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Special Report
Obamacare Could Kill You
There can be little doubt that Barack Obama's promise to fix the U.S. health care system was an important ingredient in his recent triumph over John McCain. However, while a majority of voters obviously favor some sort of reform, it isn't at all clear that they understand what the President-elect and his health advisors have planned for them. Indeed, a recent Zogby poll suggests that the President-elect's supporters have managed to remain remarkably innocent about his history and proposals. It is probable, therefore, that many people who believe they voted merely for what the Obama-Biden campaign site calls "affordable and accessible" health care will be unpleasantly surprised by the "reform" they are about to get.
A case in point involves a proposal put forth by Obama's "health care czar," Tom Daschle. It is unlikely that many of the President-elect's supporters realize that Tom Daschle advocates the creation of a federal health care bureaucracy whose decrees will supersede the judgment and decisions of physicians and their patients. This "Federal Health Board," as Daschle refers to his proposed behemoth, would be modeled on Great Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). In the UK's socialized medical system, NICE is the bureaucracy responsible for determining the value and effectiveness of medical treatments and procedures. And it regularly hands down death sentences to gravely ill patients.
One of NICE's many victims is Jack Rosser of South Gloucestershire. Rosser has advanced kidney cancer and would likely benefit from Sutent, a drug widely used in the United States for such patients. Rosser's doctor has said that Sutent could well add years to his life. However, as Bloomberg reports, "The U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) says that's not worth the expense." Specifically, a preliminary recommendation by NICE held that Sutent and several other cancer drugs should not be funded "in light of their cost." And local NHS authorities, including those in Gloucestershire, rarely defy the "recommendations" of NICE. So, in the words of Rosser's wife, "They are sentencing him to die.''
Can Daschle really favor such outrages in the United States? Yes he can! In his book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis, Daschle specifically cites NICE as the model for a "successful" government bureaucracy: "In other countries, national health boards have helped to ensure quality and rein in costs.…In Great Britain, for example, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence…is the single entity responsible for providing guidance on the use of new and existing drugs, treatments, and procedures." And, lest you think that he doesn't intend his board to be as powerful as NICE, here is what he says about those who may object to its decrees: "Doctors and patients might resent any encroachment on their ability to choose certain treatments, even if they are expensive or ineffective." Any guesses as to who decides whether care is "ineffective" or too "expensive"?
But surely Congress, even under the control of the Democrats, would never stand for such a thing. Well, the tone of Daschle's initial Senate hearing was not encouraging for those depending on the legislature to check the excesses of the executive branch. Even the New York Times found the hearing to be nauseatingly obsequious: "The hearing before a Senate health committee was mostly a love-fest as senators from both parties expressed admiration for their former Senate colleague…" In fact, part of Daschle's strategy for gaining congressional support for his Federal Health Board is to provide his former colleagues with political cover. As he puts it in his book, "I suspect that most members of Congress would be glad to be rid of their responsibility for controversial health policy decisions."
And, make no mistake about it, these "controversial decisions" will produce corpses. In fact, NICE has moved beyond mere denial of life-saving medication to gravely ill patients. It has also recommended that the NHS abandon the "rule of rescue," which requires clinicians to treat dying patients without regard to cost. The Telegraph reports, "The NHS should not always attempt to save someone's life if the cost is too much, the medical regulator [NICE] has ruled." But how much is "too much"? What's a life worth? You and I might think this question hard if not impossible to answer, but NICE is not encumbered by our limitations. It has actually assigned a monetary value to human life.
The New York Times reports, "A British government agency, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence…has decided that Britain, except in rare cases, can afford only £15,000, or about $22,750, to save six months of a citizen's life." The Times tells the story of Bruce Hardy, yet another patient from whom cancer treatment is being withheld by Britain's health care bureaucrats. To the Gray Lady's credit, the piece points out that it would be different if the patient were an American: "If the Hardys lived in the United States… Mr. Hardy would most likely get the drug, although he might have to pay part of the cost." The U.S. health care system, phony studies about people dying for lack of insurance notwithstanding, does not let people die simply because treatment is expensive.
