Less than 5 deaths v ...

"A report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies states: "Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States." [27] A 2009 Harvard study published in the American Journal of Public Health found more than 44,800 excess deaths annually in the United States associated with uninsurance."

Yet the American system costs twice as much per capita. Golly.. how efficient.

It seems very anti American considering...."We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness."

Life is now unequal in the USA.

Robert Petson, BBC business editor tweets:
Murdoch very grumpy at suggestion he trades support of his papers for Tories (or Lab) for help with takeover bid

1302: Discussing the BSkyB bid, Mr Murdoch angrily tells Robert Jay QC he would never link the political support of his papers to any commercial transaction. "I simply wouldn't do business that way," he says.

why not? His dad made his business by bribary!!

Robert Peston, BBC business editor tweets: In Sept 2010, Michel calls Hunt or his advisers about a blog I wrote saying ofcom would review bskyb bid, within minutes of me publishing

Simon Kelner, Former editor of The Independent tweets:
Have never once been to a Murdoch summer or Christmas party. Unlike most of the political or media

Ross Hawkins, BBC political correspondent tweets:
Internal News Corp notes from public affairs exec Michel said DCMS sec Jeremy Hunt would be supportive of BSkyB bid #Leveson

1246:Conservative Mr Hunt had taken over responsibility for the BSkyB bid from Business Secretary Vince Cable after the Lib Dem told undercover reporters he had "declared war on Rupert Murdoch" in December 2010.

Robert Peston, BBC business editor tweets:
J Murdoch at #Leveson getting very interesting on circumstances behind Jeremy Hunt approving BSkyB bid in 2011

Simon Kelner, Former editor of The Independent tweets:
J Murdoch says I was 'availing myself of his family's hospitality for a number of years'? Evidence? Complete slur.

1240:Mr Murdoch held two meetings with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt in January 2011 after he had acquired responsibility for presiding over it, the inquiry hears.

Back to News Corp's bid for BSkyB now. Mr Murdoch says his company had "real issues" with the analysis of it by regulator Ofcom - which referred the bid to the Competition Commission.

If you're struggling to digest all the twists and turns of the phone-hacking scandal, our Q&A breaks things down in bite-sized chunks.

1234: You can read how the impact of the phone-hacking scandal directly impacted on James Murdoch and his father, Rupert, in our timeline of key events since the News of the World's closure.

Jonny Kiehlmann, Scottish PhD student at Imperial tweets:
So what Murdoch said at #Leveson is that he doesn't think it's right for those who ever accept his family's hospitality to criticise them?‏

Andy Davies, Home Affairs Correspondent Channel 4 News tweets:
Murdoch particularly upset as he claims Indy editor Kelner had been 'availing himself' of Murdoch hospitality 'for years'

1232: Mr Murdoch denies "storming in" to the Independent's offices but says he "wouldn't dispute using colourful language" when he called in to express his displeasure. The poster campaign "was not a decent way to go about [Mr Kelner's] business," he adds.

1229:Mr Murdoch says Independent editor Simon Kelner went "beyond the pale" by erecting posters ahead of the last General Election which read: "Rupert Murdoch won't decide the election - you will".

Fiona Gilson from Derbyshirewrites:

I am puzzled as to what Mr Murdoch does. So far he claims that he is told nothing, asks no questions, remembers nothing, did nothing, met no one of importance and did not need to know what was going on. Can I have his job, please, sounds a doddle?

(V):  if you think this won't happen with obama care you're nuts.  It occurs in Canada and the UK as well under your current system.  In the UK, two patients died while waiting in an ambulance!  The hospital was over stretched to the limit and while waiting for critical care, they BOTH DIED.   

Outrage tends to bubble up when denials become human drama, triggering media interest. There's the 17-year-old girl who died before her liver transplant was approved. Or the people in California whose insurers canceled their policies retroactively after they got sick. What's often missed is that these cases are the tip of an opaque iceberg. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of claims are denied for various reasons, some of them technical, such as not meeting filing deadlines or failing to get pretreatment authorizations. Denials that produce the most disputes are those where insurers judge the care to be unnecessary or unproven, pitting a proverbial sick David against a multibillion-dollar Goliath. What few Davids know is that insurance contracts by law grant companies the legal right to manage a patient's care, including denying it, sight unseen, and give them the final say, if challenged. Unless the state steps in.

