Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics in the Health Care Debate

I strongly recommend that everyone who is interested in the current debate over health care, and let’s face it, all of us ought to be, regularly check out the site FactCheck.org. This project of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy checks claims of politicians, political campaigns, lobbying organizations, etc. against the facts.
And guess what, FactCheck.org has found that proponents of a government administered option for health care are lying to you. This time it is about the record breaking profits of the insurance industry. In four ads from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) targeting specific lawmakers

the narrator says that the targeted lawmaker has received many thousands of dollars in campaign contributions “from the insurance industry.” What do the insurance companies get, the narrator asks? “Record profits.”
We asked the DCCC for back-up on the “record profits” claim. A spokesman sent us citations of several articles, none of which prove the claim. One notes that UnitedHealth Group moved up in the Fortune 500 rankings of corporations, but even that article says the company reaped lower profits in 2008 than in 2007. It’s true that UnitedHealth’s numbers for the second quarter of 2009 beat analysts’ expectations, as we noted last week, but the company posted higher profits in, say, the first quarter of 2008.

via FactCheck.org, Broken Record on Record Profits

And guess what else, opponents of a publicly administered option are lying to, on a lot of things. They are lying about the “death panels.”
For instance, your libido increases when devensec.com cialis canada your menstrual period is getting nearer. This is because of the legacy of bulk email marketing or more specifically, an email marketing campaign. levitra prices Additionally, it will also show you the effect for about 4 to 6 hours that is the normal course of copulation. viagra lowest prices The clinic is all about the levitra tab 20mg disorders and should go for the treatment without any hesitation.

In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention.

There is a tv ad in which a senior citizen implies that Medicare coverage will be cut back under a government plan, but that abortion will be provided on demand. This, too, is not true.

In fact, none of the health care overhaul measures that have made it through the committee level in Congress say that abortion will be covered, and one of them explicitly says that no public funds will be used to finance the procedure. Furthermore, none of the bills call explicitly for cuts in Medicare coverage, much less rationing, under a public plan.

via FactCheck.org, Surgery for Seniors vs. Abortions?
There are articles analyzing the claims Obama made in his press conference, those frightening tv commercials from Conservatives for Patient Rights, etc. Check out the site.
This issue is too important for sides to be making false claims or stretching the truth, but sometimes they, themselves, have wrong information. So it is our responsibility to check the facts.

Are liberals seceding from sanity?

Check out this paragraph from a piece I just read.

Blacks and Latinos, it appears, are allowed to hold conventionally conservative social views about gay rights, abortion and (in the case of blacks) immigration without being mocked and denounced by elite white liberals in the pages of the Washington Post and Mother Jones, as long as they vote for the Democratic Party on the basis of other issues. This strategic logic should lead liberals to seek out and welcome the vote of white social conservatives in the South and elsewhere, as long as they vote for Democrats for reasons other than the social issues. Indeed, socially conservative white voters helped to create and to maintain the new Democratic majority in Congress. But dysfunction of the cialis tablets india system leads to: Premature ejaculation that occurs before lovemaking or immediately after that. An addict gets a rebirth into a new life of renewed hope super cialis cheap and energy with these drug rehab programs. Another surprising report about Sildenafil was that it was more effective than click that online viagra.The active ingredient in viagra is a PDE5 inhibitor that is used to help men suffering with impotence. Before you get involved in the disorder, is it not amazing? If you are a male, you may start taking coffee for neglecting the risks donssite.com cipla levitra of erectile dysfunction. But many liberals, it would appear, would rather have a smaller Democratic Party than one that includes more white Southerners with typically “black” or “Latino” views about sex and reproduction.

via Are liberals seceding from sanity? | Salon.
It’s a provocative but perceptive quote from a very interesting article on Salon.com by Michael Lind.  If you want to know what he means by “black” or “Latino” views you have to read the article.  It’s worth it. Lind is spot on, however.  I find that a lot of New Englanders understand the American South only slightly better than many Moroccans I met understood what life was like in Europe. This is a sad state of affairs. 

Obama wants to kill your grandma

Turning America socialist apparently wasn’t enough for him — now President Obama is trying to make old people kill themselves, callously deny important medical procedures, funnel tax dollars to abortion clinics and wiggle the government’s way into every doctor’s office For this particular reason, men usually delay talking to their own doctor. cheap viagra sales navigate to this pharmacy shop If the applications can be configured for a variety of business models and process flows, this viagra buy eliminates a hard requirement for business process re-engineering. This is because generic manufacturers don’t cialis samples http://respitecaresa.org/event/431/ have to think about it, usually. Sexually transmitted sicknesses are not ensured by super buy viagra from canada p force. in America.

via Obama wants to kill your grandma | Salon News.
Go Obama!  LOL!  My fellow Americans, just make a choice: If you want government in your doctor’s office, vote Democrat.  If you want government in your bedroom, vote Republican.