I’m going to admit I don’t know ALL the details about the new Obama bill. However, I’m getting increasingly furious as I continue to listen to those who oppose this bill even though I’m not even from the USA. Most of the arguments they give are downright ridiculous and in some ways insulting.

Obama VS. Hitler – cutting healthcare expenditure VS Holocaust

First, they compare Obama to Hitler.

I am absolutely appalled by this. Do they have ANY IDEA what Hitler stands for? In case you haven’t heard of people like Anne Frank, Jews back then had to hide in secrecy, for if they were found by the Nazis, THEY WOULD BE KILLED. Many of the people who are against this bill claim that Obama’s cutting of Medicare expenditure by $500 billion over 10 years is the same as him employing Hitler’s “Final Solution” to purge all Jews.

Are they out of their minds?

First, part of this $500 billion that is going to be cut is going to come from reducing inefficiencies within Medicare itself, for example switching to electronic medical records which would facilitate easy sharing of patients’ information. Of course, doing stuff like that isn’t going to save $500 billion, and the funds for medicare will definitely be lesser than previously. BUT, does that mean having lesser funds for healthcare makes Obama another Hitler?

For those who don’t know, back during the 1930s and 1940s, Jews were all thrown into ghettos in Germany where they literally rotted to death. Later, Hitler’s Nazi party went around rounding up Jews as if they were sheep, after which they were separated into two groups of people: those who would go to labour camps, and those who would go to the gas chambers to be “exterminated”. For those who went to the labour camp, nobody cared when they would die. For those who were immediately sent to the gas chambers, they would all be packed into a room until there was absolutely no space in the room, after which the doors were closed and toxic gases were fed into the room. After awhile, the doors would be opened, and all of them would still be in their original standing positions, all packed together.

Only difference? They weren’t breathing anymore.

People are comparing THIS to Obama cutting $500 billion dollars from Medicare.

And let’s not forget the Holocaust isn’t Hitler’s only claim to fame, this following quote not from myself, and I’m not exactly sure whose story it is:

My mom was born in Germany in 1941. When she was 4, a group of SS officers showed up at the front door of a two-story flat where she lived. Two of them went downstairs, and two of them went upstairs where she and her parents were. She watched while an SS officer put a gun to her father’s head and threatened to shoot him on the spot if he didn’t drop everything he was doing, leave his wife, leave his family, leave his job, and “volunteer” to fight in the German army. (Near the end of the war, they were becoming desperate to keep the ranks filled, ultimately making children and old people fight..)

The two SS officers that went into the apartment below theirs did the same thing. In that case, the father in the apartment below theirs was shot in the head, probably for begging not to be taken away from his family.

And to think people dare to show up at protests with a picture of their President photoshopped to look like Adolf Hitler, a man whose atrocities can never be put down in words.

Coming Between Doctor and Patient

Second, there is to be medical review boards that will provide guidelines for doctors on what type of treatment would be appropriate for their patient. Now some people argue that this would prevent doctors from fulfilling the Hipprocratic Oath – putting their patient’s well-being before anything else, because they will have to choose between doing what’s best for their patient and being sued or getting in trouble with the law somehow.

Bulls**t.

First, the guidelines provided are only SUGGESTIONS as to how the doctor COULD go about treating his or her patient. It is NOT a mandate of any sort. There is nothing that is going to come in between the doctor and his or her patient.
Second, are people that naive to think that ALL doctors are doing the best for their patients?

Massive medical fraud exposed: pharmaceutical company paid doctors to prescribe drugs and run sham clinical trials

The fact of the matter is that due to the private nature of many pharmaceutical firms and thus their profit driven nature, coupled with certain irresponsible doctors, the patient’s needs are often neglected for profit’s sake. There NEEDS to be something that oversees healthcare in the USA in order to ensure proper healthcare for all its people.

End-of-life planning = “death panels”

Third the whole idea of there being “death panels” which is apparently a panel of “bureaucrats can decide who dies” according to Sarah Palin. In essence , it encourages senior citizens to kick the bucket earlier?

People who suggest this have got to be illiterate, or they are willing to take Sarah Palin’s words for it (which is probably even worse than being illiterate).

What the bill actually does is pay doctors for voluntary consulting sessions with older patients to discuss end-of-life issues which include stuff like living wills, learning about hospices as an option for the terminally ill, facilitating emotional expression, allow doctors to appreciate the psychological state and the suffering which their patient is going through, etc. Because let’s face it, we’re all eventually going to die, and this bill incentivises doctors to assist patients in making plans for this eventuality.

Where in the world does it promote stuff like mercy killing or euthanasia? In fact, it would block funds for counselling that presents assisted suicide as an option for patients.

Oh and let’s not forget to mention that back in 2003 or 2004, the Republicans were in favour of a similar proposal which would help senior citizens pay for end-of-life counselling. But now that the same thing is being proposed, it suddenly becomes “death panels”.

Sheesh…

Start Being Rational… PLEASE

In my opinion, people who are busy shouting and screaming at those town hall meetings really need to start educating themselves about what everything here really means. Also, they should probably learn to not have the patience of a 10 year old, because they’re screaming questions at Representatives and Senators without even giving them the chance to answer their questions before continuing to shout. There are times when the speaker will simply tell them that they are misinformed about a certain portion of the bill, explain to them what that part of the bill is really about, and they just continue shouting.

I do wonder how this whole fiasco is going to end…

Tags: bill, death panel, healthcare, obama, reform