A different Supreme Court health care case

Lexington attorney Kent Masterson Brown has just now exhausted all other appeals in a lawsuit against the federal government to allow Medicare recipients to opt out of government health insurance, so he is taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Most people surely don't realize that the federal government has started forcing people to accept Medicare. Don't bother looking for it in federal law; it isn't there.

More about this very soon. Click here for some background on the story.

The case is Brian Hall et al., v. Kathleen Sebelius Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

Will Kentucky hire Michael Leavitt?

New Mexico is one of the states with Republican leadership who have drunk the pro-ObamaCare KoolAid claim that states have to go ahead and set up an ObamaCare health insurance exchange or the federal government will come in and do it for them.

News flash: the federal government will control the exchanges even in the states that set them up. The only real flexibility will belong to the states that refuse to play along.

Mitt Romney's chief of staff, Michael Leavitt is a huge ObamaCare profiteer who is convincing Republican state officials even in state's suing to overturn ObamaCare to go ahead and set up ObamaCare.

I can't imagine why anyone with the ability to read the bill and the regulations that go with it would believe that the federal government will allow them to run an exchange in conflict with federal desires. It is a dangerous and false assumption and the Republicans who go along with this are hitting for the wrong team. Don't believe me: read this.

New Mexico just paid Michael Leavitt one million dollars to set up their ObamaCare exchange. Kentucky leaders Steve Beshear, Greg Stumbo and David Williams as well as heads of the Department of Insurance, Cabinet for Health and Family Services and Deparment of Certificate of Need should immediately divulge any communications they have had with Michael Leavitt or any working with his firm Leavitt Partners since the Affordable Care Act became law.

Kentucky has no business playing this very expensive game. It will bankrupt us faster and we are already on the fast track. We must reject this nonsense vigorously, return what federal money we have already received and take immediate action to tie Governor Beshear's hands against the possibility of enacting ObamaCare via an executive order.

The salient point not to be missed is Beshear has been talking for years about moving us to the left on healthcare. After the Supreme Court ruling will be very chaotic regardless of the ruling and we are not ready for that. Too many of our official Republicans are still playing CYA games or worse. It's a luxury we can't afford.

Obama got your toaster, wants your bread

You may recall last year Illinois Senator Dick Durbin making banking reforms worse by dictating debit card fees banks can charge retailers.

While perhaps not noticing the subsequent price-shifting by banks and the increases by retailers to make up for the ObamaCard nonsense from 2011, you need to be warned that the 2012 version promises to be decidedly more prominent.

Barack Obama wants your credit cards. Oh, it will be couched in the now-predictable populist language of Occupy Wall Street vulgarians, but make no mistake that fixing bank fees on credit cards isn't about sticking it to The Man or helping you with more affordable bank services.

Any shortage in fees banks experience due to congressional price fixing deals will only be extracted from consumers' wallets by other means, just like last time. And the times before that.

So later this summer when you hear Obama stooge Dick Durbin talking about trimming bankers' sails, please understand that it is you who will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

Please encourage your representatives to tell Durbin/Obama to stick to throwing little old ladies off cliffs to make the numbers "work" on his healthcare nonsense and to stop diversifying his efforts by meddling with our credit cards.

Is Mitch McConnell a "libatarian" too?

Plans for a 4th district GOP "Unity rally" in Boone County on June 4 have been stymied because former candidate Alecia Webb Edgington is refusing to commit to attending and standing behind Republican nominee Thomas Massie.

All the other candidates, Congressman Geoff Davis, former Senator Jim Bunning, Senator Rand Paul and Senator Mitch McConnell are all on board, but Webb-Edgington has the event on ice, which may have something to do with her animosity for conservatives with a certain libertarian bent.

Webb-Edgington campaigned vigorously against "libatarians" (her pronunciation) throughout the campaign.

Kentucky health freedom through the back door

It was reported here a week ago that Kentucky's Department on Insurance was attempting a crackdown on Christians in Kentucky seeking a religious exemption to ObamaCare.

Something appears to have gone wrong with those grand plans. Special Assistant Attorney General Stephen Taylor won't comment on official attempts to abuse Christians in Kentucky, though he is clearly operating within state law when he does so.

