Patterico's Pontifications

Does Kristof know Rainey?

daleyrocks (718861) — 12/2/2009 @ 10:38 pm

Pwned.

Patricia (b05e7f) — 12/2/2009 @ 10:47 pm

Advocacy journalism.

Advocacy “journalism”.

Advocacy under the guise of journalism.

THAT is Pulitzer-prize winning stuff.

If they gave a Pulitzer for chutzpah, that is.

Icy Texan (b8ff91) — 12/2/2009 @ 10:51 pm

The ghost of David Blair is alive and well at the Times.

mike191 (678fbd) — 12/3/2009 @ 3:14 am

That is going to leave a mark.

JD (7036fb) — 12/3/2009 @ 5:33 am

appears to have Kristof dead to rights here

There’s an understatement. This is a brutal takedown.

If half the facts she dug up are true – that the man was actually receiving medical care at the time Kristoff wrote the column – Kristoff will really need to make amends.

SteveMG (8cc21c) — 12/3/2009 @ 6:27 am

SteveMG – Given Kristof’s “response”, amends do not appear to be in order.

JD (4a5c67) — 12/3/2009 @ 6:30 am

Maybe Dr. Mike could explain how “under treatment for three weeks” and “had one appointment” are not nearly as different as you guys thinks. I don’t have the time…

but I am curious, do we know if he has granite counter-tops? Has Michelle driven by his house yet?

timb (449046) — 12/3/2009 @ 6:47 am

Because he’s IN the Hospital, you moron.

Scott Jacobs (445f98) — 12/3/2009 @ 6:50 am

Fake but accurate, huh, timb?

JD (4a5c67) — 12/3/2009 @ 7:02 am

Avoiding any attempted threadjacking by Malkin-haters, I think that the important point is simple: the patient was exaggerating his plight to a sympathetic journalist. Fair enough. But the journalist needs to, well, check out the story and do his job.

Why didn’t he? Because doing so didn’t fit Teh Narrative. People who share that narrative will shrug their shoulders, and they really shouldn’t. This isn’t about partisanship, or shouldn’t be. It’s about the job of being a journalist.

I mean, if Dick Cheney told a story that exaggerated something that made his own situation more sympathetic, I think that Kristof would check it out and report any discrepancies, right?

Eric Blair (bc43a4) — 12/3/2009 @ 7:12 am

Kristof needs to be arrested for fraud because he solicited donations for this guy. I wonder what becomes of the money. I somehow doubt that the money will find its way to the doctors to compensate for the government funding discount. I suspect the patient is splitting the ill-gotten donations with Kristof.

j curtis (5126e4) — 12/3/2009 @ 8:06 am

12

Actually, Kristof and the patient are robbing the taxpayers because that money from the donations should go to the government to pay for the medical care the government already paid for. I think a citizen could demand the government get involved and they would have to.

The fact that the donors wouldn’t have donated if they knew they were already donating with their tax dollars means it’s a fraud against them too.

j curtis (5126e4) — 12/3/2009 @ 8:19 am

When I saw that story linked at Instapundit, I sent Glenn an e-mail pointing out that any neurosurgery resident would love to have that “big case” to treat and I suggested that he would be eligible for Medicaid as disabled. The hospital does all the processing of the enrollment after admission. I’ve done this hundreds of times.

What I didn’t know was that the guy was already an in-patient in a university hospital and had already signed up for Medicaid some time ago. Thus, Kristoff wasn’t ignorant; he was lying.

A couple of other facts bothered me about the story, which I read following the link. No ER can turn away a patient with a major condition like that. They might have trouble finding a neurosurgeon who wants to take care of him but transfer to a university hospital, once again, would be easy.

It turns out to be all lies. Kristoff has repeatedly been found to be lying in his columns. He is the one who started the Plame scandal and got those facts wrong. There is less excuse this time because George Bush isn’t involved.

It looks like the Times took over from the NEA as the White House propaganda wing. These people are despicable.

Mike K (2cf494) — 12/3/2009 @ 8:27 am

He’s had one long, month long appointment, in the hospital, under their constant care.

Since he’s a headcase, why would you take his version of the facts and not follow up with the hospital? Would that not be SOP for a NYT employee? I guess it isn’t. When people are asking for money, you have to be a little careful. I am sick of the constant propaganda.

