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Why Healthcare is a Right and How America Rations People To Death
Wondering why Obama can’t get nominees confirmed who know what they’re doing and share your vision?
Or any vision at all based on reality? The Republicans, naturally. They block anyone with remote competence as they bet against our country in their game of chicken meant to win power back. It just might work, and that’s even more troubling.
In July of this year, Obama appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to run Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. On December 2 of the this year, he had to leave because Republicans would not confirm him.
Former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama, Donald Berwick, talked with Chris Hayes in an exclusive interview – his first since leaving the Obama administration after Republicans blocked his appointment. Courtesy of Up With Chris on MSNBC:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Republicans called this doctor a socialist for caring about patient care. Let that sink and and try not to realize that these are the alleged “Christians” among us saying this.
Republicans and Fox News quote Dr. Berwick as saying, “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care – the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.” Republicans are aghast at the idea of a government rationing care; they would much rather let the private sector decide who gets to live and die, ostensibly based on “fitness” (i.e., ability to pay after your insurance company rips you off aka; death panels for all but the upper class).
Dr. Berwick explains his point:
“My point is that someone, like your health insurance company, is going to limit what you can get. That’s the way it’s set up. The government, unlike many private health insurance plans, is working in the daylight. That’s a strength.”
See, Dr. Berwick is pointing out that government has a role to play in the lives of the people and the Republicans can’t stand that.
Before President Obama gave him a job, Dr. Berwick was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a not-for-profit organization helping to lead the improvement of health care throughout the world, where his ideas for healthcare included:
No Needless Deaths
No Needless Pain or Suffering
No Helplessness in Those Served or Serving
No Unwanted Waiting
No Waste
No One Left Out
Obviously he can’t be allowed to tout this kind of feel good socialism in this free country. Conservatives call Dr. Berwick “Obama’s rationing man.” Yes, because these ideas are the death panels of justice that we all fear; not the insurance company that took our $600.00 a month every month for ten years and then denied us coverage for an illness when we needed it because they could, in this great system of rationing based on your ability to pay and pay and pay.
Yes, Dr. Berwick can’t be confirmed… because we can’t have competence in American government. That might make the people believe in government again and we can’t have that. Also, we can’t have the Affordable Healthcare Act working for the people. They might like it and then they might like Obama. Must destroy!
They said Dr. Berwick’s ideas aren’t in line with most Americans. They cite a speech he made in which he said, “You could have protected the wealthy and the well, instead of recognizing that sick people tend to be poorer and that poor people tend to be sicker and that any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, MUST redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is, by definition, redistributional.”
Shhh! Apparently we are pretending that the poor are as healthy as the wealthy. Forget all that you know. We must punish the poor for eating the food that we shove down their throats and poison them with, and for the fact that they don’t have access to preventative care and probably aren’t playing a game of doubles at the club every Saturday.
See, here’s a part they left out:
“In the United States, we fund health care through hundreds of insurance companies. Any American doctor or hospital interacts with a zoo of payment streams. Administrative costs for that zoo approach 20% of our total health care bill, that’s at least three times as much as in England, maybe more.
In the United States, these hundreds of insurance companies have a strong interest in not selling health insurance to people who are likely to need health care. Our insurance companies try to predict who will need care, and then to find ways to exclude them from coverage through underwriting and selective marketing. That increases their profits. Here, you know that that is not just crazy; it is immoral.
So, you could have had a simpler, less ambitious, less troubled plan than the NHS. You could have had the American plan. You could have been spending 17% of your GDP to make health care unaffordable as a human right instead of spending 9% and guaranteeing it as a human right.”
That sounds decidedly more American and it sure strikes a moral chord. Now you see why this doctor must not be confirmed. We can’t have moralists running around in charge of Medicare and Medicaid who think poor people deserve healthcare. You see, engineering social change from the Dictatorship of the Executive Office is only okay when Republicans do it, because naturally they are always on moral high ground and hence, with God’s divine blessing, can not be questioned. But when the people elected President Obama, what they really wanted and needed was President Palin and that is what this congress is here to try to create for you bu stopping every single thing President Obama tries to do.
You don’t know what’s best for you. But the Republican Party does.
