Sunday, March 8, 2009

Nationalizing Life & Death

Unfortunately I had a knock down drag out verbal sparring match with one of my bff's yesterday as we discussed universal healthcare. She just can not fathom how this concept could do harm. I tried to explain to her that while universal healthcare sounds virtuous and noble that the downside of such as system could have catastrophic consequences for the very people it is intended to help. Then lo and behold this morning I ran across the article reprinted below by John Griffing on The American Thinker blog:

"Crisis! Crisis! Crisis!" So is it always with petty politicians seeking to enhance their power. Swallow it whole, swallow it now is the word. But just what are we swallowing so fast that we don't even have time to think? Are we really to believe that all we must do is touch the hem of President Obama's garment, and the pains of capitalist dislocation will wash away?
Hidden deep in the stimulus bill is a Trojan horse like no other. I am not speaking of pork. A scheme more dastardly would have been hard to concoct.
With the passage of this bill, the US government is now empowered to "ration" healthcare. That means, to treat or not to treat is now a government question.

Within the bill is a line that would sentence millions of people to death:
In addition, $400,000,000 shall be available...to accelerate the development and dissemination of research assessing the comparative effectiveness of health care treatments and strategies, including through efforts that: (1) conduct, support, or synthesize research that compares the clinical outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of items, services, and procedures that are used to prevent, diagnose, or treat diseases, disorders, and other health conditions
For those that don't speak draconian, "comparative effectiveness" means that the cost of an individual's treatment will be divided by the number of years they are likely to benefit. If your treatment is too "costly" you will be thrown out with the bathwater. No country for old men. The bill also created the "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research" to make comparative effectiveness decisions. Only 20 years after winning the Cold War we are adopting central planning as our preferred model. Only, instead of determining the number of toothbrushes, this committee will determine the value of someone's life. How ironic.

The stimulus bill mandates electronic healthcare records for every American by 2014 and would "encourage the development and use of clinical registries, clinical data networks, and other forms of electronic health data that can be used to generate or obtain outcomes data...." No room for miracles. Computer models will now decide your "outcome." Twilight Zone anybody?
If you are picturing Germany circa 1930, you're right on. With the passing of this bill, government, not doctors, will decide who receives care and who doesn't, in essence, who lives and who dies. The cruelest regimes in history have begun with this premise. Government was responsible for non-war related deaths exceeding 100M in the 20th Century, 80M by
Communist governments[i], and now we're going to trust them with our medical care? "Do no harm", the Hippocratic Oath, has been replaced by "cost-benefit analysis."
It will start with the elderly, because after all, they are social burdens and a drain on federal funds. They need to wake up and smell the coffin. "If they're going to die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population!"
Comrade Tom Daschle, the author of the ominous healthcare provisions, supports this line of thought, saying that healthcare reform "will not be pain free." He goes on to praise Europeans for being willing to accept "hopeless diagnoses" and forgo "experimental treatments".
Next would be the infirmed. Too many resources are wasted on people with incurable diseases.
We should allocate money to those who actually have the potential to live and live well.
Then the children with a poor quality of life. One can recall the abortion lobby's virulent argument for killing black babies.
Then newborns. It simply won't end. The medical profession will become the harbinger of death, not health.
This is not a slippery slope argument. Holland has already slipped the slope. Holland's healthcare system is so cash-strapped that it views humans as liabilities. A patient must formally request "no euthanasia" before simple outpatient surgery. In fact, involuntary euthanasia accounts for over 1,000 deaths in Holland
annually. In addition, 8,000 people in Holland die every year because they are given intentional overdoses of pain medication, not to control pain, but to end life. In 60 percent of these cases, the patient did not give his or her consent to the action.[ii]
If doctors making quality of life decisions doesn't scare you, maybe this will: Holland has a committee to decide who's
expendable. It actually slates children, adults-anybody-for euthanasia. Robespierre and the Public Safety Committee are back, ushering in a reign of terror for our times.
Holland has quickly broadened the scope of euthanasia, extending the "right to die" all the way down to
12-year olds, no parental consent required. If they can get an abortion, why can't they kill themselves?
Holland even legalized euthanasia for
newborns. In some countries this is still considered infanticide. Recently an abortionist was jailed in the United States for throwing a survivor baby in a dumpster. A few inches is all that determines humanity in this country, but at least there's a standard.
It is hard to believe that only fifty years ago, it was Dutch doctors that stood up to Adolph Hitler's eugenicist policies and refused to kill weaker patients. What a difference a generation makes. Holland is a giant concentration camp. That is why it is so crucial for Americans to wake up before it's too late.

