(Sen.) Coburn: Controlling health care costs may fall to patients

[sabra]

Source: CNN

(CNN) – Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, at a town hall meeting Thursday in Muskogee, said he predicts much of the responsibility in controlling health care costs will fall upon patients.

Coburn, one of two doctors in the Senate, is against the current draft legislation in the House.

"If you want reform for reform's sake and it doesn't control the costs, what you are going to do is cut everybody's wages in this country because any dollar that goes into health care is a dollar that doesn't go into your pocket," he said.

He also called for "a true competitive market with transparency and access for everybody," adding: "There is a disconnect between the purchase of health care and the payment of health care, whether it's Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance."

Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/13/coburn-controlling-health-care-costs-may-fall-to-patients/

[meegbear]

1. Much of the responsibility in controlling health care costs will fall upon patients ...

DON'T GET SICK

[Journeyman]

3. . . . and off Grandma when she begins to falter!

[Warpy]

2. Does this dumb fuck really think we're going to call around

for the cheapest angioplasty instead of calling an ambulance and maybe making it to the closest hospital alive?

This idiot still thinks illness is something we choose and schedule.

[bemildred]

4. Well, you generally don't have a clue what it is going to cost you when you get "health care".

You don't even know who is going to get paid for it. You can ask, but that's hard to do in the emergency room. What is needed is oversight, putting the onus on consumers in this case is wrong, consumers do not have the necessary knowledge to regulate health care costs.

[Eric J in MN]

5. How to lower the costs of premiums and drugs.

A public option which pays Medicare rates would compete with private insurance to lower premiums.

Letting Medicare negotiate drug prices would lower the cost of drugs.

[Zorra]

6. Yeah, pissed off Americans doing a Bastille Day on insurance companies. n/t

[earthboundmisfit]

7. Here's an asinine statement from Coburn at today's town hall:

From Tulsa World online re today's town hall in Muskogee:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090813_11_0_MUSKOG502640

“Health care costs too much,” the Oklahoma Republican said. “The reason the cost
is rising is because government is in it in the first place. If you want to limit costs, the best thing to do is leave government out.”


“The reason the cost is rising is because government is in it in the first place."???
I think we know the orifice of origin for that remark...

[dave29]

8. Be Your Own Death Panel

srsly

[xchrom]

9. and that is different from our current reality how?

typical republican snake oil -- 'personal responsibility'.

hey -- we didn't create this goddamned mess -- you and the insurance companies did.

so. shut. the. fuck. up.

[neverforget]

10. Pray and don't get sick. That'll control costs.

Fuck you Coburn.

[Juche]

11. The average citizen reads at an 8th grade level

How are people supposed to comparison shop advanced health care interventions? That is what the $1.1 billion invested in the stimulus to research healthcare is supposed to do. It shouldn't fall to patients to figure out the cheapest, most effective treatments. Doctors should do that.

[aquart]

12. NO! Oh, of course that asshole is a Republican.

Who else would make such a moron remark?

[indypaul]

13. Might I also mention another way to reduce health care costs

is to keep dumb fucks like Coburn out of Congress.
One can only hope the people of Oklahoma will work on
that.