Thread: Sequester Cuts - brought to you by Obama

Cancer clinics rejecting Medicare patients due to sequester cuts
17 hrs ago



The sequester-related budget cuts that have caused headaches minor (no more White House tours http://now.msn.com/white-house-cuts-...e-to-sequester ) to major (closing air traffic control towers http://now.msn.com/faa-closing-149-a...-sequestration ) could also have deadly consequences. Cancer clinics nationwide are turning away thousands of patients with Medicare, because the reduced funding that began April 1 makes it too expensive to administer chemotherapy drugs. Many of the clinics say that rejecting Medicare patients is the only way they can stay in business during sequestration. The reason for the cuts is that chemo drugs are Part B Medicare drugs, which makes them part of the sequester-related cuts. Nice work, Congress. Way to have your constituents’ backs.

Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients.
Blame the sequester.
Posted by Sarah Kliff on April 3, 2013 at 5:46 pm

Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts. Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.

Patients at these clinics would need to seek treatment elsewhere, such as at hospitals that might not have the capacity to accommodate them. “If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we’d be out of business in six months to a year,” said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. “The drugs we’re going to lose money on we’re not going to administer right now.”

After an emergency meeting Tuesday, Vacirca’s clinics decided that they would no longer see one-third of their 16,000 Medicare patients. “A lot of us are in disbelief that this is happening,” he said. “It’s a choice between seeing these patients and staying in business.”

Some who have been pushing the federal government to spend less on health care say this is not the right approach. “I don’t think there was an intention to disrupt care or move it into a more expensive setting,” said Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, which recently released a plan for cutting $2 trillion in health spending. “If that’s the case, we’re being penny-wise and a pound-foolish with these cuts.”

Legislators meant to partially shield Medicare from the automatic budget cuts triggered by the sequester, limiting the program to a 2 percent reduction — a fraction of the cuts seen by other federal programs. But oncologists say the cut is unexpectedly damaging for cancer patients because of the way those treatments are covered.

Medications for seniors are usually covered under the optional Medicare Part D, which includes private insurance. But because cancer drugs must be administered by a physician, they are among a handful of pharmaceuticals paid for by Part B, which covers doctor visits and is subject to the sequester cut. The federal government typically pays community oncologists for the average sales price of a chemotherapy drug, plus 6 percent to cover the cost of storing and administering the medication.

Since oncologists cannot change the drug prices, they argue that the entire 2 percent cut will have to come out of that 6 percent overhead. That would make it more akin to a double-digit pay cut. “If you get cut on the service side, you can either absorb it or make do with fewer nurses,” said Ted Okon, director of the Community Oncology Alliance, which advocates for hundreds of cancer clinics nationwide. “This is a drug that we’re purchasing. The costs don’t change and you can’t do without it. There isn’t really wiggle room.”

Okon’s group has sent letters to legislators urging them to exempt cancer drugs from the sequester or, as a back-up, only shave 2 percent off the money they receive to administer the medications.

Doctors at the Charleston Cancer Center in South Carolina began informing patients weeks ago that, due to the sequester cuts, they would soon need to seek treatment elsewhere. “We don’t sugar-coat things, we’re cancer doctors,” Charles Holladay, a doctor at the clinic, said. “We tell them that if we don’t go this course, it’s just a matter of time before we go out of business.”

Cancer patients turned away from local oncology clinics may seek care at hospitals, which also deliver chemotherapy treatments. The care will likely be more expensive: One study from actuarial firm Milliman found that chemotherapy delivered in a hospital setting costs the federal government an average of $6,500 more annually than care delivered in a community clinic. Those costs can trickle down to patients, who are responsible for picking up a certain amount of the medical bills. Milliman found that Medicare patients ended up with an average of $650 more in out-of-pocket costs when they were seen only in a hospital setting.

It is still unclear whether hospitals have the capacity to absorb these patients. The same Milliman report found that the majority of Medicare patients — 66 percent — receive treatment in a community oncology clinic, instead of a hospital. Non-profit hospitals will likely have an easier time bearing the brunt of the sequester cuts. A federal program known as 340B requires pharmaceutical companies to give double-digit discounts to hospitals that treat low-income and uninsured patients.

Eastern Connecticut Health Network began preparing for additional volume after a local oncology practice sent out notice that it would stop seeing certain cancer patients. “What we’re trying to do in the hospital is prepare for this,” ECHN spokesman Eric Berthel said. “We’re making sure we have access to the pharmaceutical companies and that we have appropriate staff on hand. We’re hoping the oncology practice will be successful in renegotiating this. It’s so fresh, so we’re pretty unsure.”

Some cancer clinics are counting on the federal government to provide relief, and continuing to see patients they expect to lose money on. “We’re hoping that something will change, as legislators see the impact of this,” Ralph Boccia, director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Bethesda, Md., said. “I don’t think we could keep going, without a change, for more than a couple of months.”

