Jon Stewart NAILS Betsy McCaughey on "Death Panel" Rumors

The one thing I really agree with the speaker about is that seniors are greatly overlooked. It is greatly underestimated, and their needs are overlooked.

Senators aim to craft streamlined health plan
As Obama effort hits wall, group seeks broader support from both sides

www.msnbc.msn.com...

I would not worry about these current bills. They are now gone. Senators from both sides of the issue are starting over. It does not matter what Jon Stewart thinks. it does not mater what Betsy McCaughey thinks. What does mater is that this issue has hit a wall.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
Multiple Republican Leaders Voted In 2003 For Measure Similar To Current “Government Euthanasia” Bill

Legislation in this subject actually goes even further back than your source...

The overall objective of the UHCDA is to encourage the making and enforcement of advance health care directives and to provide a means for making health care decisions for those who have failed to plan. The UHCDA accomplishes these objectives by

• making the UHCDA comprehensive, combining in one place topics that are related but that have often been addressed by separate statutes;
• removing the hurdles to the making of advance directives and the limitations on the topics an advance directive can address;
• establishing a system for decision making by surrogates for those who have failed to plan; and
• providing a mechanism for the enforcement of advance directives.
Uniform Health Care Decision Act of 1993

And slightly preceding that one....

In an effort to preserve end-of-life autonomy and reduce the costs of unwanted medical treatment, the PSDA was enacted as part of the deficit reduction effort of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (P.L. 101- 508). Effective December 1,1991, the PSDA requires that health care facilities receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding provide written information on treatment options, right-to-die information, and advance directives to adult patients on admission or enrollment to a health care facility.
Patient Self Determination Act, 1990

Been around for a long time. It just hasn't had the slightly foreign name of Barack Obama attached to it.


[edit on 22-8-2009 by cranberrydork]

Originally posted by Wimbly
The guy is yet another part of the DNC propaganda network we call the media. Democrats control everything, have a dozen networks shilling for them 24/7 and he still cant bring himself to do anything but rip in to the "right". Same with Colbert, although he goes about it differently.

Someone call the WAAAAAMBULANCE... If you watched Stewart at all, you'd see he goes after dems just as hard. The night before he shredded Obama.... The truth of the matter is that the antics of the conservative party are just comedy-gold.

Originally posted by Pathos
I would not worry about these current bills.

This has always been the case. None of the bills we've read were any kind of final draft. They were the first draft. We just like to have something to debate and discuss while Congress takes their time to talk to their people.

I do hope they come up with something that is streamlined and contains the important issues. I'm eager to see the final product.

[edit on 22-8-2009 by Benevolent Heretic]

Originally posted by mnemeth1
this bill will wipe out the private insurance market, there is no doubt about that. from there it will be single payer and rationing.

You're right. The major insurance company i work for is all for reform, and universal healthcare, just not government run universal healthcare. We have to contract with doctors, and we negotiate rates and come to a contract agreement. The government doesn't have to negotiate anything with the providers, they can come up with whatever reimbursement rate they please, and make it law. They lowball doctors (just as they do with medicare/ medicaid), and are not for profit so they can offer employers much lower rates and will put private insurance out of business, as well as many good doctors i'd imagine. That will lead to even more massive job losses, why isn't the government concerned with the private insurance industry the way they were with the banks, and the automobile industry? I know many of you probably dislike some practices of insurance, but we are working to make a real change for the better. Banks and the auto industry rip people off more than private insurance does.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I like the "fake news" (his description) of comic John Stewart. He's a laugh a minute!

I don't trust John Stewart or the US BigGov crowd to provide medical advise. BigGov can do little well...ie: US Postal Service (so called Mule Mail).

However, I think we DO NEED a system to provide health care to all American citizens. We need this system ASAP.

I have a solution. Scrap the 1,000 plus paged proposed bill. Rewrite it to demonstrate how we will provide health care to all US citizens. This new bill will have the following restriction:

The new healthcare bill must be limited to 100 double-spaced pages in 10pt font.

