As she did 15 years ago in criticizing the Clinton health care plan, Betsy McCaughey is taking on President Barack Obama’s efforts to reform health care in the United States.
A former lieutenant governor of New York State and a scholar at the conservative Hudson Institute, McCaughey is providing ammunition for Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and other Obama opponents.
Citing her essays, the commentators, as well as politicians including Sarah Palin, have warned that Democrats back “death panels” that decide who lives and who dies.
Using a strategy that worked in 1994, McCaughey is making her case against Democratic health reform efforts by first reading – some say misreading – actual legislation.
In a Feb. 9 column for Bloomberg News, McCaughey (pronounced “McCoy”) urged senators to examine closely some health-care provisions added to the stimulus package.
Calling the measures “dangerous to your health” McCaughey asserts that the bill establishes a new bureaucracy that “will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.”
In McCaughey’s opinion, the monitoring would lead to the enforcement of a “uniformity” of medical decisions. Next step, McCaughey suggests, is the rationing of some treatments.
Hardest hit would be the elderly, who would not qualify for some measures because of their age.
McCaughey’s critics argue that she has described a threat that doesn’t exist. They point out that the new bureaucratic agency, the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, is not in the enforcement business. The legislation specifically states it cannot mandate coverage or create clinical guidelines.
Later, McCaughey wrote about “one troubling provision of the House bill (that) compels seniors to submit to a counseling session … about alternatives for end-of-life care.”
McCaughey argued, “This mandate invites abuse, and seniors could easily be pushed to refuse care.” Media fact checkers pointed out that the provision of the bill did not compel seniors to take part in these sessions.
And the intent of the legislation was to provide some Medicare reimbursement for people who do seek the sessions.
A trained historian with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, McCaughey, 60, made a name for herself in the health care field with a five-page article entitled “No Exit” in the Feb. 7, 1994 issue of The New Republic.
Then married to billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and known as Betsy McCaughey Ross, McCaughey attacked the health care plans of the Clinton administration. Supporters of the plans accused her of statements that weren’t true.
George Pataki, the Republican candidate for New York governor, then picked the political novice to be his running mate in the 1994 election.
The duo won and McCaughey created waves by standing throughout Pataki’s 1996 State of the State address.
Pataki didn’t pick McCaughey to run with him for re-election. She, in turn, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor.
McCaughey is the chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a group she founded in 2004.
A form filed with the Internal Revenue Service reported that McCaughey received $160,000 in compensation from the committee in 2006. The committee had revenue of $418,000 that year.
In 2008, McCaughey earned $55,375 in compensation for service on the board of Cantel Medical Corporation, a maker of medical instruments. Until 2007, she served on the board of drugmaker Genta Inc., receiving more than $50,000 annually in fees and options.
She has said that these connections did not present a conflict of interest for a health-care commentator.
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