Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, the White House official targeted by Sarah Palin and other conservatives as an advocate for health care rationing and “death panels,” said Thursday his “thinking has evolved” on the need to decide who gets treated and who does not.
“When I began working in the health policy area about 20 years ago … I thought we would definitely have to ration care, that there was a need to make a decision and deny people care,” said Dr. Emanuel, a health care adviser to President Obama in the Office of Management and Budget, during a phone interview.
“I think that over the last five to seven years … I’ve come to the conclusion that in our system we are spending way more money than we need to, a lot of it on unnecessary care,” he said. “If we got rid of that care we would have absolutely no reason to even consider rationing except in a few cases.”
Dr. Emanuel, the elder brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, spoke with The Washington Times from Italy, where he is on vacation. The White House made him available in an attempt to tamp down criticism from conservatives such as Mrs. Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Georgia Republican.
These critiques have gained such steam that Mr. Obama on Tuesday told a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire that he has no intent to “pull the plug on Grandma.”
Mrs. Palin drew national attention when she wrote on her Facebook page last Friday that President Obama’s proposed health care reforms would put her parents and her 16-month-old son, Trig, who has Down syndrome, at risk of being denied health care by a “death panel.”
The former governor and 2008 vice-presidential candidate says that under Democratic proposals, physicians who counsel patients on end-of-life decisions would be financially incentivized to pressure seniors into minimal care.
[More]
Notes:
I don’t believe him.
Mao once wrote (Little Red Book) that power comes out of the barrel of a gun. That may once have been true but no longer. Power now comes from the internet where ordinary people can write and the words are instantly available worldwide in realtime.
Such is the case with Sarah Palin as David Letterman (link in the sidebar) rapidly found out. Sarah grunted and David caved. He isn’t a happy camper but he tangled with the wrong person.
Today we see again what can happen through the power of the written word and the net as Sarah muttered on her facebook entry about “death panels” and an entire majority Democrat government caved in and folded the section she was concerned about.
Now, Obama would like you to believe that he’s boss but that isn’t true is it as the media goes after the power behind the throne?
My view — Rahm Emanuel runs the US at the moment and today his older brother who has been appointed to a critical position finds himself in deep trouble and he is back pedalling furiously.
Why did that happen do you suppose?
Could it be because of Sarah and people like her — little people who have stopped buying the bullshit? I think so and Obama is losing the most valuable tool in his arsenal — his credibility.
It is becoming clear that he is a puppet on the throne and people like Emanuel, Pelosi, Reid and Frank are the ones yanking his strings. As I said earlier I don’t trust them and if I was an American I would be doing everything in my power to yank the rug right out from under them.
Why would I do that?
Because it’s the right thing to do.
“he is a puppet on the throne”
…Which is fine with Obama as long as he can delude himself into being the ruler and can stay on stage. He does want control and power but is totally disengaged from the mechanics of legislation and its content. It’s an untenable situation.
The rug might be pulled out on the current puppeteers but new puppeteers will simply replace the vacuum that a non-leader like Obama leaves.
It is interesting that Palin represents the cornerstone to democracy, the middle class. The Ivy League elitists can’t isolate her even with the help of the legacy media which is critical to their propaganda. But even the MSM is backing off now, if not downright turning on them (Lou Dobbs at CNN).
When it becomes apparent to Obama that he is losing control and power he will be ruthless on those around him.
It’s fascinating. It’s not a vast left wing conspiracy. It’s just a perfect storm of variables that you could call the ultimate stress test of democracy, to borrow from financial jargon. The result is both reassuring and frightening.
And this is the administration that Layton wants to copy.
The internet has been a great tool in getting the message out. How long before governments realize that is the biggest and best tool (weapon) in the hands of those who would hold them to account? How long before restrictions are placed on the internet and even blockages or sudden outages? China blocks a lot of internet use. We have seen “accidental” outages caused by cables being “accidentally” severed. The gov’t could easily have the internet shut down and our only source of news would be what they allow us to receive.
mid island mike
Being in power as the empty suit is, is what Mini-Marx is after.
What a strange country the good old U.S. of A. has become. All the misinformation coming out of mainly the right about universal health care and its supposidly draw backs.
All industralized countries that have universal health care must be amazed by whats going on in one of the most powerful and wealthy countries in the world.
Sure glad I live in Canada where for the most part, common sense and fair play prevails.
Time that Canada looks elsewhere for trading partners although the states will always be important , possibly the E.Common Market, and the growing countries of India and China.
Dr. Anne Doig , the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country’s health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.
“We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize,”
The outgoing President Ouellet said “that competition should be welcomed, not feared.” In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.
Doig said “Canada’s doctors are trying to tell you, that you can get better care than what you’re getting and we all have to participate in the discussion around how do we do that and of course how do we pay for it.”
With all of its problems, Canada’s universal health care is still better than what the states have, particulary those who have lost their jobs and the poor.
And its important to note that CMA reports that more Canadian Doctors are returning from the states than going down.
One of the reasons Canadians in the ROC (not so much Quebec which has its own identity) have cherished their Health Care system and put up with wait times is because it was not American. It became a part of the ROC’s indentity. Again Quebec may lead the way to adaptive change because they don’t need to wrap themselves up in a government run program to have an identity.
But now with US Health morphing into some new kind of structure Canadians might be able to acknowledge what the CMA is warning them about and thus accept some needed adaptation to the modern world of medical solutions that includes more choice.
We already have a bit of choice; we have Shouldice Hernia Centre and Paul Martin’s Health clinic that he lied about. But soon we’ll be able to talk openly about those choices and encourage their entrepreneurial expansion. That will happen as we mature and discover a country’s identity should not depend on a government run program.
Nom, Canadians love their universal health care and any Canadian political party that tinkers with it except to make it better, will lose at the polls. Therefore, I dont think the left leaning HM PM Harper will touch it with a ten foot pole.
Re: #10 — “Therefore, I dont think the left leaning HM PM Harper will touch it with a ten foot pole.”
Unless of course he comes up with a better idea that works. There is always room for improvement.
One of our best kept secrets is that unlike what is happening in Washington, with a great central plan; we have the Provinces delivering Health. Thus we have 10 Provincial experiments to watch and that is Healthy. I would bet Quebec will be the Province to show the most innovative way forward because they are less ideological about it. They have the most private schools for example.
Paul Martin balanced the budget in the 90’s on the backs of the Canadian taxpayer and part of that trick was downloading Health out of Ottawa from 50% to 18%. Thus Ottawa now has little to do with it. Harris took the heat and blame on cuts that were really Martin’s and the MSM stood silent. But Harris actually increased spending on Ontario Health.
One of our best kept secrets is that unlike what is happening in Washington, with a great central plan; we have the Provinces delivering Health. Thus we have 10 Provincial experiments to watch and that is Healthy. I would bet Quebec will be the Province to show the most innovative way forward because they are less ideological about it. They have the most private schools for example.
It’s quite shocking that no one – even defenders of Canadian health-care – brings this up