In contending America already has health care rationing, ABC's Dr. Tim Johnson, a universal coverage advocate, on Friday night's World News asserted “we have a lot of rationing, based on income, the kind of insurance you have, the way you can navigate the health system” and “a recent Harvard study estimated that 45,000 people died each year in this country because of lack of health insurance. If that's not rationing, I don't know what is.”
That “Harvard study,” which the CBS Evening News promoted two months ago, was really produced by the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a left-wing advocacy group which touts itself as “the only national physician organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program.” Study co-author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of PNHP is one of five signers of an “Open Letter to President Obama to Support Single-Payer Health Care.”
My September 18 NewsBusters item, “CBS Disguises Single-Payer Group's 45,000 Deaths Claim as a 'Harvard' Study,” recounted:
Trying to boost the rationale for ObamaCare, Thursday's CBS Evening News ran two stories from far-left sources, but the network disguised the agenda behind both. Katie Couric announced that "while the debate goes on over the cost of insuring everyone, a new study reveals the cost of not doing it. The Harvard study says nearly 45,000 American deaths every year are linked to a lack of insurance." Neither she, nor reporter Jim Axelrod, noted that the report was really produced by Physicians for a National Health Program, "the only national physician organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program."
....with the numbers on screen credited to "Harvard Medical School" and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler identified on screen as with "Harvard Medical School," Axelrod reported Woolhandler "was part of a team that tracked more than 9,000 people for up to 13 years, comparing the health of those with insurance to those without. After factoring in education and income, smoking, drinking, obesity, researchers found the uninsured had about a 40 percent higher risk of death. In 1993, it was 25 percent."
Woolhandler is one of five signers of an "Open Letter to President Obama to Support Single-Payer Health Care" and the CBSNews.com online version of Axelrod's story provides a link to a PDF of the "study" – as posted on the Physicians for a National Health Program's site.
The MRC's Brad Wilmouth caught this exchange on the Friday, November 20 World News on ABC anchored by George Stephanopoulos, following a story on task forces on breast and cervical cancer which recommended fewer and later cancer-screening tests:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Tim, let me begin with you. You know, we see this political debate already beginning. Let's start out with a little reality check. How much is what we saw this week the future of health care, and how much is what's being debated now on Capitol Hill going to accelerate that process?TIM JOHNSON: Well, George, I'm always amused when I hear a politician imply that we already don't have rationing, that it's something in the future. We have a lot of rationing, based on income, the kind of insurance you have, the way you can navigate the health system. A recent Harvard study estimated that 45,000 people died each year in this country because of lack of health insurance. If that's not rationing, I don't know what is. The real question is, who's going to do the rationing? Will it be 535 politicians subject to lobbyists and special interest groups, or experts who really wrestle with objective evidence? I would vote for the latter.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Payoff
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:19 ET by iveseenitallNo one who is intelligent enough to become a doctor would say something as stupid and illogical as this--- except for political reasons. Who's paying off this s.o.b.?
P.S. They're using kids in videos to say basically the same thing. Disgusting!
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
None of these people has
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:52 ET by motherbeltNone of these people have EVER produced a SINGLE case of a person who died because they were refused treatment for lack of health insurance.
This B as in B, S as in S, is right up there with the 150,000 women whom they claim die every year of anorexia.
Liars
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 17:28 ET by jdlybrandHas any coroner ever in history listed official cause of death as "Lack of Healthcare Coverage"?
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
Refused Treatment
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 18:13 ET by allanfMy understanding is that hospitals which receive Federal funds must provide life saving care to any person who walks through their doors.
but..but...butt...!
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 11:20 ET by Patriot IIHow many people die from incompetency in the medical profession, (pardon the decription-"profession"!) Or how many have died because medicare wouldn't provide for them? You haven't seen anything yet, let this reid/pelooser bill get in and see how many die!!! imo
Guess that oath doesn't cover lies
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 20:08 ET by ptsonOne liberal lies and the rest swear to it. Repeat it again and again and use all the lies as "proof" that the lie is true. Humm, Herr G did the same for Hitler, YES HITLER: facist, socialist propaganda! Hey Doc, first rule: DO NO HARM TO THE PATIENT!
LIAR. LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!!!!!!!
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:22 ET by ricklailThis one of the biggest lies that has ever come out of this health care crap.
Semper suprene nitens
There is no point dwelling on all the foolish mistakes we have made in our lives. For one thing, it can be very time-consuming. Dr. Thomas Sowell
The Best People To Ask...
