VIDEO: GOP Wastes No Time In Embracing Frank Luntz’s Vapid ‘Patient-Doctor’ Health Care Rhetoric
VIDEO: GOP Wastes No Time In Embracing Frank Luntz’s Vapid ‘Patient-Doctor’ Health Care Rhetoric
Earlier this week, a memo written by right-wing message guru Frank Luntz was leaked instructing the Republican Party on how to frame the health care debate in order to defeat progressive reform. Since his pivotal role in helping craft Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, Luntz has had an impressive record of cloaking regressive and conservative policies with carefully poll-tested language. For instance, Luntz is credited with persuading Republicans to use the intentionally misleading term “death tax” to describe the estate tax.
According to CQ, Republicans are enthusiastically embracing Luntz and his health care memo. At a private workshop organized by the House leadership, Luntz was welcomed with applause and cries of “Welcome home!” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) gushed, “We look to him for how do we express the things that we believe in ways that are effective.”
Luntz’s health care memo urges Republicans to denounce progressive reforms as ideas based upon a “committee of Washington bureaucrats.” The memo then calls for Republicans to strongly emphasize the “protection of the personalized doctor-patient relationship” because this approach allows Americans to believe that the GOP is doing something to “protect and improve something good“:
ThinkProgress compiled a video featuring Rep. Phil Gingrich (R-GA), Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) all embracing the vapid “patient-doctor” talking point in the past 48 hours. Watch it:
As the Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky details, Luntz’s strategy is to “obstruct health reform by ignoring what Obama is actually offering.” In all fairness, Luntz is very candid about his strategy of misdirection. Since Republicans currently have absolutely no plan for reforming health care, Luntz says to avoid projecting a policy plan and instead focus on language that “captures not just what Americans want to see but exactly what they want to hear.”
Indeed, Luntz also provides his polling and language advice to a plethora of health insurance companies.
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Memo Title: More eloquent ways to say NO.
A$$HOLES.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pmFrank Luntz only gave them talking points for no. Ask them specific questions about an alternative. Tell them tax cuts and private companies are off the table. You will get nothing.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pmGod forbid we remove the CEO-patient relationship we have now with our HMO’s, right?
May 7th, 2009 at 7:06 pmSo they lie and lie and lie and lie and…….
What does the GOP have against healthy citizens, and why can’t we have the very same health care offered to our congresscritters? Why is it good for them but not us?
May 7th, 2009 at 7:07 pmIndeed, Luntz also provides his polling and language advise to a plethora of health insurance companies.
– - Ahem, advice.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:07 pmLemme Guess…
Luntz and his family have really Good Health Insurance.
Drug ads on TV urge viewers to “Talk with YOUR Doctor, if such and such happens.
This is a slap in the face to the UNINSURED AMERICANS who Have NO Doctor!
May 7th, 2009 at 7:27 pmLuntz is probably also responsible for “enemy combatant”, “harsh interrogation techniques” and all the other Orwellian language we’ve had foisted on us. Bastard.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:31 pmIsn’t this the fella who suggested “personal accounts”
for privatizing Social Security (instead of “private
accounts”) because they polled better?
Well, that didn’t fly – there is a limit to how much you
May 7th, 2009 at 7:39 pmcan fool the American people.
No amount of fancy language is going to change public opinion on this.
Does he still wear that ridiculous hair piece?
May 7th, 2009 at 7:42 pm@dixie blood Says:
God forbid we remove the CEO-patient relationship we have now with our HMO’s, right?
_____
That is EXACTLY on point. Kudos. Like we don’t have non-clinical “bureaucrats” in charge of our health care now.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:43 pmI am getting to the point where Medicare will take care of me. However, I hope to see a day when other people in their 30s and 40s are not ruined by the predatory health care industry in America. The Democrats MUST warn the American people of the propaganda war the insurance industry is about to wage against their interests. We finally have a couple of outlets on MSNBS and in the blogs to publicize an alternative to the MSM, thank god, but they need to be relentless in letting the public be aware of the devious, lying corporate shills that are going to try to sink the hopes of the American people for universal health care.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:46 pmVIDEO: GOP Wastes No Time In Embracing Frank Luntz’s Vapid ‘Patient-Doctor’ Health Care Rhetoric
=============================================================
. What the hell does he mean “patient-Doctor” relationship!
