On Aug 28, the Obama Administration hosted a nationwide call-in for physicians, in which more than 1,900 physicians participated. It was said to be “closed to the press” so that a “conversation” could occur. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2009
Myth 18: Proposed health care reform will not hasten the death of seniors, cancer patients, and disabled persons.
The phrase “death panel” does not actually occur in any of the proposed “health care reform” bills. MoveOn.org has seized on Sarah Palin’s characterization of the outcome of “reform” in its mass email piece entitled “Top Five Health Care Reform Lies: and How to Fight Back”:
“Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!”
When asked about the end-of-life counseling provision at an AARP-sponsored “tele-town hall,” Obama grinned and told the woman called “Mary”: “I guarantee you, first of all we just don’t have enough government workers to talk to everybody to find out how they want to die” (Judi McLeod, Canada Free Press 8/13/09). Continue reading
Myth 17: Health care reform will establish a right to health care.
Everybody in a country with “universal health care” has a “right” to health care, but Americans do not—or so it is argued. “Health care reform” is supposed to correct a moral deficiency in the United States, and, at long last, grant a fundamental human right to Americans. Continue reading
Myth 16. In countries with government-funded health care, people get immediate care in emergencies, though they may have to wait for elective procedures.
The usual response to concerns about the months-long waiting lists for surgery in Canada and Britain is that this is a mere inconvenience, a small price to pay for universal “free” care. If you have a really serious need, you’ll get immediate attention—or so Michael Moore and others tell us. Continue reading
Myth 15. Nationalized medicine will reduce medical errors, improve care, and save lives.
Based on 173 deaths in the Harvard Medical Practice study, and extrapolating to the entire U.S. population, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has been claiming for almost a decade that as many as 98,000 Americans are killed by medical errors every year. Continue reading