Juan Williams Calls Out Bill Kristol For Using Health Care "Scare Tactics" (VIDEO)

On "Fox News Sunday" today Juan Williams criticized fellow panelist Bill Kristol for using what he called "scare tactics" in making the case against the current health care reform plan.

Get HuffPost Media On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[AntsyAmerican]

Millions are rationed out of healthcare today... by corporations with a profit motive.

How could it be worse to be rationed by a beaurocracy with NO profit motive? At least the government plan wouldn't have to budget for CEO wealth creation and 1.4 million per DAY in lobbying expenses.

[Kanuk1]

how about poor Mr. Cleveland in Canada, who has aggressive colorectal cancer but is allergic to a couple of the drugs taken in tandem with others - he cannot 'switch out' though, because some bureaucrap said it's this way or the highway - thus he'd have to pay himself over $1700 per shot for the 'working' drug - looks like this single payer system could end up bankrupting him - only in USA, you say? - 'fraid not!

[j mcdouglas]

What about him?

I'm not Canadian. I'm an American. Canadians are the only people with the Canadian system who need to worry about the way they've done it.

[MNinWI]

It's time to hit the streets w/ massive protests & write to Congress & tell them there is no option except to give what the vast majority want-single payer, universal health care. It's about time the social parasites (insurance) of our society learn to make money in an honest way.

[DrPneumann]

Quote from Wendell Potter, former insurance executive, from the Bill Moyers interview concerning healthcare:

"The industry has always tried to make Americans think that government-run systems are the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, that if you even consider that, you're heading down on the slippery slope towards socialism. So they have used scare tactics for years and years and years, to keep that from happening. If there were a broader program like our Medicare program, it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies. So that is their biggest concern."

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/07/video-insurance-lobbys-secret-plan-to-attack-sicko-and-michael-moore/

Scare tactics against Americans to DECEIVE them into doing the industry's bidding.

Your own COUNTRYMEN pulling carny scams against you.

[imsrui]

Health Insurance - Rental Apartment Analogy.

Friends here an an Analogy that I would like you to give a thought.

Case I - Rental Apartment with Heat included.
Joe rents an apartment with heat and electricity included in his $1000/month rent. Joe has no insentive to pay any attention to the use of heat/electricity in his apartment. The lights are on and the heat/AC is on even when no one is at home. Joe's neighbour, Paul, is responsible with heat & electricity use. However he too is paying $1000/month.

The landlord gets a big bill. He/she increases the rent to $1100/Month. Joe does not change his behavior and Paul continues to suffer.

Case II - Rental Apartment, heat NOT included.
Paul pays the rent and gets a lower heating Bill. Joe gets a higher heating bill. Since his lack of responsibility hurts his directly, Joe makes an effort to efficiently use his heat/electricity.

Case I is an example of a Health Care Insurance System and Case II is an example of a combination of "Direct Pay & Emergency Insurance" plan.

[iskra]

Bad analogy.

You keep pretending that health is a choice.

While you are correct that choice is a factor in some health situations, it's not a choice for many people.

You get hit by a car and require years of reconstructive surgery, you get cancer (not from anything you did), you get old, you have bad genes, you catch a virus.

Obviously you've never had a family member have a serious terminal long-term illness that ends up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in care. Insurance companies are skilled at reducing payouts, that's what the do for a living.

We are ALL going to get old and die. Which is why your insurance company wants to dump you at age 65 and let government deal with you.

Stop with the attitude that you're paying for poor people's health care with your hard earned money and that they all will take advantage of you if they get access to proper health care.

Should NY stop paying federal tax dollars because Arizona takes out more than they contribute? They like most Red states are welfare states.

We have a federal government to promote the common good. The question is how to best provide for a common service that will provide for all of our population, not how we can all fend for ourselves.

[imsrui]

I have cancer survivals in my family.

I am advocating for a "Direct Pay" & "Catastrophic Emergency Insurance" plan.
Cancer, Heart attack, etc will be covered under the "Catastrophic Emergency" Insurance. But we don't need insurance for doctor visits.

My argument is we do not need insurance for all health issues. There are a majority of issues where the patient-doctor team can work things out without a middle man (Insurance Company or Government).

[Antifascist-08]

Great analogy if you are a third grader.

So it is better to not have insurance for people because they would just waste it.
Good one I get it.

[imsrui]

I am advocating insurance ONLY for emergency health care.

We do not need insurance coverege for treating flu, allergies, runny nose, headache, dental issues, etc.

[amdezurik]

well, we are not talking about a duplex after all, more along the lines of spreading it over 200-300 million people eventually. So one person "wasting" resources (you left out any definition of that by the way) would bump the "rent" up about .0000000000000003 of a cent or so...