Try “Insurance-Doctor-Insurance-Patience” relationship with very profitable premiums for the insurance companies. Ask your Doctor if he likes practicing under the insurance company’s direction!
May 7th, 2009 at 7:46 pmThanks, TP. That was an enlightening compilation. Beyond the “Bureaucrats coming between the patient-doctor relationship” talking points, the Repugs went that extra mile, by saying that is what Americans are worried about. They made it appear as if that is what they’re hearing from concerned Americans. It was just one American they had heard from, Frank Luntz. They can’t help but lie just a little bit more. They’re pathological. It’s in their DNA.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:48 pm@flight -
“Ask your Doctor if he likes practicing under the insurance company’s direction!”
_____
My doctor’s favorite payer is Medicare. When my daughter was sick with cancer 11 years ago, her primary doc said that their favorite patient from a billing perspective was the “Medi-Medi” — one both on Medicare and being poor enough or with a qualifying disability for Medcaid coverage. They got the best net reimbursement with the least hassle via a Medi-Medi client.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:51 pmYeah, by all means……..let’s let bean counters remain in charge of our healthcare and deny care so that CEOs can get more millions in their pockets. If we adopt a single-payer system (think Medicare) for all, things would be better. Check in with your elderly friends and relatives. Medicare works just fine for millions of seniors and has a 3-4% administrative rate, as opposed to insurance company administrative costs of 30% or more.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:52 pmA professional liar teaching others how to lie. What a job! Sad part is all the regular folks believing their lies and getting screwed at the same time. Even sadder still, the votes of those idiots that believe the lies effect those of us smart enough not to believe the lies.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:58 pmSince Republicans currently have absolutely no plan for reforming health care, Luntz says to avoid projecting a policy plan and instead focus on language that “captures not just what Americans want to see but exactly what they want to hear.”
What Frank Luntz has never concerned himself with is the fact that Americans want the truth! They don’t just want a plan that sounds good, they want a plan that is good, and good for them, not the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. If Luntz was honest (and I suggest that he is not), he would admit that the Republicans want to protect the insurance and pharmaceutical companies’ profits, no matter who has to die for them to get it.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:59 pmAnd what “doctor-patient” relationship would that be? Would it be the one where the Insurance Company tells you what doctors you can see as part of your plan? Or would it be when your doctor says you need a certain procedure and your insurance company denies that procedure?
Hopefully the Democrats will be on to their tricks this time and comes up with their own Harry and Louise commercials. Perhaps they should run the original commercial and point out that every scary thing that the commercial told us would happen under government insurance has actually happened under the for-profit insurance companies that paid for the original Harry and Louise commercials.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:00 pmMy senior medical director at the Medicare QIO where I worked once simply observed that “every misspent dollar in the health care system is part of someone’s paycheck.” So, yeah, Wayne and Bilbo et al, y’all are so right.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:05 pmSo, if the government is paying for the healthcare, that means the patient & doctor no longer talk to each other? Say wha?
May 7th, 2009 at 8:14 pmThis works because people listen with their emotions not the brains.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:17 pmIf folks were paying attention they’d tar and feather most of the GOP for insulting them, misleading them, lying to them and exploiting them.
The GOP does not realize that YOU CAN’T SPIN THIS.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:18 pmThis is real life for people. They want an actual solution to the problem.
And people are going to judge the parties, not on the slogans, but on the actual provisions of the program.
Our health care DELIVERY system is killing people, bankrupting families, ruining children’s futures, stifling entrepreneurship, and causing people to live in fear. While at the same time saturating TV with advertisements for drugs they can’t purchase.
The Republicans are the party of No, but they’re also the Party of Katrina. They burn up the airwaves and scream about freedom –but when theey get called on to actually DO something, they trip over their own shoelaces, lock the keys in the car, and reveal that they actualy don’t have a degree in medicine.
