UNI Blog - From the Washington Bureau

Cuts in Medicare could be adversely affecting cancer care according to a report released last week by the Community Oncology Alliance. The group’s vice president, Dr. David Eagle said, “These results are alarming, especially when one considers that about half of all cancer patients are Medicare patients.” Eagle says the report found that many cancer centers are losing on average about 500-thousand dollars a year, which could force some to close their doors.

Medicare pays for 56% for the delivery of chemotherapy. By 2013, that percentage will fall to 45%. “Covering co-payments and coinsurance is harder for cancer patients than ever before,” that’s according to cancer specialist Dr. Patrick Cobb. The doctor also explains that in addition to oncology-specific cuts, there will be a 21% payment cut for all physicians’ services starting in March of this year if Congress does not act quickly to stop it.

According to the American Cancer Society about half of all men and a third of women in the U.S. will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. However the cancer death rate in the U.S. has declined due to earlier detection, the quality of treatment, and the accessibility of cancer care.

Dr. Eagle is very worried. He says, “The study quantifies what we have known – that cuts in Medicare reimbursement have created a crisis in community cancer care that threatens the very existence of the system that treats four in five U.S. cancer patients.” The question now is will Congress and the President fix this with their health care plan? No one really knows right now.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

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As faith-based relief agencies work to help Haitians manage an epic crisis after that Jan. 12 earthquake, most are taking pains to give aid according to need, not creed, and disavow proselytizing. World Vision, for example, a massive relief group based in Washington State with nearly 800 aid workers in Haiti, makes sure those who distribute aid aren’t simultaneously trying to win converts.  But even after decades of responding to emergencies, members of the Association of Evangelical Relief and Development are still wrestling with how best to proclaim the Gospel and offer spiritual support.

In short, they’re trying “to figure out what’s appropriate,  especially in a disaster context, in terms of Christian witness,” said Randy Strash. He is the director for emergency response at World Vision.  He said, “In a disaster context, it’s especially important that you earn the right to be heard (because) all these emotions are raw and the future is so uncertain and you don’t want to be manipulating people’s emotions.”

Meanwhile, some in Haiti’s large Voodoo community fear Christian relief groups are pursuing ulterior motives. Haiti’s chief Voodoo priest, has already accused foreign Christian groups of “trying to buy souls.” Some experts on evangelism say Christian groups must be especially careful to give aid according to need and without strings attached. One Christian aide worker said, “What I have found is, that no matter what that person’s background is, when I look them in the eye and say, ‘Can I pray for you?,’ I’ve never had anybody say no.”

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

The Bible warns us not to be deceived, but to practice discernment. But a fourth of U.S. citizens who identify themselves as Christians delve into a range of Eastern or New Age beliefs. A study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 23 percent of self-identified Christians practice astrology, 22 percent believe in reincarnation, 23 percent search for spiritual energy in physical things like trees or crystals, and another 23 percent use yoga as a spiritual practice.

Christians are about as likely as other Americans overall to say that they’ve been in touch with the dead, had an experience with a ghost, or consulted a psychic. Overall, the survey found that most Americans have had some connection with the supernatural. More than 6-in-10 say that they have had at least one of these experiences or beliefs, including the “evil eye,” or the ability to cast spells or curses that do harm.

The study says, “With the exception of white evangelicals, majorities of all major religious traditions report holding at least one of these beliefs or having experienced one of these phenomena.”

If a person identifies themselves as a Christian, they are supposed to be a follower of Jesus Christ, who said, no one is redeemed from their sinful nature unless they accept Him as their Savior. Is America in a post-Christian era? Is anything wrong in America today? Not much, it seems. And doesn’t this study only help confirm that conviction. Jesus warned that following Him meant walking a narrow path. Those who truly follow Him find that it is also a joyous path.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

Barna Research checked into the question recently.  The survey defined a “Biblical Worldview” as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator of the world who still rules the universe today.

