Posted on 08/14/2009 11:04:11 AM PDT by DogBarkTree
CHICAGO—The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.
Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.
Three weeks ago, the President suggested that a surgeon’s decision to remove a child’s tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. That remark was ill-informed and dangerous, and we were dismayed by this characterization of the work surgeons do. Surgeons make decisions about recommending operations based on what’s right for the patient.
(Excerpt) Read more at facs.org ...
Wait, aren’t these the guys who BO says are going to rip out our tonsils and cut off our feet just to make a buck?
You watch is lips, and when they move, he's lying.
Notify the White House that the Leader’s fables are being disputed.
Who are you gonna believe, a bunch of people with medical degrees or a genuine Community Organizer? The guy went to Harvard, f’Petessake! They must be racists.
Sycophant.
Good for the ACS! (Chicago-based, by the way) ... Obama — who has absolutely no work experience in anything but “community organizing” and Chicago politics — continues to parade himself as an expert on everything from the auto industry to surgery. What incredible hubris!
Obama’s tonsillectomy argument made a negative amount of sense. The general practitioner (or pediatrician for children) will recommend a tonsillectomy for a patient who doesn’t respond to other treatments. Financially it makes more sense for the GP to keep the patient coming back every few weeks for more antibiotics instead of ending the cash flow with surgery. It’s like the mechanic you’ve been bringing your clunker to regularly telling you it is time to buy a new car, even though he will lose the repair business.
These doctors just aren’t liberal enough.
If you are liberal/radical/Marxist, you have a different world view than other people. The liberal radical view is that health care costs too much, because : doctors make too much money, hospitals make too much, health insurance companies make too much, pharmaceutical companies make too much, etc. And along with that reasoning goes the idea that everyone in healthcare charges way too much for their services.
don’t confuse the president with the facts. He “knows” that doctors want to do unneeded surgeries to make more money. This ongoing healthcare “debate” we’re having in this country won’t change Barack’s opinions.
Why is Hillary Clinton in Africa at a time when we’re debating healthcare so intensely? She has been front and center in previous healthcare reform efforts. She’s been an advocate for all of this. Why isn’t she at these town halls lecturing people that she is the Sec. of State, not her husband? Why hide her in Africa???????
Dumbest. President. Ever.
This sounds like a fishy rumor to me. It should be reported to flag@whitehouse.gov
If Obama had a lick of common sense, that statement from ACS would leave a big mark...my wife is a general surgeon who was appalled by Obama’s statements.
So if the surgeons aren’t going to make the decision when to remove my child’s tonsils, who will?
The most dangerous part of ObamaCare would be the federal governments ability to fix a price for a service (and make illegal to charge or pay more).
Price fixing never works; it creates shortages and poor quality, as there is no incentive to supply above the bottom.
Think Carter gas lines, but for medical care.
We need a second opinion. Has Roxana Mayer given her statement yet?
The IRS will be paying this terrorist organization a visit.
Sarah Palin just posted this over at her Facebook page.
"Experts" ABC News contacted agreed that anyone not buying the party line is a member of a hate group - and they are forwarding addresses. Charlie Gibsom was overhead saying, "the college os Surgeons was putting out some fishy rumors...."
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311664/posts
Members of hate groups will have their email addresses collected. And they will be "watched" by Janet Napolitano ...
The brown shirts are not going to put up with surgeons...
In fairness, getting any organization that is not specifically dedicated to public debate to create a public response that the membership agrees upon (or even that the board of directors can agree on) can take weeks. In general, though, I agree with your sentiments -- the time to criticize was when we needed it and it would have undermined Zero's credibility, not when the bill is already dying.
"Experts" contacted by ABC News agreed that anyone not buying the party line is a member of a hate group - and they are forwarding addresses. Charlie Gibsom was overhead saying, "the college os Surgeons was putting out some fishy rumors...."
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311664/posts
Members of hate groups will have their email addresses collected. And they will be "watched" by Janet Napolitano ...
The brown shirts are not going to put up with surgeons...
Damn foolish asumption. Any surgeon who truly believes that Zeroman isn't demonizing and propagandizing against them and their profession is a fool who I wouldn't want operating on me.
"Experts" contacted by ABC News agreed that anyone not buying the party line is a member of a hate group - and they are forwarding addresses. Charlie Gibsom was overhead saying, "the college os Surgeons was putting out some fishy rumors...."
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311664/posts
Members of hate groups will have their email addresses collected. And they will be "watched" by Janet Napolitano ...
