ABC really did a hit job on health care reform, just as Congress is preparing to adjourn for another round of local town hall meetings.
John Stossel did the dirty work on 20/20 last night (July 31, 2009), with his segment on Canadian health care. It goes without saying that the truth-distorting Stossel trotted out every hoary old myth in the book and "countered" by interviewing only right-wing ideologues. Originally scheduled for earlier in July, it was bumped to make room for more Michael Jackson coverage. Nice to see how ABC prioritizes things. Maybe Stossel's rantings are less important to them than I think...
For an "investigative reporter," Stossel does precious little investigating and a whole lot of propagandizing.
A diary on the Recommended List, "So nobody saw Stossel on 20/20 last night?" http://www.dailykos.com/... points out the craziness of his segment and ABCs smears against reform, but I was interested in more:
What exactly did he say (yeah, I saw it at the time, ugh) and just how true was it?
To find out (total and complete lies), follow on to the rest of the story:
In chronological order, here are the statements and claims made by Stossel and his right wing talking points interviewees:
Sally Pipes
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/...
When Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) asked health care crisis denier Sally Pipes about her credentials to testify as "an expert" on health care issues before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, Pipes’ lack of any serious background in health care policy exposed her real function. You see, Pipes doesn’t hold a masters degree in health policy or public policy. Nor she does have much experience in academia.
.....
With her ‘BA with honors’ in economics, Pipes leads a tiny ‘think tank,’ Pacific Research Institute, and advances special interest (PRI’s list of donors include Altria (formerly known as Philip Morris), Microsoft, Pfizer and ExxonMobil) agendas.
Pacific Research Institute:
San Francisco-based non-profit advocating for personal responsibility and individual liberty in national and state issues.
Sally Pipes, aka: Right Wing Shill
"One Year Wait to See a Dentist"
The statement was made as though all of England or Britain had this problem. In fact, the issue was one small village - Tadley, Hampshire - and private dentists were available as well as National Health Service dentists in other villages nearby.
The entire episode is a straw-man, because Government owned and operated health care (and dental care) is NOT being proposed. What is being proposed is health care reform (insurance industry regulation) and a public health care plan option.
So, what happens in one village of 11,500 people in England has zero to do with the actual changes being proposed by Obama and the progressive Democrats in Congress.
More big lies:
PIPES: He does want government health care. He just wants to go about it in a slow way so people don’t realize what’s happening to them.
STOSSEL: Many pundits and economists agree, saying Obama’s plan will build "a bridge to government-run health care."
PIPES: -and we’re all going to face long waiting lists and have lack of access to the latest care.
Doctor David Gratzer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
David George Gratzer (born September 5, 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian psychiatrist, conservative columnist, author, and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He is a critic of the Canadian health care system, was a key health care policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign and the source of false and misleading cancer statistics repeated for months by Giuliani, and is an opponent of U.S. President Barack Obama's health care reform proposals.
Dr. David Gratzer, aka: Right Wing Shill
A new lie:
STOSSEL: ... In fact, 1.7 million Canadians say they can’t get a family doctor. Some towns, like this one outside Toronto, hold a lottery. Once a month, the town clerk gets this box out of the closet. Inside are names of everyone who wants a family doctor. She pulls out four slips and then calls the lucky winners.
FACTS (and math, just think!):
Population of Canada ~ 33.2 million (2008 est)
Population w/o healthcare ~ 1.7 million (claimed by Stossel)
Percentage w/o healthcare ~ 5.1% (if Stossel's claim is even true)
Population of USA ~ 304 million (2008 US Census Bureau)
Population w/o healthcare ~ 50 million Americans
Percentage w/o healthcare ~ 16.4+% of total population
OR: 18+ % of the population under the age of 65 (who are covered to some extent by Medicare)
So, Stossel's claim that "for profit" drives greater efficiency is wrong. On a percentage basis, the US has over Three Times the number of uninsured citizens as his whipping boy, Canada.