In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a Biblical worldview. So what did Barna discover about Americans’worldview?  The research revealed that only 9% of all American adults have a Biblical worldview. Among the sixty subgroups of respondents that the survey explored was one defined by those who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is important in their life today and that they are certain that they will go to heaven after they die but only because they confessed their sins and accepted Christ as their Savior. Labeled “Born-again Christians,” the study discovered that they were twice as likely as the average adult to possess a Biblical worldview.

However, that meant that even among born-again Christians, less than 19% had such an outlook on life.  Do those figures surprise you?  Find yourself wondering how did we get to this point.  I don’t think it’s too hard to figure out, really.  As a nation we have turned away from God.  Most people today believe everyone goes to heaven, few believe in hell.  But most of all it’s idol worship that’s the problem.  And that idol is… self.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

Employees do some strange things while on the job.  A Careerbuilder Poll found some of the craziest things on the job, a co-worker ate the cheese off the pizza box at a company meeting. Some strange behavior is heard rather than seen, such as the co-worker repeatedly banging a mallet on the table for no apparent reason. Even bosses are not immune.  How about the one who brought a baby sippy cup to a meeting and started drinking out of it?

There are some strange laws in the country too. It’s illegal in Texas to posses a pair of pliers.  In Miami it’s illegal to imitate an animal.  In Memphis, Tennessee, a woman is not to drive a car unless a man warns approaching motorists or pedestrians by walking in front of the car that is being driven.  If all those things seem strange to you think about this.  You raise your child in a loving, caring home.  You teach them, you explain things to them, show them the consequences of bad choices, and then when your child reaches adulthood, they walk out the door and you never hear from them again.

Have you ever thought that might be how God feels about people who never give him a thought? You have to admit most of us just ignore him and we rush through life stumbling along as best we can.  He even went to the extent of taking on human form in the person of Jesus Christ and allowed himself to be crucified.  Strange too is the fact that he came back to life the third day after his death.  All of this so if we realize it’s wrong to ignore him, we can be forgiven through Jesus.  Strange, strange indeed that we listen to what others say and just think everyone is going to go to heaven when the Bible says just the opposite.  Strange! Strange! Strange!

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

If you are chances are you’re a man. And it’s for sure you’re not alone in these days of computers, cell phones, i-pods and numerous other distractions. Of course, none of those things are wrong in and of themselves. But when we become obsessed with them they can cut us off from face to face contact with other people. In big cities where long commutes are the norm, people’s schedules get so cramped that they aren’t interested in meeting new people. They just want to ‘chill out’ when they get home.

Somehow, using technology is easier, you just sit down at your computer and join the online chat session or something of that sort. So face to face meetings or discussions with other people decrease. Remember when neighbors sat out on their porches at night and got to know their neighbors. But when air conditioning came along we saw porches become less and less important. Television also kept us glued to the TV screen. Thus we didn’t get out to know our neighbors.

And then our mobile society adds to the problem. It’s not unusual for people to move to different places in the country sometimes many times during their lifetime. So any friends they had are left behind and they’re challenged to find new ones in their new city. Remember the New Testament story of Jesus asking a Samaritan woman at the well for a drink of water? What a beautiful picture of human interaction. Jesus went out of his way to approach the woman with great humility. He sincerely showed interest in her. And the consequence, her life was transformed. But what if the woman at the well had been caught up in something else and didn’t make time for Jesus? What kind of rich experiences are we missing out on by not being or having a friend?

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

A prominent pastor’s wife says her husband should have been forgiven by his church, because he confessed and repented of sexual immorality.  She says she was devastated when she learned of the choices her husband made. But she immediately began a journey of choosing. She chose to love. She says she chose to press through her feelings of anger. She pressed through her feelings of revulsion and, “Took the hand I had held so many times, the hand that brought me such comfort in the past. And in that moment, I realized how much I still loved my husband.”

She believes that the Lord provided the most effective discipline. Her husband suffered privately for months, and then he was publicly exposed, embarrassed, mocked, and humiliated. She believes that because he confessed and repented almost immediately, the church’s response should have been forgiveness and restoration of fellowship. Instead, he was held up as an example for exile.

