Betsy McCaughey's Scary Stories About Health Care: What Needs to Be Done
Published February 12, 2009 @ 03:52PM PT
Add my voice to the growing chorus of disgust that our national debate on health care is once more sodden with the willful misunderstanding, distortions and outright fabrications of former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey. But Bloomberg.com has a heavy responsibility in enabling McCaughey’s lies – not just by giving her a spot on the Opinion page, but by the abdication by their chief Health Policy writer of a journalistic analysis of the health care provisions in the stimulus and what they really mean. We need to push back against McCaughey’s flapdoodle yarns, but Bloomberg.com needs to step up and report on this story – finally – the right way.
The scary stories McCaughey spun about health care provisions in the stimulus in an opinion piece are bad enough, catalyzing the right-wing noise machine into frothy fits of outrage against Health IT (a project, long overdue, to reduce errors and save lives and money which the Republican candidate for president also championed) and comparative effectiveness research – the apparently evil and insidious attempt to gather data on whether our treatments lead to healthier patients or just wasted money. The fact that her prevarications dovetail so neatly with the objectives of the pharmaceutical lobby and the medical device lobby, who are leading the charge, is worse.
You can find refutations of every one of McCaughey’s points up and down the Internet today. Bob Dougherty on the ACP Advocate Blog gives a point-by-point refutation of the urban legends of Betsy McCaughey. James Fallow, who debunked McCaughey’s health care scare-mongering in the 1990s in the article, “A Triumph of Misinformation” is back today with the equally persuasive “Let’s Stop This Before It Goes Any Further,” challenging the media and the public, “Seriously, every one of McCaughey's statements about public policy from this day forward should be subjected to the "Oh yes, and how did it turn out last time?" test.” Ezra Klein follows up with a thorough debunking of McCaughey’s major claim, that through the combination of comparative effectiveness research and The National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (which McCaughey claims is a new insidious position, but which was actually created by George W. Bush in 2004). So you don’t need my spin on her willful misreading of the legislation.
But you might need me to prompt you as to who (the bleep) Betsy McCaughey is.
During the middle of the Clinton health care reform, she published an article in The New Republic claiming to have closely read the legislation and finding therein alarming clauses that would prevent you from going outside the plan for care, and forbidding individuals to pay the doctor they wanted. It was all based on nonsense, easily refuted by reading Section 3 of the legislation, which said, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed as prohibiting the following: (1) An individual from purchasing any health care services.” But her article and her similar fictitious follow-up (for which The New Republic ultimately apologized) made her a conservative star in the fight against health care reform. Sure enough, she was soon tapped to join the NY ticket as Lt. Governor to George Pataki, who beat Mario Cuomo to become the first Republican Governor of New York since the 70s. There, her rise to the top became… weird, and somewhat disturbing. There was the Medicaid reform portfolio that never really went anywhere. There was the fight with the Speaker of the Assembly… in the lobby. There was the “What the holy heck is going on here?” State of the State address where she, from her raised platform behind Gov. Pataki, stood up… for the entire speech. (Cue crazy, tinkly piano music). Suffice to say, Pataki dropped her from the ticket, and she ran against him first as a Democrat and then on the Liberal party line. Now, she’s a staffer at a conservative think tank and, with the race for a Republican challenger to the New York Governor in 2010 wide open, she’s suddenly back in the spotlight. The script looks identical – do a “close reading” of health care legislation that sounds scary but turns out to be entirely fraudulent, get hailed by the noise machine, and parlay that exposure to… to… to be continued, I guess. Hey, it worked last time!
That’s who we’re dealing with, folks. That’s the person being cited as an objective reporter by Fox News, Rush and the like. On health care, she’s the politician who cried, “Wolf!”
But let me return to the most disturbing part of this circus: the actions of a reputable news source like Bloomberg.com, whose Health Policy writer, Aliza Marcus, has not contributed one article objectively analyzing the health care provisions in the stimulus. This gulf of impartial reporting has allowed the noise machine to characterize McCaughey’s fairy-tale as “the article from Bloomberg.com” on this topic, and not the agenda of a former (and potentially future?) high-ranking Republican politician.
That’s easily fixed. Bloomberg.com and Ms. Marcus need to step up and do their job – report the unbiased truth.
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
EmailRelated Posts
-
Fighting the 21st Century Health Care Debate in 20th Century Terms
-
The Best Government-Run Health Care of All
-
Meet the New Health Care Vision (Same as the Old Health Care Vision)
Comments (11)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Tim has been an online organizer and blogger on health care policy for the Obama for America campaign (during the primaries) and currently for the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare, a labor union for intern and resident doctors. Views expressed here are Tim's, and don't represent the positions of CIR or SEIU.
Top Health Care Actions
-
-
-
Pass Health Reform Now!
479 People
-
Pass Health Reform Now!
As usual, the Left has captured the market on "truth" and sold us all down a river of lies in the process.
Posted by Gary McCarty on 02/17/2009 @ 11:26AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
I wouldn't say we captured it. I'd say in this one case, the Right has abdicated.
Posted by Timothy Foley on 02/17/2009 @ 01:05PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Why do right wing extremists claim that anything they don't agree with must be false? Not slanted, but false. Whatever happened to keeping an open mind?
Miss McCaughey has had her comments challanged and debunked so often that her only audience is the far right. The people who buy into her fear tatics are the same people who watch profession wrestling on television.
