Even if the law is fully implemented, it will still leave 23 million people – almost half the total number of uninsured – without coverage. (Congressional Budget Office)

How many people who now enjoy employer-provided health care coverage will lose it because employers decided it’s easier and less costly to drop their company coverage and let them get coverage under the new law?

Obama Bingo: Obama Stated, “if you like your existing health care coverage, you can keep it.” : BullShit!

Many people will lose their health insurance because of the health law. The CBO estimates that between 8 to 9 million people who now enjoy employer-sponsored insurance under current law will not be offered employer-sponsored insurance under the new health law. (Congressional Budget Office)

One of the ways Obamacare achieves greater access to health care coverage is by adding some Americans to Medicaid rolls. How many Americans who will get health care coverage as a result of Obamacare will get it by being added to Medicaid?

Half of the 32 million uninsured who gain coverage under the new law will get their coverage by being added to the already-strapped Medicaid program. (Congressional Budget Office)

Adding new patients to the Medicaid program means doctors will have to see more patients in the same amount of time, thereby requiring them to spend less time with each patient than before. What’s happening to the supply of doctors who treat Medicaid patients?

Increasing numbers of doctors refuse to deal with new Medicaid patients because each patient visit is reimbursed less than what it costs the doctor’s office to see them. (New York Times)

Did You Know?

Many Americans like a provision in the law that requires insurance companies to offer health care to “children” up to age 26 as a part of their parents’ health care plan.

But did you know this provision:

Will increase health care premiums, including for people who didn’t add adult children. (Kaiser document)
Has already increased costs for the average family between $150 and $450 (New York Times, considering an average premium of $15,073) This is just one component of a total average premium increase of 9.5 percent (or $1,300 between 2010 and 2011). (Kaiser)
Has already resulted in some employers dropping all types of dependent coverage to avoid these additional costs. (Wall Street Journal article)

And did you know that the health law will actually result in fewer options for young adults? It does so by:

Making it harder for young adults to get employer-provided insurance as employers face financial incentives to drop coverage. (House Ways and Means Committee report)
Causing colleges to shut down their low-cost student insurance programs, or raise premiums significantly. (Wall Street Journal article and accompanying GAO study)
Increasing insurance costs for young adults who must buy their own insurance by 19-30%. (Forbes article)

Many Americans like the idea that this provision has been credited with helping 2.5 million young adults obtain health insurance in the past two years. (Read a press release from the Obama Administration here.)

But did you know this doesn’t mean those 2.5 million young adults will lose their health insurance if the health law is voided by the Supreme Court?

At least some young adults obtained health insurance through a new job, rather than as a result of being added to their parents’ plan. (Bureau of Labor Statistics employment reports for September 2010and June 2011 – the period measured by DHHS.)
Even without the federal health law, as of June 2010, 37 states had extended dependent coverage provisions in health insurance. So even if the federal law were to be struck down by the Supreme Court or repealed by Congress, many newly insured young adults would still be able to remain on their parents’ plan. (To learn about your state’s policy, click here for a table from the National Conference of State Legislators.)
Even without any government mandates (state or federal), many insurance companies offered plans with some types of dependent coverage for young adults. (Evidenced by this 2008 study from the GAO showing that a strong majority of college students were already insured on their parents’ plans.)

Many Americans believe that the health law has helped a lot of people with pre-existing health conditions, and at little or no consequence to themselves.

But did you know:

In two years, only 56,000 people have enrolled in the law’s program aimed at helping people with pre-existing conditions obtain insurance. This program promised enrollment of at least 700,000. (CBO estimate versus the actual report)
The program requires that people with pre-existing conditions go six months without any insurance before becoming eligible. This means that people who sought coverage before the health law are excluded, unless they drop their current coverage and go uninsured for six months. (HealthCare.gov)
Spending on those enrolled is more than DOUBLE what was promised. (Page 12 of Dept. of Health and Human Services report)
Costs are so high in this program that for many people they are prohibitive. Even cutting premiums in this program by 40% did not make it more affordable. (Kaiser Health story)
As Joint Economic Committee analyst Chris Jacobs has pointed out: “At this rate … the federal government will spend $4,621,647.08 per year for every person with pre-existing conditions newly enrolled in coverage. That’s not just enough money to buy each person with pre-existing conditions a platinum-plated insurance policy — that’s enough to buy each one a small hospital.” (Forbes article)

Most Americans like the idea that insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for people based on their health status.