Many denials are iffy calls and can appear distinctly arbitrary, with one insurer saying no to a particular therapy or procedure while others reimburse for it. An FDA-approved drug might be denied because it's used off-label, even if it is shown to work in peer-reviewed reports. In cancer care, the generally expensive intravenous chemotherapy drugs given in a doctor's office are typically covered, while an equivalent, if not better, therapy taken at home orally is not. When insurance authorization is required for each new service or each hospital stay for the same serious illness, who's best to say what's medically necessary? Doctors and their staff will spend hours trying to get the approvals, but patients should be warned that if the company ultimately denies payment, for whatever reason, it's the patients who are responsible—with bill collectors ready at their door.

The problem is bound to grow as insurers make use of sophisticated data tools dubbed "denial engines," which are touted to reduce reimbursements by 3 to 10 percent. Bearing brand names like Ingenix Detection Software and Bloodhound Technologies' ClaimsGuard, they search patient records for any signs that claims have strayed outside company parameters. Weeding out fraud or speeding up processing is one thing; serving up excuses to deny legitimate coverage is another.

... In America now it's a computer that'll be saying no to your health needs... Might as well call them dEaTh dRiVeS

And his followers are stupid.  

Obama is a Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.

Rupert Murdoch is to give evidence to the Leveson inquiry into phone hacking and media ethics next week, with a day and a half set aside for the News Corporation founder.

Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corp, is due to give evidence on Wednesday, continuing on Thursday morning if necessary.

His son James, the News Corp deputy chief operating officer and former chairman of the company's UK newspaper business News International, has been allocated a full day on Tuesday for his witness appearance.

Murdoch and his son are based in New York, where News Corp has its headquarters, but will be travelling to London to answer questions from Lord Justice Leveson and his legal team in court 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice.

The Leveson inquiry, set up by prime minister David Cameron following the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World in July 2011, has heard from more than 100 witnesses since evidence hearings began in November.

Witnesses have included victims of alleged press intrusion, journalists, editors, media executives, police officers and chief constables. However, up to now none have been given a full day, or more, to give evidence by Leveson.

The Murdochs appeared together before MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee to answer questions about News of the World phone-hacking at the height of the scandal in July last year.

That grilling lasted about three hours, including an unscheduled break after a UK Uncut activist threw a paper plate of shaving foam at Rupert Murdoch.

Also giving evidence at the Leveson inquiry next week, on Monday, will be Aidan Barclay, chairman of Daily Telegraph publisher Telegraph Media Group, and Evgeny Lebedev, the son of Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, who runs his London-based papers the Independent and London Evening Standard.

rod03801: I think if I was pushing through anything it would be to stop policies being cancelled and that there is some form of dramatic change to the pre-existing. A % based on salary.

(V): Not wanting government controlled health care does not mean not wanting certain things reformed.
No, I'm not expert and do not have the answers on how to reform them.

Health insurers contributed $86.2 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to oppose the law after Obama administration officials criticized the plans for enriching themselves by raising customer premiums.

“We remain very concerned that major health-care reform provisions that go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014 will raise costs and disrupt coverage for individuals, families, seniors and small businesses,” Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s Washington lobbyist, said after reading the study.
Profit Margins

Still, the companies saw their average operating profit margins expand to 8.24 percent in the six quarters since the overhaul became law, compared with 6.88 percent for the 18 months before it was passed.

Quarterly earnings per share from continuing operations between the third quarters of 2008 and 2011 jumped 29 percent, and the results have on average beaten analyst estimates since the first quarter of 2009. WellPoint, based in Indianapolis, raised its 2011 earnings forecast in October after third-quarter earnings of $1.77 a share beat by 10 cents, the average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Question.. are you guys who don't want a universal health care system happy that health insurance companies will cancel policies if the illness costs them too much, or that they will not cover someone with a pre-existing condition.

Even if they are or have worked?

Vikings:

2 Chronicles 15
English Standard Version (ESV)

12 They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. 13 All who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.

.. And as the old saying goes about Christianity.

".. and in America it became a business."

On many occasions I have heard Muslims attack the Bible. Some seem keen to slander it anyway they can. But what does the Qur'an say about it? This article examines what the whole Qur'an says about the Jewish and Christian scriptures. The Qur'an used is according to Imam Hafs and translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (AYA) or Mohammed Pickthall (MP).