Barack Obama's health care czar wants to change all that. Tom Daschle wants to get costs under control, and he believes a federal health care agency modeled on NICE will accomplish that goal. And his boss is very much behind him on this. The President-elect has repeatedly said that the idea of a Federal Health Board "holds great promise" for "giving this nation the health care it deserves." But do we really deserve a health care system in which soulless bureaucrats arbitrarily put a dollar value on our lives, in which gravely ill patients are allowed to die because treatment costs too much? Do we really deserve to be treated the way Jack Rosser and Bruce Hardy have been treated? Not even Barack Obama's supporters, for all their naiveté, deserve a health care system that might kill them.
Comments
Leave a Comment
Robert Rosencrans| 1.15.09 @ 7:31AM
It's pathetic, but the majority of Americans don't understand the inherent dangers of the government and bureaucrats controlling the health care system. If you're in the wrong political party or speak out against unfair government policies, it's quite likely you'll find yourself the victim of politically inspired health care. In other words, if you need heart surgery, you'll be given aspirin.
Health care is the ultimate control agent of the state. While liberals defend the alleged civil rights of terrorists, they can't wait to get their hands on your health care and screw you over.
All state provided health care is rationed. The same grade of morons who inhabit bureaucracies across the country will become powerful potentates, literally controlling your destiny by having ultimate control over your health care.
The average citizen expresses frustration at the lack of service provided by most government agencies. Who hasn't spent time at the local DMV dealing with dour sour faced agents of the state, simply to get their tags or driver license renewed?
Another issue that is sure to arise, who is more important? If you have a migraine headache and someone needs heart surgery, who will get the resources?
Will affirmative action apply to health care too?
Yes, there is much to look forward to, and even more to fear.
For instance, it takes 12 years of training to become a doctor and constant training after that. Who will want to enter a field where you will become a quasi government agent, doing the bidding of middle aged government desk clerks who haven't completed any medical training at all, but are simply bean counters?
The takeover of the health care industry will lead to a substandard health care system, plagued by delays, inferior medical care and mismanaged resources.
I'm getting sick just thinking about it.
melvin| 1.15.09 @ 8:11AM
One thing that really sticks in my craw is the fact that so many politicians and bureaucrats cite England, and Europe as the role models for mass transit, social engineering, and socialized health care.
There is irrefutable statistics currently on the books that socialized health care in England and Canada are abyssal failures, and in some cases England is turning of parts of it's health-care system over to private entities.
Bottom line English and Canadian citizens are dieing and suffering horribly from faceless bureaucrats playing God in deciding who lives and who dies.
Dammit, the United States isn't England, or Canada and I'm sick and tired of the likes of career bureaucrats like Tom Daschle touting how wonderful these countries systems are.
England has rampant violent crime, citizens cannot protect themselves because of being de-armed by bureaucrats like Tom Dashcle. Feral street gangs roam English cities like packs of wild animals terrorizing citizens. English men and women are left to die because it isn't worth a English Sovereign to try and safe them with emergency services.
You can make book on this fact. Senators and Congressmen and they're families will not be forced to use the same socialized heath care that they will force on us.
Then again write a letter to old Tommy boy, maybe he'll wave his sceptre and allow you receive the health care that will let you live.
Redheart| 1.15.09 @ 8:21AM
When Mr. Obama says we will be getting the healthcare we deserve, indeed, we will. Just as his supporters will also be getting what they deserve on a multitude of other issues and policy positions, healthcare will be no exception. We aren't to think about 'old sayings' and such anymore; this being the era of change, and all, but one phrase of wisdom that comes to mind that may well rise up and bite alot of naive voters is: "Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it."