Bottom-line: if government is allowed to make healthcare about cost and not saving lives, it will degrade human worth to something not fit to mention. If government controls the medical profession, it controls life. We have a choice. America can go the way of Germany and Holland, or it can remain the beacon of hope for the world. The "right to choose" has been turned against us. What will we choose?" (Source) - emphasis added

14 comments:

JudyBright said...

It amazes me how people take what we have for granted, and want to do the exact opposite of what it takes to improve our health care system.

Here is a direct quote of someone talking about their dealings with Canada's health care system while caring for a baby with health issues...

We also had an eye exam that we waited over 1 year for, and received good news that her eyes were in good working order.

Constructive Feedback said...

CBW:

Here is my argument against tax payer paid for health care:

With the nation in serious debt we are asking the Black community (in particular) to cease figuring out how to field new economic and SERVICE DELIVERY mechanisms as we shift our dependency over to a funding source that IS USING HIS CREDIT CARD TO FUND HIS LIFESTYLE.

Thus there is a clear distinction between BEING IN RECEIPT OF AN ENTITLEMENT and Ordering Your Community/City/State to PROVIDE WHAT IT NEEDS FOR THE MASSES in the confines of the system of economics, work effort and EDUCATION that is necessary to deliver this good.

CBW - about 2 weeks ago I went into the belly of the beast in order to LISTEN to how the Progressive think. This was a "Single Payer Health Care" forum sponsored by a local community radio station. The was an auditorium full of college students and old, washed up activists.

The 3 panelists on stage presented a narrative that IF I DID NOT KNOW BETTER, I could have been swayed by.

Anyone who

1) Makes use of Cuba as a ROLE MODEL for what the health care SHOULD be in this nation

and

2) Sells Tax Payer Paid Health care as having NO DOWN SIDE..........run as fast as you can away from these people and make sure that they NEVER HAVE CONTROL OVER YOU!!!

I stood up and said that according to my research EVERY national health care system can only do 2 of the 3 measures of quality:

1) High Quality of Care (no wait)

2) Wide Access To Procedures (ie: heart transplant or experimental drugs)

3) Cost Containment

I then stated that the GOVERNMENT will start doing the RATIONING OF SERVICE that the Insurance Companies are now doing. By definition some agent of rationing is required in any system.

The one lady on stage rejected my claim saying "THERE IS NO SCARCITY PROBLEM IN AMERICA!!!"

Here is my view of how government health care will go:

1) Adopt universal health care

2) Activists will seek to tell their base about the new system and get people to MAKE USE OF IT to address perplexing medical problems.

3) DEMAND FOR NEW CAPACITY will skyrocket because our infrastructure is oriented to the present system.

4) The government, seeking to save face will THROW MORE MONEY AT THE PROBLEM

5) This will destroy our budget situation and thus the government will go into a cost control bias.


Bottom line IF THE LEFT CAN MAKE "HEALTH CARE A RIGHT" then it will be added as a new line item to the federal budget.

Anonymous said...

Finally, the time has arrived to fix Americas Healthcare crisis, and Americas healthcare knightmare. Hundreds of thousands of you are killed needlessly every year by your healthcare delivery system in a rush to profit. And because of a rush to profit Hundreds of thousands more of you are needlessly dying from treatable illness that people in other developed and civilized countries don't DIE! from. Rich, middle class, and poor alike. Insured, and uninsured. Men, women, children, and babies.

Additionally, thousands more of you are driven into financial ruin, and bankruptcy just because you, or one of your loved ones got sick or injured. And all of this is happening at a time when America spends twice as much of it's GDP (Gross Domestic Productivity) on health care than any other country in the developed world. Individual Americans spend about ten times as much on health care as any other people in the developed world. This is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY. AND IT MUST END!