If state bureaucrats pulling the strings on Kentucky's insurance industry can't justify the amount of oversight they have already carved out for themselves now, how in the world are they going to handle challenges to the monumental overreach of ObamaCare?

Shut down Kentucky Dept of Insurance

A 2010 Kentucky Supreme Court ruling could be used to end the error of government regulation of private health care transactions and usher in freedoms many have forgotten ever existed.

Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Reinhold states that Kentucky can regulate anything that it finds to be "insurance." The Court further rules that agreements to shift risk constitute insurance. Taken literally, this could be applied to any interpersonal interaction. We shift risks between family members, neighbors, even strangers every day. Is a Boy Scout helping a little old lady across the street now her insurance company? Under the letter of the law, yes he is.

I hope this sounds as absurd to you as it does to me. The Commonwealth is using KRS 304.1-030, enacted in 1970, to arbitrarily limit healthcare options available to Kentuckians even under ObamaCare. Rather than suffer continued confusion under such unreasonable and capricious laws, we should instead repeal all statutes seeking to regulate insurance. Market competition is a much more efficient regulator than government decree anyway, and civil courts are available for dispute resolution at much less cost than big government.

It's completely understandable if you have to let this idea roll around in your head a while before taking action on it. We just need a few people willing to really fight for healthcare freedom in order to swing it back in our direction. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call me at 859-537-5372.

It's your baby: free market works in Kentucky

In Kentucky, only one individual health insurer covers maternity care. A 22 year old woman seeking health insurance with maternity coverage must pay premiums through a 12 month waiting period. The cost of this rider on an Anthem $2500 deductible plan with 0% coinsurance is $51.37 a month.

That's $1078.77 in premium for 12 months waiting period plus nine months gestation. Add on the $2500 deductible and you are over the market price Lexington OB/GYNs charge to deliver your baby.

It's clearly cheaper to skip maternity coverage and negotiate a cash price with your doctor. 

Incidentally, I called Dr. Blake Bradley in Lexington today. He delivered my fifteen year old son for a $2000 fee we negotiated at the beginning of my wife's pregnancy. His current price is slightly more than $2100.

Under ObamaCare, this free market success story will be a thing of the past. And if Governor Beshear intends to leave the free market intact in the event of a Supreme Court ruling against ObamaCare, he needs to make that clear right away. Otherwise, it certainly looks like he wants to push us to the left on healthcare regardless of what the Supremes say.

Kentucky healthcare reign of terror to expand

Governor Steve Beshear's insurance officials in Frankfort are preparing to expand discrimination against Christian health cost sharing programs that are actually exempt from ObamaCare.

The Kentucky Department of Insurance, already pursuing a contempt of court ruling against Christian Care Medi-Share, will widen its regulatory scope tomorrow to include sharing organizations Samaritan Ministries and Christian Healthcare Ministries.

A 2010 Kentucky Supreme Court split decision (Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Reinhold) against Christian Care Medi-Share will be used to shut down Samaritan and Christian Healthcare.

Kentuckians participating in these sharing programs or any others should contact their representatives and demand that state government leave this small corner of freedom in the health care marketplace alone. And since this applies directly to only a small number of Kentuckians, anyone who believes in freedom and opposes government tyranny in all forms should join them.

Next up in Kentucky: Craig Astor

Congressman Brett Guthrie has supported raising the debt ceiling, oppressive government and bad Republican candidates in primaries against tea partiers.

Just got this notice on my Facebook page:

Anyone know who Craig Astor is? It's just about time to find out.

Tea party should stop government broadband

The full U.S. Senate will be taking up the 2012 Farm Bill soon. When they do, Senator Rand Paul would do well to push for defunding the Rural Utilities Service Broadband Loan Program to get government out of the way and lower the cost of internet for consumers.

Kentucky has more municipal broadband projects than any other state on a per capita basis. In fact, only Washington state's twelve projects exceeds Kentucky's eight, but on a larger population.

A 2010 Reason Foundation report found that Kentucky had the tenth most competitive broadband market in the nation. Government involvement has been promoted as necessary to provide services in rural areas, but that line has been thoroughly debunked.

A group of government watchdog groups this week urged trimming back the federal loan program, but  I think we all expect Senator Paul to not stop at half-measures, nor can our state afford them.