But did you know:

This provision – called “guaranteed issue” – doesn’t even take effect for adults until 2014.
Because it has not yet taken effect, reversing this requirement would harm no one.
Guaranteed issue results in a less healthy pool of insured people. The health law counters this effect by forcing healthy individuals into the market with the individual mandate. Absent the mandate, guaranteed issue would drive up premiums by 15-20 percent. (CBO report)
The new law’s requirement that insurers cover children who have pre-existing conditions – which became effective in 2010 – has already led to insurance companies abandoning child-only policies, which are now unavailable in 34 states because of the law, because insurers wanted to avoid this provision. (Politico report)

Most Americans believe that the President’s health law will lead to all Americans having health insurance.

But did you know:

Even after the law is fully implemented, it will still leave 23 million people – almost half the total number of uninsured – without coverage. (CBO estimates)
Half of the 32 million uninsured who gain coverage under the new law will get their coverage by being added to the already-strapped Medicaid program. (CBO estimates)
Instead of bending the cost curve down and making insurance more affordable, premiums continue to increase. Between 2010 and 2011, premiums increased by about $1300 on average. That’s a 9.5 percent increase in just one year. (Kaiser)
Medicaid is already going broke, even before we add 16 million more patients. (CMS report on Medicaid’s financial outlook)
Increasing numbers of doctors refuse to deal with new Medicaid patients because each patient visit isreimbursed less than what it costs the doctor’s office to see them. (New York Times article)
Many people will lose their health insurance because of the health law. The CBO estimates that between 8 and 9 million people who now enjoy employer-sponsored insurance under current law will not be offered employer-sponsored insurance under the new health law. Some of those people (about 1 to 2 million) will qualify for subsidies in the health care exchanges, but most will not. (Page 10, CBO report)

Most Americans think that the main provisions in the health law are the law’s consumer protections (for people with pre-existing conditions or who have Medicaid).

But did you know:

Of the law’s ten significant parts or “Titles,” only the first two deal with consumer protections and the Medicaid expansion.

The most well-known parts of the law account for just 40 pages of a 2,409-page law.
- The individual mandate – 18 pages. (Section 1501(b))
- The age-26 rule – 1 page. (Section 2741)
- Guaranteed issue requirement that insurers offer insurance to everyone regardless of health status – 1 page. (Section 2702)
- The Medicaid expansion – 20 pages. (Section 2001)
The remaining 2,369 pages include the creation of state-wide health exchanges; massive cuts to Medicare; the establishment of a 15-member, non-elected bureaucracy – called the Independent Payment Advisory Board – which will decide what treatments get covered; the creation of numerous new entities to expand government’s involvement in creating and monitoring preventative services and basic health care, and new rules and regulations to make services “free” to patients (which means the costs will be built into premiums); a rule prohibiting physicians from owning hospitals and clinics, even though these are often some of our best quality and most cost effective means of care that patients want; the “CLASS Act” (“Community Living Assistance Services and Supports”), intended to be a long-term care program, already abandoned by the Obama Administration over its unworkable and unsustainable funding mechanism; and at least 20 new tax increases. (Text of the law)

Our health shouldn’t be a partisan issue, and the increasing costs created by this bill aren’t politics, they’re math.

Most of us want patients and doctors, not bureaucrats and their corporate friends to be in charge of their health care choices. We want to be in control of our decisions about our own bodies and medical options.

