The American Spectator

Tim| 6.25.09 @ 3:08PM

"He added: "Maybe you're better off DEAD."

"Better dead than in the red ": Gubmint healthcare in the 21st century

David Adams| 6.25.09 @ 3:10PM

I'm 70 years old and I will NOT sign up for this
mandatory 'health program'. What are they going to do - fine me? The government has already said I will not get a cost of living increase in my social security check until 2013. Now they want to give me a pain pill if I'm unfortunate enough to wind up in a hospital and need life-saving techniques and 'sit shiva' on me until I die?
'Do not go gentle into that goodnight, rage, rage against the dying of the light.'

Tim| 6.25.09 @ 3:23PM

-"families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care."

Too bad the president doesn't apply that sort of wisdom to the federal budget.
What if we need stimulus? Can we finance 10 million hip replacements that are "shovel ready"?

MattSwartz| 6.25.09 @ 3:52PM

It gives new meaning to the Latin phrase "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." (In English, How sweet and glorious it is to die for one's country.)

"Decorum" is better translated as "fitting" than "glorious".

Google check that stuff.

WhinerX49er| 6.25.09 @ 4:02PM

Who gets to decide under the Obama plan? Families. Period. Not the government - and not hospitals and insurance companies, who do so today.

But the government can require that hospitals and doctors provide honest, necessary information to help them make a decision. That's what Obama is talking about. You would prefer that insurance companies and hospitals suck grieving families dry by promoting expensive procedures that provide little more than false hope?

The anti-reform, government will turn old people into soylent green, hyperbole typical of the American Prospect will not help resolve the very real problems with the American health care system.

SMatthewStolte| 6.25.09 @ 4:06PM

-"families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care."

This is somewhat ironic, though, isn't it? Because in cases of care that are not life-threatening, people make decisions in part based on whether they think the care will be worth the money. I hope to get laser eye surgery some day so I don't have to wear glasses. I'm putting it off until I can afford it. In this case, being able to afford it means that I would rather spend the money on that particular kind of medical care than on anything else. It isn't an objective state of affairs at all. Someone in exactly my condition but with slightly different priorities could afford it now. For me, it will probably be ten years. But what if it were already paid for by tax dollars? In that case, my priorities wouldn't enter the picture at all. The decision would have to be made by the folks in entrusted with the tax dollars, and obligated to represent fairly both me and my counterpart with different priorities. Supposing the officials making the decisions were as pure as were Adam and Eve before the Fall, not subject to any sin and as pure as the driven snow. How could they decide when to distribute funding for medical care? Should they use my priorities? Or should they use my counterpart's? Or to put it differently, should this visually impaired man lead that visually impaired man or vice versa?

Rest assured that if they use my counterpart's values, I will get the Laser Eye Surgery. If it's already been paid for, I'll do it in a heartbeat. But then it turns out a lot more people are opting for optimizing their optical organs. (And all of us fall into a financial pit.)

In response, one of the pre-lapsarian Congressman suggests that the reason so many of us are unthinkingly approving of this surgery is that we don't have sufficient information about the costs and benefits. Although sinless, the Congressman has not studied up on his Hayek, so he recommends instituting a government information program, so that I and others like me might make better decisions. When that doesn't work, and we threaten to empty the coffers for our personal vanity, the government takes steps into it's own hands and removes funding for Laser Eye Surgery. Now, it is not I but my counterpart who suffers, because he still has to pay about the same amount in taxes in order to cover Medical Care. The money the government saves in denying laser eye surgery to me isn't enough to give a tax rebate to my counterpart, who so much more than I wanted to have better eyes. But now, even HE cannot afford it. He who has eyes had better see.

The point being that a free market already makes these cost-benefit decisions, but it does it piecemeal, according to the varieties of people there are in the world. What was right for Obama's grandmother might not have been right for mine, but the government has an obligation to treat all of us equally, which means it MUST NOT make decisions based on the richness of human particularity. And the net result is that under a government run program, it will as a matter of logic follow that many people will be receiving care that they would not (subjectively) regard as worth the cost. The problem Obama wishes to solve, here, would not exist as a problem with a sensible government policy.

SMatthewStolte| 6.25.09 @ 4:12PM

By the way, WhinerX49er, I cross-posted a bit with you. And I'm glad to see someone here who thinks we're mistaken about the Obama plan. But my long post above does, I think, speak to one of the reasons why it is prima facie very difficult for us to believe that families and doctors (period!) will get to decide about these things.

