Just wanted to give you a heads-up on a website that explains what is in each bill that is currently being lobbied for passage, analyzed by Betsy McCaughey who has read all of each one. This is incredible! I am purposefully not ranting on this blog, with great restraint. I've pasted a bio of Dr. McCaughey below, and please go to check out the site HERE
Governmental health care has not worked well in any country in which it's been tried. In all statistics, including access and mortality rates, the US with its private system is far and away superior. Access to healthcare is not nearly as grim as the politicians are screaming about: for example, many are eligible already for Medicare but are not sick and thus don't sign up, and many can afford coverage but decide not to do it. If you show up bleeding at a hospital's ER, you WILL get care. Hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and other institutions donate millions of dollars in beneficent care every year.
Public or Governmental Health Care is certainly a worthy subject to be debated and considered, and if a plan comes up that might improve the kinks of private health care delivery, by all means let's talk about it. But this terrible rush to *just doing SOMETHING" resulting in destruction of a system that works pretty well, a mind-boggling drain on our economy for several generations to cover this generation, and without even understanding what's going on, is shameful.
OK, here's the link to the website: http://www.defendyourhealthcare.us
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Betsy McCaughey, PhD
Dr. McCaughey is a health policy expert and former Lt. Governor of New York State. In 2004, she founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (www.hospitalinfection.org), a nationwide educational campaign to stop hospital-acquired infections. She serves as the CEO and Chairman of the organization. In three years, RID has made hospital infections a major public issue, provided compelling evidence that preventing infection improves hospital profitability as well as saving lives, and won legislation in over 20 states for public reporting of infection rates. RID has become synonymous with patient safety and clean hospital care. Dr. McCaughey’s research on how to prevent infection deaths has been featured on Good Morning America, the CBS Morning Show, ABC’s 20/20, and many other national programs. She has appeared on Fox News Network’s Hannity & Colmes, The O’Reilly Factor, CNN’s Talk Back Live, and numerous radio programs. Dr. McCaughey is the author of over one hundred scholarly and popular articles on health policy, infection, medical innovation, the economics of aging, and Medicare. Her writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New Republic, Policy Review, Forbes Magazine, New York Law Journal, Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, and many other national publications. Her 1994 analysis of the Clinton health plan in the New Republic won a National Magazine Award for the best article in the nation on public policy. Her article on the dangers of “Dumbing Down Medical Care” won the National Media Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists. She has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and other publications.
From 1994 to 1998, she served as Lt. Governor of New York State. She focused on health issues, and her bills became models for legislation in many states and in Congress.
She has taught at Vassar College and Columbia University, and produced prize-winning studies while at two think tanks, the Manhattan Institute and later the Hudson Institute.
Prior to entering the health policy field, Dr. McCaughey earned a Ph.D. in constitutional history. She is the author of two books on that subject, From Loyalist to Founding Father (Columbia University Press), winner of the Bancroft Dissertation Award, and Government by Choice (Basic Books). She also chaired a national commission on reforming the Electoral College in 1992, wrote its report, Electing the President, and testified before Congress on the subject. In 1989, she served as Guest Curator for the Bicentennial Exhibit and related events at the New York Historical Society.
EDUCATION
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, 1976
Dissertation defended with distinction
Richard B. Morris Prize
Bancroft Dissertation Award
John Jay Fellowship
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, M.A. 1972
VASSAR COLLEGE, B.A. 1970
General and Departmental Honors
Woodrow Wilson Fellowship
Herbert H. Lehman Fellowship
Honorary Vassar Fellowship
POST-DOCTORAL AWARDS AND PRIZES
Post-doctoral Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities
John M. Olin Fellowship
H. L. Mencken Award
National Magazine Award for “No Exit,” a critique of the Clinton Health Plan
Annual Prize from the American Society of Anesthesiologists
FINANCIAL BACKGROUND
While completing her Ph.D., Dr. McCaughey trained in the corporate banking department at Chase Manhattan Bank, and served as a lending officer in the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Division. She also studied accounting at the Columbia University School of Business. From 2000 to 2003, she was a regular columnist for Investors Business Daily.
Current board positions include: Cantel Medical Corp., The American Council on Science and Health, and The Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License, and the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths
RECENT PUBLIC ADDRESSES
Feature Speaker, Manhattan Institute Young Leaders Conference, New York, New York, June 3, 2009.
Feature Speaker, APIC Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, June 17, 2008.
Keynote Speaker, New Research and Compelling Economic Data in Support of Infection Prevention,”
Stanford Group Health Conference, NY, NY, June 16th, 2008
PBS “Second Opinion” Panel on Hospital Infections, Rochester, NY, May 3rd, 2008
Presenter “New Research and Compelling Economic Data in Support of Infection Prevention,” Lotos Club, New York, NY, April 17, 2008.