We want quality, affordable care, and innovation that keeps giving us opportunities to have better lives. We need an approach to solving these problems that isn’t divisive and extremist, as the President’s health law has been, but that brings us together, listens to what we want, and will help fix the very real problems. We can do this.

What You Need to Know

Americans deserve affordable, quality health care:

Our health care system was rife with problems before the passage of the 2010 health law. President Obama and his colleagues in Congress were right to be concerned about the access and affordability problems some Americans face.
Americans should be able to access quality, timely health care. Every person should be able to have a good relationship with an available doctor, effective and affordable treatments, and a financial plan for unexpected health problems.
Americans shouldn’t have to worry that health problems will lead them to bankruptcy, or that the loss of a job or change in health status will result in their loss of insurance. Continuity, clarity, and price transparency are important improvements that our health insurance system needs.
For Americans in dire situations, a government safety net should be available. But that safety net should be strong and supportive – not weak and unreliable as it is today! We should reform Medicare and Medicaid to give beneficiaries more options and better access to the care they need.

But we should also be realistic about the costs, and the consequences of government action:

Government action often produces a host of unintended consequences. The new federal health law complicates the situation by attempting to solve specific problems with broad, one-size-fits-all mandates.
Mandated benefits, and the mandated inclusion of more customers at below-market rates, results in higher rates for everyone. Attempts to subsidize the health costs of one group of people by overcharging another group simply results in inefficiency and overuse.
Government regulations can get in the way of quality health care. Doctors already complain about spending too much time on paperwork and too little time with patients. More administrative burdens for health care professionals will further strain their resources and mean they can see fewer patients.
Overregulation and artificial price controls in health care disincentivizes improvements in procedures and stifles innovation. Without the next wave of innovative, potentially life-saving treatments, medical progress is impeded. Entrepreneurs and scientists should be encouraged – not punished – when their work results in a profit. Their work also results in better health care and healthier people.

We need balance. We need honest numbers and honest accounting so we can find real solutions to get back on course. This isn’t about politics; it’s simple math. And we can do it, if we work together.

Health Reform Questions

OBAMA A COMPENDIUM OF A LIAR!

Vatican Matthew 12: 33-37

Either declare ²³ the tree good and its fruit is good, or declare the tree rotten and its fruit is rotten, for a tree is known by its fruit.

²⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you say good things when you are evil? For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil.

²⁵ I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak.

By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Barry Soetoro aka; obama declares, White-house not for Catholics!

The report by Al Waqidi states that Mohammed had such an aversion to the form of the cross, that he would break everything brought into the house with a shape of the cross on it (Nehls 1990:61).

The Tree Rotten And Its Fruit Is Rotten

BARACK OBAMA

A Long Post: The Complete List of Obama Statement Expiration Dates

By popular demand, a comprehensive list of expired Obama statements…

HEALTH CARE MANDATES

STATEMENT: “We’ve got a philosophical difference, which we’ve debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it. And my belief is, the reason that people don’t have it is not because they don’t want it but because they can’t afford it.” Barack Obama,speaking at a Democratic presidential debate, February 21, 2008.

EXPIRATION DATE: On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the individual mandate into law.

HEALTH CARE NEGOTIATIONS ON C-SPAN

STATEMENT: “These negotiations will be on C-SPAN, and so the public will be part of the conversation and will see the decisions that are being made.” January 20, 2008, and seven other times.

EXPIRATION DATE: Throughout the summer, fall, and winter of 2009 and 2010; when John McCain asked about it during the health care summit February 26, Obamadismissed the issue by declaring, “the campaign is over, John.”

RAISING TAXES

STATEMENT: “No family making less than $250,000 will see any form of tax increase.” (multiple times on the campaign trail)

EXPIRATION DATE: Broken multiple times, including the raised taxes on tobacco, a new tax on indoor tanning salons, but most prominently on February 11, 2010: “President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.”

RECESS APPOINTMENTS

STATEMENT: Then-Senator Obama declared that a recess appointment is “damaged goods” and has “less credibility” than a normal appointment. August 25, 2005.