I think there is a good, conservative way of dealing with health care, but that this is frequently not seen by the public because they assume that the current policy is already conservative, when it is, as far as I can tell, Nixonian.

Laura| 6.25.09 @ 4:24PM

This gives a whole new meaning to "shovel ready". Sickening.

greg| 6.25.09 @ 7:19PM

Unfortunatly I am white and male. This administration has with the stimulus plan shown that when it comes to government decisions, I will not be included.

Race obviously will be a very big part of a Government run health plan. My part will be paying for it I guess. Of course I will have to cut back, this will be an expensive program. Just look how much health care shot up when the goverment added Medicare.

Now what bills can I not pay... My rent, or my health insurance? Yep, I can see how this is going to work already.

Well, this has one economic ray of hope for the Government run social security program. There are going to be a lot less payouts because there are going to be a lot less people collecting.

One wonders if that is the plan after all.

Patriot| 6.25.09 @ 7:46PM

Whiner's a liar--families will NOT get to decide under Obama's plan. Heartless bureaucrats will.

The Culture of Death grows stronger.

Patricia A Carfagno| 6.25.09 @ 8:07PM

"sensible government " is the best oxymoron I have ever seen.

I needed a laugh, thanks.

Greta| 6.25.09 @ 8:41PM

1960 healthcare at 5% of GDP. 1965, government gets involved in a big way with medicare, medicaid follows, and the government control is on. 2008 healthcare is 17% of a very much bigger GDP. So who thinks getting more government is the solution to healthcare costs? Get government out of healthcare. Why did the employers get involved in healthcare? Unions fighting for huge benefits programs that destroyed our companies and cost the workers jobs. Get unions out of healthcare. The feds make everything complicated just as they do with your tax returns. Magnify that about a trillion times and you have the fed impact on healthcare costs. How did we get all this new technology? Well medicare set up new fee schedules for each new type of surgery, technology, etc and those numbers were huge which allowed the technology to be built. No long term impact study on the impact of it on health in general. And if a Primary Care doctor wants to work with you on any prvention and wellness to lose weight, stop smoking, reduce stress, etc. the fed says that this is not covered. We will pay for you to have every kind of heart study known to mankind, but not for weight loss programs. The government is stupid and does not work. Unions have to win new benefits to justify their existence and in the end cost people their jobs. Why is it that union types and government solutions types are all democrats and a few RINO's?

ds80| 6.25.09 @ 9:20PM

WhinerX49er: "the government can require that hospitals and doctors provide honest, necessary information to help them make a decision. "

Would that be in all decisions except to abort an innocent child ??

Don't forget, Obama is The Abortion President.

juvenal| 6.26.09 @ 6:41AM

This is pure and simple Euthanasia.

Sam Deakins| 6.26.09 @ 6:51AM

I have never been to a doctor that has recommended useless and expensive tests for me. In fact I have inquired of my doctor on occasion if a particular test may be of help and most often they will explain why not. Just who are all these folks that seem to be unable to fend for themselves in their doctor's office? Obama and his followers are using "the people are too stoooopid to know what is good for them" defense.

Frank H| 6.26.09 @ 9:27AM

As a disabled vet, I'm already at the mercy of gov't healthcare through the V.A. I have all the free pills I want, including enough hydrocodone that If I sold them on the street, I'd be rolling in the cash. Followed shortly by a stretch in Federal prison, but I digress. I could use a 3rd and 4th surgery on my spine, but the government doctor tells me it won't help for more than a few years. It would be really cool NOT to need painkillers for a couple of years, and actually be able to walk without excruciating pain, but I'm likely to go ahead and stuff a .45 into my mouth so as not to be a burden anymore...so that's why the government won't pay for the surgery.

Phil M| 10.3.10 @ 3:13AM

Life is worth living. Don't ever forget that.

Ron Moore| 6.26.09 @ 9:27AM

I have had a heart attack, double By-pass, and a double total knee replacement. I all cases there have been mulitipal doctors and nurses explain what was needed, why it was needed to be done and the hopeful outcome. Some times there is an informational overload, like we've being give with the endless lectures by Obami.

Steve B| 6.26.09 @ 9:36AM

That comment implies that doctors either offer treatment that they know is futile, or that doctors don't know what they are doing. As a physician, I am insulted by Obama's comment. I often see cancer patients who are incurable. I offer them treatment to improve quality of life and life expectancy. You cannot KNOW in advance how that is going to play out. I have an honest discussion with patients and families about this. I guess Obama thinks government rules are superior to that. Of course he is really saying that treatment is not worth the cost in some cases.

