Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey

So, how does Ms. McCaughey think that the Stimulus Plan might ruin your health?  The answer is very scary.

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.

Yes, Daschle, the very same person, who while forgetting to pay over 100K in taxes, seems to know what medical treatment you deserve.

This is the part of the bill that will create an electronic databank of medical records, for every patient in the US.  Not sure how I feel about that.  The probability of medical information leaks will increase exponentially. 

But the bill takes a scary turn.

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.”

So, let’s get this straight – a governmental big-wig will review YOUR doctor’s treatment plan, and approve or deny the care based on its COST EFFECTIVENESS.  (They can’t even run the DMV, but suddenly, they will run your medical care)

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.

So, the gov will appoint people who will make the “tough” medical decisions of your health treatment, when your condition is unusual.

And they complain about “managed care” insurance plans….

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.

OK, that needs to be repeated.  THE GOAL IS TO SLOW THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF NEW MEDICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES.  Is this America?  Since when is our GOAL to slow down progress?  These are the drugs that could save your life, or more immediately, improve the quality of life of your parents.  Interesting that the same party that was so FOR stem cell research is now trying to slow down medical development.

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).

So, if you have an incredibly painful, and eventually debilitating knee problem, instead of a knee replacement (2 months of surg and recuperation), will you now be expected to live with the pain?   My father (age 70), had a knee replacement last year.  He went from barely being able to walk across the room to being able to go to Disney World and walk with his excited grandchildren.  For my family, the knee replacement was well worth it.  But, would the gov think that it was cost effective? 

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.

Yes, our system will be based on the UK.  Since when has ANYONE said that Great Britain has outstanding health care?

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.”

Do you want your medical treatment, and the treatment of your families to be based on a cost effectiveness model? 

Notice how the Libs seem to be the party of DEATH, and not LIFE?  (Unless you are a terrorist or a criminal)  Are you too old to work?  Medical treatment might not be cost effective.  Is your infant in the NICU?  Might not be cost effective – you could always try to have another.  Are you going blind in one eye?  Well, you still have the other.  Do you have diabetes?  Well, that is probably your fault, and all those testing strips might not be cost effective. 

Going back to the knee replacement surgery.  Similar surgery in Canada – 5 year waiting period, and then they determine if you are still “young” enough to warrant the surgery.  Five years of additional needless, constant pain, in the twilight of your life.  Wouldn’t you want that last “good” years that you have as pain free as possible?  Can you imagine living through five additional years of constant, debilitating pain, all the while knowing that there is a fairly simply surgery that would eliminate your pain and increase your quality of life – and that you are not “important” enough to warrant that treatment?

The TERRORISTS at Gitmo get better health care than we might be able to get, if this bill passes.

UPDATE:  Michelle Malkin now has this on her site, with links.

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