Darin| 1.15.09 @ 8:30AM
Before Congress enacts ANY health care reform, all members (and their families) should be required to live under that care for at least one year. Members of Congress (and families) currently get world-class medical care at taxpayer expense. Yet they insist on making the average American accept far less. Most people don't really need world-class care, but under our current system it's available. The new proposals will completely eliminate this (except for Congress).
Brian| 1.15.09 @ 8:41AM
"all members (and their families) should be required to live under that care for at least one year"
Sure - just like Democrats are forced to send their kids to the crappy public schools they say are just swell for OUR little urchins (but not for their precious darlings).
The future of health care is the present for public schools.
Over priced, underperforming, unionized excuse factories. Super.
Don Werenko| 1.15.09 @ 9:28AM
In Luke 11:36 Jesus speaking says: "Woe to you also, law-experts, because you burden the people with burdens that are hard to bear, but you yourselves do not even touch these burdens with one of your fingers".
taxpayer| 1.15.09 @ 9:41AM
If you are dependent on government largesse, you'll take what they give you and be happy about it. If you were to augment Obamacare with your own private catastrophic coverage, you might have more options if you so happen to find yourself (or your kids) in a predicament similar to that of Mr. Bruce Hardy. (Regardless of what Obama does or does not do, you are still responsible for your own well being.)
Mark| 1.15.09 @ 9:48AM
Understand, the far-left has one moral...Equality. That some people die from their healthcare system is acceptable because it is equal risk for all. It is far more offensive to them if the rich can afford treatment, and the poor cannot.
Trotter| 1.15.09 @ 10:11AM
This is truly frightening stuff. Having worked in the UK and Ireland, I can attest to the fact that the citizens over there dread going to any medical facilities.
And, to add to Mark's point, one big reason that health insurance is such a mess (especially in group coverages) is that politicians have forced "equality" to overrule risk management. By not allowing higher premiums that reflect poor personal habits (except belatedly and minimally smoking), the politicians have essentially taken risk mitigation out of health insurance. God forbid we charge the obese higher premiums to reflect the damage their habits are doing to their health; never mind that the vast majority of the health care expenditures in the US are to overcome self-inflicted health problems.
Dustoff| 1.15.09 @ 10:27AM
I'll go for gov health care (ONLY) if I can get the same care as Congress and the Prez gets!
Bet that won't happen.
Appleby| 1.15.09 @ 10:51AM
I am an American living in Kanukistan (that's Canada to you). And I would like to point out that if Obamacare is enacted, not only millions of Americans but hundreds of thousands of Canadians will die -- because America is the only thing saving the Canadian health care system from having collapsed like wet cardboard a generation ago. In Canada we are forbidden by law to buy our own health insurance -- because at the heart of socialism is the deep, abiding hatred of anybody who has five cents more than you have. The residents of Canada are, it seems, happy to have their parents and children die on a waiting list provided -- they think -- they can be sure that Rich People die five minutes before their loved one does. The problem being that Rich People have options and they don't use Socialist Medicare...or they are booted to the head of the line in the best care available.
I have a friend whose Auntie was deemed to old to benefit from treatment and sentenced by OHIP to die. My friend and his wife moved Auntie to an assisted living facility in Connecticut where she lived comfortably for ten years and died with her family around her. Should Obamacare pass, your Auntie won't have that option. Your Auntie will die.
It is also interesting to note that about 60 Canadian babies a year are born in the USA because there is no neonatal intensive care bed IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY OF CANADA and they have to be flown by helicopter to a small town on the other side of the border in order that their lives may be saved.
Under Obamacare, your baby will die. Unless you are wealthy like King O.
GovernmentDoc| 1.15.09 @ 12:08PM
Being a government/military doctor, I can tell you that your fears are well founded. I owe time for getting my medical school paid for - I made a deal with the devil.
Right now, military medicine is being bailed out by the private sector because the military cannot fulfill its promises to take care of dependents and retirees. We send a large part of our patient population downtown to get care because there is no space/expertise/equipment available. What happens when there is no option to send patients downtown because private medicine has been destroyed?
