The Bogus Berwick Medi-Scare Bruhaha

Returning to their tried and true Health Care Scare-Athon 2010! Chris Wallace of Fux News decided to grill David Axelrod yesterday about the White Houses "Controversial" decision to parachute in during the night with an unprecedented recess (cough - John Bolton - cough) appointment of ("Well Documented Communist and Old People Hater") Donald Berwick to run Medicare and Medicaid.



Strange, and I thought Fox was on the WH's "Do Not Call Back" List...

For those of you who actually spend your time watching actual news, the latest bogus Scandal in the Fox NutWerk is that Dr. Donald Berwick once had the audacity, the bold temerity to admit his Socialist/Facists/Commie leanings by saying this...

Berwick: I am romantic about the NHS. I love it

And...

BIOTECHNOLOGY HEALTHCARE: Critics of CER have said that it will lead to the rationing of healthcare.

BERWICK: We can make a sensible social decision and say, "Well, at this point, to have access to a particular additional benefit [new drug or medical intervention] is so expensive that our taxpayers have better use for those funds." We make those decisions all the time. The decision is not whether or not we will ration care -- the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly.

See!.. See! It's like we told you - he wants to KILL Old People. He wants them to suffer and die, withering away in Waiting Rooms for days on end until the flesh falls from their bones.

Now if this Berwick character had ever been wise enough to Criticize that evil British National Health System, then we'd be on the right track and could breathe a sigh of relief - since Americans clearly don't want and don't need a Health Care System that doesn't require proof of insurance before they can be seen by a doctor. If he'd only said something more like this...

BERWICK: Is the NHS perfect? Far from it. Far from it. I know that as well as anyone in this room, from front line to Whitehall, I have had the privilege of observing performance and even to help to measure its performance.

[...]

BERWICK: There is less progress in some areas, especially with comparison to other European systems, such as in specialty access, in cancer outcomes, in patient centeredness, in life expectancy and infant mortality for socially deprived populations. In other words, in improving its quality, two facts are true: The NHS in en route, and the NHS has a lot more work ahead.

See this guy is a guy you can trust with our Health Care, He's not blinded by romantic rose colored glasses over those British Death Panels, he has a critical view. Why couldn't the White House appoint THAT GUY?

Excluse me?

That Berwick is Donald Berwick? There must be some mistake, Fox - America's News Station - wouldn't - gulp - Lie or anything would they?

I mean come on, we all know how horrible NHS is - just look at this study from the Digital Journal which said it's hard to a doctor in the UK - On the Weekends!

The 14% who said they waited more than six months for elective surgery was second only to the United Kingdom (15%), compared with a low of 2% in Holland... Almost one-third of Canadians said they had to wait six days or more to get an appointment with their doctor last time they were sick, easily the highest among the seven countries.

The UK also has the worst record for waiting times with 15% having to wait for more than six months for elective treatment.

See next time I need to have an elective kidney transplant I'm not going to Whitehall - I'm getting it done right here in the U.S. of A where all I have to worry about is having my insurance claim denied and paying for it out of my own pocket.

(Also from the same article)

The thing that struck me in this survey is the trouble that Americans have in getting to see their own doctors. As in previous surveys, U.S. adults were most likely to have gone without care because of... high out-of-pocket costs.

Also from the study this report is from actually shows that Canada had the longest wait time for non-critical elective surgerys (which would be like removing a mole or other cosmetic procedure) they were more likely to see their doctor on the same day than either the UK OR THE U.S., and even if you do have to wait a few days - that occurred less frequency in Canada and the UK, than it does in America.



In general the outcomes in Canada and UK are about as good as those in the U.S. (with both Infant Mortality and life expectancy being better THERE, rather than here) only in those countries the overall cost is about half what America pays for Health Care.

According to the World Health Organization the UK Ranks at number 18 in Healthcare outcomes - while the U.S Ranks at Number 37. Their position is TWICE AS GOOD as ours, In overall Life Expectancy they are at #14 while we are at #24. England also has a lower infant mortality rate than the U.S. (4.85 per 1000 births to 6.26). In contrast our Health Expenditures as a percent of GDP is second at 15.4% (behind only the Marshall Islands) while the United Kingdom is in 41st Place at 8.2% of GDP.

(In All seriousness) my wife has been trying to get in to see her OB/GYN for the last - oh THREE MONTHS - but they're so booked up at UCLA Med Center she can't get an appointment. Her only other choice would be to go to their Emergency Room and wait, and bitter past experience has shown us the average wait time at that ER is about 20 Hours.

She's seen people waiting for hours in the ER who'd had the tip of their finger cut-off, crying in pain and bleeding the entire time -- all the attending triage nurses would tell him is "Keep pressure on it" - which of course was an excruciating thing to do without meds, since he hadn't seen a doctor yet to get a prescription. It was a total Horror Show.

And that was in America!

American where we don't countenance RATIONING - except when Insurance Companies do it as Former Cigna Exec Wendell Potter explained to Congress.

To help meet Wall Street's relentless profit expectations, insurers routinely dump policyholders who are less profitable or who get sick

Why would you want to give health care to sick people who've paid for it? Where's the Profit in that?

P.s. When did England become Stalinist Russia?

Vyan