Hospital head honcho fights health reform

Patients waiting months for surgery or not being able to get medications they need is a hallmark of the modern profit-driven American health care system.

But don't tell that to Rick Scott - a multimillionaire former hospital CEO who narrates a new TV commersh attacking efforts to reform America's broken medical industry.

The ad cites alleged long waits in Canada and Britain that Scott blames on those countries' government-run health systems. Uh, Rick? Have you paid attention to the U.S. health system lately? If I needed surgery or a drug, I'd much rather live under the British or Canadian medical system. I and most other folks would probably die before we could get treated under the American system.

In the United States, if we don't die waiting for an insurer to approve our treatment or for us to make enough money to pay for it, we'd probably die at a cubicle in the hospital lobby while being interrogated about our insurance.

But again, don't tell that to ol' Rick Scott. In addition to narrating these ads, he's founded a group called (drum roll, please) Conservatives for Patients' Rights. You can't make this stuff up, ladies and gentlemen. He's spending $5,000,000 of his own money to fight health reform.

Must be nice having $5,000,000 to throw away like that, huh?

His campaign is being coordinated by the same group that was behind the discredited swiftboat ads against John Kerry. This is also reminiscent of the mid-'90s when the insurance racket funded commercials attacking health care reform efforts then.

Scott isn't a doctor. He's a wealthy right-wing investor and executive. He thinks we're supposed to listen to his greed-driven ravings instead of to our doctors who follow the Hippocratic Oath?

Will people believe his ads? Most Americans are so frustrated by the health care system that they'll know better. I think everyone knew the swiftboat ads were bullshit, and this campaign is about on par with that.

Right-wing websites keep complaining about bad health care in places like Canada or Britain - but if you read further, it's always because some wealthy socialite can't get cosmetic surgery quickly enough to please them.

There are no reports of TV stations or networks declining Scott's ad. This despite the fact that they kept rejecting ads placed by antiwar groups at the height of the Iraq War - often using the excuse that they didn't accept issue ads. Of course, Scott's issue ad is accepted without question.

Plenty has been posted here to counter Rick Scott's propaganda. Unfortunately, there will certainly be more chances to do so - unless the American health care system is fixed pronto.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/10/AR2009051002243.html)