Bill G| 6.26.09 @ 9:39AM

Maybe we could pay for the new health plans being pushed down our throats by B.O. by having everyone in Government in D.C. to cut their paychecks by a certain percentage. How about 20%?

Elle| 6.26.09 @ 9:44AM

It's not just the elderly. What about kids with cancer whose cancer is not the "80% to 90% curable"? Are they and their families looking at the "pill" to reduce additional costs? Survival of the fittest except for pols and their families? I guess this is what Evan Thomas of Newsweek was referring to when he said, "Obama is 'Sort of God'".

BobG| 6.26.09 @ 9:50AM

In socialized countries the government workers are not held to the same standards as the citizens. The question is, "did Obama's grandmother get the hip replacement?" He refuses to answer that question and I suggest that she did get the replacement.

Ralph Smorra| 6.26.09 @ 10:09AM

WhinerX49er: " Who gets to decide under the Obama plan? Families. Period. "
If they try that, people will still choose the latest, and usually most expensive treatment available for their loved ones. How would that save any money? It wouldn't. So if the plan started that way, it couldn't afford to stay that way for long.

"But the government can require that hospitals and doctors provide honest, necessary information to help them make a decision. "
Yes, the government can do this, without a costly and

"..You would prefer that insurance companies and hospitals suck grieving families dry by promoting expensive procedures that provide little more than false hope?"
The latest cancer drugs, for instance, which are not available under Canadian health care, offer real hope to Americans, and those Canadians with the money to come across the border and pay for them out of pocket. Where will we go when the government tells us we do everything possible save ourselves or our loved ones?

tired dog| 6.26.09 @ 10:34AM

GovCare cost savings demand a limited formulary of drugs and an extremely short list of approved treatment regimes...ergo...this all you get, thank you, goodbye! Of course CONgress will exempt itself and its minions.

SMatthewStolte| 6.26.09 @ 10:46AM

" 'sensible government' is the best oxymoron I have ever seen."

What I said was "sensible government policy," and I don't see anything oxymoronic about that. The idea that there is no sensible policy towards which the government ought to strive is silly. Questions that cannot be answered by going to the troglodytic government=bad reflex are things like:
• Should employer-provided health insurance be paid in pre-taxed dollars, and is there anything in the tax code which creates a disincentive for individuals optimizing their health care?
• What should be the rules for patenting new drugs and medical technology? How long should the patents last?
• Under what circumstances should a lawsuit be deemed frivolous and thrown out of court? Are frivolous lawsuits contributing significantly to health care costs and, if so, how can this be dealt with without denying the rights of legitimate claims of malpractice?

Even if you think that you have quick and easy answers to all of these questions, the answers don't immediately follow from identifying government as bad.

Esther| 6.26.09 @ 11:01AM

Well, his grandmother DID get the hip replacement. It's the same old elitist attitude - I can get it but you can't. Wake up America. Read between the lines and listen to what he is saying. Also go to Glennbeck.com and see the video on healthcare. In a townhall meeting before the election he admitted that he supports a one-payor system.

MarkD| 6.26.09 @ 11:09AM

Coronary artery disease can be treated medically or surgically. Studies have shown that the 15 year survival rate is about the same for both treatments, but over the 15 years, medical treatment is one third the cost of surgery. Live the same amount of time, costs less. Guess what treatment you get if you live in Canada? But the patient treated with medication takes a dozen pills per day that make him tired and weak. He is afraid to have sex. Afraid to walk around the block, play with his grand kids, travel out of the country or exert himself lest he have chest pain or a heart attack. He spends his days in a chair watching TV.

The patient who has had bypass surgery is usually on no medications, has more energy and feels fine. He can play golf and tennis, travel, and live the life he wants to live without constant fear. Basically it is surviving for 15 years vs. living for 15 years. This is why there are dozens of heart hospitals along the U.S. – Canadian border.

Michelle K| 6.26.09 @ 11:28AM

Look at who are the biggest contributors and beneficiaries to any of Obama's schemes and you will see who is driving this agenda-The trial lawyers and the Unions! Unions get the biggest payouts in the Auto bankruptcies and exemptions from being forced to apply for the government health programs and the lawyers get to get richer because the issue of tort reform and malpractice award caps are not addressed. Once again, those in government will exempt themselves from this type of plan while demonizing doctors, patients, families and insurance companies who ARE trying to give Americans the best care in the world.