Presenter, Association of Health Care Journalists, Washington, D.C., March 28th, 2008
Vassar Brothers Hospital Grand Rounds, Poughkipsie, NY, March 26, 2008
Keynote Speaker Greater New York Hospital Association C. difficile collaborative for 38 hospitals in the municipal area, March 7, 2008.
Baxter Healthcare Annual Meeting, Chicago, Il, January 21, 2008
19th Annual Piper Jaffray Healthcare Conference, New York, NY, November 27, 2007
The 42nd Annual Region I Conference of the American Society of Microbiology, Harvard Medical Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 2, 2007
Eighth Congress of the International Federation of Infection Control, Budapest, October 2007
Thomas Jefferson University Medical Center Nursing Infection Control Education Day, Philadelphia, October, 2007
Association of Professionals in Infection Control Annual Conference, San Jose, CA, June 25, 2007
The MRSA and Families Network International Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, June, 2007
National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition (annual gathering of ICU nurses), Atlanta, May 22, 2007
Hospital Infection Forum (co-sponsored by PALL Corporation), Long Island, NY, March 8, 2007
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey, February 20, 2007.
Grand Rounds, New York-Presbyterian Medical Center, January 8, 2007.
Grand Rounds, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, November 1, 2006.
Grand Rounds, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, September 27, 2006.
“News from the Infection Prevention Front,” Live Webcast, Infection Control Today, September 5, 2006.
Illinois Hospital Association Quality Leadership Conference in Chicago, May 23-24, 2006.
APIC 2006 Futures Summit in Savannah, April 2006
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s 16th Annual Scientific Meeting, March 2006
Testimony on Hospital Infection Reporting, Connecticut State Legislature, March 6, 2006
“The Human and Financial Costs of Hospital Infections,” Live Webcast, Infection Control Today, February 28,2006
“Unnecessary Deaths,” 2nd Annual Minimizing Healthcare-Associated Infections Conference in Las Vegas, February 27, 2006
“The Most Effective Strategies for Preventing Nosocomial Infections,” 3rd Annual Patient Safety Conference at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, December 2, 2005
“The Compelling Case for Reducing Infection,” Manhattan Institute, March 31, 2005
“Preventing Hospital Infection: Saving Lives, Reducing Costs,” Harvard Club, March 11, 2005
“The War Against Infection,” Keynote, National Conference of Insurance Legislators, February 4, 2005
“Making Hygiene a Central Part of Medicine,” Forum on Hospital Infection, Harvard Club, December 7, 2004
“Improving the World’s Best Health Care,” Rotary Club at the Princeton Club, November 16, 2004
“The Future of Medicine,” Weill Cornell Medical College Reunion, October 2, 2004
“Reforming the Malpractice System: Ethical and Empirical Considerations,” Long Island Jewish Hospital, sponsored by the Medical Society of the State of New York, June 13, 2003
“Preparing Medicare for an Aging Society,” House of Representatives Briefing Sponsored by the Alliance for Aging Research, Cannon Caucus Room, March 17, 2003
“Scientists are Saving Medicare and Protecting Us from Disease,” Luncheon speaker at the Advanced Medical Technologies Association Meeting, Chicago, February 23, 2002
Keynote Speaker, “Operating Ambulatory Surgery Centers and Surgical Hospitals,” Healthstream Continuing Medical Education event, Chicago, September 27, 2002
“Scientists are Solving the Problem of Aging,” Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University, April 10, 2001
Medical Innovation and What It Will Mean To Us,” Williams Club of New York, February 8, 2001
“Almost as Good as Cocoon,” Fifty New Yorkers luncheon speaker at Alliance Capital, January 25, 2001
Dinner keynote speaker, “Why There Is No Medicare Crisis,” Alliance for Aging Research, May 22, 2000
Keynote luncheon speaker at “Medicine Briefing: Research at Risk” for U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate Staff and Members, Senate Caucus Room, April 13, 2000
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
2004-present: Founder and Chairman of Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths
2002-present: Adjunct senior fellow, Hudson Institute, national columnist
1999-2001: Senior fellow, Hudson Institute
1994-1998: Lt. Governor of New York State
1993-1994: John M. Olin Fellow, Manhattan Institute
1989-1992: Senior Scholar, Center for the Study of the Presidency
1986-1988: Guest Curator, The New York Historical Society
1983-1984: Post-Doctoral Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities
1981-1983: Assistant Professor, Columbia University
1979-1980: Lecturer, Columbia University
1977-1978: Visiting Assistant Professor, Vassar College
BOOKS
Government by Choice: Inventing the United States Constitution (Basic Books, 1987) with Preface by Chief Justice Warren Burger, Ret., and Foreword by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
From Loyalist to Founding Father: The Political Odyssey of William Samuel Johnson (Columbia University Press, 1980).
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