Stewart confronts industry shill who created ‘death panel’ rumor
Published: August 21, 2009
Updated 6 months ago
Jon Stewart went head to head with an insurance industry insider that is attempting to kill President Barack Obama’s efforts at health care reform.
Betsy McCaughey is the former Lt. Governor of New York and is partly responsible for the downfall of President Bill Clinton’s health care reform. Her 1994 feature in The New Republic “No Exit” blew the first big hold in Clinton’s health plan. McCaughey is currently listed as a board member of the Cantel Medical Corporation.
In 2009, McCaughey took a shot at Obama’s health care reform in a New York Post op-ed where she claimed that the health care bill would require end-of-life consultations. PolitiFact.com gave McCaughey claim a “pants on fire” rating and called it “a ridiculous falsehood.”
Jon Stewart invited McCaughey to provide the exact passage in the bill that states end-of-life consultations would be “mandatory.” McCaughey admitted that the word “mandatory” never appears in the legislation but insisted that the doctors would be penalized for not providing consultations.
Stewart quickly corrected her. “That is not in in any way what this said.”
“You and I disagree about the reading of this bill,” said McCaughey. “Because under the new Medicare pay performance system, doctors who don’t adhere to the protocols delivered by the federal government on what is cost effective and appropriate care get dinged in their payments. They get paid less. There’s actual financial pressure,” she said.
Stewart disagreed. “That’s not the interpretation of the bill. The interpretation of the bill is to get empirical evidence compiled on things that work. It’s following science for medicine,” he explained.
Part 1 of Jon Stewart’s complete and unedited interview with McCaughey can be viewed here. Part 2 is here.
This video is from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, broadcast Aug. 20, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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Betsy is the epitome of half truths and distortions (”A half truth is the blackest lie” - Tennyson) The most obvious was her statement that the living will provision was dropped because it was so dangerous rather than because shitheads like her were making such a fuss. Another was her statement that changing Medicare to save 500 billion over the next ten years was only going to be from cutting fraud and waste. The vast majority of the savings were going to come from eliminating subsidies to the insurance companies to help their bottom line for insuring Medicare patients in a private program. It turns out that it is more expensive for the government to subsidize the insurance industry than to take care of the people without insurance company intrusion. Since Betsy is a shill for the insurance companies, it is expected that she would particularly be upset with that proposition.
Lies Religion Stupidity
Welcome to the New Dark Age.
Stay smart.
You can tell the motivations of the right by reflecting back on them their own arguments. They’re arguing that they don’t want the government to control our end of life decisions, but really they want to control them for us. If end of life directives are not mandated, more of us will stumble unprepared into Terry Schiavo-dom and be at the mercy of rabid, religiously motivated politicians who think they can diagnose our condition by watching five minutes of grainy video. The last thing right wingers want is a well informed, well prepared populace.
I just went to NBC to look at the whole thing. Betsy was even worse there than here. The only way you could consider her to be reasonable would be if you didn’t know the background of what she was talking about. She most definitely is a master of the half-truth and distortion.
1. She switched the topic of conversation when Jon pointed out that if her problem was that doctors are incentivized for having these conversations with their patients, then rather than pulling the plug, the incentives are for having MORE interventions because doctors would get paid for that, not for doing nothing. It kind of shoots to bits her whole theory that old people will suffer, but she twisted his point completely.
2. She stated that doctors would be penalized if the patients changed their minds about their living wills. That is an absolutely false statement, otherwise known as a lie. The doctors would be penalized if they didn’t follow what the patients wanted, and patients are allowed to change their minds as often as they like. The bill incentivizes doctors to meet with patients at least once every five years to see if they have in fact changed their minds.
3. Betsy claims that she knows what she’s talking about because she has a degree in constitutional history (see complete video) and she’s been reading this kind of legislation for years. What she never explained was how she could have been so wrong in the past about what other legislation would bring about given her “expertise” and why we should take her seriously now.
4. Betsy kept talking about how she wants everyone to have insurance, but she fails to mention that she works for the insurance industry and what she wants is that they be allowed to stick their hands in the government till with no supervision at all.
My wife’s aunt was in a nursing home and recently died at 101 years of age. In her living will she had stated that she wanted everything possible done to resuscitate her. The doctors both at the hospital and at the nursing home said that in the absence of that statement, if she had gone into cardiac arrest they would have done nothing because people her age with osteoporosis end up with fractured ribs and a fractured sternum with punctured lungs from CPR which just makes the next couple of months painful before they die anyway. But because she had a living will, they were obligated to follow her wishes. Betsy would make it all but impossible for people to have a living will because there is no way that any legislation could be worded that she wouldn’t misinterpret it.
Typical insurance company shill.
This clip is more factually informative (and fair and balanced) than an entire month of watching Fox News.
