Urologist Dr. Jack Cassell of Mount Dora, Florida posts sign telling Obama voters to seek care elsewhere

51 Comments

Ancel De Lambert • Apr 2, 2010 @12:54 pm

It's hard enough for doctors to get their payment from insurance companies as it is. They have to hire people to wrestle with the companies to get their money, which means the price for treatment goes up to cover the cost of the agent. The bill that just passed is going to make it even harder for these doctors to get payed. There were quite a few doctors who threatened to close their practices if the bill passed. I think Dr. Cassell is just pissed that it's entirely possible that he is going to end up working for free half of the time. He himself is being inconvenienced by this bill, and is telling people that if they voted for Obama then they fucked him over.
Linda • Apr 2, 2010 @12:56 pm

Loads of americans, including this idiot of a 'doctor' don't understand good health care is the basis of a healthy community. You guys have no idea what a great president you have there. I swear, the US is turning in, or has turned into a huge mental asylum. Only the fences are missing.
Pat • Apr 2, 2010 @2:34 pm

Considering who immigrated to the US, I wouldn't be surprised at the large range of feelings about any topic. The US seems to collect the crazies and dreamers.

I agree with Ancel's comment; the doctor is frustrated. He is at least honest and upfront about his opinion; patients can decide whether to see him or go somewhere else. Loads of americans do understand about good health care, but don't agree that the solution is in the health care bill. Some of us are concerned about increasing the government's role in the health care considering how well Medicare and Medicaid are run.
Rougman • Apr 2, 2010 @3:14 pm

That Linda is a deep thinker.
BraceWinslow • Apr 2, 2010 @5:39 pm

Linda no doubt lives in Canada, and I hope she stays there.
Mr Black • Apr 2, 2010 @7:34 pm

I wish there was more of this about. When you vote to be a slave to the government it's entirely fair that you are told by the agents of that government what you can and cannot get in return for giving up your freedom. The only shame is that the system will have to be fully in place before the majority of voters get to discover the joys of rationed medical care, waiting lists and lower standards of treatment. If people could suffer these effects right away and then vote on healthcare a year later based on their experiences, it would be a 90/10 vote against.
audie • Apr 2, 2010 @8:21 pm

the doctor is an evil person ..the devil will be waiting for him.
Craig Mason • Apr 3, 2010 @6:48 am

Linda you are right the tea baggers and this moron doctor need to be in a mental asylum. I just read a comment by a top notch trauma surgeon in Flordia who skills are so rare his absence could impact many lives. He questioned this doctor's sanity and wondered if people would support him if he decided to let people who don't measure up to his political views bleed to death on the emergency room floor. He is a lifelong Democrat so my guess is we might have the answer to get rid of a whole bunch of this filthy rats the next time they are in need of emergency care.
Little Raven • Apr 3, 2010 @10:35 am

And yet the people of Canada and Great Britain have yet to do away with their systems, despite ample opportunity to do so. They complain about them endlessly, but they always stop short of ending it entirely.

Health care is complicated. Good luck ever getting 90/10.
SG • Apr 3, 2010 @11:46 am

Remins me of the doctor who operated Reagan after he was shot at. Reagan joked that he hoped the doctor was a Republican, and the doctor – who was a staunch liberal Democrat – allegedly replied "Today we are all Republicans"…

Also – not saying that all opponents of public healthcare are either idiots or three fries short of a Happy Meal, but living in Europe (France specifically) it's really hard to comprehend how public healthcare can be seen as an oppressive measure by the government to tyrannise people. Here most governments who'd like to control how people choose their medical care try to restrict public health care, not expand it.
Arv • Apr 3, 2010 @10:09 pm

A note on the restaurant door reads, "If you are a nigro, seek food somewhere else."

And we are supposed to believe the owner of the restaurant is not going to deny food to black people! Horse crap. This guy is a disgrace to the medical community.

He was asked whether the pamphlet he is distributing in his "office," place of practice, was from a non-partisan group. He did NOT even know who had devised the propaganda piece. Then he reads the title, "Committee on Ways and Means Republicans". Wow! And the talking point on the paper references NO verifiable source for its prevarication.

