Watch this, and then let’s talk about ‘world’s best health care’

[NNN0LHI]

CNN's Rick Sanchez did a great job with this report. Watch the other people in the audience show obvious discomfort as this poor woman told her story.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/08/25/watch-this-and-then-lets-talk-about-worlds-best-health-care/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

1:25 pm August 25, 2009, by Jay

Here’s an exchange on CNN, in which a desperate woman tries to explain her plight to U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., at a health-care town hall meeting. Watch it:

“Senator Coburn, we need help,” she says. “My husband has traumatic brain injury. His health insurance will not cover him to eat and drink. And what I need to know is, are you going to help him, where he can eat and drink? We left the nursing home, and they told us we were on our own.”

Those words, written on the page or screen, do not convey the anguish in her voice or in her heart. Based on her description of the situation, an insurance company is rationing care. It is denying him the assistance that he apparently needs to live, a decision made and confirmed by insurance company bureaucrats and lawyers, not by the man’s doctor. Those bureaucrats and lawyers, you might say, constitute what some might call a “death panel.” This, in a country where supposedly no one goes without health care, where we have the best health care in the world.

The reaction from Coburn, a physician and probably the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate, is telling, as is the astute observation at the close of the segment from CNN anchor Rick Sanchez.

[elocs]

1. "...told us we were on our own.” "You're On Your Own" is the Republican motto.

YOYO. They are yoyos.

[demodonkey]

2. The more I see this clip, the more I think that man and his ilk are dowright EVIL...

...no one, especially no one who was a physician, is so clueless as to think "neighborly" help is going to suffice for a person with Traumatic Brain Injury on a feeding tube.

No, I think that poor woman and her husband have already faced the Death Panel at their insurance company, and were told NO.

And Coburn is just fine with it.

:grr:

[Laelth]

3. The comments that follow the blog entry make me proud of Georgia.

There are a few r/w loons, but, for the most part, those who support health care are more eloquent and better informed. Besides which, the debate is rather civil, on both sides.

If "itstrue" from those comments posts on DU, please speak up. You are to be congratulated.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Mr Generic Other]

4. the video, the story, and the posts to CNN below the video are

a sad commentary on the relationship between american citizens and their elected officials.
while the reaction of sen. tom coburn R. does not surprise me in the least the reaction of his audience to his "solution" and the responses of many of the CNN posters were both surprising and dismaying.
a woman describes her husband, a man with a severe brain injury, who is put out of the nursing home and told he is on his own. he needs medical professionals to help him with IV feeding and with speech therapy.
the senator suggests that the government can't be expected to help and that the woman should look to her neighbors to fill any gaps that she can't fill herself.
our elected officials swear to serve the common good and see to the general welfare of the nation. likewise, our founding documents proclaim that a government that does not meet the needs of its citizens is illegitimate, yet senator coburn seems to think things are the other way around, that citizens exist to serve the needs of the government.
coming from a republican, this notion is again no surprise; however, when those gathered in the hall hear the sad story of the family in need and the senator's solution, they break out in a robust round of applause for the senator. this, was surprising to me.
which of those neighbors was going to go help with IV feeding? how could human beings applaud the non-solution being proposed?
i then made the mistake of reading the comments posted below the video on the CNN site.
while some of the posters made very reasonable comments or observations many of the posts were as insensitive as the applause at sen. coburn's town hall meeting.
all sorts of questions were asked so the posters could discover the circumstances of the brain injury accident and the family's insurance coverage before the accident before being willing to say the man deserved help. many also implied that the man and his wife really should have been prepared for this eventuality in their lives and should have made sure on their own that they had adequate coverage.
this is the sort of callous creature created by capitalism. applaud a senator for not doing his job and blame a poor brain injury victim and his wife for their suffering. how many of these righteous folk believe they are compassionate good people?