Yesterday, my mother was going off about Obama and health care (again). Here’s a direct quote from the ranting:
“They are going to stop doing hip replacements for people over 80! Obama thinks old people shouldn’t have surgeries and should just take pain pills and wait to die!”
I asked her where she’d heard that, and her answer was “my news channel” … meaning Fox News, the only channel she ever watches (and at the moment the only source she gets any news at all from). I quite rightfully suspected she’d either misunderstood something or Fox News had some talking heads saying stupid stuff again, so I went in search of what she’d heard about to refute it with some kind of authority and facts. I looked and looked and couldn’t find anything at all about it in the news.
Turns out, I hadn’t used the right search terms, because I did run across something by accident that she could have misunderstood or which could have been twisted and spun by Fox News to make it sound like that was said. Well, it wasn’t at all what was said. Here’s the relevant bit, and knowing Fox News as I do, I have little doubt the part I emphasized was twisted and spun and taken entirely out of context.
At one point in the town hall, broadcast from the East Room by ABC news, a woman named Jane Sturm told the story of her 105-year-old mother, who, at 100, was told by an arrhythmia specialist that she was too old for a pacemaker. She ended up getting a second option, and the operation, for which Ms. Sturm credits her survival.
“Look, the first thing for all of us to understand that is we actually have some — some choices to make about how we want to deal with our own end-of-life care,” Mr. Obama replied. After discussing ways “we as a culture and as a society [can start] to make better decisions within our own families and for ourselves,” he continued that in general “at least we can let doctors know and your mom know that, you know what? Maybe this isn’t going to help. Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.“
Personally, I would like a doctor that is honest enough to tell me something isn’t really going to make a problem better (or even significantly better). What I don’t want is a doctor eager to jump into surgery first or with the idea that surgery is the only or very best way to deal with something, particularly as I grow older. Taken in the context of the entire story that proceeded Obama’s comment about painkillers, yes … sometimes surgery (on the elderly or anyone) isn’t the right answer and other things do a better job of making life comfortable and livable (or extending it). I don’t have a problem with a doctor telling me I am not a good candidate for some procedure, that other options might make a better choice. I would hope to have a doctor who puts enough thought into my problem and lifestyle to be able to help me determine such things, rather than telling me to have surgery and then jumping into doing it without considering all options.
When I am 100 years old, if someone informed me I wasn’t a good candidate for getting a pacemaker, I would completely agree with them and ask them what other options are available to make my . In fact, I would say my cut-off point for many radical surgeries would be much, much lower than 100 years of age. Surgeries can and do often cause more problems than they fix (particularly in the elderly).
So no one said anything about not giving hip replacements to people over 80 or that old people should just pop pills instead of getting treatments. That particular spin on the above quote is either her own ignorance or propaganda being fed to her from the television, possibly a combination of both. I’m not going to bother refuting her or trying to explain it to her. I have given up doing so. She insists quite firmly and loudly that I don’t know anything, because I don’t watch Fox News and get my news and information from the internet, and as we all know, everything on the internet is lies and propoganda put out by the socialist-communists who want to turn the USA into Nazi Germany†.
Footnotes- † Seriously, she thinks I don’t know anything, no matter what source my statistics and facts come from, because the internet is nothing but lies. I could probably find the information in library books and show it to her, and she’d still not believe a word I say, because it doesn’t come from Fox News. It’s sad, and there’s no arguing with that sort of closed mind. Thus, I no longer bother. [↩]