Charlie Rose

anion  12/13/2009 01:38 AM Report

I agree and disagree with several of Dean's points. But as other posters below have noted, how does anyone take Frist serious. Yet another example of his character:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Frist_medical_school_experiments_controversy

Feliza  09/12/2009 05:49 PM Report

Frist is obviously acting as the politician and Dean is acting as the healthcare provider, even though they are both doctors, but which one do you think is most well versed in healthcare and how it effects people???? Dean is clearly the healthcare provider who cares about you the patient. Listening to Frist, as a nurse, I would not like him to be my doctor. He doesn't have my best interest as a healthy person in mind. The reason they couldn't answer the question about how the doctors would vote is because doctor's are confused themselves about what this would all mean. Therefore any reform needs to be transparent so we all know exactly what the reform means for everyone. Right now there is a shortage coming in the physician profession and its not because of money, but its because they cannot practice medicine that provides care to people. Doctors today practice medicine totally under the control of the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and the patient comes second. Lets change that with reform.

Feliza  09/12/2009 05:25 PM Report

Oh ignorance is bliss..........

Feliza  09/12/2009 05:23 PM Report

Obviously you all weren't listening to what they were saying. I suggest you watch it again. THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS BROKEN AND IS NOT BENEFICIAL FOR THE WELL-BEING OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY. Doctors do not go into the practice for the money because what they make never comes close to the hours they put into providing care to their patients. Also their malpractice insurance and loans to be repaid to obtain the training to be able to provide you healthcare adds up to a pretty penny. Most docs are still paying loans after 10 yrs out into the field. Does that sound like its a profession all about profit??? Doctors must have a passion for what they do for you in order to want to stay in such an expensive profession. Now compare their salaries to what the pharmaceutical companies make and the health insurance companies make and you will see the doctors are not the greedy ones here. We must make a change and put your healthcare back into the hands of the ones who went to school to keep you healthy. Don't be ignorant people or else you will allow for much of the same....you paying more money for less care.

doodahdaze  08/04/2009 07:22 AM Report

LOL... No sir. Can't argue with logic like that.

NoPardonforMichaelMilken  08/03/2009 02:20 PM Report

doohdahdaze,

The answer to all your questions is a five-letter word.

M-O-N-E-Y.

Lots and lots and lots of money. The overwhelming balance of those accredited as the 21st century American physician has interest in nothing else.

doodahdaze  08/03/2009 07:16 AM Report

NoPardon,

While what you say is true for a good many 'doctors' in our society, I would be willing to bet that that scenario is the exception and not the norm. If the Doctors were primarily motivated by money money greed?, then why would they torture themselves with so much schooling, learning real things, like science?. And all the hassles that come with starting their careers later in life than most people?, when in fact, they could just bullshit their way through law school or join the financial guru wall street 'bankers' crowd? Why take the doctor route? To capitalist nirvana?... Your assertion doesn't hold water. .. Except! In the courtroom of predatory, parasitical lawyers and judges.

NoPardonforMichaelMilken  08/03/2009 03:48 AM Report

American doctors since 1980 became doctors to make lots and lots of money. Medicine is merely a vehicle. The American doctor has about as much interest in the science and art of medicine as a Brooklyn taxi driver has in the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra.

American doctors see themselves solely as venture capitalists and, faced with the possibility of losing their financial "moat" and control over the torrent that supplies it, they have taken up arms and rushed to defend their castles - both in the U.S. and, far more importantly, in their holdings in Grand Cayman, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Jerry Islands, and Switzerland.

To ask the entrepreneur/doctor to think of something other than his/her bank account and other excessive financial holdings has, sadly, become sacrilege in this country. Doctors once practiced medicine. Today, doctors practice investment and financial growth in the guise of a white coat and little interest in anything other than their profit margins.

doodahdaze  08/02/2009 02:59 PM Report

Doctors who are doctors because doctoring is what they were meant to do/be, my guess, could function in any environment as long as society can protect them from profit motivated exaggerating (what basically amounts to flat out evil) lawyers from throwing around frivolous malpractice lawsuits left and right. Not just do good honest doctors fund these assholes from hell, but, WE as a society, facilitate these 'legal' parasites (and pay for it dearly).

I also know that insurance companies have absolutely no interest in selling health/medical/whatever insurance whatsoever. For at least the last 20 years, they would love to sell you any kind of insurance, EXCEPT Hospital/health/medical/whatever insurance.

Finally, I think it rather spoiled and arrogant of a people/society in general to think that everybody is 'entitled' to state of the art health/medical/hostital/whatever 'CARE'... Did we think like that 100 years ago? .. I think not.

