Without evidence of benefit, an intervention should not be presumed to be beneficial or safe.

- Rogue Medic

President Obama’s Speech on Health Care

The part of the President’s speech that relates to health care are copied from White Coat’s Call Room.

For that same reason, we must also address the crushing cost of health care.

This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds.

Isn’t this supposed to be the President, who makes us forget about all of the verbal blunders of the past 8 years? When nobody understands statistics, will any intelligent decisions be made?

On average the statement may be true, but that is not what he said. You would have to believe that there is some official timer making sure that each bankruptcy happens at just the right time. Those 3 AM bankruptcies are probably the most difficult. You’ll just have to wait your turn. The people in front of you still have 17 seconds before they become bankrupt.

The same thing is done in misrepresenting rapes, deaths of babies, becoming a millionaire, . . . . If this is all so controllable, I think I would choose to become a millionaire, rather than to become a dead baby, or to get raped. I’m odd that way.

This is not some minor point. The people in charge do not understand statistics. The people in charge are using statistics to make decisions. Slasher movies are less scary than this.

Look at what has been done with the economy. The bankers have misrepresented the risks they were taking. This is probably because they did not understand those risks. These same bankers are still considered to be an essential part of the solution. The only problem the administration seems to be worried about is capping salaries and bonuses. The real problem is the bankers and the regulators. The people who continually encouraged the reckless risk taking that they claimed was not risky.

The solution seems to be to keep the guilty in positions where they can continue to cause harm and pass the buck. They are passing out bucks like crazy. that is the right word for it. Crazy. Bernanke, Paulson, the heads of the banks, . . . . Why get rid of the problem, when you can throw money at it – and end up with more control over the banks?

By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes. In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages.

Health care costs are rising for many reasons. One is the attempt to do everything for everybody. When people feels entitled to concierge level care, then who will turn down having everything done, just in case? Not many do. Then, if everything is not perfect, some of these pampered idiots will sue. There are many things that might help, but hardly a consensus on what will work.

Perhaps the best start would be to eliminate JCAHO/TJC and Press Ganey. JCAHO/TJC is the Joint Commission for Accrediting Healthcare Organizations – now trying to give the appearance of impressive new management with a new name – The Joint Commission. Their motto is, There is no such thing as a health care Mafia. That is just a myth to discredit our valiant efforts to prove that the clipboard is mightier than the physician.

Press Ganey is the empowerment organization for malingerers with inconveniences or addictions. Scum who demand to be treated ahead of those with life threatening conditions – true emergencies. The Press Ganey motto is, We will help you make those know-it-all doctors jump through hoops, just to please you. Remember, you’re worth it!

And in each of these years, one million more Americans have lost their health insurance. It is one of the major reasons why small businesses close their doors and corporations ship jobs overseas. And it’s one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget.

Pay no attention to the slight problem of printing money faster than we can throw it at people, people who have demonstrated gross incompetence in money management.

Given these facts, we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold.

Given the facts of printing money like a counterfeiter on methamphetamines, keeping the dangerous people in charge, and completely misunderstanding the problems, why put anything on hold? Do it all now. Wave a magic wand of change and it will all get better. Really.

Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last thirty days than we have in the last decade.

But is it good reform?

Is the cause health care reform for the sake of health care reform, or health care reform for the sake of patients?

When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for eleven million American children whose parents work full-time.

Parents will no longer have to pay for health insurance directly. The government will pay for it. Which just means that parents pay for it indirectly. Not seeing the cost of health care choices is part of the problem. The solution to the problem is more of the same.

Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives.

It is a good thing that President Obama learned from the mistakes of President Bush. Don’t declare victory too soon.

When none of these things happen, will President Obama apologize to America.

Ensure privacy? Since that is impossible, we are obviously dealing with someone, who does not understand the problems.

It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time.

JFK did a slightly better job of getting people interested in going to the moon. This cancer comment fell flat. Did Bobby Voodoo Jindal write this for him?

And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.

Since preventive care means to keep our people healthy, he might as well be saying that cancer treatments are the best way to treat cancer.

President Obama seems to think that the best way to reform financial problems is by giving money to those who caused the banking problem. What could possibly go wrong with this approach?

This budget builds on these reforms. It includes an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform – a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American. It’s a commitment that’s paid for in part by efficiencies in our system that are long overdue. And it’s a step we must take if we hope to bring down our deficit in the years to come.

At White Coat’s Call Room, this is debunked very nicely.

Now, there will be many different opinions and ideas about how to achieve reform, and that is why I’m bringing together businesses and workers, doctors and health care providers, Democrats and Republicans to begin work on this issue next week.

Gosh, there is not yet a plan, but there are already results.

I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.

Non sequiturs rule!

Note to Bobby Jindal. American astronauts did land on the moon. This is science, and nobody would expect you to be aware of science. You managed to major in biology, yet still think Intelligent Design should be taught as science. So what if they did not return with cheese?

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The Controversy Over Vaccines

OK, a bit of bait and switch. There is no genuine controversy.

Vaccines work.

Vaccines are safe.

That is the wrong controversy.

Why do so many people distrust vaccines?

Why are so many people listening to explanations of science from a movie star, who might make more sense wearing a shirt with a slogan written across her two most prominent attributes – If only these were brains?

Are the other movie stars any more scientifically literate than Jenny McCarthy?

No.

Movie stars are not known for writing their own lines. Do they make sense when they start to ad lib?

Still, no.

At least the movie stars are basing their complaints on good science.

Not a chance.

Now that I have clearly established the authority of movie stars to speak on this topic, I will fight fire with fire. A movie star (Amanda Peet) defending vaccines. Take that you evil anti-science movie stars.

On NPR there is a less than 5 minute long clip at the link below.

Defending Vaccines: Actress Dispels Link To Autism

The doctor on the show is Dr. Paul Offit. He may be more familiar to Anti-vaccinationists from this kind of image. Dr. Offit is the one in the middle.


They are not finding fault with the science, but with the scientist.

Anti-vaccinationists also demonstrate their generosity by sending him death threats.

Wouldn’t that make the Anti-vaccinationists the terrorists?

I suppose that is too complicated a question for the people who buy into their Anti-logic.

On the other hand – Death Threats?

Where do I sign up?

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