But before we can truly fix this healthcare crisis and disgrace, everyone needs to clearly understand what the problem is. And everyone needs to clearly understand the real enormity of the problem. The problem is that HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL DELIVERY IN AMERICA IS SEVERELY CORRUPTED AND COMPROMISED BY GREED! AND THE PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MOTIVE. And it is corrupted, and compromised IN EVERY ASPECT, AND EVERY PLACE OF HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL DELIVERY. Unfortunately for all Americans, compromised healthcare ALWAYS results in needless suffering, injury, disability, and or death. Which is exactly what is happening now in America in shocking numbers.

Health care is NOT! a private for profit business. Healthcare is an essential public service. Like police, and fire. And healthcare is also a human right! PRIVATE FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE IS AN OXYMORON, AND AN IMMORAL AND UNETHICAL PERVERSION OF HEALTHCARE AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

So how do we fix this healthcare disgrace? I believe the fix for Americas healthcare disaster is essentially the same thing that every other developed country in the World has essentially done. "NOT FOR PROFIT, TAX PAYER SUPPORTED, SINGLE PAYER, AUTOMATIC, FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FOR ALL. Essentially HR676 (enhanced, and expanded medicare for all). Just like every other CIVILIZED! country in the developed World has. There is no other way to truly fix and reform our current disastrous healthcare delivery system.

All Universal health care systems work best when everyone participates. But I know that the healthcare lobby, and some politicians will try and undermine "Not For Profit, Tax payer supported, Single payer, Automatic, Free Universal Healthcare for all" by falsely claiming that it will limit your choice, and require you to participate.

So, I propose that everyone be included in the national plan unless they choose to opt out. If you opt out and need medical care the national plan will insure your provider that they will be reimbursed under the rules for members in the national plan. But those who opted out, and their insurer will be responsible for the FULL! cost to the national plan for providing your care if you or your private insurer fails to reimburse the provider or the national plan in a timely manor to at least the standards of the national plan.

Including reporting you to credit agencies, withholding of taxes, leans, and garnishment of wages for unpaid medical bills. Just like you have now under private for profit healthcare, and private for profit health insurance.

Further, people who opted out will be required to provide proof of financial responsibility for future illness or be required to participate in the national plan. And everyone with children will be required to participate in the national plan. Or provide proof of insurance coverage on each child to the standards of the national plan. It will be against the law to report anyone in the national plan to a credit agency for unpaid medical bills.

Frankly, only a dope would want to opt out of the national plan and opt to keep our current disastrous private for profit medical, and insurance plans. But they will be free to choose. The most important thing is that the vast majority of Americans that want the protection, benefits, and higher quality of a universal national plan have that choice.

You see, one of the most important aspects of a universal healthcare system is easy access, and patient protection. This is accomplished by having a single payer without a conflict of interest in patient care. And by having a payer who has the power to enforce minimum standards of excellence in healthcare delivery for everyone in the plan. This is much of what Medicare does now for senors. "Aeger Primo" (The patient first). Unfortunately in our healthcare system the patient comes last. We are just a peace of meat to them. Cash cows to be slaughtered for profit.

So this is IT! my fellow Americans, My fellow human beings, My fellow World Citizens. And my fellow Cyber Warriors. :-) The time has come. D day. H hour. HEALTHCARE REFORM THIS YEAR! Let no one stand in our way. Contact your representative and tell them you want "Not For Profit, Tax Payer Supported, Single Payer, Automatic, Free Universal healthcare for all. And tell them you want that choice now. Tell them you want President Obama's budget passed as is, without delay. President Obama's budget is brilliant. And exactly what is needed now.

President Obama, and his allies will need all the support you can give them. The healthcare lobby will try to take out his people if they can, like they did with Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer. And they will try to neutralize President Obama's popularity, and political power. Or they will try to take him down someway. Don't stand for it. If they attack him. Go after them ten times harder and remove them from office. We had an election. And you the people chose President Obama's leadership, and change agenda. Let no one in government disrespect the will of the American people and remain in office.

To President Obama, his Cabinet, the Congress of the United States, and the Supreme Court. I have noticed for some time a disturbing tendency for key members of your bodies to come down with illness, or medical problems at critical legislative times. This may just be coincidence. But I can tell you that there are a million subtle ways to medically injure someone just by doing nothing when something needs to be done. Or by doing things to someone when nothing needs to be done except to give them reassurance. I know for a fact that there are those that would have no qualms about hurting any of you to preserve our current disgraceful medical status quo.

