...but I suppose you have to be, to say something along the lines of this - via Politico:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says patient outcomes in the United States are like those in “a developing country” – and that they’ll stay that way if the health care reform law is repealed.
“The delivery system changes are what will affect underlying costs, and that impacts everybody,” Sebelius said Thursday. “We pay 2 1/2 times what anybody else pays in the world, and our care outcomes look like we're in a developing country.”
Interesting how the Politico article rebuts her instantly:
The United States actually ranks well above developing countries on multiple health indicators, coming in right above the European Union on infant mortality and slightly below Portugal on life expectancy, according to the CIA World Factbook
Maybe it's just the panic talking here. After all, Sebelius will become the most powerful person in America once ObamaCare goes into full effect. She will decide who gets ObamaCare "waivers", and who gets forced to pay the full freight for everyone else's health care. She will become Doyenne of the Death Panels as well; with one whisper into a commissioner's ear she can change the course of treatment for a certain "preferred patient" so that they may live, while other, less fortunate folks - perhaps those belonging to a different political party - are told they best get their things in order.
And this is all slipping away from her, as the public remains markedly opposed to this "historic" legislation and an invigorated Republican House majority chips away at funding where ever and whenever they can. So Sebelius has no choice but to resort to hysterical rhetoric - comparing our health care system to, say, a lost Amazonian tribe - in a desperate attempt to hold onto her position and power.
A modern American maternity ward, or an Amazonian hut? Kathleen Sebelius, pioneer of "smart medicine", is uncertain...
She may yet get her wish, though. Give the Democrats control of our health care system for, oh, fifteen minutes, and who knows what the hell it will look like...