Waiting lines, poor service, underqualified 'providers' (i.e. non physicians), and generalized sub-standard care are the norm in the military. The military medical bureaucrats are not only idiots, they are unaccountable for their actions/decisions - that's a BAD combination.
I live in this system everyday and see the harm imposed on our unsuspecting patients by unaccountable bureaucrats. The military comes up with own 'standards' that are less stringent than the civilian world and results in substandard care.
Get ready, all of you will soon find out.
Stan Redmond| 1.15.09 @ 12:32PM
YEAH, but it's free. And everyone will have access to healthcare, when the government says you can. And when you're told you have no hope and you should die you'll die knowing it's for the good of the democrat run healthcare plan and you are saving money for the state. And with a name like "The Ted Kennedy Health Care Reform and Water Safety Act of 2009" you know it's gotta be good.
Stan Redmond| 1.15.09 @ 12:34PM
In reply to GovernmentDOC:
As a small example of my military friends. One friend had the wrong tooth removed by an Army dentist and another friend FINALLY had a bullet wound properly repaired 15 years after leaving the service by a private doctor when he was fully 'entitled' to V.A. care.
macdaddy| 1.15.09 @ 12:44PM
You guys haven't been reading the papers very closely. Apparently there are trillions of dollars readily available and at no cost to us! Obamacare will be the best care around and with no expense spared. Those Brits and Canadians are chumps for not realizing the government can just create more money to spend on better healthcare.
And Melvin, look at the bright side. If we follow the UK into the abyss, think of all the great Chuck Bronson movies that will be made!
Spartuchis| 1.15.09 @ 12:55PM
In essence, the Daschle plan and the UK's NICE system can be whittled down to one concept: rationing. WHen there isn't enough of something for everyone to have as much of as they want, that's what happens.
I don't see how rationing in some form can be avoided, regardless of the ideology involved. The essential problem is this: too many people are living too long in a state of poor health due to the miracles of health care technology, which in turn raises the cost of that technology to the point where too many people can't access it. No one is allowed to die in peace and nature is no longer allowed to take her course. And say what you will about freedom to choose, too many of us eat too many of the wrong things and don't exercise, which swells the client base for those same increasingly unaffordable technologies.
Ty Knoy| 1.15.09 @ 1:58PM
As Canadians say (about their national health care), "It's great as long as you don't get sick."
Bryan St. James| 1.15.09 @ 2:52PM
It's interesting in 15+ commments, they virtually all recognize the fundamental flaws in the idea/system that someone else will/can effectively pay for your healthcare and that government will/could somehow effectively manage it.
Socialized healthcare will lead to one of the biggest deaths of American individual liberty since the founding of our nation.
Tell all your neighbors, friends, and colleagues what they will get:
1. Complete loss of control over your healthcare choices and ultimately, your life. If you get too old, terminally sick, or too expensive, a faceless bureaucrat, not you, will decide whether you get treatment and when.
2. Higher taxes. Taxes will keep rising (it's not 'free' unless you are uneducated or a politician!) because the service becomes a 'right' and demand will continue to outstrip funding.
3. Lack of access and rationing. Be prepared for weeks or months-long waiting lists. Be prepared that you may die before you get to the front of the line, comrade.
4. Declining care, equipment, and drugs. Take away the free-market incentive to (expensively and riskily) innovate new medical break throughs for monetary return and watch our cutting edge clinics decline and drug companies fold up or move into other areas.
Read about my recent experience and comparison of having lived in both socialized and private healthcare : "A Tale of Two Types of Healthcare"
http://pracphilosblog.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/a-tale-of-two-types-of-health-care/
ThinkTank| 1.15.09 @ 4:16PM
To paraphrase Ty Knoy above:
As AMERICANS say (about their health care), "It's great as long as I can afford insurance - otherwise, I'm screwed."
You all obviously have insurance. For those without - and facing financial ruin - your high-minded ideologies are cold comfort.
