Ommigod! Obama Will Kill Your Granny! (NOT)

By Steve Hynd

Doug Ross takes this from Obama:

Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model, is a very difficult question. If somebody told me that my grandmother couldn’t have a hip replacement and she had to lie there in misery in the waning days of her life — that would be pretty upsetting.

...the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

So how do you — how do we deal with it?

…you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It’s not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance.

And leaps to this:

In other words, faceless bureaucrats in Washington — not your family — will decide whether your grandparents live or die.

Without a word of interconnecting argument. He goes from a debate about medical care which doesn't touch the underlying causes of imminent death and the possibility of issuing guidance from an independent group - i.e. the AMA or somesuch - to "Obama will have bureaucrats decide to let your granny die", all in one breathless rush. How does that work, Doug?

That's the level of honesty involved in conservative argument on healthcare reform.

Comments

[LadySmith]

Read the friggin bill yourself!!!!!! It's true, granny WILL live her last days in agony....masked by pain medication, if she's lucky enough to get an appointment with a doctor. Otherwise she will suffer from her broken hip, arm, concussion and/or whatever other ailment she has. Check out some much too common horror stories from Brittan and Canada. This site doesn't seem to be fair and balanced 'cause I didn't find any here. We just won't be able to afford treatment for those considered "unproductive".

Of yeah, granny will get death counseling every 5 years to encourage her to get herself "done in". Is this what you want for your loved ones....yourself in a few years????

[LadySmith]

I'm now, at this very moment listening to a Doctor and member of the AMA who urges the public to rise up against the Obama plan....SHE SAYS THE AMA IS ONLY INTERESTED IN MONEY!!! They value the business side of medicine instead of representing doctors and patients. She is withdrawing her membership in the AMA after 30 years.

[Ron Beasley]

Keep in mind that if granny didn't have socialized medicine already - medicare - she would probably be dead as the private insurance companies will not touch anyone over 55 or 60. Also keep in mind that at 87 the odds of that hip replacement surgery killing granny is very high. The private insurance companies would not pay for the surgery and neither should medicare. I'll have more on this latter.

[Steve Hynd]

Ladysmith,

I think Ron's answered your shrillness adequately.

However on the subject of "is that what I want for myself?", I am a Heinlein-style libertarian on the subject of life beyond the point at which it becomes a burden. I believe that there is an inalienable right to deprive yourself of life, one that cannot be easily taken away, and that a free society would recognise that right with medical assistance should you so choose.

And on the subject of multiple exlamation points - they rarely convince a reader of anything except perhaps your own mental instability.

Regards, Steve

[John Ballard]

Uh, point of clarification.
Medicare is single-payer, not socialized medicine.
The VA and Armed Services, however, have socialized medical care; all professionals with wages paid by the treasury department, working in government owned facilities.

[Ron Beasley]

Hootsbuddy
Of course you are correct but the comment was written for a winger and everything the government touches is socialism to the wingers.

[John Ballard]

Of course. I forgot.