Dr. Jack Cassell, an Orlando-area urologist and part-time Republican crank, probably couldn’t have imagined what he was getting himself into.
This week, Cassell’s medical office posted a sign for patients and their families: “If you voted for Obama…seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years.”
But perhaps the most important coverage was an interview between Cassell and Alan Colmes on the radio Friday night. The host tried to get a better sense of why, exactly, Cassell hates the Affordable Care Act so much.
Cassell struggled to explain himself, saying he’d seen some things “online,” and adding that the information he needs to understand the law “should be available to me.”
Of course, the information is available to him, and has been for months. Cassell chose not to do his homework before driving patients away — patients who, it turns out, may know a lot more than he does about the law he claims to hate.
This is painfully common — some of the loudest, angriest critics of the Affordable Care Act are also some of the least informed, most confused, embarrassingly ignorant observers anywhere. In this case, Cassell has become a national joke because he’s repulsed by a health care reform plan that he fully admits he doesn’t understand.
It’d be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.
Typical idiot right winger, opposed to any policy his dickwad racist hypocritical disingenous asshats aren’t (currently) supporting.
He should lose his license, or at least have it suspended until he can explain what he is supposedly opposing.
This doctor is disgrace to the medical profession.
Republicans with any self respect should abandon seeing this quack to send a message that doctors choosing patients based on who they vote for is immoral, if not pathetic.
@2
Exactly, the rich needs to stay rich and do their own dictating of the medium class and poor! I mean seriously, he’s a doctor for Christ sake. He DESERVES to be rich no matter what.
“If you voted for Obama…seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years.?
He’s not refusing help to patients because he’s not smart enough, no! He’s simply refusing care to any patient who likes someone he DOESN’T like. It could be Obama, his mom or Aliens from outer space.
But keep in mind, whatever the reasons are and no matter how ignorant and pathetic they are, he is a doctor and he deserves to be rich and rip off people hard earn pennies!
So… He knows as much about what is in the bill as the idiots that voted for it.
The only difference is he’s not getting paybacks.
I have yet to hear a reasonable explanation of how the health care industry will deal with the increased demand for service. Take something that was very expensive and give it away for free, the demand is guaranteed to rise.
The CEO of Wellpoint (parent company of Blue-Cross) received a raise last year from $9 Million to $13 Million, while profits for the insurance company rose from $2.5 Billion to $4.8 Billion.
The same company announced that it is raising the rates for individuals by 40%, and cutting 1000’s from it’s insurance rolls since they are high-risk and they just don’t want them in the system.
Capitalism at it’s best… cutting the fat (no pun intended), squeezing maximum profits and keeping costs to a minimum. Too bad that we are not talking about luxuries like iPads, we are talking about the health of human beings.
As for the doctor in the OP, he sounds like your typical TeaParty member, ignorantly parroting nonsense passed as truth by P.T Barnum imitators like Glenn Beck. If the doctor is that stupid, gullible and uninformed, it’s best to find another doctor anyway.
#8,
Being vocal when you don’t know what you’re talking about just makes you look like a dick.
#8 I see the RepubliSheep have gotten the message from above to rally around the “don’t force me to buy a product” rally cry.
Message resonates well and the “T Jefferson” handle is a nice touch.
While I agree in principle with your new slogan, the option of a single payer system was rejected by the GOP. That means the solution reverted back to insurance companies. So, you can’t have it both ways, bud.
Consider for a moment how healthcare might be different to say, forcing people to buy underwear.
4, Theone, Just because the man may make more money than you or other people, is not a valid justification for him to take a pay cut. The reason why the guy is worth more is because he has a skill that few people have.
The doctor deserves to maintain a standard of living commensurate of the personal self-sacrifice, education, and high debt he obtained while going to med school.
But I get it, liberals feel that once things are an entitlement that you can justify the force of government to coerce people to make less than what they are worth when it comes to their skill set.
Getting forced to take a pay cut because the government feels you make too much money is an erosion on everyone’s personal liberties.
Does anyone have a full transcript of this interview? Somehow reading a liberal’s summary of a liberal’s summary of a liberal interviewers hand-picked and emphasized portions of an interview doesn’t really pass as a story worth making comments on. So what if he doesn’t know the details about why one particular line in this monstrosity was added and what it was trying to fix?
#12 – I find it funny that in your second paragraph you defend the *doctor’s* entitlement to a rich lifestyle, and then in your third paragraph you lambast the left’s idea that people are entitled to basic health care.
#12. And notice how these liberals never seem to frown upon the wealth of people in the entertainment industry? Somehow, I don’t picture Henry Waxman calling George Clooney to appear before his committee to explain how he’s able to make so much money.
#5:
“So… He knows as much about what is in the bill as the idiots that voted for it.”
Spot on.
So let me get this straight: I don’t know what’s in the bill, and Congress doesn’t know what’s in the bill, yet I’m vilified for not liking it but they’re allowed to vote for it?
We’ll read it later!
8.
I certainly hope you’re kidding, because your sarcastic rant is hilarious.
If you are serious, by some bizarre minuscule chance, I only hope you’re getting some mental health care. Luckily under Obama, that’s a heck of a lot easier.
