The Health Care Reform Bill: Pundits Are Duping You
What the Real Majority Thinks About the Health Care Bill
Sarah Palin: Lying about the Health Care Bill or Just Stupid?
Sarah Palin, a woman who could have been vice president of the United States, recently wrote on her Facebook page about Death panels sitting in judgment of babies and the elderly to decide if they live or die as she criticized the Health Care Bill. She is either stupid or a liar and she's not alone. A number of Right Wing commentators and even elected Congressmen are saying the same thing. The Wonk Room has a nice collection of the specific quotes. There are two provisions of the bill which could possibly be warped by liars or idiots into death panels pulling the plug on Grandma.
Insurance Company Death Panels?
One of those provisions is that the bill provides for a panel of doctors and health care experts to lay out a set of rules about what kind of treatments are most effective in what kinds of situations. If you have insurance today, a "secret panel" of insurance adjusters is already doing that. The goal of the government panel would be to make sure that treatments that either don't work according to the best available science or that are more expensive than other treatments that work just as well aren't paid for by the taxpayer.
Health Care Counseling Equals Euthanasia?
The other provision that the AP reports could be magically transformed into a death panel deciding that someone is too old to receive treatment in great minds like Sarah Palin's or Glenn Beck's, is the provision for end of life counseling. Under this provision, people would be reimbursed for expenses related to counseling they receive if they have a condition expected to be fatal. That means guidance from a doctor or other qualified professional about treatment options like hospice care, pain reduction options, life support, living wills, durable power of attorney, and so forth. Nobody is deciding that anyone can't have treatment that will extend their life. Nobody is showing up on anyone's doorstep with a death warrant.
Will the Health Care Bill Take Away Your Current Insurance?
Nobody is even being forced to choose the new health plan. If you have insurance and you are happy with your premiums going up year after year while your coverage gets worse and worse each year, then you'll be able to keep that plan. If your company already provides health care coverage, they will not be required to offer a public option. You will not be forced to change health plans or doctors against your will.
Are you being Being Duped?
The political commentators who make their livings on television or radio through outlandish sensationalism must be sitting back in their fancy recording studios and laughing so hard it brings tears to their eyes at all the town meetings where innocent, well-meaning people are so passionately shouting the lies that these entertainers and their writers made up.
Dangerous Intentions
If people were interested in solving the issues they raise, here's a hint. Ask a question and wait for an answer. Yelling out a question and then drowning out the response is not Democracy in action it is chaos, obstructionism, and yes, dangerous. It is only a matter of time before someone duped by the radio and television lies, gets violent and someone gets killed. Oh, the ratings that would bring!
Rush can still get his Oxycontin
If the health care bill passes, no one, not even Rush Limbaugh, will be forced to change any one of the doctors he used to write duplicate narcotic prescriptions for him. If the very vocal minority is allowed to bully and scare Congress into watering down or killing the bill then some 37,000 million (according to President Obama's statement during his speech in Portsmouth , NH on August 11th) people will be denied the chance for health care that the bill would bring. That means they wait to go to the doctor until their medical conditions develop into emergencies. That means much longer lines in emergency rooms and hospitals eating the costs for more expensive emergency room treatments instead of focusing on preventative care.
The Real Majority Opinion
The latest Post-ABC poll as reported by the Washington Post "found that a majority of Americans (54 percent) approve of the outlines of the legislation now heading toward floor action." I would ask Congress whether they would prefer 54 votes or 46 out of every one hundred cast in their next election run. I will also remind the Democratic majority that not a single one of those people shouting their objections to the bill is going to vote Democratic in any election, no matter how any Democrat votes on the Health Care Initiative or any other pending bill.
Are There Still Birthers Out There?
Now I just wish somebody would explain (in an indoor voice please) why an official, state issued Certification of Live Birth does not equal proof of birth in the state that issued the certification...
Sources:
Sarah Palin: facebook.com/note.php?note_id=113851103434
Washington Post: washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071902176.html
CBS News cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/28/national/main1561324.shtml
The President of the United States: whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/
The Wonk Room: wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/07/29/end-of-life-smear/
Associated Press: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3A4LO8eI9ioHm4L9zs2Dh_PoN5wD9A097C00
Published by Brad Sylvester - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle
Brad spent 18 years in the consumer electronics industry, including more than ten years in new product development. He now writes full time from his home in the mountains of New Hampshire. View profile
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- Democracy is a two way exchange of ideas, not a minority outshouting the majority.
11 Comments
Post a CommentBrad....sounds like you're drinking the kool-aid too. Let's hope the people wake
up before it's too late!
THANK YOU. I KNOW AFTER 40 YEARS THAT SCARE TACTICS WORK WITH THE PEOPLE., BUT COME ON I CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE CAN FALL FOR SUCH OUTLANDISH CRAP.... THANKS FOR THE TRUTH
But, how can the constitution be honored with this kind of legislation?
Good article, Brad! I will be sure to check out some of your other articles. I, too, am sick of the lies and am glad to see them exposed. I might scream if I hear one more right-wing talk show host comparing a policy they don't like to the atrocities committed in Nazi Germany. I can't imagine how insulting that is to Jewish people.
Sorry I didn't realize there was acharacter count. Let me summarize.Republicans and Democrats alike are involved in this. Obama Comes from a Chicago Machine Model for Governance.This is not what you think. This will enrich the contributors. GEICO was known as Government Employees Insurance Company. They insured Full Time federal employees including Car insurance. there are over 240 Private Healthcare Policies available to Government employees.If you want to know how healthcare got to this place, follow the previous legislation. You are all too intelligent toget involved with soundbite newsclips. If this legislation was that important to your representative , they would have been talking to you all for months to give you the best for the common good. All this is is another way for the government to involve itself with your health decisions. It doesn't need to. By the way, Hitler asked for the same thing in 1934. Over 1000 Pages that they want a quick decision on and few have even read i
Health care experts Deciding appropriate treatments? that sounds just like the Governments reasoning for the HMO. right after the Government treatment for our soldiers since VietNam becomes what was originally promised. This isn't the 60's
The Government that is deciding on this hasn't read it, not even the sponsors. the words out of Obama's mouth has added to the confusion, because he speaks in generalities not specifics. I have learned in my 60 years, that I don't need the government to decide anything in my life. If our Government wants to insure the uninsured the price is $29 Billion. Thats all! If the Government wants to improve the life of its citizens, a trillion Dollars would cure many of our most fearsome diseases. It would go a long way to promote the Public Health system that is already in existence in our country.There is no God Given Right for good health. And a government agency involved in it brings 4-7 layers of administration (non productive)along with it. Over 1000 P
Note that there is a typo in the Rush doctor paragraph, the number should be 37 million not 37,000 million...
Hopefully people are beginning to see the light on these crazy rumors..I hope so. Great article. I saw your comment on someone's article, and loved it. I think all of us just need to call people on their misinformation.
Very nice, Brad. I have been fuming ever since this whole thing started. I have no problem with debating an issue, but this is not debating. It's demanding from a minority group of people doing the insurance industry's dirty work for them. It's politicians at their worst spreading lies in hopes of getting enough of the population mad that they will vote for them next time. It's not about helping us, it's all about getting power back so they can continue the status quo and the only ones who benefit from that are already rich and powerful. But then, this is a favorite tactic by the GOP. Spread rumors and lies and scare everyone. That's all they have is fear. Great work on this and it definately needed to be said. So I wrote a book, sorry.
Great piece!