Health Debate: Dying “Sooner” and the “Belly Flop-Flip-Flop”
EmailABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: The health reform debate carried on today with some flares of anger, some partisan bickering and some strong political accusations. Senators still have not considered a single amendment, although we could see our first votes on health reform amendments Tuesday night or Wednesday. On deck: A Democratic amendment offered by Sen. Barbara Mikulski would guarantee access for women to preventive screenings like mammograms – responding to the pre-Thanksgiving mammogram guideline flap. Republicans have a proposal offered by Sen. John McCain to strip the nearly half trillion in cuts to future Medicare costs – are they cuts or are they cost savings? — that Democrats envision as paying for a good chunk of the reform bill. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla said those envisioned cuts (or cost savings) would lead to rationed care and get between decisions Medicare doctors make with their patients. “And if it doesn't raise costs and we're truly going to take this money from Medicare, what it's going to do to our seniors,” he said, “I have a message for you you're going to die sooner. And they're going to go that isn't true. that isn't true. When you restrict the ability of the primary caregivers in this country to do what is best for their senior patients, what you are doing is limiting their life expectancy,” said Coburn. Here is Sen. Max Baucus’, D-Mont, defense of why cuts in future spending of Medicare are not cuts to services: “It's not cutting Medicare benefits. rather, it's — the underlying bill reduces the rate of growth of government spending on providers, on hospitals, home health, hospice, lots of other providers. that's really what's going on here,” said Baucus. “Don't let anybody fool you, this bill does not cut Medicare benefits. it does not. it does reduce the rate of growth of providers. Democrats decried McCain’s plan to gut the Medicare cuts and accused him of what Harry Reid called a “huge, big belly-flop flip-flop.” They dug up news clippings from the 2008 Presidential campaign where the McCain campaign was suggesting it would seed cuts in future Medicare costs at a level far in excess of Democrats half a trillion – here’s a WSJ report. “It wasn't long ago that my friend from Arizona was a candidate for another office, and during the course of his campaign for president, he suggested that we have a pretty substantial cut in Medicare and Medicaid. in fact, during the campaign, the senator from Arizona called for $1.3 trillion in reforms in Medicare and Medicaid. more than twice as much as we're calling for in Medicare. two and a half times as much,” said Sen. Dick Durbin. This accusation set off McCain, who Durbin failed to recognize on the floor to respond. “During the campaign, yes, I said that we could reduce and eliminate waste, fraud, and spending in the — fraud, abuse and waste in spending, and I said it because of senator Coburn's patient choice act, which could save $1 trillion from the states in Medicaid savings, $400 billion over the next ten years in Medicare savings,” said McCain. It is a little unclear why he referred to Coburn here since Coburn’s proposal was not unveiled until May of 2009, long after the 2008 election. But McCain added: “There is no relation between what I tried to do in my campaign and what is being done in this legislation, I tell my friend from Illinois,” said McCain. Republicans also brought forth flip flop accusations of their own, pointing to Democratic opposition to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which sought to cut $10 billion from Medicaid and Medicare. That bill passed only when Vice President Cheney cast the tie-breaking vote in November of 2005. McCain and other read quotes from Democrats in late 2005, decrying that legislation as “inhumane” and more. A spirited Al Franken shot back that the two were not related. “Those kind of cuts or savings or whatever you want to call them, they were not in the context of insuring 31 million more people who when they go into emergency rooms for the most inefficient care possible and won't be now, we're costing every American family $1,100 in insurance,” Franken said. “You're comparing apples and oranges, folks.”
Santorum: Money Will Not Defeat Obama, Ideas Will 
Rick Santorum's Full Speech at CPAC 2012
please create one private sector job.
Posted by: catman | December 1, 2009, 7:12 pm 7:12 pm
If you cut what you will pay to treat a senior then nobody will be willing to treat them, that is what is wrong with this so called health reform it has no compassion. Seniors have paid for their medicare all their working lives and this unfeeling group wants to take it away.
Posted by: earl | December 1, 2009, 7:14 pm 7:14 pm
Last Sunday, the church I attend observed AIDS Sunday. The service revolved around John 9:1-7.