The fact that he didn't even know who had written the very pamphlet he is relying his premise on goes to show how divorced from reality he is. And don't get me started at these cretins with low cognitive functionality who immediately change gear into victimization and hide behind the broad shield of the First Amendment while ignoring the criticism is aimed at his political activism in his place of practice and not other viable venues. What a world we are living in.
Mr Black • Apr 3, 2010 @11:22 pm

Observe if you will how Chavez was VOTED into office. Yes, that's correct. More than half of an entire country are complete morons, so stupid and greedy that they voted to be RULED by a dictator and give up their freedom in exchange for promises and a few trinkets. There are lessons here on healthcare. A very large number of morons are prepared to sacrifice their freedom and everyone elses too, so they can get something for "free".

Europe is stuck with this rotten system now because people have become dependents. They are no longer fully functioning members of society but require government people to manage their daily affairs and take care of the important things in life so that they are free to each fries and watch TV and give up any notion of personal responsibility.

Voting to be a slave or to enslave someone else "for their own good" is an act of evil. Only a person who is at heart, a committed authoritarian could see it as anything else.
Miss Vaughn • Apr 4, 2010 @7:22 am

We have a fascist dictator in the white house who has spent 1.7 million dollars to hide his birth certifcate. He got there illegally and not by popular vote. He is spending money we don't have so he can make us Chinese slaves. He is trying to destroy our 1st, 2nd, and 28th ammendments. He has never answered a question from anybody. He skirts around subjects and often addresses a third party who is invisible to everyone else. He only cares about photo shoots and could give a rat's ass about our healthcare. Socialized health care has not worked anywhere in the world, it will not work here. If you have noticed, he and our congress are exempt from this healthcare.
I highly commend Dr. Cassell and hope others follow suit. The sooner Obama and Pelosi are in prison, the better off this country will be.
SPQR • Apr 4, 2010 @9:16 am

Sheesh, this guy has the right of free speech too. "Evil" ? Making comparisons to racists? Mental asylum? Looks like some of the critics of the doctor here are pretty intolerant of differing opinions.
Patrick • Apr 4, 2010 @10:14 am

Well OK then.
PatrickKelley • Apr 4, 2010 @12:09 pm

Actually, he can refuse to treat anybody he chooses. All he has to do is limit what kind of insurance he will accept, and he can pretty much cut a wide swath of Obama supporters out of his practice. If they want to take away his medical license, they might be able to do that, of course, but he might end up being just one among many who lose their licenses.

Or who just retire early. Or who just retire WAY early. The bad thing about that is, we are looking at a coming day when there are not going to be as many immigrant doctors to take up the slack. They no longer have as much incentive to come here.

Also, there will probably be a significantly lower number of medical school students.

All at a time when we are going to need more doctors, not less.
Mike • Apr 4, 2010 @5:07 pm

doesn’t want to treat people whose political views differ from his

Nah. I had this discussion in college. I told a guy, "You're a Socialist. This means that, if you had your way, you could completely ruin my way of life. You would make me a slave to the State. Thus, you are my enemy."

If it were just ideas, think what you want. In politics, you are bringing those ideas into my life. Obama's supporters have materially altered this doctor's way of life – and of practicing medicine.

I personally am no longer friends with people who oppose gay marriage. It's not just your IDEA that gays don't deserve equal rights: It's that they are specifically trying to, through the political process, deny gays equality of citizenship.

People can't hide behind their votes in a non-libertarian society. Whom and what you vote for has real-world impacts on me.

If you come into my home to steal something, you're a thief and I will treat you accordingly. If you use democracy to allow yourself entry into my home, I will still view you as a thief.

This doctor is not the crazy one. The crazies are those who think that supporting a political policy is an impotent act; or those who seek to insulate their acts of thuggishness through the political process.

A mob is a mob is a mob, and the mob has begun looting the doctor's office.
Mr Black • Apr 4, 2010 @7:16 pm

One of the over-riding problems of modern western society is that using the coercive power of the state to enforce your will on another part of the population has become normalised as an expected role of the government. It's really only libertarian minded people who still object to this on principle, democrat/progressives positively lust after more of this kind of power and far too many GOP supporters would be only too happy to weild that power too.

