Friday, September 18, 2009

UK newspaper: 'dead' patient in Obama speech lived another 3 years

From the UK Telegraph:

A patient whose death President Barack Obama highlighted as an example of poor health care in fact had his insurance reinstated and was able to live another three years.

The president told the poignant story of Otto Raddatz, without naming him, during a speech to Congress last week aimed at reinvigorating support for his proposals to reform health care.

He said the Illinois man was dropped by his insurers in the middle of chemotherapy treatment, because they discovered he had failed to report a gallstone which he claimed had been unaware of.

"They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it," the president said in his primetime address.

In fact following complaints by his sister, a lawyer, and Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general, the patient's policy was reinstated within three weeks of it being rescinded in early 2005, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Nothing about this from McClatchy. The "Truth to Power" people didn't fact-check Obama's speech at all, due to a serious case of Joe Wilson Derangement Syndrome.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You expect Pigs to Fly at McClatchy?

The best you can hope for is they will fart, never fly!

Kevin Gregory said...

9:41 - heh