Betsy

By Betsy McCaughey Health “reform” would be a body blow to New York: The city is the nation’s hospital capital — and the legislation being rushed through Congress cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from payments to hospitals. More New Yorkers have jobs in health care than any other industry. The workforce at New York

By Betsy McCaughey The health bills coming out of Congress would put the decisions about your care in the hands of presidential appointees. They’d decide what plans cover, how much leeway your doctor will have and what seniors get under Medicare. Yet at least two of President Obama’s top health advisers should never be trusted

By Betsy McCaughey Since Medicare was established in 1965, access to care has enabled older Americans to avoid becoming disabled and languishing in nursing homes. But legislation now being rushed through Congress—H.R. 3200 and the Senate Health Committee Bill—will reduce access to care, pressure the elderly to end their lives prematurely, and doom baby boomers

By Betsy McCaughey President Obama promises that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it,” even after he reforms our health-care system. That’s untrue. The bills now before Congress would force you to switch to a managed-care plan with limits on your access to specialists and tests. Two main bills are being rushed

By Betsy McCaughey Sen. Edward Kennedy’s health proposal, the Affordable Health Choices Act, is now being marked up in committee, a first step toward a vote. Critics are mounting a battle against the bill’s public insurance option. But for patients, there’s a bigger danger: a mandate that will limit your choice of health plans and

Letter to The New York Times June 19, 2009 Dear Editor, Your editorial unfairly blames “profligate physician behavior” for high medical spending in the United States. Contrary to what the Dartmouth researchers claimed, regions with high Medicare per capita spending are not necessarily wasting money. Medicare spending per capita is an inaccurate proxy for overall

By Betsy McCaughey Last September Sen. Barack Obama promised that under his healthcare proposal “you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves.” On Monday, President Obama repeated that promise in a speech to the American Medical Association. It’s not true. The president is barnstorming the nation, urging

By Betsy McCaughey The health proposals taking shape in the nation’s capital intend to do more than help the uninsured. The changes will affect everyone. Politicians have promised that if you like your health plan, you can keep it. That may be true, but when you’re sick and need care, you’ll get a lower standard

By Betsy McCaughey On Monday President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers released a report called “The Economic Case for Health Care Reform.” The report argues that Americans must curb their consumption of medical care in order to avoid soaring federal deficits, unsustainable burdens on family budgets, and damage to the economy. All of these

By Betsy McCaughey President Obama pledges to provide health insurance for 46 million uninsured people and, at the same time, restrain the nation’s total health spending. Covering the uninsured is a worthy goal, but it will not save money: Once they are covered, they will use 70 percent more health services overall than before, according