The USS Healthcare has taken some hits. Can it be saved?

Posted on September 9th, 2009 by ecthompson md

For reasons completely unclear to me, the Democrats thought they could take their August recess and leave the USS Healthcare on autopilot. While the Democrats were asleep at the wheel, conservatives pounded the USS Healthcare. Death panels. Socialism. Marxism. Republican Congressmen Phil Gingrey stated that we don’t need to regulate private insurance companies, that the marketplace will regulate them for us. Senator Chuck Grassley actually told his constituents “you have every right to fear.”

I find it ironic, in the age of information and the Internet, that there can be so much misinformation. There are no death panels. No such thing exists in any of the three bills in the House or in the one bill that’s percolating in the Senate. Anyone with an Internet connection can go online and look at these bills. Yes, these bills are long, but they are easily searchable. I cannot explain why the media has allowed this misinformation to ricochet around the airwaves.

As I see it, Republicans are playing some type of child’s game where they claim to support healthcare reform. I don’t see any real effort to support healthcare reform. Senator Mike Enzi is probably the best example of this. He is supposedly negotiating for a bipartisan reform bill. Just last week he told a group of supporters at a rally that he was sure that healthcare reform was going to fail. Unfortunately, Mike Enzi is a very important senator, on the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Some Republican senators have said they won’t even read the final bill. Democrats, liberals and progressives need to read the writing on the wall. If we truly want change, we’re going to have to push for it. We are going have to march for it. We are going to have to pull the rest of the country kicking and screaming to get it. This is the only way that we are going to prevent the USS Healthcare from sinking.

I came across an enlightening poll conducted by Research 2000 (8/31- 9/3). They asked whether individuals “favor or oppose a government administered health insurance option that anyone can purchase to compete with private insurance plans.” This is the liberal public option. This is not including some quasi-public option that only triggers when we have 50 or 60 million Americans without health insurance. The question did not ask anything about cost control or if the public option adds to the deficit. It was a straightforward question. 58% of respondents favored the public option. 57% of independents supported the public option. America, by a three-to-two margin, supports the public option. This is even after a month of misinformation and lies. The American people still want the public option and not some watered down version of it.

BTW, we need healthcare reform.  This isn’t a luxury.  People are lining up for free clinics all over the country.  They are having to turn away people.  Where were the birthers and teabaggers shouting down these Americans who needed healthcare?

Republican Representative John Kline of Minnesota gave the weekly address on Saturday, suggesting that we just start over. Personally, I believe his suggestion was disingenuous but let’s take his advice anyway. Let’s simplify the whole equation. Medicare for all. Period. Fix the donut hole in Medicare part D. Allow Medicare to truly negotiate drug prices. Nothing fancy.  Nothing complex.  No triggers.  No bailout for the health insurance industry.  Simply the freedom to go to any doctor you choose and any hospital you choose.  Why can’t we do this and make it affordable?

Finally, on a personal note, I’ve just completed one of the most emotionally and physically draining two weeks of my medical career. I’ve had to sit down with a number of families and tell them that their loved one was not going to make it. These end-of-life discussions, even under the best of circumstances, are obviously extremely difficult. To have elected officials, even senators, tell their constituents that there are “death panels” in any of these bills is beyond reprehensible. I know that there is a special place in Dante’s Inferno just for these liars.

Tags: Healthcare, Newsletter, Obama administration, Party Politics // 13 Comments »

  • Gail Gordon

    I wonder why we don’t view healthcare the same way we view education. There is public education for everyone in this country. There is no fee for service. We pay for it through taxes. Now you can argue about how effective the education is but EVERYONE has a right to a free education. If you want, you can seek private education and pay for it. But we understand the importance of education to both the individual and the society. Why don’t we consider healthcare as important?

    We can have a capitalist society without making healthcare a for profit business. At least not as much as it currently is. When healthcare is for profit, where is the advantage in actually curing someone? Where do your “customers’ then come from? On your show a few weeks ago you and Aaron mentioned the revolving door being removed from the lobby at Mission. What a great metaphor for healthcare.

