Health care rationing is when the government decides who is worthy of health care and at what level. For instance, if you need surgery the government will look at your age, weight, sex and "life expectancy" to determine if you qualify. Keep in mind, however, the government is NOT going to say that outright. As most politicians do, they will word it in a way that looks good or make the wording so complex that it is not easily understood. Well, I have the section of the health care bill that directly addresses health care rationing (of course that isn't the word they use).
First I want to address the man behind the bill. Obama has spoken about health rationing. He even used his own grandmother as an example in an interview with Hans Nichols in Washington:(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aGrKbfWkzTqc)
President Barack Obama said his grandmother’s hip-replacement surgery during the final weeks of her life made him wonder whether expensive procedures for the terminally ill reflect a “sustainable model” for health care.
(a "sustainable model" for health care...so in other words treating the elderly or very ill is not necessary? Therefore, it will be determined whether some one gets medical care based on their age and there diagnosis? That's rationing care!)
“I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost,” Obama said in the interview. “I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother.”
(He is concerned about the cost but somehow was unable to find out the actual cost of the surgery even though he was an attorney, supposedly a smart guy? Secondly, he WOULD have paid...ummm he was a millionaire at the time, if he was honestly concerned why didn't he pay for it?")
Obama said “you just get into some very difficult moral issues” when considering whether “to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill.
(It is a difficult moral issue so why not let the government decide for us because we are just to close and love our parents and grandparents to much to be able to make the appropriate decision...WOW!)
“What I’ve been constantly searching for is a ruthless pragmatism when it comes to economic policy,” he said, in the interview.
(Ruthless Pragmatism??? I would say deciding who qualifies for health care or certain treatments sustaining life is quite ruthless AND pragmatic!)
Now here is the section of the health care bill that speaks directly to health care rationing. Keep in mind it is not made very clear. Obviously being vague works in the benefit of the government leaving them all the space they need to make decisions based on who gets what and when:
SEC. 122. ESSENTIAL BENEFITS PACKAGE DEFINED.
3 (2) ANNUAL LIMITATION.—
(A) ANNUAL LIMITATION.—The cost-sharing incurred under the essential benefits pack age with respect to an individual (or family) for a year does not exceed the applicable level specified in subparagraph (B).
9 (B) APPLICABLE LEVEL.—The applicable level specified in this subparagraph for Y1 is $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a family. Such levels shall be increased (rounded to the nearest $100) for each subsequent year by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (United States city average) applicable to such year.
(What they mean: Each family regardless of size will get yearly MAXIMUM annual dollar limitations. Once met, it isn't clear, but it appears you will not receive any further care until the following year. Granted, insurance companies have annual max or lifetime max dollar limitations but those caps are much higher then what the government is offering. $5,000/person or $10,000/family is not enough, especially for a large family or for a family who has just one very ill family member, although that family member probably won't qualify for health care treatments anyhow)
SEC. 123. HEALTH BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
12 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—
13 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is established a private-public advisory committee which shall be a
panel of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced, and premium plans.
(What they mean: an advisory board will determine what benefits you can have. You do NOT get to choose what benefits you want. Granted, your employer does this when offering you benefits but you can push for changes and exceptions as well as refute any denials of care based on your specific needs thus affecting changes to your benefit plan. With the government plan you can not do that. You will be assigned benefits based on what this panel thinks you need.)
19 (2) CHAIR.—The Surgeon General shall be a member and the chair of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee.
22 (3) MEMBERSHIP.—The Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall be composed of the following members, in addition to the Surgeon General:
1 (A) 9 members who are not Federal employees or officers and who are appointed by the President.
(What they mean: The president will be in charge of appointing 9 members of this committee which chooses your benefit coverage. Not random health care/health insurance professionals...no, people the President deems appropriate.)
4 (B) 9 members who are not Federal employees or officers and who are appointed by the Comptroller General of the United States in a manner similar to the manner in which the Comptroller General appoints members to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission under section 1805(c) of the Social Security Act.
