The Scare Tactics Continue

Dr. Wally Wilkerson, Montgomery County Republican Party Chair wrote a great little ditty in The Courier today in which he fabricates information to scare seniors. Dr. Wilkerson, who normally writes letters to the editor with his MCRP title, signs this one with just "MD". This is shameless, even for Wally Wilkerson. Below is Dr. Wilkerson's letter and my response.

To the Editor:

There is a lot to question about the proposed Democrat House Bill on healthcare, but senior citizens on Medicare need to know what is on page 425. The section is titled: "Mandatory Requirement for Medicare Counseling to Elderly Every Five Years." The counseling will advise seniors how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition, how to decline hydration and how to go into hospice care. The objective is to reduce the cost of end-of-life care by denying care to dying Medicare recipients. This sounds like a death enablment plan and not a healthcare plan. The Obama health care plan is being promoted by the "non-partisan" AARP, who is also in the insurance business. AARP should know that the creation of a new healthcare system will not reduce government spending and will drive up the deficit.

Walter D. Wilkerson, Jr. MD
Conroe

My response that has yet to be published:

Dear Editor,

In response to Dr. Wilkerson’s letter of July 29, I would like to set the record straight. The House version of the healthcare reform bill (H.R. 3200) does not mandate that that seniors undergo counseling that will teach them how to “end their life sooner”. Dr. Wilkerson cites page 425 of the bill, which he says is titled, “Mandatory Requirement for Medicare Counseling to Elderly Every Five Years.” This allegation is absolutely and unequivocally false. Section 1233 of the bill, which actually starts on page 424, is titled “Advance Care Planning Consultation”. This part of the bill amends Title 18 of the Social Security Act and allows Medicare to pay for a visit to a medical practitioner to discuss advance care planning, living wills and other advance directives, a list of national and state-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning clearinghouses, and state legal services organizations. The provision does not mandate this consultation, but merely makes it available to those on Medicare every five years. Completing a living will is a very responsible thing to do and someone may want to talk with his or her doctor about it before creating such an important document. Should Medicare pay for that consultation? That’s a good question that should be debated. Let’s keep the healthcare debate based on the facts and not wild exaggerations and falsehoods. This has been circulating on email lately and has been thoroughly debunked by the non-partisan Factcheck.org. You can see for yourself by reading the full text of the bill from the House Energy & Commerce Committee at http://energycommerce.house.gov/ .

Austin Stout
Spring, Texas

Links:

Actual Text, H.R. 3200
Factcheck.org: False Euthanasia Claims
About.com: Urban Legends

This is what we'll be hearing next!

Kevin Brady Scare Tactics

As the debate over healthcare reform heats up, the least that our elected representatives could do is stick to the facts. In Congressman Kevin Brady’s recent email newsletter, he predicts many horrid results of health care reform. A few of the gems he purports are: “People wait so long for dentist appointments that some pull their own teeth”, “If you're sick enough to be admitted, the average wait is 23 hours”, and “Some towns hold lotteries to determine who gets a doctor.” These baseless scare tactics have nothing to do with reform that has been proposed in Congress this year. As I think it has been stated a million times, proposed changes would not force you to change your health insurance plan or your doctor unless you wanted to. The introduction of a public option is meant to increase coverage of the currently uninsured while increasing competition in the marketplace. This lowers costs for everyone, including those not on the public plan, and keeps insurance companies honest. If you’ve ever had to deal with one, you know it’s a lacking quality. It’s common sense that if someone can afford to get preventative care; they lessen their healthcare costs over their lifetime. These are costs that those who currently have insurance are paying for anyway in the price of higher premiums and higher hospital bills. It’s common sense that if we don’t do something to fix this system today, it’s not only going to bankrupt the country due to rising Medicare/Medicaid costs, it’s going to bankrupt you and I, who pay higher costs each year. In fact, many Americans are already there, with 60% of bankruptcies being the result of medical bills. This proposal may not yet be perfect as it works it way through Congress, but it seeks to fix a major problem. That’s more than what I can say about Congressman Brady and the rest of the Republicans who complain about this plan but offer no solution of their own. Instead they send out emails warning people that they may have to pull out their own teeth or wait for the town clerk to draw their name before they can go to the doctor. Give me a break!

Published in The Courier, Opinion Page, 7/26/2009

Conroe Tea Party- July 2nd, 2009

Click here for pics

On July 2nd I had the opportunity to attend the 'tea party' for the northern Houston area held in Conroe. It was an event held to protest what the organizers believe is the gradual encroachment of high taxes, more government involvement in people's lives and a lessening of individual freedoms. There was a lot of complaining about 'socialism' and the feeling that things in this country have been heading in the wrong direction since President Obama was sworn into office in January. Despite the attempt by the organizers to deny the partisan preferences of the gathering the mask would occasionally slip. The best speaker of the night was undoubtedly a charismatic African-American pastor who preached the evils of liberalism. Behind him was a photograph of a billboard put up in a predominantly African-American part of Houston which makes the assertion that MLK was a Republican. (This is a half truth typical of conservatives on the civil rights debate. Its akin to saying that Strom Thurmond was a segregationist Democrat. Both statements were true, but both men eventually aligned themselves with the party that was more welcoming to their goals.)

I had expected the usual extemist talk heard among the far-right and I wasn't disappointed. The speakers repeatedly invoked the idea that the United States is a Christian nation founded on Biblical principles. Its strange that this seems so confusing to many people but the Founding Fathers took pains to keep religion separate from our government. The only mention of religion in our Constitution is the First Amendments guarantee that people can practice freely and that no official church would be organized.

The main topic off the night centered on gripes from conservatives that Obamas health care plan would result in socialized medicine which would force people to accept "rationing" from government bureaucrats. One problem with that complaint is that forty six million people currently have very little access to health care because they lack health insurance. Most Americans currently have health insurance but they're often denied coverage because 'managed care' is basically designed to deny as much care to the members as possible. There are currently hundreds of thousands of people working in the health insurance industry and many of them are basically 'bean-counters' who's job is to make sure that very little is actually spent on tests or treatments. The currently situation has an eerie parallel to what the conservatives at this tea party claimed to fear most: health insurance that often denies important treatments to 'control costs.'

I left at the end off the event almost feeling a little bad for the sponsors. It was sparcely attended and the crowd often seemed to lack enthusiasm. Overall the event was a strange mixture of extremist thought and boredom. I've included photos of the 'crowd' to demonstrate the sparce attendance and of some of the signs so that the reader can get a sense of the pet issues which motivated those in attendance. This wasn't your run of the mill Republican gathering. I guess there is a limited demand for extremism.