Suzanne Somers Blasts ObamaCare, Gets Blasted

Her WSJ piece has since had 3 corrections tacked on
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 29, 2013 12:04 PM CDT
Suzanne Somers Blasts ObamaCare, Gets Blasted
Suzanne Somers.   (PRNewsFoto/Life Extension)

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed written by Thighmaster maven Suzanne Somers. The reception has not exactly been kind. Her piece, titled, "The Affordable Care Act Is a Socialist Ponzi Scheme" lays out all the reasons why Somers thinks ObamaCare is exactly that, in roughly 500 words. Here's the crux of how Somers came to her conclusion:

  • By "using her celebrity" to gain access to some of the world's best doctors "in the alternative and integrative health-care world"
  • By observing the case of her Canadian husband's sister, who vomited "continuously" for more than two months before being prescribed a pill that stopped the vomiting
  • By noting that her husband's Canadian doctor cousins have fled for the US because they want to make more money
  • And apparently by watching TV, because "all you are hearing on the news is how everyone's premiums are doubling and tripling and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that the whole thing is a big mess"

"Somers may have needed to do a bit more research," writes Scott Collins for the Los Angeles Times. That's because "Corrections and Amplifications" were added to explain three errors—"a high number for an article of fewer than 600 words," observes Collins. Her mistakes: She cited a Maclean's cover that featured a horse with a headline saying the animal "Can Get Better Health Care Than You" (it was actually a dog); she also included a Lenin quote ("Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state") and Churchill quote ("Control your citizens’ health care and you control your citizens") that neither man actually said. Quips Philip Bump at the Atlantic Wire, "Suzanne Somers is an expert on health care, according to Suzanne Somers and, for some reason, The Wall Street Journal. She is not, however, an expert on historic quotes, public policy, or health care." (More ObamaCare stories.)

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