Is David Williams done in 2014?

A quiet election in terms of statewide notice, yesterday's 15th Senate district race could have larger implications including the ouster of Senate President David Williams not just from leadership, but from office altogether in the middle of Gov. Steve Beshear's second term.

The race featured Chris Girdler, a Hal Rogers-backed establishment candidate who spent around $200,000 to win the primary. His three tea party opponents, Mark Polston, Todd Hoskins and AC Donahue combined to spend only a small fraction of that total.

Hoskins, the only Casey Countian in the race, dropped out late and endorsed Polston. He stayed on the ballot, though, and pulled 2% of the vote though he clearly was able to transfer much of his support to Polston.

Donahue refused to fall in behind Polston and held tough to draw 7.3% of the vote. Given Polston's 9.63% loss to Girdler, it's hard not to conclude that a united insurgent effort all along may well have been successful.

Conservatives ought to resist the temptation, though, to praise Hoskins and criticize Donahue. Both were outstanding candidates and both should be encouraged to stay heavily involved. The hollowness of moral victories aside, the quality of these candidates speaks well for the movement in a more rural part of the state. It's almost all good news and portends growth in the future.

Girdler, 32, will be very interesting to watch in the Senate. Protecting his right flank will be important as tea party strength continues to grow but he also has to be wary of a challenge from the left. Senate President David Williams tried to take Pulaski and Russell counties in redistricting and started showing signs of moving to Somerset. He clearly has Girdler in his sights.

Girdler supporters executed a fairly successful whisper campaign claiming that David Williams supported Polston in this race so that he could take Pulaski and Russell in 2013 redistricting and run against Polston in 2014.

If Girdler moves to embrace and be embraced by the tea party quickly, the pieces may fall into place for squeezing Williams out of the Senate in 2014.

Obama still targeting Tea Party

I use a web site called StatCounter that allows me to see where my traffic on this site is coming from. Sometimes this provides interesting information.

Just got this one:

If you can't tell, someone at the Internal Revenue Service wound up here after doing a Google search for "Kentucky tea party candidates." Sure would be interesting to know how they might justify doing that.

It's hard to view this as anything other than an improper use of federal power.

Sure fix for ObamaCare in Kentucky

The federal Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) explicitly grandfathers in religious based health care cost sharing programs and allows people to use them to pay for their medical expenses while everyone else is forced into government-run payment vehicles.

Kentucky is unique among states in its dogged determination to deny its citizens this last freedom. This is an old fight, but it is time we got everyone engaged.

The last legislative session would have been a perfect opportunity to restore this freedom to Kentuckians.

Please "like" this post and share it with any Kentucky Christians you know who are concerned about ObamaCare. This is so important we should demand Governor Beshear call the legislature into special session in June to pass a law specifically permitting religious-based medical cost sharing programs to operate without government interference in Kentucky. It is our most realistic defense against ObamaCare, it would present a cost-savings for Kentuckians while allowing a desperately needed free-market solution.

Christian Care Medishare has operated very successfully in the state for years. Spreading their success would benefit Kentuckians financially and by teaching a much needed lesson in free markets.

Please alert your legislators to this critical issue.

David Givens' opponent cites Enron-style scheme

Kentucky state Senator David Givens continued to use his office to benefit himself financially by operating a questionable "agriculture" business until the state quietly shut it down last September, Republican state Senate candidate Don Butler said.

Senator Givens is Co-Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The name of Givens' company, of which he was described alternately as an officer or owner, was Green River Cattle Company.

"It is tough to track it all down but after taking some hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and producing nothing, Green River Cattle Company looks like the Enron of Kentucky agriculture," Butler said. "It wasn't much of a company, there were no cattle, no river and the only green was the taxpayer money going into David Givens' pocket." 

Givens showed income from Green River Cattle Company on his Legislative Ethics reports through 2010. Givens has also come under fire in his re-election bid for claiming falsely to have never voted to raise taxes.

Real health reform road show starts Monday

Two weeks ago, the Beshear administration tried to sneak a bogus "public" hearing on ObamaCare past the people of Kentucky.

It failed.

Monday night, May 21st, a different kind of public hearing will be held. Please join a public discussion at the Jeffersontown Public Library at 10635 Watterson Trail in Louisville.

