Shona The Shill:

In our last post we told you about Shona Holmes, the unfortunate woman from Waterdown, Ontario who, as we found out in a dramatic TV spot that recently began airing nationally, was diagnosed with what she described as a brain tumor. And again according to her, the Canadian health care system told her it couldn’t fit treatment of same into their schedule for six months. In her estimation she would have been dead by then…and jeez, a brain tumor! How could anyone ever doubt a story like that?

Funny thing about ‘walking back the cat’ though. When you start pulling on a thread as you trace a story back to its routes, more often than not the entire garment begins to unravel…and pretty soon the emperor, or in this case the empress, has no clothes.

Our girl Shona ended up making her way to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona where, for a mere $100,000.00, they confirmed the diagnosis, did some additional testing, performed the appropriate operation and sent her home fully cured just four days after the surgery. Trouble is, the surgery wasn’t for a brain tumor, or brain cancer as Fox News so typically overstated during their interview with this unfortunate victim of Canada’s socialized health care system. It was for the removal of a benign cyst…and they excised it not by boring through her skull, but by going up her nose with something akin to a Roto Rooter and popping that sucker like a big ol’ zit.

What she actually had was called a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst, a rare, fluid-filled sac that grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. It can cause hormone and vision problems, both of which Holmes had been experiencing, and can also cause more serious problems if left untreated. But it is not…NOT…life threatening, and is normally treatable with minimally invasive surgery, as was the case in this instance.

End of story, right? Our victim/heroine escapes the tentacles of Canada’s oppressive, socialized health care system, heads south to that ‘shining city on the hill’, gets the treatment she was denied in her own country, and finally goes back home to live happily ever after. Wow! If it weren’t for this damn gag reflex it would probably bring tears to our eyes.

Here’s the thing, though. This procedure took place four years ago, but Americans For Prosperity/Patients United Now didn’t see the need to produce and release a TV spot featuring Holmes until just recently… when they undoubtedly felt it could do the most public relations damage to any Health Care Reform initiatives currently being considered by Congress. And the Mayo Clinic, which first wrote about this story in 2007 as a not so subtle dig at Canada’s public health care system, and a not so subtle plug about their own expertise, all of a sudden decided to re-release it this summer to coincide with the release of the TV spot. Oh the humanity!

What a crock of unadulterated horse pucky! For openers there is no way…no freaking way…that anyone with either a life threatening or immediate need medical condition gets put on hold by the Canadian health care system, unless there has been some kind of misdiagnosis or they have somehow fallen through the cracks. And neither of those things could ever have happened here, in the good ol' USA, right?

Oh, you may have to wait a while for that vasectomy or nose job, and maybe even for that hip or knee replacement…and that could never happen here either, eh? But if you need treatment NOW for ANYTHING that is in any way life threatening, the Canadian system will make sure you’re taken care of. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is either misinformed, or just plain lying for their own selfish reasons…like that health insurance agent we told you about yesterday.

We don’t know what Shona Holmes was paid or given for agreeing to do that ill-advised TV spot or the Fox News interview decrying the Canadian public health care system…maybe a ton of money, maybe all the expenses associated with her treatment at the Mayo Clinic, maybe nothing? But what we do know is this. She is nothing more than a shill…and she’s being used by extreme right-wing interests in this country who, for their own selfish reasons, will do anything to try and stop any type of ‘public health care for all’ from becoming a reality in the United States.

The Canadian system isn’t perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But like ours, the quality of care is world class. The difference is that their system is significantly more accessible and exponentially more effective and efficient than what we have here…or maybe ‘what we don’t have here’ would be a more accurate way to describe it!

And here’s a little nugget for you that you probably don’t know…and you’ll certainly never be told by anyone who leans to the right in this country. When asked in a poll at the turn of the millennium to pick who they thought was the most important person in the history of their country, Canadians overwhelmingly selected a man by the name of Tommy Douglas. The late Mr. Douglas is noteworthy for a few reasons. He was the father-in-law of actor Donald Sutherland and the grandfather of actor Keifer Sutherland…and he’s also the man primarily responsible for making Canada’s public health care system a reality. We’re fairly certain the latter reason is why so many Canadians named him the most important man in their country’s history.

