John Stossel takes on Michael Moore

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Sick Sob Stories
By JOHN STOSSEL
September 13, 2007; Page A16

In Michael Moore's movie "Sicko," a widow named Julie Pierce tells a tearful story: Her husband died of kidney cancer after their health-insurance company denied payment for a bone-marrow transplant that might have saved his life. Ms. Pierce's rage is palpable as she repeats the word her insurers used in response to her husband's request. "They denied it," she sneers. "Said it was 'experimental.'"

(snip)

The sad truth is that the treatment isn't effective. When researchers released the results of their clinical trials to the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 1999, they showed that the treatment offered no benefit. Worse, it often killed women faster than their cancer, and caused them unnecessary pain. At a time when their health was at its greatest risk, more than 30,000 women were exposed to an invasive, harmful and ultimately useless treatment that the National Institutes of Health no longer recommends. But only one state legislature has repealed its law requiring insurance companies to pay for the treatment. Some doctors believe bone-marrow transplants might help kidney cancer patients, and the NIH is conducting clinical trials to find out. Until the treatment has been shown to do more good than harm, insurers are reluctant to pay for it.

(snip)

When government is in charge of health care, the result is not that everyone gets access to experimental treatments, but that people get less of the care that is absolutely necessary. At any given time, just under a million Canadians are on waiting lists to receive care, and one in eight British patients must wait more than a year for hospital treatment. Canadian Karen Jepp, who gave birth to quadruplets last month, had to fly to Montana for the delivery: neonatal units in her own country had no room. Rationing in Britain is so severe that one hospital recently tried saving money by not changing bed-sheets between patients. Instead of washing sheets, the staff was encouraged to just turn them over, British papers report. The wait for an appointment with a dentist is so long that people are using pliers to pull out their own rotting teeth.

Patients in countries with government-run health care can't get timely access to many basic medical treatments, never mind experimental treatments. That's why, if you suffer from cancer, you're better off in the U.S., which is home to the newest treatments and where patients have access to the best diagnostic equipment. People diagnosed with cancer in America have a better chance of living a full life than people in countries with socialized systems. Among women diagnosed with breast cancer, only one-quarter die in the U.S., compared to one-third in France and nearly half in the United Kingdom.

(snip)

Mr. Stossel is co-anchor of "20/20." ABC News will air his TV special on health care at 10 p.m. EST Friday.
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118964470258225901.html (subscription)

[BornagainDUer]

1. Stossel is a shill and worse he is a shit-for-brains

shill. He completely misses the main point about Sicko:

IT WAS ABOUT PATIENTS WITH HEALTHCARE THAT CAN'T GET TREATMENT.
Stossel, like so many other corporate spokespersons, religiously misses this most vital fact.

[Gabi Hayes]

2. ''John Stossel Is A Pathological Liar''

Webster's Medical Dictionary defines a "pathological liar" as "an individual who habitually tells lies so exaggerated or bizarre that they are suggestive of mental disorder." Next to this definition should be this picture - a photo of a self-important, smarmy looking, all-too-coiffed ABC News "reporter" named John Stossel.

You may have noticed that Stossel is out hawking a book called "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity" purporting to debunk those things. Instead, what we see is that Stossel is spewing them - and using his media platform as a megaphone of dishonesty. Stossel, in many ways, is exactly why I wrote my new book Hostile Takeover - to strip bare the opportunists, shills and half-wits who dominate our political debate and show them for what they really are: pathological liars.

Here's what I mean. According to the right-wing, Scaife-owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Stossel appeared on ABC's "The View" to talk about his book's assertion that the minimum wage supposedly hurts low-income workers. The host was surprised that someone could make such a ludicrous claim. "Why does raising the minimum wage -- this one I don't get -- actually hurt poor people?," she asked Stossel. "I don't understand that one at all."

Stossel replied with a straight face: "The truth is that people on the margins lose jobs when minimum wages go up. We used to have people washing windshields at gas stations. We don't anymore because of the minimum wage. There's no opportunity for kids, for entry-level workers."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/john-stossel-is-a-patholo_b_21903.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=john+stossel+liar

[BornagainDUer]

6. We need to track down this jackass's investments. He's a bought and paid for

corporate whore if there ever was one.

[question everything]

21. I have never watched 20/20

and don't know anything about Stossel, so I let his words speak for him.

I think that both he and Geraldo Rivera like to promote themselves.

[Freedomofspeech]

3. Stossel is another right-wing shill

[mudesi]

4. LOL!

John Stossel has about as much credibility as Bill O'Reilly.

[JuniperLea]

11. I was going to say Geraldo Rivera...

But I guess they all fit together nicely.

