http://cnsnews.com/news/article/63380

There’s only one organization on Earth that can spend $2.7 billion dollars on a database system that doesn’t work that gets to stay in business. Well, I guess there are lots of organizations like that, but they are all part of the federal government.

You’ve got disinterested, overpaid bureaucrats led by political appointees who don’t really care about the process implementing a work force of unionized dimwits recruited from a pool of ACORN flops using a system engineered and administered by a legally-mandated rainbow coalition of jackasses who couldn’t cut it in the private sector.

And it’s not working so well? Hmm.

Anyway, next up, Electronic Medical Records. Yay!

Information technology problems at the U.S. Census Bureau could cause inaccuracies in this year’s constitutionally mandated count of the U.S. population, according to government auditors.

The Census Bureau is specifically having problems with two IT systems.  One is the Paper-Based Operational Control System (PBOC), which is the computer database where Census Bureau field operatives upload the data they collect from people who did not mail responses to the bureau.

The second is the Decennial Applicant Personnel and Payroll System (DAPPS), which is the system used to keep track of, and pay, the more than 600,000  temporary federal workers who help conduct the Census operations.

Last Thursday, the GAO released a report on the Census Bureau’s IT problems entitled, “Data Collection is Under Way, But Reliability of Key Information Technology Systems Remains a Risk.” The report indicated that the government has known about the problem for some time.

The report stated that last February, the GAO had testified that “key IT systems — most notably an automated system used to manage field-data collection known as the Paper-Based Operations Control System (PBOCS), and a personnel and payroll processing system called the Decennial Applicant Personnel and Payroll System (DAPPS) — were experiencing significant performance issues.”

The new GAO report concluded that IT problems have not been solved.

“Aside from the mail response rate, which is outside of the Bureau’s direct control, the most significant risk jeopardizing the cost and quality of the enumeration lies in the performance problems that continue to plague DAPPS and PBOCS,” said the report. “Indeed, neither system has yet demonstrated the ability to function reliably under full operational loads, and the limited amount of time that remains to improve the reliability of these systems creates a substantial challenge for the Bureau.”

Using the New Orleans field operations as an example, the report described how the PBOC system worked very slowly, or sometimes not at all, and that for this reason the Census Bureau had to restrict the number of field operatives who could use it.

The operating budget for the NRFU is $2.7 billion, according to Goldenkoff’s written testimony.

Goldenkoff’s also testified that the DAPPS system for handling the field workers payroll lacks capacity and is “sluggish.”

The Census Bureau’s IT deficiencies also make it difficult to accurately provide a final cost for the 2010 Census, which is currently estimated at around $14.7 billion.

“Key information technology systems continue to experience performance functionality shortfalls and these systems can affect the ultimate scheduled cost and success of the Census,” said Gordon.

Goldenkoff pointed out that not addressing the IT problems could result in the Census costing more than the estimated $14.7 billion figure.

Nobody should be surprised

WASHINGTON – Better beat the crowd and find a doctor.

Primary care physicians already are in short supply in parts of the country, and the landmark health overhaul that will bring them millions more newly insured patients in the next few years promises extra strain.

The new law goes beyond offering coverage to the uninsured, with steps to improve the quality of care for the average person and help keep us well instead of today’s seek-care-after-you’re-sick culture. To benefit, you’ll need a regular health provider.

Yet recently published reports predict a shortfall of roughly 40,000 primary care doctors over the next decade, a field losing out to the better pay, better hours and higher profile of many other specialties.

You can’t add tens of millions of people to an already-shrinking pool of doctors and expect your health care system to improve. Welcome to waiting lists and rationing. Welcome to more sick people and more death. Welcome to Obamacare.

AT&T takes a billion dollar hit from health care

NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. will take a $1 billion non-cash accounting charge in the first quarter because of the health care overhaul and may cut benefits it offers to current and retired workers.

The charge is the largest disclosed so far. Earlier this week, AK Steel Corp., Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co. and Valero Energy announced similar accounting charges, saying the health care law that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday will raise their expenses. On Friday, 3M Co. said it will also take a charge of $85 million to $90 million.

All five are smaller than AT&T, and their combined charges are less than half of the $1 billion that AT&T is planning. The $1 billion is a third of AT&T’s most recent quarterly earnings. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the company earned $3 billion on revenue of $30.9 billion.