When each successive administration only adds powers to the last then the inevitable result is tyranny, the only question is how long before it comes into being. Without reestablishing the limits on government power that are set out in the constitution it doesn't really matter if freedom wins the occasional fight, it is losing the war.
Ken • Apr 4, 2010 @7:20 pm

I personally am no longer friends with people who oppose gay marriage. It’s not just your IDEA that gays don’t deserve equal rights: It’s that they are specifically trying to, through the political process, deny gays equality of citizenship.

But are you friends with anyone who voted for either McCain or Obama, both of whom opposed gay marriage?
Mike • Apr 4, 2010 @10:46 pm

But are you friends with anyone who voted for either McCain or Obama, both of whom opposed gay marriage?

Short answer: A person who votes for a politician votes on a bundle of goods. If someone voted for either candidate on the gay-rights issue (re: a single issue voter), then that person would most certainly not be my friend.

Deeper answer: Anyone who takes a presidential election seriously isn't going to be friends (in the Aristotelean sense) with me. It's not innate discrimination. It's just that we won't have the chemistry necessary for shared understanding and intimacy. Those who think there is a material difference on issues that matter between Obama and McCain are brain-washed, and therefore too boring for me.

Halliburton's profits are just fine under the Obama administration. Obama and McCain both supported the bailouts. Both loaded their staff with banksters and defense contractors.

The single most important issue – the issue that will have the biggest effect on you and your children – is the theft of taxpayer money by the defense and banking industries. The "national debt" isn't some abstract concept: It's an actual debt your children will need to pay, and it's a debt that exists because of Defense and Banking. Obama and McCain are supplicants for both interests.

Heck, even where Obama is "different" – healthcare – is a joke. Healthcare Reform was a GOP plan – and it was written by insurance companies. LOL. Yep…These guys are all so different!

It's not a about being a nihilist….Yet if you're not smart enough, post-bailouts, to know the deal about the major political parties…then we likely won't jibe. If, post-bailouts, an Obama supporter doesn't realize, "Holy crap was I fooled. No one is immune to popular movements, and I'm reminded why Ben Franklin gave his purse to a friend during a George Whitefield revival, as anyone can be sucked in to a charismatic. I got suckered," then the person is soulless and mindless.

I'd rather watch Jersey Shore than converse with a partisan.
Charlene Cifuentes • Apr 5, 2010 @2:32 pm

It is America and this Doctor is entitled to his right to "Free Speech". This healthcare bill WILL be a disaster to America, in our lifetime, within 10 years. This is probably 1 of the excellent Dr's that will be saying "adios" and we will be left with no Dr's or unqualified Dr's!
Patrick • Apr 5, 2010 @3:19 pm

No one is suggesting that the doctor's right to "Free Speech" should be abrogated. We're fans of free speech. By mocking the doctor, we exercise our own speech rights.

Are you one of those people who equates criticism with censorship Charlene? Surely not.
Mr Black • Apr 5, 2010 @11:25 pm

I genuinely hope for a massive collapse of the health system as we know it. When it just lingers on, slowly decaying over decades as can be seen almost anywhere in Europe, then people just become used to rationing and poor care, they forget that there was ever any other way. But if the system disintegrates quickly, people damn well KNOW what they gave up in exchange for the mess they've been given and they are highly motivated to fix it.

Western progressive socialism absolutely depends on the "slow boiling pot" effect so that the incremental losses of freedom and wealth are barely noticed by a population that is gradually made accustomed to them.
Abdul • Apr 6, 2010 @5:54 am

I recently adopted a kid. One of the things we had to do was take him to an adoption-agency referred pediatrician to get his health checked out. The doc told us to get certain blood tests done.

My family doc won't see the new kid until he gets a first patient visit, and there was no availability in the time frame we were looking for. We called the free clinic. They won't see the kid because he's no longer poor (I'm rich by third world pre-adoptee standards). My wife was a practicing doc up until becoming a parent a few years ago. She could draw the blood herself if someone would sell us a needle and a beaker.

We go back to the pediatrician and ask if he'll run tests for us. He doesn't do these kind of tests himself. But he gives us some advice: call my representative and have him vote for obamacare.

So my question is: how many people do i have to kick in the nuts? I'm guessing at least the three docs (wife excluded) in my story and most of congress.
Little Raven • Apr 6, 2010 @8:24 am

I remember back in 2003, when many liberals seemed to express hope that the invasion of Iraq would be a dismal failure, because it would demonstrate just how misguided Bush really was. These people were rightfully called out.

Is hoping for a total collapse of the health care system, which would surely kill even more Americans than a failed invasion, any less distasteful?
gbasden • Apr 6, 2010 @7:36 pm

The idea that healthcare in Europe is some cesspit is just laughable. My sister lived in the U.S. with good insurance until her family moved to France for her husband's job. She has told me on multiple occasions that she thinks her health care is superior to what she had here, and it's one reason they have stayed much longer than they expected.

The level of vitriol and hyperbole is just staggering.
Mr Black • Apr 6, 2010 @11:03 pm

Is hoping for a total collapse of the health care system, which would surely kill even more Americans than a failed invasion, any less distasteful?

There is indeed a difference. Those liberals were and are, traitors. They wanted to see their own country beaten down to validate their political beliefs and get their "team" elected, and if people had to die they don't mind. In fact, if the people who die are filthy republicans then it's a positive bonus to them. They hoped for failure because they opposed success.

However I hope for success (capitalism and liberty), I just recognise it will have to come from peoples suffering before they realise what this bargain with the devil has cost them. As sure as the sun rising in the morning, socialism will degrade the health system bit by bit until it is nothing but a shambles. Hoping for a rapid collapse now so that an energised public would rally to fix it is quite a lot different than hoping for failure in general. Not unlike the "surge" in Iraq, accepting some losses now for a better outcome later. My ideal end state is the point where the health system is free from government shackles and can get on with treating the sick and creating new medicines. Socialism will kill vast numbers of people as the health system declines and beyond a certain point, that where dependency has overtaken self-reliance, the public will not be able to muster the will to do anything about it, they'll have been bought off with their own money into accepting sub-standard healthcare in exchange for their silence and compliance with government mandates.

There is a reason the rich of Europe and indeed the rest of the world come to America for their healthcare. When their lives are at stake, they know damn well where the best treatment and doctors are to be found.
Rick Horowitz • Apr 6, 2010 @11:46 pm

This reminds me of when I was diagnosed with cancer. I was a law student. Because of the type of surgery I needed, one of the surgeons was a plastic surgeon. When he came into the room to do the consult, he pretty much lit into me. Among other things, he made it clear that had he known I was a law student, he would have refused the consult. Apparently, he'd been sued a few times (and failed to remember that attorneys had defended him). He was not assuaged by my stunned response that I intended to practice criminal defense, so he was unlikely to encounter me unless he needed my help.

When my wife insisted I tell the primary surgeon what had happened, he was immediately replaced.

I should maybe write him a note, recommending Cassell's approach, so he can avoid the pain of maybe having to do a consult for a probate lawyer.
gbasden • Apr 7, 2010 @1:19 am

It's amusing the way you categorize the people you vilify as traitors. The collapse of the health care system you wish for would kill many more than Iraq could. Happily, I'm pretty sure it will just keep on as it always has.
Mr Black • Apr 7, 2010 @2:39 am

It’s amusing the way you categorize the people you vilify as traitors

People who wish for the deaths of their nations soldiers and the defeat of their nation in wars are the very definition of traitors. If you don't classify them that way it's because you don't understand the meaning of those words.

But I don't wish for anyone's death, I simply accept it as the terrible price to be paid to demonstrate (yet again) that socialism is a force of evil and decay and that left to run its course, a healthcare system based on socialism will kill more Americans than Iraq, Afghanistan and any number of other wars put together every single year. While the living might give it a thumbs up, the people it fails remain silent regardless of their number.