Many more coverage facts here: http://www.nchc.org/...
Rick Baker
Stossel introduces Rick Baker as:
"RICK BAKER, CANADIAN BUSINESSMAN: She was starving to death. She'd lost 50 pounds."
http://mediamattersaction.org/...
Rick Baker And Timely Medical Alternatives, Profiting From The Current U.S. Health Care System
May 27, 2009 4:16 pm ET
Canadian medical broker Rick Baker has made his documentary debut in a new CPR video about the perils of a Canadian-style health care system. CPR failed to mention that Mr. Baker has vested financial interest in keeping the United States health care status quo.
Rick Baker, aka: Right Wing Shill
Shirley Healy
Wow, Shirley Healy is Exhibit One in every right wing blog, "news" website and think tank out there. She is the winger's proof that Canada's health care system is dead wrong. Just google the name and it is everywhere!
Problem with that argument? Obama and the progressive Democrats are not proposing a Canadian style health care system.
And there is more to it than her health care story. She was part of a politically motivated lawsuit, backed by right-wingers in Canada, attacking the basis of the Canadian system. Unfortunately, she died from causes related to her original condition (i.e., the American operation extended, but did not save, her life) in May, 2008.
Stossel presented her pre-recorded clip as though it were yesterday with no mention of her long ago death since the video was made.
http://www.canadianmedicinenews.com/...
The lawsuit, of course, had political motives beyond simply recovering Ms Healey's costs. (Mr Baker says he's unsure whether the suit will go forwards now, after Ms Healey's death.) The goal, which attracted the interest and the prospect of possible funding from the Canadian Constitution Foundation, was to extend the controversial 2005 Chaoulli ruling to the rest of Canada, and to invalidate the Canada Health Act in order to overturn the ban on private insurance.
Anyone that cares to read the full story of Shirley Healy's case can check this article: http://www.canada.com/...
It seems she was actually scheduled for prompt surgery, but twice was postponed because emergency cases came into the operating rooms. That happens in the USA too. And she didn't stay around to try a third time at an available operating room:
... on Sept. 25 and then again on Oct. 6, the operation was cancelled at the last minute in Kelowna, due to emergency cases which took precedence over Healey's.
On Oct. 6, after he had run out of his weekly allotment of operating room time, Ellett found out that the hospital in Kamloops could offer the surgery, but the frustrated Healey decided to go to the U.S. instead...
The operating room issue was resolved in 2006, but Stossel doesn't bother to mention that:
Joanne Konnert, an Interior Health region executive, said she is aware that surgery cancellations are distressing for patients but emergency cases always trump urgent ones. The region has also determined it needs to extend operating room hours, so a few months from now, an operating room at the Kelowna hospital will open for eight hours each night to clear backlogs of urgent cases. Extended evening hours requires hiring another anesthesiologist and recruitment for that position is now underway, she said.
Shirley Healy's case has now been thoroughly woven into the mythology of the anti-reform movement.
For a more thorough discussion of the Canadian health care system (which is not one single system), see: http://www.snopes.com/...
And again, a reminder: Obama and progressive Democrats are NOT proposing a Canadian-style system.
Doctor Grater (could he be more appropriately named?) returns for a gratuitous swipe:
GRATER: Literally, we’re surrounded by medical miracles. Death by cardiovascular disease has dropped by two-thirds in the last 50 years. You got to pay a price for that type of advancement.
Does our right-wing shill of a doctor (who has spent more time in a think tank than caring for patients) mention that those statistics generally apply to all industrialized nations? No. That would be too honest for our shill.
And the price we have to pay? What is that, doctor? The non-coverage of nearly 1 in 5 Americans under the age of 65? The denial of health care and dental treatment to millions upon millions of Americans? That's too high a price, in my opinion. And a totally unnecessary one. Other nations spend a lower percentage of GDP on health care and achieve better coverage and better results.