Don’t say the Republicans aren’t doing anything for you; they are doing everything they can to keep healthcare in the crapper in order to save us all from socialism and the stinky need of the 99%. You must really get to the voting booth in 2012, because you see, if Republicans win they will repeal this and allow insurance companies once again to be your Death Panel. And won’t that be better? After all, what says freedom better than paying for a service only to have it stolen from you when you try to cash in? USA!
This Doctor’s sins were working with Britain’s national health service to try to make it better and then commending their coverage of everyone. Jesus must be reeling in pain right now; giving coverage to everyone is good? Shouldn’t we be letting people die especially if they are broke? I mean, heck, kick the garbage to the curb, survival of the fittest people. That’s what American exceptionalism looks like and if you don’t like it, well, God loves the rich. Off with your head!
Where are the free markets, Don? HUH? No wonder Republicans had to get rid of this nut job socialist. Who wants government having anything to do with things like healthcare that shouldn’t involve the profit motive?
Profit is king! Privatize everything! Greed is God! And God is your divinely ordained Republican King. If you don’t believe me, see Wisconsin.
Dr. Berwick points out that the affordable healthcare law is about coverage for all of us, security in having health insurance, and keeping insurance companies from denying us coverage. He says healthcare is a right. GASP.
That can’t be.
Dr. Berwick says better quality is associated with lower costs. He says we need to speak out from the moral high ground of what it means to be a country where you get healthcare no matter who you are or how much money you have or what color your skin care is. And with the affordable healthcare law, all of our care gets better – even those of us with health insurance.
Don points out that as a country we have rationed people.
No wonder they had to keep him out of office.
Thanks, Republicans, because the one thing we needed y’all to be doing is trying to kill us after you raised our taxes and spit on every single jobs bill proposed. Thank goodness y’all ruined our credit rating already, or we’d be worried about where we are heading but it seems we underestimated you boys! Even from the minority you can ruin America and ain’t that something to be proud of?
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17 Responses to Why Healthcare is a Right and How America Rations People To Death
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Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
It seems to me that good healthcare in the US would lower the deficit. The GOP cant have that. And so they will use the word socialism to convince people that good healthcare is not in their interests.
Its like the disparity in income in the US. Being way down on the list is good. When you are way down on the list of income and healthcare, you can run around with your knickers over your head screaming American exceptionalism
Reynardine
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Let us be exact: the increasing pool of people who can’t afford routine healthcare, who are forced to undertreat or self-treat, and the slightly better off ones who are being steered to certain drugs by doctors in return for favors from pharma companies, are becoming reservoirs for untreatable strains of diseases that will one day turn into epidemics that don’t respect wealth or status. Of course, when the Republicans figure it out, they’ll lock us in a barn and burn us.
Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
So true. But you knew that
john
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 6:11 pm
thanks for teh post i missed Chris Hayes this morning..worth the watch, yet another reason to not sit 2012 out… we must have a veto proof senate and majority in the house.. we are fighting big money all the way
pcbedamned
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Did I read that right?~? $600.00/month for 10 years. (yes, I did read that right – I just went back and checked!!!)
Damn, I have never, ever, paid that much per month out my taxes for our “socialized” medicine here in the Great White North. I must also say, that my Health Care has always been top notch, as has the care of all I personally know.
Time for your Repubs to talk to actual Canadians (and Britons) about their experiences – and not listen to the scare mongering that is Fox… *sigh*
Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Being diabetic, Blue Cross wants over $1000.00 per month from me, and they cover very little the first year.
MelD
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 11:23 pm
I worked for a hospital with certification for my field, which they didn’t require so they wouldn’t have to pay very much (heads up: not all phlebotomists and lab techs actually have training in drawing your blood and not every state requires it), but ended up paying nearly 40% of my monthly income in health insurance that was only useful for either that hospital, or the two hospitals in either surrounding county. It didn’t cover doctor’s and office fees, or any extra fees that may have been added on. With my pre-existing condition and not enough money to cover health care, it only took 2 years of working to aggravate my condition to full on disability.
newmeximan
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 7:46 pm
My favorite part of the conservative red herring argument against socialized medicine is that it will drive insurance companies out of business. Most western European countries still have thriving insurance companies – but they cap the profit the insurance companies can make selling healthcare policies. The residents have lower costs associated with healthcare, and those who invest in insurance companies have a known return on their investment.