I'd rather one man die now as a demonstration than 1000 die later through apathy. But I wish for none of their deaths. The unfortunate thing is, if you're wrong then many thousands will suffer and die as a result, just so you and others like you could "experiement" with the country as your plaything.
Little Raven • Apr 7, 2010 @5:48 am

Uh huh. Liberals wished for America to suffer defeat. You wish for capitalism and liberty to succeed. They didn't mind watching Americans die by the thousands if it meant their team won, you mind but accept it as the terrible price of freedom. They were traitors who wanted to see their country beaten down, you're a patriot who is willing to trade a disaster now to forestall a bigger disaster later.

It's all so clear now.
Patrick • Apr 7, 2010 @6:47 am

When we write that we appreciate readers who comment (see the "About" page), we mean comments like Little Raven's. He hit just the right notes, certainly better than I could have done.

This is a comment for all to emulate.
PLW • Apr 7, 2010 @7:05 am

Can we get more cute children stories please? This thread is amusing, but not quite in the same way.
Patrick • Apr 7, 2010 @7:42 am

I'll put up a photo of a puppy later today, PLW. Just for you.
gbasden • Apr 7, 2010 @8:21 am

Ugh – as normal, LR says everything I want to, but with actual clarity and an admirable snark level. I live in your shadow.
Mr Black • Apr 7, 2010 @11:33 pm

I just want to check that I'm reading your moral compass correctly Little Raven.

Did you just compare people who desired the slaughter of their own countrymen in war in order to gain domestic political advantage to people who grudgingly accepted higher casualties as the price of battle and victory? In other words, hoping for defeat and hoping for victory are basically equivalent in your world?
Mr White • Apr 8, 2010 @3:53 am

Little Raven, I too am worried about your moral compass.

Did you just compare those who grudgingly accepted higher casualties in war as the price of victory against the creeping imperialism that threatens the Republic with those who wish for the death and suffering of American children to gain a small advantage in domestic politics and to defeat the reform of the health care system? In other words hoping for victory and hoping for defeat are basically equivalent in your world?
Patrick • Apr 8, 2010 @6:30 am

What "creeping imperialism" "threatens the Republic" Mr White? The Soviet Union dissolved 19 years ago.
Mr. White • Apr 8, 2010 @6:50 am

None that I know of, but inflammatory framing seemed like so much fun that I wanted to give it a try too.

P.S. I was right, it is fun.
NB • Apr 8, 2010 @10:01 am

I've met a lot of self-proclaimed "liberals", but none of them have held the beliefs or opinions Mr. Black ascribes to them. Has he found the real thing somewhere, and the ones I've met are really crypto-conservatives?
Mr Black • Apr 9, 2010 @5:25 am

Of course you have met these people NB. The mistake you made was in listening to what they say rather than observing what they do. I'll illustrate this key difference.

The liberals I know, when put under questioning will be in favor of free speech, generally free markets, property rights etc but also have this nebulous idea of "fairness" which should be applied to temper elements of the above that they don't quite like. So that's great right, they support the basic American traditions, they just want them to be "fair".

Now let's look at what they actually do when they achieve power.

Fairness Doctrine (censorship of conservative views)
University speech codes (censorship of conservative views)
Rent controls (the state taking de facto ownership of your property)
Minimum wage (Government control of the employment market)
Welfare (confiscation of your property to support another’s lifestyle)
Big government and high taxes (confiscation of your property in general)
CAFE standards, “green” energy mandates etc (Distorting natural markets)

And suddenly, we find ourselves in a rather Marxist looking place where pretty much everything in your life is regulated in one way or the other by the government, as if by pure accident. "Fairness", when it really comes down to the nuts and bolts of it is basically full blown authoritarian socialism under a different name, a media friendly name. That name is progressivism.

That said, most on the left are completely oblivious to the link between their desire for “fairness” and the inevitable authoritarianism that must develop in order to enforce such a partisan idea of what is actually “fair”. Sadly, far too many on the right are little better, with no interest in liberty per se, only on controlling the power to control for their own ends. All these people, whether players or sheep are in one way or another advancing the cause of evil, for socialism can never be anything but the oppression of mans liberty and soul.
gbasden • Apr 9, 2010 @7:53 am

You are highly amusing. It's like someone put together the first Glenn Beck flavored Eliza program.
Mr Black • Apr 9, 2010 @6:01 pm

Just reviewing your statements on this thread thus far you seem to be a contributer of no value what so ever. Rather than waste my time in reading your transparent attempts to win favor with the peanut gallery, perhaps you'd consider remaining quiet until you have something of merit to respond with.

You could start with pointing out exactly which part of my post is wrong, if that isn't too much of a challenge for you.
Ken • Apr 9, 2010 @6:12 pm

gbadsen has been contributing value to this blog for years. You, on the other hand, are a belabored and gothishly stylized firebrand whose chief contribution is helping me imagine what Wally George might say during a peoyote trip. Don't like the surroundings or the company? Feel free to fuck right off.
Mr Black • Apr 9, 2010 @7:04 pm

I'm sure his/her statements in the past are truly fascinating to those of equal intellectual gifts as the writer. However the contributions here are exactly as I described, without any value what so ever. I have made numerous statements of fact and some of opinion which could have served as the basis for discussion on the merits, to date I count zero attempts to dispute or rebut any of them on any grounds.

If childish mockery and insults is the best that can be found in the comment section here when faced with opinions outside the usual liberal memes then perhaps that is why I find the replies on the most part so devoid of any content.

But by all means, if your regular commentors are unable to demonstrate any fault with my statements then perhaps you would step into their place and set this foolish right-winger straight. Everyone here seems to regard me as obviously wrong, it's revealing that no one can actually show it.
Ken • Apr 9, 2010 @7:59 pm

Yup. All dumb liberals here. Your intellectual inferiors. Nothing to challenge your unearthly intellect. Terribly dull for you, I'm sure.
Patrick • Apr 9, 2010 @8:28 pm

If childish mockery and insults is the best that can be found in the comment section here when faced with opinions outside the usual liberal memes then perhaps that is why I find the replies on the most part so devoid of any content.

You got a pretty mouth.
matt • Apr 9, 2010 @8:57 pm

lol Patrick bravo!
Mr Black • Apr 9, 2010 @9:45 pm

Well, I guess it's not like I expected liberals to justify how their policies of "fairness" always seem to lead to authoritarianism. Now I'll try on this insult thing and see how I go.

Ahem…

You got a pretty mouth.

So did your wife before I used her face as a sex toy.

hahaha. Man that was funny. So much better than adult discussion.
Marie • Apr 10, 2010 @12:02 am

“But I don’t wish for anyone’s death, I simply accept it as the terrible price to be paid to demonstrate (yet again) that socialism is a force of evil and decay and that left to run its course, a healthcare system based on socialism will kill more Americans than Iraq, Afghanistan and any number of other wars put together every single year. While the living might give it a thumbs up, the people it fails remain silent regardless of their number.”

You mean, as opposed to a healthcare system based on capitalism that already 'kills more Americans than Iraq, Afghanistan and any number of other wars put together every single year'?

“I genuinely hope for a massive collapse of the health system as we know it.”
“But I don’t wish for anyone’s death,”

Do you or do you not think that a 'massive collapse of the health system as we know it' would result in many people’s deaths? Because you can’t genuinely hope for a collapse leading to many deaths while simultaneously claiming you don’t wish for anyone to die. Well, ok. You can. We can all just think you’re a few biscuits short of a tin while you do it.

“I genuinely hope for a massive collapse of the health system as we know it.”

Wait – do you hope for the massive collapse of the CURRENT/PAST health system, ie ‘as we know it’, or for the massive collapse of the ‘obamacare health system’ that we can’t yet ‘know’, since it doesn’t yet exist? Or… are you here from the future, Mr. Terminator??
gbasden • Apr 10, 2010 @12:17 am

Sorry for the delay in replying – I was out doing something contructive and wasn't waiting breathlessly for your validation, Mr. Black.

I figured it was fairly useless to try to engage in debate given that you seem to see no useful role for government whatsoever. I'm sure food inspectors and the FDA are an abridgement of your freedom as well. Given that you seem to believe that the citizens of essentially the entire first world are evil, where is there really to go with this discussion, especially after your ever so classy reply to Patrick.

Thanks for the kind words, Ken. I appreciate it very much.

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