  • margaret

    I have been trying to figure out why this red state I live actually boo people for saying they need help getting healthcare. I am wondering if it is because the people feel you should be able to stay healthy if you just eat right and exercise. Do you think that is why they fight so hard against insuring everyone? That you should be able to stay healthy. Here in Utah the Mormons are very against anyone who does not do this. They have a book that tells them what they should and shouldn’t do and eat and drink. So they are VERY against this measure. But if they do get sick the church will help them pay the bill. In the other states do you think people will look at the smokers and heavy people and blame them for the cost and sneer at them for not taking care of themselves? I don’t judge people but it seems the people who are sooo angry about covering the poor people is because they feel they should take care of themselves. I don’t get it. I want a public option just INCASE I loose my job it is called a safety net and allow me to pay for additional private coverage if i choose. But right now I would be denied because i have high blood pressure.

  • http://www.whereistheoutrage.net ecthompson

    Oh, Gail –

    You’re so quaint and… communist. It’s all about profit. It’s about the marketplace. This is America. Free is for those other countries. Look at New Orleans. Katrina gave capitalists opportunity to wipe the slate clean. Many public schools and public teachers were given pink slips. Charter schools began to spring up like weeds. New Orleans now has the highest percentage of charter schools of anywhere in the nation. We think of charter, think of For Profit! This is the new era of Republicanism. Free education is so… 1960s. :-)

    Thanks for your input.

  • http://www.whereistheoutrage.net ecthompson

    Margaret –

    I think it is a combination of things and not any one thing. I think in the current environment, anyone who does not agree with your position, according to Republicans, should get booed.

    The Mormon church acts as a social network. It acts as a government of sorts.

    Change makes people feel uncomfortable. Many White folks are extremely uncomfortable with a Black president. Combine this with economic insecurity, rising deficits, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan — everyone’s on edge. It did not help that the election was contentious on both sides.

    I think the people who are in their 40s and 50s are looking at how relatively easy our parents had it. They’re trying to figure out why it is so tough for them to make it. Why if both parents are working it is still hard to make ends meet? Why are things so expensive? The short answer is that business has figured out ways to make us pay for things that we didn’t have to pay for 40 years ago. Television was free for years ago. You bought a TV and you are able to receive all the TV that your neighbors got for free. Now, we have to pay $40-$150 per month for TV. The telephone service cost us almost nothing. Now, it is an extra $50-$150 per month to carry a cell phone. We have been nickeled and dimed to death. We can’t save. There’s no money left over at the end of the month. This is why people are angry and upset. Their anger is simply misplaced.

    Thanks for your comments.

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  • Guest

    There are indeed *death panels* in the countries we are supposed to feel inferior to because of their beloved health care systems.  Truth is, there are *death panels* in any system.  I do NOT want the GOVERNMENT to be part of these panels.  And you know – you are wrong – you will not have to drag ME and millions like me kicking and screaming to accept anymore govt run health care.  We are not going to accept it.  There will be a revolt, there will be millions of lawsuits.   They will never be able to enforce it.  Sure, you can force me to insure a car before I drive on a road.  You can force me to have insurance or cash before you even treat me.   But you CAN NOT force an American to insure their personal health.  Maybe they don’t WANT your damned treatment. This will face constitutional challenges this court has rarely seen.  You are a pathetic American if you believe this is acceptable.

  • Guest

    Were you sleeping during the last 8 years?  Try a little google exercise – check out the speeches democrats made in response to things Bush pushed in regards to healthcare – or better yet – how about the horribly offensive things they said in response to his warnings about Freddie and Fannie?  Or the accusations of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks?

    What saddens me is the racism our kids – black AND white are going to be raised with thanks to the liberals and the constant whining that any criticism is racially motivated.  Great way to diversity in the future, eh?  Thanks for cooking up a fresh batch of hatred for a generation which has been fairly well integrated.  It will probably be a cold day in hell before a minority is so well embraced in the future.  Way to screw up more of our future. 

  • Guest

    Oh please – most of the poorest of our kids today have WAY more luxuries than I did growing up and I was from a fairly upper middle class home.  We pay for things today we didn’t pay for 40 years ago because IT DID NOT EXIST!  40 years ago, a 77 year old with a fourth occurrence of cancer was not treated with state of the art technology.  There were no high tech neonatal units which nursed 800 gram premies to a sustainable weight at high risk.  An illegal immigrant was not able to deliver 6 kids and enroll them in ESL school at the expense of the taxpayer.  Cable TV did not exist. 