(What they mean: The Comptroller General is appointed for a fifteen-year term by the President of the United States. He/She is a government official (head of GAO) whose main function is to audit governmental agencies. He/She is a United States federal official who supervises expenditures and settles claims against the government. This person who works directly under the supervision of the President is to assign the additional 9 members of this panel to decide your insurance benefits. Key words: appointed by the President, directly monitored by the President, influenced by the President)
11 (C) Such even number of members (not to exceed 8) who are Federal employees and officers, as the President may appoint. Such initial appointments shall be made not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
17 (4) TERMS.—Each member of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall serve a 3-year term on the Committee, except that the terms of the initial members shall be adjusted in order to provide for a staggered term of appointment for all such members.
(Remember, these are people appointed by the President not by us!)
23 (5) PARTICIPATION.—The membership of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall at least reflect providers, consumer representatives, employers, labor, health insurance issuers, experts in health care financing and delivery, experts in racial and ethnic disparities, experts in care for those with disabilities, representatives of relevant governmental agencies. and at least one practicing physician or other health professional and an expert on children’s health and shall represent a balance among various sectors of the health care system so that no single
9 sector unduly influences the recommendations of such Committee.
(What they mean: All the people of the committee WHO ARE APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT will determine what health care you deserve based on RACE, age, sex, disability etc...other people who could care less about what you want will decide for you.)
11 (b) DUTIES.—
12 (1) RECOMMENDATIONS ON BENEFIT STANDARDS.—The Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall recommend to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this subtitle referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) benefit standards (as defined in paragraph (4)), and periodic updates to such standards.
(What they mean: The Committee will then tell the Secretary of Health and Human Services what you can or can't have. Keep in mind YOU are not involved in this decision making!)
18 In developing such recommendations, the Committee shall take into account innovation in health care and consider how such standards could reduce health disparities.
(What they mean: They will determine what advances in health care are necessary and that you can have access too.)
22 (2) DEADLINE.—The Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall recommend initial benefit standards to the Secretary not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(What they mean: Are you wondering how they can institute a government plan but not have what health care we can have access too for one year. That is because they want it to start in 2010, meaning you and I start paying for it then, but they won't institute it and make it available until 2013! So, for three years you will pay for government health care while you are still paying for the private insurance you have now or continue to have no health care benefits
, even though you are paying for it until the 3 years is up.)
1 (3) PUBLIC INPUT.—The Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall allow for public input as a part of developing recommendations under this subsection.
(What they mean: Did you notice the length of this section? How kind of them to "allow" our input!)
Now, lets address the "advisers" Obama has chosen to "advise" him on health care and see what they have to say:
Ezekial Emanual (Rahm Emanuel's brother) is a physician and a TOP advisor to Obama:
"When implemented. The complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated. The complete lives system justifies preference to younger people because of priority to the worst-off rather then instrumental value."
(What they mean: Attenuated is to lessen the amount, force, magnitude or value of. So, he is saying the very young (pre-term babies, infants and toddlers) and the very old (yes, grammy and grampy!) have less value then the 15-40yo age group and thus have an attenuated (or lessened chance) of receiving needed medical care.)
Ezekial Emaual is also very outspoken in his belief that doctors are effectively community property whose decisions should not center exclusively on the best interests of the patient, but should also consider whether resources should be withheld from a given patient in order to be better spent on others.
Obama's Science Czar is John Holdren who penned a book “that approved of and recommended compulsory sterilization and even abortion in some cases, as part of a government population control regime.”
(What they mean: Forced abortions and sterilization to control population! Enough said? Don't believe me, check out excerpts from his book "Ecoscience")
Obama giggles at the accusations that the government will ration health care and kill "grammy and grampy" but there is nothing funny about it! Obama even said that if we want to know what he is doing or planning to simply look at the people he surrounds himself with. (Ezekia Emmanual, John Holdren, etc). I don't like what I am seeing!
He is trying to lie to us by assurance only. He can not recite any section of this bill to back up his "assurances". I think you and I all know that assurances alone are not enough...we want proof! They don't have it. That is why they are trying to make us all out to be crazies at the TH meetings in order to take the focus off of them.
Do not play their game. Instead, stay the course and stand for what is right and just. Keep yourself educated and informed. DO NOT RELY ON THE MAINSCHEME MEDIA! If we all do this there is NO way we can go wrong!
Remember, Hitler was likable and promised things that sounded wonderful and look what he ended up becoming. No one thought he would be capable of the atrocities he incited. Lets learn from history!!!!
Quote to ponder: It was former President Gerald Ford who once cautioned, in an uncharacteristic display of sagacity, that “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment