Medicine
I feel compelled to post this message from Physicians for a National Health Program.
Goodness gracious! A health reporter? With the recycling of so many questionable-to-bad Clintonites, why not take the best -- David Satcher?
"The report this week that President-elect Obama is considering Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, for the position of U.S. surgeon general is deeply troubling.
Among our concerns are these:
He has very little background in public health, preventive medicine or administration.
He has openly opposed progressive health reform, going so far as to cite false information to denigrate single payer (e.g. in his error-laden attack on Michael Moore's film "Sicko") and parroting the health insurance lobby's distortions of single payer.
As a media figure, he has been disturbingly cozy with Big Pharma. He co-hosts Turner Private Networks' monthly show "Accent Health," which airs in doctors' offices around the country and which serves as a major conduit for targeted ads from the drug companies. Another example: In 2003, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, he publicly downplayed concerns about the dangers of Vioxx. It was removed from the market a year later by its manufacturer, Merck.
In the 2008 election campaign, his reporting on John McCain's health proposals was misleading and implicitly positive, giving undeserved credence to McCain's claims that buying private health insurance on the open market is a financially viable option for most Americans.
We urge you to write to President-elect Obama and express your opposition to Gupta's possible nomination, and to urge Obama to nominate a more acceptable candidate for this critically important post. You can do so by clicking here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=VQcr%2B9YPm7HVdjzAicv%2FgKcrNJ24hBg4."
- Medical Errors: To Err May Be Human, But We Need Systems To Decrease Them
An op-ed by Sanjay Gupta, MD, the Atlanta neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent, appeared in the New York Times on August 1, 2012. “More treatment, more mistakes” makes the case that medical errors are common and that they are largely due to...
- Hr 3962 Is Still A Bad Bill, And Stupak-pitts Is A Scandal
. After the House of Representatives passed HR 3962 recently, I celebrated the defeat of the opponents of health reform. I tried to make it clear, and I will emphasize here below, that the bill is not only far from perfect, it is bad. I just think it...
- A Modest Proposal: Bribe The Insurance Companies
(apologies to Mr. Swift) Extensive research done by the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), particularly by Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, have identified at least $400 BILLION in annual “waste” from our current system of...
- Health Reform And The "public Option"
. The debate on health care reform, at least in the inner circles of Washington and the punditocracy, has shifted to whether there will be a “public option” as President Obama has asked for. (e.g., “Obama to forge a greater role on health care”,...
- Universal Health Coverage
In this week’s Nation (Dec 8, 08), Alexander Cockburn has a very good column that includes the following: “Last week I had the usual urge to machine gun the TV set while listening to the McLaughlin Group, all of whom presumably haul home at least...
Medicine
Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General?
I feel compelled to post this message from Physicians for a National Health Program.
Goodness gracious! A health reporter? With the recycling of so many questionable-to-bad Clintonites, why not take the best -- David Satcher?
"The report this week that President-elect Obama is considering Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, for the position of U.S. surgeon general is deeply troubling.
Among our concerns are these:
He has very little background in public health, preventive medicine or administration.
He has openly opposed progressive health reform, going so far as to cite false information to denigrate single payer (e.g. in his error-laden attack on Michael Moore's film "Sicko") and parroting the health insurance lobby's distortions of single payer.
As a media figure, he has been disturbingly cozy with Big Pharma. He co-hosts Turner Private Networks' monthly show "Accent Health," which airs in doctors' offices around the country and which serves as a major conduit for targeted ads from the drug companies. Another example: In 2003, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, he publicly downplayed concerns about the dangers of Vioxx. It was removed from the market a year later by its manufacturer, Merck.
In the 2008 election campaign, his reporting on John McCain's health proposals was misleading and implicitly positive, giving undeserved credence to McCain's claims that buying private health insurance on the open market is a financially viable option for most Americans.
We urge you to write to President-elect Obama and express your opposition to Gupta's possible nomination, and to urge Obama to nominate a more acceptable candidate for this critically important post. You can do so by clicking here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=VQcr%2B9YPm7HVdjzAicv%2FgKcrNJ24hBg4."
- Medical Errors: To Err May Be Human, But We Need Systems To Decrease Them
An op-ed by Sanjay Gupta, MD, the Atlanta neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent, appeared in the New York Times on August 1, 2012. “More treatment, more mistakes” makes the case that medical errors are common and that they are largely due to...
- Hr 3962 Is Still A Bad Bill, And Stupak-pitts Is A Scandal
. After the House of Representatives passed HR 3962 recently, I celebrated the defeat of the opponents of health reform. I tried to make it clear, and I will emphasize here below, that the bill is not only far from perfect, it is bad. I just think it...
- A Modest Proposal: Bribe The Insurance Companies
(apologies to Mr. Swift) Extensive research done by the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), particularly by Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, have identified at least $400 BILLION in annual “waste” from our current system of...
- Health Reform And The "public Option"
. The debate on health care reform, at least in the inner circles of Washington and the punditocracy, has shifted to whether there will be a “public option” as President Obama has asked for. (e.g., “Obama to forge a greater role on health care”,...
- Universal Health Coverage
In this week’s Nation (Dec 8, 08), Alexander Cockburn has a very good column that includes the following: “Last week I had the usual urge to machine gun the TV set while listening to the McLaughlin Group, all of whom presumably haul home at least...