Barrasso politicizes breast cancer: The Preventive Services Task Force would pull the plug on my wife.
Barrasso politicizes breast cancer: The Preventive Services Task Force would pull the plug on my wife.
Yesterday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), a breast cancer survivor, accused Republicans of politicizing breast cancer. This afternoon, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) — a doctor who runs a private orthopedic practice and serves as Chief of Staff of the Wyoming Medical Center — proved her point. Barrasso called Fox News to register his opposition to the Senate health care bill and argue that the new mammogram guidelines would have pulled the plug on his wife:
And we just saw this past week the first step in rationing of health care in the country with this panel that they have, this preventive panel. A government panel that says women between 40 and 50 shouldn’t have mammograms. You know, my wife Bobbi is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed by a mammogram, went for an operation, the cancer had already spread. The mammogram has saved her life, but yet this preventive panel that the bill says, this health care bill says, ‘oh no, they’re the ones who get to decide what preventive measures are paid for or not.’ That panel would have not allowed her to have this care.
Watch it:
Rather than mandating “what preventive measures are paid for or not,” the task force issues recommendations that help doctors decide on a course of treatment. Providers can use the recommendations as a starting point to examine a patient’s particular needs, but the task force has no authority over coverage or treatment decisions. Barrasso’s wife Bobbi Brown would have received a mammogram regardless of any recommendation. Wyoming, along with 48 other states, requires insurers to cover mammograms and if the Senate bill were to become law all insurers would be required to pay for the procedure. The Wonk Room has more.
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November 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 pmSen. John Barrasso (R-WY) is a LIAR!
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:12 pmIn other words until you walk in my shoes you really don’t understand. It is sad to see this topic is refused as many of the same people refusing breast cancer care for woman have had or will have someone they love die from breast cancer. I notice Prostate Cancer is not discussed as men have that medical cost covered and even Viagra. This fight to stop all medical care for woman is just the being of remore all Woman’s Rights. We notice how Republican wives and other females have no problem being treated like less then human by their humans/men. One might think Republican woman want to go back to being like a slave to their husbands. This will be interesting to see how far these idiots that this topic.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:12 pmI think Barrasso may be speaking in code:
“My wife Bobbi” = John Barrasso
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:13 pm“Breast Cancer” = Erectile Dysfunction
“Mammogram” = Boner pills
The mammogram issue is too complex to treat like a political football. I had one last week. It’s always a difficult decision for me. The effects of radiation are real and cumulative. In order to make informed decisions, women need to take into consideration that the mammogram might increase their chances of getting breast cancer.
I think we need better tests.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:16 pmFurthermore, the recommendations aren’t that women between 40-49 should flat-out not get mammograms; just that NOT ALL women need to get them. If there’s a history of breast cancer in your family, or cancer in general, or if you’ve had risk of exposure in your life (and of course if you regularly see a physician who can discuss appropriate courses of action you, as an individual should take to maximize your health), then chances are mammograms will be recommended. The problem with recommending mammograms for ALL women in their 40s is, statistically speaking, the number of women who DEVELOP breast cancer from increased exposure to radiation due to the mammograms cancels out the number of women who benefit from annual screenings. Which is why, at the risk of being redundant – these sorts of things are SUPPOSED TO BE DISCUSSED TWIXT THE INDIVIDUAL AND HER PHYSICIAN!
Maybe someone should ask Barrasso if someone else’s wife needs to die from continued exposure to radiation so that HIS wife could live.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:17 pmBarrasso is a doctor, “Physician, heal thyself”
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:17 pmBarrasso sounds like a typical orthopod. Generally, they are carpenter-types. Not particularly bright but good with a hammer and chisel. This is hardly the kind of background needed to be an effective legislator (see also Coburn, Frist, et. al.) Howard Dean is the exception that proves the rule.
