Bill would require states to match new Iowa penalties for passing stopped school bus

Washington, DC - Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01) visited Waterloo's Lou Henry Elementary School and Dubuque's George Washington Carver School today to stump for national legislation strengthening penalties for drivers that illegally pass stopped school buses.  Braley will discuss Kadyn's Act with students at Northwood-Kensett Elementary School tomorrow.

The bill, "Kadyn's Act," was introduced by Braley in March and is modeled after Iowa's new "Kadyn's Law."  The bill and the Iowa law, signed by Governor Terry Branstad in March, are named after Kadyn Halverson, 7, who was struck and killed by a pickup truck as she crossed the street to board her school bus near Northwood, Iowa, last May.  Kadyn's Law was championed in Iowa by Kadyn's mother, Kari Halverson, her family, and Kim Koenigs, a local advocate.

Braley said, "When reckless drivers ignore warnings and pass stopped school buses, children's lives are put in danger.  Toughening penalties for drivers who violate school bus safety laws will save lives and convince more people to drive responsibly around kids and schools.  It's a common sense change that rises above petty partisan politics.

Braley continued, "Thanks to Kadyn, Iowa has become a national leader in school bus safety.  It's time every state adopt these strict standards so the penalty matches the severity of this crime."

Iowa's Kadyn's Law mandates for first offenders fines of at least $250 and the possibility of jail time of up to 30 days.  For a second offense of passing a stopped school bus within 5 years, fines would range from between $315 and $1,875 with up to one year of jail time.

The federal Kadyn's Act written by Braley would require states to strengthen their penalties for drivers who pass stopped school buses to the new Iowa standard at a minimum - or face losing 10 percent of federal highway funding each year.

The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services estimates that cars illegally pass stopped school buses 13 million times per year.  An average of 16 children per year are killed by drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses.

SPRINGFIELD, IL (04/30/2012)(readMedia)-- A wreath laying ceremony honoring the 34 Illinois National Guard servicemembers who died during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom is being held at the Illinois State Military Museum May 5.

WHO:

The Illinois National Guard and families of fallen servicemembers.

WHAT:

A wreath laying ceremony honoring the Illinois National Guard Soldiers and Airmen who have been killed during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

The memorial ceremony is open to the public. Following the ceremony, there will be a private, day-long event for the families of the fallen heroes.

WHEN: Saturday May 05, 2012 at 08:15AM Central Time (US & Canada)

WHERE:Illinois State Military Museum
Camp Lincoln
1301 N. MacArthur Blvd
Springfield, Illinois 62702

NOTES:

A total of 33 Illinois Army National Guard Soldiers and one Illinois Air National Guard Airman are among the 247 Illinois servicemembers killed since Sept. 11.

Of the 34 casualties, 18 Soldiers were killed during the historic deployment of the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT). The 33rd IBCT was mobilized from June 2008 to October 2009 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

For more information contact the Public Affairs Office at 217-761-3569 or ngilstaffpao@ng.army.mil

Retired Dr. Bill Roy proved again why he is a former Congressman from Kansas in a recent op-ed "GOP Solutions for Health Care Are Fairy Tales".

The correct statement is, "Both Democrat and Republican solutions for health care are fairy tales." They are fairy tales, and they are all un-Constitutional.

As would-be reformers generally do, Roy tells an emotional story. His example is an 11-year-old girl in Tarzana, California, with a bill for $4,852 for an emergency room visit for a stomach ache.

Roy laments, "This young lady's dad had lost his job at a movie studio. Desperate for some coverage, he chose to buy about all the health insurance he could afford, a $5,000 deductible policy."

Then Roy reports, "But the doctor ordered all kinds of diagnostic blood work at all kinds of unrevealed prices."

Roy says, "There's plenty to learn about this experience." He says, "We're overcharged, over-diagnosed, and over-treated." He adds, "The free market absolutely doesn't work in medical care." And he concludes, "Finally, we cannot run a system built on private, for-profit health insurers with billionaire CEOs."

And then Roy asks, "How long are movement conservatives going to insist on rationing health care by costs, while thousands die?"

Let's start with Roy's absurd statement, "The free market absolutely doesn't work in medical care." The fact is, the free market has not had a chance to work in medical care, because of the crooked, nit-wit schemes of politicians that think the way Roy does. If the parents had taken the little girl to a private physician (one who contracts directly with the patient and has no insurance or government contracts), the bill could have been $45 for lab work, $400 for an abdominal CT scan, and $75 for the office visit?payable by cash, check, or credit, the same way people pay for their cell phones, car payments, and car insurance payments.

Dr. Roy is correct in stating that in medicine we do have "all kinds of unrevealed prices." That's because of hospitals contracting with insurance companies and government?as a result of previous legislation. For example, the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1946 exempts the business of insurance from anti-trust legislation. Lyndon Johnson's fairy-tale Great Society legislation of 1965 poured trillions of dollars into "fighting poverty," as through Medicaid, which also results in hospitals shifting costs to private patients like this little girl. Then there was Nixon's HMO Act of 1974, requiring employers to offer plans that feature secret agreements with "providers."

A simple solution would be to require insurance companies to list what they will pay for certain procedures. Then the hospitals and doctors can charge fair prices. If Roy thinks patients can't make decisions for themselves, he probably thinks they can't read the menu in a restaurant, or they can't decide which of the latest cell phones they want or need.

Roy's lament, "this young lady's dad had lost his job (and insurance)" is another consequence of congressional malpractice, the fraudulently named Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If the liars had written the law to do what the name implies, the girl's father could still have had his insurance from employment, because he would have owned it, just like he owns his car and homeowner's insurance.

Roy's question, "How long are movement conservatives going to insist on rationing health care by costs, while thousands die?" betrays the fact that he has not read the fraudulently named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), under which an appointed board would ration health care by costs (Quality Adjusted Remaining Years--QuARY). This Act has no patient protection, and everyone knows it is not affordable. The Congressional Budget Office now estimates that it will cost $1.76 trillion, and Sen. Jeff Sessions says he has found $17 trillion in long-term costs.

The real questions are, "Who should determine the prices?the free market, or government bureaucrats and their cronies?" and "Who should decide what care a patient should have?the patient and her family, or the PPACA rationing board?"

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http://www.aapsonline.org/

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