At a town hall meeting Wednesday, President Obama seemed to imply that doctor’s tend to recommend patients receive unnecessary surgery because it puts more money in their pockets.
“All I'm saying is let's take the example of something like diabetes, one of --- a disease that's skyrocketing, partly because of obesity, partly because it's not treated as effectively as it could be. Right now if we paid a family -- if a family care physician works with his or her patient to help them lose weight, modify diet, monitors whether they're taking their medications in a timely fashion, they might get reimbursed a pittance.But if that same diabetic ends up getting their foot amputated, that's $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 -- immediately the surgeon is reimbursed. Well, why not make sure that we're also reimbursing the care that prevents the amputation, right? That will save us money.”
The first problem with this statement is that surgeons don’t receive $50,000, they don't receive $40,000, they don't receive $30,000…they don’t even receive 10% of that. According the the American College of Surgeons, Medicare reimbursement tops out at $1,140 for a leg amputation. They were so angry about the statement, they put out a press release.
“The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.”
At the end of July, President Obama started this faux campaign against greedy doctors and surgeons by stating
"Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that's out there. ... The doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, 'You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid's tonsils out…”
He accuses those who disagree with his health care policy of scaring patients and fear mongering. Isn’t that what he’s doing? He blatantly lies about surgeons and what they are paid, doctors and their motivations, and so on, but why?
He does so because if he can deem the doctors and surgeons as evil, corrupt and greedy as he has done with the insurance companies, he gains more support for HR 3200. Doesn’t matter what’s actually in the bill, if Obama can get you to trust him instead of your doctor, he wins.
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