You didn’t think they’d have it any other way, did you?
Then again, they may think they’re exempt, but I’m sure the ruling class in Canada thought the same thing when socialized medicine was enacted there.
New Ledger: One such surprise is found on page 158 of the legislation, which appears to create a carveout for senior staff members in the leadership offices and on congressional committees, essentially exempting those senior Democrat staffers who wrote the bill from being forced to purchase health care plans in the same way as other Americans.
And who can forget this – Obama refused to pledge that he and his own family would be stuck with his plan. Only the best for the Obama family.
President Obama struggled to explain today whether his health care reform proposals would force normal Americans to make sacrifices that wealthier, more powerful people – like the president himself – wouldn’t face.
…Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it’s not provided by insurance.
Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.
The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother I always want them to get the very best care.”
“There’s a whole bunch of care that’s being provided that every study, that every bit of evidence that we have indicates may not be making us healthier,” he said.
Gibson interjected that often patients don’t know what will work until they get every test they can.
“Often times we know what makes sense and what doesn’t,” the president responded, making a push for evidence-based medicine.
…Another neurologist, Dr. John Corboy of the University of Colorado Health Science Center, asked the president, “What can you do to convince the American public that there actually are limits to what we can pay for with our American health care system and if there are going to be limits, who’s going to design the system and who’s going to enforce the rules for a system like that? “
Obama, however, didn’t directly answer the question
Typical progressives – it’s good enough for thee but not for me.
Is this change you can believe in?
Via Instapundit
Video via Stop the ACLU
Update: A Washington Times editorial explains how President Obama and staffers are exempt. They’ll stay in their own “elite” insurance, while the rest of us will be stuck with whatever they stick us with.
[...] The Lonely conservative gets it! Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Richard Shelby must have taken a stupid [...]
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Of course they don’t have too, status quo
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I don’t understand these points at all. Senior staff members in Congress have health insurance. I find it impossible to believe that there will ever be a time when a job as a senior Congressional staffer doesn’t come with health insurance. So what exactly do you mean when you claim that they are exempt from the mandate? None of them will ever be without insurance.
And this makes even less sense:
“Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.
The president refused to make such a pledge,”
The plans might limit the tests that insurance will pay for. But no one is trying to limit tests that one might pay for out of your own pocket. So of course Obama, or anyone else, is not going to promise to never seek more tests for thier family. That doesn’t mean he is somehow evading the law – it just means he might choose to pay for them himself.
Are you trying to argue that the defensive medicine so often practiced, where doctors will do 5 tests when 1 suffices, because the patient requests it, or they can make a profit from it, or they are afraid of lawsuits – that this is a good system?
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JoeCitizen says: “The plans might limit the tests that insurance will pay for. But no one is trying to limit tests that one might pay for out of your own pocket. So of course Obama, or anyone else, is not going to promise to never seek more tests for thier family. That doesn’t mean he is somehow evading the law – it just means he might choose to pay for them himself.”
Are we not back to square one, where the person who has the means can afford to get the extra tests and pay out of pocket, and those that cannot afford to pay go without the tests, unless they are able to convince the bureaucracy to let them have them?
That’s what happened with that Canadian official who came to the U.S. for heart surgery. He said “This was my heart, my choice and my health. I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.”I would’ve been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. … I accept that. That’s public life,” he said. “(But) this is not a unique phenomenon to me. This is something that happens with lots of families throughout this country, so I make no apologies for that.”
He says he would have been perceived as jumping the line, so why didn’t he just do what was fair and wait his turn? Because he could afford not to. He could afford to leave the country and pay out of pocket. He could afford to do that, but what about all the people stuck in Canada who can’t. What about the people that might die waiting for their tests or surgeries, even though they have health insurance. What good does insurance do if you can’t get what you need, when you need it.
Have things really changed?
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Nobody’s exempt from health care reform, unless you are rich enough to self insure, or one of the millions the republicans managed to cut out.
The right is to far out to understand, this health care reform bill gave us private sector citizens much of what the govt employees get. The insurance exchange is a version of the choices federal employees get. The no cap on coverage is another step that way. No exclusion for pre-existing conditions is in the federal plan.
IOW, why put federal employees under this bill, this bill brings the rest of us more in line with federal employees.
That’s the part you on the right just can’t seem to get.
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“xyz says:
March 25, 2010 at 4:09 am
“Are we not back to square one, where the person who has the means can afford to get the extra tests and pay out of pocket, and those that cannot afford to pay go without the tests, unless they are able to convince the bureaucracy to let them have them?”
Not even close. The only bureaucracy you have to convince is the same insurance bureaucracy you have to convince now. Don’t you get it yet, the government is not insuring you, all they are doing is regulating the insurance companies. Unless you are so poor you get medicaid, or old enough for medicare. In that case you have what you have now.
Now, if you don’t have insurance and you don’t have medicare or medicaid, you don’t get the tests unless you have a crises the ER has to treat.
Other than that, get cancer, you can come in the hospital to die, other than that, don’t bother them.
The govt sets minimums, not maximums.
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“That’s what happened with that Canadian official who came to the U.S. for heart surgery. He said “This was my heart, my choice and my health. I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.”I would’ve been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. … I accept that.”
Actually, that’s nothing like what happened to that Canadian province premier who came to America for heart surgery. Just about everything you have read about him was false.
He did need heart surgery, but he came here because he wanted vanity surgery. The normal surgery he could get in Canada easily enough leaves a 4 inch scar on your chest.
What he opted for is another technique that involves entering from the side, with a smaller opening. So the scar is smaller and out of the way.
That surgery is not done at all in his province, Newfoundland, and is not recommended very often by Canadian surgeons at all. It is so unusual, when he consulted with a prominent heart surgeon in New Jersey, a graduate of a Canadian medical school BTW, that surgeon would not do it, but referred him to a surgeon in Florida who does that.
“He says he would have been perceived as jumping the line, so why didn’t he just do what was fair and wait his turn?”
IOW, there was no line jumping because there was no line to jump. The rich guy got surgery that flattered his vanity.
“Because he could afford not to. He could afford to leave the country and pay out of pocket. He could afford to do that, but what about all the people stuck in Canada who can’t.”
He’s trying to cover up the facts cause it ain’t gonna play well with the average voter. Not in Canada, and it wouldn’t here.
“What about the people that might die waiting for their tests or surgeries, even though they have health insurance.”
His surgery was not urgent. He could have waited the couple weeks he might have to. Just as you might have to here, esp if you want the best doctor.
“What good does insurance do if you can’t get what you need, when you need it. ”
What good does it do to live in the country with best health care technology in the world if the delivery system is so bad you can’t get it if you can’t pay?
I know two Americans, both insured, who had the same condition, and it took nearly a year to diagnose it, but the insurance would not let them be sent to a specialist hospital like the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland clinic.
Both lost a lot of weight, and the pain was so bad they wanted to die, but they were stuck in Toledo dealing with local doctors. Once diagnosed it was easy to treat, but our private sector insurance was so short sighted their pain didn’t matter.
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Okay, you, Bob from District 9, I didn’t take the time to read your whole stupid post, but the surgery the Canadian premier chose didn’t involve sawing through his chest wall. You might call it “vanity” but talk to anyone who’s been through it and ask if they would have gone for an alternative. You’re starting to piss me off. Keep leaving your long winded ridiculous comments and I’ll ban you, you little son of a bitch.
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