Solomon Disraeli| 1.15.09 @ 6:08PM
They should call it "Currencycare" or "Dollarcare" or "Moneycare" because it seems that's all they care about.
Thom| 1.15.09 @ 7:06PM
My life time health care cost in 2009 dollars would be about $10-12,000. My last trip to the hospital cost $3600.00 in 1999 dollars for about 4 hours there. I had to go through the same surgery twice so the expected cost was less than $2000.00 but it didn’t work out that way. Even if you double my life time cost (56 years now) that works out to be less than $500.00 a year actual healthcare cost. My annual insurance cost is about $3000.00 of which my employer pays two thirds or three quarters of. In 2009 dollars, about a $170,000 dollars has already been paid for my coverage alone so far. Because most people’s healthcare cost are effectively hidden through employer/employee co-pays that put the bulk on the employer’s balance sheet and the bulk of an individual’s healthcare cost come at the end of their lives not during it, the root problem is consumer detachment from the real cost of their care.
People bitch all the time about their portion of the premium cost which is typically like my proportion and then go out and get elective treatments for this and that costing several years worth of what they actually pay. Add to this the global nature of State mandates regarding what procedures must be covered and it is next to impossible to actually make any personal decisions to save yourself any cost. Why do I need to pay for women’s specific medial treatments? Short of being able to self insure or opt out of coverage which amounts to the same thing, the overwhelming majority of Americans that actually pay some of their healthcare cost are trapped in a skewed subsidy system that rewards the lowest common denominator in society at the expense of those that treat their health as a precious gift and take care if it vs. demanding the Medical system fix everything wrong with them at essentially no cost. It is the same problem all our government run social programs have except this one is just government regulated to the hilt (currently). I worked in a Health Care system for 22 months and it was the most anal retentive environment to work I’ve ever seen. Most people have no idea what the true cost of “defensive” medicine is. 80% of the Hospitals income came from Medicare/Medicaid patients and the Hospital lost money on all of that. It made a profit off of private care and Doctor’s offices. Socialized medicine will take that to a new level and make some of the movies about horrible medical care facilities look pretty good by comparison. The more free market injected in this government regulated sector the better; the less the worse. There are no market forces on the current system, just regulations that create enormous fixed cost per patient.
Solomon Disraeli| 1.15.09 @ 8:02PM
"There are no market forces on the current system, just regulations that create enormous fixed cost per patient."
They did that on purpose so that one day they could get on TV and claim that the system is flawed. They did it so they would have an excuse to "take it over." I won't go as far as to paraphrase Hillary by citing the presence of a "vast Left-Wing conspiracy" but I'm pretty sure this all started a long time ago. They just had to wait for the pressure to build up in the masses, to the point where the majority of voters would be so outraged they would elect anyone who babbled convincingly enough about fixing it.
Hence, "King O"
Thom| 1.15.09 @ 8:22PM
Solomon Disraeli,
Kind of. All forms of Tyranny, including the soft Liberalism kind want control over as many people as possible. That’s how you get power and the ability to feed a guilt trip…. I don’t get hung up on the labels people place upon one political view or the other but simply look at how the supporters of what are clearly continuous failures of various social programs to do anything other than subsidize the problems they were suppose to fix continue to justify failure. You know you have a true hardcore believer in government control when they start saying the “xxx system” needs to be “saved”. We’ve been saving Social Security since day one. No actuarial math in the world would support the claims made about it and the projected max tax rate. Same for Medicare and Medicaid. Do one generation to the next of Liberals plan on this kind of mess, probably not. Someone that cunning could figure out how to make something work at least once. That never happens because Liberals true to form can’t bring themselves to not pander to the lowest common denominator in society in return for power and all that comes from that. People can be turned into Pets with little effort at times. People will die under Universal Health care due to all the reasons listed by others and Liberals will still not face the truth of their obsessions with rampant egalitarianism and how incompatible that is with the human spirit. It only works in the insect world and in academics minds.
charliebravo| 1.15.09 @ 8:51PM
I hate to defend Obama here but this article is a stretch. To say that Obama is going to sit down and let Daschle be the final voice on Healthcare when Obama himself promised the same plan as members of Congress have. I remember 1994 and all that went around before hillarycare died a painful death. In 1994 they were several proposals, there was talk of compromise and the Clinton's would have none of it and Hillarycare was filibustered to death by Phil Graham and his allies. I can't tell what will happen, but neither can the author of this article. Why can't this wait until some real proposals are out there to chew up.
