Archive for Health Care Bill
Dr. Tom Coburn
Posted by: | CommentsThe Health Bill Is Scary
Government guidelines would likely have forbidden the test I used to discover Sheila’s cancer.
By TOM COBURN
I recently suggested that seniors will die sooner if Congress actually implements the Medicare cuts in the health-care bill put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. My colleagues who defend the bill—none of whom have practiced medicine—predictably dismissed my concern as a scare tactic. They are wrong. Every American, not just seniors, should know that the rationing provisions in the Reid bill will not only reduce their quality of life, but their life spans as well.
My 25 years as a practicing physician have shown me what happens when government attempts to practice medicine: Doctors respond to government coercion instead of patient cues, and patients die prematurely. Even if the public option is eliminated from the bill, these onerous rationing provisions will remain intact.
For instance, the Reid bill (in sections 3403 and 2021) explicitly empowers Medicare to deny treatment based on cost. An Independent Medicare Advisory Board created by the bill—composed of permanent, unelected and, therefore, unaccountable members—will greatly expand the rationing practices that already occur in the program. Medicare, for example, has limited cancer patients’ access to Epogen, a costly but vital drug that stimulates red blood cell production. It has limited the use of virtual, and safer, colonoscopies due to cost concerns. And Medicare refuses medical claims at twice the rate of the largest private insurers.
Section 6301 of the Reid bill creates new comparative effectiveness research (CER) programs. CER panels have been used as rationing commissions in other countries such as the U.K., where 15,000 cancer patients die prematurely every year according to the National Cancer Intelligence Network. CER panels here could effectively dictate coverage options and ration care for plans that participate in the state insurance exchanges created by the bill.
Additionally, the Reid bill depends on the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in no fewer than 14 places. This task force was responsible for advising women under 50 to not undergo annual mammograms. The administration claims the task force recommendations do not carry the force of law, but the Reid bill itself contradicts them in section 2713. The bill explicitly states, on page 17, that health insurance plans “shall provide coverage for” services approved by the task force. This chilling provision represents the government stepping between doctors and patients. When the government asserts the power to provide care, it also asserts the power to deny care.
If the bill expands Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the poverty level, that too will lead to rationing. Because Washington bureaucrats have created a system that underpays doctors, 40% of doctors already restrict access to Medicaid patients, and therefore ration care.
Medicaid demonstrates, tragically in some cases, that access to a government program does not guarantee access to health care. In Maryland, 17,000 Medicaid patients are currently on a waiting list for medical services, and as many as 250 may have died while awaiting care, according to state auditors. Kansas, the home state of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, faces a Medicaid backlog of more than 15,000 applicants.
Other unintended consequences of the Reid bill could wreak havoc on patients’ lives. What happens, for instance, when savvy consumers commanded to buy insurance realize the penalty is the de facto premium? It won’t take long for younger, healthier Americans to realize it’s cheaper to pay a $750 tax for coverage instead of, say, $5,000 in annual premiums when coverage can’t be denied if you get sick.
OMB Budget Director Peter Orzsag’s belief that mandatory health insurance will become a “cultural norm” is bureaucratic naivete that will produce skyrocketing premiums and reduced care for everyone. My state’s own insurance commissioner, a Democrat, recently confirmed this concern to me in a letter noting that “the result will be higher insurance rates due to a higher percentage of insured being higher risk/expense individuals.”
But the most fundamental flaw of the Reid bill is best captured by the story of one my patients I’ll call Sheila. When Sheila came to me at the age of 33 with a lump in her breast, traditional tests like a mammogram under the standard of care indicated she had a cyst and nothing more. Because I knew her medical history, I wasn’t convinced. I aspirated the cyst and discovered she had a highly malignant form of breast cancer. Sheila fought a heroic battle against breast cancer and enjoyed 12 good years with her family before succumbing to the disease.
If I had been practicing under the Reid bill, the government would have likely told me I couldn’t have done the test that discovered Sheila’s cancer because it wasn’t approved under CER. Under the Reid bill, Sheila may have lived another year instead of 12, and her daughters would have missed a decade with their mom.
The bottom line is that under the Reid bill the majority of America’s patients might be fine. But some will be like Sheila—patients whose lives hang in the balance and require the care of a doctor who understands the science and art of medicine, and can make decisions without government interference.
The American people are opposing this bill in greater numbers every day because the facts of the bill—not any tactic—are cause for serious concern.
Dr. Coburn, a physician, is a Republican senator from Oklahoma.
Congressman Cole Endorses Doug Hoffman
Posted by: | CommentsDue to the vagaries of local politics two Republicans are on the ballot in the special election in NY-23. Doug Hoffman, the conservative, clearly represents the main stream values and positions of the Republican Party. He opposes the stimulus, cap and trade, card check, the Democratic health care bill and the Obama Administration’s reckless spending binge. He is a pro-life fiscal conservative who is committed to restraining the growth of government. And Hoffman is committed to fighting and winning the war in Afghanistan.
Doug Hoffman is right on the critical issues facing America — and he is the only Republican who can win this special election. For those reasons I have chosen to endorse Mr. Hoffman and my leadership PAC has contributed to his campaign. I look forward to working with Doug in Congress and welcoming him into the Republican Conference.
Congressman
Tom Cole
House Democrat’s Health Care Plan Exposed
Posted by: | CommentsI received this by email. It is great to have people out there doing the hard work on exposing this stuff. Like I have said before this is not socialized health care but Soviet style health care. And I use the words health and care loosely.
Here is the Health Care Bill in ‘bullet’ form…..You can look at the whole bill. if you do not believe
See below: Example…..pg. 425 etc…..you have to be counseled on how to end your life early; it’s for the good of the nation.
The fact that our legislators could even consider passing such an invasion of privacy and of your basic rights is inconceivable. All members of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government enjoy a “Cadillac” health care plan. If what they propose for Americans is so great, why aren’t they giving up their current plan and jumping on board to this one? The answer is simple. Theirs is much better.
- July 23, 2009: 48 Important Things to Know About Obam
a’s Health care Plan - Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
- Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
- Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
- Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
- Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free health care services.
- Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Health card.
- Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
- Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
- Page 72: All private health care plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Health care Exchange.
- Page 84: All private health care plans must participate in the Health care Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
- Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
- Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
- Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
- Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No “judicial review” is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
- Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
- Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
- Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
- Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
- Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
- Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t’ have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
- Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
- Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
- Page 203: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Yes, it really says that.
- Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected.”
- Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
- Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc.
- Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
- Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
- Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
- Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
- Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
- Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited from owning and investing in healthcare companies!
- Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
- Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on “community” input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
- Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
- Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
- Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
- Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
- Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
- Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
- Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
- Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
- Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient’s health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
- Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
- Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
- Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
- Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
- Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.
“I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art.”
Excerpt from the original Hippocratic Oath