#14
I think he is trying to say the doctor is entitled to what he worked hard for himself, which nicely goes along with the inverse that you are not entitled to what you did not work for yourself. This seems very logical and makes perfect sense to me, but I guess many people think this kind of reasoning is ‘funny’ or ‘ironic’.
I hope he sincerely wants to get involved in politics and policy, regardless of his viewpoint. That’s democracy.
Screening patients in need based on party affiliation, religion, race, age, etc is ethically incompetent.
So he never minded insurance companies telling him how much he could earn? He didn’t mind padding the bills to insured middle-class patients to pay the cost when the uninsured stiffed him (if he treated the uninsured)? Now he has a payer with the deepest pockets in the world with no stockholders to answer to when there’s no quarterly profit. Doctors screamed bloody murder when Medicare was introduced and now scream when there’s any talk of turning off the spigot. Ask yourself where the money comes from to cover the unpaid bills run up in emergency rooms by uninsured people who wait too long to get care. It comes from middle-class premium payers and their employers. At least a government system will get that money through a progressive income tax that assesses more to those who make more thanks to the education system and infrastructure we all have to pay for.
#6 Pedro: “Let us know if you like it when someone tells you how much you should earn.”
Funny, the company I work for tells me (and everyone else who works here) how much they can earn. I keep asking for more, but they don’t seem to take my request seriously.
According to “healthcaregrades.com” some guy called Dr. Jack Cassell has only a 30% patient approval rating, based on 420 patients interviewed.
Awake, $5 billion total profits for that one company or the whole insurance industry?
How is cutting out the insurance company profits of $5 billion b y switching to government health care supposed to lower costs, if total profit is about 1% of Medicare expenses?
per #6
quote:
Let us know if you like it when someone tells you how much you should earn. Move to cuba already.
end of quote
Your statement would only make sense if the doctor never dealt with health care insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid. One can assume that the doctor has to deal with the health care insurance companies and, thus, they will tell the doctor how much (directly or indirectly) to charge. Medicare is the same
way, but worse. It is doubtful that the doctor takes in Medicaid patients, but if he did he would be making a lot less on each patient compared to patients with health care insurance and patients on Medicare.
The reason the doctor put up the sign is because he had a “pedro” moment. A “pedro” moment is when one makes a stupid statement because one knows nothing about the subject matter.
How do you have a two-party democracy when one side has friggin’ lost their minds?
If a person has his/her employer choosing the insurance company, then he/she does not have to worry about being forced to buy insurance. His/her employer will make the decisions of what insurance company, the quality of the health insurance and the price for the employee. Government will not force the employee to buy health insurance unless the employee refuses to buy what is offered by the employer. If your employer is not paying you enough to afford health insurance then find a better paying job.
If a person is self employed, then being forced to buy health insurance will be a problem.
Most practices caps their medicare patients, and will not accept medicaid. You can go to this guy and file your own insurance, but you’ll make up the difference. There are not enough GP’s to handle the added patients. The money is in the specialties. We’ll have to end up paying for med school to crank out more GP’s. There are so many unseen consequences to this legislation. LBJ wanted to move the poor into better housing in the Great Society. We ended up with ghettos and projects. It takes a hell of a lot more than good intentions.
It has been humorous to see all the Liberal sheep making a HUGE deal about this. “This idiot doesn’t know why he is against the bill”.
As if it we still a bill, but I digress…
How many of you supporters of this “bill” understand what is in it? Have YOU read it? Have YOU considered all of the implications of sections rammed through? Have your politicians?
The answer must be “no” since very few have including the many, many authors. The “bill” is still coming hot off the press and many surprises remain. And many ambiguous sections that will yet determine the coming reality.
#- EvilP — I see your point about no one truly knows where the health care law will lead, but to have people be against it with not even a single paragraph reference is just following ignorance.
Then to excuse themselves, the people against the law say “well, the authors are also ignorant of what the law states.” These people are saying that they are ignorant and they voted ignorant people into office.
“Stupid is as stupid does” Forest Gump
“Garbage in, garbage out” George Fuechsel
Hey commenting on stuff you don’t know about is for blogs! You know like me … oh never mind.
#24 MikeN
$4 Billion is the profits of only one insurance company last year.
The point of my post is that although profits zoomed waaaay up, rates were being increased 40% and less desirable ‘customers’ were being dropped without possibility of appeal (and made uninsurable in the process). I guess they want to double their profits again next year, consequences be damned.
This guy is an ass. This isn’t about health care. This is about the guy being an ass. I don’t care what political opinions someone has but if they feel so strongly that they are going to put up a sign like this in their place of business I’m not going to give the jerk my money whether i agree with his opinions or not.
34, Uncle Patso,
He’s not refusing them. He’s exercising his 1st amendment rights and telling them to go elsewhere. If he actually refused people, he’d be in legal trouble.
Don’t confuse what you’re worth to an employer with the government capping your income (and dare I say one’s pursuit of happiness). There is a HUGE difference. What you make with an employer is contractual. What the government tells you is the most you can make is by force (especially if you don’t work for the government).
Liability insurance is to protect other drivers from yourself. You can’t make the same comparison with health care insurance.