Would the Real Health Care Bill Please Stand Up?
Written by Art Thompson
Friday, 14 August 2009 15:56
Watching the debate on the health care package currently before the Congress reminds me of one of the old television programs in the 1960s, “To Tell the Truth.”
The basic premise of the show was a panel of distinguished New York personalities would ask questions to see if some invited guests could guess the real person whose background was described by the announcer. If the panel could not identify the person, the question was asked, “Would the Real (Person) Please Stand Up?” We are reminded of this show due to the debate going on over the health care bills, trying to figure out if the “real health care bill” will stand up.
We hear about a number of provisions that seem to be dangerous and the administration saying that they do not exist. Considering the volume of rhetoric back and forth, it becomes difficult to discern what the real bill says, unless you read it.
The debate in the newspapers is interesting. The New York Times is trying to marginalize those opposed to the plan, generally serving as a trumpet for the White House line on the issue about euthanasia, “death panels” for the elderly, that these and other provisions receiving a lot of attention are conservative hysteria.
On the other hand, on the same day, The Wall Street Journal, in its lead editorial said this:
While claims about euthanasia and “death panels” are over the top, senior fears have exposed a fundamental truth about what Mr. Obama is proposing: Namely, once health care is nationalized, or mostly nationalized, rationing care is inevitable, and those who have lived the longest will find their care the most restricted.
If restricting care for the elderly is not a subtle form of euthanasia, I do not know what is — panel or no panel.
The first of the “8 common myths about health insurance reform” from the WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck series of counter arguments for proponents states this:
1. Reform will stop “rationing” — not increase it: It’s a myth that reform will mean a “government takeover” of health care or lead to “rationing.” To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.
Note the wording and the term “many forms,” not all, “being used by insurance companies.” It does not say by Medicare, where the rationing of care by the denial of reimbursement is well known among physicians and surgeons.
It is not unusual for the latest and best procedures, the only methods available to reverse a condition or save a life regardless of age, to be denied. And, Medicare is currently the government-run health care for the poor and elderly. It seems doubtful they would change their attitude or policy under any new law that gives even more power to the government over medicine.
Also, note that the White House says it is “a myth that reform will mean a ‘government takeover.’” Read the bill and it does not take long to see that this is entirely false.
At the top of the web page outlining these reforms and myths about the reforms are words calling the opposition: “negative fear-mongers.” Interspersed as well in the site is a subtle but continuing disparaging of private insurance companies and policies.
When you get through reading the site you realize that it is the private insurance companies who are to blame for the high cost of medical care and the rationing of care according to the White House.
The truth is that the growth of government regulation, paperwork, and bureaucracy, along with the sue-happy world we live in, are responsible. Malpractice insurance to cover the latter problem is very expensive and the cost is embedded into the doctors’ fees.
The real danger of the health care “reform” is that not only will care be rationed, specialized disciplines in medicine and surgery will also be rationed as they become rarer. This will be as a natural result of government mandating that all medical staff receive lower pay, reimbursement, and the denial of innovative care by the approval or disapproval by government health boards.
This is already happening and is the reason many physicians and surgeons refuse Medicare patients. They will not be able to refuse under the new “reform.”
The current administration is using the natural desire of people for security to accomplish several things: To place everything that has to do with medicine and health care under the state. Whether it will be a huge leap in this direction, a small step, or an out and out rejection of this notion remains to be seen. And a very disturbing development is the movement to marginalize the opponents in the minds of the American people.
First, the groundwork is being laid for mobilizing masses of people to work for this and future legislation. The administration’s enlisting of liberal and Left organizations to rally to the support of health care legislation by the government is unprecedented in American history at the level we are witnessing.
Second, already we are witnessing tactics by these organizations to silence free speech at public venues against opponents of any legislation. This we are beginning to see at town hall meetings.
These tactics are the harbinger of the problem with government providing security for the people.
Freedom is always the cost.