Last updated 2011.09.18.1400z
If you do a Google search for ‘palmisano obama health care‘, which a number of people must have done since that search sequence shows up as a suggestion, the first result shown is the following:
Posted: Tuesday, March 1, 2011 11:22 am | Updated: 2:45 pm, Tue Mar 8, 2011.
Today’s health law half-truth exposed
JO CIAVAGLIA, Calkins Media, Inc. | 2 comments
A few times a month I’m forwarded an e-mail claiming to expose the “truth” about the Affordable Care Act. It usually takes me an hour usually less, as there are multiple Web sites (nonpartisan) such as factcheck.com (One of the comments to Ms. Ciavaglia’s post correctly points out that this should be “factcheck.org“) and mediamatters.com that investigate these claims daily.
Nonpartisan? Factcheck and Mediamatters? Yeah, right.
Below you’ll see the latest e-mail. The newest tactic is that e-mail authors use claims of legitimacy by citing so called legitimate “sources” which are usually either known conservative media (such as FOX News or the Washington Examiner) or other blogs. Blogs are not a news source they are usually someone’s ramblings without any factual backup whatsoever.
But be sure to tune out that lyin’ FOX and the Washington Examiner.
After reading the chain e-mail, you’ll see what I found out. You decide.
A more recent email on this same subject that focuses more on FOX News and U.S. News & World Report’s Mort Zuckerman, rather than IBM’s Chairman & CEO, Palmisano, is included at the end.
This one has links at the bottom to verify it’s content.
IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free…
What if I told you that the Chairman and CEO of IBM, Samuel J. Palmisano, approached President Obama and members of his, before the healthcare bill debates, with a plan that would reduce healthcare expenditures by $900 billion? Given the Obama Administration’s adamancy that the United States of America simply had to make healthcare (read: health insurance) affordable for even the most dedicated welfare recipient, one would think he would have leaned forward in his chair, cupped his ear and said, “Tell me more!”
And what if I told you that the cost to the federal government for this program was nothing, zip, nada, zilch? And, what if I told you that, in the end and after two meetings, President Obama and his team, instead of embracing a program that was proven to save money and one that was projected to save almost one trillion dollars – a private sector program costing the taxpayers nothing, zip, nada, zilch – said, “Thanks but no thanks” and then embarked on passing one of the most despised pieces of legislation in US history?
Well, it’s all true.
Samuel J. Palmisano, the Chairman of the Board and CEO for IBM, said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that he offered to provide the Obama Administration with a program that would curb healthcare claims fraud and abuse by almost one trillion dollars but the Obama White House turned the offer down.
Mr. Palmisano is quoted as saying during a taping of The Wall Street Journal’s Viewpoints program on September 14, 2010:
“We could have improved the quality and reduced the cost of the healthcare system by $900 billion…I said we would do it for free to prove that it works. They turned us down.”
A second meeting between Mr. Palmisano and the Obama Administration took place two weeks later, with no change in the Obama Administration’s stance. A call placed to IBM on October 8, 2010, by FOX News confirmed, via a spokesperson, that Mr. Palmisano stands by his statement.
Speaking with FOX News’ Stuart Varney, Mort Zuckerman, Editor-in-Chief of US News & World Report, said, “It’s a little bit puzzling because I think there is a huge amount of both fraud and inefficiency that American business is a lot more comfortable with and more effective in trying to reduce. And this is certainly true because the IBM people have studied this very carefully. And when Palmisano went to the White House and made that proposal, it was based upon a lot of work and it was not accepted. And it’s really puzzling…These are very, very responsible people and don’t have a political ax to grind.
In Mr. Obama’s shunning of a private sector program that would have saved our country almost $1 trillion in healthcare expenditures, presented to him as he declared a “crisis in healthcare,” he proves two things beyond any doubt: that he is anti-Capitalist and anti-private sector in nature and that he can no longer be trusted to tell the truth in both his political declarations or espoused goals.
For more info. check these links:
>http://capitolhillcoffeehouse.com/index.php/article/574
Okay, first thing I did was check Google since the only references to it were found on conservative blogs and other media (i.e. Fox News and Washington Examiner). Even the “links” cited as proof are conservative links, so I really don’t consider them as independent news sources. But I believe the authors of these e-mails are counting on people NOT fact-checking.
So next, I went to the video interview which appeared on the “Wall Street Journal Viewpoints Executive Breakfast Series” (it should be noted at the bottom of the Web page, this disclaimer appears: “The Wall Street Journal editors and newsroom were not involved in the creation or production of this special advertising section or its story selection.”)
I am curious as to whether or not Jo Ciavaglia would have included this disclaimer had she been writing an analysis of the George Soros June, 2009, interview conducted using precisely the same venue. I would think not.
This is the link to the program with Palmisano that e-mail references:
http://online.wsj.com/ad/article/viewpoints-palmisano.html
(Not embedded in original)
Unless you want to hear about the sniping between HP (Hewlitt Packer) [sic] and IMB [sic] skip ahead to 9:15 of the 11:30 video, where Palmisano starts talking about the health care law. This is the direct quote (go and check if you want).
