Sen. Coburn, let’s talk about ‘world’s best health care’
Here’s an exchange on CNN, in which a desperate woman tries to explain her plight to U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., at a health-care town hall meeting. Watch it:
“Senator Coburn, we need help,” she says. “My husband has traumatic brain injury. His health insurance will not cover him to eat and drink. And what I need to know is, are you going to help him, where he can eat and drink? We left the nursing home, and they told us we were on our own.”
Those words, written on the page or screen, do not convey the anguish in her voice or in her heart. Based on her description of the situation, an insurance company is rationing care. It is denying him the assistance that he apparently needs to live, a decision made and confirmed by insurance company bureaucrats and lawyers, not by the man’s doctor. Those bureaucrats and lawyers, you might say, constitute what some might call a “death panel.” This, in a country where supposedly no one goes without health care, where we have the best health care in the world.
The reaction from Coburn, a physician and probably the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate, is telling, as is the astute observation at the close of the segment from CNN anchor Rick Sanchez.
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517 comments Add your comment
Brad Steel
August 25th, 2009
1:41 pm
Coburn’s contribution to the health care plan: Better Plan to Not Get Sick
George American
August 25th, 2009
1:42 pm
HAS HE TRIED RUBBING DIRT ON IT???
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator :-) You Whine :-(
August 25th, 2009
1:45 pm
We do have the best health care in the world, better than anything the government has in mind for us.
Equality to a lib means that we ALL suffer.
getalife
August 25th, 2009
1:50 pm
Obama starved her disabled husband.
Stan
August 25th, 2009
1:52 pm
I can’t see the video while I’m at work, did the woman explain what level of coverage her husband has/had before he got his “traumatic brain injury”? Could they have been better covered in case such an injury were to happen?
Not to be heartless but keep in mind that personal responsibility does come into play here in these discussions.
Chris
August 25th, 2009
1:53 pm
Senator Coburn (to a big round of applause): “Government is not the solution.”
He went on to recommend that neighbors need to step up and help each other. But Coburn doesn’t seem to understand that in a democracy (or a republic, if you prefer), WE are the government. By asking our representatives in Washington to support health care reform and, at the very least, to provide a government insurance option–that IS neighbors helping neighbors. Helping neighbors, in part, is what government (i.e. us) is for (read the “general welfare” clause of the Constitution).
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
August 25th, 2009
1:53 pm
Hey, this took place in the old Liberty bank lobby in OKC and you can see the historic Skirvin Hotel in the background. Ol’ Wyld Byll, when he was on the street, put to gether the equity investment that mad The Liberty the only one of the 20 largest banks in the sothwest that did not fail in the mid-80s.
That said, Senator Coburn was exactly right – and, not surprisingly, the loser on the news desk forgot that Senator Coburn is this woman’s neighbor in OK – that the community must come together to help its own.
From my point of view the woman looked to be some astro turf plant from an ACORN style liberal group that was trying to disrupt the senator’s town hall meeting and prevent constructive dialogue. I frequently turkey hunt in Oklahoma and we have purchased a number of Mr. San Peppy mares there, and everyone knows that to speak with Senator Coburn, one must only call his office. This sort of disruption does nothing to advance democracy and the healthcare debate.
Scooter
August 25th, 2009
1:53 pm
getalife
Taxpayer
August 25th, 2009
1:55 pm
Well, he IS the government and that is at least part of the problem, not the solution. Like Rick said, is he going to help all of us or do we do as he recommends to all the rest and go door to door with cup in hand, “Brother, can you spare a dime.”
Taxpayer
August 25th, 2009
1:57 pm
We have the best sham, Wow!, in the world.
getalife
August 25th, 2009
1:58 pm
How about this Scooter?
It’s her husband’s fault for not taking personal responsibility for his head trauma.
Not to be heartless but ……..
Mrs. Godzilla
August 25th, 2009
2:01 pm
Thanks Tom….you’ve done a great service to the cause of The American Option.
RW-(the original)
August 25th, 2009
2:07 pm
as is the astute observation at the close of the segment from CNN anchor Rick Sanchez.
I certainly saw nothing astute about his government/non-government observation if that’s what that means and it was clear to me that he would be happy to help on a constituent services basis, but why is a news anchor giving his political opinion in the first place?
Scooter
August 25th, 2009
2:07 pm
getalife, I guess the poor guy should have known???????