And then they try to blame somebody else.
“(Luntz’s) memo then calls for Republicans to strongly emphasize the “protection of the personalized doctor-patient relationship” because this approach allows Americans to believe that the GOP is doing something to “protect and improve something good.”
So, how does this “talking point” fit in with the hardcore Republican, evangelical conservative position on ABORTION, and their exemplary (HA!!) stance on the “protection of the personalized doctor-patient relationship” between a doctor and a pregnant woman???
Democrats bringing up the issue of abortion, which should only be a decision by a pregnant woman in consultation with her doctor, without any interference by the government or anti-First Amendment religious fundamentalists, will shoot holes in this latest Republican Party talking point implying that somehow the culture of corruption Republicans are interested in the “protection of the personalized doctor-patient relationship.” They aren’t. They’re lying. Typical.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:21 pmexpect everything.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:33 pmFor four years, I’ve been meaning to write about Max Baucus. After his conduct and hypocrisy a couple of days at a Finance Committee health care hearing, I’ve decided to unload on him. I don’t often write articles on spec but this tip from one of my readers just cried out for one.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:37 pm“committee of Washington bureaucrats.”
May 7th, 2009 at 8:37 pmRepub talking point garbage for “democratically elected government”.
Private insurance companies already decide who gets what treatment and when. Even private health insurance is falling apart cause of the greed of a few which is continually protected by congress. We just need to get this bill passed and tell the gop to go f&%$ themselves, noone cares what they have to say.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:47 pmBobbyG Says:
——————————————————————————–
@flight -
“Ask your Doctor if he likes practicing under the insurance company’s direction!”
_____
My doctor’s favorite payer is Medicare. When my daughter was sick with cancer 11 years ago, her primary doc said that their favorite patient from a billing perspective was the “Medi-Medi” — one both on Medicare and being poor enough or with a qualifying disability for Medcaid coverage. They got the best net reimbursement with the least hassle via a Medi-Medi client.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
. BobbyG’
May 7th, 2009 at 8:49 pmMy doctors are so tired dealing with Capital Blue Cross.
The rate structures are all screwed up, the co pays turn them into collection agents, and insurance considerations come prior to procedures. The doctors can’t practice without consulting Capital Blue Cross. I assure it has caused problems and it is very expensive.
Memo to: GOP
From: a European ’socialized’ healthcare beneficiary
I have never, ever in my life had to deal with anyone else but my doctor about my health issues and those of my family. Never, ever has a treatment been denied because it was too expensive ‘for the government’. Never, ever, have I had to contact some bureaucrat to have medicines/an appointment/specialist treatment or a major operation pre-approved by some person sitting behind a desk who gets a bonus when he/she saves ‘the government’ as much money as possible.
The irony of Mr Luntz’ memo is that he accuses Washington bureaucrats of deciding over your healthcare based on price while right now its for-profit companies which are doing just that and which, over the past decades, have caused healthcare prices to be the highest in the world while the quality of healthcare has lowered considerably. One only has to look at key World Health Organization statistics to conclude that private healthcare does NOT equal good or acceptable healthcare.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:52 pmThe most astounding indicator I’ve found to perhaps explain the GOP nosedive would have to be the growth of the internet.
The correlation between the increase in internet/information dissemination and the fall of the GOP is compelling. The more people learn about it, the less people want anything to do with conservatives.
The republicans are trying to gift-rewrap their sh¡t sandwich and even a cursory check on reputable websites reveals the shamelessness and craven behavior of the GOP.
Thank you, ’series of tubes…’
May 7th, 2009 at 9:06 pmMaster Luntz strikes again just as he did with “the death tax”. He is a another vapid leader of the GOP.
This is the GOP. No ideas, just marketing spin and euphemisms.
Not a single leader, Luntz should be included in that pack, has ideas, just zingers and coy tactics.
