No Rationing Of Editing

I suppose one can read into this the tired conservative meme of "grandma's going to die". But listen closely to what he says.



I'm curious as to what Orzag said in between the edit points. I'm sure that there is relevant information that was left out in order to push the conservative perspective.

For starters, his comments about quantity versus quality and the "fee for services" system makes perfectly good sense. Having seen how the current healthcare system is more concerned about pushing you through a battery of tests and procedures that serve no greater purpose than to simply put you through the tests as "standard operating procedure", I can certainly see how quality is preferable. I recall my mother telling me that my grandmother was misdiagnosed for over 10 years because of this system.

Another way to look at this is that if you need to get stitches for a massive cut on your arm, putting band aids on it for three days isn't going to do you any good if you don't get the stitches until day 4.

The second part of Orzag's statements are very important.

He points to the medical advisory panel that could potentially put for proposals to immediately take effect. Orzag's caveat to that was that these proposals could be and can be voted down at any time through congress and then signed by the President. To claim that these people are going to remove treatments across the board is not only a tactical move designed to frighten people, but not grounded in any fact based analysis.

Here's where conservatives are getting the "rationing" talking point. However, who's to say that this will be used to take anything away? This is where it's far too easy to get into the arena of speculation. This is what conservatives are really good at, imagining the worst case situation and presenting it as fact.

I see this panel as no more sinister than the FDA. They have the power to regulate food and drug safety ( which impacts the medical industry already ) and no one has raised a fuss for decades - until now, that it. But that's all part of the faux populist rage that makes up the Tea Bagger movement.

By and large, this whole idea of "rationing care" is nothing more than conspiratorial nonsense. Certainly, one has the right to assume what they will, but it's another thing entirely to misinform the country regarding an issue that already impacts the country in a way that damages families in ways not many of us can comprehend.

As for me, I would really like to see the complete, unedited, footage of Peter Orzag's statements. After all, part of the magic of movies and television is contained within the editing process.