[imsrui]

So what happened to individual responsibility ?
Why should I pick up the tab for a smoker ?

I want that smoker to pay more for his/her choices as oppose to "Bumping" up the cost for all.

[Kanuk1]

good analogy

[amdezurik]

not really since there does not seem to be a health care equivelent to leaving the heatAC on when not home, so when trying to parse this attmpt of an anlogy you are left with nothing rational.

[amdezurik]

*slaps his forhead* oh of course it was the "nothing rational" that attracted you, like always for you

[Hwgfy]

If there is anything that represents the right wing mentality on health care it is this over simplistic analogy. You assume to much. What about the poor, those who cannot afford "heat" and therefore go without. Or the 20 million Americans that pay for "heat" but are denied service by their providers. Or the homeless, the mentally ill and others who cannot provide themselves with a home and "heat". Your analogy is based on the little bubble you live in without any knowledge of how others live.

[imsrui]

The people who cannot afford money for Medical care will be lower compared to today. Individual charity will go a long ways.

It will totally eliminate the 20 million that you talk about.
The only transaction you will have is between the doctors and the patients. No middle man.
In some cases, with this kind of system, doctors will help the patients by offereing some f their personal time.

I have lived in mutiple countries with different health care options.
My experience tells me that "Direct Pay & Emergency Insurance" is the better option.

[MakeAWish]

Bill Kristal is nothing but a parrot hack of the insurance companies. Another water boy.

[Totto]

As a contributor (since 1973) to NPR/PBS I believe that the reportage of propagandist Fox News personalities, Juan Williams and Mara Liasson, has no place in Public Broadcasting.

[wonkguy]

I am sort of troubled by those two being on Fox EVERY week as well. It's one thing to have a second hustle, but for your you to work at one organization during the week that is known for journalistic integrity and then to spend your weekends drawing a paycheck from another organization that is everything but objective raises too many concerns.

[Kanuk1]

yes, we recognize that PBS's integrity is questionable but these two get good training at Fox to be fair and balanced in their reporting

[BUZZARDSTKE]

I am not a FOX news watcher but watching this tape boy do they have a better than though attitude..­..

IT LIKE THEIR SH&*T DON'T STINK WHEN THEIRS STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN!!

[Totto]

They are overcompensating for what they know to be their on-air lies.

[JuniorRoyale]

How is this cliche argument any different from our current situation?

[DEvans1]

Laura Ingraham makes my butt hurt. Everytime I hear her voice I lose another second on my life.

[Totto]

How would you like to wake up to THAT in the morning?

[Kanuk1]

I could handle it - you?

[Kanuk1]

how about I send you tapes of all her shows and speeches?

[Anasazi]

Republican line: A government program cannot deliver health services.

Never mind that government delivered these services:
1. Winning WWII
2. Putting man on the moon
3. Built America's infrastructure
4. Funded the polio vaccines
5. Launched the Internet
6. Won the Cold War

But, we can't trust government with our health?

[Exexecution]

It's either the government or Wall St., which has a proven track record of failure to manage money and exists today by the good graces of the US taxpayer who just bailed out their sorry a$$es.

Tough choice? not.

[tbonehead]

. . . and created the "middle class" after wWII with the GI Education bill and housing bills; why is the government all of a sudden bad for America, Oh because Drugbaugh and Handsissy say so?

[mikala]

All I have to say to the Faux news people who can't stand facts is watch this and if you still trust the health insurance industry and think that they looking after your best interest you need a shrink!
If this doesn't make your blood boil nothing will and you deserve what you get.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/profile.html

[themainpoint]

That is a very informative link and I recommend it, too.

I can't take it this nonsense anymore!

Kristol says there will be this supposedly new rationing and Americans should be very afraid.

What does he call what goes on today when insurance companies find ways to drop people who get sick even after they've paid years of premiums? That's even worse than rationing!

What does he call it when companies won't insure those who have been sick? That's worse than rationing.­!That's the insurance industry saying "sorry, thanks for the dough when you were healthy, now you are out of luck, sucker."

For that matter, what does he call it when insurance companies deny certain procedures every single day?

And should we worry more about this new rationing Kristol invented than we should about the fact that many Americans WITH health insurance go bankrupt every day due to having fallen ill? Kristol's supposedly new rationing is worse than becoming homeless because you got sick?

The media plays us for total fools who miss the obvious!

Here is proof of insurance company memos instructing their puppets to brainwash Americans feel afraid of government run health care by saying exactly what Kristol said: www.pbs.org/video/video/1178899944/chapter/1/search/bill moyers health care

Does Kristol have one original thought or does he all his duplicitous blabber come strait from corporate memos?

