First, read Rich Lowry's Obama Leaves the 'Reality-Based Community.' Rich uses other words -- dissembling, dishonest, discredited -- but there's no way around it: our president is a shameless liar and manipulator.
Earlier today Obama held a virtual town meeting with AARP and selected members. Here's the transcript. Some excerpts:
"Nobody is trying to change what works in the system," he said at another point. "We are trying to change what doesn't work in the system."
As Congress prepares for its August recess - without agreement on a final health care plan - Obama warned seniors against false claims by critics: "They'll run all sorts of ads that will make people scared."
Like this? Oh, wait -- that's from MoveOn.org. This one's kind of scary but it's from the DNC.
Mostly he recycled the fabrications he told at his failed press conference last week. Here are a few:
Doing nothing will lead to ever-rising insurance premiums and medical bills, Obama stressed, as he has at previous health care events. He did say the government "would have to spend money up front," but increased efficiency and a better health care system overall will ultimately save money over the long term.
That's not what the Congressional Budget Office says. And Obama knows it.
More blatant falsehoods:
In the course of his answers to the AARP, Obama went out of his way to dispute what he called misinformation about his health care goals. None of them, he said, involve "socialized medicine" and "government-run" health care. He told the seniors group that "nobody is talking about cutting Medicare benefits," adding that the White House has received a lot of letters on this topic.
I bet he has, because it's a fact that the plan is to pay for ObamaCare in part by cutting 10% from Medicare. How will this not affect benefits?
Another misleading statement:
At another point, Obama said the government doesn't want to get between you and your doctor, but pointed out that insurance companies are already doing that.
What nonsense. Yes, insurance plans cover some things and don't cover others. But with ObamaCare, the government will be rationing care and regulating
all the players, including you and your doctor.
Obama conducted the event at AARP headquarters. He is on a stage, in front of a set designed to look like a brick wall. One reporter said it looked like some kind of comedy club.
But it's no joke.
Mark Steyn writes that once you go over to government healthcare it's nearly impossible to turn it back.
Lastly, Donald Marron makes an important point about end-of-life care: that in many cases, neither we nor hospital staff know that our loved one's life is coming to an end. My own mother, for example, was in the hospital fighting off an infection (hospital-acquired, of course). Until she started to lose the battle we all thought she might once again get well and go home.
From
Mr. Marron:
It’s often said that end-of-life care makes up a disproportionate share of overall health care spending. For one very thoughtful discussion, see this article in Daily Finance.
Such claims strike me as plausible as an after-the-fact accounting matter. But I’ve always wondered how often patients and their caregivers know that they are providing end-of-life care? And how often do they have hopes – perhaps even expectations – that the patient will recover, but the treatments don’t succeed?
The recent passing of my father-in-law illustrates this question. He died early this morning after almost two weeks in intensive care fighting pneumonia and trying to recover from a recent stroke.
Until yesterday, the plan was simple: provide fairly aggressive treatment in the ICU to defeat the pneumonia so that he could return home. It would take time to assess damage from the stroke, but at least he would be able to get care at home from his extended family.
That plan collapsed yesterday as the pneumonia worsened, his kidneys failed, and he had a final stroke.
The record books will thus record about 10 days of ICU care for him in his final 10 days of life. From the perspective of Esther and her family, though, it really felt like 9 days of ICU care with the hope of improving and extending his life, and 1 day of ICU care knowing that the end was imminent.
Although my father-in-law likely didn’t benefit from that last day of ICU care, it’s also worth noting that some of his family members did, because they had an opportunity to come say their good byes in person (even if he couldn’t hear them).
That was my experience, too. I got there 'in time' though my mom was past being able to open her eyes. She may have been able to hear me, though. It was a comfort to me and my sisters for us all to be there. But a couple of days before that no one caring for my mother thought of themselves as giving her end-of-life care. They were trying to make her well. A suggestion that she give up the fight would have been entirely misplaced at that point. She wasn't any more terminal than the rest of us.
So lots -- how much? -- of the money spent at the end of our lives is on treatments that we have every reason to believe will be successful. What looks wasteful in hindsight may have been essential at the time. Sometimes 'heroic measures' succeed.
Comments welcome.
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