Eric the Red

Consider the following:

“[Medical care should not be given to those] who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia”

Source: Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. Quoted here.

“It must be made clear to anyone suffering from an incurable disease that the useless dissipation of costly medications drawn from the public store cannot be justified. Parents who have seen the difficult life of a crippled or feeble-minded child must be convinced that, though they may have a moral obligation to care for the unfortunate creature, the broader public should not be obligated…to assume the enormous costs that long-term institutionalization might entail.”

Source: Pamphlet published by Dr. Heilig, representative of the Nazi Physicians’ League. From: Robert N. Proctor, Racial Hygeine: Medicine Under the Nazis, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1989, p. 183

So why does a health czar appointed by Barak Obama to manage healthcare for me, you and your family sound like a Nazi war criminal? Because they best they can do to control costs is to ration care to the point that Washington bureaucrats, with no accountability, decide who lives and who dies. You do not decide what health care is best for you. You doctor doesn’t decide what health care you need. Politicians decide. Do you really think you will get the coverage you deserve with politicians who borrow from Nazis?

Greetings all! It has certainly been a while since I have written here!

With all the nonsense in the media about hope and change, I decided to read my way through the health care bill under consideration (as of the date of this writing), and I have summarized it for you along with my impressions.

Please note that I am opposed to the bill in its current form.

Feel free to read the bill for yourself and disagree with me:

• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission that your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get and, unlike with 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.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with taxpayer-subsidized “free” healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• 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 (such as SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (in my opinion, leading to total government control of private plans.)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services (in my opinion, 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 will 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. In my opinion, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The government will set wages. In my opinion, the AMA sold its doctors out.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives to this plan are permitted.
• 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.” What a mess!
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. In my opinion, seniors and the poor will be negatively affected.
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what speciality you have, you’ll all be paid the same
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private health care industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: The government will reduce payments to cancer specialty hospitals who’s costs exceed those of non-specialty hospitals. In my opinion, this will result in cancer patients being singled out for rationed care.
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: If doctors treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, they will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors are now prohibited for 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, which is vaguely defined.
• 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, (perhaps) euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Such consultation is mandatory. This 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
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. In my opinion, this will lead to government intervention in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

As always, I encourage all to read this bill in its entirety and draw their own conclusions. Frankly, I do not see how any health plan can claim to reduce costs without rationing care and reducing quality. Many others agree.

I agree with Rep. Lynn Westmoreland that pursuing other measures, such as:

• Creating special tax credits for individuals to purchase insurance
• Creating portability in insurance plans
• Allow businesses to band together to purchase plans as a group
• Allow individuals to purchase insurance on a nation-wide scale, rather than state by state
• Curtail frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals

Additionally, I believe that we need to establish a nation-wide pool with limited eligibility, to allow individuals who have lost their jobs due to no fault of their own, children, full time college students and people with pre-existing conditions access to affordable insurance. Yes, I know about COBRA and SCHIP, but I do not think they are effective in their current form. I also think that like car insurance, a certain degree of health insurance (such as covering hospitalizations to deal with car accidents and the like) should be mandatory for all.

I fully believe that every American should write to their representatives and the White House and be very loud in voicing their opposition to this bill. We cannot afford to rush a program through that is not carefully considered.