I don't know how it happened, but somehow I ended up on the Crazy Train's mailing list. Today's installment of the rantings of the rabid right's favorite MILF brings further perpetuation of the "Death Panel" myth, and goes after White House Chief of Staff's brother by name. More after the jump...
What Does Health Care Reform Mean for the Most Vulnerable Amongst Us?
When Congress returns to Washington from its district work period, the President’s health care reform proposal is expected to be at the very top of our agenda. Much of the discussion so far has been in sound bites and debate snippets and about numbers and sterile ideas. But, health care reform should be about people.
It’s important that we look deeper into statements of some of the Administration’s top advisors to get some insight into where the legislative proposals on the table may lead us. Betsy McCaughey, former Lieutenant Governor for New York and founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, recently shared some statements by two of President Obama’s top advisors in the New York Post that should give us pause about the very human consequences of health care reform.
I encourage you to read her column from July 24th (Deadly Doctors: O Advisors Want to Ration Care):
THE health bills coming out of Congress would put the decisions about your care in the hands of presidential appointees. They'd decide what plans cover, how much leeway your doctor will have and what seniors get under Medicare.
Yet at least two of President Obama's top health advisers should never be trusted with that power.
Start with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. He has already been appointed to two key positions: health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research.
Emanuel bluntly admits that the cuts will not be pain-free. "Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change," he wrote last year (Health Affairs Feb. 27, 2008).
Savings, he writes, will require changing how doctors think about their patients: Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others" (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008).
Yes, that's what patients want their doctors to do. But Emanuel wants doctors to look beyond the needs of their patients and consider social justice, such as whether the money could be better spent on somebody else.
Many doctors are horrified by this notion; they'll tell you that a doctor's job is to achieve social justice one patient at a time.
Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96).
Translation: Don't give much care to a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy.
He explicitly defends discrimination against older patients: "Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years" (Lancet, Jan. 31).
The bills being rushed through Congress will be paid for largely by a $500 billion-plus cut in Medicare over 10 years. Knowing how unpopular the cuts will be, the president's budget director, Peter Orszag, urged Congress this week to delegate its own authority over Medicare to a new, presidentially-appointed bureaucracy that wouldn't be accountable to the public.
Since Medicare was founded in 1965, seniors' lives have been transformed by new medical treatments such as angioplasty, bypass surgery and hip and knee replacements. These innovations allow the elderly to lead active lives. But Emanuel criticizes Americans for being too "enamored with technology" and is determined to reduce access to it.
Dr. David Blumenthal, another key Obama adviser, agrees. He recommends slowing medical innovation to control health spending.
Blumenthal has long advocated government health-spending controls, though he concedes they're "associated with longer waits" and "reduced availability of new and expensive treatments and devices" (New England Journal of Medicine, March 8, 2001). But he calls it "debatable" whether the timely care Americans get is worth the cost. (Ask a cancer patient, and you'll get a different answer. Delay lowers your chances of survival.)
Obama appointed Blumenthal as national coordinator of health-information technology, a job that involves making sure doctors obey electronically delivered guidelines about what care the government deems appropriate and cost effective.
In the April 9 New England Journal of Medicine, Blumenthal predicted that many doctors would resist "embedded clinical decision support" -- a euphemism for computers telling doctors what to do.
Americans need to know what the president's health advisers have in mind for them. Emanuel sees even basic amenities as luxuries and says Americans expect too much: "Hospital rooms in the United States offer more privacy . . . physicians' offices are typically more conveniently located and have parking nearby and more attractive waiting rooms" (JAMA, June 18, 2008).
No one has leveled with the public about these dangerous views. Nor have most people heard about the arm-twisting, Chicago-style tactics being used to force support. In a Nov. 16, 2008, Health Care Watch column, Emanuel explained how business should be done: "Every favor to a constituency should be linked to support for the health-care reform agenda. If the automakers want a bailout, then they and their suppliers have to agree to support and lobby for the administration's health-reform effort."
Do we want a "reform" that empowers people like this to decide for us?
So fellow Minnesotans, what are we going to do about it? I have a thought: Let's show up at her public appearance and ask for an end to the lies. Here are the details:
Bachmann Office Coming to a Town Near You
My staff regularly holds Mobile Office Hours at locations all across the district. These are opportunities for you to come meet one on one with someone from my office who is trained to be your liaison with federal agencies. Please bring copies of any paperwork that you might have with you when you visit. Particularly, if you are having a problem with a federal benefit or program and have letters or documents that might help my staff get answers for you quickly.
Should you have any questions or concerns, however, you can always stop by one of my district offices between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm to talk to my staff as well.
Woodbury Waite Park
6043 Hudson Road 110 2nd Street South
Suite 330 Suite 232
Woodbury, MN 55125 Waite Park, MN 56387
651-731-5400 320-253-5931
Beginning in February, a new schedule of Mobile Office Hours took effect. My staff will still be in many of the same locations, but the days and hours of these sessions may shift. Please take a moment to check out the new schedule here.
And, please take a moment to visit my website (www.bachmann.house.gov) and sign up for my regular telephone town halls as well. That technology allows you to speak with me from the comfort of your own home. You’ll get an update on what Congress is doing that might impact you and have the opportunity to ask me a question about what’s on your mind.
This week, they’ll be at the following locations:
Tuesday, August 11th
10:00 am to noon
Washington County Library: Hardwood Creek Branch
19955 Forest Road N
Forest Lake
Tuesday, August 11th
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Andover City Hall
1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW
Thursday, August 13th
9:00 am to 10:30 am
Howard Lake City Hall
625 8th Avenue
Thursday, August 13th
11:30 am to 1:00 pm
Annandale City Hall
30 Cedar Street E
Thursday, August 13th
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Clear Lake City Hall
7684 1st Avenue W
Thursday, August 13th
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
St. Michael City Hall
3150 Lander Avenue NE