May 7th, 2009 at 9:32 pmSign this petition for single payer health care at
http://www.change.org/actions/view/i_demand_congress_and_the_president_enact_single_payer_universal_health_care
May 7th, 2009 at 9:44 pmhanshiro the antlion,
May 7th, 2009 at 9:45 pmI couldn’t agree with you more. The internet provides the facts without filters. The Republicans are scared to death of it, but the whole political establishment is sitting up and taking notice.
I have notice the Christian Right has started a crusade against Internet usage, claiming its pornographic and full of child molesters. This is a good indicator of the RNC’s future positioning with regards to the internet.
The country is on the verge of a new political order. The Politians are going to have to live with truth. Nice thought.
Somebody in the NY Mob put a contract on this Luntz or is it Muntz joker and let him sleep with the fishes!
May 7th, 2009 at 9:53 pmI am a primary care doctor. Seeing Medicare patients is a blessing. I find much more frustration and obstruction from private insurance companies. I’ve commented further here:
http://www.socialmedicine.org/2009/05/07/us-health-care/frank-luntz-advocates-stoking-fears-with-the-language-of-health-care-2009/
May 7th, 2009 at 11:21 pmliberal: I made the count increase to 313 ;)
May 7th, 2009 at 11:41 pmHow ridiculous. The insurance company bureaucrats already stand between me and my doctor.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:33 amright wing left wing. Thank you. We need to get a lot more.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:48 amOnce again “NO” and NO “IDEAS”, these people are truly a sad little bunch of losers.
May 8th, 2009 at 1:07 amHere’s a great cartoon about the G(no)P. :-D
May 8th, 2009 at 1:12 amI got this robo response email after signing liberal’s petition:
I think I’ve just been told to f uck off. :D
May 8th, 2009 at 1:19 amLuntz almost got it right here. Substitute “insurance companies” for “committee of Washington bureaucrats” and Luntz would be accurately describing our current health care system and one of the prime reasons we need a new single payer system with universal coverage. I guess irony is not one of Luntz’s strong suits.
May 8th, 2009 at 1:44 amLuntz is a kunt
May 8th, 2009 at 2:05 amgreat post sir..
May 8th, 2009 at 5:34 amthanks for sharing. really helped a lot here.
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Ugg Boots | Uggs
A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
What would FDR say today, I wonder?
May 8th, 2009 at 7:23 amThe Republicans know that they have NO power.
So the goal is to make health care reform as less government enslaving to the people as possible.
That’s why they’re hammering home the point of you losing your personal freedom of choice.
Why do you think Obama during campaign kept saying:
“If you like your private insure then you can keep it.”
Answer: Because his advisers are attuned to the fears of the American people and potential angles of attacks from Repubs.
But let’s be truthful… If a public plan or the overhaul and expansion of medicare is offered (which I prefer over offering a public plan), then this will ultimately lead to universal healthcare because the for profit insurance companies won’t be able to compete.
And if we want Healthcare reform, we are going to have to PAY FOR IT!
I’m for Universal healthcare but I just don’t appreciate the lying to the American people.
They treat us like we’re stupid.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:17 amI am a participant of the SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM IN CANADA, i have never spoken to any GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL, INSURANCE COMP. The only person i’ve talked to (im 45)in my entire life is
MY DOCTOR!!!
Oh by the way, my doctor has never had to ask for permission from anyone to treat me.
What you are hearing is just propaganda!!!!!!
May 8th, 2009 at 9:38 amAnother Canadian here. When I’m sick, I go to see my family doctor, go to the hospital, or walk into any number of walk-in clinics around the city. I see any doctor I chose, and when my appointment is over I leave. No paper work to fill out, no insurance company to deal with, and certainly no government officials telling me where to go, who to see, and what I should or should not do.
All I do is show the front desk my government health card. Done. It doesn’t cost me a single penny out-of-pocket, there is no co-pay, I can get a second opinion (or third or fourth), and as an added bonus, I don’t have to worry my claim will be denied by anybody or that I will get nailed with a bill in the future.