This alone will resolve the problem. It CAN BE DONE. The less said in the bill = the less chance of insertion of crap that has nothing do do with the final goal of making sure all get healthcare.

In fact this should be the case with ALL legislation. If the mentally challenged crew in congress can't get it done in 100 pages we need a new crew in congress!


[edit on 22-8-2009 by romanmel]

Originally posted by romanmel
I have a solution. Scrap the 1,000 plus paged proposed bill. Rewrite it to demonstrate how we will provide health care to all US citizens. This new bill will have the following restriction:

The new healthcare bill must be limited to 100 double-spaced pages in 10pt font.

I LOVE this idea! Make it understandable to most Americans, too! Have a high-school student read it and if he can understand it, we're good.

Great idea....as long as it reads something like this...

But em, hv 2 go wryt sum n8r poetry now. Kit n gudluk!

We're doomed.

Originally posted by eNumbra
reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

 

Stewart doesn't mind being taxed a little more... how many people share that sentiment, and will Stewart's wage bracket actually be the one getting taxed?

taxed a little more??....what like 300 bucks a month???...that would be half of what my premium is now that i send to the insurance company.

TPTB are really good it seems. Y'all do realize how easy it is for the gov to have a bill drafted with tons of questionable material so that when the media says, this part is bad, then all they have to do is take that passage out, but they still get their bill. If it was barebones in the first place, people might realize that it doesn't need a "death panel" to be bad. Once all private insurance is gone (except for all government officials who don't think this care is good enough so they will have a special care for them) and they start taxing everyone without gov insurance 2.5% of their income just for not having insurance, people will realize it was a bad idea with or without all that fluff in the bill. And for those who arent familiar with the 2.5%, it actually says something along the lines of "this tax will not be viewed as a tax." So basically, if I choose not to have healthcare, I have to pay the government a 2.5% income tax that I can't even contest "no taxation without represnetation" because it will not be viewed as a tax. Doctors being pushed to talk to the elderly about end of life procedures evey five years doesn't bother me that much. But a government trying to pass a bill that would destroy one of the things our independence is founded on? No thanks. Oh and the government then gets access to my bank account. Um... Yea, that was the end of the discussion for me.

[edit on 22-8-2009 by AliBruh]

People are very defensive over the end of life discussion. I don't post too often, but I want to make a few observations...

1) People often say "I don't want to be connected to machines when i die", or "I don't want to live if I can't have xyz quality of life". This is a major issue, and costs the healthcare system millions or billions of dollars keeping people alive that otherwise would not want to be.

2) Everyone... everyone.... should get a living will made. It allows you to communicate your desires and wishes to your own family at a time when it is most important... when you can not tell them directly because of a major illness. Imagine the stress put on your family when they have to make life or death decisions for you. I've seen it... fighting, tears, chaos, because people are forced to make life and death decisions that could have been clearly made by the sick person before they got sick. I want my kids to say "Daddy wants it this way... he said so in his living will.... so thats what we are going to do. "

3) I have seen in a very personal situation, hospital personnel (not doctors, but "management") pushing relatives to keep someone alive (on a ventilator) who clearly would not be ever coming off of it. Why would they do this??? Because they (the hospital) will get paid by the insurance company or medicare to do it. Not because it was in the persons best interest. If the person had a living will, the decision would have been theirs, not influenced by administrators in the hospital.

Get a living will today.... don't wait until you get old, or sick... you need it, and your family needs it. It allows you to tell them exactly what you want to do in these awful, heart wrenching, stressful situations. You get to decide now... not force others to decide for you later. Its not easy to accept that you are going to die... possibly sooner than you think... but everyone needs to look at it, and make decisions, and put them into clear, legally binding *writing* before they no longer have a say. Anyone who has been a part of deciding to let someone live on a ventilator, or die off of one will agree with me, the decision is better made by the sick person before they can no longer communicate their wishes.

Originally posted by mnemeth1
death panels aren't in the bill, however after the private insurance market is wiped out and we are left with a bankrupt government to pay for our healthcare, rationing will be the only recourse.

of course, this means death panels to decide who gets care first.