[youngharry]

You pay the current private healthcare system for the illusion of healthcare. Most people I know have been turned down for Doctor recommend procedures and medicines by these Companies to help raise their profits. No one I know who has Medicare has been turned down for anything recommended by the doctor---

Take profit out of healthcare, otherwise it will kill you or put you $1000s of dollars in debt..PRIV­ATE HEALTHCARE IS AN ILLUSION.

[iskra]

Agreed.

Like any insurance the idea is to pay out as little as possible while increasing premiums and rejecting high risk people.

Then once people hit 65 and are likely to get sick, put them on Medicare and let the government deal with them.

I pay crazy premiums and every time I get any kind of health care I know it's going to mean hours of fighting with the insurance company despite ridiculous co-pays/deductibles and denied payments.

[JuniorRoyale]

You pay the current healthcare system to fund their lobbying.

[Totto]

DENYING CARE is how private healthcare companies make their outrageous profits.

[hark]

It's just amazing how certain buzz words terrify the American people. Including "terrorism," which is one-thousandth of the threat that ordinary crime is to us, yet we fear it far more.

So, Republicans have learned to use "socialism" and "rationing" whenever they have no real arguments to make against reforms. It doesn't matter that every industrialized nation is part socialistic, part capitalistic. And it doesn't matter that everything is rationed in every society - we use money to dole out the goodies, including health care. All that matters is that the words terrify the American people.

[lvdragonlady]

I agree, the GOP does use many 'buzz' words to try and push American's button.
2 of the scariest 'buzz' words in this day and age are GOP and republican.

[themainpoint]

I can't take it anymore! Utter B.S.

Kristol says there will be this supposedly new rationing and Americans should be very afraid.

What does he call what goes on today when insurance companies find ways to drop people who get sick even after they've paid years of premiums? That's even worse than rationing!

What does he call it when companies won't insure those who have been sick? That's worse than rationing.­!That's the insurance industry saying "sorry, thanks for the dough when you were healthy, now you are out of luck, sucker."

For that matter, what does he call it when insurance companies deny certain procedures every single day?

And should we worry more about this new rationing Kristol invented than we should about the fact that many Americans WITH health insurance go bankrupt every day due to having fallen ill? Kristol's supposedly new rationing is worse than becoming homeless because you got sick?

The media plays us for total fools who miss the obvious!

Here is proof of insurance company memos instructing their puppets to brainwash Americans feel afraid of government run health care by saying exactly what Kristol said: www.pbs.org/video/video/1178899944/chapter/1/search/bill moyers health care

Does Kristol have one original thought or does he all his duplicitous blabber come strait from corporate memos?

[imsrui]

Democrats and Repbulicans - Both are wrong.

The republicans are advocating competition between insurance companies and the democrats want the "Public" option for insurance. I have a problem with both these approaches.

First thing is to identify the "Value Added" work being done in Health Care?
Patient - Doctor Interaction. Everything else is WASTE.

In both proposals, there is a middle man. Insurance company or Government. They add no value to the process. Yet they or they will consume most of the resources.

Need for insurance - The second question we need to ask ourselves is why do I need Insurance ?
Unexpected health issues.

Do we really need insurance for regular check ups, cold, fever, flu, headache, dental, etc ? In my opinion, Absolutely NOT.

Compare it with Car insurance. We don't need or we don't use insurance for oil change, battery, tyres, etc. So why should it be different with Health Insurance.

This idea of having all Americans Insured in misguided.

I propose a "Direct Pay" system, where doctors compete with each other to get your business. They cut their own cost to be profitable. This will significantly reduce all the paper work and the unnecessary transactions.

Compare it with the animal doctor. There is no insurance. Yet they get better care than us. Thats because there is true competition, unlike the current we see in our health care industry.

Insurance ought to be against health emergiencies like cancer, hearth attack, etc.

This will significantly reduce health care

[hark]

Yes, it is legitimate to distinguish between health insurance for expensive illness or injury and routine health care, but the point is that by packaging the routine in with the insurance we encourage preventive care, and it turns out healthy habits are the most important step we can take to reduce the cost and ravaging of major illness. It is far more effective than all the medical technology put together. Our life expectancy skyrocketed after Americans started to quit smoking, for example.

Same thing with dental insurance. The most important thing you can do to prevent serious and expensive damage is to have your teeth and gums cleaned and deplaqued twice a year. So we throw it on the dental insurance.

So I believe packaging routine care is a good idea, because otherwise tens of millions of Americans will choose not to use it, because they don't want to pay for it.

[Phoebe917]

exactly. most people will not go to the docs if they have to pay out of pocket. it is just too expensive, and what is sad is most people don't know they have something wrong with them if they have no symptoms. like hypertension, diabetes, breast cancer etc. by the time they realize there is something wrong they will definately need their "catastrophic illness" insurance.

