Socialized Medicine Through The Back Door
The scheme-ulous bill gets worse and more frightening by the day. Today we find out that there are provisions in the bill that create a bureaucracy to track your medical treatment. Further, if hospitals and doctors don’t follow the government’s guidelines they will be subject to fines. You might want to read these last sentences again and let it sink in a bit.
And there’s more. Other language in the bill will apply a cost-benefit standard to treatment. This would mean that the government will judge whether you are worthy of treatment. Elderly people, in particular would be hurt. You know, those people that Democrats always claim to champion and whine that they are “choosing between food and medicine.” Well, if the stimulus bill passes they will be more likely to die than they are now under the current system.
Ironically, the person behind a lot of this is none other than tax cheat Tom Daschle. Story from Bloomberg.com, Betsy McCaughey:
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 [emphasis added]. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.
More..
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).
Let’s also not forget, this comes on the heels of the recent passage of SCHIP legislation, also aimed at getting socialized healthcare through the back door. See here and here.
You see, the liberal socialists have learned their lesson from 1993’s failure. They know the American people will oppose a plan to nationalize our healthcare system because it won’t be able to withstand the scrutiny, with specifics like these coming to light. So, instead they are doing it under dark of night while they think no one will notice.
To put it another way, the Democrats are stealthily leading us towards full-blown socialism. And once we’re there, there’s not much chance of going back.
Mike:
Thank you for pointing these things out. You are providing a valuable service in going through all of this stealth socialism and making it public.
At this point, though, there is no way to stop them. They have the votes.
The only thing Republicans can do now is refuse to legitimize them and by pretewnding that this discussion involves a civilized difference of opinion.
As an example, look at the election in Minnesota. Any honest person knows that Coleman won (barely), and that Franken is trying to steal the election. By engaging in a protracted legal process, Coleman and the Republicans have completely legitimated this brazen banditry. Imgaine how different things would look if Coleman had said “the results are clear to any honest observer. If Harry Reid and the Democrats want to become a party to this fraud, let them seat Franken. Otherwise, they should seat me.”
Would that have been guaranteed to win? No, because the Democrats are beyond being shamed. But at least it would be clear to the American people what was happening. As it stands now, they think Republicans are just engaging in sour grapes.
The same is true for this stimulus and all of the other socialism the Democrats are proposing. By negotiating with them, Republicans are legitimating the Democrats and making it sound like the two sides just have reasonable differences of opinion.
In fact, socialism brutally stifles the individual. All of the facts you have cited about socialized medicine are true. The Republicans should read your comments and repeat them. You are 100% correct in raising them
However, Republicans should not engage in the charade that the Democrats mean well but are just misguided. What they are proposing is such a monstrous attack on individual liberty that the Republicans must not cooperate with the Democrats in any way.
It is one thing for a robber to point a gun at you and get away with your wallet. It is an entirely different matter to have the robber point his gun at you and negotiate how much of your money he really needs.
February 9th, 2009 at 7:45 pmMike:
Kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss. Kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss.
At this point, kiss kiss kiss some more.
As an example, smooch, smooch, slurp, kiss, kiss, kiss, smooch, lick, suck, slurp, slurp. Slurp, slurp, slurp, pop, slurp, slurp, lick, smooch, kiss, kiss.
Democrats suck.
In fact, socialism blows, smooch, smooch, kill bin Laden.
Point a gun at your wallet, wah wah
February 9th, 2009 at 7:59 pmGreat post, Mike – I was just reading the Bloomberg article not 5 minutes ago. Sickening.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:16 pmMike,
Thanks for bringing more prominence to this information than just my comment in the previous article. The damage that Obama’s policies will inflict on our nation will be very difficult to reverse. It is sad that very few understand this.
Obama frequently likes to compare himself to Lincoln. As we know, Lincoln had the Union together. I certainly hope that I will be proven wrong, but if Obama continues to foster policies such as those he has thusfar proposed or enacted, I sincerely doubt the United States will survive in its current form.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:22 pmRussia still uses banners that read “CCCP” and depict the hammer and the sickle. I have photos from 2008 that prove this.
February 10th, 2009 at 6:09 amLooks like someone saw my post…lol!
http://www.drudgereport.com/
February 10th, 2009 at 10:04 amActually, I think it was mine from February 9th, 2009 at 3:25 pm to “Coburn: “Stimulus” Packed with Wasteful and Non-Simulative Spending”.
LMAO
February 10th, 2009 at 1:27 pmhaha
February 10th, 2009 at 1:43 pmEd – could you plz give the URL of your CWA article on what the GOP should do about the pseudostimulus?
February 10th, 2009 at 1:51 pmZbigniew:
I have written many posts on the subject, including the first comment at the top of this thread. If you are looking for an article, I assume you are looking for my 15 January 2009 submission entitled “How Republicans Should Say No.”
http://www.gopusanj.com/wordpress/?p=4082
If that is not what you meant, let me know and I will try to find it.
February 10th, 2009 at 2:59 pmThank you, Ed.
February 10th, 2009 at 3:07 pmZbigniew:
Did you get the pamplet I sent you? If you are looking for a companion piece I assume you are looking for my favorite submission entitled “How Achilles Won the War”
If this is not what you meant, stay tuned. I’m sure a monkey will eventually type something you’ll find interesting.
Oh yeah, and by the way, Democrats suck.
Ta ta,
February 10th, 2009 at 4:22 pm-Ed.
excellent work, thanks
September 8th, 2009 at 4:24 amyour site is very great!!!
September 11th, 2009 at 5:05 am