Sunday, February 22, 2004

They really do just ignore what they don't like
Which one of these statements did the Bush Administration's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality leave out of a final report on the nation's health--though present in the original draft--because, as Secretary Tommy Thompson explained, "some individuals took it upon themselves" to make the report look rosier than was warranted?

a) "We aspire to equality of opportunities for all our citizens. Persistent disparities in health care are inconsistent with our core values."

b) "Disparities come at a personal and societal price."

c) "Compared with whites, blacks experience longer waits in emergency departments and are more likely to leave without being seen."

d) "When hospitalized for heart attacks, Hispanics are less likely to receive optimal care."

e) "black children have much higher hospitalization rates for asthma than white children."

If you said all of the above you're right! They didn't want you to read any of those things!

I can't help but remember what Howard Dean regularly says about this ideological administration. As a pragmatic doctor, he would say, he sometimes had to change his mind about things, discarding old conclusions when new facts come along. In this right-wing administration, when new facts come along that challenge their conclusions, they throw out the facts! What else hides in there they don't want us to know?

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