Note: The discussion shifts its focus to Obama and IBM’s participation in early Administration meetings with business leaders at the 6:40 mark. So, if you skip ahead to the 9:15 mark you lose much of the flavor of what is being said. If you’re interested in IBM as a business, you should watch the first 6:45
“We could have improved quality and reduced the cost of the health care system by $900 billion the bill was 850 (billion) with self-funding; you could have insured anyone you wanted illegal aliens, dogs, cats, ponies, whatever you want and the stuff was simple.”
That is what he said, people.
Now cometh the analysis. . .
I’m not sure what he means by self-funding, unless he is suggesting that the U.S. government run the health care system like companies that self-fund their health insurance.
Self-funded health care is a self insurance arrangement whereby an employer provides health or disability benefits to employees with its own funds. Instead of fully insured plans – where the employer contracts an insurance company to cover the employees and dependents – in self-funded health care, the employer assumes the direct risk for payment of the claims for benefits.
Next Palmisano talks about how $400 billion could be saved if the federal government brought prescription drugs using a nationwide discount.
To calculate the $400 billion in savings, Palmisano said, “All we did was take OMB (office of management and budget) volumes and times by nationwide discounts.”
Last Palmisano mentions something about $200 billion in “fraud” – he never specified where the fraud was – and how IMB offered to reduce the fraud and gave the money quote: “I said we would do it for free to prove it works.”
But Palmisano never said what “it” was that IBM would do for free.
I watched this last two minutes of this interview five times to be sure that I was correct, which is more than I can say for the person(s) writing and circulating these e-mails.
What I came away with after watching the Palmisano video was not nearly as ambiguous and uncertain as is the tone of the analysis behind this directed impression. Lots of scary double quotes in that! However, I suspect that Ms. Ciavaglia is herself probably a member of the group described in the ending phrase. Why not write the offending email and then author the debunking critique? Nice work, but you can only get it if you’re “Progressive.” Right?
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Here’s the more recent email as I received it today, other than a type face size reduction and change of color. Hate those giant letters. And, the sender should have used IBM/Lions blue rather than Minnesota Vikings purple. Yuck!
Subject: IBM turned down by Obama Hope the whole United States population finds out about this. IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free… The offer is true.Mort Zuckermann , US News and World Report, a Democrat, was interviewed on Fox and confirmed it. IBM has confirmed it. You won’t believe it.
IBM offered to help reduce Medicare fraud for free…
What if I told you that the Chairman and CEO of IBM, Samuel J. Palmisano, approached President Obama and members of his administration before the healthcare bill debates with a plan that would reduce healthcare expenditures by $900 billion? Given the Obama Administration’s adamancy that the United States of America simply had to make healthcare (read: health insurance) affordable for even the most dedicated welfare recipient, one would think he would have leaned forward in his chair, cupped his ear and said, “Tell me more!”
And what if I told you that the cost to the federal government for this program was nothing, zip, nada, zilch?
And, what if I told you that, in the end and after two meetings, President Obama and his team, instead of embracing a program that was proven to save money and one that was projected to save almost one trillion dollars – a private sector program costing the taxpayers nothing, zip, nada, zilch – said, “Thanks but no thanks” and then embarked on passing one of the most despised pieces of legislation in US history?
Well, it’s all true.
Samuel J. Palmisano, the Chairman of the Board and CEO for IBM, said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that he offered to provide the Obama Administration with a program that would curb healthcare claims fraud and abuse by almost one trillion dollars but the Obama White House turned the offer down.
Mr. Palmisano is quoted as saying during a taping http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcR_bLBHcJo of The Wall Street Journal’s Viewpoints program on September 14, 2010:
“We could have improved the quality and reduced the cost of the healthcare system by $900 billion…I said we would do it for free to prove that it works. They turned us down.”
A second meeting between Mr. Palmisano and the Obama Administration took place two weeks later, with no change in the Obama Administration’s stance. A call placed to IBM on October 8, 2010, by FOX News confirmed, via a spokesperson, that Mr. Palmisano stands by his statement.
Speaking with FOX News’ Stuart Varney, Mort Zuckerman, Editor-in-Chief of US News & World Report, said, “It’s a little bit puzzling because I think there is a huge amount of both fraud and inefficiency that American business is a lot more comfortable with and more effective in trying to reduce. And this is certainly true because the IBM people have studied this very carefully. And when Palmisano went to the White House and made that proposal, it was based upon a lot of work and it was not accepted. And it’s really puzzling…These are very, very responsible people and don’t have a political ax to grind.
In Mr. Obama’s shunning of a private sector program that would have saved our country almost $1 trillion in healthcare expenditures, presented to him as he declared a “crisis in healthcare,” he proves two things beyond any doubt: that he is anti-Capitalist and anti-private sector in nature and that he can no longer be trusted to tell the truth in both his political declarations or espoused goals.
Be sure to click on the link above for Mr. Palmisano’s statement.
Why not the link to the full “Wall Street Journal Viewpoints Executive Breakfast Series” interview?
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Ciao,
Dennis