BreezenSC| 6.26.09 @ 11:34AM

This make me wonder all over again exactly what he was up to when he went to visit grandma right after her fall. She died shortly thereafter. After she was gone already it is said that Michelle was making the statement that "Toots" was fine, doing much better, even though she supposedly had already passed. Hmmmm. Has anyone checked to see if Dr. Kevorkian just happened to have visted Hawaii at the same time?

Esther| 6.26.09 @ 11:34AM

Exactly, Michelle they will be exempt. Even in one of the healthcare reform bills being proposed by Congress, exempts unions and congress. I have friend that lived in Canada who died waiting for an MRI to diagnose his cancer. He was 45 and not been sick a day in his life. This is not quality care. We need a free market driven reform not government mandated cram down. We do have the best care in the world. Those that say we have the worse are manipulating the facts.

DAVE B| 6.26.09 @ 11:43AM

LAST JUNE I HAD A MAJOR HEART ATTACK,ENDED UP NEEDING OPEN HEART WITH A QUADRUPLE BY-PASS.TO THIS DAY I STILL CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITHOUT PAIN AND THE ANXIETY OF HAVING ANOTHER ATTACK,AND THE 14 PILLS A DAY THAT I HAVE TO TAKE-LIFE SUCKS.I AM ONLY 53,WILL I BE TOLD NO IF THIS HAPPENS AGAIN,I HATE OBAMA AND HIS POLICIES AND I WOULD LIKE TO SEE A DOCTOR TELL MY WIFE AND THREE DAUGHTERS THAT I CAN'T HAVE THE CARE I NEED,THAT PERSON WOULD NOT BE STANDING LONG.PLUS I AM WHITE,SO THAT IS ANOTHER STRIKE AGAINST ME.

RicardoMB| 6.26.09 @ 12:05PM

All this is about is that the democrats want to provide free healthcare at the expense of the "rich" American public to the poor and illegal immigrants that come into this country so that they will vote democrat in the future. It's all about votes and control. They don't really care about people who have worked hard in this country to make a living. I have seen this in Venezuela (as Obama has just gained a new friend). Chavez just gives money to the poor and they keep electing him. The people in Venezuela who work hard are getting tired of it and want to leave (others still try to fight it). That is what Obama and the democrats want for this country. To bring everyone to the same level. And, if it hurts some of those "rich" people? No big deal. There are plenty of people coming over the border who will replace them.

PatriotForever| 6.26.09 @ 12:21PM

Anyone here remeber seeing the science fiction movie, "Logan's Run"? This is art coming to life.

JanO| 6.26.09 @ 12:25PM

We already have a government health Care. It is run under the VA. It is to take care of those that layed their life on the line to keep us safe. How are they faring? Incorrect doses of radiation or misplaced pellets to fight their cancer. Aides because they did not sterilize the colonscopy probes?

Carl Lynn| 6.26.09 @ 12:43PM

I believe we are in need of some kind of change to our health care system but not the way Obama wants to do it. As someone stated before, a lot of people who are not insured choose not to be. If that is there choice, so be it. It should be our choice.

Grzmlyk| 6.26.09 @ 1:00PM

Our government does not exist to provide for the people - which it shouldn't do in most cases anyway.

It shows just how infantile and helpless we have become as a nation that we now view goverment as a giant teat on which to suck for all of our needs - a teat filled not with the fruits of our labor, but with those of some other "rich white guy who can afford it" and whose pantry we feel entitled to plunder.

Those of you who think government exists only to level the playing field - by taking what doesn't belong to it and giving to those who don't deserve it - are either fools or crooks, but either way, most certainly YOU are the authors of this country's demise, abetted by the crooks who are cynically exploiting your greed, envy, resentment and naivete.

And the canard that this health care travesty will provide for "the people" is utterly laughable. It will drop a big chunk of misery in everyone's lap who doesn't have the means (or a government connection) to circumvent it.

First off, our government is nothing more than an instrument of power for the Democrat party. Period. It's a giant scam by which felons elevate themselves to royal status by creating a class of serfs, which is you and me.

Every single "cause" they pretend to promote - "feminism," "social justice," " equal rights," "health care for all," " immigration reform," "unions" whatever you care to name - is merely another tendril comprising the giant smokescreen they've erected to solidify their grip on power.