Christianity, Judaism and Islam

The Qur'an teaches that Islam is the continued faithful religion in the same line as the Prophets who were before Muhammad: The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah ... and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (42:13 AYA). The result of this view is that the scriptures given by these Prophets are considered to be genuine scriptures from God: But say, "We (Muslims) believe in the Revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you (Jews & Christians); our Allah and your Allah is One" (29:46 AYA).

In the Qur'an there are many references to the Jewish and Christian Holy Books. In fact the Qur'an addresses Christians and Jews in terms of the Book: O People of the Book! (5:68 AYA).

God's Mission For The People of the Book

Christians and Jews are mentioned in the Qur'an as the custodians of scripture: For to them was entrusted the protection of Allah's Book (5:47 AYA/44 MP). God gave the scripture to the Christians and Jews so that they could make known to the whole world and every nation the true knowledge of God: And remember Allah took a Covenant from the People of the Book, to make it known and clear to mankind, and not to hide it (3:187 AYA). Some of the Jews and Christians fulfilled this mission, others did not. Just as there are faithful and unfaithful Muslims so too the Qur'an distinguishes between the faithful and the unfaithful Christians and Jews.

The Unfaithful
The Qur'an describes the behaviour of unfaithful Christians and Jews as:

1/ Concealing the truth of the scripture: Who is more unjust than those who conceal the testimony they have from Allah?' (2:140 AYA).

2/ Teaching falsely and forgetting what they had heard from their scripture:

There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues: (As they read) you would think it is a part of the Book, but it is no part of the Book; and they say, "That is from Allah," but it is not from Allah (3:78 AYA). They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished (5:13 MP/14 AYA).

3/ Wanting profit from the scriptures:

And remember Allah took a Covenant from the People of the Book, to make it known and clear to mankind, and not to hide it; but they threw it away behind their backs, and purchased with it some miserable gain! And vile was the bargain they made! (3:187 AYA)

4/ Some of the Jews who were transgressors and did not know the Book wrote false scripture:

But the transgressors changed the word from that which had been given them (2:59 AYA).

Among them are unlettered folk who know the Scripture not except from hearsay. They but guess. Therefore woe be unto them who write the Scripture with their hands and then say, "This is from Allah," that they may purchase a small gain therewith (2:78-79 MP).

The Faithful The Qur'an teaches that there are faithful Christians and Jews:

Not all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book are a portion that stand (for the right); they rehearse the Signs of Allah all night long, and they prostrate themselves in adoration. They believe in Allah and the Last Day; they enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong; and they hasten (in emulation) in (all) good works: They are in the ranks of the righteous. Of the good that they do, nothing will be rejected of them; for Allah knoweth well those that do right (3:113-115 AYA).

Nearest among them in love to the Believers wilt thou find those who say, "We are Christians": Because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant (5:85 AYA/82 MP).

According to the Qur'an, the faithful Christians and Jews did not do what the unfaithful did; they obeyed their scriptures and worshipped God. But what about the their scriptures? Does the Qur'an consider the scripture of the Jews and Christians to have been corrupted by the actions of the Unfaithful? Or has it been preserved by the Faithful? Does the Qur'an consider that only part of their scripture now contains truth? To answer these questions we need to consider what the Qur'an says of the Jewish and Christian scripture.......

"I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear."

— U.S. President John F. Kennedy, interview with Jean Daniel, 24 October 1963[

(V):  Leave it to you to excuse bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior. 

(V):  The "comment"  wasn't mine.  It was taken from the article.  And just reading that "comment" it's clear that it wasn't an opinion coming from me. 

The Conservative Party in the UK went on blaming the Labour Party for the expenses scandal system that existed in the UK.

They forget to say that they introduced the system.

Labour though cannot be said to be clean as they had plenty of time in power to get the expenses system changed. But then, they would lose out just like the Conservative MP's.

Jon Stewart Changes Fox News 9/11 Responders Bill Opinion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knqpgj0x7xY&feature=related

Artful Dodger:

politicians have been using that for decades in the UK... like the word REAL. Don't know if they went through that in the US.. but here in the UK for a while, everything was REAL.

(V):  I didn't say OWS were terrorists. 

... like calling the OWS terrorists.... I guess then by your standards the USA is a terrorist state?

Artful Dodger: The demonstration, which, according to the police and witnesses, left in its path a trail of graffiti and tipped garbage cans, had more in common with anarchist actions at events like the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh in 2009 than with the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York, which have been largely devoid of property damage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/nyregion/3-arrested-in-manhattan-as-march-becomes-a-melee.html

Two cops were injured... not several... but distort the facts as usual Dan.. I know you seem to like being a scare monger.

