OmniSpeak

As our economy worsens, more companies are cutting the healthcare coverage for their workers, and shifting more of costs to employees.  These new findings come to light as congressional campaigns heat up over the slow economy, and whether or not to repeal the newly passed healthcare law.

It may be keeping the cost of healthcare plans down but also means that employer coverage is less comprehensive.  To the consumer, the costs are going up faster than wages.  In the United States, health insurance is provided mostly by the employer, which is different than other industrialized countries.  It’s estimated that rougly 157 million people under age 65 receive their care through the workplace. 

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Not many people are aware, that the Department of Veterans Affairs, is spending tens of millions of your taxpayer dollars, to maintain hundreds of buildings, most of which are vacant, that are so dilapidated, and are considered health hazards.  And the dispute is over the exact amount spent to maintain these buildings.  The GAO, estimates that the VA has spent $175 million every year since 2007.  But the VA denies those figures, saying only $85 million has been spent on those buildings in 2007, and last year, only $37 million….more taxpayer money wasted, as with thousands of vets returning from the wars, that money could be used for their medical care.

The buildings are from Augusta, Ga., to Menlo Park, Calif., from Milwaukee, Wis., to Perry Point, Md., the VA maintains 5,507 buildings across the country.  And 314 of them are now vacant and it costs, just to keep them standing.  

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Gov Tim Pawlenty said that he would do everything he possibly could, to make sure Minnesota doesn’t take part in the federal health care overhaul during his final four months in office.  In his words, the health care law, signed by President Obama, is a misguided piece of legislation that puts states on the wrong path and will drive up costs. Pawlenty is taking steps to reject some dollars tied to the law.

“Anything that I can do to slow down, limit or negate Obamacare, I’m going to try to do it within reason,” Pawlenty said after a veterans event in St. Paul.

Fox News

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Many of our troops are returning from Iraq with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder: insomnia, nightmares, constant restlessness, so doctors are trying to ease the symptoms with three psychiatric drugs – including a potent anti-psychotic called Seroquel.  Over the past nine years thousands of soldiers have received Seroquel, which has now made it one of the Veteran Affairs Department’s top drug expenditures and the No. 5 best-selling drug in the nation.

But there is a problem.  Several soldiers have died after taking the pills which brings up questions among some military families that the government is not being up front about the drug’s risks.  The families want Congress to investigate. 

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Many of the residents in the small town of Libby Montana, confronted Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Max Baucus, for the very law that could help potentially thousands of asbestos victims there. One stipulation of the healthcare bill passed expands Medicare coverage for the sick residents of Libby, where years of asbestos pollution from a vermiculite mine made this the nation’s deadliest Superfund site.

About 400 residents of Libby, have signed up for the new coverage as of this week.  But many of the 3,000 residents of Libby, came to the town hall meeting and appeared to be less concerned about how the new law helps those with asbestos illnesses than with the legislation itself. One woman even asked Baucus where it was written in the Constitution people should be required to purchase health care.  Another, Judy Mattot, who was a retired nurse, demanded to know if Baucus or Sebelius had read the bill.

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