Obama to sign abortion exec order in private

President Barack Obama will sign the executive order Wednesday that prohibits federal funding of abortion surrounded by members of Congress who oppose abortion rights -- but he won't do it for the cameras.

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0310/Obama_to_sign_abortion_exec_order_in_private.html

Your Medical Records Aren't Secure

The president says electronic systems will reduce costs and improve quality, but they could undermine good care if people are afraid to confide in their doctors.

By DEBORAH C. PEEL

I learned about the lack of health privacy when I hung out my shingle as a psychiatrist. Patients asked if I could keep their records private if they paid for care themselves. They had lost jobs or reputations because what they said in the doctor's office didn't always stay in the doctor's office. That was 35 years ago, in the age of paper. In today's digital world the problem has only grown worse.

A patient's sensitive information should not be shared without his consent. But this is not the case now, as the country moves toward a system of electronic medical records.

In 2002, under President George W. Bush, the right of a patient to control his most sensitive personal data—from prescriptions to DNA—was eliminated by federal regulators implementing the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. Those privacy notices you sign in doctors' offices do not actually give you any control over your personal data; they merely describe how the data will be used and disclosed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580904575132111888664060.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion

The numbers are pretty clear. In February, Bloomberg News reports, Berkshire Hathaway sold two-year bonds with an interest rate lower than that on two-year Treasuries. A company run by a 79-year-old investor is a better credit risk, the markets are telling us, than the United States government.

Buffett's firm isn't the only one. Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Lowe's have been borrowing money at cheaper rates than Uncle Sam.

Democrats wary of voting for the health care bill may have been soothed by the Congressional Budget Office's report that it would reduce federal deficits over the next 10 years. But bond buyers know that the Democrats gamed the CBO system to get a good score.

The realities, as former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin pointed out in the New York Times, are different. The real cost is disguised by the fact that the bill includes 10 years of revenue but only six years of spending. It includes $70 billion in premiums for long-term care that will have to be paid out later. It excludes $114 billion in discretionary spending needed to run the program. It includes nearly half a trillion dollars in unrealistic Medicare savings.

Holtz-Eakin's bottom line: The bill will not lower deficits but will raise them by $562 billion over 10 years. Treasury will have to borrow that money -- and probably pay much higher interest than it's paying now.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Bond-markets-reflect-the-true-cost-of-Obamacare-88952847.html

BOLTON: EU's loss may be West's gain

Euro woes breathe new life into Atlantic alliance

By John R. Bolton

European Union leaders will meet again this week on Greece's fiscal crisis and the ongoing financial turmoil it is causing. To most Americans, the EU's problems seem remote, given our own turmoil over President Obama's zeal to radically restructure the U.S. health care system. In fact, however, profound implications for trans-Atlantic relations over the long term lie just beneath the often-impenetrable EU financial jargon. Here's why:

Greece is just one of several countries, including Spain, Portugal and perhaps Italy, that have not adequately constrained government spending. As budget deficits escalated, financial markets questioned Greece's fiscal stability; if Greece still had a national currency, it would be under enormous pressure, reflecting market concern that increased debt or inflated currency would be used to fund the deficit.

Of course, since Greece joined the euro-zone, it no longer has its own currency to debase, and its lack of fiscal discipline has caused downward pressure on the euro instead. All euro-zone members are thereby immediately affected, thus escalating pressure particularly on Germany, the EU's dominant economy, to "do something" to prevent Greece's crisis from infecting the entire Union.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/23/eus-loss-may-be-wests-gain/

Cheney boosts Grayson on security

Former Vice President D*ck Cheney endorsed Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson for U.S. Senate Wednesday, intervening in a hotly contested Republican primary for the second time this year.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34935.html

It's nice to have Chuck Schumer on your side.

Dan Senor became that latest politician to weigh a challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), only to recoil when it came time to make a decision.

Senor, a former spokesman for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, said it wasn't the right time.

"Over the past few weeks, I took a very serious look at running for the Senate seat in New York," he said in a statement. "I ultimately decided this wasn’t the right time in my family and business life for me to run."

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/88811-senor-wont-run

5 Dems Who Wish They Had Last Week Back

The final vote on Obamacare did not go as vote counters expected. There were no tears on the House floor, no arms being twisted, and no Jay Inslee guarding the door to prevent recalcitrant Democrats from escaping. Instead, the final vote was something of an anticlimax, passing with three votes to spare.

There were probably a number of wavering Democrats who were pressured into declaring their support of the bill early who wish they could do the past week over, knowing that their vote wasn't really needed in the end. These Democrats aren't necessarily the most likely to lose in 2010, they're just the ones who seemed to be wavering and who really would have liked to take a couple of those spare "nay" votes:

http://townhall.com/myblog/The%20final%20vote%20on%20Obamacare%20did%20not%20go%20as%20vote%20counters%20expected.%20There%20were%20no%20tears%20on%20the%20House%20floor,%20no%20arms%20being%20twisted,%20and%20no%20Jay%20Inslee%20guarding%20the%20door%20to%20prevent%20recalcitrant%20Democrats%20from%20escaping.%20Instead,%20the%20final%20vote%20was%20something%20of%20an%20anticlimax,%20passing%20with%20three%20votes%20to%20spare.

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR (AP) – 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Hours after President Barack Obama signed historic health care legislation, a potential problem emerged. Administration officials are now scrambling to fix a gap in highly touted benefits for children.

Obama made better coverage for children a centerpiece of his health care remake, but it turns out the letter of the law provided a less-than-complete guarantee that kids with health problems would not be shut out of coverage.

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday.

However, if a child is accepted for coverage, or is already covered, the insurer cannot exclude payment for treating a particular illness, as sometimes happens now. For example, if a child has asthma, the insurance company cannot write a policy that excludes that condition from coverage. The new safeguard will be in place later this year.

Full protection for children would not come until 2014, said Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, another panel that authored the legislation. That's the same year when insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to any person on account of health problems.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYnajhWrPEXihcCrpRNfUKN7rN-AD9EKTKIG0