Dustin (cf255c) — 12/3/2009 @ 8:34 am

Kristof is sooooooo busted on this…

Everyone should follow MM’s advice and write to the ombudsman she links to.

Bob Reed (99fc1b) — 12/3/2009 @ 9:28 am

I love it that she called this a Joe Wilson moment. That’s exactly what this is, and Kristof has responded in the same disingenuous manner.

Also, I wonder what Kristof thinks he is proving when he says the problem with his Medicaid coverage is that it underreimburses so he couldn’t find a doctor to accept him as a patient.
Yes! Yes! That’s what many people have been trying to say is the problem with the government model of “bending the cost curve” by paying less. Doctors can’t afford to take those patients. They get pushed elsewhere.

MayBee (f0bb2c) — 12/3/2009 @ 10:51 am

The NY Times ombudsman should get around to this in approximately 2013.

JD (a58f1d) — 12/3/2009 @ 11:10 am

Maybee, you’re right… if Kristof was telling the truth this would be a great argument for taking care of your self and not involving a government program that will ration resources and screw people.

Dustin (cf255c) — 12/3/2009 @ 11:12 am

Medicaid is in trouble because they have a tragedy of the commons problem. The poor reimbursement and insane bureaucracy have driven all reputable physicians away leaving it to the crooks and the mills. So, naturally, the Democrats want the rest of the country in Medicaid.

When I accepted Medicaid, it was always for trauma or some big case like that. I would be paid about 15% of what I billed two years later after 10 letters and calls. At one point, we were being denied claims because we hadn’t filed the claim within the time limit, which as I recall was 90 days. We couldn’t prove that we had submitted them in the time limit because they refused to accept registered mail.

When I first went into practice in 1972, I decided to accept MediCal, the California Medicaid. I was warned but was feeling empathy for the poor. My office filled up with women who wanted their varicose veins injected. At the time, I was the only one around doing that. Then I learned that the MediCal payment for that service was $6.00. Total. The drug and the syringe and tray cost us more than that.

I stopped taking MediCal. University hospitals take them as teaching cases. Most of the supporters of Obamacare are no doubt salaried employees of such systems.

Mike K (2cf494) — 12/3/2009 @ 11:17 am

20

Mike, since you know about this stuff, is the medicaid strictly a state program or does the federal gov reimburse all or part of it and who would have jurisdiction to prosecute this donations swindle that Kristof and the patient set up?

j curtis (5126e4) — 12/3/2009 @ 11:29 am

I suppose I will be the only one who notes the small “t” tragedy of Dr. Mike’s poor patients not getting a treatment their physician deemed necessary (or at least advisable) for the risible reason that the good doctor couldn’t run his business on the reimbursement.

To be clear, that’s not a shot at Dr. Kennedy. He had a business to run and a family to feed (and, when he took care of that, he graciously donates a large portion of his time to teach and volunteer).

It’s just sad to me that medical care, the sort of thing that so many take for granted (insurance), was beyond the means of the medical community, the government of California, or its citizens to provide to people living with chronic pain (and I’m sure they’d claim disfigurement!).

Meanwhile, in Orange County, some bimbo was having plastic surgery for the third time that year.

Yeah, yeah, I get it, this ain’t the place to complain about the poor, rude chiselers. Let them eat Nick Kristof’s column and all. Still, in my opinion, it’s a weird country where the employers are responsible for health care and private insurance companies ration medical care far more aggressively than even Medical or Medicaid could.

PS (back to sarcasm) j curtis, your quest to make sure this middle class guy knocked low by an illness he didn’t cause and couldn’t control doesn’t “profit” from it is just damn admirable, my man.

You stay on it! Have you called the FBI yet regarding this terrible fraud?

In fact, Michelle may need someone willing to drive by this guy’s house. I NEED to know how this guy knows the Lloyds (those S-Chip thieves!) and whether he has granite counter-tops too. I assume she can count on you?

timb (449046) — 12/3/2009 @ 12:56 pm

You stay on it! Have you called the FBI yet regarding this terrible fraud?

Nope, not yet. There is clearly an intent to swindle donations. I can’t be the only one who recognizes that.

