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Did Obama Really Say That? President Tells America To Take ‘Painkillers Instead of Surgery’
Editorial Note: It seems whenever President Obama goes off script, or they throw him a question he doesn’t have a prepared answer for, the truth seems to slip out. Before you read the following, think of a National Hospital Center where hundreds of people are waiting in line for hours to see the physician. The doctor finally sees you and recommends surgery for your ailment, but unfortunately because you’re considered ‘older’ with extenuating physical circumstances, the government may decide not to give you that operation. Now read what President Obama said:
President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive and ultimately futile procedures performed on people who are about to die and don’t stand to gain from the extra care.
In a nationally televised event at the White House, Obama said families need better information so they don’t unthinkingly approve “additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care.”
He added: “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.”
Obama said he has personal familiarity with such a dilemma. His grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given less than nine months to live, he said.
She fell and broke her hip, “and the question was, does she get hip replacement surgery, even though she was fragile enough they were not sure how long she would last?”
Obama’s grandmother died two days before he was elected president in November. It was unclear whether she underwent the hip-replacement surgery.
HE THEN WENT ON TO SAY:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think families all across America are going through decisions like that all the time. and you’re absolutely right that if it’s my family member, my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care. but here’s the problem that we have in our current health care system. Is that there is a whole bunch of care that’s being provided that every study, every bit of evidence that we have indicates may not be making us healthier.
Editor’s postscript: Sounds more like “ageism” to me. And who will be the person making these life or death decisions?
