The Democrat plan meant to save us from economic catastrophe is actually meant to do much more.
The Dems have buried the foundation for socialized medicine in the bill.
The same Dems who are always yapping about the sacredness of medical decisions being a personal matter between patient and doctor, free of government intervention, are now pushing through provisions in the economic stimulus bill that will strip citizens of their privacy and freedom to make choices about their health care.
Most frightening, the Dems are readying for a system of rationed care.
From WorldNetDaily:
The former lieutenant governor of New York is warning that the $50 billion that President Obama expects to spend in the next few years on a nationwide digital health records system for every individual easily could, and probably will, result in rationed medical care.
WND recently reported on a little-discussed provision in Obama's plan that would demand every American submit to a government program for electronic medical records without a choice to opt out, raising alarms for privacy advocates.
Privacy advocates said patients might be startled to discover personal information could be shared electronically with, perhaps, millions of people, including documentation on abortions, mental health problems, patient non-compliance, lawsuits against doctors and sexual problems.
Sue A. Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom, said unless people have the right to decide "if and when" their health information is shared, there is no real privacy.
During Obama's prime time news conference on Monday he mentioned the seemingly innocuous creation of an electronic system that would eliminate errors to protect patients.
OBAMA: We know that health care is crippling businesses and making us less competitive, as well as breaking the banks of families all across America. And part of the reason is, we've got the most inefficient health care system imaginable.
We're still using paper. We're still filing things in triplicate. Nurses can't read the prescriptions that doctors -- that doctors have written out. Why wouldn't we want to put that on -- put that on an electronic medical record that will reduce error rates, reduce our long-term costs of health care, and create jobs right now?
What Obama didn't say is how that electronic medical record system would be used. It's not just for reducing errors resulting because some doctors have sloppy hand-writing.
Steven R. West, M.D. is a cardiologist practicing in Fort Myers, Florida and the president of the Florida Medical Association.
He writes:
As Congress rushes its economic stimulus plan to the desk of President Obama, its grand vision of health reform has been secretly buried inside: rationing patient care and dispensing cookbook medicine.
That vision involves using large government bureaucracy and computer technology to tell patients what kind of care they can receive from their doctors. The congressional rationing plan will make doctors supplicants to big government and big insurance, rather than independent advocates for their patients. In the system that Congress envisions, the doctor serves the payer and not the patient.
Congress seeks $20 billion of spending on Health Information Technology (HIT) and more than $1.1 billion for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER).
Although electronic medical records can certainly help patients and doctors who want private and rapid access to medical records for care, that is not the purpose of government-imposed HIT.
Likewise, while CER seeks to ensure that patients get the best care for the best price, it is the use of such data that is worrisome. CER data should not be used to determine treatment plans; doctors should. If treatment decisions are made based on CER, care will be denied to patients on the basis of being too expensive or when a computer tells the doctor that a procedure is simply not approved.
Thus, congressional plans may lead to deaths of patients who could be saved and greater suffering in patients who could be cured.
President Obama offered the great hope in his inaugural address that the nation can "wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost."
Unfortunately, experience shows us that HIT has little to no impact on the cost or quality of care without the detrimental tool of rationing. Government and insurance company bureaucrats know that HIT can be used to determine what medical care a patient is allowed to receive.
Through a tool called "clinical decision support," computer pop-up windows will tell doctors how they must comply with cookbook medicine protocols devised in Washington, D.C., and insurance company board rooms. This system is designed to keep health insurance companies profitable and government health payments low.
If Americans give government and insurance companies the power to pay for care, it should come as no surprise when these third parties try to determine what they will cover and what they deem to be minimum standards of care.
In these systems, doctors and hospitals are given report-card scores based on adherence to government or insurance company treatment protocols, and these scores determine what they are paid.
Early experimentation with CER-style best-practice measures shows doctors and hospitals avoid the sickest patients, merely to achieve a better report-card score.
...Americans can start down the path to health care freedom and empowerment if they call their representatives today and tell them, "Take the health care provisions out of the stimulus bill."