    Doc – are your medical ethics as honest and straightforward as your political commentaries?  Seriously?  I expect this kind of crap from political pundits – I guess I was crazy enough to think someone of your status would be more honest.  My mistake.

  • ecthompson

    Actually, if the majority wants it as we have seen in a number of studies, it will happen. Sorry. If accepting the will of the majority makes me a apathetic American then I’m a proud pathetic American.

    If you don’t want healthcare, I think it is your choice to retreat into the mountains of Colorado or Virginia. Chill. Enjoy the great outdoors. No one is going make you come out.  Enjoy.

    Don’t think that clogging up the courts will save you because it will not. That has been tried before and it has failed. If you would like to try more failed strategies I have a few suggestions for you — you can hold your breath until America changes its mind or you can climb the tallest tree that you can find and stay there until America changes its mind or you can fly to Washington by flapping your arms as fast as you can and lobby every congressman you see as you continue to flap your arms and convince them that healthcare reform should be more giveaways to the pharmaceutical companies and the health insurance industry.

    As far as I know, the only countries that are ever discussed in this healthcare debate are France, England Canada. Where are their “death panels” in any of these countries? There may be, I’m just unaware of them. But, that’s not the point, we are not France, England or Canada. We do things differently than they do. We, as Americans, do not want medical decisions made by the government. Therefore, there is no legislation on Capitol Hill in which the government is allowed to make any medical decisions.

    I just don’t understand what you are so up in arms about. I really don’t. President Obama has said on numerous occasions that if you liked your current health care coverage, you can keep it. House Bill 3200 has a clause which says almost exactly the same thing. So why are your panties in a wad? You can keep your same health insurance! What is the problem! The problem is that you are scared of something that you’ve never seen and there is no evidence is actually coming. You are scared that there something else going to happen. You are scared that there is some more insidious or hidden agenda. Therefore, you run around and scream and shout about stuff that doesn’t exist. You’re all red in the face about stuff that nobody has suggested and isn’t present in any bill currently in Congress. I feel your anxiety. I am mad about the bogeyman too.

  • ecthompson

    Please link to any of the offenses that you are talking about.  thanks.

  • Guest

    How would a public option be paid for? You can’t get blood from a turnip and the national deficit can’t continue to just keep soaring into an abyss. Medicare and Medicaid are underfunded and will go bankrupt. The Feds couldn’t even run the Cash for Clunkers program without a multitude of problems. Why should there be more government for those idiots in Washington DC to get involved. There shouldn’t. Yes, there are problems with the healthcare system, but those involved with fixing it should take their time to sort out the absolute priorities instead of putting together a hodgepodge of things to screw up healthcare even more for years to come.

  • ecthompson

    It’s hard know where to start. How would a public option to pay for? Good question, legitimate question. Personally, it is important to remember that we cannot afford the system that we have now. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are going bankrupt because, in part, of healthcare costs. Secondly, and this has not been proposed on Capitol Hill, I would tax cigarettes, alcohol, beer, and fast foods. These are some of the leading causes of illness in our country. This would also encourage a healthier lifestyle. Thirdly, I’m surprised that many conservatives are up in arms over the deficit. We saw in the 1990s that our economy has an amazing capacity to generate wealth. Therefore, once the economy gets back on track, we should have increased cash flow into the treasury and the deficit should evaporate quicker than expected. This is what happened during the Clinton administration.

    For the last 30 years, the government has been the whipping boy of conservatives. The government is our enemy or some variation of that is the rallying cry of conservatives everywhere. The bottom line is that the government is not made up of the Taliban, Al Qaeda or aliens from outer space. The government is made up of Americans. If we want the government to work always have to do is put in the time and effort to make it work. That’s it. There’s no magic formula for why it shouldn’t work. Americans have been making our government work for over 200 years. The cash for clunkers program worked just fine. What major problems didn’t have? Sure, there were minor problems submitting paperwork but everything was worked out. Dealers got paid. Buyers got cars. The automobile industry got a much-needed shot in the arm.

    Those in charge of fixing the health care system have been studying this problem for more than 20 years. No one is throwing anything together. The people who are working behind the scenes, not our elected officials, know the health care system inside and out.

    To be honest, we need single-payer. That is by far the most cost-effective way to fix the health care system. But, that’s my two cents.

    Thanks for your comments.

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