The brown shirts are not going to put up with this kind of crap...
I must confess I snitched on them to the whitehouse and even gave the American College of Surgeons site containing the offending truth.
The subject of the e-mail to the whitehouse was:
FOOT IN MOUTH AMPUTATION BY SON OF OBAMA.
How much for brain implants
obama will
The surgeons refer to “leg amputations” whereas Obama talked about doctors chopping off a diabetic’s foot. In my limited experience the amputation of a diabetic is likely to be below the knee, not “chopping off a foot”. Obama seems unforgivably uninformed.
needs to be sent in. sounds very fishy to me.
“unforgivably uninformed” has a nice literary cadence.
I wish otherwise but we have sort of a “family surgeon,” an orthopedic doctor. He repaired my torn rotator cuff and my son’s torn knee ligament. There was no question that both surgeries were necessary. But my wife went to him for a frozen shoulder. He not only told her that surgery was unnecessary, but didn’t even refer her to physical therapy. Instead he gave her some exercises to do at home to “loosen” the shoulder. Worked out fine. I’m of the opinion that the vast majority of physicians work the same way.
bttt
BTTT
“Why hide her in Africa??????? “
Because Barack doesn’t want anyone else to get even an iota of credit for laying the foundation for this. In fact, he doesn’t want anyone to believe that anyone even thought of this before.
FUBO
Lying Present STUPID!
So called ‘town hall’ in Montana coming up on Fox...we’ll see if he LIES some more?
LOL, that's a growing number of groups.
How about the sponsors that pulled the plug on Glenn Beck? This morning clueless Meeka on MSNBC Morning Joe said she hopes to see more sponsors pulling the plug on extreme anti-Obama rhetoric on cable news (she obviously misses Olbermann). Seems like a conflict of interest given she competes with FNC.
bump
How dare they contradict Our Glorious Leader?
Sounds like some surgeons need to spend time in a re-education camp.
I think I saw some guys in Acorn jackets shooting rifles at large fish in the Osage River below Bagnell Dam. They kept turning to each other saying. “I hit another one of them damn Sturgeons — phone it in to FLAG.”. /s
Frankly I think the sponsors issue was much ado about nothing. FOX is still the most watched cable network, and any advertisers that are important know this. MSNBC can keep whining while they’re in last place.
Me too. I just got cursed at by another freeeper because I thought Beck should be more careful with his words (attack his actions not his person, say he acts racist, not he is a racist)
It would seem the while issue is irrelevent. The democrats victory was a boom for FNC and a bust for MSNBC as I predicted last October. Just like liberals books stop selling and conservatives are on fire.
American health care is the envy of the world and this ignorant President is determined to destroy it.
BO and his handmaidens made a major strategic mistake in villifying doctors and surgeons. Overwhelimingly the American people have a special bond with their doctors - they are recognized healers and lifesavers - not a profession to publicly disrespect. The class warfare card missed by a mile, too.
More broadly, I rarely see any opposition to this socialized nonsense on a philosophical level, which would help end this debate. The emergence of free markets in medicine is revolutionizing world-class diagnoses, medicines, devices, and treatments, and this asinine government, led by this empty suit who never worked a day in his life in the private sector, wants to do everything possible to cripple and destroy the ongoing revolution in health care.
Our generation of scientists, doctors, and engineers are literally unraveling the human genetic DNA code, along with the immense medical implications this offers, and BO wants to slam the door on this progress. It’s astonishingly stupid, and the battle should be weighed on these terms as well.
The good docs at the American College of Surgeons need to perform a lipectomy on ostammer.
At the very least, it’ll stop the stammering.
Excellent post.
I agree.
Political responses and writings are not their bailiwick. Most likely the response was prepared by a committee, which always adds time to formulating a response to something of this magnitude.
The only two times my family has had consultations with surgeons regarding potential operations, the surgeons both said the problems were borderline but severe enough that we could go ahead with the operations if we absolutely wished, but we could also wait and see if the problems showed improvement with time.
In one case the problem very slowly went away, in the other case it didn’t. But BOTH surgeons had made it clear that they recommended we wait and avoid surgery, if possible. And we had the old-fashioned traditional 80/20 Blue Cross-Blue Shield at the time.
Obama is absolute pond scum to make these sweeping accusations that surgeons perform unnecessary surgeries for extra bucks - these surgeons didn’t even want to perform justifiable surgery if they thought it was better for our health to avoid it.
Silly, racist surgeons.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.