To achieve excellence in medical care, doctors must have the flexibility to practice medicine based on the needs of each patient, not arbitrary payer formulas and thresholds. Government has displayed a dismal track record of protecting the integrity of important institutions such as our housing and banking systems.
We are not willing to blindly turn over increased control of our family's health care to these same officials in Congress or the government.
This is truly scary. Of all the trash that Obama and the Democrats have slipped into their so-called economic stimulus bill, the presence of these health care provisions bother me more than anything else.
What the hell are the provisions doing in this bill?
It is utterly dishonest for the Dems to bury provisions that would lay the groundwork to help them realize their dream of socialized medicine in a bill meant to rescue the economy.
It's so dirty it makes me sick. It's frightening.
If Obama wants to lead the country into a European-style socialist medical system, then that should be debated on its own merits.
Do Arlen Specter, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe realize that they voted for this? Are they clueless or in favor of socialism? Maybe both.
An overhaul of our medical system should not be hidden in a massive spending bill (aka economic stimulus). And certainly Obama should not be trying to rush the bill through the legislature before it can be fully examined by lawmakers.
It's an underhanded, slimy move by Obama and his like-minded far-Left cohorts.
I don't want my loved ones to be at the mercy of "cookbook medicine protocols devised in Washington."
Obama's promises of transparency are BS.
I never imagined that Obama could tell so many lies and break so many promises after only three weeks in office.
5 comments:
The Socialist Trojan Horse cometh.
The good news is that serious people in the USA now know that Obama is essentially nothing and after yesterday, and his laughing off his complete misunderstanding about how the markets work, he's been neutered. Next up, Pelosi and Reid.
I put a lot of folks into motion yesterday afternoon to make calls to DC to end the madness of the government deciding who lives and who dies.
And I thought George Bush was the Nazi.
I'm sending an email to every one I know asking them to contact their Senators and Representatives and tell them to get the health provisions out of the "stimulus" bill.
You're absolutely right, this is scary and infuriating! In Tom Daschle's book he actually says that Congress should slip health care legislation into appropriations bills so debate can be avoided and the public won't have a choice.
I just want for my wife and I to be able to grow our small businesses. The American dream, right? But it's nearly impossible to do that when one of us has to constantly be working for some major employer that provides health care. My wife has a pre-existing condition that makes her uninsurable on the open market. If socialized medicine is the only way for us to have the freedom to focus on our businesses, rather than spending 40 hours/wk just to have access to health care, then socialized medicine is fine with us. We've both lived/travelled extensively in Europe and Japan and had plenty of experience with socialized medicine. Everything we've experienced suggests it is far superior than the US system in almost every way...shorter wait times to be seen, less bureaucracy & paper-work, doctors have more time with patients and more freedom to treat based on effectiveness of treatment rather than the insurance company's willingness to pay, etc.
The bill has now officially passed. The health provisions within are by far the biggest nightmare of this bill. So few understand the implications of this. Just having the government holding the health file of every American violates our constitutional rights. We need about 5 million people to march on Washington. I am VERY afraid of living in American, for the first time in my life.
I only wish this were about socialized medicine. This is a backdoor national ID card for every American by 2014.
And what about this portion of the bill. The coordinator can "detail" or take other Federal employees for the enforcemnt of the bill. Could Federal law enforcement agencies take over the health care system? Catholic hositals beware, I imagine you too will be forced to provide abortions and the cooordinator will see to it.
"Upon the request of the National Coordinator, the head of any Federal agency is authorized to detail, with or without reimbursement from the Office, any of the personnel of such agency to the Office to assist it in carrying out its duties under this section.
`(2) EFFECT OF DETAIL- Any detail of personnel under paragraph (1) shall--
`(A) not interrupt or otherwise affect the civil service status or privileges of the Federal employee; and
`(B) be in addition to any other staff of the Department employed by the National Coordinator.
`(3) ACCEPTANCE OF DETAILEES- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Office may accept detailed personnel from other Federal agencies without regard to whether the agency described under paragraph (1) is reimbursed.
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