SocraticGadfly: The GOP cares about patients? Not

April 21, 2009

The GOP cares about patients? Not

Sen. Jon Kyl, in opposing Kathleen Sibelius’ nomination to be Health and Human Services Secretary, during Senate Finance Committee hearings (more on that in a second) tried to pose a as a defender of medical patients’ well-being.

Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., cited Sibelius’ written responses to his questions about “comparative effectiveness research” as his reason for voting no.

Comparative effectiveness research is part of empirical, outcomes-based medicine, used by the federal government to compare medical treatments in part as a cost-savings measure. Kyl and other pseudo-populist wingers claim it could be used to ration healthcare.

More’s the pity. If Obama would defund the Office of Complementary Medicine, he would be doing something.

On the hearings’ locus, why is the Senate Finance Committee the venue for approving an HHS nominee, rather than Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee? That’s a bipartisan clusterfuck.

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