An analysis prepared by his clinic estimates that, if the full 2 percent cut takes effect, between 50 and 70 percent of the drugs it administers would become money losers. Boccia estimates that 55 percent of his patients are covered by Medicare, making any changes to reimbursement rates difficult to weather. “When I look at the numbers, they don’t add up,” he said. “Business 101 says we can’t stay open if we don’t cover our costs.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-the-sequester

Ahahahahahaha. But after I finish laughing my head off at him, I remember he’s committing 100 million dollars to this idiocy.

but there is no money for cancer patients ?

Via Mother Jones:

Does President Barack Obama intend to capture an asteroid and place it into lunar orbit?

This seems more like a Newtonian (as in Gingrich) idea. But on Friday afternoon, the office of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) blasted out a press release disclosing that Obama’s forthcoming budget includes a $100 million plan to tow an asteroid into moon orbit. And this will be done for freedom—that is, for the purpose of saving the planet Earth from complete annihilation. (This is not about just serving the Democratic Party’s base.)

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013...pture-asteroid

Tonight Marks Tenth “Command Performance” for the Obamas
by Keith Koffler on April 9, 2013, 8:38 am



Tonight’s special White House “celebration” of Memphis soul music marks the tenth time President and Mrs. Obama have been treated to an exclusive East Room “command performance” of American music featuring major stars, past and present.

While the performances are televised and celebrate the nation’s culture, some may wonder whether during an era of soaring deficits it is wise to stage what are also in effect private parties for the first couple.

And with this evening’s event, the performances are officially part of the “sequester-free zone” at the White House. As is well known, the daily White House tours did not make the cut.

The Obamas suspended the performances during the campaign season, either because they were too busy or because they thought average voters might not be pleased by the sight of them partying it up as unemployment continues to rage. The last “In Performance at the White House” was a May 8, 2012 event celebrating of the music of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The show included performance by Sheryl Crow, Mike Myers and Stevie Wonder.

Tonight’s extravaganza will feature Justin Timberlake, Queen Latifah, and Cyndi Lauper along with a cadre of old blues and soul stars.

Other White House performances have centered on the blues, country music, jazz, and Motown and have featured megastars like Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, B.B. King, and James Taylor.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/201...rmance-obamas/

‘Memphis Soul’ Night at a Soulless White House
It’s been a whole week and America is long overdue for another up-yours, in-your-face display of Obama-style overindulgence.

This time America is getting a double dose; the White House, which is currently off limits to the little people due to budgetary constraints, is swinging open the doors to welcome the glitterati at taxpayer expense.

The name of the event being hosted by a president without a soul and his equally soulless soul mate is called “Memphis Soul.”

Red-state Tennessee spirit will come to the White House as part of the nationally essential “In Performance at the White House,” otherwise known as ‘Sasha and Malia get to meet Justin Timberlake and Michelle Gets to Play Dress up’ night.

The event was previously announced, giving America fair warning that additional dollars are about to be frittered away on bands like Alabama Shakes, who Rolling Stone Magazine defined as “down-home, dirty roots-rockers.”

For those spoiled-sports who would disparage ‘In Performance,’ let’s remember that this week, cultural ambassadorship is at an all-time high. After all, someone up high in the government saw to it that ‘cultural ambassadors’ Jay and Bey (complete with a culturally-appropriate oversized basket weave braid hairdo) took their awesomeness to Cuba.

Cuba, by the way, is a country where in reality, based on melanin level alone, Mr. and Mrs. Carter might be bunking in separate jail cells at Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana rather than touring Old Havana.

Nonetheless, joining the rockabilly ‘Shakes’ will be soul singers and songwriters William Bell and Steve Cropper. Bell and Cropper, together with music director and bandleader for the night, Booker T. Jones, founded the Stax-Volt sound with music greats like Otis Redding.

The Reverend Al Green will be there, and will likely sing a duet with Barack Obama who, for old time’s sake, may want to revisit what should have been the Obama 2012 campaign theme: “Let’s Stay Together.” Also using up the money that should have been spent on White House tours for school children is Bush detractor/activist Ben Harper and huge Obama supporter/rap star -turned movie actress Dana Elaine Owens, aka Queen Latifah.

Singing a Michelle Obama-appropriate anthem, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” the “singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist” Cyndi Lauper will also be there. Prior to the last election, Cyndi opined to Politico that Barack Obama had:

“[k]ept the country from going into a depression… saved the auto industry… ended the war in Iraq, health care is finally being fixed, and he has advanced equality for all in significant ways.”

American Idol season 11 third-place winner and friend of Michelle Obama, Joshua Ledet, will make an appearance, as will “blue-eyed soul” singer “Suit & Tie” Justin Timberlake, who said about Barack Obama that he and his wife Jessica Biel have “never been so inspired by one person.”

