truly competitive national market. Before we turn to socialism, we need to give the free market a chance--it's worked in every other part of our economy.
© 2009 Forbes Magazine
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