Solomon Disraeli| 1.15.09 @ 9:00PM
Thom:
Excellent point about the "cunning." But what one generation starts the next builds upon, and this is merely the next step. Like you said, we've been saving Social Security from day one, the problem is that the wrong people have gotten their way these past couple of generations, the ones who can't face the consequences because they're too hung up on the original intentions. "I did good, didn't I?" or "We did good, didn't we?"
That's why we fight. We have to stand up and finally keep them from getting their way.
But you're also right to say we don't need to be hung up on labels. The numbers are all there and they speak the truth about these programs. The consequences are in those numbers, only with this new step forward we're about to take, the consequences will finally have a human face.
So to your comments I say, Amen.
Alan Brooks| 1.15.09 @ 9:54PM
social progress is over. now its scientific 'progress' only.
"hush little progress don't you cry, mama's gonna buy you a pumpkin pie"
Lisa| 1.18.09 @ 10:17PM
This quite scary we have best health care in the world and they want to ruin it. Lord help us!!
Tailgunner| 1.18.09 @ 10:26PM
Liberals have stood by for decades and watched their decisions, laws and policies KILL good people.
Why should Daschle be any different? He'd gladly emulate the ENTIRE NHS system if he could.
Never mind that NHS officials recommend refusing ANY care to those living what THEY label 'unhealthy' lifestyles (smoking, overweight, etc.).
Never mind that Britons must travel overseas to get proper and timely medical treatment (it's called 'medical tourism') in order to survive while NHS decisions and waiting lists kill many others.
Never mind that many Britons pull their own teeth rather than go to overburdened NHS dentists.
Stalin watched his edicts kill scores of millions and considered it worth the cost of social progress. Mao watched as HIS dictates killed HUNDREDS of millions and never blinked an eye.
Liberal socialists in the US are only different in degree.
So far.
Tailgunner
Pingback| 1.26.09 @ 3:16AM
Let’s hope Obama-care doesn’t treat us “NICEly” | Independenc links to this page.
Pingback| 2.3.09 @ 8:52PM
Health Care BS - GOOD NEWS FOR U.S. HEALTH CARE: DASCHLE’S DONE links to this page.
Judah| 3.23.09 @ 8:34PM
You guys are hysterical.
"Obamacare could kill Americans". You know what? Our current system is killing Americans right now!
I have friends in Canada and the UK as well. You know what? Their system isn't perfect, but ask any of them if they would trade in that system for what we have in America , and they will laugh in your face.
My best friend pays $11k per year to "cover" himself, his wife and two kids. His older son has autism and something called "leaky gut syndrome". This poor kid, 4 y/o, is allergic to everything yet could still lead a normal life with proper treatment and medication.
Guess how much his "health care provider" is kicking in for this treatment?
NOTHING! NADA! NOT ONE CENT!
But let's wave the flag and say how wonderful our system is. I don't think so. $11k per year so that the "provider" can tell you NO.
Someone explain how this is a great system. Anyone who keeps defending it most likely has shares in this disgrace known as the American health insurance companies.
Our system is anti-business, anti-American, and completely immoral.
I will pray every day that we finally get something resembling Universal Health Care, or Single Payer; and that the hypocrisy ends when it comes to saving lives.
Ghost Man| 5.13.09 @ 9:29AM
Wait, Obama is the Messiah remember? He is going to save us all through health care, education, social security and more unconstitutionally government run programs.