The event features a lesser group comprised of Sam Moore, Charlie Musselwhite, and Mavis Staples, all of whom might be there for reasons other than the Obama-loving Lauper, Timberlake, and Latifah.

Sam Moore of Sam and Dave fame didn’t endorse Barack Obama, and told the president’s campaign to stop using his song “Hold on I’m Coming.” If Sam Moore did not change his mind about Obama but chose to come anyway, he should stick close to an exit and expect a good tongue-lashing from Valerie Jarrett.

In the name of furthering racial diversity, “white bluesman” Charlie Musselwhite will also be there. And, to mend fences, blues singer Mavis Staples, who’s obviously no lip-synching Beyoncé and was insulted when she wasn’t invited to perform at Obama’s January 20th inauguration, will join in the Obama worship…er… I mean the Memphis Blues fun.

The exclusive guest list for the private event has not yet been released. However, it’s likely many Hollywood blues-lovers will be there – stars like Spike Lee, Morgan Freeman, Jamie Foxx, and the Obama Starlet Tag Team: Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba, Eva Longoria, and Michelle-bang-wearing Kerry Washington. One can only hope that Beyoncé and her husband, the Cuban cigar-smoking, straw fedora-wearing Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, make it home in time for Beyoncé to show up Mavis Staples a second time.

As for the peons who are forced to stand outside the White House, which remains closed to the general public, and watch from afar as the black limos pull up the driveway to the ‘People’s House,’ fret not, because we can all watch how our money is being wasted streaming live on http://www.whitehouse.gov/live .

http://theblacksphere.net/2013/04/me...s-white-house/

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Navy to Ground Blue Angels
As the sequester cuts Obama signed into law in August 2011 draw closer to implementation, the Navy is making plans to ground the Blue Angels during the latter half of 2013
by AWR Hawkins7 Feb 2013, 3:38 AM PDT

This was revealed by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert last week, when he sent out a memo showing the Navy's plan for complying with the cuts. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...equester-hits/

Grounding the Blue Angels for half a year will entail canceling 30 shows and will save approximately $20 million.

Greenert says the Navy is already making cuts "because of Congress's failures to pass...spending bills last year," and if sequester hits it will cost them an additional $4 billion for 2013 alone.

Sequester was the risk Obama was willing to take to raise the debt ceiling in 2011. Now, it is posed to cost us the Blue Angels.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2...er-Cuts-Set-In

comments

The Blue Angels are a very effective recruiting vehicle for precision flying and for those who wish to receive the finest flying education available. So why are we, on the one hand, cutting $20 million from a productive, domestic program like the Blue Angels, while we are, on the other hand, sending F-16's ($20 million apiece) and M-1 Tanks ($8-10 million apiece) to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? What is the Function of the Department of Education? What is the function of the EPA? What is the function of the NLRB? Why is the Federal Government involved in Planned Parenthood (364,000 abortions last year)? Where are the cutbacks for foreign aid? Where are the cuts in funding for the United Nations? Why are we paying billions to Brazil and Mexico to help them fund offshore oil drilling? Why is Obama pumping billions, yes, billions of taxpayer dollars into companies that are going bankrupt?

These are all rhetorical questions, perhaps. But perhaps they should be addressed before we drastically cut funding to one of the few institutions that is an enumerated Constitutional responsiblity of the Federal Government - our military forces.

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The purpose of the Stunt Flying was not to entertain. It purpose was to Inspire citizens to consider a career in the Navy. Maybe even as a Blue Angel (The coolest of all navy ambitions.) Watching them in real time is ground shaking as they do a low flyby. It wakes every cell in ones dead body. A great recruitment tool in the time of a volunteer only military.

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How about tell Michell to cut out one of her many vacations with her huge posee, and hundreds of thousands of the "common people" a year can go back to enjoying the Blues.

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How about stop buying "green fuel" at $225 per gallon. What the old fuel at $3.50 per gallon wasn't good enough?

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This is a tried-and-true Big Government tactic: When cuts are mandated, make sure to announce that everyone's favorite program ... Head Start, high school sports, free meals for seniors, Social Security, police protection, Medicare or the Blue Angels ... is on the chopping block. Public outcry will make Congress blink, and the gubmint will keep spending -- on things like sensitivity training for "archaic" straight people, $200/gallon "green fuel," and condom training for pre-teens. We've read this script before and know how it will end!

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Thank God we are grounding those pesky Blue Angels,next we can go after the USAF Thunderbirds and the Armys Black Knights. People we gotta keep those food stamps and welfare checks coming. Who honestly thinks we need a crack military when we can have free Obama phones? National security? Who needs it - Obama just order a drone strike when ever - where ever - whom ever he thinks may be an imminent threat.

