Re: Elderly Hardest Hit

[Guest guest]

<Boy, Big Pharma is busy! I just read they got vitamin B6 classified

as a drug as well! I guess the emphasis on high-nutrient foods may

come in handy around here!>

 

Folks, this is just starting, and most voted for it. Alas.........

 

Commentary 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.)

© Lee Vliet, MD, February 2009