Criminals who ought to be in jail like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, John Murtha, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, and on and on - have ONE purpose in life: vacuuming up every last dime in this country with the zeal a crack addict searches the last vial for every last molecule of drug.

Why? Not for YOU. Please disabuse yourself of that notion. Sure, they'll throw you a few crumbs, a few "bread and circus" perks to anesthetize you. But their plunder of this country is purely aimed at keeping THEM in power and free to lord it over YOU. Sensible government policy? Sorry - it IS an oxymoron; any sensible government policy out there is purely an accident that will be rectified in the next legislative session when the suckers will line up willingly to be fleeced yet again.

Republicans aren't a lot better; I don't exempt them, either. For the most part they are as craven and avaricious as their would-be ruling class brethren to the left and they lack the cajones to do much besides whine and, in the name of fiscal responsibility, promise a slightly smaller mountain of cash to shovel at the burgeoning non-productive segment of what used to be America.

Anyone who thinks anyone in government gives a rat's ass about you - whether you are an Obama bootlicker or an Obama hater - is a fool living in a hypothetical universe. You are fodder. You are already Soylent Green. You are the blocks, you are the stones, on top of which the ruling class build their luxury lifestyles of privilege.

Even you defenders of health care plunder, this insult to humanity, (not to mention the cap-and-trade rape of the people) will eventually realize that you've been had. Of course you and your giddy, adolsecent, intellectual fop enablers in the mainstream media will never blame King Obama (Gaia forbid!) or your local "Santa Claus is coming to town!" politicians.

No, you are stuck in amber, where you'll hold George Bush and Dick Cheney responsible for every dark cloud that will ever again darken the Utopian, sunny, King Obama-drenched horizon (and to put your soon-to-be neglected hearts at ease, yes, Bush is just as guilty for contributing to the Welfare State).

But with Obama and his gang of amoral thugs, you have made your collective bed and now you're going to die in it. Along with those of us who did NOT go willingly to slaughter.

Our "leaders" have achieved a nice symmetry, though: With cap and trade they are eviscerating the taxpayer, and with healthcare "reform" they'll prevent us from getting treatment for it.

By the way, did it ever occur to you geniuses who think you can create an ideal world that the translation of Utopia is "no place?"

Sheltie Lady| 6.26.09 @ 1:04PM

So Obama wants to cut back on health care to cut expenses but yet he thinks it's just peachy to waste our money for him to have date night in NYC.

Excalibur| 6.26.09 @ 1:32PM

I thought Obama wanted the SAME health plan that he had as a Senator? What happend to that level of care? Forgotten you say....similar to most of his other promises? And where is the media on this? God help us.

Ignatz| 6.26.09 @ 1:50PM

So, old people: screw you]]

Anybody who interprets the President's extremely reasonable statement as a "screw you" has a screw LOOSE, and is determined to find fault with everything.

Sometimes you ARE better off taking the painkiller than having the surgery, and anyone who has had a dying relative knows.

But the right-wing morons translate that into "Obama hates old people."

And you wonder why no sane person takes you seriously?

"Medical decisions should be made by patients, their families, and their doctors, not by government bureaucrats"

So why are you supporting having medical decisions made by HMO bureaucrats?

Labasit| 6.26.09 @ 1:55PM

Obama never met a child other than Sasha and Malia who he thought should have been aborted and he has never met an old person he did not want to see die and get off the medical care.

June innis| 6.26.09 @ 2:25PM

Today is my birthday--73 yrs. I have been told I look as if I am in my 50s. I am a professional-retired for 10yrs. but worked last year as a SPEECH/LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST . They need ed 5 retirees. I take care of my 2 story home, travel and work. If I got breast cancer, I guess Obama would say,"she's elderly, let her die". I am a senior but not elderly. I am a vital woman who wants to live. My mother lived until 92. Obama doesn't pay attention to his family whereever they are. He is the ultimate NARCISSIST. No empathy, but cold calculations for people and things. It is all about him. He will NOT go down in history as being the GREATEST but it will play out to be pathetic.
I am terrified of what he will do to me if i am sick. I have not had any problems so I guess my time is coming. That will be my doomsday ; my death day, unlike today MY BIRTHDAY. My deck is open for people to stop by for refreshments and appetizers. Wish all of you could do that.

Grzmlyk| 6.26.09 @ 2:30PM

Hey Ignaratz:

It's the government that created HMOs in the first place, and no bureaucrat should ever be making health care decisions for me. Fortunately, I was able to CHOOSE, and so I CHOSE not to join an HMO.