That chapter describes Jesus’ healing the blind man at Siloam. Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus if the man became blind because of his own sins or the sins of his parents. Jesus refuted this belief. Then, he spat in some clay, spread it over the blind man’s eyes, and told him to wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam. The blind man followed Jesus’ instructions, and was cured.
I can’t help thinking about John 9:1-7 whenever I hear about the so-called health care debate. Jesus healed the blind man without asking about pre-existing conditions and without asking about the blind man’s HMO. But beyond that miracle, I must ask the question -
Who was blind in this story? The man whom Jesus cured? Or the community in which the man lived, including the religious authorities, who permitted a cherry-picked verse of scripture blind them to the common humanity they shared with the man they branded and ostracized as unclean?
Except for Obama, I have heard little discussion about the need to health care reform. The media in particular gives a lot of press time to the Tea-Baggers, but almost never shows the plight of the 50 million people in this country without health care. As a result of this blindness, 44,000 thousands Americans die each year because of inadequate medical care. (Source: a recent study by the Harvard University Medical School.)
Babies fare very badly in our for-profit health care system. According to the 2009 CIA World Factbook, our infant mortality rate is twice as high as the infant mortality rates of Sweden or France, and nearly 3 times higher than the infant mortality rate of Singapore. Washington DC has the highest infant mortality rate in the country, according to Statesmaster dot com; the infant mortality in DC is 3 times higher than the infant mortality for Sweden or France, and nearly 5 times higher than the infant mortality rate of Singapore. As lobbyists are bribing Senators with campaign contributions, a few blocks away, babies are dying. Why am I the only person in the country who notices this?
Like the religious authorities in Jesus time, who blamed the blind man for his affliction, we blame the uninsured. We claim they are too lazy to work, or we blame them for not earning enough money to buy health insurance. We blame them for being too fat, or for having a pre-existing condition like acne or asthma. We blame them for having inadequate insurance, or for getting dropped from their insurance provider because they come down with an expensive illness, like breast cancer. Like the religious authorities, we are allowing our fear, greed, ignorance, and bigotry blind us to the human needs of our neighbors
What makes me even angrier is the blindness of the so-called religious authorities, which matches the religious leaders whom Jesus violently denounced. Yes, they will mobilize to keep gays from getting married, or for preventing a 14 year old who has been brutally raped by her stepfather from terminating the resulting pregnancy. But they show absolutely no interest in a health care overhaul that will save thousands of babies lives and will prevent thousands of desperate women from resorting to abortions because they cannot pay medical bills.
When we pledge allegiance to the flag, we claim to be “one nation under God”, yet our for profit health care system rations health care according to a person’s ability to pay. This is a obscene violation of the most fundamental precept of the Gospel.
Jesus said “Whatsoever you do unto the least of these my brethren, you do also unto me.” Our blind, callous disregard for the uninsured is a jihad against Christ.
Posted by: William Joseph Miller | December 1, 2009, 7:21 pm 7:21 pm
This is a bad bill. It is irreconcilable. Can it and start over.
Posted by: Jeff | December 1, 2009, 7:36 pm 7:36 pm
About two weeks ago Goldman-Sachs released a report on the impact of health care reform. According to this report, if the proposed health care reform contains no public options, stock earnings for private health insurance would grow 5% a year from 2010 to 2019. If health insurance companies kill health care reform, the stock earnings would grow 10% a year and by 2019, the value of stock in health insurance companies would rise 59%.* (Source: * Source, The Progress Report, November 13 by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Colrey, Benjamin Armruster, pat Garafolo Zaid Jilani.)
I checked out some facts from Center for Responsive Politics
That good old feisty maverick John McCain has received $ 7 million from the health sector, including health insurance companies and pharmaceuticals during his political career $ 1.2 million of McCain’s campaign money comes from lobbyists who are now descending upon Washington Dc like locusts from a Biblical Plague in an effort to defeat Obama’s health care reforms. From 2005 to present McCain’s top 5 political contributors include Merrill-Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, all of which are reaping record profits from health insurance companies and pharmaceuticals.
So naturally John mcCain wants to defeat health care reform. It’s all about the Benjamins
Tom Coburn gets campaign contributions from health professionals, for-profit hospitals and nursing homes, insurance companies, and pharmaceuticals. Some of his top contributors include Purdue Pharma, Amgen, Cardiology of Tulsa, American Surgical Hospital Association, American Securities, Neurscience Specialists, Oklahoma Heart Hospital and the Club for Growth, which probably receives donations from insurance companies.
