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Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan
This is one way to force socialized medicine on us, hide it in the "stimulus" package.
Commentary by Betsy McCaughey
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy. Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department. Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version). The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors. But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.” Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far. New Penalties Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541) What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make. The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system. Elderly Hardest Hit Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt. Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464). The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis. In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision. Hidden Provisions If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later. The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181). Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.” More Scrutiny Needed On Friday, President Obama called it “inexcusable and irresponsible” for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny. The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy. (Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.) As always I think congress should have to live under the rules they make so who’s going to be the first to lead by example and “be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them?” Byrd, Kennedy, Akaka? Who’s ready to sacrifice their mom or grandpa to stimulate the economy, anyone? |
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 Originally Posted by speechlesstx
Me? I'd just as soon throw 'em BOTH out of the examination room... Then maybe we could afford health care. But, the right wing loves to have their buddies in the insurance industry checking out the diagnosis. I don't know why. excon |
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I don't QUITE get why the government has to give stimulus checks, anyway. There HAS to be a better way to help our economy---maybe making more jobs somehow instead of just handing out money? The ENTIRE bill is irresponsible, in my opinion, and this health care reform tucked into it just makes it more so. And politicians wonder why we don't trust them. |
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It scares me because I can't even afford the health insurance that my work has which I would have to pay $100. Per month toward. I do not want health coverage. I do not need health coverage. I do not need the government mandating that I have health insurance that I am positive they will not make any cheaper for me than the plans that already exist. |
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Steve: Its rationing, whether by government or insurance companies. And it will be rationing and inefficient until the third party is eliminated. Lowering the Cost of Health Care by Ron Paul The lesson is clear: when government and other third parties get involved, health care costs spiral. The answer is not a system of outright socialized medicine, but rather a system that encourages everyone – doctors, hospitals, patients, and drug companies – to keep costs down. As long as “somebody else” is paying the bill, the bill will be too high --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd suggest a two tier approach: Gov paid, preventative, evidenced based, primary health care With an electronic medical record [ like the VA has ]. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Acute and hospital care via HSA. G&P |
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Most of the stimulus is benefiting government jobs and other countries, They said that most of the 20 million dollars going to electronic technology will provide jobs for other countries, Much of the sex education money will provide abortions and STD teaching for other countries, |
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Can there be anyone left in this country that actually believes Mr Nobama after last nights lies and deceit show for the left wing boobs? Especially after the revelation of how much junk and pork is really in this mess. Is this not simply a way for the left to jamb through all the socialistic agenda they have been trying to get for years. |
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Hey, I kind of like the idea of the Health Care Rationing (or guidelines for dispensing health or whatever they are going to call it). It seems like all these old people who are being kept alive due to milking the Medicare money won't be kept alive any longer. They will have to be happy being dead. The old folks who are living in nursing homes will be "evicted". This is now happening in some of the States out West - dumping granny and grandpa out of the nursing home via a hospital and not being allowed back in. The overmedicating of the old folks will save tons of dough. Giving them unneeded drugs for more health problems. Maybe they'll actually live longer if they are denied these drugs that cause other health problems. Who knows? But one part of the health restrictions I would love to see would be the complete denial of medical benefits (that includes free childbirth) to the illegal aliens. Just think what that would do for the general economy. It would keep the hospitals from having to overcharge the other patients for the deadbeats who don't pay their bills. (But then, that would be too easy, wouldn't it?) This would also curtail the illegal aliens from using the ER's as walk in clinics tying up valuable personnel for a case of the flu. It would preclude all unnecessary operations that could possibly save someone's life. It would probably also preclude all the overpriced cancer drugs and cancer operations leaving the cancer patients to actually die or get better. Is a life worth say $1,500 a month in prescription drugs? I don't know, but I'm sure going to find out shortly if this is going to be the case in this country. Also, the overmedicating of young children on the "psych" drugs would come to a crashing halt as too much money is being wasted on those programs. That means no more forced medication of the young. If the health restrictions were properly carried out and health care was not available free to the illegal aliens now living in this country, possibly they all just might go home to their own country. Now wouldn't that be grand? In order to receive any health care under the new rules a person would have to prove their citizenship in America in order to be treated. That's the way it is in Canada, Cuba, Russia and other countries that have Universal Health care from France to Italy. Why shouldn't America be any different in requiring proof of citizenship in order to receive free health care? Yes, a lot of people are going to fall through the cracks on this, but actually in the long run it will save money, lots of money. Maybe Big Pharma won't have to charge so much for drugs as they will be getting money directly from the government and not having to overcharge the patients for their prescription drugs. Oh, the doctors are not going to like this one iota as they won't be able to drive new Rolls Royces and taking trips on their new motoryachts every other jerk. They will have to live more within their means. But then, they won't have to pay huge malpractice premiums either. It would winnow out a lot of the medicare/medicaid fraud though and stop a lot of the doctor shopping that goes on with the drug addicts/drug dealers with the opiates. The only drawback I can see to this plan would be dental care. Are the dentists going to be included in this plan or not? If they don't have to belong, then what's going to happen if you can't find a dentist on the plan and have to end up pulling your own teeth like they do over in England because the person can't find a dentist on the NHS plan and has no money for a private dentist? That part really bothers me. P.S. It's a sure fire way of population culling in case you haven't figured this out yet. |
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Originally Posted by 450donn
Don - I actually had to laugh out loud a few times during the broadcast as his replies were so out of it. I did like the nice touch of the baseball player question. Who cared about him? The one part that really got me riled up was when he had the audacity to say that "no one was above the law". I guess that didn't mean him. |
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Today on Quinn & Rose they were talking about something even more scary hidden in the stimulus. They said that hidden in the "free" medical plan is a grid that determines IF THEY feel somebody should receive things like surgical procedures. If THEY feel that the amount outweighs your life expectancy then you do not qualify for the operation. |
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