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 19:37 ET by countmein5050If you want to know just how available health care is to people in this country who have no insurance...ask the illegals...ask the OCTOmom, who banked on the free health care when she was implanted with 8 babies....6 were already getting free health care! Ask the people who slide across the border to have their babies here...free of charge. Medicare and Medicaid take good care of any one not here legally or out to belly up to the table as many times as they can without bringing a single dish to share with any one else. Where is that information found in liberal reporting on health care?
correlation is not causation....duh!
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:24 ET by wizardjrHow much more junk science am I to be tortured with..!!!!
About 2,500,000 people died in the US last year out of a population of about 300 million. If about 45,000,000 people have no insurance and 45,000 died from lack of insurance then 2,455,000 DIED BECAUSE OF HAVING INSURANCE!!!
My goodness!! Run, don't walk to the nearest phone and cancel that health insurance before it kills you!! Hope and pray you're not too late to cancel!
[/sarc]
This rates right up there with the (finally) discredited "data" showing Anthropogenic Global Warming caused by CO2.
for the math challenged...
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:31 ET by wizardjrThat means you're about 10 times at greater risk of death if you have health insurance than if you don't.
2.455 million divided by 255 million
vs.
45,000 divided by 45 million
= roughly one in a hundred vs. one in a thousand
You must be members of SITPI
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 19:56 ET by CO2MakerStatistics in the Public Interest. Good points.
How many people die or are left homeless and ruined each year because they lived a long way from the fire station and their house burned down before the trucks got there. Isn't that a form of fire protection rationing? I think we should get some stimulus money and build more fire stations closer to street corners.
Another point that many people might have missed, including Drs. Tim "Steinbrenner" Johnson and Steffe Woolythinker: Of those 45,000 who died because they lacked insurance, how many were old people who probably would have died anyway, the ones O'Bama said maybe we should give them two aspirin and ask them to call us when they see the light at the end of the tunnel above their beds? How many were women who didn't get a mammogram at 45 or a Pap smear in the last three years?
Did they also include
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 05:36 ET by ohiochilipeople who died in accidents, crime victims, and the like? The sheeple hear 45000 and get mental images of rejected, dying sick stacked up around hospital exits.
Of course, they do include all the illegals, of that I have no doubt.
They lie...they exaggerate...they spin....and we'll pay.
No wonder this goober-cheese of an MD is on TV...
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:26 ET by R D Helm...pushing a communist health care plan that will ultimately destroy freedom and liberty as we know it.
Clearly, he can't hack it in the private sector.
-Dave
Our elected representatives have failed us.
Johnson and his ilk should
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:31 ET by bigtimerJohnson and his ilk should be called on the carpet with their lying propaganda...I'm sick and tired of these people getting away with this 24/7 on the airwaves ...some demands for answers and firing need to take place...pronto!
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
Insulting!
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:46 ET by iveseenitallI guess what infuriates me the most is how insulting all these people are to the average American. It makes my blood boil, especially when it comes from the morons in the media and in Congress. They push and push --- but how much more can the country take? Has anyone read about the history of such arrogance against the people in any nation? It's not pretty.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
isia... No it's not...and
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:52 ET by bigtimerisia...
No it's not...and we no longer seem to be creeping towards that outcome, we seem to be going full-speed-ahead.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
IF we only had a free press.
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 17:04 ET by pbthinkerI just wish, when the framers of our constitution wrote the bill of rights, they protected our press from becoming just a media arm of a political party. Oh yeh, they did, it's just that our press would rather be a propaganda arm of a political party, rather than report the facts.
I'm going to be really disappointed if, in 2010, the American public returns any Democrats to Congress.
Election 2008-God's way of showing us that elections count.
pb... So am I. I will
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 17:08 ET by bigtimerpb...
So am I.
I will really be mad if they still maintain power in both chambers.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
Who are you talking about?
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 19:59 ET by CO2Maker"I will really be mad if they still maintain power in both chambers."
The press? I think they are locked in.
Remember: Everything on TV is TV.
No Lie too Big
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 17:13 ET by evilcontractorLiberal will tell any lie no matter how big or small to achieve thier goal of control. The ends do justify the means. The problem is with all those ignorate Republicans (bigots & cave dwellers) who aren't smart enough to know what is good because they're evil. If you just understood that liberals like dr. johnson and others know what's best. It won't stop with health insurance. They have been waging a war against the "wrong" foods, cars, energy, basically all that provides them (and us) the standard of living they enjoy.