Time to pull the plug.
getalife
August 25th, 2009
2:07 pm
tom is admitting the corrupt Senate does not help Americans.
There is no money in empathy.
itstrue
August 25th, 2009
2:08 pm
We do some stuff right when it comes to care. We’re the best in the world when it comes to cancer, for example. That doesn’t mean we can’t do a whole lot better. For starters, what has your private insurance company ever done for you? Do they provide any real, valuable service? Do they make any money by actually paying out your claims? Why defend these guys tooth and nail?
Does the rest of the industrialized world live under some malevolent socialist dictatorship? Did the Soviets win the cold war when I wasn’t looking (or not watching Fox)?
It’s just insurance. It’ll cover what we negotiate it to cover. Even if it’s just the government doing it, we can build in a consumer appeals process. Where did people get the idea that our government is some all-powerful Wizard of Oz that wants to destroy us? We’re in charge. If we get angry about how it works, we can vote the bums out. Hard to say the same thing in the near-monopoly private insurance market.
People like Medicare. Yes, its costs are going up at about twice the rate of inflation, but private coverage is going up at three times the rate. Care’s expensive because we have a stupid system.
Now the same guys who called Medicare socialist back in the 60s don’t dare touch a popular, successful way to finance care for the oldest and sickest among us. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s easy to understand, and works great.
Well then, which is it? Black and white, just as you like things: is it [socialized] Medicare, or send us shopping? Are you for it or against it? Why?
In any case, none of that is even on the table– all the plans in the house and the senate are basically subsidies for private insurance, along with some regulation on what they have to cover, and who has to have insurance. That’s all it is.
To borrow from the Whine guy,
Equality to a lib means we ALL get Medicare. Sign me up. If it’s good enough for grandma, it’s good enough for me.
Scooter
August 25th, 2009
2:09 pm
Thanks RW
Road Scholar
August 25th, 2009
2:11 pm
IRYW: In keeping with the repub mantra…but is is “the best healthcare in the world” cost effective?
Normal
August 25th, 2009
2:13 pm
I frequently turkey hunt in Oklahoma. WYLD BYLL)
————–
This sort of disruption does nothing to advance democracy and the healthcare debate.
BYLL: This statement is true for both sides. Let reason Prevail…
Night Train
August 25th, 2009
2:15 pm
I don’t consider “helping”, with the threat of fines or jail if I don’t, to be the solution.
People will “help” when they can and as they can. It’s my decision, not yours or Obama’s decision to make about how or when.
Unless ALL government employees use the same ‘one payer system’ why should I use it?
Citizen of the World
August 25th, 2009
2:16 pm
The government exists to allow us to accomplish, through government, what cannot be handled through private enterprise. That’s why we have public schools, DOT roads, and fire departments, police forces, parks, etc., for which we all pay, and from which we all benefit, even if we don’t personally use them.
The time has come for a public option for insurance. If that ultimately leads to single-payer government health care in the future as some fear, it will only be because the private for-profit insurance model continues to be an inadequate solution for what people need.
Why are these for-profit insurance companies so afraid of competition? Why not let the marketplace decide?
Songbird
August 25th, 2009
2:17 pm
Her husband needs to be fed thru a tube in his stomach. I guess one of her neighbors is going to help her with that. Ugh, probably not unless they are trained to do that, i.e., nurse or doctor.
My guess is after this video gets seen all over the world, the cheap bastards at the insurance company will pay up like they should have done in the first place.
Normal
August 25th, 2009
2:17 pm
Pretend I’m George American…IT’S ALL OBAMA’S FAULT. EVEN GEORGE BUSH IS OBAMA’S FAULT. WORLD WAR TWO IS OBAMA’S FAULT. EVERYBODY KNOWS HE INVADED HAWAII, HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE SAYS SO…BLAME OBAMA NOW!!!
Stan
August 25th, 2009
2:20 pm
I would be afraid of the competition because in order to have fair business competition the field must be equal. A government run system does not have to make a profit to stay in business. A government run system gets to set all the rules on the field and change them at any time they choose. A government run system is about control.
itstrue
August 25th, 2009
2:22 pm
“A government run system is about control.”
…by the tax payer, not the shareholder.
AmVet
August 25th, 2009
2:23 pm
That laughably stupid Okie was your typical do-nothing but talk Republican.
Neighbors helping neighbors??? I’m surprised these f&ckups didn’t promote that REALLY CHEAP CURE years ago!