.......
What an idiot
Pingback| 6.5.09 @ 6:49AM
Be Very Afraid « The Reluctant Optimist links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 6.13.09 @ 3:19AM
Do We Know What Obama’s Health Plan Is? | EMR (EHR) and HIPAA links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 7.15.09 @ 4:14PM
SWGA Politics » Blog Archive » Healthcare Town Hall in Leesburg on Thursday links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Anonymous| 7.17.09 @ 1:06PM
Judah:
Sounds like your friend might want to, you know, TRY A DIFFERENT COMPANY. That is what is nice about PRIVATE HEALTHCARE, you have OPTIONS. Under Obamacare, you've got ONE option -- public healthcare run by a "NICE" clone; do you think that the government officials are going to look at an autistic individual and say "poor kid, yes let's spend $X to make his life a little better"? Don't count on it. Already the system that they look to for a "model" is considering letting you DIE if your treatment would cost more than $23k per 6 months. No healthcare system is perfect, but having private companies compete to be the BEST for YOU far far far outclasses any system where an impartial government official determines what you CAN and CAN'T get.
Oh, and did you think that with Obamacare you can "have your options too" if you don't like his? Sorry, wrong again. Too bad the Healthcare Bill, on page 16 (of 1012 pages, each valued at $1billion +) makes it ILLEGAL for you to start a new plan after their bill takes effect... meaning if your coverage changes for any reason, and causes the coverage start date to be changed to a date after their policy becomes law, you are SOL. Oh, and to top it off, do you think your company is going to keep you on your current plan if the public option saves them 40% on their healtcare costs? Don't think so... and do you know what that means? That means your coverage will change, and it will be impossible for you to get it back... unless you go to Israel or some other country where they haven't yet destroyed their healtchare...
Yes. Let people die because it's cost prohibitive, and OUR system is immoral... hypocrisy at its finest.
Robert| 7.18.09 @ 10:54AM
Tom Daschile is a disgraced tax cheat and has no business participating in any forum, I would like to know what gives him the right to play god and who will make the decision to give mr daschile or his family the right to have a treatment that could save their life.
Pingback| 7.18.09 @ 11:03PM
Health Care BS - OBAMACARE COULD KILL YOU links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Deborah| 7.23.09 @ 10:33AM
Last night in the press conference, Obummer did not answer the question of "Would you and members of Congress be required to use the national health plan?"
I have health coverage through my retirement plan, but hear that at 65 you will be required to go on the national plan. Also that if you are on social security and 65 you will be "counseled" by some government beaucrat on how to die "with dignity".
They do say that they will be nice enough to give you "pain killers". This really is like killing two birds with one stone, they won't have to pay your social security or medical expenses. I am sure they are very motivated to ration care for us older Americans it will make their bottom line look good.
I am afraid of Barry and his administration because for 6 months they has straight out lied to us.
I am relieved and happy to see that the American people are finally starting to wake up (Obummer's ratings are plummeting). These elites do not care about us, or I take that back they do care about our tax dollars. I feel that I am being robbed and then left in the gutter to die.
We need to have health care reform but not what Ted and Barry propose.
Pingback| 7.25.09 @ 2:46PM
The Truth About Government-run Health Care :: Michael Island links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
lynnlyn| 7.27.09 @ 6:01PM
This is horribly frightening. I work with aspects of Canadian and European healthcare on a daily basis. Our families will not only be denied adequate health treatments, but in many cases allowed to die with no recourse. Why aren't all the politicians required to have this same plan??
Shelby| 8.2.09 @ 8:33AM
Sounds like the ultimate HMO... While we are dying we are waiting on an approval from someone more interested in profit and Federal control... The ignorance of the average American is what makes us so vulnerable... That is Obama's strategy... Keep the facts to a minimum, misdirect, and deceive an entire nation... As a Nation we need to come together in Prayer and Action against such tyranny...