Knowledge without wisdom = idots on TV.
www.coastaldecorations.com
hey, TV's kill Polar Bears... we got proof!
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 18:06 ET by wizardjrJust ask Arnie out there in Californicate. That's all you gotta know peon. Now buy what we tell you and STFU. The science is settled.
Oh, and if you don't buy our super duper one size fits all Government... oops, I mean public option health care then you go straight to jail. Do not collect $200... unless of course you are a victim.
[/sarc]
Choice?
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 19:09 ET by evilcontractorWhen these idiots get through you won't have a choice. There will only be one option for health "insurance", one type of car to drive (POS) and you'll be required to put solar panels on your cars, houses, and every other building. And, by the way, you'll only be allowed to use electricity 3 hours a day because we can't produce enough. These are only half steps until they get living back in caves.
www.coastaldecorations.com
Are His Lips Moving?
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 18:08 ET by PrimalElementsJust like deaths by smoking, where there is no such cause on the death certificate.
Are the house and senate liable for 180,000 deaths, since this bill will not go into effect 4 yrs. from now? HMMM....Dr.Johnson you dufus.
PE... Pow! Right in the
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 18:19 ET by bigtimerPE...
Pow! Right in the kisser!
Excellent points ...both of them.
Talking heads on the right had better bring these little pesky facts up...hope they see your post and it gets passed around.
Inquiring minds are going to want to know just what happens during the intervening years when the gov. causes all these so-called deaths. ...law-suits could be coming down the road.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
And at least 45,000 people
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 18:12 ET by Kat Outta the BagAnd at least 45,000 people who had health insurance die each year, too. People die every day...it's a part of life.
Even if 45,000 is 100% Correct
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 18:44 ET by trak65Suppose we give the avuncular Dr. Johnson the benefit of the doubt and assume, for the sake of argument, that there would be 45,000 fewer deaths each year after passing some sort of reform plan that takes us from 90% coverage to 94% coverage.
The annual costs being bandied about are $90 billion, which translates into a cost of $2 million per life being saved. Do these costs justify the implied benefit?
Every life is precious ...
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 20:03 ET by CO2MakerIf we save just one life, we're better for it.
How can we measure the costs against the precious life we saved.
There are no expendable lives, illegal people, or illegitimate babies.
Any more clichés we need to use? I'm blocking the rest.
If we save just one life,
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 22:20 ET by motherbeltIf we save just one life, we're better for it.
How can we measure the costs against the precious life we saved.
that used to be true, but now they've decided that we need can't afford all these mammograms and pap tests.....
Hmmmmn
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 22:23 ET by Free StinkerYep, Liberals always push legislation and say "If it saves just one life, isn't it worth it?"
خال
Yes, they do. But now,
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 22:28 ET by motherbeltYes, they do. But now, apparently it isn't important any more.
GMTA!
→ Created or saved?
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 22:25 ET by Cool ArrowThat's an interesting question.
We create lives every day and weigh in the balance their right to thrive.
Looks like my generation will discover what it feels like to be treated as an inconvenient mass of flesh.
Tough decisions are being made at both ends of the life span.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
By George, I think she's got it!
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 22:53 ET by CO2MakerThe first nine months of life don't really count, except as a tumor in the mother. By the same logic, the last nine months don't count either, so they can be treated as a tumor on the body politic.
The new health care guardians are "pro-choice" about providing medical care for the elderly, and Sarah Palin and all the hysterical "death panel" fanatics are the "pro-life" nuts.
The study is yet another
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 18:50 ET by stratmanThe study is yet another propaganda hack job from the team of Steffie Woodhandler and her significant other David Himmelstein, both physicians from Haaarvard and co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program, an activist front group promoting Socialized Medicine at any and all costs, including stretching data farther than the skin on Joan Rivers' face.
It is my understanding that in this particularly fantastical and farcical study, ANY participant that was without medical insurance at ANY time during the study, for ANY amount of time, no matter the proximity to death, was included as a statistic. For example, a person without insurance for 1 week 10 years before their death was registered as a statistic. This is valid research?
Woodhandler and Himmelstein were also the architects of the monstrously bad research that proclaimed 50% of all bankruptcies were due to medical causes, ie lack of insurance. (I think they have now revised their numbers and it is 60% of bankruptcies due to lack of medical insurance.)
These people will say nearly anything, do nearly anything to get Government Socialized Medicine enacted.