Maybe you want some idiot in an office somewhere - whose job it is to minimize payouts - making your life-and-death healthcare decisions, but when the time comes, you'll want to make your own choice.

Bureaucrats don't care about YOU or YOUR NEEDS; they care about the impact of your situation on the system. Wake the f up.

And what is it with you left wingers and straw men? Just because there are those of us who think that government-provided health care will fail here just as it's failed every else it's been implemented, it does not follow that we support HMO bureaucrats making decisions.

I hope you're just trying some debate sleight-of-hand and your brains aren't really that scrambled; if they are, better get in line for that examination now.

Liz| 6.26.09 @ 2:30PM

I will be willing to go with this type of insurance AFTER they put all Congress and everyone in the government on it.

NO ONE will be exempt. I guarentee they won't pass that. Everyone should write their congressmen and tell them they HAVE to have it too if they vote for it.

Old Kennedy would have been dead - at his age his surgery would have been considered usless by Obama's standards.

dottie| 6.26.09 @ 3:15PM

Obama and Congress plus their families are coered completely for life, so they don't care about the people . Be it life or death. Greed is at the route of it all

MAC| 6.26.09 @ 3:16PM

How long will it take for Mr. Obama to legislate certian places or camps, around the county, for the elderly, the infirm, the mentally deficient where they can all be taken care of out of the sight of thier loved ones? Segregated together for their own good and to help the country to save health care money.
Surely it will cost less and be more efficient if they are all together, in these camps, so they can be dealt with quietly by supposedly "medical" people who know whats best for them and just exactly when and how they should die!
I just hope that I and /or the third riech haven't given him any ideas!!
We all should know whats next!

American| 6.26.09 @ 3:18PM

Bet his Grandmother didn't feel that way, but I bet he didn't ask her. I am sick and tired of him trying to run our lives. Impeach him!

Caro| 6.26.09 @ 3:24PM

I am 69 and 3/4, a stage 4 colon cancer survivor and today I worked a full day energetically at a very well known investing and risk management firm, loved it and am happy to be able to contribute in my own way. I am paid of course and will in turn pay taxes.......I also vote, care for my large home and lawn and help with grandchildren. I love life, value every day. Where would I be in Mr. O's plan today? At least 6 feet under for the last 6 years. Please join every group you know of to object to this madness.

Kim| 6.26.09 @ 3:25PM

Well my problem is threefold. 1. I don't want the gov't involved in my health care. 2. when those silly tests roll around that might not be cost effective, our fearful leader has said he wants his family to get the BEST care. NOT the care we will have forced on us. #3. Why is the pres, Congress, fed workers, and unions exempt from the taxation on private health care plans that we will be forced to pay, and why do so many Dems find this fair?

KennyP| 6.26.09 @ 3:33PM

WOW! Thanks Obummer!
I didn't want to worry or fret about those troublesome grandchildren when I get older. Now I won't, you and the government run health care system will just terminate me! What a relief!
No more worry about getting up in the morning, no more wondering if I will slip or get hurt, boy where have you been for so long?
To the Fake President and Congress: Seriously, get your fat nose(s) out of my life and my affairs you commie socialist piece of walking trash heaps.

joe| 6.26.09 @ 3:34PM

do people consider God,
i more everyday see His hand in what is happening,
we need Him,
just the way He intended it

Sharon| 6.26.09 @ 3:34PM

My good friend is Canadian and has the very healthcare system that we are going to be force-fed. Here is what she says, "Oh yes, our healthcare is affordable, but it is not available." We definitely will be able to afford it, but we will not be able to get it. Stop the insanity.

Madhousewife| 6.26.09 @ 7:44PM

This type of decision is made all the time. Same thing happened with my grandmother. She was so fragile she probably would not have survived the hip operation so the family did not okay it. As it was she died shortly thereafter, but without having to go through the pain of the surgery. That said, I want no part of national healthcare that is paid for by the middle class - which is many parts of the country includes people who make 100k a year whose employer health benefits it is proposed to tax. This is just raising taxes on the people who pay for everything in this country. The poor get benefits, the rich get loopholes and the middle class gets taken for a ride.

terry knez| 6.26.09 @ 9:05PM

Have heard an awful lot of discussion that it's not just the elderly who are driving up healthcare costs...smokers, obese, employees in high risk businesses, etc. also contribute. Think it will be only the elderly who will be left out of the healthcare rationing?