The 20% overhead that doctors pay to track the bills and payments from hundreds of insurance companies can’t be called a sound business principle – even to conservatives. Aren’t they the ones who claim waste and fraud drive up expense and drive down profits in all sectors of business?
So let’s make a uniform and simple billing and payment. Let’s just not call it socialism if we disagree.
Tom
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 8:18 pm
We have a blight in this Country and its based on the desire for more and more money and power, I can only describe it as the worst case of mental sickness this world has ever seen. Everyone would like a home,children,etc and as far as I know the average American doesn’t lie,cheat and scheme with others to gain the essentials we need to be comfortable.The reward for this hard work has been (It could be a master plan) to cheat them out of homes,jobs and health care ! Families are living in cars,tents or worse, adults and children living in such poverty they have no idea where the next meal is coming from .These Money grubbers are planning to wield the power they’ve been given to turn this Country into something that even George Orwell couldn’t dream up.We know who they are, We elected them ! Who’s pulling the strings ? We know them too,they are the one’s making those we elected Rich.Whats the solution ? They didn’t beat and pepper spray the puppets they nurtered (The tea party)if you remember these haters brought guns to the rallys in support of the money grubbers.It’s time to find and elect a lot of people we can trust,limit the time in office,stop insider trading by the guys we can’t trust.How do we do it ? We may not be able! They just passed a law saying they can arrest us and hold us for as long as they like,without charging us with a crime and as far as I can tell no one can do a darn thing about it.They are gaining on us and all I can say is beware.Oh and these are the guys that are always talking about the Constitution ! Obviously they don’t care what it stands for because they just keep on stomping on it.
Jennifer Simpson
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
The current medical system is not great, it’s actually more of a sick care system. The care that insurance covers is to take drugs that simply mask symptoms, or surgeries to cut body parts out like we don’t need them. We eat foods that are advertised as healthy, but they are seriously nutrient deficient, and full of unnatural hormones and chemicals. We live stressed lives, leaving our kids at home to be raised by tv and video games. We inject pathogens, heavy metals, and foreign DNA into our kids and we are told that is preventative care, then wonder why they have ADHD, asthma, allergies, learning disabilities (among the least).
Still, I am free to purchase insurance or not (not really with Obama Care), because the insurance doesn’t cover alternative care that actually looks for the underlying causes of a health problem and helps me heal. So insurance doesn’t help me a whole lot anyway.
If we do end up with a universal health system, run by bureaucrats, we need to look at how the govt has handled other areas under their control..Like the FDA and USDA, the majority of our food now comes from factory farms that seem to be constantly having recalls because of dangerous pathogens, The same govt institutions now raid our food coops and take all the local, non-factory farmed, nutrient rich foods that we choose to eat and feed our kids, and they take it all to the dump and arrest the leaders of the food coop, like they are drug dealers (the FDA spent MILLIONS on the sting operation in CA).
They are trying to control what we eat (at the behest of corporate AG) Do we really believe they’ll choose what’s best for our health? Do we really want these same govt entities telling us what we can and can’t do in regards to our health? These same entities are heavily lobbied and bribed by pharmaceutical companies to give us drugs that make us even more sick, and make us need more drugs to combat side effects.
Tina
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Before you think in the abstract – we HAVE current proof that the govt IS providing one of the best health care systems in our country – and that is MEDICARE. Low overhead. No mention of pre existing conditions. Doctors know how much they are going to get paid. Everyone knows what is covered and what is not.
All we need to do is get everyone the option of buying in to Medicare.
A simple solution if there ever was one.
Maple
Dec. 4th, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Jennifer — You need to do some research on how actual universal healthcare systems actually work. As the article implies, your insurance company is really your “bureaucrat”, telling you what it will, and will not, cover. How much say do you have over that? In a universal healthcare system, your taxes take the place of insurance premiums (oh yes, and your salary would also be greater because your employer could eliminate insurance benefit costs). And because your taxes are paying your healthcare costs, you actually have some say in how those costs are managed, through voting for your congressional rep, your local Senator, and your President.