Bottom line is, take care of yourself and good luck.

woody_eh  08/02/2009 10:15 AM Report

I thought it interesting that when Frist and Dean, both physicians, were asked how their fellow physicians would vote on healthcare reform, they could not answer the question. either 1) they have lost touch with their physician collegues and aren't aware of a consensus 2) there is no consensus 3) there is a consensus but the organizations who represent large groups of physicians are not taking a position yet or have not made it adequately known. It is a bit disturbing to see that those who are working in the trenches of our healthcare system do not have a more audible voice.

winter  08/01/2009 02:28 AM Report

Politician, be advised the form this legislation eventually takes will lay bare the extent to which our government represents people or special interests. It isn't just health care, its your chance to demonstrate that the people haven't been sold out to special interests. Its sad what republicans will stoop to tossing every deceptive scare tactic in the path of representing Americans. Have you no shame?

timj  07/31/2009 11:23 PM Report

Although this conversation was portrayed as two politicians with opposing views having an honest debate it was far from that. Both sides are being bought out by the health care industry. There are no real differences between Democrats and Republicans. They are essentially the same corporate party. A single payer system would allow ALL Americans to get better health care at a lower cost. I would like to see Charlie bring on a guest like Wendell Potter for a more well rounded discussion.

Christopher  07/31/2009 05:36 AM Report

The Republicans are so out of whack on this issue. These greedy people who think that the US is going to go bankrupt or that a bureaucrat will decide if you get "treated" live on which planet? Ridiculous. France can do universal healthcare but the US can't. England can cover everyone but the US can't. Canada (my country) can do it but the US can't. Denmark can do it but the US can't. Remember when Republicans were against slavery and everyone was for it. Does anyone remember that party? Those god loving quacks. Do they really think that if their imaginary god was voting in the SEnate, he would vote against health care coverage for everyone. Republicans do not represent real Americans, they represent the stupid and the greedy Americans. That is thing about democracy that does not play in the US's favor, the current crop of its citizenry is a poor crop indeed.

NoPardonforMichaelMilken  07/30/2009 11:08 PM Report

Frist was notified of HCA stock in trusts

By Mike Madden, Nashville Tennessean

WASHINGTON — Even after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist set up blind trusts to manage his investments, the Tennessee Republican was informed that he and his children received hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in HCA Inc., the health care company his family founded.

Records filed with the Senate show that trusts held for Frist and his children received between $1.1 million and $2.3 million in HCA stock between January 2001, when Frist established blind trusts in an attempt to minimize conflicts of interest, and last June, when he ordered his trustees to sell all the stock he had left in the company. The trusts also received between $794,000 and $1.9 million in other stocks and mutual funds, records show.

Most of the HCA stock was transferred into the blind trusts once family partnerships set up to manage substantial wealth that Frist's parents left to relatives were dissolved, a Frist adviser said. Frist's parents died in 1998, but their estate wasn't settled through probate until 2001. The stock owned in the partnerships was distributed over the next couple of years.

Frist's HCA sale this summer is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, because the company's share price fell 9% on a weak earnings report a month after he ordered his stock liquidated. Frist has said he had no inside information about HCA's finances and only sold the stock to avoid accusations of a conflict of interest in the future.

But Senate records show Frist knew for years that he continued to own HCA stock in his blind trusts, contradicting public statements he made in the past about the distance the trusts put between himself and his assets.

NoPardonforMichaelMilken  07/30/2009 11:06 PM Report

Aside from Bill Frist's superb medical diagnosis of Terry Schiavo's family video, let us not forget his family's wealth source is HCA, Inc., a Dixie-based health insurance conglomerate.

Apparently Charlie chose to ignore these facts. Never let a fact get in the way of a wealthy guest who can pump money into your offshore bank account, right Chuckles. It's the Dixie Way.

Thankfully, we have the facts at our disposal to, when necessary, slap Charlie upside the head.

Frist Stock Sale Raises Questions on Timing

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, September 22, 2005; A10

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has maintained for years that his stock holdings in the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain posed no conflict of interest for a policymaker deeply involved in health care matters. He even received two rulings in the 1990s from the Senate ethics committee that blessed the holding of the stock in blind trusts.

So when Frist decided in June to dump all the stock, and later cited as the reason his desire to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, eyebrows went up among ethics experts and congressional watchdogs. Why did he do it at that time?

Precisely a month later, after the stock was sold, its price tumbled 9 percent when executives in the company -- HCA Inc., which was founded by Frist's father and on whose board Frist's brother serves -- disclosed that hospital admissions of insured patients were lower than expected, depressing profits in the second quarter.

The timing thus raised questions about whether Frist had somehow traded on information he obtained in advance from the company. "Frist has been in the Senate for many years now, and the conflict is not new," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Why did he decide to sell it then? Why not years ago? What's changed? Did he know that the stock was about to take a fall?"

NoPardonforMichaelMilken  07/30/2009 11:05 PM Report

Aside from Bill Frist's superb medical diagnosis of Terry Schiavo's family video, let us not forget his family's wealth source is HCA, Inc., a Dixie-based health insurance conglomerate.

Apparently Charlie chose to ignore these facts. Never let a fact get in the way of a wealthy guest who can pump money into your offshore bank account, right Chuckles. It's the Dixie Way.

Thankfully, we have the facts at our disposal to, when necessary, slap Charlie upside the head.

