Virginia Foxx says health reform will kill your Grandma:
To refresh your memory, she also thought Matthew Shepard’s murder was a hoax:
I wonder how many other Republicans will end up repeating what Foxx says. She’s got a sterling reputation for truth and accuracy, after all, so they need to get the word out about this shocking development.



14 Comments




Thanks, Jason!
Obama himself said he would not have given a 100 year old woman a pacemaker and she was still going strong at 105. He told her that he would give her a painkiller which respected doctors have said was totally the wrong treatment for atrial fibrillation (as a pacemaker wearer myself I know this to be true). So Obama would have killed that woman. Case closed.
Also, former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) disagrees with the total package. He is a respected cardiologist.
Respected? on what planet other than Earth? I would not go to see a cardiologist who would violate their profession’s ethics by offering diagnosis on any patient which they did not see in person and whose medical chart they did not both read in full and was not their doctor. And don’t even give me a rebuttal about Obama’s “medical opinion” as the man is not a licensed medical practitioner.
I can tell you most licensed doctors with any ethics would not give a 100-year-old patient a pacemaker as the surgery itself might be far more hazardous than the underlying heart problem. Already dealing with this very issue in my own family with an older patient and an irregular heartbeat; they know that drug therapy will be the best for them after a certain age.
I can see they’ve dispatched the monkey hordes, both by the performance Foxx gives in these videos, and by your comments here. What else did the shock troop leaders offer up for you to spout? Go on, get it all out, you know you want to.
You know what your problem is, Rayne? You remember and properly contextualize important stuff.
Frist: “But, but, but… I saw it on the teevee!”
I didn’t even add the fact the so-called “respected cardiologist” offered a “remote viewing” opinion outside of his line of practice.
Or that Mr. Frist had a mess of other ethical problems making him one of the last persons whose opinion on ethical matters I’d ever trust.
Gah. When are they going to come up with a better class of conservatives, ones which can actually find their way out of a wet paper bag? I never, ever thought I’d ever miss William F. Buckley.
All I know is that I’m 60 and the pacemaker has kept me alive. At any age I wouldn’t want any bureaucrat telling me my life isn’t worth living. As far as Dr. Frist is concerned, he probably has saved more lives in the Senate and in his work in Africa than anyone here knows. So paper bag or not, my arguments are far better for freedom in America.
One more thing: it bothers me that you would condemn a 100 year old lady described as fully vital, full of spirit and life to death. That is NOT someone who has taken the Hippocratic Oath. I know of no doctor who would recommend that path unless it was chosen by the patient.
First, with regards to your opinion about bureaucrats making life or death decisions: THEY ALREADY DO.
They’ve been deciding for the last eight years that YOU aren’t worth the effort to do the kind of medical research which might not merely prop up your life like a pacemaker, but actually CURE the underlying problem you have with your heart. That’s just one example.
They’ve already decided to ignore the failures of the FDA in its approval process of new drugs; hundreds of thousands of Americans have died because bureaucrats have refused to hold the FDA accountable for its failures. Ever hear of COX-2 inhibitors and statins? How’d Baycol, Vioxx, Crestor ever make it onto the market without warnings (including black box warnings) of their limitations for use for heart patients until after many deaths and a couple of scandals? These drugs alone have been used by millions in the U.S., with negative impacts on hundreds of thousands of users resulting in hospitalization and/or death.
And Katrina. Katrina, Katrina, Katrina. Bureaucrats made decisions for decades before that storm, at federal, state, local level, made them during and after the storm, all of which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans. The botched up mess that FEMA became is a result of the decisions they already make as bureaucrats. (Funny how FEMA worked just fine for Hurricane Andrew, hmmm?)
Your argument is further weakened by the fact that CORPORATIONS decide whether you are going to live or die. Yeah, a nameless, faceless corporation decides whether your insurance plan will cover your pacemaker; the corporation running the hospital at which you may be treated will decide whether you are first/next/last in line if your pacemaker fails. Not elected officials you can meet and talk with, but corporations. And they already make these decisions for you every day, based not on the value of your life but on whether it makes them a profit. As soon as they don’t make money on you, you are going to pay whatever they demand or you are out of their plan.
Business schools use medical expenses under our current system as an example of a vertical demand curve; if you are dying, you may pay anything and everything to stay alive. That’s the education system which created the corporate executives holding your life in their hands — they know they have you over a barrel, and their only prerogative is profit. Not your life. (Oh, and in economics when we were taught about the vertical demand curve, our profs only addressed demand; they didn’t discuss what happens to the curve after all your money is gone but you are quite dead. That’s not part of the economic equation.)
And secondly, with regards to Dr. Frist’s work in Africa — bullshit. Charity begins at home. The reasons he’s done work in Africa are multifold:
– it fluffs his resume, impressing people like you;
– he can help his most likely donors propel their pro-Christian agenda;
– there are places on the African continent which are more desperate for health care than we are, and will let a CARDIOLOGIST do orthopedic surgery in spite of having little regular practice at home in this field;
– doing free or low-cost surgery on the African continent doesn’t cut into profits at Hospital Corporation of America;
– write-offs, write-offs, write-offs.
Condemn?
Jeebus, crack a fucking book or use the Google. And look up the word “condemn” while you’re at it.
Pick any major surgery and the lifespan and mortality rate post-surgery based on age.
Be sure to research quality of life post-operation, too.
I don’t know what kind of crackpot doctors you’re going to, but an alleged heart patient who lives to 105 without a pacemaker DIDN’T NEED ONE.
She also didn’t need to risk the odds that she’d die during or within days of surgery (more than 30% risk), or need long-term hospitalization (also more than 30%). What she needed was a doctor who’d talk with her about the risks, the trade-offs, the fact that she may have been a borderline patient for a pacemaker to begin with — and she needed a second opinion.
Preferably not from some poorly educated dork without a medical degree who thinks that it’s a piece of cake to crack open the chest of a 100-year-old woman and paste her shut and send her on her way to live another who knows how many days/months/years, whether at home or in the confines of a hospital or nursing home.
I don’t get it. The Seminal is a web page from a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, yes? Yet I constantly observe political activity directed at particular parties, candidates, and incumbents.
The same rep. insisted that spending on education is not efficacious, proved by the figures that show in her district, large amounts are spent on urban schools while small amounts produce much high scoring schools in those suburban areas where the prosperous live.
Public comments are meant for the public, and it is hardly action against a particular candidate to post her comments.
Can you point to info which says The Seminal is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization?
Because I wasn’t aware that it was.