BRILLIANT!
Yeah, like I want Wyld Byll, or White Andy diagnosing and treating ANY problem ANY of their neighbors have!
And I for sure want Bud Wiper performing physical therapy on that man.
These corporate owned fascists are NEVER going to have the integrity or balls to take on their moneyed masters at Pfizer and Aetna.
Because we the people are NEVER going to make them.
And that poor schmuck of a woman is not NEARLY profitable enough for them, or you, to care.
And we all know there are literally hundreds of thousands of her in this nation.
Working their asses off their entire lives to get treated like so much chattel by the plutocrats. And to lose everything because some dickhead in some office in Chicago, or pick a city, decides, “Nope no soup for you!”
And the American Mussolinis in Washington are so emboldened they no longer even PRETEND to represent real people.
But those dolts in OK will likely send that “come see me (but not the guvmint!)” scumbag right back there again and again for yet more abuse and neglect.
So go ahead and keep shucking and grinning for the status quo. Or at least “changes” that are so insignificant, they mean nothing to the average, decent American worker.
Way to go conned, you are getting ever closer to making ours a government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations…
Marc
August 25th, 2009
2:23 pm
Jay did you check and see what their coverage was? Did they pay for this kind of care? You don’t know but you sure can point fingers. Will Obama plan cover this? Coburns answer was PERFECT!!!
jt
August 25th, 2009
2:24 pm
Health Care Anguish Level—————-Code Pink.
Deficit Threat Level—————————-Code Red
Second-Hand Smoke Level remains constant.
Smug Warning over Middle New England.
Public Option or No Bill
August 25th, 2009
2:24 pm
The collective statements in the last two years by Drs. Price, Camed oburn, and Gingrey make most sorry these 3 were ever admitted to med school. They illustrate that if you’re an MD and a Republican congressman, you have little concept of how healthcare is working in the US today and you’re a total pawn of the insurance companies. Georgia has more of these MD whackjobs than any other state which says something about the educational system in Georiga that’s ugly.
Congressman John Tanner from Tenn. is typical of the scumbag Blue Dog’s who are on the payroll of pharmaceutical and insurance companies big time. He is critical of the public option. Ah wonders why–could it be Taniner knows anything about the horrible milieu of healthcare ruined by the insurance industries today?
Of course not. It’s about Tanner’s being a street whore like all the other Blue Dogs–Evan Bayh’s wife takes $400,000 per year for sitting on Well Point Boards and she has no job.
Tanner received:
$128,697 from Insurance Companies
$96,999 from Pharmaceuticals (Ain’t that close to $97,000 some of you math majors?)
Lawyuhs $60,531
Nursing Homes $59, 500
Tom
August 25th, 2009
2:24 pm
Indeed there are millions of horror stories/truths occuring daily resultant of today’s U.S. healthcare nightmare. Welcome especially to the years of Missing-Link BushDrunk & all his GOP goose-stepping supporters. All of them typically terrified of truth and reality.
Little People, all.
david wayne osedach
August 25th, 2009
2:25 pm
This woman did the right thing taking her case to the public. One way or another she will get help for her husband.
Bosch
August 25th, 2009
2:26 pm
So…….he says to come see him (the government) – then the government is not the solution (translated, you can come see me, but we aren’t gonna help you) – and that the answer that no one talks about it that we should all help our neighbors.
So, he’s basically telling the woman that she needs to ask her neighbors for help.
That’s about the most retarded response to this debate I’ve heard yet.
thomas
August 25th, 2009
2:26 pm
Citizen of the world,
Or those insurance companies could fail because our government has shown they have no problem operating in the red and that a profit, much less a reasonable loss, is not a matter they are concerned with.
Therefore would it not be more honest to say that some pivate insureance companies would be forced out of business because, the government can offer free health care to some and very cheap to others.
You know the same way those other government ran insurance providers have been losing money for years.
HEALTHCARE IS NOT A RIGHT, IT IS A RESPONSIBILITY.
Don’t settle for sub-par coverage, do the research. Understand that if you have a cheap package of insurance, you will also recieve cheap coverage.
Bosch
August 25th, 2009
2:27 pm
Ewwww. Normal – don’t you feel the need for a shower now?
Public Option or No Bill
August 25th, 2009
2:28 pm
We have one of the worst infant mortality rates in the world by any criteria. We have some of the worst overall healthcare in the world by any criteria. I have a dog who reads more medical literature in an hour than Andy has read in his life. Of course Andy has no statstics to back it up and I have one zillion studies.