For more on the Shona Holmes traveling circus, there's some excellent material on these sites:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/19/755113/-Another-Healthcare-Lie,-and-the-Lying-Liar-Thats-Telling-It

http://mediamattersaction.org/factcheck/200905270002

And if you really want a laugh, check out the Fox News anti-health-care-reform infomercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJGTcfcWGo

Steve

Health Care Reform: Lies The Right Wing Told Me

As the health care reform debate continues on Capitol Hill, with some sort of government-backed plan seeming all but assured now, the right-wing misinformation machine has moved into, if not out-and-out lying mode then, at the very least, the kind of fear mongering that has become their stock in trade. It began in earnest this past weekend with the national launch of a TV spot…seen several times by these eyes on CNN… that’s based entirely upon an unsubstantiated first-person account accompanied by some highly inflammatory narrative innuendo.

Before we ‘walk back the cat’ to the origins of the TV spot, which will go a long way towards establishing its lack of veracity, one thing needs to be made abundantly clear. This blog does not hide the fact that it is fully supportive of significant health care reform in the United States…but neither does it deny that the quality of health care that’s available in this country is at least as good, if not better, than that which can be obtained anywhere else in the world. The problem, as we see it, is that so many Americans don’t have access to that health care…primarily because of money!

As for the TV spot, here’s what you need to be aware of concerning its origins…and this is information anyone with a computer can find out with about 15 minutes of on-line investigation. The focal point of the ad is purportedly a Canadian woman by the name of Shona Holmes of Waterdown. Canada’s a big place and the ad doesn’t specify where exactly Waterdown is, but our research leads us to believe it’s near Hamilton, Ontario…less than 50 miles from Toronto.

In any case, accepting that she actually is who and what the ad says she is, here’s the gist of it. Holmes apparently suffered from a brain tumor and she claims that the Canadian health care system wasn’t going to even let her see a specialist for six months. She further claims that she would have died within six months had she not come to the United States for “…world-class treatment”. She then advised Americans not to give up their rights. We’re not exactly sure what rights she meant…but we assume it was the right to choose your own health care coverage.

Meanwhile, the voice-over narration was saying things like, “…government runs health care in Canada…care is often delayed or denied…patients wait a year for vital surgeries…many drugs and treatments aren’t available because government says patients aren’t worth it…now Washington wants to bring Canadian-style healthcare to the US…government should never come between your family and your doctor…learn more at patientsunitednow.com”.

Here's the spot in question - watch it and come back to this blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwLp2KJCLOQ

What the ad doesn’t tell you is that Patients United Now is a splinter group of an organization called Americans For Prosperity…and that that group is substantially funded by Koch Industries. What it also doesn’t tell you is that AFP is headed by Tim Phillips…the same Tim Phillips who is known to have, or to have had, close ties to, among others, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Karl Rove. This guy has always kept company with the scumbag elite.

Some of AFP’s more recent initiatives include an attack ad debunking global warming (The Hot Air Tour), a group working to defeat the Clean Energy Economy legislation (No Climate Tax), another promoting increased domestic drilling (Free Our Energy), one that is attempting to stop passage of the Recovery Act (No Stimulus), and a group that actually pays Joe The Plumber to essentially spend his time smearing the Employee Free Choice Act (Save My Ballot Tour).

That brings us to Koch Industries, a huge, privately-held oil company that you’ve probably never heard of unless you happen to be a U.S. senator, a member of Congress or a lobbyist…or unless you’re an environmentalist. Over the years Koch Industries has been hit with hundreds of millions in dollars in fines for various oil spills and dumping incidents, and the discharge of 15 times the legal limit of a carcinogenic chemical from one of their refineries. Predictably, all of these fines were settled for pennies on the dollar once the Republicans were back in control of the White House and Congress…and no one served any jail time in spite of the fact that four Koch employees were facing up to 35 years each for one of the transgressions.

And so goes the thread running from the AFP/Shona Holmes TV spot back to its source, which basically leaves us back where we started…outright lies and fear mongering by the righties. They’ll literally stop at nothing to prevent meaningful health care reform in this country. And what ultimately happens is that this campaign of misinformation leads to misunderstanding and ignorance…much of it on the part of people who you would think should know better.

One acquaintance who happened to be in the business of selling health insurance actually sent out a letter on company letterhead saying actress Natasha Richardson would have survived her skiing accident had the incident occurred in the United States rather than in Canada. Another, who has never once had to pay a significant medical bill or a spiraling health insurance premium because the head of their household is retired career military, relies on second-hand anecdotes to decry the Canadian system. And so it goes.

So remember, the next time you hear someone speaking out against health care reform or criticizing, for example, the Canadian health care system, ask them for some facts to back up their positions. It says here that they won't have any, or at least none that they can corroborate. And if pressed, nine times out of ten you'll find they either have a stake in trying to ensure that the status quo in America remains, or that they have absolutely no practical, user-based knowledge of either the Canadian system or, in fact, of the American system that those of us who have to pay our own way have come to know all too well.

Steve