[MyNameIsJames]

Ok -dude - You got my attention. I'm not sure if what you are saying will work - especially with an aging population.

Explain how this works in terms of lets say an average joe who pays $800 month (family of 4) for employee based health-care with his employer paying the other $800.

Walk me through the process with an average person.

[imsrui]

Thanks for the question.
Lets assume that Joe has a family of 4, Wife, 2 kids and himself.

If I were Joe, I would have "Emergency Health Insurance" for all 4. Since this is only for emergencies, the monthly premium will be significantly lower that his current premium.

I would not be out of line, to suggest that it will be atleast 50% less.
Assuming he pays $800 today, He will only pay $400 and his company will match his contribution.

Hence he is saving an additional $400 for himself and another $400 for his company.
This is where resonsibility kicks in.

If the family follows a healthy lifestyle, they can safe $400 every month and potentially $400 if the company continues with its $800 contribution.

If the family is not wise, they will see their health care expense go up. That will drive them to change and have a healthy lifestyle.

[flyers]

I agree! I just want health care coverage for anything castraphophic that happens, the same with my car insurance. If I want to fix my tail light, I don't go through insurance, I pay myself, same with a checkup at the doctor.

[MyNameIsJames]

So that means you will pay for catastrophic insurance and pay the rest out of pocket? Let's say you have a family of 4 people - 2 adults 2 kids ( one of the kid's is an infant). How does this work? Walk me through a reasonable scenerio..­...

[Phoebe917]

obviously you must be real young or real healthy. have you checked out the price of a mammagram, a colonoscopy, a CT scan, an MRI, an echocardiogram or even just a plain panel of blood work? it costs 120.00 for me to get 15 minutes with my doc. have you had a prescription filled recently? and i am not talking the generics from wal-mart. it costs a lot of $ to stay healthy. my husband, who is self-employed, and i pay 1200.00 a month for the two of us, and we are healthy. we have a deductable of 2000K. something needs to be done. and to correct you, there is veterinary insurance, because it costs an arm and a leg to keep those pets healthy as well. wake up.

[imsrui]

All these prices are high and going high because of the middle man.

Think about it for a second. How much time does an MRI take ? Few minutes.
I know these GE MRI machines and their cost.

There is no way that a few minutes of its utilization along with an MRI specialist and a doc to read it should take more than $100.

Remember what I said earlier - Figure out the "Value Added" work. And ask yourself, what rate should I pay or I am willing to pay for that service.

For an MRI, the "Value Added" time is not more than 30 mins. $200/Hour is way too good for any doc, machine or machine specialist.

[Pamlet]

Every study ever done on this topic shows that people stint on routine preventative care and their health suffers according, and poor people suffer worse. Although your plan makes logic sense, it will never work because you can't change human nature. Until you have a better answer to this than "people SHOULD have regular checkups", I will write off all such plans as hopelessly unrealistic.

What's more, you seem to have no understanding that it's not just about dr-pt interaction, it's about the whole system of healtcare -- a system that emphasizes acute care to the detriment of other forms of care -- most importantly, day-to-day routine behavior that improves health. To do this, nurses and other health professionals are key. And pts need help navigating the healthcare system -- they just don't have the ability to understand enough about it to make smart choices about what services they ought to be getting. If you think the answer to this is just "try harder" you really don't get it. I doubt you have ever had to deal with a loved one with a complex medical condition. Nor do you understand the fact that many adults just don't have the level of education necessary to understand how to manage complex conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Once again, there is a lot of research on this topic which you seem to be unfamiliar with.

[imsrui]

Most of this research is being done by the "Health Care" industry or funded by the insurance companies themselves.

Why will they put themselves out of business ?

Think logically.

Is healthcare really that complicated ?

Why is health care cost going up when costs in other industries keeps going down ?
Cellphone, Iphone, cars, etc.

Why are other industries competitive and health care is not ?

Talk to a doctor and ask him/her how would they fell if they had to deal with patients directly as oppose to dealing with Insurance companies ?

[tomasedison]

The FOX crowd loves to be scared by the big bad government. On the other hand, the Defense Department can never be big enough, expensive enough or waste enough money.

[stunsitfel]

Seriously Juan. Just quit your job and join the White House Staff. Make it offical in lieu of acting like a reporter.

[LBaby]

If he was acting like a reporter, he wouldn't have been on Fox in the first place...

[dillydawg]

"If he was acting like a reporter, he wouldn't have been on Fox in the first place..." And if he he had respect for human decentcy rule of law and truth he wouldn't think about the compromise he embraces. He is no better, perhaps even worst, than Bill Kristol