The real issue with physicians, in general, is that they trade on anecdote and think they have some expertise in commenting on medical policy issues. Actually, they aren’t qualified to do so. They don’t understand the basic premise here — the plural of “anecdote” is “data”.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:21 pmRepresentative Wasserman Schultz was on Geraldo yesterday with Huckabee who tried to score points on this issue. He started to blame Obama and the Dems as well the usual complaints about the health care bill. The congresswoman chided Huckabee because the recommendations came from a task force which all members were appointed by Bush. Huckabee nearly choked when said that.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:23 pmFor years these men have politcized my uterus and now they’re politicizing my breasts…an other organs they care to denegrate?
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:27 pmJesus, this guy’s a doctor? An MD? A person we depend on to give us pertinent information about our health?
Christ, don’t ever let this dude come near me. He’s lethal.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:28 pm… whereas currently, it’s insurance company bureaucrats who make that decision. And their primary concern is their company’s bottom line.
Republicans never seem to want to acknowledge that fact.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:28 pmFor years these men have politcized my uterus and now they’re politicizing my breasts…an other organs they care to denegrate?
I have been hearing some rumblings about spleens lately.
LOL
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 pmFor years these men have politcized my uterus and now they’re politicizing my breasts…an other organs they care to denegrate?
Sure, they will denegrate ANYTHING that cant speak for itself and claim they can/do.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:30 pmJesus, this guy’s a doctor? An MD? A person we depend on to give us pertinent information about our health?
An MD degree doesn’t guarantee competence, let alone intelligence. As I said above, orthopods are good with hammers and chisels. That’s about it. In an alternate universe, they would be carpenters.
Britain may have it right. Surgeons are referred to as “Mister”; internists and other “cognitive” physicians are referred to as “Doctor”. Oh, oh. My bad. I said something positive about the British health system! [snark off]
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:32 pmDebbie Wassermann Schultz not only thinks well on her feet but is hot. We in Florida are very proud of her on a number of different levels
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:32 pmConsidering barasso (a doctor) is playing politics with the US citizens by fighting for health insurance reform, I say it’s fair play and adios to his wife. Pull the plug!
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:35 pmHey, have you ever looked at the label on a Tylenol bottle? The DEATH PANELS are already hard at work, trying to deny us our right to take more than eight tablets in a 24-hour period!
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:38 pmkonchster, thinking on her feet faaaaaar outweighs the flesh covering her body. Being “hot” is what the republicans feel as being important. Let’s be proud of her for using her brain.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:39 pmFor the life of me, I cannot understand the fascination that the Left has for repeating the daily crap that comes from the Right wingnuts. All it does is encourage them to come up with more.
Didn’t you learn anything from Reagan, and especially GW Bush. While you were snickering about how dumb they were, and how superior you were cause you spoke in sentences, they stole all your money (banking crises) and gave it to the military. and blamed it on you. They don’t call it robbery, they call it tax cuts. Is it a coincidence that both Clinton and Obama were faced with huge deficits and reccessions.
Wake up fools…..
Salmon Dave
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:40 pmSalmon Dave:
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:49 pmI just poached some farmed canadian and it lost all it’s color. What is up with that. I poach salmon all the time….
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Thank you Tom #13 :)
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:04 pmI’ll keep a close watch on any legislation that could affect my spleen…I wouldn’t put it past them to make that an issue.
Women still do not have access to safe birth control, even under most insurance coverage. Another political football, note the sports metaphor, always a man’s world, yet Viagra seems to rampant for men…the disconnect is abyssmal
The libs seem to be pulling the plug on everything these days. I found my Nintendo Wii not working and, for two hours, tried to figure out the problem. As it turns out, it was unplugged.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:08 pmHow do you politicize knockers? Only my party can tell you.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:10 pmRepublicans know boobs..there are 40 in the senate.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:13 pmClearly this guy is a malignant boob. Isn’t he the reason they developed the mastectomy?
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:25 pmYou’d think a Doctor and Senator would understand how these guidance documents are generated by one group and the other groups examine the guidelines.
You’d think a competent Doctor would understand the meaning of “high risk individual”.
But for 100 years, medical care has been based on the idea that you do something, and if the patient survives, the something you did was effective. Like Mark Twain observed, you give the patient poisons such as arsenic and lead (common treatments for the day) and if the patient survives, you cured them.
