HEALTH CARE AND THE NEW ADMINISTRATION

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we don't forget. I also remember Gupta's bogus "fact-checking" of sicko. I remember how dimissive he was when Moore called him on it, sorta like "how dare you question my valuable expertise with silly little facts."

Fuck him.

Oh well, Lord knows what freaks McCain would have appointed considering his choice for VP.

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I recalled Gupta's treatment of Michael Moore and his skits on CNN trying to discredit the film. He seems like an arrogant person who is in love with his own status as a brain surgeon, to the point he feels like no one has the right to criticize the medical industry unless they have similar credentials.

I cannot help but wonder about Obama's motivation with this move. Is he sending a message to HMOs and pharmaceutical companies that any change on this front won't interfere with their power and profits? Is he trying to make them think they have little to fear so that he can push an agenda to expand government-funded medical coverage with less resistance?

If he cedes the the fight for universal healthcare then his will be a failed administration. Uncontrolled health care costs will eventually do even more damage to the economy and to society than the current financial turmoil.

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The very first thing I thought of when I saw this was Gupta's arrogance when Moore confronted him with solid facts dealing with the documentary Sicko.

The second thing I thought was, "So much for any chance for single-payer health care in my lifetime."

The third thing was, "New boss just like the old boss."

Obama: Change you could dream about. But our nap is over and so is the dream.

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I'm sure the health insurance industry is thrilled to have a shill in the SG's office. Gupta is apparently a competent neurosurgeon, but he's not an authority on public health. He's good looking and articulate, which is why he's a talking head on CNN. This is about style, not substance. A medical or public health school dean with a track record of advocacy and scholarship on relevant issues would be more appropriate, if less telegenic.

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Why wasn't Michael Moore invited for the position...when looking at the track records, Gupta means NO CHANGE and BUSINESS AS USUAL. But then Gupta fits well into the ilk of Obama's appointees!

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so why pick on Mr. Krugman?

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Otherwise, it sounds like some who may disagree with what Krugman says because it doesn't fit into their worldview.

I have not always agreed with Krugman's opinions, but I haven't found him to be a liar.

So document, otherwise you can just wear the troll necklace.

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On the contrary, Krugman is one of the more honest economists out there. Too bad Obama didn't appoint him to the cabinet instead of all the Clinton reruns.

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tails of John McCain. Oklahoma's democrats are to the right of an Oregon republican. Oklahoma's republicans are to the right of Ghengis Khan.

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I forgot her name. She was Clinton's SG. A far better choice and a good match for Obama, imho.

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Same old drum.

No health INSURANCE, we need health CARE.

Gupta just loves new pharmaceuticals, expensive tests, and insurance companies.

Just another shill, this time for the insurance industry.

Not new news.

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For all of you who trusted and voted for Obama because of his promises like healthcare reform, are any of you tired of the administrative choices he is making? Sanjay Gupta is a shill for the pharmacutical companies and is against any healthcare reform.

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I'm really saddened by those on most sides of the health care debate. Sure, Gupta probably doesn't have a clue, and it is standard for establishment and corporate honchos to fabricate or distort facts to their ends.

But the belief in Single Payer government insurance as some kind of savior is pathetic. All it would mean is centralized, total control of our health care choices by big brother - a government still mostly controlled by Big Pharma and other fat cat individuals and corporations.

The real solution - to turn to less expensive, less dangerous CAM (Complementary & Alternative Medicine) health care - is not even on the table. In fact, even Michael Moore missed out on this point in Sicko - never mentioned the five homeopathic hospitals in Britain (all under the National Health) or Germany's Commission E, which identified safe, effective traditional and herbal remedies that could be prescribed under their plan.

The health insurance companies are no angels, but there is the hope that at least some could come to see that they can save money themselves by covering the cheaper treatments that work. The Feds are unlikely to do that, because the high tech, druggie medical establishment won't let them. Moreover, state action is possible, as in Washington, which requires health insurance companies there to cover all licensed practitioners - including such as naturopaths, homeopaths, etc.