EXPIRATION DATE: March 27, 2010: “If, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis.”

BORDER SECURITY

STATEMENT: “We need tougher border security, and a renewed focus on busting up gangs and traffickers crossing our border. . . . That begins at home, with comprehensive immigration reform. That means securing our border and passing tough employer enforcement laws.” then-candidate Obama, discussing the need for border security,speaking in Miami on May 23, 2008:

EXPIRATION DATE: March 17, 2010: The Obama administration halted new work on a “virtual fence” on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes.

GUANTANAMO BAY

STATEMENT: Executive Order stating, “The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order.” January 22, 2009.

EXPIRATION DATE: November 19, 2009: “Guantánamo, we had a specific deadline that was missed.”

MILITARY TRIBUNALS

STATEMENT: “Somebody like Khalid Sheik Mohammad is gonna get basically, a full military trial with all the bells and whistles.” September 27, 2006

EXPIRATION DATE: Ongoing. “President Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash. Obama initially had asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to choose the site of the trial in an effort to maintain an independent Justice Department. But the White House has been taken aback by the intense criticism from political opponents and local officials of Holder’s decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian courtroom in New York.”

RECOVERY.GOV

STATEMENT: “We will launch a sweeping effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.” – President Obama, January 28, 2009

EXPIRATION DATE: “More than two months after some of the funds were released, [Recovery.gov] offers little detail on where the money is going… The government [spent] $84 million on a website that doesn’t have a search function, when its purpose is to ‘root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government.’” April 2, 2009

Eighteen from his first 100 days:

1. “As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

2. “I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA].”

3. Opposed a Colombian Free Trade Agreement because advocates ignore that “labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis.”

4. “Now, what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.”

5. “If we see money being misspent, we’re going to put a stop to it, and we will call it out and we will publicize it.”

6. “Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.”

7. “I want to go line by line through every item in the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don’t work, and make sure that those that do work work better and cheaper.”

8. “[My plan] will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell.”

9. “Instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online.”

10. “We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’s seniority, rather than the merit of the project.”

11. “If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”

12. “Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe the United States has to be frank with the Chinese about such failings and will press them to respect human rights.”

13. “We must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.”

14. “Lobbyists won’t work in my White House!”

15. “The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result.”

16. “I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills.”

17. “Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.” Obama is 1-for-11 on this promise so far.

18. A special one on the 100th day, “the first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do.”

And a list from of promises that expired during the campaign:

Monday, November 03, 2008

IRAQ

STATEMENT: “Based on the conversations we’ve had internally as well as external reports, we believe that you can get one to two brigades out a month. At that pace, the forces would be out in approximately 16 months from the time that we began. That would be the time frame that I would be setting up,” Obama to the New York Times, November 1, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: March 7, 2008: Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, to the BBC: “You can’t make a commitment in whatever month we’re in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are gonna be like in Jan. 2009. We can’t even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troop pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US senator.”

Also: July 3, 2008: “My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I’ve said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe,” Obama told reporters as his campaign plane landed in North Dakota. “And my guiding approach continues to be that we’ve got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable. And I’m going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold.”

STATEMENT: On June 14, Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice called the RNC’s argument that Obama needed to go to Iraq to get a firsthand look “complete garbage.”

EXPIRATION DATE: On June 16, Obama announced he would go to Iraq and Afghanistan “so he can see first hand the progress of the wars he would inherit if he’s elected president.”

DEBATES

STATEMENT: May 16, 2008: “If John McCain wants to meet me, anywhere, anytime to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, Iran, the Middle East or around the world that is a conversation I’m happy to have.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 13, 2008: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe: “Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and Election Day—the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July [on the Fourth of July] and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August.”

IRAN

STATEMENT: “We can, then, more effectively deal with what I consider to be one of the greatest threats to the United States, to Israel, and world peace, and that is Iran,” Obama speaking to American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Chicago, March 5, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny…They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.” – May 20, 2008

STATEMENT: Question at the YouTube debate, as the video depicted leaders of the countries, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?…..”