So again, Tom Coburn hates Obamacare because it interferes with his source of revenue. I might add that everytime you or your employer pays a health insurance premium, some of that money finds its way into Tom Coburn’s pockets.
I find it ironic that both John McCain and Tom Coburn are defending Medicare. Their messiah, Ronald Regan opposed Medicare, and for years the GOP campaigned to shut Medicare down. Why should we believe them now?
In any rate, these same Republicans who denounce socialized medicine get all their medical bills paid, courtesy of the tax payer. According to a blog on the Huffington Post, John McCain gets treatments at Bethseda Naval Center, which should really be reserved for Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans, not senators. Why don’t McCain and Coburn forfeit their government plans and buy insurance on the open market? Why should you the taxpayer pay their medical bills.
We need health care for everybody, not just McCain and Coburn. Our current health care system is rationed. The rich get health care, the poor die. According to StatesMaster and Newsweek, Washington DC has the highest infant mortality rate in the country., as high as the infant mortality rate of Sri Lanka, so while Senators are debating in their tiring old fashion, and accepting generous bribes from lobbyists babies are dying.
The posturing of GOP Senators in DC is a national disgrace and an affront to God.
Posted by: William Joseph Miller | December 1, 2009, 7:45 pm 7:45 pm
Is this the same Coburn from Oklahoma that “negoiated” Ensign’s bedding his friend’s wife with a “lobbying” job? He’s a worthless, self=serving Maggot that doesn’t have merit.
Posted by: sara | December 1, 2009, 10:08 pm 10:08 pm
Senator McCain is eligible for (and legally entitled to) treatment as a former POW and disabled war vet. So far, his country hasn’t seen fit to begrudge him such care.
I wasn’t aware that God had designated Mr. Miller as His authorized spokesman. Oh, that’s right – it must have been announced in the Huffington Post. I should have automatically checked there for new revelation, as Mr. Miller seems to.
Posted by: Bill Moore | December 1, 2009, 10:25 pm 10:25 pm
Interesting.
Now Democrats are telling us ‘if you don’t support OUR version of health care reform, you’re disobeying Jesus, you’re like the bad people in the Bible who disobeyed Jesus’.
I thought Democrats believed in separation of church and state?
Why do these same people use lies to support their agenda?
’44,000 die each year because they don’t have insurance’ — a lie
’50,000,000 American citizens in crisis without health care’ — a lie
Since when did it become acceptable to promote what they claim is some sort of a religious duty by using lies?
Posted by: Joe White | December 2, 2009, 12:37 am 12:37 am
I testified against Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin in front of a Judiciary Hearing in the US Senate – July 2007. OxyContin addictions and deaths are in epidemic proportion in every state in the country. Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma defended Purdue Pharma. When he came over to shake my hand, I told him he should be ashamed of himself for defending a pharmaceutical company responsible for the devastation they have caused. Since Coburn’s hands are in the pockets of Purdue Pharma, I now know why he supports Purdue Pharma — they support him. Shame on Coburn for letting the people of Oklahoma down.
Posted by: Marianne Skolek | December 2, 2009, 6:49 am 6:49 am
“Those kind of cuts or savings or whatever you want to call them, they were not in the context of insuring 31 million more people who when they go into emergency rooms for the most inefficient care possible and won’t be now, we’re costing every American family $1,100 in insurance,” Franken said. “You’re comparing apples and oranges, folks.”
Thank You Minnesota!!!!!
Look at the cartoon buffoon you gave us! So the Franken-Logic is that only if these cuts are used to insure 31 million uninsured that they are ok. First off AL old boy, these bills under consideration do not even cover all the “uninsured”, so after all this BS
There is no way the gov’t is going to EVER pull these kinds of numbers out of programs this big without creating a whole new oversight system that will in and of itself eat up the supposed savings!
Posted by: Mike_C | December 2, 2009, 4:12 pm 4:12 pm
Loud and clear. The only people that the Republicans to “die sooner” are those without health care who cannot afford it.
Posted by: David | December 12, 2009, 1:19 am 1:19 am