Frist Stock Sale Raises Questions on Timing

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, September 22, 2005; A10

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has maintained for years that his stock holdings in the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain posed no conflict of interest for a policymaker deeply involved in health care matters. He even received two rulings in the 1990s from the Senate ethics committee that blessed the holding of the stock in blind trusts.

So when Frist decided in June to dump all the stock, and later cited as the reason his desire to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, eyebrows went up among ethics experts and congressional watchdogs. Why did he do it at that time?

Precisely a month later, after the stock was sold, its price tumbled 9 percent when executives in the company -- HCA Inc., which was founded by Frist's father and on whose board Frist's brother serves -- disclosed that hospital admissions of insured patients were lower than expected, depressing profits in the second quarter.

The timing thus raised questions about whether Frist had somehow traded on information he obtained in advance from the company. "Frist has been in the Senate for many years now, and the conflict is not new," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Why did he decide to sell it then? Why not years ago? What's changed? Did he know that the stock was about to take a fall?"

NoPardonforMichaelMilken  07/30/2009 11:05 PM Report

Aside from Bill Frist's superb medical diagnosis of Terry Schiavo's family video, let us not forget his family's wealth source is HCA, Inc., a Dixie-based health insurance conglomerate.

Apparently Charlie chose to ignore these facts. Never let a fact get in the way of a wealthy guest who can pump money into your offshore bank account, right Chuckles. It's the Dixie Way.

Thankfully, we have the facts at our disposal to, when necessary, slap Charlie upside the head.

Frist Stock Sale Raises Questions on Timing

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, September 22, 2005; A10

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has maintained for years that his stock holdings in the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain posed no conflict of interest for a policymaker deeply involved in health care matters. He even received two rulings in the 1990s from the Senate ethics committee that blessed the holding of the stock in blind trusts.

So when Frist decided in June to dump all the stock, and later cited as the reason his desire to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, eyebrows went up among ethics experts and congressional watchdogs. Why did he do it at that time?

Precisely a month later, after the stock was sold, its price tumbled 9 percent when executives in the company -- HCA Inc., which was founded by Frist's father and on whose board Frist's brother serves -- disclosed that hospital admissions of insured patients were lower than expected, depressing profits in the second quarter.

The timing thus raised questions about whether Frist had somehow traded on information he obtained in advance from the company. "Frist has been in the Senate for many years now, and the conflict is not new," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Why did he decide to sell it then? Why not years ago? What's changed? Did he know that the stock was about to take a fall?"

REMant  07/30/2009 05:47 PM Report

Dean, of course, has it backwards, you must fix the economy before you can really fix healthcare, and it is because of ppl with his attitude that the problem has been perpetuated to this point. His is the same argument that was made in the 30's by both the Hoover and FDR admins and by the same parties in GB. You can and should make efficiency improvements and I would consider single-payer one of them. But the reason healthcare is so expensive for so many people is because they are so poor relative to the wealthiest Americans, and that has been due to the regime of fiscal and monetary irresponsibility we have followed for so many decades. It is like GM trying to make money just selling Cadillacs. Frist is wrong, the public option will not force lower prices, because it will not be able to force doctors to accept the patients. The result will thus be lower quality care. As it is, this, like every other economic policy discussion, it seems, resolves to a question of price supports for vested interests, which is exactly the kind of policy they followed in the Depression. But it was that policy, which caused the Depression.

cello10  07/30/2009 04:57 PM Report

Charlie, rather than duplicate what we can already see on "Meet the Press", I have a suggestion: Bring in Noami Klein and Noam Chomsky. Have them debate Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid. Then, rather than airing a fabricated debate between Republican conservatives - who care more about the health of the private insurers, the health of conservative ideology, and the winning of elections - and the Democratic centrists - who are forced to make public policy that favors corporations at the expense of public infrastructure, individual people, and the environment - we could see a real debate between the far left and the liberal center. This would be more meaningful and actually serve the public interest. Your PBS friend and colleague, Bill Moyers, is much further ahead of the curve: Bill Moyers doesn't try to be "objective" about the public policy debate between conservative Republicans and centrist Democrats. He understands the game in Washington is already rigged and the conventional debate is phony. Even Howard Dean openly stated on this episode that the Republican side of the debate has a hidden agenda and is not sincere. Conservative Republicans rely primarily on fear, hate, propaganda, and dysfunctional ideology to influence the voting public. These tactics have no place in the 21st century and they most certainly have no place on your show. You do the American public a disservice when you try to make the conservative debate legitimate in the name of journalistic fairness._Cameron L. Stewart

winter  07/30/2009 04:56 PM Report

The market is a glutton and has been feeding off middle class wage slaves for decades. Lobbyists win at every turn. Politicians stand little chance of getting elected when the media decides to weigh in with their campaigns of ridicule and they of course offer their services to the highest bidder ...how else to stay alive, in the manner to which you are accustomed. The stock market is giddy while laid off bread winners are at record highs. I'm not religious but there is something biblical about these times. I've always felt worse for the losers than happy for the winners.

tartufe  07/30/2009 01:37 PM Report

Howard Dean = 10, Bill Frist = 0.