Of course, this is all predicated on the belief (which you probably don’t share) that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. That’s how every other first world country sees it. We continue to be stymied by the fact that so many in your country believe that healthcare is only for those who can afford it……..I guess that makes the U.S. “exceptional”.
Not sure where I read this, but I find it rather profound: “If you don’t reach down and pull your brother up, he will reach up and pull YOU down”.
Jennifer Simpson
Dec. 5th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Maple,
“And because your taxes are paying your healthcare costs, you actually have some say in how those costs are managed, through voting for your congressional rep, your local Senator, and your President.”
that’s really funny..As of late, I have written numerous letters to my state legislators, congressmen/women and senators. In reply I get a form letter stating their positions, which I already knew and disagree with. Do I feel like I was heard, do I feel like they would actually listen if I had an issue with the care I received under universal healthcare?
My point was, We have a govt that is completely untrustworthy, lying to us all the time. Why would I trust them with my health? Our US govt, politicians, judges, bureaucrats are all corrupt and are only concerned with lining their own pockets at the expense of the American people.
Our govt is also, already so far in debt there is NO WAY they will be able to fulfill all the entitlements it already has even a couple years down the road. What happens if we put our trust in govt for our healthcare, and because Congress and our President squander all of our money away, we are left with nothing??
I totally believe in helping my ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ I have no problem and do donate to help neighbors in need. I feel the private citizen is WAAAY more efficient in helping those that need it.
Another point I was trying to make is our medical system is broken, in that it is run by greed, and the pharmaceutical companies. They only create drugs that cause us to need more drugs, so they are constantly increasing their income. All we’ll get with universal healthcare is more of the same. Would Universal healthcare pay for me to go to the chiropractor or acupuncturist, naturopathic physician?…I would bet not. So we still would not have freedom of choice.
Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 5th, 2011 at 11:31 am
The government currently pays 17% of GNP on healthcare,. With universal healthcare It would pay 9%.
your arguments are talking points. The government itself runs it’s programs in a very good manner. that is beside the fact that president and Congress seek to rape and pillage them of their money which is a separate issue from how they are run.
If neighborhood charity were viable than the government would not be paying 17% of the gross national product on healthcare. I think you would find that charity comes dead last in most peoples minds and quite frankly when it comes to healthcare nobody is going to contribute that much charity. please do not give us that Ron Paul charity thing because it does not work
The government is in debt without a doubt, but it is not in the kind of death you think it is. This country is worth $84 trillion and has no problem paying payments other than the fact that it has a Congress who cannot determine how it Pays its payments. You talk about debt and yet you are willing to pay twice as much money on healthcare as you have to. I have good friends in Europe who have national healthcare who absolutely love it. The countries who have the best healthcare In the world all have universal healthcare. You are willing to maintain a healthcare system that is ranked quite low out of the civilized countries. you are willing to settle for having a much less than best healthcare system.
Ask yourself why you are willing to pay twice as much in settle for much less than the best
newmeximan
Dec. 5th, 2011 at 12:57 am
The problem with the FDA, the USDA and all of the other agencies is that they receive their budget from Congress – and on which Senator/Congressperson wants to steer money to their district.
Sure, Congress needs financial oversight on waste and fraud in ALL of the government agencies, but the method of placing political appointees in leadership positions in the various agencies is the real problem. Administrators should be hired for their ability to manage their staff – not because they did a favor or bundled money for a candidate.
No agency has more than a 4 year window for personnel stability. It often takes several years to get rid of the previous appointees who then move themselves into other parts of the agency they work for – regardless of their job qualification.
The agencies have become politicized in management and fiscal requirements. If more agencies were removed from the political arena like the CBO – we might be able to trust the people who work for our elected officials.
We are still disposing of attorneys that the Bush administration hired for the DOJ, who never passed the bar and received their JD from a Christian diploma mill.
Kevin
Dec. 5th, 2011 at 11:40 pm
magnificent points altogether, you just received a new reader. What might you recommend in regards to your post that you just made a few days ago? Any positive?
Glen
Dec. 5th, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Definitely, I do not go along on a point or two whilst the remaining seems good.