This week the CDC finally admitted that of the ~180,000 “murdered by Donald Trump” (to quote the Left), 6% (or about 11,000 if my arithmetic is right) died from the virus. Everyone else had, on average, 2.6 additional conditions which caused their death. I’m not making this up. See this link for the details, but here’s a screen grab of the actual statement, buried down in the reams of data and analysis prepared by the back-room gnomes who routinely take invalid, faulty or made-up data and turn it into pretty graphs and multi-colored reports that makes it all so official and appear authoritative.
Here’s the significance of the CDC admission. Of the 180,000 who have died, 11,000 died FROM the virus. The rest died WITH the virus. That’s a HUGE distinction!
Even these 6% and 2.6 numbers are questionable, but the admission that the virus, while it may have hastened their demise, hasn’t killed all those people also corroborates what people resistant to televised or printed nonsense and the ability to think critically, or even those with just common sense, have concluded and been saying for months now!
In a previous post I pointed out that today EVERYTHING is political, and polarized between Left and Right. The Left wants the virus to be seen to be as bad as possible so they can both blame the current administration and set things up so government can ultimately “save” everyone, once they’re fully in control. The Right, while of course trying to shape the narrative in their favor, nevertheless seek to put things into perspective…into a positive, hopeful light, because they actually care about us and the country.
There are some principles that transcend politics, however. Included among them is, “Follow the money.”
Here’s the simple truth. The healthcare system is largely based on a system that has a physician or medical institution provide care and be reimbursed either by the government (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.), by health insurance companies or by individual patients, or some combination of the above (each a “Payer”). Medical provider revenues (and profits) are maximized by playing what I’ve long called the “coding game”. When a medical provider submits its “invoice” to the Payer it assigns both diagnosis as well as procedure “codes” to their bill. These codes dictate, in most cases, how much reimbursement the provider receives.
Is it any wonder that the reimbursement for treatment of an infectious disease during a pandemic would be higher than for an upper-respiratory infection or even the flu? It should be obvious that it is in the healthcare provider’s best economic interest to code treatment or treatments such that they maximize reimbursement. The dirty little secret is that providers, when given an option to code treatment for a patient dying of emphysema or COVID treatment will opt for the latter, or include both. Why? Because even though it was the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that killed the patient, reimbursement for treatment of COVID is higher.
And it should also be obvious that hospitals, seeking to net as much helicoptered money as the Federal government has doled out as they can, will benefit from jacking up their COVID numbers as well. It’s no wonder therefore, that we’re told that ~180,000 have been killed by the virus!
Follow the money.
Turn off the news. Stop listening to the “experts”. Use common sense. Don’t cough in other peoples’ faces and don’t let them cough in yours. Don’t let the Left destroy our country. Vote them out this November.