Posted by Edward Doe on 02/21/2009 @ 09:00AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
She misses a lot. She talks about uninsured people in the US. The big thing is what about all of us that depend on healthcare through our work? Look at what most of these policies cover for long term health conditions. It is a big illusion and Medicaid is way better if you divorce your wife and she is lucky enough to get on it. The numbers of uninsured, in reality, are actually much larger when you look at what they actually provide for. What is needed for my wife my paid for insurance does not even provide one percent. Medicaid (Gov Prov) covers 100 percent. I would much rather stay married and pay just a bit for insurance. When I do divorce her and play by the rules. The insurance company wins, the tax payers, and our family loses. How far do we take corporate America? It is good to give businesses a good fighting chance, but what about the American working families that want to just live the dream. My insurance chooses my doctors now and types of recomended treatment. There are many doctors out there that are far better and closer than what they provide for. I work for a good Union company. and have the best insurance package that they offer. It is nowhere good enough now that I am my wife's caregiver.
My kids deserve a better healthcare system that will at least cover when the doctors say that you need it. There are millions of people in our shoes now. Why are they not on the pannel of "experts" for the hearings? Why is the voice of people on healthcare payroles heard over REAL American people?
Posted by Joe Ward on 06/11/2009 @ 01:23AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
President Barack Obama claimed during his Wednesday night press conference that there are 47 million Americans without health insurance.
A simple check with the U.S. Census Bureau would have told him otherwise.
Obama said: "This is not just about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance."
That assertion conflicts with data in the Census Bureau report "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007." The report was issued in August 2008 and contains the most up-to-date official data on the number of uninsured in the U.S.
The report discloses that there were 45.65 million people in the U.S. who did not have health insurance in 2007.
However, it also reveals that there were 9.73 million foreigners - foreign-born non-citizens who were in the country in 2007 - included in that number. So the number of uninsured Americans was actually 35.92 million.
And of those, "there were also 9.1 million people making more than $75,000 per year who did not choose to purchase health insurance," CNSNews stated in a report based on the Census Bureau data.
That brings the number of Americans who lack health insurance presumably for financial reasons down less than 27 million.
The Census Bureau report also shows that the number of people without insurance actually went down in 2007 compared to the previous year - from 47 million to 45.65 million - while the number with insurance rose from 249.8 million to 253.4 million.
The next Census Bureau report disclosing health insurance data, with 2008 numbers, is scheduled to be released in August, and could figure in the healthcare reform debate.
Posted by Bill Eger on 07/27/2009 @ 08:59AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Unless someone has read this bill in it's entirety, a valid opinion is impossible. I listen to both "sides" objectively and have concluded that I would like to read the document. Yes, I would take the time to eruditely peruse the material and form my own conclusion as to the benefits of the reform. If I could obtain one legitimate copy, I would gladly pass copies along to others interested in knowing facts as opposed to listening to opinions.
Posted by Jay Jackson on 07/24/2009 @ 08:57AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Jay, the post you're writing on concerns the stimulus bill, which passed 5 mos ago.
If you mean the current House bill, this more recent post can get you started. Contains a link to all the information that has been released.
http://healthcare.change.org/blog/view/health_care_analysis_by_way_of_twitter
Posted by Timothy Foley on 07/24/2009 @ 09:23AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Capitalistic Genocide"
I have labeled what is going on in this country with health care among some other destructive mechanism " Capitalistic Genocide", lives to make a profit. This is far worst than what Osama bid Laden and other terrorist groups are doing to the American people. How can it be expected for other nations to up to the United States as an example and leadership when it argues about insuring the health of it's own citizens. Is this America? The greatest country in the world? Wake up America before it's to late! Health care for all Americans SHOULD NOT be an issue. Oh! how about cutting out all public servants pensions which are being paid for with taxpayer's fund, if money is the problem. 535 plus in congress and thousands throughout the states not considering the turnover. Soldiers risk their lives and many die and they don't get a big fat pension after serving only a short period. Are politician's more valuable than our soldiers or the rest of the Americans citizens? This is what is clearly being communicated through demonstration, this is what is practice by such policies. Thus, the reality; "To Big to Fail" or should we simply say; "To Small to Survive"
"Capitalistic Genocide" paying to die!
Posted by Franklin Woods on 07/28/2009 @ 04:08PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Tell President Obama and Congress: We demand a public option!
We Demand a Public Option - The Petition Site.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/205855008
Edward Janus | Disability Advocate and Activist.
Doing Daily Internet Activism for Supporting Causes for Change. Signing Letters, Petitions, and Sharing News.
Founder of: www.EdwardJanus.net | Disability Network Connections.
Posted by Edward Janus | Disability Advocate and Activist on 08/19/2009 @ 05:20AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Betsy McCaughey,Ann Coulter,Monica Goodling,Paris Hilton etc should be prominently displayed as "AFTER" samples of the damage caused from bleach and peroxide use as physical enhancers for they clearly set the bell curve on who was riding the short vs long buses in their neighborhoods!
Posted by Russell Voice on 08/20/2009 @ 11:33PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Get ready folks. There's a new bit of horror on fright night. Someone here has already alluded to it. It's called the Cloward-Piven strategy. It's also the biggest trainload of bulldukey the right has dredged up since they lost the election. Now I KNOW they're desperate. This thing is so massive, it would be well nigh impossible to implement, even over the span of a decade. Or two. Or three. Heck, it's 45 years old.
If you punch up "Cloward-Piven", you'll get a wealth of info on it, and you can see for yourselves how ridiculous this thing is. However, it's all written by right wing hacks, so don't expect any objectivity. Or reason. Glenn Beck is parading it around now, and he's a hoot to watch trying to convince you how real it is.
There IS going to be healthcare reform, no matter what the right dreams up, and it isn't the beginning of C-P, either. Just relief from Republican mismanagement.
Posted by Karl matsunaga on 08/24/2009 @ 10:16PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.