DOWNPAYMENT MADE ON SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

FRAMEWORK LEGALIZED AND BILLIONS ALLOTED
(Intentionally Hidden in Stimulus Bill to Deceive Americans)
More important than ever to DEFEAT HEALTHCARE BILL

'A downpayment was made on socialized medicine' is a phrase you may have heard when the Stimulus Bill was passed. Though innocent sounding it means more than dollars. Tragically thanks to the Stimulus Bill a downpayment was made on socialized medicine in February that included billion dollar funding and legalized the framework to create socialized medicine. Slipped in without discussion, billions of dollars and a framework are now law. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, the failed nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

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) Penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment. An appointed body with vast powers will make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.

There will be rationing and treatments will be determined by a board or council of 15 members that have already been appointed. The stimulus bill 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 changes that and applys a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board that 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. 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. Since the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994 failed due to debate and delay, Daschle advises quick action 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.”
Sadly, the Stimulus bill was passed with little scrutiny paid to the health provisions.

The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.

(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs