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Former
Ad Agency Exec Who Heads AARP Wrote Preface To Gingrich Book On Healthcare:
Novelli Lavishly Praised Healthcare Ideas Of Discredited Former House
Speaker And Favorite Wing Nut
A
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
Seniors and Democrats were stunned when the AARP announced its support
of the Trojan Horse Republican Medicare bill. The AARP message board is burning up with rage against the AARP and
its CEO, William D. Novelli, the former public relations whiz kid. Seniors
appear to be canceling their memberships and calling for heads to roll
at AARP headquarters. [LINK]
But Novelli defiantly dismissed membership outrage at his alliance with
the Republicans, who see the proposed Medicare bill as the first step
in the privatization and dismantling of the senior health insurance program.
In
response to [Senator Tom] Daschle's tart prediction that he [Novelli]
would
face a revolt within his organization over this bill, Novelli said,
'There's not going to be a revolt within AARP. There's going to be
a problem if Congress fails to pass this legislation.'" [LINK]
Mr. Novelli claims he has his AARP seniors in the bag for the GOP. But
is being an enthusiastic supporter of Newt Gingrich's wing nut healthcare
plan for America doing the best for seniors?
Novelli
is such a fan of Gingrich that he wrote a preface to Newt's babbling
right wing treatise on how to destroy the healthcare safety
net for seniors and other Americans: "Saving Lives & Saving
Money." This is what Novelli said in praise of Gingrich's book:
Saving Lives & Saving Money
Preface By William D. Novelli
Executive Director and CEO
AARP
Writing about health and health care is a big job. Writing about transforming
the entire American healthcare system is even more daunting. In Saving
Lives and Saving Money, Newt Gingrich has done an admirable job of both.
He has clearly and comprehensively described the problems with our current
healthcare system, explained why it cannot continue to stagger along,
and most importantly, offered his own ideas about how to transform our
current mess into a 21st century system that saves lives and money.
Gingrich
believes that our healthcare system is beyond reform -- that it needs
to be transformed into something totally different than it is
today. "Reforming," Newt says, is the process of trying to
make the current pattern work. "Transforming" is about developing
new and very different patterns.
Volumes have been written about the problems with our healthcare system,
and hundreds (if not thousands) of conferences are held every year with
experts discussing how addressing a specific piece of the problem will
improve the system. Yet, with all the talking and tinkering, costs continue
to rise while quality care continues to decrease.
Newt Gingrich has never been one to tinker. He is a big idea person,
and moreover, he has the ability to link big ideas into something even
larger still. He believes it is time to focus the healthcare debate where
it truly belongs -- on people's health. That is what Gingrich does in
Saving Lives and Saving Money. The gap between the health and healthcare
we should have and what we actually have is appallingly huge, and will
only get larger if we don't transform the system. And, in the process
of improving our health, the nation can also save billions of dollars
if we make substantial changes in the way we practice health and health
care.
Gingrich is proposing nothing less than dramatically changing one of
the largest segments of our economy. His ideas for transforming the system
are not academic theories. They are based on real-life examples of entrepreneurial
changes people are making across the healthcare system throughout the
country, and he offers specific examples to back up his claims and allow
people to find out more.
Transformation of America's healthcare system is one of the biggest
challenges facing our nation. In 2011, the first members of the 76 million
baby boomer generation will begin turning 65. This will have a dramatic
and lasting impact on our health-care system simply because older people
tend to use healthcare more. Transformation does not happen overnight.
As Gingrich points out, it took us twenty years to transform our welfare
system. We don't have twenty years to get our healthcare system in order.
We have to start work on it now.
Newt's
ideas are influencing how we at AARP are thinking about our national
role in health promotion and disease prevention and in our advocating
for system change. [Bolding added by BuzzFlash] He writes: "The
healthcare debate is not about Democrats and Republicans. It's not about
liberals and conservatives. The health debate is about your life and
the lives of your family. The healthcare debate is about your money and
your family's money." I would only add, it's also about your future...and
America's.
Whatever your views and your state of health, you will find Saving Lives
and Saving Money bold, enlightening, and provocative. While you may not
agree with all of Gingrich's ideas, this book will engage you in thinking
about -- and probably acting on -- health and healthcare. That's important,
because as he observes, transforming our nation's healthcare system will
take all of us to make it happen. And, indeed, it must happen. Our health,
our families, and our futures depend on it.
William D. Novelli
Executive Director and CEO AARP
Newt liked Novelli's slobbering praise so much that he highlights it
on his "transformational" healthcare (to feed business to
his consulting firm) website. [LINK]
Like
all Republican positioning, Gingrich uses Orwellian tactics in his
crusade to enrich the insurance companies and shaft the average American,
calling his site: "Center for Health Transformation: Better Health,
Lower Cost."
Who is Gingrich's ally in putting a knife in the back of American seniors?
Why it's William Novelli, CEO of AARP.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS | 