My wife and I had out first child last year. She ended up with an infection of the amniotic fluid which passed to the baby and she needed an emergency c-section. We were in the hospital for a week so my wife could recover and receive antibiotics and the baby was in the neonatal intensive care unit. After the week, they were both cleared of infection, I signed my name on the discharge form and we walked out the door. No paperwork other than that, no government telling us what to do, no insurance company expecting a co-pay. Nothing.
It really couldn’t be any easier than that. People just have to be willing to except slightly higher taxes. But study after stufy PROVES that health care through taxation is significantly cheaper than private insurance. The fact that REpublicans consistently fail to recognize this REALITY, and continue to spread their propaganda is stunning to me. Especially since they all have free health care provided for them via taxpayer dollars.
May 8th, 2009 at 10:25 am“…Since Republicans currently have absolutely no plan for reforming health care, Luntz says to avoid projecting a policy plan and instead focus on language that “captures not just what Americans want to see but exactly what they want to hear.” ”
Well, that strategy would only work if we were dealing with some abstract policy with which Americans had only a vague familiarity. Since so many people know EXACTLY what’s wrong with the system from very personal experience, this is really DOA. I wouldn’t worry too much.
May 8th, 2009 at 10:43 amWhat doctor-patient relationship?? There is none. But I would like to have one. Those Repubs are so silly. When they talk they make no sense. All that comes out is a bunch of words garbled together.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:40 am.
Apparently, health care reform involves having doctors arrested. Lobbyists, though, need to be welcomed by the Senate.
Even if there’s cameras shooting it all.
Write your Senator today. Or die laughing. Patient choice.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:43 am.
Maybe a good response – unless of course you can’t afford a doctor in the first place.
These guys are good.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:33 pmIsn’t Phil Gingrey the ass-clown who kiss Rush’s pimple cover fat ass a few months ago??
May 8th, 2009 at 2:02 pmSo the Republicans “Word Master” is Luntz, who does it for the Democrats? Wait, democrats are free thinkers and don’t need someone to tell them what to say inorder to trick the american people into seeing things their way. Rush Limbaugh said, “Republicans don’t need a listening tour, they need a education tour. Republicans like to be told what to do”. And in this case, what to say. I get it now.:-)
May 8th, 2009 at 2:13 pmAll the Dems have to say is, “what about the 50 million who don’t have a doctor to have any relation with?”
May 8th, 2009 at 7:41 pmGovernment health care is cruel, because it ensures that the elderly, sick, and those who need care are made to suffer and do not get proper care. Government health care raises the cost of health care making it unaffordable, as it is now, which leads to health care shortages, rationing of care, and reduction of care.
There is a reason why people come from around the world come here to get health care, especially from those who country already has government funded healthcare.
May 9th, 2009 at 10:53 amtk, do you have any proof to your claims?
May 9th, 2009 at 11:05 amtk
There is a reason morons like YOU just regurgitate what you are told to think by that radio screechmonkey. You are stupid. TOO stupid to think for yourself. Your post was a bunch of lies and malarkey. Not a single thing you said was true. Countries with national healthcare plans pay LESS per capita than we do and 36 of them have BETTER healthcare available. The elderly and sick do NOT suffer there. You are a moron. It would be best if you refrained from commenting on things that you know nothing about. Nothing that is that Rush didnt TELL you to think
May 9th, 2009 at 4:16 pmseslichat
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May 11th, 2009 at 4:48 amtiffany rings?
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tk Says:
Government health care is cruel, because it ensures that the elderly, sick, and those who need care are made to suffer and do not get proper care. Government health care raises the cost of health care making it unaffordable, as it is now, which leads to health care shortages, rationing of care, and reduction of care.
There is a reason why people come from around the world come here to get health care, especially from those who country already has government funded healthcare.
If its unaffordable NOW, how can you argue its a good system? Also, doesn’t an increase in competition produce lower prices? Isn’t that EXACTLY what a public plan would do?
And yes, RICH PEOPLE from around the world come here because our RICH PEOPLE can afford the best care in the world. I highly doubt any poor to middle class folks from Europe are coming here for health care. Get frikkin’ real.
May 11th, 2009 at 4:03 pm