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.
I am goin to highlight some of the key provisions in this bill, which should be scary, especially if you think your insurance company is crazy in refusing some treatment. Page numbers refer to page numbers in the Stimulus Bill:
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.”
Funny, my doc wants more autonomy to be able to give treatment regardless of insurance, that insurance and cost should not determine who lives and dies. But, however, this sounds like that to me, how about you? But wait, the worst is yet to come....
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.
Yes, give up hope. Just suck it up and die, you are using up too many of my carbon credits, say the lefties. I guess Daschle and company will seek to close down City of Hope, St. Jude, the Shriners Hospitals, etc., because they help people who should accept hopeless diagnoses. Gee, does this sound like change and hope you can believe in? I think not. But, according to Daschle, this is the best way to proceed. Forget saving lives, it is about saving bucks! Hmmm....not exactly standing up for the little guy....But wait, guess what, all you seniors and little snot nosed lobbyists for the AARP who lauded the caring of Pelosi and Obama and liberals for seniors and healthcare....Your constituency is GOING TO DIE, AND THE LIBS WANT THEM TO DIE:
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.
Sorry, Grandma, that osteoporosis? You are just going to have to wait til you shatter something before we treat it. Funny, I thought Obambi and the Dems were lauding preventive care.
And great, we are modelling ourselves after the UK? Here is a great story about the "logic" the UK invokes when treating people:
A smoker is facing years of pain after an NHS hospital refused to set his broken ankle unless he gives up cigarettes.
John Nuttall, 57, needs the operation to fix the ankle he broke in three places two years ago and which was not healed by a plaster cast.
Doctors at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro have refused to operate to rebuild the ankle because they say Mr Nuttall's heavy smoking would reduce the chance of a full recovery.
They have told him to give up smoking before they operate but the retired builder has been unable to break his habit.
So, let's see here....you have a bullet wound to the femoral artery....Well, I am sorry, but until you lose 30 pounds I am afraid we will have to deny that treatment...too much of a health risk, don't ya know.....
WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH THESE PEOPLE? Don't think it is going to happen? Think again:
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).
Why Hide this in stimulus? To sneak it into law...As this article explains:
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.”
Daschle, Reid, Pelosi, and Barry want us to be slaves to the government. Those of you upset out there with insurance companies and their bureaucracies denying coverage and delaying; think about what it would be like if the Feds got involved?
Attention, Ohio Congressional Delegation! Attention, Leader Boehner! Attention, Congresswoman Schmidt! Stand up and proclaim the idiocy of this part of the bill! Tell the American people we are being made to be slaves to the federal bureaucracy from womb to tomb! Don't let us lose our last remaining freedom in healthcare areas! Life is too precious to be decided upon by a disgusting, botox infested dumb tyrantette like Bullwhip Nancy and Co.!
Call your members of Congress and make them aware of these provisions and urge them to stand against them! Our very lives are at stake!