Rachel Maddow exposed this some time ago on MSNBC, and Stewart picked up on it. So far the mainstream “liberal” media has ignored the wholesale shilling that this going on behind the scenes by the industry and conservative lobbies. Betsy is an industry flak who got her start opposing the Clinton healthcare plan with falsehoods and she is back at it again this time. the media needs to shine some light on this. As always, follow the money. Betsy, Dick Armey, etc, are well paid to do what they do to deceive the American people instead of inform them.
I watched both the first part and second part of Stewart’s interview with Betsy.
I think Stewart did a great job at getting at a sticking point in the bill and proving that Betsy lives in a completely different world than the rest of us. She was adding her ideas, assumptions and narratives instead of reading what the bill actually says and using common sense follow up thought to interpret it. Her mind only goes so far. She brushed off Stewart’s observation that we have a high infant mortality rate, and low life expectancy when compared to other developed nations.
“Not if you include car crashes and violent crime” Betsy chimed. Stewart proposed we send our car crash victims to countries where they could get better treatment. She was pulling so much from her ass, I couldn’t keep up. I guess she would say I don’t understand her. She would be right.
$5,000 cards for insurance that we would have to purchase if Betsy had her way. How is that going to pay for a CAT scan and MRI? (approx. $8,500 give or take). Then with our expensive system you’re on your own again? WHAT? How is that good for me? I only see gold for insurance companies if Betsy gets her way because “she want’s to see everyone covered”….at a premium. Oh she left that out. Whoops!
What is she talking about when she said health care has become more affordable for the “extra money” we all have because we have such a great system going right now? She claimed that Americans spend more on energy and food than health care. NO. Not true. A lie.
I spend more on health care now than I have ever had before in my life. I do not get coverage from my employer and have to pay the entirety, plus fees, high deductibles, doctors used ‘not in program’, etc. We all have played this fucked up game with insurance companies. I don’t need Betsy to recreate my reality for me. I know what my costs have been, and I know I am already paying for those who DON’T HAVE insurance. Why doesn’t EVERYONE get that privilege? After all, aren’t we in this all together?
Why should working and middle class people in proportion to their income pay exorbitant and sometimes life changing insurance and hospital bills because of someone like this woman? One main reason NOT to believe her is because she works for the behemoths that have sat on our faces all these years…and would like to continue to do so.
In Betsy’s world, we all have an additional $5000 to spend on health care every year, when that could be a tax for someone who has benefited from our system of government (wealthy) and would barely miss $5,000. Me missing $5,000 might have me declaring bankruptcy. I guess when you are a lobbyist for big insurance you don’t worry about these types of things.
Besides taking on the fraudulent practices of big insurance, a big re-do of our tax table for the wealthy is long overdue. I’m sick of subsidizing their wealth via my out of pocket expenses. If they have to pay a little more in taxes, then so be it. What I pay for insurance right now is far out of proportion to what I am actually bringing in…but then I don’t live in “Besty’s World” either.
Has “Comedy Central” become the new to go talk show to get straight talk? As likable as Betsy is, her mind is on another planet to me. I just don’t buy it but it’s sad to see someone like this scare seniors into thinking this is a threat. She’s a cheeky one now isn’t she?
BTW, the reason my costs are so high is because of an operation I had in 2007. My stimulus check went to Health Net…a for profit “health care” company. Right. Looking for a new plan, hope they take me after my operation and don’t count it against me…as if I had any control over it and being out of work for 3 months!
Betsy McCaughey = exposed LIAR. ‘Nuf said.
Old Besty is a master of half truths and material omissions. On top of that she is a merciless evil, greedy cunt.
I’m glad the guts of legislative bills are debated on TV. Much of their debate was over my head. Thank you to those posters who wrote explanations.
weird,
i just had this weird fantasy
that i was in the audience
during this interview,
and suddenly i flipped (go figure).
i suddenly stood up and started shouting.
this is what i said (in my fantasy):
“you FUCKING LIAR!
(me pointing at the lying fucking coroporate cunt)
where have you made your money?!
who bought your house?!
who were you aligned with to make your fortune?!
did any corporations (”healthcare”) or republicans
help you make the fortune you now sit on?!
who pays your monthly salary?!
You Fucking Corporate Whore!
Go to Hell, You fucking fuck!
You killed a million in iraq,
and a million in america for corporate greed
of hmo’s and lack of healthcare for its people!
for your corporate lies and spin!
you are the enemy of mankind!
you are the cancer of capitalism!
go to hell, you fucking fuck, you!)
something like that.
it was only a fantasy.
then i peacefully returned
to my own beautiful life,
thankful that america
was cool enough to elect
barack obama,
and we have the film maker
michael moore,
and the television star,
keith olbermann.
we are truly blessed.
p.s. there are many soldiers of truth unmentioned here.
they too, are part of america’s blessing. (rawstory being one of them).
i have one other sentence
for that corporate whore on stewart:
fuck you, you fucking fuck, you!
thank you,
that’ll be all.
She’s just like Sarah Palin in the VP debate with Joe Biden. Nothing but blatant lies, malicious ignorance and obvious distortions.