You’d think a modern doctor would understand this fallacy of anecdotal medicine and recognize the need for large studies with a large number of patients.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:26 pmNew England Indy says:
Republicans know boobs..there are 40 in the senate.
Ohhohoho, that one was good. A well-deserved vote UP! Which means more coming from me!
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:28 pmThe public is getting very, very sick of jerks like Barrasso & other Repubs inventing any lies possible to scare people about health care reform, & practically everything else, for that matter. They are bullying, ignorant liars.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 pmI actually heard a jackass, on local sport’s radio, opine that black athletes won’t get tested for drugs while Obama is President. There’s nothing that they won’t politicize.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:38 pmThe thing about these republican doctors who go into politics is that it’s very hard to imagine them in their previous roles. They sound so inhumane and out of touch, it makes you wonder how they ran a practice and saw so many willing patients. Doctors usually have reserved personalities and encyclopedic knowledge. These former doctors are bombastic and seem to know sh*t.
Were they crappy doctors or were they itching to change personalities by getting into politics?
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:43 pmpete says:
——————————————————————————–
I actually heard a jackass, on local sport’s radio, opine that black athletes won’t get tested for drugs while Obama is President. There’s nothing that they won’t politicize.
This sounds more like racism..Next thing they will say that under Obama there will be Blacks Only restrooms and Blacks Only drinking fountians and Blacks only park benches and Bla….Opps, that’s already been done..
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:44 pmWell, well, well. A Repug using his wife’s illness to scare the heebee-jeebies out of women? I would like to say, now I seen everything. BUT this is how they treat their spouses. Always pick pretty, meek types. And if you humiliate yourself, just drag her out there with you to share you pain.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:47 pmBasically doctors will ask one if cancer runs in ones family next ones doctor will make an assessment. Ok you stupid teabag dummies, finally, it’s a personal conversation. You dunkless teabags can butt the f out. It will be nobody’s business. It’s called confidentiality, something you teabagging cretin know nothing about.
You ignorant useless teabags want it both ways.
You want your government to deny medical procedures when it concern women and you want the government stay out of medical procedures when it comes to women’s issues. You can’t pick and choose issues.
Your gluttonous is over teatards.
FU
Tea is the Color of Obama.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:54 pmAgreed on both counts.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:54 pmGame of Life says:
Tea is the Color of Obama.
LOLOL..I love it…thumbs up..
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:56 pmfinally! the topic apprears!
today, on her radio program, randi rhodes was talking about the task force members, that 14 of the 16 were appointed by boosh, that surely they were smart statisticians but none were related to or had any clinical experience…
randi talked with wasserman schultz about the task force recommendations and the implications – very good conversation…
randi wanted to be sure – kept repeating to BE sure – that WS should write in requirements for appointees to this task force to have medical/clinical bona fides… WS agreed with that but would not commit…
i’ve been wondering about this task force and the report which was released just before that senate vote…
knowing that they are bushies, shines a new light on it all…
heckuva job, booshie…
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 pm.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)…
… Another G(no)P with his head up his @ss.
.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:40 amNo surprise here, the repugs will politicize and criticize as long as the dems allow them to get away with their heresies and it can damage Obama in some way or another. The panel, really released their report rather shabbily. I hope they do a better job next time around.
November 24th, 2009 at 1:39 amHaving looked up the members of this Task Force – found here…
http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstfab.htm
I have to wonder just HOW they got appointed? Are they Bush era hold overs?
November 24th, 2009 at 8:27 amInsurance companies are making that choice now for his wife. How, exactly, is that better?
November 24th, 2009 at 8:41 amI don’t know if anyone’s mentioned this yet, but I find it refreshing that the Obama administration allowed the task force to speak freely on a topic they knew would be controversial at a time when health care reform is very much in the public debate. As far as I know, the recommendations weren’t vetted or edited by the White House – the scientists were allowed to speak freely.
That is a wonderful development.
November 24th, 2009 at 11:23 am