Dr. Nicole Saphier, the doctor who previously complained about too many people having health insurance under Obamacare, helped promote Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Obamacare enemy Tom Price, as a terrific choice.
Saphier visited Fox & Friends to comment on a petition signed by 5700 doctors opposing Price because of his stance on Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare. Saphier has already complained on Fox that “We need to make our doctors happier” because “We’re in the midst of a physician burnout and shortage crisis due to all of these newly insured patients.”
But instead of looking to bring in more practitioners to serve the additional patients, Saphier seems to think it would be better to limit patient access to health care. And that is something Price will almost certainly try to do.
Saphier sounded as though physician unhappiness is the biggest and possibly only problem in our health care system.
SAPHIER: The majority of doctors that have been surveyed actually will say that Tom Price being the next Secretary of HHS will make patient and job satisfaction better for physicians, which will improve the doctor patient relationship and help with physician burnout.
Moonlighting as a Fox & Friends host, Fox reporter Ed Henry tried to goad Saphier into attacking Democrats: “What do you think about Democrats who are already trying to line up opposition, saying and charging that he’s going to end Medicare as we know it and try to make him a boogeyman before the hearings have even started?”
Instead of pointing out that Price has a long record of trying to do exactly that, Saphier tried to allay fears with the argument that he would not be able to do what he wants to do.
SAPHIER: The truth is, he won’t have that kind of power. He has come forth with some controversial plans, he may be able to make some modifications to Medicare such as introducing some conservative elements like waivers. However, he’s not able to just take office or take his position and disband all of Medicare as we know it … Same with the Affordable Care Act.
Saphier went on to gush that it is “a very exciting thing” to have a doctor in charge of HHS.
SAPHIER: As a physician, having a doctor in position as Secretary of HHS, I think is a very exciting thing. I’m cautiously optimistic about it that he will listen to the doctors of the nation, not necessarily just a political party. I do think that he has demonstrated leadership qualities when it comes to bringing a better way to health care, especially when it comes to keeping Washington out of the exam room.
Of course, a guy like Price would be exciting for a doctor like Saphier.
Watch this disgraceful lack of regard for patients and the elderly below, from the December 29, 2016 Fox & Friends.
I’m looking for my copy of Azimov’s Foundation Trilogy where he opines (if memory serves me well) that History (with a capital “H”) is nothing more than a predetermined sequence of bad and good patches. Although the sequence cannot be changed (i.e. by “skipping” a bad patch), a small but determined group of people can help shorten the bad patches and lengthen the good ones. I was fascinated by that theory over 40 years ago.
Used to be that Americans sent financial help to relatives in Europe and Latin America. My family is considering the opportunity of creating a fund to start doing that for relatives who live in the USA should Tom Price actually succeed in kicking them off Medicare.
Fox News is arguing the problem with our health care system is too many [poor] sick people are using it. It’s an immoral proposition. As Ellen & Brian point out, there are other solutions to help support doctors like expanding the roles of nurse practitioners and physician assistants (e.g., ability to prescribe some drugs, see patients instead of doctors for routine procedures, etc.).
After Fox News whines our system can’t handle more patients is time for another round of Fox News chest thumping American has the greatest health system in the world. Go nationalists!
“Ya know, most other nations think it’s good to keep their citizens alive.
That’s an ALIEN concept to American republicans.”
Indeed it is David, because in the eyes of Republicans, people not fortunate enough to “hit the birth lottery” like the Trumps and the Forbes and the Mellons are good for ONE THING ONLY:
TO SERVE AS CANNON FODDER FOR THEIR TOTALLY SENSELESS WARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST!
’Nuff said.
And those who do not have health care will make the undertakers happier, too, because their business will boom as well.
Hope I helped explain that correctly…
There is the Tale of Two Reality TV Shows.
That’s an ALIEN concept to American republicans.
The battle plan for the GOP has already been set – they will be repeating their budget reconciliation move from last summer so they can effectively repeal as much of the ACA as possible without needing a single Dem vote. This bill will be rushed through the new Congress so Trump can happily sign it on the 20th after he gets done with the stack of EO’s that erase all of Obama’s EO’s. There will still be some rudimentary framework of the ACA left in, including the language about telling insurers they can’t bar people for pre-existing conditions. But there will no longer be any funding for the program – particularly after Tom Price and Jeff Sessions publicly drop the appeal that Lynch’s Justice Department has been pursuing about the insurance reimbursements. With that appeal gone, the federal government will no longer be able to provide funds to make any of this work for the insurers, who will quickly exit stage right. I’m sure there will be discussion about how the ACA hasn’t completely been repealed yet and that the GOP is working on various plan ideas – but I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that new plan. These guys had nearly TWENTY YEARS to show a plan after they killed the Hillarycare idea in the early 90s. They’re nowhere closer to coming up with one now – simply because most of them don’t want one anyway.
We need to be prepared for the health care environment to revert back to what it was in early January 2009 – because that is the true goal here. The aim of the Pence group has nothing to do with the patients or even, frankly, the doctors. It has everything to do with smacking Obama and his supporters down as brutally as possible – to punish him for having the temerity to get this through Congress in the first place and to punish the supporters for having the temerity to vote for him twice.
It’s good to hear that Obama and the Dems are looking at how they can try to salvage the ACA and somehow block the behavior of the GOP in the full-on wrecking crew scenario we’re about to see. But the reality is that, as we noted, the GOP doesn’t need a single Dem vote to do any of this. The Dems can jump up and down all they want – it will accomplish nothing. What they frankly do need to do is to remind those millions of people why their health coverage is being taken away. The Dems will need to repeatedly be clear about how the GOP has just dumped all these patients back in the emergency room, and they’re going to need to campaign hard on it in 2018 and 2020.
Knowing Pence and his friends, and knowing Trump’s own personality, the GOP is going to wildly overreach in the frenzy of trying to undo all things Obama and somehow institute a Far Right government against the wishes of most Americans. The Dems need to be able to constantly speak up about these actions, and they will need to speak loudly enough to counter the spin we’ll be getting about it every hour from outlets like Fox News.