So, I recommend as a matter of national security that you enlist the help of a friendly power to regularly review, and oversee the medical care you receive from your local regular healthcare providers. Briton, France and many other countries have excellent medical providers. As well as Canada. Briton, and Canada may be less of a language barrier for Americans.

Let's get this healthcare reform done now my fellow Americans. This year. Take no prisoners.

God Bless All Of You


Jack Smith — Working Class :-)

http://jacksmithworkingclass.blogspot.com/
(http://jacksmithworkingclass.blogspot.com/)

Anonymous said...

Uh, you might not want to listen to Jack Smith completely here folks...I live in Canada, home of Universal Healthcare...and believe you me, it ain't all its cracked upto to be..

Well the American system has flaws, so does ours...I think a mixture perhaps of boths systems might be beneficial..

I can tell you this...up here in Canada, you can die waiting for healthcare...

I know in the States, you can go bankrupt if you have no coverage...

So there are definately flaws in both systems..

I know when I needed an MRI for my knee, I had to wait 6 months...which is considered pretty good I'm told..

If you are in pain, it can be really ugly up here...

The Lord has blessed me with pretty good health overall...I would recommend up here with Socialized medicine, that you try and stay healthy..ha ha ha...

And the other ugly reality is, that is is NOT FREE....YOU should see our taxes up here....we pay a lot more then you guys...and that is because of our 'vaunted' healthcare system..

Liberals simply never have a clue...if you want 'free' healthcare like we have, you will pay heavily through greater taxation...

And to make matters worse, then you will have beaurcrats in control of your medical system..

The poster aboves thinks greed doesn't enter into Universal healthcare?? Well he is dreaming...not only do we have greed but we have massively stupid politicians that help run our medical system...shiver....lol...

Both the Canadian and American systems need fixing...but you do not want a drastic solution like ours up here in Canada...

Dev

JMK said...

"Uh, you might not want to listen to Jack Smith completely here folks...I live in Canada, home of Universal Healthcare...and believe you me, it ain't all its cracked upto to be..

"Well the American system has flaws, so does ours...I think a mixture perhaps of boths systems might be beneficial..

"I can tell you this...up here in Canada, you can die waiting for healthcare..." (Devon)
<
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That's the same thing reported in England, Sweden and everywhere they have government-run/universal healthcare - healthcare rationing and severe restrictions on doctor's visits and procedures.

Those are the ONLY ways to alleviate the natural and inevitable "tragedy of the commons" - that is, when ANYTHING is made "free" the demand for it grows exponentially and that demand MUST be reined in or the system will freeze up.

In most places the aged and the poor are the two populations that are restricted from some essential procedures and it makes sense from a "greater good" viewpoint.

After all, how can we justify letting a well-educated, well-off surgeon, attorney, business owners wait for a procedure (risking that person might die in the meantime) behind an eighty y/o woman or a poor, teen who's already had numerous scrapes with the law and has dropped out of school?

In such instances, the "greater good" DEMANDS that we prioritize those most valuable and target the "useless eaters" for rationing and procedural restrictions.

Some form of universal healthcare is probably inevitable in the U.S. as BOTH the government and industry here want it for two very different reasons. Business wants out from under the enormous burden of insuring the vast majority of America's workers, while the governments don't like the UNTAXED COMPENSATION that employer delivered healthcare has become.

Here in the U.S. it will almost certainly come along with aprivate insurance component available to those who CAN and WANT to pay for the privilege of avoiding rationing and procedural restrictions.

BUT, there's no denying from government's standpoint, "universal healthcare" is really all about ridding society of its "useless eaters" - those too old, too slow and too unmanageable to produce effectively.

Constructive Feedback said...

[quote]Hundreds of thousands of you are killed needlessly every year by your healthcare delivery system in a rush to profit. And because of a rush to profit Hundreds of thousands more of you are needlessly dying from treatable illness that people in other developed and civilized countries don't DIE! from. Rich, middle class, and poor alike. Insured, and uninsured. Men, women, children, and babies. [/quote]

Jack Smith:

Where you in that meeting of leftists in Atlanta about 3 weeks ago?

This is the same B.S. that they spouted.