We will talk about what the Beshear administration is doing to us, how it is more important to fight the battle on the state level than to wait for a favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling next month. We will talk about what you can do to help protect the state from another brush with socialized medicine and why Frankfort Republicans are fighting for the wrong team.

We will talk about real free market solutions. Hope to see you there.

Republican Party of Kentucky attacks conservative

On Thursday afternoon, a recorded telephone call from Republican Party of Kentucky headquarters defended incumbent moderate Senator David Givens for his bad votes on taxes, spending and healthcare. The call urged Republicans to ignore criticism of Givens' record and to re-elect him anyway.

Givens faces conservative Tea Party Republican challenger Don Butler in the primary election on Tuesday, May 22.

Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Steve Robertson said the call went out to approximately 2000 voters in the 9th Senate district, according to a local party official.

The call in support of Givens represents a new low for the Republican Party of Kentucky, which continues to unnecessarily prolong the battle between establishment moderates and conservative Tea Partiers.

Chris Christie shows Republicans how to sell out

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will be in Lexington on Saturday to address Kentucky Republicans. He will surely talk about his May 10 veto of a bill to set up an ObamaCare health insurance exchange in his state.

What he won't tell us is that his veto was just for show and that he was already -- and still is -- setting his state on the path to socialized medicine.

As always, the trick is to follow the money.

Governor Christie applied for and received a $7.6 million Affordable Care Act Establishment grant and is spending it readying his state for ObamaCare. The law explicitly allows states to forgo this activity and, in fact, returning the federal money forcing the federal government to set up the exchange is the only way to go.

Like several other Republicans, Christie appears to have fallen for the idea that a state-run exchange is either required or somehow allows states to maintain a form of local control.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has expressed the same position. Both the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute have urged states to return Establishment grant money as the surest way out of ObamaCare's clutches.

Why this message hasn't gotten more traction would be a real mystery if politicians in both parties had not so clearly displayed their addiction to federal money, with or without strings attached.

And make no mistake, the strings attached to the federal money already accepted by many states will become very heavy ropes before 2015 when states will be responsible for all the costs of exchanges regardless of who is "running" them.

At best the states are being set up as scapegoats for when ObamaCare fares poorly. Worse, opponents banking on a favorable Supreme Court ruling will be surprised at how much of ObamaCare will survive in states that have cooperated and have accepted federal money.

States like New Jersey and Kentucky. 

 

Funniest Kentucky political ad ever

Tea Party Republican Don Butler is running a radio ad against his incumbent opponent David Givens that has people talking down around Glasgow, Kentucky. Click the link below to listen to it.

Funny political ad

David Givens suffers 40-point ObamaCare swoon

Powerful incumbent Senate Republican David Givens, chairman of the Senate Agriculture committee, was cruising to a 20-point win two weeks ago. In the past week, though, Givens got skewered by the Kentucky Club for Growth for raising taxes and then lying about it in a newspaper ad.

Also last week, his opponent, Tea Party Republican Don Butler, started running a radio ad pointing out Givens' support of ObamaCare in the state legislature.

Now two different sources who have polled the race tell Kentucky Progress that Givens is losing by twenty. And Butler reportedly has an even harder-hitting ad in the can for the final week.

If you haven't already joined the movement to stop Frankfort's quiet effort to implement ObamaCare, please do so now.

Is Steve Beshear lying or just lazy and stupid?

Last week when Governor Steve Beshear came clean about quietly setting up ObamaCare in Kentucky he repeated a canard that apparently still needs to be debunked. Beshear wants you to believe that if Kentucky sets up its own ObamaCare health insurance exchange, that we will maintain some kind of local control.

Setting up a state-run exchange, Beshear said, "also guarantees we don't have the federal government running our insurance market."


But page 8 of a federal Health and Human Services ObamaCare document summarizing the law on Kentucky's Department of Insurance web site clearly explains that if the HHS Secretary isn't happy with the state's activities, then the feds can step in and take control.

There are lots of myths, distortions and outright lies surrounding the ObamaCare mess. It would be great if more of Kentucky's Republican officials got on board with the effort to fight this nonsense back. Those sitting on the sidelines now are just going to look sillier and sillier as this goes along.