What do you think?  Should a wayward pastor remain in the pulpit after he’s been involved in immoral behavior?  Or does glossing over that behavior because he confessed and says he repented suffice?  This isn’t just a matter that soils the reputation of a pastor and his church.  It is much more important than that:  this harms the reputation of God.  This isn’t just something pastors have to guard against either. Everyone who is a true follower of Christ will be subject to temptations of all sorts.  A Christian leader can let their power go to their head instead of being servants.   And they can rule with an iron fist.  What problems do you and I face that we must with God’s help overcome?  It’s important because we may be the only influence for Christ that those around us will ever see.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

Diplomacy, talking seems to be the dominant factor in the capitals of Middle Eastern nations. For instance, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he heard some “interesting ideas” on possibly restarting the peace process with the Palestinians from U.S. Envoy George Mitchell. Netanyahu gave no indications of what the ideas were. He added that if the Palestinians expressed a similar readiness, then both parties could find themselves back at the bargaining table.

Mitchell told Palestinian officials that they must negotiate with Israel if they want the U.S. to help in the creation of a Palestinian State. Negotiations have been frozen for 13 months. But in spite of Hezbollah recently admitting Israel has a right to exist, not everyone is convinced peace is just around the corner. A former Israeli army general, experienced in conflict with the Lebanese Hezbollah says another confrontation with Hezbollah “is almost inevitable,” but he can’t say when it might happen. That was the observation of the Israeli retired general, Saturday. His comment followed one by Israeli prime minister Netanyahu who said, in an unusual Saturday statement, Israel seeks peace with its neighbors. The statement quotes him saying, “The Jewish state is not planning any imminent attack on Lebanon.”

Hezbollah launched around four-thousand rockets into Israel from Lebanon during a 2006 war. An official at Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister’s statement was the result of fears expressed recently in Lebanon that Israel might launch an attack on Hezbollah. Somehow, don’t you have the impression that underneath all the quiet now, there is turmoil about to brew over the side of the pot?

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

70% of Americans see the loss of democratic super-majority in the Senate as a good thing.  The finding in a new CNN opinion research survey is a turnabout from a similar poll taken last June.  The previous survey showed half of Americans felt democratic control of both houses in Congress was a positive and just 41% thought it was bad for the nation.

Pollsters say the shift offers evidence that America is falling out of love with the democrats and their near total control of issues in Washington.  Last week’s special election victory of republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts made him the 41st member of the GOP in that chamber.  That gives democratic caucus 59 Senate seats, one shy of the filibuster proof 60 votes they’ve held for months.  The poll also finds that 46% of Americans now have a favorable opinion of the democratic party overall and 44% feel that way about the republican party.  That’s also a big change from an October survey in which 53% offered a favorable opinion of democrats and only 36% had anything positive to say about the GOP.

Nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the Federal stimulus plan has been wasted, that is according to another CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey that was released Monday morning. It also indicates that 63% of the public thinks that projects in the plan were included for purely political reasons and will have no economic benefit.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.

The top republican in the U.S. Senate wants Congress to scrap current healthcare reform legislation and start over. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the message from the U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts sent that notification clearly. In that race, republican Scott Brown beat democrat Martha Coakley to fill the term of the late Ted Kennedy, breaking the democrats super-majority.

McConnell called for a concentration on reducing costs, addressing “junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals,” and doing it in a bipartisan fashion. He said while republicans were negotiating the bills, their ideas were not included in what passed the House and Senate. McConnell said expanding health insurance coverage is a good idea, but the plans which have passed don’t do that. McConnell says republicans want healthcare coverage for everyone. Over in the controlling party on Capital Hill, democrats are working to determine just where they stand on healthcare reform efforts after losing their super-majority in the Senate.

On the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Illinois senator Dick Durbin said they are “considering their strategy” but said the issue is not dead. He said doing nothing is not an option. Democrats have come under fire for negotiating behind closed doors with the White House to iron out differences between the House and Senate bills, and President Obama has been criticized for not sticking to a campaign pledge to televise the hearings on C-Span. There was no mention of republican congressman Paul Ryan’s claim that democrats are planning an end run around the normal legislative process to try to pass their heathcare reform.

This is Carl Ramsey and that’s Another View of the News.

Let us know how God is blessing you! Please share your comments below.