Look, if the right wingers had it their way, there wouldn't be any healthcare for anyone who can't just pay it out of pocket (which includes me and 99% of Americans). Not even a chance of decision.

Originally posted by mnemeth1

death panels aren't in the bill, however after the private insurance market is wiped out and we are left with a bankrupt government to pay for our healthcare, rationing will be the only recourse.

Nonsense.

Look, here in the UK we're not amused at having been recently dragged into the US healthcare debate. Your conservative media have used the example of our National Health Service as a 'horror show' that should not be repeated. Well, for all its faults (and there are many) I am glad it is there. EVERYONE gets the treatment they need, just maybe not in as quick a fashion as they'd like all the time. Resources are limited, yes, but you will still get treated. One thing I think is better is that if you are in an accident you will be taken to the nearest hospital, not the nearest hospital that is covered by your insurance company. As for the insurance market, it is booming here! Many people like having the NHS to fall back on but if they can afford it they will pay for private healthcare.

There is far too much over-the-top commentary about this healthcare bill. To the rest of the world, a lot of you look insane! To many of us, it seems the real reason for all the opposition is greed - many of you seem to resent the idea that your tax will pay to save other's lives. Conversely you don't bitch anywhere near as much at the vast amount of your tax that is spent on killing people in unjustified wars. Nice.

Actually, if they said, we are gonna bring x amount of troops home and all the money we save from cutting the war back this much will now be used to provide everyone with free healthcare, I would be more for it. Moreso to end the war, not to get healthcare.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

Originally posted by romanmel
I have a solution. Scrap the 1,000 plus paged proposed bill. Rewrite it to demonstrate how we will provide health care to all US citizens. This new bill will have the following restriction:

The new healthcare bill must be limited to 100 double-spaced pages in 10pt font.

I LOVE this idea!

Make it understandable to most Americans, too! Have a high-school student read it and if he can understand it, we're good.

That IS A great idea!

I mean the constitution is the framework for our entire nation. How many pages is it? One could assume any bill larger than the constitution is suspect.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

The the GOP is "Socialist". LOL

Umm..are you trying to make the point that there are stupid GOP members? We all know that. Why bring it up?

I had heard the ridiculous notion that some think Jon Stewart is a "journalist". I didn't think you'd be one of them, though... He gives a hell of an interview, though!

Well, I'm *not* surprised that you try to sell his shallow observations as some kind of truthful interpretations.

reply to post by HunkaHunka

Originally posted by HunkaHunka

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

Originally posted by romanmel
I have a solution. Scrap the 1,000 plus paged proposed bill. Rewrite it to demonstrate how we will provide health care to all US citizens. This new bill will have the following restriction:

The new healthcare bill must be limited to 100 double-spaced pages in 10pt font.

I LOVE this idea!

Make it understandable to most Americans, too! Have a high-school student read it and if he can understand it, we're good.

That IS A great idea!

I mean the constitution is the framework for our entire nation. How many pages is it? One could assume any bill larger than the constitution is suspect.

A much better idea is to break down health care reform into it's basic elements and goals that we are trying to achieve. Say, 5 or 6 major elements.

Then set a 3 year goal of achieving those goals. Give every section at least 6 months for all sides to present their arguments, and invite public discourse at every segment.

All that condensing it into a 100 page bill would do is to jam 100 pounds of crap into a 5 pound bag. Too many important issues get left on the cutting room floor.

And there is no need to rush a bill into law in 30 days on such a complex issue that has been discussed for decades.

reply to post by jsobecky


Well actually, there is. The rush on this bill is due to financial crises in other areas and it's positive ramifications on it.

Originally posted by jsobecky
Umm..are you trying to make the point that there are stupid GOP members?

No. I was trying to make the point that the VERY same GOP leaders who are preaching against this so-called "Death panel" voted for the same thing in 2003.

Boehner
Grassley

Sorry for the confusion. We all know that there are stupid people in every group.