Here is the claim people:

Some how it is the INSURANCE CORPORATIONS that are skimming so much of the cream off of the top of each health care dollar spent that if we simply PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS and allow THE GOVERNMENT TO ACT AS THE SINGLE PAYER TO THE MEDICAL FACILITIES....all would MAGICALLY operate and we would actually SPEND LESS MONEY but OFFER MORE CARE and MORE PEOPLE WHO ARE COVERED.

Now stop right there people. If you believe this then there is nothing more that I can do for you.

We can look at HHS were less than 20% of each dollar allocated to human services ever actually gets to the recipient to realize that THE SAME THING will be the case when the tax payers start funding health care for everyone with the government distributing these services.

I plan to do some research:

1) How much in revenues and profits do health care related insurance companies make? For the left's claims to be substantiated these PROFITS have to exceed $200 billion per year at least lest their numbers don't add up.

What they do is to gather a group of young people in an audience who are looking to participate in their own CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT and then a bunch of washed up old left wing activists seeking to rekindle their spirit that died in the 1960's and tranform HEALTHCARE INTO A CIVIL RIGHT.

Anyone opposed to the hold up and confiscation is seen in the light of Sheriff Bull Conner.

They didn't even like OBAMA'S PLAN because he doesn't ban the insurance companies.

Once again - there are some people that you realize after listening to them that YOU NEVER WANT THEM TO HAVE CONTROL OVER YOUR LIFE AND PROPERTY lest you be screwed and made into a slave.

LISA VAZQUEZ said...

Hello there!

Thanks for sharing about this issue!

We need to be all over it!

Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this CBW, steady on the case as usual!

Anonymous said...

CBW we were posting on each others site at the same time LOL, Your post was stamped at 8:47 and mine at 8:46.

Conservative Black Woman said...

Digitial Publius~lol...what a coincidence. Great post by the way.

Anonymous said...

The failures of nationalized health care are manifold, but basically it crumbles under the nature of supply and demand.

Since we wouldn't pay for it directly, it's like an "all you can eat" buffet. You load up in order to get more than your moneys worth. The problem is that health care cannot readily expand to meet the explosion of demand. You can't push out doctors like pizzas. The increased demand and limited supply forces the provider (government) to ration services. That's why people have to wait months if not years for routine and sometimes emergency services. You don't have access to quality health care. You have access to a waiting list. Since the survival rate of many life threatening diseases is based upon how soon it is diagnosed, it is the equivalent of a death sentence.

The irony is that the same people who insist on privacy and personal choice between an individual and doctor when it comes to killing the unborn want to place government in charge of deciding whether you should live or die (and when the cost of care starts going up, guess which one that will be).

As a longtime government employee, I can assure you that service and quality will be terrible. In government, failure is rarely punished. Only its disclosure. Well, not for everyone. I can tell you that service is one thing if you are politically connected and another if you are not. Any guesses on how well the wealth and vote poor, sick, disfranchised, and weak fare in this system? After all, when government is the only game in town and you are not part of a powerful voting block, what options do you have?

JMK said...

"The failures of nationalized health care are manifold, but basically it crumbles under the nature of supply and demand.

"Since we wouldn't pay for it directly, it's like an "all you can eat" buffet. You load up in order to get more than your moneys worth. The problem is that health care cannot readily expand to meet the explosion of demand. (anonymous)

100% RIGHT! As THAT is exactly what "The Tragedy of the Commons" is - "free stuff" is ALWAYS and inevitably overused.

"Rationing care and restricting procedures are the ONLY ways to alleviate the natural and inevitable "tragedy of the commons" - that is, when ANYTHING is made "free" the demand for it grows exponentially and that demand MUST be reined in or the system will freeze up."

JMK said...

UPDATE: "On Wednesday (March 11, 2009), only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicitly bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

"The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996."

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/co...px? RsrcID=44943

So, I guess Obama SUPPORTED ESC Research openly to court the base, BEFORE voting AGAINST it in private a few days later.

Anonymous said...

Get ready for ObamaCare:

"Gordon Brown has apologized after an investigation showed that the British National Health Service-run Stafford Hospital was so abyssmally bad that patients drank water out of flowerpots and that too many died in squalor or agony as untrained and undermanned staff were forced to meet “targets” instead of providing the care they advertised."

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1162552/Brown-apologises-unacceptable-failings-Stafford-Third-World-hospital.html