Artful Dodger: I said originally..."The first mention of racism in the Tea party on this board is by......"

I wasn't saying there was a real link.. (as you keep twisting it into)

"REAL RACISM....couldn't believe a bunch of 'whites' at rallies wouldn't have racist agendas. That in and of itself is racism."

I think it's more a case of bad memories.

"was that racism wasn't present in the Tea Party."

No members at all are racist.. I doubt that very much. But in itself that it is not a statement saying the Tea Party is a racist movement.

"As you always do, you twist things and misrepresent."

No, you are just being a Drama queen over the matter... which is your problem. Don't expect me or others to 'confirm' it for you.

This last Sunday it was reported that 11 US secret service agents and 5 military personnel were expelled from Cartagena, Colombia following a scandal at a local hotel. The security personnel were there to arrange for security pending the arrival of Barrack Obama who was scheduled to address an OAS Summit. The local police started an investigation following allegations that the security personnel brought prostitutes to the hotel and engaged in inappropriate behaviour.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/scandal-mars-obamas-wooing-latin-america-002413253.html

The sex scandal has put a damper on the Obama administrations efforts to engage Latin America in dialogue leading to control of drug trafficking, trade liberalization and a re-establishment of long term alliances that were neglected during both the Bush and Obama administrations.

The scandal has overshadowed the fact that the United States and Canada are politically isolated in Latin America and that all other Latin American countries have refused to attend the next summit unless Cuba is also allowed to attend. In an unprecedent politcal rebellion against the United States, all Latin American member states of the OAS unanimously supported an end to Cuba's ostricization by the United States and Canada. Latin American countries also strongly opposed the current financial policy of the United States that seeks to inflate its own trade surplus by forcing an over-valuation of Latin American currencies.

I suppose the old days of Latin Americans lowering their heads are coming to an end. No longer can American intelligence agencies do whatever they want in Latin America and never be questioned or held accountable.</a>

Last night’s riotous atmosphere resulted in a sergeant and lieutenant suffering minor injuries while scuffling with anarchist protesters at the Astor Place Starbucks, the police said.

According to police, around 25 people tried smashing the windows of the cafe with eight-foot long steel pipes at around 8:45 p.m. after attending the Anarchist book fair earlier in the day. “Patrons fearing that they would be hit by flying glass hid under tables,” the police said in a statement. “Several” officers were assaulted with pipes and bottles, the police added.

Some are calling OWS a terrorist group.....

(V): There is no evidence presented in that article that would lead anyone (except you) to conclude a link between the Tea Party and racism. On the contrary, the older gentleman, having experienced REAL RACISM in his life, couldn't believe a bunch of 'whites' at rallies wouldn't have racist agendas. That in and of itself is racism. The whole point of the article (that you choose to misread) was that racism wasn't present in the Tea Party. As you always do, you twist things and misrepresent.

(V): There is a strong Nazi party right in your own back yard

Vikings: ..Ok.. Just when you said they were "demonised".. It sounded like some of what some nutters in Europe on the far right saying they were nice people, or denying that the holocaust even happened... it's just a big lie!!

(V): read my post again, no one likes them over here either, they are morons

Sorry Vikings.. But the killing of over 20,000,000 people tends to stain the image of the Nazi's over here in Europe.

That is the figure for those killed by them directly.. not war deaths.

Vikings: Really...... How?

rod03801: To be Nazi's.... I can pretty much understand freedom of speech as it is in the USA... But Nazi's.... The people who organised the murder and torture of countless millions of Jews and other nationalities.

I would have thought most normal people would want to distance themselves from history tell us were basically the sum of the earth.

(V): false question, Nazi's are also demonised, but they still have rights just like socialist

(V): Those many have the right to it too. It's not that complicated. Pretty easy to understand.

But then... why have many in America demonised socialism and liberals, yet support rights of Nazi's!!

rod03801: So have alot of other nationalities. During WWII we had many escapees from the Nazi's fighting from Britain.

(V): And even more importantly, Americans have fought and died for all Americans to have the rights we have.

Vikings: To be a Nazi!! orchestrator's of one of the greatest pogroms of the 20th century. Who Americans and it's allies fought and died against in WWII.

The reason why Israel got to be Israel!!

Well.. I suppose it's more honest then the British National Party.