If the money is being raised for the purpose of getting better treatment than medicaid can provide, then I wonder if people are expecting a public option to be a “cadillac” public health care plan. Certainly there won’t be any private insurance policies willing to compete with a cadillac public option.

j curtis (5126e4) — 12/3/2009 @ 1:35 pm

Meanwhile, in Orange County, some bimbo was having plastic surgery for the third time that year.

Maybe if you looked at the cost of cosmetic surgery over the past 30 years, you’d realize something important. Cosmetic surgery is largely not covered by insurance or government reimbursement, and yet the costs have gone down.

But I notice that you have conveniently forgotten your statement:

Maybe Dr. Mike could explain how “under treatment for three weeks” and “had one appointment” are not nearly as different as you guys thinks.

Because in this case, they really are as different as the guys here think.

Some chump (8087d5) — 12/3/2009 @ 2:35 pm

Some chump – Two areas of medicine with falling prices and rising customer satisfaction, cosmetic surgery and lasic vision surgery. Both are usually not covered by insurance and are paid for out of pocket.

Have Blue (854a6e) — 12/3/2009 @ 2:44 pm

Maybe if you looked at the cost of cosmetic surgery over the past 30 years, you’d realize something important. Cosmetic surgery is largely not covered by insurance or government reimbursement, and yet the costs have gone down.

That is because in almost all cases, cosmetic surgery, like abortion or installation of cyborg technology, is elective .

Michael Ejercito (6a1582) — 12/3/2009 @ 2:47 pm

“under treatment for three weeks” and “had one appointment” are both dramatically different than what Kristof originally claimed.

JD (4a5c67) — 12/3/2009 @ 2:49 pm

It’s getting to the point that MoDo has more credibility than either of the K’s: Kristoff & Krugman – and hers’ is zero!

AD - RtR/OS! (2eab1e) — 12/3/2009 @ 2:50 pm

timb – I wish you luck getting your contribution back from Kristof.

“it’s a weird country where the employers are responsible for health care”

timb – They aren’t and it’s weird that you still have such a fundamental misunderstanding of the process at this point of the debate.

daleyrocks (718861) — 12/3/2009 @ 3:10 pm

People work to earn their food. They use ‘money’ from employers or their own ingenuity to trade for this food.

thus, employers are responsible for all food safety, agriculture, and flavors. Well, no, I guess not.

I don’t see what’s so bad about people earning however much money they can manage to earn, and having to provide for all their needs with that money. food, clothing, shelter, medicine, media, transportation, etc. Of course there will be awesome things I want my family to have I can’t afford. so what?

Dustin (cf255c) — 12/3/2009 @ 3:28 pm

It’s just sad to me that medical care, the sort of thing that so many take for granted (insurance), was beyond the means of the medical community, the government of California, or its citizens to provide to people living with chronic pain (and I’m sure they’d claim disfigurement!).

In fact, most of the local people on Medicaid got care, either through the ER or, more likely, through the private network of family and friends. The MediCal patient would have someone who would ask their own GP if he/she would see the friend/family on MediCal. he usually would and, to my knowledge, would never send a bill to the state. There is a huge volume of unfunded care that is not acknowledged and will bite them on the ass someday when they enroll everyone into their federal plan (hopefully after I’m dead).

Every other health plan like that has had orders of magnitude more utilization than what was anticipated. It wasn’t all because of free care but a lot was.

The GP would call me if one of the MediCal patients needed surgery and I would do it and, unless it was a pretty big surgery, we would not bill the state for it unless it was a slow week.

The people who had trouble finding care were the anti-social types, the druggies and alcoholics and homeless who got treated at public hospitals and who didn’t keep appointments and stuff like that anyway. And the illegals, of course.

I knew that guy in Kristoff’s column would get care unless he was really in a strange situation.

The bigg problem with MediCal (and yes, the feds pay the state about 40% of the cost but rich California added benefits), aside form the reimbursement, is the patients. A lot of these patients have all the pathologies of the poor. When I worked in ERs during my residency, I would see MediCal patients who were aggressive and demanding and threatening. We would treat what was necessary and, if we didn’t give them what they wanted, often narcotics, they would loudly stomp out and go to another ER.