So, my best hope is that I don't get stuck with a plan like Hilary's, which would have drained money I don't have for treatment I don't want, and which, in any event, I wouldn't have been able to afford, because of deductibles and co-pays.

Until real change is possible, better less interference - and less taxing me for other people's drugs.

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Im glad Krugman says Moore actually got his facts right. But as another Times columnist -- I can't recall who -- observed some time ago, even when Moore gets part of it wrong, he's one of the few people out there telling the Big Truths. (Krugman himself comes admirably close for a mainstream columnist.) The Big Truth is that denying urgently needed medical care to tens of millions of poor people while giving trillions in tax cuts to rich white people was a racist and morally criminal act. And that the modern-day Republican Party leadership is a racist and depraved organization that's been aided and abetted by network newcasts and newspapers that haven't had the sense or courage to call bigotry and criminal acts what they were. Big HealthCare execs, Big Health Insurance and the GOP leadership should be in prison for what they've done to poor people in this country.

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I believe we have to give every one of Obama's choices the chance to prove themselves in their new positions. What they have done before is a teaser only to what they can accomplish in their cabinet posts. Let's wait and see until they've been in office for awhile before we pull the rug out from under them shall we?

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...that the *change* owning-class is experiencing a major cognitive meltdown. *hope*

Thus *hope* far we have *change* talking heads and shills for the same thinking, even the *hope* same actual people, *hope* that created the *change* problems were experiencing right now. But yet we're somehow *hope* supposed to believe this *change* time they'll do it "right."

Uh-hunh... *hope**change* geezis.h.crap.

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Appointing Sanjay Gupta to be Surgeon General would be about like appointing Katie Couric to head the FCC.
(Oh, God! I hope I'm not giving Obama any ideas!)

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One significant thing I saw in Gupta's arguments with Moore was that it was clear that he had been fed the information he was using. In their second discussion he had to revise the inaccurate information he had previously used, and his wording clearly suggested a team of "experts" (in what I'm not sure, but...)had collected the data, not him. Not that his level of spinelessness in opposing the big wigs at CNN was in anyway applaudable, but it appeared to be primarily an effort of job preservation. Something that is unfortunately completely understandable.

I hear a lot about him being a "corporate shill"... no shit. He works as a talking head for CNN, a corporation, by definition he HAS to be a corporate shill, otherwise he wouldn't have the job that he has. I think this gets muddy because he is seen as a shill for the pharmaceutical companies, but the info we have suggests that supporting those companies would merely be part of his position as an employee of CNN. His allegance to his employer is semi-admirable, especially when you consider the position he will have under Obama- being Obama's healthcare shill.

Also, some level of respect for the pharmaceutical industry can be expected from a nuerosurgeon, his specialty wouldn't even be possible without the advancements of these corporations.

I'm not trying to defend Gupta (or heaven forbid Big Pharma), I just think the evidence suggests he will do whatever his boss(es) tell him to do. I don't see anything compelling that suggests he will go against Obama's wishes in an effort to appease the pharmaceutical companies. The real question is whether or not Obama will stay true to his campaign promises. His continued avoidance of lobbyists suggests that we still have a chance. relax a little bit and give him a chance. And could everyone please stop calling him the messiah? Nobody here ever thought he was the messiah, he was just the best option with a realistic chance to get into office. If you don't like how representative democracy works in reality, move to China or something. Stop the stupid name calling you all sound like a bunch of shills for the republican spin machine.

Sorry about that last little jab, I just had to do it.

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One significant thing I saw in Gupta's arguments with Moore was that it was clear that he had been fed the information he was using. In their second discussion he had to revise the inaccurate information he had previously used, and his wording clearly suggested a team of "experts" (in what I'm not sure, but...)had collected the data, not him. Not that his level of spinelessness in opposing the big wigs at CNN was in anyway applaudable, but it appeared to be primarily an effort of job preservation. Something that is unfortunately completely understandable.