Kathy| 6.26.09 @ 10:15PM

I am horrified that under this misguided moron millions of our own people will die needlessly!! My grandfather was given a diagnosis of cancer and given 6 months to live, 17 YEARS later he saw his first great grandson born, a month later he passed away having lived a long and happy, if not always, healthy life. If the Obamanites had their way he would have succumbed within the short span of time given to him by his doctor based on statistics and the "norm". Lets face it, there are those people that don't want to just lay down and die, they will fight with all their strength and courage to live, and why shouldn't they? what right does washington have to tell these people to just shut up and die quietly???
I weep for the future of our country, for our kids, and for the millions that the government will exterminate to save money. But at least the environuts will be happy with the depopulation plan!!!

Sally | 6.27.09 @ 2:21AM

Obama feels that it is okay to kill a viable baby on its way out of the birth canal or to deny treatment to a baby which is born after a botched abortion if it is inconvenient to the mother. It is not that much of a stretch to enforce a "duty to die" on to an inconvenient elderly relative. What about premature babies who need extraordinary care. Will that be deemed too expensive. God help the handicapped if they are "inconvenient". In this culture that reveres the "young, beautiful and 'smart'", I fear for those who do not merit those adjectives in the eyes of the providers.

stna| 2.16.10 @ 12:39AM

financial burden on society has to stop, maybe if god were permitted to intervene more modern medicine would stop fighting the life cycle

shipley130| 6.27.09 @ 9:36PM

My grandmother, born in 1919, fell and broke her hip a few months ago. The doctors were not very positive about her recovery after hip replacement. She is up and around like she was never broke. When people in power make statements such as people that are in dire straits medically shouldn't get treatment, they probably are not thinking about their immediate family. I would bet the house that his immediate family would not be subjected to such a policy if they were in a possible end stage. Treatment should be up to the family and sick individual (if possible) and NOT the government.

Theresa R.| 6.29.09 @ 11:04PM

Hi hope all the "Christians" who voted for Obama will realize what they have done to us and to themselves. They want change and look the other way to partial birth abortions. " Murder the babies, just give me the change." Now they should repent, beg God's forgiveness and let Obama know that he will be a one term president. Better yet, they should try to have him impeached. They got us into this mess. Please get us out!

Marilyn| 6.29.09 @ 11:18PM

RISE UP PEOPLE AND STOP THIS INSANITY!!! NOW BARACK HUSSAIN OBAMA WANTS TO TELL US WHEN IT'S TIME FOR US TO DIE? Our Liberal bretheren need to be educated. It's time for them to stop burying their heads in the sand, believing Obama is the next Messiah. See him for what he is and what he stands for. The future of our country is at stake. When will impeachment procedings begin! We can't wait 3 1/2 more years. Look at the damage he's done in just 6 short months!!! IMPEACH!!!

dewey chauncey| 7.2.09 @ 9:46PM

Where is the damn army when we need them to get this communist out of his office

justanamerican| 7.18.09 @ 5:18PM

Today people in Canada stand in line hoping someone will draw their name in a lottery to see a doctor. If the healthcare and cap and trade bill is passed America will be standing in line too. Obama is pushing democrats as hard as he can to get the healthcare bill and the cap and trade bills through. Obama knows the longer those bills are stalled the truth will reach more and more people. If either of those bills are passed, America will never be the same. We will become slaves to Washington. We will lose our freedoms as we know them. Companies will start shutting down or moving overseas, people will start dying because of government health care. Obama's own words were, it's "UNSUSTAINABLE". That means impossible. America is on the border line of bankruptcy and Obama will sink America into an abyss of debt with no way out. That's where we are headed. People are too busy with their lives to listen to what's going on around them. People just go with the flow and often don't ask questions, because they are afraid of being accused of being politically incorrect. America has always been free. That's why our nation's symbol is the eagle. That's why our money has, "In God We Trust". History has shown that God died for us and He gave us brave men and women to die for America's freedom. Americans do not cherish that "precious" freedom anymore. Freedom is like water. You don't realize it is gone until it stops flowing. Without freedom we will become like animals in a zoo. Our food, our care, our very existence will depend on the government. Washington is so political that Americans are like pawns for every program imagineable. I will cherish what freedoms I have left unless Americans wake up before it is too late. All I can do now is try to get the word out as often as I can. All people have the right to their own happiness. There is no other place in the world where people are free to create their own happiness like America. If we don't wake up soon, food will become scarce, grocery stores will close, banks will close, jobs will disappear and we will not be able to maintain our homes. All I ask is that you start asking questions, and find out for yourselves. The internet is a good source of news. The Drudge Report is a good place to start because it has news scources from around the world. I hope and pray people will at least start listening. Americans can pull together, but it seems that so many are too concerned with other things nowadays. The change and hope America needs is within our hearts. Man cannot give you hope and change. Man does not have the capacity to forgive, but God can. When we put our country in the hands of man we will be disappointed, but with God all things are possible. Food on the table, health, money to pay bills, homes, warm beds, hugs, kisses, smiles, rain, sunshine, water, trees, eyesight, voices, sound, air, handshakes, children, play and work are just a few of the many miracles we see everyday. Some of us take those gifts for granted. If we don't start cherishing what we already have we are bound to lose them, because America has more than any other country in the world.

