Why is NYT Gina Kolada making fun of the elderly and Medicare?

[madfloridian]

Think about it. Read this first article with a GOP point of view...to cut it back. It is truly insulting and ignorantly done. Is this the new technique?

I can just see these old folks just lining up to have fun at the doctors.
This writer is absolutely insulting the elderly! http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/13/business/13BOCA.html?hp
BOCA RATON, Fla. — It is lunchtime, and the door to Boca Urology's office is
locked. But outside, patients are milling about, calling the office on their
cellphones, hoping the receptionist will let them in. To say they are eager
hardly does them justice.
"We never used to lock the door at lunch, but they came in an hour early,"
said Ellie Fertel, the office manager. "It's like they're waiting for a
concert. Sometimes we forget to lock the door and they come in and sit in
the dark."

Yet few have serious medical problems, let alone emergencies. "It's the
culture," said Dr. Jeffrey I. Miller, one of four urologists in the
practice.

Doctor visits have become a social activity in this place of palm trees and
gated retirement communities. Many patients have 8, 10 or 12 specialists and
visit one or more of them most days of the week. They bring their spouses
and plan their days around their appointments, going out to eat or shopping
while they are in the area. They know what they want; they choose
specialists for every body part. And every visit, every procedure is covered
by Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly......"

Wow, I bet they just love all this so much! Seriously, I found this to be
the prelude to taking some of Medicare, and then doing horrible things to
the rest. People will fall for this, they will say these folks are misusing
the system. They will not see what a stupid farce this article is.

I did a search and found
another article of hers, where she backs Bush up on the arsenic in water
thing.
Another article by this Gina Kolata (why do I think of Pina
Colada??)http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/arsenic.cfm

SNIP...."NEW YORK TIMES writer Gina Kolata has gone to bat for Mr. Bush
on arsenic. By carefully selecting information, Kolata has
managed to make the proposed 10 ppb arsenic regulation seem
scientifically muddled and ultimately not worth the cost.<16>
To begin with, she points out correctly that arsenic is natural:
"God put it there," she quotes one scientist as saying, but she
does not mention the millions of pounds of arsenic that
corporations dump into air and water each year.

Talk about the manipulation by the media. Unbelievable. I found some
others of hers, and I need to check them out.
Here is one:
http://archive.salon.com/media/poni/1998/05/27poni.html
...."when New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata published a trumped-up
story on cancer research while floating a $2 million book proposal on the
same subject, she cleared the way for the three major newsmagazines to run
screaming cover packages opportunistically portending the end of cancers
with the Kolata controversy as a pretext...."

[blondeatlast]

1. "they choose specialists for every body part." What a disgusting

line that is--I'm 44 and at last count I had 7 specialists that I see on varying schedules. Not a single one is by "choice" as the article implies.

I think the tone is a bit insulting but overall I just find it way to weepy for the poor, pitiful docs, for whom I have some advice--MOVE.

[TheYellowDog]

3. Of course

Maybe you would prefer to be treated by trial lawyers, when there aren't any docs left, because they have all been run out of business.

[Bridget Burke]

9. No, we'll depend on the Insurance Companies....

& the guys who run the HMO's.

Do you live in Texas? Did you see too many of those so slick ads with little governor good-hair--whose soul was sold the Insurance Companies long ago?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. As the daughter/stepdaughter of two

eighty-somethings, I could tell Ms. Kolata that they really need all those specialists, and they are not happy about going, either. They complain abut having to spend so much time in doctors' offices. My stepfather has serious problems with his eyes and heart, as well as some memory loss. My mother has high blood pressure and osteoporosis.

I don't know how old Ms. Kolata is, but I'd like to see how often she goes to the doctor when she's eighty years old. Of course, she probably thinks that, as a high and mighty New York Times writer, she won't need Medicare.

[InkAddict]

4. I was also non-plused by this story -

but I do see both sides. I happen to work for a medial "specialist" who claims that he does not participate in insurance. If he sees one Medicare patient, he must agree to see them all, yet his society has given him the right to decide which patients he will see, hence referrals. Only thing is, he does seem very astute at determining what his market (patient) can bear financially or when to globally change the fee schedule (up and down) so it will benefit his own marketing and fame. Because his specialty is competitive, our office gets hits from "mystery shoppers" all the time.

"I can just see these old folks just lining up to have fun at the doctors."

That's often true. My mother-in-law geared up for two days before a visit to her family physician so she could impress him with how well she was doing and socialize with the other patients and receptionist, then came home and privately collapsed. But asking her or Grandpa to learn about how her body worked or how to talk and question her doctor about steps she MUST take beyond those magic "cure-all" pills was like speaking to the wind.