I hear a lot about him being a "corporate shill"... no shit. He works as a talking head for CNN, a corporation, by definition he HAS to be a corporate shill, otherwise he wouldn't have the job that he has. I think this gets muddy because he is seen as a shill for the pharmaceutical companies, but the info we have suggests that supporting those companies would merely be part of his position as an employee of CNN. His allegance to his employer is semi-admirable, especially when you consider the position he will have under Obama- being Obama's healthcare shill.

Also, some level of respect for the pharmaceutical industry can be expected from a nuerosurgeon, his specialty wouldn't even be possible without the advancements of these corporations.

I'm not trying to defend Gupta (or heaven forbid Big Pharma), I just think the evidence suggests he will do whatever his boss(es) tell him to do. I don't see anything compelling that suggests he will go against Obama's wishes in an effort to appease the pharmaceutical companies. The real question is whether or not Obama will stay true to his campaign promises. His continued avoidance of lobbyists suggests that we still have a chance. relax a little bit and give him a chance. And could everyone please stop calling him the messiah? Nobody here ever thought he was the messiah, he was just the best option with a realistic chance to get into office. If you don't like how representative democracy works in reality, move to China or something. Stop the stupid name calling you all sound like a bunch of shills for the republican spin machine.

Sorry about that last little jab, I just had to do it.

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away. John Conyers, Michael Moore, and Dennis Kucinich have it right. My current recomendation to young people for their schooling is that they try for four languages. They need one more than english as conversational. Since the UN places us in 7th place in the world, they should try for one of the first 6. Get out of the United States.

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The two most prominent requests from American citizens on "change.com" are 1. a call for prosecution of Cheney/Bush thugs and 2. a call for single payer health care. Any bets...both will be ignored. Does anyone else feel this web site is a ploy to convince us "they care what we have to say and they're really listening to citizens."
From Ken Salazar (the US Senator who pushed for the Alberto Gonzales nomination, who helped end debate resulting in the Sam Alito ascension to the Supreme Court, who voted against raising auto gas mileage caps, a millionaire farmer who voted for more billions for wealthy farmers like himself in the farm bill) to Dr Gupta ( a shameless lackey/propagandist for the for profit , anti patient medical care system and--thanks to Michael Moore--revealed as a bald-faced liar).
CHANGE IN NAME ONLY...DON'T BE FOOLED...and I voted for the guy....hmmmm

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I have no problem with Gupta, but I would have rather seen Dr. Regina Benjamin as surgeon general. Dr. B is a dedicated family practitioner who was the first black and the first woman to be president of the Alabama Medical Association. She runs a clinic in Bayou La Batre, Ala., where she treats the uninsured and the under-insured, among whom are large numbers of black and Vietnamese shrimpers and workers at fish processing plants. She has received a MacArthur Genius Grant, been honored by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and served on the board of the American Medical Association. She has taught family medicine at the University of South Alabama and has served on the board of trustees of Florida A&M University. Dr. B went back to college a few years ago and earned an MBA from Tulane so that she could put her business acumen to work getting grants for her clinic. She has lost her building twice to hurricanes and rebuilt each time. She also makes house calls in her beatup pickup. Regina Benjamin is an eloquent spokesman for improved public health care and the right of all Americans to basic health care regardless of income or social class. I hope Gupta can measure up.

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Right on the MONEY, Krugman. I'm having nightmares wherein I cannot tell if I am watching Saturday Night Live or actual current events. Sorta like the feeling I would get watching Stephanopoulos interviewing Gingrich on ethics and morality—vague nausea, slight vertigo, the hopefully imagined foretaste of impending stomach emptying you-know-what. Bearing mind that I stopped watching commercial TV decades ago after a bout of video diarrhea . . . we're talking torture here, hear?

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Yes, Obama is pissing me off with his appointments. Gupta is the worst so far. He is an opinionated pompous "doctor" Just what we need - another doctor who's afraid he's not going to make the millions of dollars that he's making now. Give us a break, Obama, send another name to Congress, one who knows the needs of the people. We need a not for profit health care plan. Medicare for all just as Dennis kucinich said over and over again.

DO WHAT WE TELL YOU!!!! Obama!

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