J| 7.25.09 @ 10:42PM

My sister and I had the same thing to deal with. The doctors found a small tumor in my 90 year old mother's lung. She had already survived cancer twice over the years. Her doctor said, he didn't know if she'd survive a lung surgery, but he left it up to our mother and us to decide. They didn't expect her to live more then three months with or without that surgery. We decided not to put her through it. That is what President Obama is talking about. Making decisions about the benefit of a surgery or treatment, when someone hasn't got long to live, either way. Is it in the best interest of the patient, to put them through yet another treatment, when there really isn't much hope to extent their life or the quality of their life? He never said that that option would be taken away from the patient or the family though.

roy| 7.28.09 @ 9:31PM

I know one thing for sure. After taking your $600 to $1200 a month for 20 to 30 yrs without much pay-out the United Health Group even though it will start costing them thousands a month because you came down with an illness they will be sure to let your doctor to do every thing within his power to keep you alive REGARDLESS of Expense by the way anybody looking to by a bridge from Alaska to Russia very cheap

roy| 7.28.09 @ 9:44PM

after years of taking our premiums with very small pay outs because of age Insurance co,s are filling pockets like you wouldn,t believe than we get old and Medicare kicks in Insuranse co,s get big corprate welfare payment because Gov starts paying when the illinesses really start Insurance Exe,s than laugh all the way to the bank and we are feel sorry for them because thier profits are lesser yet thier exex bonuses get bigger like 100 to 200 mil a year and how many have died because healthcare providers couldn,t afford letting them stay in hosp one more night?

Mystery Mann| 10.16.09 @ 1:53PM

And to believe I voted for this man. He has already had homosexual sex, smoked crack cocaine, he is non-Christian, he will tax us right out of our shoes, which we worked hard for and paid for, and now he is telling us we will have to pay for a gov. run healthcare system that basicaly kills us or lets us die??? I vote to IMPEACH him and all of the radicals that associate themselves with him! People, please listen to the voice of reason running across America... This guy is a fraud and a black muslim extremist. HE CAN"T stand our country, let alone stand for it. He won the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE? We all should be entitled to the LOTTERY. If Barak H. Obama can lead this country and the world...then so can I (and you)!

mimi| 12.15.09 @ 12:37AM

cheap watches

STNA| 2.16.10 @ 12:35AM

I like the initial idea, as a working nurse I see excessive improper spending of medicare & medicaid $. Unnecessary testing is huge, doctor do to generate funds for the hospital, nursing home are claiming rehab programs and make 902 yr olds exercise even though they say they just sit alot know, or therapist are cued to complete paperwork stating therapy was done & yet it never happened. The women I knew who experience fraud issue quit, but it is happening, and the rehab is ridiculous for some very elderly patient. Plus when thing are explained to patient, like their in ICU severe stroke peg tube and tracheostomy. Doc asks "Do you what to live?" pt says yes, although doc never said you have a 97% chance of staying just how you are, oh don't forget your new life in a nursing home 35:1 ratio of nurses and 15:1 nurses aid. Does that sound like you want to LIVE. I think alot more information about no codes and DNR should be encouraged. I know of a 65 year old patient
quad home care who cost our healthcare system over 165,000 a year, oh plus they year he got a brand new 27,000 $ power wheel chair that he can't even see well enough to operate. The family thinks it s great that he will have such freedom, they are wrong and unrealistic. That patient has perminent nerve damage it's been four years

auckland hotels| 12.7.10 @ 3:39AM

Why did obama doing this?