Obama Addresses 'Outlandish' and 'Misleading' Claims About Health Reform - Political Punch
After a week of rowdy town halls where President Obama’s policies on health care were challenged, the president used his weekly address to debunk what he called “outlandish rumors” about what reform will mean to Americans.
As senators and representatives head home for the August recess to meet with their constituents, the president said it is important that Americans have the facts.
“So let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid or bring about a government takeover of health care," he said. "That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”
After a week of rowdy town halls where President Obama’s policies on health care were challenged, the president used his weekly address to debunk what he called “outlandish rumors” about what reform will mean to Americans.
As senators and representatives head home for the August recess to meet with their constituents, the president said it is important that Americans have the facts.
“So let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid or bring about a government takeover of health care," he said. "That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”
England has had Government Health Insurance for over 50 years. Let's see how they treat their elderly.
Age discrimination
One of the worst areas, the report found, was mental health care, where older people found services deteriorating as they passed the age of 65.
Gordon Lishman, director-general of Age Concern England, said it was "shocking" that so many social services departments were still failing to meet the needs of older people - the main users of these services.
He said: "Sadly, too many older people in need of public services are currently treated as second-class citizens." Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb said: "The needs of older people are not a priority for this government."
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the report highlighted the possibility that government targets for assessing patients in Accident and Emergency departments had led to the rushed discharge of older people. He also highlighted concerns about inconsistencies in community rehabilitation of stroke patients.
You would think after 50 years of Government Health Care the English government would have gotten it right. No! After 50 years the needs of older people are not a priority for this government.
In the debate about health care reform, France is often held up as an exemplar. The French get excellent outcomes on every measure, and they achieve them at far lower cost than the United States.
Why is this so? Their freedoms of diagnosis and therapy are protected in ways that would make their managed-care-controlled US counterparts envious. However, the average American physician earns more than five times the average US wage while the average French physician makes only about two
times the average earnings of his or her compatriots. But the lower income of French physicians is allayed by two factors. Practice liability is greatly diminished by a tort-averse legal system, and
medical schools, although extremely competitive to enter, are tuition-free. Thus, French physicians enter their careers with little if any debt and pay much lower malpractice insurance premiums.
Maybe we should follow France example. Introduce tort reform and make medical schools tuition free and keep the greatest health systems in the world.
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Dirty Little Secret - Universal Healthcare? Social Security?
In 2003, under G.W. Bush, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality published a report recommending Advance Care Planning, with detailed guidelines for practitioners. Nobody called that euthanasia.
ReplyDeleteAdvance Care Planning is legal in almost every state; the bill in question merely allows health care providers to be paid by Medicare for counseling patients on this matter, should the patient request this service - it would not be mandatory.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/obama-wants-to-kill-your-grandma/