Hillary’s Healthcare Reform: Basket of Deplorables

In her recent interview on Israel Channel 2, Democrat Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton said “I would say you can take Trump supporters and put them in two baskets--there are what I call the Deplorables, the racists, the haters...”

In calling millions of Americans “deplorable,” Hillary set off a firestorm of controversy and protest on social media.

Physicians serve patients to focus on healing, not ripping people apart causing more pain. Thus, from a medical perspective, it is abhorrent when a Presidential candidate resorts to such divisive and demeaning tactics, smearing hard working Americans who are simply expressing their Constitutional rights with differing opinions about our country’s major economic and social issues.

Physicians who took an Oath to serve patients to the best of our ability face a deplorable situation daily: the high cost of medical care, the high cost of prescription medications, the onerous burden of federal and state regulations that take time away from our focus on patients, the increasing delays in access to specialty care with more physicians going out of practice due to the burdens imposed by ObamaCare.

It is deplorable that patients’ lives are adversely affected when politicians—in this case 100 percent Democrats—pass new laws that interfere with medical decision-making and provision of services to patients, as they did in 2010 with the “Affordable Care Act.”.

It is deplorable that good physicians cannot stay in practice to serve patients due to ObamaCare-imposed regulations that make staying in business economically impossible.

It is deplorable that prescription drug shortages are dramatically worse since ObamaCare passed.

It is deplorable that prescription medication prices have soared under the new insurance rules of ACA.

It is deplorable that the Medicare budget was cut by more than $700 billion to shift resources from care of the elderly to Medicaid services for younger people, refugees, and illegal border crossers.

So what has Candidate Clinton proposed to solve THESE deplorable conditions?

In one word: NOTHING

Street Art in Brooklyn. Photo: The Weekly Standard.

In fact, Hillary has been on record for MORE government control and NO private medical care for the United States since the 1993 secret task force she headed at the request of husband and POTUS, Bill Clinton.

The “HillaryCare” task force was intended to operate in total secrecy—but eventually hundreds of boxes of documents were released to the National Archives because of a lawsuit by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

“HillaryCare” is truly deplorable. It would be far worse than ObamaCare. Hillary planned to eliminate all private medical care in the United States, creating a single-payer, “public option” socialized medicine system controlled totally by the federal government. This is like the system currently in place in Canada.

HillaryCare is NOT the same as the two-tier British system, which allows private consultations, diagnostic testing and treatment on a fee-for-service basis to those who cannot get what they need on the National Health Service.

Hillary’s deplorable 1993 proposals allowed no “back door” to pay privately for faster or better medical care. Clinton’s 1993 plan imposed fines of $50,000 on physicians for the first offense of “private practice” and the second offense sent physicians to jail with loss of their medical license.

Under Hillary’s proposed “healthcare reform,” you might keep your doctor but he or she would be employed by and working for the Federal Government. NOT you.

In this election, Americans have far more patient-centered free-market options under Donald Trump’s proposed reforms. Candidate Trump proposes the following key changes: • Repeal #ObamaCare • Increase patient-owned Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) • Allow purchase of lower cost catastrophic medical insurance • Enable health insurance purchase across state lines to lower costs • Allow patients to buy lower cost medications overseas • Block-grant Medicaid funds to states to decide how to best use the dollars

“Basket of Deplorables” is not a fitting term to describe human beings who support Trump. “Basket of Deplorables” IS a fitting description of Hillary Clinton’s plan to destroy America’s medical care.

Hillary’s plan is worse than deplorable. It would be deadly to millions of patients who could not get the care they need when they need it under totalitarian federal control of America’s entire medical system.

Hillary’s desire for power and control over our very lives is what is truly “deplorable” for Americans.  America was founded on the very cornerstone idea that Life and individual Liberty are God’s gifts, not the government’s.

Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet

About the author: Dr. Vliet is an Independent physician with an active US medical practice in Tucson AZ and Dallas TX, specializing in preventive and climacteric medicine with an integrated approach to evaluation and treatment of women and men with complex medical and hormonal problems.

Dr. Vliet is also Chief Medical Officer of Med Expert Chile SpA, connecting patients to top tier, lower cost medical care in Latin America, focused on medical freedom, patient-centered, individualized care preserving the Oath of Hippocrates. Dr. Vliet is a past Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).

Dr. Vliet is a 2014 Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient for her national and international educational efforts in health, wellness, and endocrine aging in men and women, and is recognized in the US as a powerful patient advocate, proponent of free market approaches to lower healthcare costs and a motivational speaker on health/wellness.  Dr. Vliet is the recipient of Voice of Women Award from Arizona Foundation for Women in recognition of her pioneering advocacy for the overlooked hormone connections in women’s health.

Dr. Vliet's consumer health books include: It’s My Ovaries, Stupid; Screaming To Be Heard: Hormonal Connections Women Suspect-- And Doctors STILL  Ignore; Women, Weight and Hormones; The Savvy Woman's Guide to PCOS,  The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Great Sex, Strength, and Stamina.

Dr. Vliet is a member of the International Menopause Society and the International Society for The Study of the Aging Male (ISSAM). She received her M.D. degree and internship in Internal Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and completed specialty training at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  She earned her B.S. and Master’s degrees from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Dr. Vliet has appeared on FOX NEWS, Cavuto, Stuart Varney Show, Fox and Friends, Sean Hannity and many nationally syndicated radio shows across the country as well as hundreds of Healthcare Town Halls addressing the economic and medical impact of the 2010 healthcare law, as well as seminars on Men’s Health and Women’s Health. She has been the host of several radio shows on health topics.

Dr. Vliet’s medical and educational websites are www.HerPlace.com, and www.MedExpertChile.com. For more on healthcare reform, go to www.AAPSonline.org and http://www.patientpoweramerica.com/