“I would,” Obama answered. July 27, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: May 10, 2008: Susan E. Rice, a former State Department and National Security Council official who is a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic candidate: “But nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.”

JEREMIAH WRIGHT/TRINITY UNITED

STATEMENT: “I could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I could disown my own grandmother.”

—Barack Obama, March 18, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: on April 28, 2008, cut all ties to Wright, declaring, “based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought.”

STATEMENT: Obama said that his church, “Trinity United “embodies the black community in its entirety” and that his church was being caricatured on March 18, 2008.

EXPIRATION DATE: On May 31, 2008, Obama resigned his membership at Trinity United Church.

JIM JOHNSON

STATEMENT: Criticism of running mate vetter Jim Johnson loan from Countrywide was “a game” and that his vice-presidential vetting team “aren’t folks who are working for me.” June 10, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 11, 2008, when Obama accepted Johnson’s resignation.

FISA

STATEMENT: Obama spokesman Bill Burton on October 24, 2007: “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 20, 2008: “Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program.”

NUCLEAR ENERGY

STATEMENT: “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.” Barack Obama, December 30, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: The above statement actually was the expiration date for his previous position, “I actually think we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix,” expressed on July 23, 2007; the above statement expired when he told Democratic governors he thought it is “worth investigating its further development” on June 20, 2008.

NAFTA

STATEMENT: Tim Russert:: Senator Obama . . . Simple question: Will you, as president, say to Canada and Mexico, “This has not worked for us; we are out”?

Obama: “I will make sure that we renegotiate, in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about. And I think actually Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced. And that is not what has been happening so far.” February 23, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 18, 2008, Fortune magazine: “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA “devastating” and “a big mistake,” despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.

Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? “Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don’t exempt myself,” he answered.

“I’m not a big believer in doing things unilaterally,” Obama said. “I’m a big believer in opening up a dialogue and figuring out how we can make this work for all people.”

PUBLIC FINANCING

STATEMENT: “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Also, a Common Cause questionnaire dated November 27, 2007, asked “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?”, Obama checked, “Yes.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 19, 2008: Obama announced he would not participate in the presidential public financing system.

WORKING OUT A DEAL ON PUBLIC FINANCING

STATEMENT: “What I’ve said is, at the point where I’m the nominee, at the point where it’s appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody.”Obama to Tim Russert, Febuary 27.

EXPIRATION DATE: When Obama announced his decision to break his public financing pledge June 19, no meeting between the Democratic nominee and McCain had occurred.

WELFARE REFORM

STATEMENT: “I probably would not have supported the federal legislation [to overhaul welfare], because I think it had some problems.” Obama on the floor of the Illinois Senate, May 31, 1997

EXPIRATION DATE: April 11, 2008: Asked if he would have vetoed the 1996 law, Mr. Obama said, “I won’t second guess President Clinton for signing” it. Obama to the New York Times.

GAY MARRIAGE

STATEMENT: “Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as president. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.” – campaign spokesman, May 5, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 29, 2008: “I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states… Finally, I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks.” — letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club

PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION

STATEMENT: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.” – Interview with Relevant magazine, July 1, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: July 5, 2008: “My only point is that in an area like partial-birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously. It can be defined through physical health, It can be defined by serious clinical mental-health diseases.” statement to reporters.

DIVISION OF JERUSALEM

NOW THE END BEGINS: Israel Is Not For Sale At Any Price

STATEMENT: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” — speech before AIPAC, June 4, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 6, 2008: “Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties” as part of “an agreement that they both can live with.” – an Obama adviser clarifying his remarks to the Jerusalem Post.

National Review Online

Obama: We Will Not Be Lulled To Sleep ~ Memo to the Next Congress: Americans Want to Cut Government, Not Defense!

Hold The Bastards Accountable ~ Remember ==> Mexican Flu Outbreak 2009: SPECIAL REPORT by Dr Leonard Horowitz