Next up:
Grace Marie Turner
Former Press Secretary for Pete Dominci. Worked on the Gerald Ford presidential campaign. Various right-wing think tanks: Galen Institute. National Commission on Economic Growth & Tax Reform. Arnett & Co. So-called "small business advocate."
The Galen Institute:
The Galen Institute is a non-profit research organization devoted exclusively to health policy. We work to promote a more informed public debate over ideas that advance individual freedom, consumer choice, and competition in the health sector.
The Galen Institute believes that:
* Consumers and their physicians should have authority and responsibility over their own health care decisions.
* A consumer-driven market will lower costs, promote innovation, expand choice, and increase access to better medical care.
* The vibrant free market will encourage research and innovation and provide better access to new medical technologies.
* Updating outmoded tax policy will facilitate greater access to more affordable health insurance.
History
The Galen Institute was founded by Grace-Marie Turner (then, Arnett) in 1995 to promote a conversation over free-market ideas in the health sector. Our first major conference was held on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in March of 1996, and was entitled "A Fresh Approach to Health Care Reform."
In a nice bit of log-rolling, The Galen Institute promotes Stossel's 20/20 segment on their front page: http://www.galen.org/...
Big Lie for Stossel:
GRACE MARIE TURNER, GALEN INSTITUTE: I want companies to come up with cures for Parkinson’s, cures for cancer, cures for Alzheimer’s. And unless there is a reward for them to do that, we’re not going to have those new medicines.
STOSSEL: Well, government has researchers. We have the NIH.
TURNER: Government is responsible for four percent of the drugs on the market today.
Truth:
http://www.citizen.org/...
* Industry R&D risks and costs are often significantly reduced by taxpayer-funded research, which has helped launch the most medically important drugs in recent years and many of the best-selling drugs, including all of the top five sellers in one recent year surveyed (1995).
* An internal National Institutes of Health (NIH) document, obtained by Public Citizen through the Freedom of Information Act, shows how crucial taxpayer-funded research is to top-selling drugs. According to the NIH, taxpayer-funded scientists conducted 55 percent of the research projects that led to the discovery and development of the top five selling drugs in 1995. (See Section III)
* Drug industry R&D is made less risky by the fact that only about 22 percent of the new drugs brought to market in the last two decades were innovative drugs that represented important therapeutic gains over existing drugs. Most were "me-too" drugs, which often replicate existing successful drugs. (See Section VI)
More facts about Public and Private Drug Research found here: (six page PDF) http://www.familiesusa.org/...
Grace Marie Turner, aka: Right Wing shill.
And the closing argument of Stossel's hit piece on health care reform: Animals have better health care in cananda than people do.
Fact: No one in the US is proposing a Canandian-style system. (For the 1000th time already!)
Fact: Showing an actual cat in a CAT scan is a nice video pun, but it proves nothing.
Fact: Private veterinary care was compared with public health care (ridiculous on its face).
Fact: All that BS about Canada is a lie anyway: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Transcript to Stossel hit piece: (I hate to link here but cannot find it elsewhere Please supply another source for a transcript if you have one.)
http://newsbusters.org/...
Stossel was wrong in his other health care broadcasts and he is wrong today. He is nothing more than a right-wing corporate shill and his interviewee's are unanimously right-wing corporate shills.
Why does ABC permit this utter distortion of fact, over and over? Maybe we can ask them...?
Also see the recommended diary at:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
And, finally, I DO NOT ENDORSE any silly advertising logo or icon that may appear at the end of my diary. Thank you, dear readers.
UPDATE:
As requested, Contact Information For ABC's 20/20: http://abcnews.go.com/...
President of ABC News, David Westin: http://www.disneyabctv.com/...
(Amazingly, you can look around Disney's ABC website all day and find zero contact information. They apparently just do not give a damn what their audience thinks.
More Contacts: http://abc.go.com/...
If others have mailing addresses or telephone numbers, I'd be happy to raise them from the comments to the diary for visibility. Thanks!