There are, of course, community clinics for the poor which could use a couple hundred billion, which would probably solve the problem. Like the Canadians, the Democrats are determined that, rather than have care for the poor be stigmatized as charity, or “different”, they will pull down the entire system for 90% of the country. They are also determined to make it “free.” That, of course, means you and I pay for it. There is infinite demand for free goods. That is what is killing Medicare.

MIke K (2cf494) — 12/3/2009 @ 3:29 pm

Moral – Never let the truth get in the way of an inflammatory emotional lie.

JD (4a5c67) — 12/3/2009 @ 3:59 pm

Comment by JD — 12/3/2009 @ 3:59 pm

That’s very easy when you don’t have any morals.

AD - RtR/OS! (2eab1e) — 12/3/2009 @ 4:24 pm

“it’s a weird country where the employers are responsible for health care”

Goodness, you still think every business must offer health care? Are you serious? It’s a benefit that they choose to offer potential employees, not a right. If this is what the majority of leftists really believe, then that’s the scariest thought process I’ve heard yet from that sector of the populace.

Dmac (a964d5) — 12/3/2009 @ 4:36 pm

It’s just sad to me that medical care, the sort of thing that so many take for granted (insurance), was beyond the means of the medical community, the government of California, or its citizens to provide to people living with chronic pain (and I’m sure they’d claim disfigurement!).

It is sad. There are a great many sad things in life with no easy answer.
It’s sad that not everyone can get medical care. It’s sad when kids have parents that don’t treat them well, or aren’t interested in their education or well-being.
It’s sad that there are people who join gangs.
It’s sad that there are people who can’t find jobs and are about to lose their homes.
And that’s just some of the sadness in this, our amazingly successful country. Think of the sadness in poverty-stricken and war torn countries.

Pointing out that something is sad isn’t a policy prescription, it is just a statement of brutal reality.

MayBee (f0bb2c) — 12/3/2009 @ 5:57 pm

Why didn’t he? Because doing so didn’t fit Teh Narrative. People who share that narrative will shrug their shoulders, and they really shouldn’t. This isn’t about partisanship, or shouldn’t be. It’s about the job of being a journalist.

A job journos are doing about as well as climate scientists. Gack.

Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 12/3/2009 @ 8:24 pm

Goodness, you still think every business must offer health care? Are you serious? It’s a benefit that they choose to offer potential employees, not a right. If this is what the majority of leftists really believe, then that’s the scariest thought process I’ve heard yet from that sector of the populace.

Actually, it is a very clever form of control, and I along with many favor divorcing health insurance from employers.

Because people don’t move jobs (or stay at shitty ones) because they have to keep that insurance.

If we were able to access plans on our own (and without the mountain of BS that is mandated coverage), I suspect that insurance would be cheaper, much in the way that car insurance is nice and cheap now, with companies fighting for every single individual.

Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 12/4/2009 @ 1:30 am

Remember, folks, we can thank FDR for employer-sponsored health insurance. He created the wage cap. And employers got around that wage cap by providing benefits such as health insurance on top of the wage cap.

John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 12/4/2009 @ 1:50 am

Gee, every problem is traceable to FDR. After all, John, I’m sure you’d be more fond of the English system which was initiated after World War 2. Christ, John, you’re whining about labor price controls during the war so production of actual war materials occurred. How DARE he win that war!

Kristof’s story is about the surgery and how no one wanted to do it. It’s not about you people and your war against America’s “have nots.”* I think Maybee’s comment is a wonder of Christian charity. You should all be proud.

Oh, and Dmac, your post attains a jd level of disingenuous. Congrats on that.

* With the notable exception, again, of Mike, who I somewhat agree with (though throwing a bunch of money at clinic for the poor is not the same as providing an adequate level of care. Those guys do yeoman’s work, but they are under-staffed and their records are always handwritten. No one should ever hand write his/her records. It’s unfair to those of us who have to decipher them!)

In my experience, the people who make care way too difficult are the druggies and alcoholics, and the down-right bat-shyt insane, who clog up ER’s and only seek acute care.

timb (449046) — 12/4/2009 @ 7:58 pm

12/2/2009

Kristof Busted by Malkin

39 Responses to “Kristof Busted by Malkin”

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