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08/13/2009

The nail in the coffin of “astroturfed” town halls

Filed under: American Scene, Politics, The One — Tags: — Meryl Yourish @ 1:00 pm

Sixty-one percent of Americans think that it’s perfectly okay to yell at your Congressional representative when you think s/he’s not listening to you. (Via Hot Air.)

Of those who had heard at least a little about the meetings, 61% say they think the way people have been protesting is appropriate; 34% say they see the protests as inappropriate. Not surprisingly, there is a large partisan divide: 80% of Republicans see the protests as appropriate, compared with 40% of Democrats and 64% of independents. A majority of Democrats (56%) say the way people have been protesting is inappropriate, compared with 15% of Republicans and 30% of independents.

Democrats are not in the mainstream opinion on this, but look at the stat for independents. (Here, too.) At this rate, 2010 could be a game-changer election. That 60-vote majority in the Senate seems likely to change.

And Obama’s approval ratings keep on falling.

But it’s worse than he realizes: If you’ve lost USA Today, you’ve lost America. The media are actually fact-checking Obama’s contentions now.

07/23/2009

Obama insults the entire medical profession

Filed under: Politics, The One — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

I watched the press conference on and off last night, and Hot Air captured my WTF? moment.

Obama actually blamed greedy doctors for high healthcare costs.

And part of what we want to do is to make sure that those decisions are being made by doctors and medical experts based on evidence, based on what works, because that’s not how it’s working right now. That’s not — that’s not how it’s working right now.

Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that’s out there. So if they’re looking and you come in and you’ve got a bad sore throat or your child has a bad sore throat or has repeated sore throats, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, “You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.”

Now, that may be the right thing to do, but I’d rather have that doctor making those decisions just based on whether you really need your kid’s tonsils out or whether it might make more sense just to change — maybe they have allergies. Maybe they have something else that would make a difference.

So — so part of what we want do is to free doctors, patients, hospitals to make decisions based on what’s best for patient care.

In my entire life, I have had exactly one doctor who I dropped. It was mostly because she would book half a dozen people for a 1 p.m. appointment, and I got tired of waiting 45 minutes to see her. I subsequently learned that St. Barnabas Medical Center suspended her for performing unnecessary hysterectomies. Now, I know there are crooked doctors out there. But Obama is citing an unethical doctor contributing to the higher cost of healthcare (and insulting the medical profession while he’s at it). You know, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think doctors performing unnecessary tonsillectomies even begins to cover the problem with healthcare.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a doctor make a medical decision based on the fee schedule of my insurance cost. In fact, here in Virginia, I’ve had doctors who managed to find a way to charge me less when I was uninsured, as well as give me tons of free medication. Obama’s smearing doctors like that is shameful.

Really, how did this moron get elected? Smart power? I’m thinking not so much. How did the American public not see through him?

At least his polling numbers are starting to reflect America’s return to reality. I don’t expect last night’s press conference to make a difference.

I wonder how the AMA is going to like the above. They’ve endorsed his healthcare reform.

Fools.

07/16/2009

Stop ObamaCare: Write your senator

Filed under: Politics, The One — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:05 am

In addition to writing my two senators, I sent a note to Maine’s Senator Olympia Snowe. This is why:

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is the only Republican in the Senate who has publicly said she could support a government run public health insurance option if the market fails to adequately insure everyone.

That’s not exactly on the same page as President Obama and Democrats, who want a public option right off the bat. And in recent weeks, Snowe has veered toward a proposal by the moderate Democrat Kent Conrad to create a series of regional, non-profit insurance co-ops to compete with for-profit insurance companies instead of a public insurance option.

But hers will be an extremely important vote if either Sen. Teddy Kennedy, D-Mass., or Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, are too ill to make a health care reform vote.

Snowe has been locked in intense, closed-door negotiations with Conrad and other moderate Democrats, as well as Republicans like Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Mike Enzi of Wyoming in search of a bipartisan plan.

But beyond policy, Snowe and other moderates are bristling at the time table set by President Obama – he wants bills passed through the House and Senate before the bodies leave for their August recess on August 7.

Write to Senator Snowe. Be respectful and supportive. Tell her she’s right, and to stick to her guns.

And write to your senators, even if you think they’re going to vote for ObamaCare. If enough of us tell them we don’t want his healthcare reform, they will back off.

Update: She refused to be bullied into rushing the legislation. Writing to her is more important than ever. Tell Senator Snowe that ObamaCare is not the answer.

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