[bagimin]

20. Compared to Stossel , Geraldo is Edward R. Murrow

[Selatius]

5. I'd like to see his numbers for France. Stossel attacks the UK/Canada because they aren't the best

France, according to the World Health Organization, beats everybody, including the US, in terms of OVERALL care. There are certain categories where the US may hold an advantage, but in general, France's single-payer health care system is superior.

[BornagainDUer]

8. Ding! Ding! Stossel gets this weeks "Origin of the Specious" award!

Excellent info there Selatius. :hi:

[question everything]

22. Indeed. France and Germany are supposed to have

better systems than either Canada or Britain.

Yet, because the proximity to Canada many can cite more anecdotes - for either side.

And this, I think, is the main problem. Both sides bring anecdotes while, in reality, most Americans with employer-provided insurance like theirs... until they do not.

I think that relying on employers to provide insurance is the worst point, yet, as far as I know, only Kucinich and Guiliani (and, perhaps Romney) want to take employers out of the equation.

[Stephanie]

7. An autologous bone marrow transpalnt saved my friend from leukemia.

He said he saw the nurse walking toward him carefully carrying a silver bowl and he realized she was literally holding his life in her hands - she had his radiated marrow in the bowl. He was in his mid-twenties at the time. Now it's 15 years later and he's just fine.

[graywarrior]

9. He's on O'Lielly right now.

[JuniperLea]

12. Birds of a feather

Shits of a stench.

[BornagainDUer]

15. I want to make a slight modification to the name "O'Lielly".

After considerable thought I suggest it be changed to "O'LIARly".

Just a suggestion.

[Greeby]

10. Where's David "Dr. D" Schultz when you need him?

;)

[Gabi Hayes]

16. ha ha ha ha....ha ha HAAAA! I didn't know who that was until I found what I was looking for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35wyVQxXUA

[Gabi Hayes]

18. I'm not a violent person, but that video is SO satisfying

sorry, Jesus

if I confess my sins, do I still get to go to heaven?

and, J, didn't your father have sex with an underaged girl (who was already married), out of wedlock?

[Beaverhausen]

13. "people are using pliers to pull out their own rotting teeth"

Hey John, it's nice that you probably have great dental coverage, but most of us here have shitty coverage and sometimes we have to resort to the same thing.

And don't dentists use pliers, too?

what a fucking asshole.

[NanceGreggs]

14. As an American living in Canada ...

... who recently had to deal with a serious illness, I can state unequivocally that Stossel's rhetoric is absolute bullshit.

"Just under a million Canadians are on waiting lists to receive care." Well, I'd LOVE to see where Stossel got his facts. I'm assuming he's counting every Canadian who has a doctor's appointment that hasn't happened yet - I suppose that if someone has an appointment tomorrow, he/she has been counted as "still waiting for care".

"Some doctors believe bone-marrow transplants might help kidney cancer patients, and the NIH is conducting clinical trials to find out. Until the treatment has been shown to do more good than harm, insurers are reluctant to pay for it."

No, the truth is that insurers are reluctant to pay for ANYTHING, because paying out means lessening the bottom-line. Let's call 'em as we see 'em, instead of calling 'em as the FOR-PROFIT insurance companies sees 'em, okay?

"Patients in countries with government-run health care can't get timely access to many basic medical treatments." Well, isn't that strange - I got IMMEDIATE access to basic medical treatment. Maybe the Canadian government decided to give ME special treatment; maybe I was put on some medical priority list somewhere - gee, I'll have to look into that. Who knew I was so special? I wonder why I - among the alleged millions who have to wait for basic healthcare - was singled out.

You know, there's BULLSHIT, and then there's MAJOR UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT. I don't think there's any doubt into which category Mr. Stossel's comments fall.

[Canadiana]

17. This is BULL SHIT - as a Canadian I'm enraged.

Not only is he lying but he is lying about MY country and MY field of work, and something I am extremely proud of. Would you REALLY rather get cancer in the states you IDIOT? Well, maybe if you're lucky enough to be insured...but 45million aren't!! I posted about this last week...apparently these people are left for DEAD or bankruptsy. Here in Canada, no one is left to die on the fucking STREETS because they arent insured. No one goes bankrupt for health care! And our care is high high quality. We have free clinics every day in my city where you can see a gp if you cant get an appointment...and I usually can get one in an average of 2 days anyways. Do NOT desparage Canada's wonderful health care system you asshole, when your own country, the "best in the world", leaves its own citizens to die in the name of profit.

[question everything]

23. There will be many letters expressing your opinion

submitted to the WSJ and, yes, they will be published as something like that took place several months ago.

[dsc]

19. I have watched several shows that are filmed and set in Canada and Britain

and I have never seen people waiting for medical treatment. Wouldn't this be a reasonable plotline if it were common? Yet I have literally never seen it portrayed. Not on Prime Suspect, not on Degrassi, not on Midsommers murders, never. I find that very interesting to say the least.