It's official: Navy grounds Blue Angels for 2013
5 hours ago - By Courtney Kube, Pentagon Producer, NBC News


The Blue Angels perform their precision aerobatics over the Florida Keys during the Southernmost Air Spectacular at Naval Air Station Key West on March 24. All remaining performances for 2013 have been canceled due to budget constraints.

The high-speed, high-altitude acrobatic maneuvers and tight formations of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels will be missing from dozens of festivals and air shows across the country this year. All Blue Angels performances for the remainder of 2013 have been canceled, the Navy announced Tuesday.

The decision is a result of budget constraints caused by sequestration. “Recognizing budget realities, current Defense policy states that outreach events can only be supported with local assets at no cost to the government,” the Navy said in a statement. “The squadron will continue to train to maintain flying proficiency until further notice at its home station in Pensacola, Fla,.” the Navy said.

Organizers of Seafair, an annual summer festival in Seattle, broke the news to the community, saying: “The Blue Angels have flown at Seafair for over 40 years and are an important part of our history. The team will be deeply missed by Seattleites.”

The grounding is a sentimental loss for fans but not as serious as other reductions to defense spending, which President Barack Obama said could threaten military readiness. The Defense Department said the cuts would slash ship and aircraft maintenance, curtail training and result in up to 14 days' unpaid leave for most of the Pentagon's 800,000 civilian employees.

For the Navy, programs such as the Blue Angels would take a back seat to "making sure ships are seaworthy and planes are airworthy for the war fighters who are operating overseas," Lt. John Supple, spokesman for the Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi, Texas, said last month.

The Blue Angels program began in 1946 and costs about $40 million a year. Canceling the bulk of the performing season would save about $28 million, according to Navy officials.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...bCnYU.facebook

Canceling the bulk of the performing season would save about $28 million...

or about the same as the cost of the Obama's Haiwian Family vacation ...

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Well, they wouldn't want to cut things that aren't political and are actual waste. I wonder how many young kids grow up dreaming of flying and join the military to do so? (ref. to Red Tails)

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you people realize that airshows are an economic boom to the host communities don't you? do you know the 10's of thousands that these events draw?

do you know that showing the public what their tax dollars pay for is a pretty important part of the government's responsibility to its citizens?

do you know that flyovers and demonstrations allow pilots and flight crews to accrue flight and training hours?

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Stop the Blue Angels & tours for children at the white house but parties at the white house, weekly golf trips in air force one & don't forget fund raising trips all across the country as well as monthly vacations anywhere they want. It looks like taxpayers footing the bill for Biden's $500,000 overnight hotel expenses are just fine too. Democrats or Republican's it doesn't matter, their all like pigs at a trough yet you people will keep voting the same ones back in office. Look in the mirror if you want to blame someone.

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Not the best cut in my opinion. The pilots need to log flying hours to maintain proficiency, so some of that money is already spent regardless of whether they are flying around their home base or on the road so to speak. The air shows stimulate spending in the communities where they are held, think hotels, restaurants, gas stations to name just a few...


Now in my mind, a better defense cut would be the military bands and "performing arts" groups across all the services. Seriously, how many trombone players, flutist, and cello players does the Dept of Defense really need on the books? Long gone are the days when we had buglers and drummers leading formations to a battlefield to line up in rows and shoot muskets at each other. These are full paid military positions with retirement benefits, not to mention healthcare benefits for family members on the tax payer dime for what can hardly be argued as essential military positions in my opinion. Better to have those tax payer funded positions filled by pilots, medics, infantry, mechanics, special forces and other more militarisitc occupational specialties.


Keep a few bands for stately functions and dis-band the rest.

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Being a native of Pensacola the home of the Blue Angels. I have watched them all my life and now my children as well. This is just sad. I guess it will free up some more money for the Obamas' enjoyment. So sick of the attitude of people today and their cuts to anything related to the military instead of all the true bulls**t frivolous crap. Why do you think we are the country we are today and have the freedom we have. I grew up in the military and so many of my family members served. The Blue Angels inspire children of all ages with their shows and meet and greets. Inspiration to become our future pilots, engineers, aircraft mechanics whatever. Maybe just to join the military and be the ones who save and protect our asses. When you watch these shows it brings forth in people so much pride and emotion about being an American and what are country is and what we can do. It is so patriotic. I guess those who have posted negative comments have never been to one of their shows or are just part of the whole degradation of our country.

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White House tours canceled. Military furloughed. 663,000 left the work force LAST MONTH. Income on the decline. Taxes rising. Health costs increasing. But, the show must go on! So sad that so many see this as 'cool' rather than what it really is.....a 'let them eat cake' attitude. But, don't worry. You'll have a chance for a different view of this lavish lifestyle. Another party is being planned.

http://nation.foxnews.com/white-hous...see-guest-list