Reflections From a Murky Pond

There’s truly no denying that America has a fundamental problem with its expectations of its healthcare system. Similarly, there’s little rational denial of the fact that ObamaCare won’t improve this and will only matters worse.

So now, of course, we’re about to be saddled with the OCD-10.

OK, it’s actually the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, version 10), not the OCD-10, but it certainly looks to be an example of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder on the part of the World Health Organization (WHO). ICD-10 will increase the number of diagnostic available codes from approximately 17,000 in ICD-9 to over 155,000. If that’s not a case OCD, I don’t think I really want to know what it is.

There are many who wouldn’t this would be a problem, which is why a large part of why it’s been largely ignored outside of medical circles. The other reason being that the Lamestream Media is loath to add to the woes of Liberal politicians in an election year. Sadly, that ignorant majority is wrong; this is a problem, both financially and operationally.

For decades the US has used the WHO’s ICD as a way to standardize billing for medical procedures. Resultantly, medical practitioners have to use the proper codes in order to get reimbursed by health insurance companies or the government. These massive and largely nonsensical changes to the ICD will directly and adversely effect the operational efficiency of America’s entire healthcare industry.

ICD-10 Cost Estimates By AMA

According to the American Medical Association (AMA) the costs to medical practitioners in terms of physician productivity losses, payment disruptions, training, testing, and practice assessments, as well as the implementation itself will be staggering…and, not the least bit surprisingly, drastically higher than earlier estimates.

The markedly higher implementation costs for ICD-10 place a crushing burden on physicians, straining vital resources needed to invest in new health care delivery models and well-developed technology that promotes care coordination with real value to patients. Continuing to compel physicians to adopt this new coding structure threatens to disrupt innovations by diverting resources away from areas that are expected to help lower costs and improve the quality of care.

– Ardis Dee Hoven, MD
President, American Medical Association

In the end it will the American people seeking medical attention that will bear the burden of these regulation-imposed costs, both in direct increases in their medical costs and in the loss of medical access due to smaller practitioners being driven out of business, the reduction in medical advances, and the natural self-protection instincts of medical practitioners who may well take more conservative approaches is treatment rather than risk not being reimbursed in a timely fashion, or at all, for expensive, aggressive procedures.

“God Bless Elections!” is exactly what the Romeike family should be proclaiming unto the Heavens because it was solely the fact that the Obama Regime fears the upcoming midterm elections that has allowed the stay in America.

The Happy Romeike Family

The Romeikes are devout Christians from Germany who wanted to homeschool their children because of what they perceived as the secularist agenda in German public schools. This is illegal is Germany and the parents faced both persecution and possible prosecution by the German authorities.

In 2008, after enduring two years of ever-increasing persecution and threats by the German government, they fled to America where they applied for asylum after settling in Tennessee. In 2010 Immigration Judge Lawrence O. Burman granted this request for asylum. This should have been the happy end of it. It wasn’t.

Obama’s and Holders’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) almost immediately appealed Judge Burman’s decision and got their appeal on docket of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in California, who were quick to over the immigration judges grant of asylum to the Romeike family.

Finally, in 2014 the US Supreme Court refused to hear Romeiki’s further appeal. Legally this doomed the family to deportation and the likely destruction of their family as a unit upon their return to Germany. In theory this should have been the sad end of it. It wasn’t.

The whole case made the national news and the public outcry over the Obama Regime’s behavior was fairly intense – to intense for Obama and other Democrats in a midterm election year, especially one where they’re weakened by the failure of ObamaCare and the retirement of many of the politicians. Hence, they granted the Romeike family “indefinite deferred status,” which will allow them to stay in the US.

God Bless Elections!

In almost every generation a leader emerges among the nations, quasi-nations, and pseudo-nations of the world. In our time that leader is Russia’s Vladimir Putin. As an American, this is both hard for me to admit and something that I cannot find to be a positive thing for my nation. That, however, doesn’t make it any less true and refusing to accept that truth would be even worse for America.

Vladimir Putin – The World’s Leader

The one thing that truly sets President Vladimir Putin apart from the rest of world’s, and especially America’s, politicians is that he is a leader of men and they, especially Obama, are merely politicians. Putin commands respect and gets it, they do neither.

Putin decides what he wants to do and he does it in half a day, right? He decided he had to go to their parliament. He went to their parliament. He got permission in 15 minutes … but he makes a decision and he executes it quickly. Then everybody reacts. That’s what you call a leader. President Obama, he’s got to think about it. He’s got to go over it again. He’s got to talk to more people about it.

– Rudy Giuliani

Mr. Giuliani is, quite sadly, completely correct. Of all the people on the world’s stage Putin is the man who is most the leader and who is most worthy of respect in that role. The key words in this are “Leader” and “Respect.” Those do not respectively equate to “Friend” or “Approval.”

Putin is neither friend nor ally to America and is, at a bare minimum, an adversary of Europe. There is little of his foreign policy that is not contrary to the West’s perceived best interests and even less of his domestic policies that the majority of the West’s peoples find acceptable.

Therein lies the problem. The greatest and most worthy of respect leader of this time is one that is not on our side. Nor do we have, singularly or collectively, such leaders as can effectively balk him with anything resembling ease. As the victors write the history books, this could well end up with us “on the wrong side of history.”