Morris falsely claimed that "government is telling people, cut back on cesarean sections"
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SUMMARY: Dick Morris falsely claimed that "right now the government is telling people, cut back on cesarean sections, go through natural childbirth. It's a lower cost." In fact, the Obama administration is "telling people" no such thing
On the June 24 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, Dick Morris falsely claimed that "right now the government is telling people, cut back on cesarean sections, go through natural childbirth. It's a lower cost." In fact, the Obama administration has not advocated "cut[ting] back on cesarean sections." Rather, the American Medical Association (AMA) proposed addressing "the overuse of certain services or procedures," [emphasis added] including cesarean sections, in response to the administration's stated goal of reducing the growth in health care spending.
The AMA and five other health care organizations issued the proposals in a June 1 letter to Obama to address the overuse of certain procedures. In its attachment to the letter, the AMA stated that the "AMA-convened" Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) recommended addressing "the overuse of certain services or procedures," including "Induction of labor/Caesarean Sections." From the AMA attachment:
Efforts to Reduce Unnecessary Utilization
The PCPI initiated work in 2009 to address concerns about the overuse of certain services or procedures. Topics were selected based on priorities established by the Institute of Medicine, the National Quality Forum, the National Priority Partners and the PCPI. Selection criteria include high variation, high volume and high cost, availability of relevant guidelines, and the potential for improving quality and efficiency of care.
The PCPI selected the following topics for development of overuse measures this year:
[...]
- Maternity Care: Induction of labor/Caesarean Sections
Significance: There has been a substantial increase in the rate of elective induction of labor. Practice patterns are not always consistent with [American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists] guidelines. Expenses related to csection births account for 45% of the more than $79 billion in annual hospital charges atttributed [sic] to childbirth in the U.S. annually.
Morris previously used the June 1 letter to falsely claim that Obama favors "rationing" and eliminating cesarean sections and certain other medical procedures.
From the June 24 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
BILL O'REILLY (host): But [Rep.] Barney Frank [D-MA] and the Democrats are going to come back and they're going to say, we're Americans, we can do it better, and it's an unfair system, and we have to control costs. And I'm sympathetic to that cost thing because most working people I know, they're getting hammered by medical costs.
MORRIS: What controlling costs means is --
O'REILLY: -- is competition.
MORRIS: No. It means denial of services. It means you can't have that knee replacement because you're 70 years old. It means you can't have that bypass surgery because you're 75 and you're a diabetic.
O'REILLY: And that's what the government will do.
MORRIS: And that's what -- just as right now the government is telling people, cut back on cesarean sections. Go through natural childbirth; it's a lower cost.
O'REILLY: I see disaster ahead on this, I do. I see disaster ahead --
MORRIS: Me too.
O'REILLY: -- in two realms: the financial realm. I don't think he can afford it, and I don't think he can raise the money, and that there will be waiting lists and there will be all kinds of chaos.
MORRIS: And this could be his Waterloo.
(I had my three with midwives, at home. Much safer for mom & kid if there's no complications.)
That said, I am trying to cut back on C-sections, but it's not easy. After a good meal, or when I'm having a few drinks, I sure get a hankering.
The soaring C-section rate does nothing but waste a massive of money. They are a big profit center to doctors and hospitals (and make it easier for the Doc to schedule his golf games and weekend get-a-ways). The vast majority of times, they are simply elective, expensive, unnecessary, and dangerous invasive major surgery.
I would like to see the Obama administration advocate "cutting back on cesarean sections." But by focusing on health and psychological benefits that accrue to Mom and the baby, not cost savings. (Full disclosure = My wife is a certified HypnoBirthing(r) practitioner and birth doula)
Regardless Foxhole and their lying liars will distort the message.
I'd like fellow liberals to be careful when they ascribe cavalier attitudes to people giving birth, as these are the same things the cons claim when they talk about so-called partial birth abortion. The same people who wouldn't take the latter lightly don't take the former lightly as well.
For years the AMA has been saying too many doctors order needless C-sections because they are 1) Easy 2) Profitable.
So now the RWnuts think the AMA is out to get them?