Now, my husband (an only child) and I deal with his Dad and the doctors: nephrologist,oncologist,dermotologist,rhematologist,infectious disease specialist,podiatrist,ophthalmologist,audiologist,dentist etc... Dad is mad because he didn't die in his sleep on schedule as he planned. He has no interest in his own care though he's ESRD/cancer/skin cancer/deafness. He can no longer drive (hemodialysis x3 week), and masks all his life-long anger in solicitous sweetness and innocence in public. He just "doesn't want to be a bother" or ask for any assistance or admit when he's having any bodily problems, and we've literally saved his life thrice by doing our own homework and confronting/collaborating with his doctors. At home, he refuses to participate in anything but watching baseball games and/or his wishes to do anything he's not supposed to be doing. In the past we have had to demand he shower, change his underwear, wear sunscreen/bug repellent outdoors, (if we can interest him in that because it's not Church flowers, wear appropriate attire for the weather. He's not interested in current events, magazines, novels, or movies. He's immune from acknowledging how the world is changing. Because of his hearing problems and this INNOCENT routine, it's impossible to know if his behavior is an act or if we should add yet one more specialist to his ever increasing list of doctors. I'd bet it's very easy to consider him a medical cash cow, but so far, these docs have blessed us with their skill and have added more time to be with someone we love no thanks to him, even though he makes it very difficult. If I get like that, shoot me!

[madfloridian]

5. You say old folks like going to doctors for fun.

Yep, that is what you said.

I have done my share of elder care as well. Your take on your mother-in-law makes me sad. It shows a mind-set you have toward her.
You know why Dad probably doesn't have interest in his own care? It is called elderly depression. He has probably given up.

My mother would put up a brave front, but would be terrified inside. I have seldom seen joy on the faces of sick people.

But this is America. I just thought people might see this for what it is.....propaganda to prepare us for the privatization and eventual disintegration of Medicare.

I posted it to show this trend, but I forgot to point out that it is done to make the elderly seem quite naughty in their love of doctors. It is setting the stage.

[InkAddict]

6. Nope, I quoted direct from your post meant I know as sarcasm, but

SOME ARE enjoying a sort of superficial commisserating in their "denial" and competition to be the toughest sufferer on the block. Fundies are like that, their rewards in the beyond will be great if they suffer more, and the proof is at the doctors office, even as they sing their zippy do das. They've been told to be more vocal about access, and now they're demanding at least the more "social" aspect of those visits and some docs are obliging, making it really tough to screen out the whiners from those that are truly ill--as the article points out, these are the people the docs just "don't have time for". It just goes to show how little meaningful contact/advocacy the elderly receive in the community, but many of these people won't allow that kind of intimacy into their "business" and settle for the superficial mask. Yup, they're terrified; heck, just watching it, I'm terrified.

In my particular experience, these were people who never questioned even the shoddiest advice of the "professionals" who ALWAYS knew better. Heck, I've spent three years trying to get somebody to give Gramps a B12, and he was been properly diagnosed with pernicious anemia years before the kidney failure, but B12 therapy was touted by the pros as fluff medicine and, perhaps,as a method to collect more office visit fees/copays. However,if there is truly a deficiency based on scientific testing, then whatever their excuse for allowing additional systemic illnesses to ensue because the payment on a claim for a lousy vitamin is cheap, that's inexcusable.

[madfloridian]

7. I think we are saying the same thing.

This article is another of this writer's ugly propaganda, and I am afraid some idiots will read it and not know what is happening.

Before they can destroy Medicare, which is their intent, they must first discredit the ones who use it.

[KT2000]

8. Kolata mouthpiece for AMA

She seems to back up AMA positions in her articles. My sense is that she "validates" their positions with her articles.

I live in an area where there are lots of retired people. Doctors flocked to the area when Medicare payments were high. Then the reimbursements were slashed and the doctors have been dumping patients, refusing to take any more, starting boutique practices.

The AMA created the system of GP's referring to a multitude of specialists. Now that Medicare doesn't pay - they know they aren't going to get any more money, so they want to get rid of the patients!

[Hand]

10. I don't know why NYT still uses her...

She's been caught out writing incredibly inaccurate, irresponsible articles on science and medicine in the past--most notoriously one a few years ago that basically touted some very preliminary research on treating tumors in lab mice as an incipient cancer cure.

That, of course, led to the expected results: the researchers were deluged with calls from desperate cancer patients, who (along with their families) were cruelly and unnecessarily given false hope by Kolata's article. The research was disrupted, the scientists had to make lengthy explanations about what they had and hadn't said... and the NYT *still* uses Kolata's half-assed material to this day.

I'm a member of the National Association of Science Writers, who are scrupulous about fact-checking, professional standards, accuracy, etc. I can tell you that Gina Kolata has ZERO credibility in the legitimate science writing community.

I'm pretty PO'd about her, because I've spent a lot of time writing and revising this kind of material so that the general public can actually get a handle on scientific research, then along she comes with her crapola and muddies up everything. Trouble is, when scientists see their work handled this way, they usually decide that it's best to clam up and not talk to the media at all, since they figure they'll get "Kolata'd". (That's an actual term in science journalism--i.e., "That source at NIH won't talk to me any more; last time he talked to the press, he got Kolata'd."

[tom_paine]

11. Sounds like a Mockingbird

Not a journalist...a propagandist.

Just another footsoldier in Uncle Karls Ministry of Popular Truth and Enlightenment...