Your Health Plan With New Stimulus Plan

[Guest guest]

This topic should be of interest to us all as it mentions " hopeless

diagnoses " which many of us often feel hopelessness. Mainly, because

Drs. do not know and understand our illness.

I found this article interesting and was also wondering if any of our

member of the UK find this article to be true?

At a time when we feel our medical needs are not being met; we are now

being faced with major changes that could total compromise all of our

medical treatment. Especially for " hopeless diagnoses " and the elderly.

In no way do I intend to make this article political; just concerned

about the medical issues at stake here.

Feedback welcome

Thanks

Debby

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Below is the article as it was sent to me:

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Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan by Betsy McCaughey - Feb

9 Bloomberg

Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama's

stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions

to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health

provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the

handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the

Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because

they are dangerous to your health.

(Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill's health rules will affect " every individual in the United

States " (445, 454, 479). 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)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the

electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or

you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In

his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make

the " tough " decisions elected politicians won't make.

The stimulus bill does that, and 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 would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness

standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in

Daschle's book. This board 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.

In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with

macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye

before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took

almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its

decision.

Hidden Provisions

If the Obama administration's economic stimulus bill passes the Senate

in its current form, 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. Daschle

supported the Clinton administration's health-care overhaul in 1994,

and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle

wrote that the next president should act quickly 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. "

More Scrutiny Needed

On Friday, President Obama called it " inexcusable and irresponsible "

for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill

needs more scrutiny.

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.)

To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at

Betsymross@...