OpinionsMatter
August 25th, 2009
2:28 pm
If Coburn’s suggested solution is for neighbors to step up and help, then how about he be the first to give up his cushy health care plan (government-run, paid for my taxpayers like you and me), so that the next time he or his family experience a life-altering medical emergency, he can see what it feels like.
itstrue
August 25th, 2009
2:28 pm
“Don’t settle for sub-par coverage, do the research. Understand that if you have a cheap package of insurance, you will also recieve cheap coverage.”
…and if you can only afford a cheap insurance package, don’t look to Coburn or the GOP for help.
Doggone/GA
August 25th, 2009
2:30 pm
“A government run system does not have to make a profit to stay in business.”
And why would that be any different from the situation that would exist if someone decided insurance could be better…and started up an non-profit insurance company?
Mrs. Godzilla
August 25th, 2009
2:32 pm
Stan
Pfui!
Did public libraries wipe out Barnes and Noble?
Did next day air service at the Post Office force Fed Ex and UPS to fail?
Did public colleges and Universities take down all the private schools?
We need The American Option to keep the insurance companies honest.
Doggone/GA
August 25th, 2009
2:33 pm
“HEALTHCARE IS NOT A RIGHT, IT IS A RESPONSIBILITY.”
and we aim to change that.
thomas
August 25th, 2009
2:33 pm
itstrue,
So it is the governments job, or responsibility to help or provide insurance care for you?
Or should we focuse more on actual reform of the insurance companies, like incentives for good health.
If it is the governments job to provide health care, then would it not be logical to say they should feed us all as well?
Do you think there are that many people who are too stupid, ignorant, or disabled that they would require the government to take care of them?
I for one have much more faith in the capability of my fellow Americans.
Bosch
August 25th, 2009
2:33 pm
And if something doesn’t get done soon – and as the Boomers get older…….
And some of these town hall yellers have the audacity to talk about grandmas getting euthanized if this plan goes through. If something isn’t done soon, that will be a reality – old people will die from neglect by the scores.
Doggone/GA
August 25th, 2009
2:34 pm
Mrs G…very good!
thomas
August 25th, 2009
2:35 pm
No, they did not Mrs. Godzilla.
But not a great argument since last time I check its kinda tough to get a NEW book at the library.
So are you saying we can expect dated and used equipment and proceedures from a government ran system?
Doggone/GA
August 25th, 2009
2:36 pm
“If it is the governments job to provide health care, then would it not be logical to say they should feed us all as well?”
but no one is proposing that the government provide healthCARE…what is proposed is that the government provide healthcare INSURANCE. And, BTW, if it becomes necessary for the government to feed people because they have no other option, then yes the government should feed “us”
Doggone/GA
August 25th, 2009
2:37 pm
“So are you saying we can expect dated and used equipment and proceedures from a government ran system?”
Again, no one is proposing a government run SYSTEM…only government backed INSURANCE.
Normal
August 25th, 2009
2:37 pm
BOSCH, yeah, I do itch some…
Dusty
August 25th, 2009
2:39 pm
There are just too many questions about this particular incident. The truth is that you can have the very best paid for governement supported insurance health system in the world and somebody is going to have a hard time with it. So Bookman found one at a political rally. Of course.
Why was this woman at a political rally when she claims no one is helping her with a disabled husband? He’s by himself?
Why did the nursing home remove him? What kind of insurance did he have?
Did they have too much income to get on Medicaid?
Did she talk to a medical counselor which every hospital has and find out any available help sources?
How did Terri Schiavo stay in a nursing home for years? Who paid her expenses? Why did Bookman not cite her case?
As I said, there are too many questions about this case, real or not. But Bookman only goes for the tears and sympathy.and accusations. And, of course, a few points for the government to take care of all your problems.
Bosch
August 25th, 2009
2:41 pm
thomas,
When is the last time you stepped foot into a library?
Mrs. Godzilla
August 25th, 2009
2:41 pm
Thomas
I always call ahead and reserve the book….it’s one of the great services the Public Libraies offer.
Where does one get a “NEW” kidney or heart…..? Aren’t all the transplanted organs used?
pssst…don’t tell anybody ….HCR calls for no sterilization of
scalpels and the like when operating on conservatives….dirty hands
make for liberal election wins!