Great Danger in “Guidelines”
Nov 17, 2009 Governmental Reach, Health Care, Obama Administration
Today’s news that the U.S. Preventative Task Force has changed its advice that women should start regular mammograms at 50 rather than 40 will surely anger cancer organizations and medical doctors worldwide. The anger should not stop there, however. As we are in the midst of a debate on nationalized health care this has staggering ramifications on the health care that Americans could come to expect under government-controlled health care. Consider two points:
- The “numbers” show that a 40-year-old woman has a .19 percent chance of dying of cancer before she turns 50, so it’s quite reasonable that government-controlled health care will not cover mammograms before the age of 50.
- Groups of people – death panels – will decide what kind of health status of people (including age, likelihood of success, etc.) get treatment and what kind of treatment
When you put these two factors together, you get a health care system that is both deciding you cannot be screened for an illness before a certain age, and then determining whether or not you can be treated if you do get the disease anyway. Your only recourse is to pay for this screening out of your own pocket.
Now this is a true women’s issue, and one that should have all women in this great land very, very afraid of government-controlled health care. Call your Senators now and oppose the public option!
Tags: Health Care, mammogram, public option
Thursday round-up on health care
Sep 10, 2009 Blogging's Best, Governmental Reach, Health Care, Obama Administration
There are some great pieces that have come out this morning regarding the health care debate, and particularly as President Obama’s speech last night affects it.
We start with Fred Barnes, where he was looking for the answers to five basic questions to see if the president had gotten back on track in the debate. Among them:
4) Did he demonize the health care providers he’s actually made deals with? Well, not all of them, but the health insurers took their usual beating.
5) Did he repeat the false claims he’s made repeatedly in earlier speeches? Yes indeed. He brought up nearly all of them, including the ones on no abortion coverage, no loss of one’s current health insurance, and the “savings” that would come from more preventive care.
Terry Madonna and Michael Young write, today, that not only is the conservative right gaining some momentum, but the left is becoming increasingly impatient with him.
The subtext of these and dozens of similar stories is crystal clear-Obama is in early trouble and the fate of his presidency may be at stake. The presidency that many thought might resemble FDR’s is looking more and more like Jimmy Carter’s. The aspirations of last November are becoming the trepidations of this September.
Madonna and young state that it’s not even out of the question that, among challenges from the conservative right, Obama could even be in store for a challenge from the liberal left come 2012.
The San Diego Union-Tribune, calling the speech a “missed opportunity,” sums up the problem with the president’s claims nicely:
We need to have a full and open debate about these concerns. But based on his speech last night, Obama would have us believe that he has a blueprint for a health care system that miraculously would be both much cheaper and much bigger — and the only thing that those who doubt him can offer is “misinformation.”
Sorry, Mr. President. That’s just not true.
In the end, keep in mind that even Congress “cackled” at the comment Obama made that “there remain some significant details to be ironed out.”
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Tags: Health Care, Obama
