Kind of crisis in government!!!

Goodmorning everybody!

The last couple of days were filled with watching tv a lot, but mainly the parliament channel or news items.
There is a crisis going on. Government has made a new law concerning the health security and it has to pass the parliament and then the senat. Well, it stopped in the senat, 3 senators of the government parties voted against it and that means trouble, there is no majority now for that law.
There was intenseive talk for about 3 days to find a slolution, and yesterday night there was a debat about it in parliament which didn;t went all too well I think, most becaused government announced that they would carry on anyway with that law, there misght be a "trick"to work around parliament and senat, That could be done by a "general administrative measure", which is less heavy than a law, but important things agreed about the law could be still cariied out. Only that isn;t very democratic and not the way it should be done. This "measurement"is supposed to be used only in emergencies of a special kind. I have an article of reuters here for you, about the situation, and it is a very important law, because it would give health insurances lots of power and patients less. Now they say in the changed foramt, patients still would be able to choose, but that isn;t all the way true. You can have two insurances, one of restitution and one of natura. But if you want to have free choice, you will have to pay extra, so lots of people will not be able to afford that. And there will be a bigger gap between rich and less fortunate people.

By Anthony Deutsch

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a letter to parliament late Thursday that his party would revise a health bill that was blocked in the senate, potentially staving off the collapse of his fragile center-right coalition government.

Earlier on Thursday Rutte was forced to pull out of an EU summit to deal with a mounting political crisis over the bill, which has highlighted a deep divide between his Liberal party and the left-of-center Labour, with which he shares power.

Emergency talks throughout the day in The Hague failed to resolve a deadlock triggered by the blocking by coalition allies of a health bill that was submitted by Rutte's party.

The bill, a core healthcare reform pushed by the Liberals to reduce government spending, was voted against on Tuesday by three senators in the Labour Party, the other coalition partner, leaving Rutte scrabbling to find a compromise.

A debate was scheduled to run into the early hours of Friday morning, but Rutte said in a letter his party would "alter and resubmit the legislation taking into consideration arguments and concerns" raised by the dissident Labour senators.
The bill was aimed at saving the government, midway through a four-year term, 1 billion euros ($1.23 billion) from 2016 by restricting where patients can seek medical treatment.
Patients can now go to hospitals or clinics of their own choice and the insurer reimburses the costs. Under the new law, patients would be limited to medical suppliers with which the insurer has negotiated contracts.
Rutte said in the revised bill would maintain the free choice of doctors and would seek to create a balance between 7patients and insurers.

Health Minister Edith Schippers, from the prime minister's Liberal VVD party, said the bill would create better, more affordable, healthcare. However, opponents say it will limit the freedom of patients to pick their own doctors.

Rutte's government has been in power for just over two years after winning snap elections triggered by failed talks with anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders about forming a minority government with his support.

(Editing by Alison Williams and Steve Orlofsky)

Last thing we know about the whole thing is, that on next Tuesday the government will present the slightly changed law again to parliament and then senat. We'll see how that will be received there.

It all has a time limit, because normally the government and all would go on a "Christmas Break", and all things should be dealt with before. and the new agreement with the health insurance companies and other parties is already signed and should go working in January. 

Do we have still some brighter news? Yes, we have.

yesterday evening, after dinner, the door bell rang and a package arrived. It was again all the way from America, containing a present for my birthday. Now that is still a few weeks away, but it doesn;t matter. I placed the gift, wrapped and all, under the tree, and I will wait with opening till my birthday, yes, I will!

What else did I, apart from following the debat and news on tv?  went for some shopping, trying to get me already all things for our Christmas dinner, to be ahead of any crowds. I think, I have about all now, yippee!

And Monday I still was a bit a busy bee, with in the afternoon first preparing a plate for dinner with some fish, making stew pears too for dessert, than attacked some dust bunnies, even gave the room a sweep with the vacuum cleaner. In the mean time Jan went out, and I asked him to take home some freezer bags, if he should be in a dollar shop(I try to buy them there, cheaper and even better than others LOL). Well, never send your husband for some shopping of that kind, hahahaha, oh he came back with bags, in fact quite good ones, they even a kind of zip, but it weren't the ordinary ones I wanted. Okay, I didn;t made too many problems about it, he did his best isn;t it? No big deal.

Weather here still hass good temperatures, around 52 F, which is extra ordinary for this time of year. Only thing is, that we have some more rain, and every now and then hard blowing winds. Still that we can handle, I like the temperatures, not looking forward to snow and freezing at all!

I have today tow sets of clusters from.....Florence. Yes, that sweet lady sent me more and I made two little files with them. I am sure you will like them. Next week I will have another Christmaskit for you.

This has been a long post, don;t you think, so it has become time to get a bit more active, it will be in the house, no special eed for me to go out today, hoorray, that is good sometimes too. I'll just "jump"into my jogging pants and a warm fleece sweater, and it will be good enough for now.

Hope you are not into too much stress these last days before Christmas, and wish you a wonderful weekend.

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