Lucky Rucker| 8.6.09 @ 3:27PM
Overview
Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries. This report—an update to two earlier editions—includes data from surveys of patients, as well as information from primary care physicians about their medical practices and views of their countries' health systems. Compared with five other nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom—the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. The U.S. is the only country in the study without universal health insurance coverage, partly accounting for its poor performance on access, equity, and health outcomes. The inclusion of physician survey data also shows the U.S. lagging in adoption of information technology and use of nurses to improve care coordination for the chronically ill.
Pingback| 8.8.09 @ 8:58PM
Health Care BS - NHS FUNDS FAT FARMS BUT DENIES DRUGS TO CANCER PATIENTS links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 8.10.09 @ 12:22PM
Chuck’s Blog » Obama’s Healthcare Express links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 8.10.09 @ 6:52PM
The Coffee Shop » Obama’s Healthcare Express links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
mark in boston| 8.13.09 @ 2:31PM
Your article repeats lies I see elsewhere, condemning health insurance reform without proof.
Regarding the $22,750 number, The Guardian (UK) posted online that a US ad, "voiceover says: "In England, government health officials have decided that's how much six months of life is worth. If a medical treatment costs more, you're out of luck."
The number is based on a ratio of £30,000 a year used by Nice in its assessment of whether drugs provide value for money. Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) said this was one of many variables in determining cost-effectiveness of medicines. He said of his body's portrayal in the US: "It's very disappointing and it's not, obviously, the way in which Nice describes itself or the way in which we're perceived in the UK even among those who are disappointed or upset by our decisions."
So - that's bull. Please check your facts before you decide to distort them - then post whatever ya want - it's a free society and ignorance is not illegal!
Regarding the unfortunate Jack Rosser, a US hedge fund manager came forward to help Jack Rosser.
Per the BBC: Kate Spall, from the Pamela Northcott fund, said if it could be proved that the drug helped Mr Prosser it would boost his case for it to be prescribed on the NHS.
This does NOT differ from private USA health insurance companies that deny experimental or unproven treatments to their enrollees, even if the patient is dying and willing to be a guinea pig for a treatment that has not gone thru full clinical trials, or is otherwise not fully proven for treatment.
No system is perfect, but we are the laughing stock of the industrial world. Help work out the needed changes, or shut up and get out of the way. Please.
Wow| 8.19.09 @ 12:27PM
I'd almost given up all hope on Americans until I read "mark in boston"'s post. At least not ALL Americans are greedy, ignorant bastards.
Bluemilque| 8.27.09 @ 3:09PM
Watch this interview:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/jour.....watch.html
FACT: Health Insurance companies are FOR PROFIT. They have no business in making money off of sick people. It is sickening, immoral and disturbing.
Pingback| 8.30.09 @ 3:08PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Obamacare Could Kill You [spectator. links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Alexandra| 9.2.09 @ 2:44PM
What no one wants to address here is personal responsibility. If people would educate themselves and take better care of themselves accordingly, this wouldn't even be so much of an issue. We have people eating junk, then whining that they can't afford the medication to address the symptoms--instead of taking care of the cause.
I also notice it's been in recent years that you see all those drug commercials on TV. You know someone's making money.
This is why I make sure my son has healthy things to eat. Diabetes runs in my family and my husband's family big-time, and as the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
David Dornbusch| 9.5.09 @ 6:50AM
Fear of ObamaCare is far from irrational. In 1776 fear was a major factor leading to the formation of this country because when the colonists looked around the world they saw what happened to personal liberty when it was not staunchly defended. When we look around today we see our governments’ capabilities in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression while Social Security and Medicare head for bankruptcy. ObamaCare is a hodgepodge that gets the government into our medical decisions without the protections that are needed to guarantee our personal medical freedom. If that doesn’t scare you, you’re not being rational. The starting point for real health care reform must be a comprehensive patient’s bill of rights that guarantees the personal medial freedom of each individual.
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