AT&T said Friday that the charge reflects changes to how Medicare subsidies are taxed. Companies say the health care overhaul will require them to start paying taxes next year on a subsidy they receive for retiree drug coverage.

You might think this is one of those unintended consequences you hear about from massive government debacles. I submit that driving up the cost of providing health care, which in turn causes private organizations to reduce benefits, is exactly what Obama wants.

See, the stage has been set here. The whole plan all along was to set up a real-life single-payer, government-run universal health care system. Obama and his bootlickers weren’t able to sell that one, so they implemented the worst health care bill possible in order to make private-sector-provided health care so unwieldy and expensive (not to mention make it so expensive for the states) that people would eventually beg for the feds to step in and provide a nationwide universal system.

That’s the next step.

AT&T also said Friday that it is looking into changing the health care benefits it offers because of the new law. Analysts say retirees could lose the prescription drug coverage provided by their former employers as a result of the overhaul.

AT&T rival Verizon Communications Inc. was among 10 companies that sent a letter to congressional leaders in December warning that their costs would increase with the health care changes. Verizon spokesman Peter Thonis said the company had no comment.

Drive up prices, drive people out. When retirees and employees have their benefits cut or dropped, they’re going to turn to the federal government because Americans are suckers for a free lunch. It’s all part of the plan. However…

Also on Friday, Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said they are asking the CEOs of Caterpillar, Verizon, Deere and others to testify at an April 21 House subcommittee hearing on claims that the health care law could hurt their ability to provide health insurance to workers.

This would appear that they’re trying to close the barn door after the horses escaped. It’s all about image, though, and the attention whore Waxman and the hopeless abortion sellout Stupak won’t pass up an opportunity to drag some hapless corporate weenies in and yell at them from their raised platforms and drag their names and their companies through the mud in order to make them look like heartless, greedy bastards for trying to make a profit.

It’s all so transparently cynical. Why there are still people who think the government is on their side is beyond understanding. We’re completely hosed.

It is not possible for a Democrat to be honest. If they were honest and answered questions directly, they would never win another election in this country.

http://peoplesworld.org/health-care-victory/

Oh, no, it’s not socialism or anything. It’s just a coincidence that the Communist Party USA is super excited about the health care reform bill. You silly, racist conspiracy theorists and tea-baggers just need to pipe down and swallow it. It’s good for you. Really.

But seriously. Anybody who thinks this is a “mainstream” piece of legislation and a good idea founded in American values is a sucker. This is nothing more than a massive vector of attack for authoritarian control of your life.

We join with those who hail this legislation both as a measure that will save lives now and begin curbing the insurance industry, and as a giant first step to further reforms that will provide quality, affordable health care for every person in the United States.

Beyond that, its passage is a major defeat for the far right – the Republican Party, sections of Corporate America, and their fascist-like tea party shock troops. The enactment of this bill is an enormous victory for the broad progressive movement in our country. It will give energy and enthusiasm to that movement as it mobilizes and builds for the struggles ahead to advance a pro-worker, pro-people agenda.

The far right has been left glaringly isolated but perhaps even more dangerously aggressive. These racist hate-mongers fought viciously to block the bill on behalf of the nation’s insurance companies and now say they will continue their dirty campaign by trying to repeal it. But it’s clear that an energized people’s movement will not let that happen.

Even organizations and individuals critical of the bill (because of restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, or its exclusion of undocumented immigrants, or because it doesn’t go far enough) have acknowledged its importance and far-reaching implications.

The great majority of health care reform advocates, including those who call for a single-payer system, see the legislation as opening up space to further the struggle for Medicare for all. Many note the bill provides a number of immediate benefits.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the bill’s passage a "momentous step toward comprehensive coverage" and vowed that labor will continue to advocate for health care that works for working families.

The new law reestablishes the role of government in providing a "safety net" to support ordinary folks against the most outrageous excesses of our health care system. As President Obama put it, "It enshrines the idea that everybody should have universal health care."

The fight isn’t over. The corporate-backed far right will continue to use racism, lies and anti-government conspiracy theories to try to scare and confuse people. We got some ugly glimpses of this just as Congress was on the eve of passing the health care bill.