The struggling, state-funded Maryland Public Television has a program which runs every week called "State Circle." It is hosted by Jeff Salkin, who just revealed himself to be a radical conservative ideologue who believes junk like the death panel smear forwarded by Sarah Palin.
Salkin, a man who is paid in part by the State of Maryland and has generous state-backed health insurance, began by denigrating government-run care, and implying that citizens of other countries couldn't get access to medical care. His panelists shot him down. They rightly pointed out that anybody who faces a serious illness in America waits longer to get care and gets less care than they would in a place like Britain or Canada. The Medical Doctors Salkin had on as guests clearly showed him to be a typical lazy journalist who is happy to take a high salary and generous health benefits without doing the hard work of researching the topics he covers.
But then Salkin decided to reveal himself to be a conservative ideologue who was committed to using the public airwaves to promote a radical, ideological agenda. Salkin asked, "Death panels, isn't there a kernel of truth to that; if government has more control, won't their ultimately be people who can't get care they need."
The assembled medical doctors laughed at Salkin's preposterous question. They then went about point out the truth about the death panel smear. They said that that provision of the health care reform bill would simply enable people on Medicare to access living will services. Like any health care professional who has dealt with the tragedies of end-of-life care without living wills, the doctors Salkin had assembled on his program unanimously thought that granting people access to better living will services was a good idea.
Salkin, a man who has been happy to cash-in a government-backed paycheck for 19 years, didn't believe the three guests he had on, and insisted that "if there is government involvement, won't somebody be deciding who can and can't get care." Apparently, in his 19 years on a government-backed salary, Salkin hasn't bothered to look at the flaws that the American--and Maryland--health care systems have.
Since Jeff Salkin is all too happy to take my tax dollars and not do his job let me give him a quick refresher course on the reality of the American health care system. There is Robin Beaton, the Texas nurse who had her cancer treatment denied by insurance bureaucrats because she failed to disclose a previous case of acne. There is the teenage in South Carolina who had his insurance taken away after he was diagnosed with HIV; South Carolina courts found that the insurance company acted in a fraudulent manner when they took away the teenager's insurance, and ordered the insurance company to pay his family $10 million. And then there are the insurance executives, who cash in nine figure checks at the end of the day.
These stories are in Maryland too. I remember being in a hospital in Baltimore, not too far from the office where Salkin allegedly "works." A doctor and a patient were talking in the hallway of this hospital. I overheard their conversation. The patient, who was probably in her 30s, had cancer, and was on expensive chemotherapy. Her employer had just raised her annual deductible. The doctor was trying to convince her to take a recently-approved, but very expensive, medication. The patient was resisting the doctor's suggestion. Finally, the doctor grasped the situation and told her bluntly, "At this hospital, we never stop chemotherapy because of inability to pay."
If Salkin had done his research, and talked to Baltimore-area doctors, he would've heard hundreds of stories just like that. He would've heard stories of people's policies being canceled because they are diagnosed with a serious illness, they would've heard stories of the largest insurers in Maryland picking on ill people by denying claims and hoping that patients with major health problems don't have the energy to engage in the appeal's process, and of people being denied care simply because they were sick.
But Jeff Salkin didn't earn his paycheck. Instead, he listened to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and the rest of the insane crowd. Salkin decided that factually incorrect allegations should be presented to the people of Maryland as "fact" simply because the allegations jived with his radical conservative ideology.
MPT is in an era of cuts. I suggest that they cut Jeff Salkin from their staff, and hire a real journalist who is committed to actually earning a paycheck. That way, the citizens of Maryland wouldn't have to put up with a person with an ideological agenda spouting incoherent nonsense with their tax dollars.