Little-Acorn
08-12-2009, 12:34 PM
Several months ago, Barack Obama's grandmother had hip-replacement surgery, but then died weeks later at age 86. Later, Obama questioned the wisdom of giving "my grandmother, or eveyone else's aging grandparents or parents" such expensive surgery in their later years through government-run health care.
Of course, he pointed out that he would have paid for such surgery himself for his grandmother.
But he has not publicly addressed the question of how others might do that under Obamacare, after the programs starts running out of money and possibly has to cut back on services. By that time, most privately practicing physicians who could do the procedures, may have been driven out of business by tax-money-subsidized Socialized Medicine, leaving no one available to do the procedures outside the government-run health care system.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aGrKbfWkzTqc
Obama Says Grandmother’s Hip Replacement Raises Cost Questions
By Hans Nichols
April 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said his grandmother’s hip-replacement surgery during the final weeks of her life made him wonder whether expensive procedures for the terminally ill reflect a “sustainable model” for health care.
The president’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had a hip replaced after she was diagnosed with cancer, Obama said in an interview with the New York Times magazine that was published today. Dunham, who lived in Honolulu, died at the age of 86 on Nov. 2, 2008, two days before her grandson’s election victory.
“I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost,” Obama said in the interview. “I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother.”
Obama said “you just get into some very difficult moral issues” when considering whether “to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill.
“That’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues,” he said in the April 14 interview. “The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health- care bill out here.”
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
Of course, he pointed out that he would have paid for such surgery himself for his grandmother.
But he has not publicly addressed the question of how others might do that under Obamacare, after the programs starts running out of money and possibly has to cut back on services. By that time, most privately practicing physicians who could do the procedures, may have been driven out of business by tax-money-subsidized Socialized Medicine, leaving no one available to do the procedures outside the government-run health care system.
--------------------------------------
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aGrKbfWkzTqc
Obama Says Grandmother’s Hip Replacement Raises Cost Questions
By Hans Nichols
April 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said his grandmother’s hip-replacement surgery during the final weeks of her life made him wonder whether expensive procedures for the terminally ill reflect a “sustainable model” for health care.
The president’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had a hip replaced after she was diagnosed with cancer, Obama said in an interview with the New York Times magazine that was published today. Dunham, who lived in Honolulu, died at the age of 86 on Nov. 2, 2008, two days before her grandson’s election victory.
“I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost,” Obama said in the interview. “I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother.”
Obama said “you just get into some very difficult moral issues” when considering whether “to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill.
“That’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues,” he said in the April 14 interview. “The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health- care bill out here.”
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)