When I see either one of these Haaaaaaaaarvard physicians I think of the Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch SNL skit about the two "lov-ahs" like the one here (sans humor, of course). And another one with the eerie but ever interesting, great Christopher Walkin.
"Innumeracy"...a clear
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 19:21 ET by RR GOP"Innumeracy"...a clear example. Right up there with "created OR saved jobs".
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
Idiot Test
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 19:37 ET by Jerry MackThese socialistic agenda studies remind me of the vaccum bottle idiot test.
When you put in a hot liquid it stays hot. When you put in a cold liquid it stays hot.
How does it know?
Healthcare for Clunkers
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 19:41 ET by AmmoManSaying 45,000 people die each year due to the lack of insurance (that they feel should be supplied by the Government) is like saying that the 45,000 people who die each year on the nations highways would still be alive if they were supplied with Government Motor vehicles.
Hmmm... wonder if I can trade my old Chevy in for a better dental plan?
Timothy Johnson is a
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 20:16 ET by fitzfongTimothy Johnson is a quack. Period. I'd sooner seek the opinion of this doctor.
"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." -George Best
Heck.
Sat, 11/21/2009 - 20:19 ET by KarmaHow many WITH health insurance, are killed each year. Sure, their names might not be on the policy yet, but I would assume they'd be covered under prenatal care.
Hi. My name is John Q. Public, but some just call me racist.
read my post above
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 12:41 ET by wizardjrI supplied the numbers up there earlier in the thread Karma.
Saw that, wizard.
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 20:30 ET by KarmaJust wasn't sure if it included the unborn, yet insured.
Hi. My name is John Q. Public, but some just call me racist.
Buffalo Jump
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 00:23 ET by WesenIn the West Indians would bunch and run buffalo over steep cliffs as an easy way to gather meat. The current health care debacle is no different. At the end of the day the wranglers are well fed and return to the exclusive care of the village. Tim's just the medicine doctor encouraging the savages.
"doctor" rations truth
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 05:17 ET by JakeMoAccording to the "doctor's" definition of rationing, food, homes, energy, etc. are all rationed.
But that's not the common understanding of rationing. Rationing forbids use of goods/services above a stated level.
No insurance company has the power to forbid you from medical treatment. They only have the power to refuse to pay (according to your contract with them). That's not rationing.
If the gov't controls all healthcare, they will have the power to forbid you from costly treatment ... even if you have the means to pay for it. That's rationing.
Stop the Lies
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 12:32 ET by slickwillie2001I've been collecting links to debunkings of the myth of 45,000:
Junk Science Expert Sound Alarm on Insurance Study: http://washingtontimes.com
""They are trying to create these factoids that they can beat opponents over the head with," Mr. Milloy said. "They interviewed 9,000 people between 1988 and 1994 and asked, 'Do you have health insurance?' and if you die at some point in the future, they assume your death was caused by the fact you didn’t have insurance during that time you were interviewed.""
Shocker: Study Claiming 45,000... : http://sayanythingblog.com
"Just to put that into perspective, if you told the researchers behind this study that you didn’t have health insurance and five years later you got ran over by a car they’d say you died because you didn’t have insurance. Not, you know, because you got ran over by a car."
Did Lack of Insurance Cause Premature Death? http://www.john-goodman-blog.com
"Not to be outdone, the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) repeated the exercise (with all its methodological sins) and boosted the tally to a 40% increase in the probability of dying for the uninsured. That produces a whopping 45,000 premature deaths every year — almost as bad as the Vietnam War. And, yes, we get a state-by-state breakdown. There will be 5,302 deaths attributed to uninsurance in California this year. There will be 75 in Wyoming, etc., etc."
Another Bogus Health Statistic From the Left: http://corner.nationalreview.com
"... lack of insurance causes 45,000 people to die each year in the U.S. –– is based on junk science. I should have added that this factoid has spawned numerous children, each as untrustworthy as the last. People have extrapolated from the original "findings" to come up with estimates of the number of people in each state, or congressional district, who die from lack of insurance ..."
Using the original sloppy methodology, I could quite effectively demonstrate that making the change off of Daylight Saving Time causes increased mortality in turkeys.
Healthcare statistic:
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 15:18 ET by big.league.sliderGovernment healthcare statistic:
The long-term mortality rate for Medicare participants is 100%.
And unlike ABC's "Doctor" Timothy Johnson, I can back up that statistic with hard facts.
"The problem with political jokes is they get elected." -Henry Cate VII (?)