Based on select quality of care measures, Reston Hospital Center has earned the highest ranking in the state of Virginia, according to the most recent results from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s Quality-In-Sights®: Hospital Incentive Program (Q-HIPSM).
“As the nation’s healthcare system remains under the magnifying glass, Reston Hospital Center is exceeding national standards for quality care and being rewarded for our efforts,” said William Adams, CEO of RHC. “This ranking doesn’t just reflect excellent patient outcomes, but also the cost-savings that come from providing better patient care. This couldn’t have been achieved without the constant commitment of our nurses, physicians and staff to put patients first.”
The problem with Obama’s new hedging on taxing those who make below $250,000, or his administration’s taking credit for victory in the Iraq war that they so once fervently tried to abort, or the flip-flop on renditions and tribunals, or the embarrassments over closing Guantanamo and trying KSM in New York or Mirandizing the Christmas Day bomber,or trashing/praising Wall Street grandees, is not that presidents cannot change their minds as circumstances warrant, or even that all politicians are at times hypocritical. No, the rub is that Obama is not merely flipping and triangulating on issues in a desperate attempt to shadow the polls, but he is doing so on matters that he once swore were absolutely central to his entire candidacy and his signature hope-and-change agenda, critical to the future of the U.S., and proof of his opponents’ either ignorance or disingenuousness
CBC Canada reports that one of their Premiers, presumably – as a Canadian citizen – someone with full access to the Canadian health care system that the Left in this country holds up as a Utopian ideal to be emulated in the US at all costs, has decided to come to the United States for his heart surgery.
Why does someone with access to a health care system we’ve been told is vastly superior to the way we do things down here coming down here for his medical care? Could it be that the system up there is 1) waitlisted so long as to make it dangerous to rely upon, 2) not quite up to speed in terms of medical capability, or 3) isn’t providing the treatment plan the patient feels is in his best interest? Might be good to know. However, for the moment, it’s instructive to see that when participants in nationalized health care systems really need the medical care, they come to the place they know they can get it, and top-notch care to boot.
Responding to the victory in Massachusetts by the Republican, Scott Brown, Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, is calling on Senate leaders to suspend any votes on the Democrats’ health care legislation until Mr. Brown is sworn into office. In a statement, Mr. Webb, who voted for the health care bill in December, congratulated Mr. Brown on his victory and said he looked forward to working with him. But he also said Democrats must take note of the wider implications of the election results. “In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process,” Mr. Webb said. “It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.”
Emphasis mine. Senator Webb… that’s a damn honorable thing to say and suggest and it does you real credit. My thanks for being the first Dem Senator to show the integrity a Senator should possess. Virginia has a long and proud history of cooperation with Massachusetts and it’s nice to see that connection re-established tonight.
Imagine for a moment that a Republican administration wanted to get support behind some program or legislation they wanted to push and decided the best way to do that was to get prominent people to write glowingly about the topic? Then after said person wrote about it this administration decided to tout the fact that the article had been written as support for their program. Imagine further that it then comes to light that the person doing the writing was paid to do so by the administration and that this paid relationship was deliberately withheld from the public, allowing us to think that it was an unbiased article when, in fact, it was a paid-for PR product.
Think there might be a stink raised about that?
Well, it turns out you don’t need to imagine it. Back in 2005 a man by the name of Armstrong Williams was paid by the Department of Education in the Bush Administration to write helpful articles regarding President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program. They left this little factoid out of their proud references to Williams’ writing on the program and when people found out about it, there was some pretty intense coverage of the matter. I myself wrote on the topic and I was none too pleased with Mr. Williams’ actions nor with those of whomever at the DoED it was who made the payments. The coverage was widespread and saw print and air in all the major media. Yes, that included such bleeding-heart liberal outlets as Fox News and the Washington Times.
Fast forward a few years into a new administration and a new program/legislative effort dealing with the massive re-organization of the nation’s healthcare systems. From Sonicfrog Dot Net:
What is it with academics, politics, and honesty? First we had Climategate - Now we have Grubergate! Grubergate? Grubergate???? What the hell is Grubergate?
Well, just like Climategate, if you get most of your news from the MSM, you’ve never heard of it because they’re not reporting it and ignoring the story. It involves MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, who was paid gobs of money by the White House controlled Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to write a report on health care reform. The report was favorable. The problem is, the report is not publicly available, and, more damning, it was sold to the public as an independent analysis of the administrations health care initiatives.
At that point, he introduces an article dealing with the subject – by Jane Hamsher writing at The Huffington Post. Hamsher goes to town not only on Gruber but on the Obama administration and on the news media because, quite unlike their pursuit of the Armstrong Williams story, the news media have been nearly silent on the matter. And not just the news media, all of the major Democrat / left-wing blogs who were all over the Williams issue have let this matter slip right on by without comment.
Folks, writing pro-anything prose for hire and then representing yourself as an independent agent on the question is unethical, period. I don’t care which side of the debate you’re on and I couldn’t care less about the topic, it’s just dishonorable and dishonest. If what Hamsher is saying is true, then Gruber’s analysis is pretty much the lynchpin of all supporting argumentation for Obamacare. If he wrote this as a paid contractor for the White House – and he did, it is confirmed – then he can hardly be cited as a credible, unbiased source. And the media are covering for him. It says a lot that the White House needed to pay someone off to write the glowing report on Obamacare and none of what it says speaks well for either that legislation or the White House pushing it.
Wow, you don’t see this happen on CNN every day. (Hat tip: Hot Air.)
Transcript:
How dare they? President Obama, Democratic leaders have decided to bypass a formal House and Senate conference committee in order to reconcile those two health care bills. Instead, White House and Democratic leaders will hold informal — that’s another word for secret — negotiations, meant to shut Republicans and the public out of the process.
What a far cry from the election, when then candidate Obama pledged to — quote — “broadcast health care negotiations on C-SPAN, so that the American people can see what the choices are” — unquote.
President Obama hasn’t even made a token effort to keep his campaign promises of more openness and transparency in government. It was all just another lie that was told in order to get elected. The head of C-SPAN wrote a letter, asked Congress to — quote — “open all the important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage” — unquote. When White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked whether the administration would support televising the negotiations, he refused to answer, instead mumbling something about, well, I haven’t seen the letter.
That wasn’t the question, Mr. Gibbs. You either support openness or you don’t. The Democrats insist this is all on the up-and-up, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying — quote — “There’s never been a more open process for any legislation.” — unquote.
Really? This is the same Nancy Pelosi who you may recall, after becoming speaker in 2006, promised the Democrats would have — quote — “the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history” — unquote.
Here’s hoping the voters remember some of this crap when the midterm elections roll around later this year.
In order to stuff his Christmas Eve healthcare vote through the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid had to lard up bribes to key Senators (Ben Nelson, we’re talking about you) in a 383-page “manager’s amendment” that was completely hidden from public view. And he’s trying hard to get the House to swallow the Senate bill whole so there’s no conference committee to be held to account on the matter. Naked Emperor News has this clip of this same Senator Harry Reid in 2006 speaking out on the matter.
If it was such a bad idea at the time (on a bill far less reaching that the “healthcare reform”), Senator, why are we all supposed to think it’s just the bomb now?
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