Spending for health care

TheMercenary · 02-10-2009, 09:01 PM

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey
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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.)

To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at Betsymross@aol.com

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aLzfDxfbwhzs

02-10-2009, 10:30 PM

Rush Limbaugh has been spreading this nonsense ..its now making its way through the right wing blogs...and Rush is laughing all the way to bank. He is loving this stimulus bill...what a rating maker to keep his minions listening and spreading the bullshit!

The National Coordinator of Health Information Technology is not a "new bureaucracy" ...in fact, it was created by Bush.

IMO, it was one of the good programs he established. Not only to coordinate the transformation of medical records to a more efficient electronic system. But also to coordinate the dissemination of medical information and research to physicians.

Here is what the stimulus bill says:

SEC. 3001. OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.

"(a) Establishment-- There is established within the Department of Health and Human Services an Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (referred to in this section as the 'Office'). The Office shall be headed by a National Coordinator who shall be appointed by the Secretary and shall report directly to the Secretary.

"(b) Purpose-- The National Coordinator shall perform the duties under subsection (c) in a manner consistent with the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the electronic use and exchange of information and that--

"(1) ensures that each patient's health information is secure and protected, in accordance with applicable law;

"(2) improves health care quality, reduces medical errors, reduces health disparities, and advances the delivery of patient-centered medical care;

"(3) reduces health care costs resulting from inefficiency, medical errors, inappropriate care, duplicative care, and incomplete information;

"(4) provides appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care;

"(5) ensures the inclusion of meaningful public input in such development of such infrastructure;

"(6) improves the coordination of care and information among hospitals, laboratories, physician offices, and other entities through an effective infrastructure for the secure and authorized exchange of health care information;

"(7) improves public health activities and facilitates the early identification and rapid response to public health threats and emergencies, including bioterror events and infectious disease outbreaks;

"(8) facilitates health and clinical research and health care quality;

"(9) promotes prevention of chronic diseases;

"(10) promotes a more effective marketplace, greater competition, greater systems analysis, increased consumer choice, and improved outcomes in health care services; and

"(11) improves efforts to reduce health disparities.

I think it will be great that physicians, hospital and labs will have a centralized data base of independent research on medications and medical practices rather than just studies funded by the pharmaceutical and/or insurance industries.

There is absolutely nothing in the current legislation that would expand the mission of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to "monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. " as suggested in the article above.

Nothing more than fear mongering!

TheMercenary · 02-10-2009, 10:54 PM

You obviously don't work in health care.

02-10-2009, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

You obviously don't work in health care.

Nope..but unlike you, I dont suggest that I have any special expertise...which you seem to posses regarding everything that Obama does that you dont like.

I dont see any reason to discuss it with you.

You can believe what you want. I know I wont change your mind.

I'm just not as paranoid as you or believe everything I read from an editorial with an agenda.

Try reading or listening to some objective analyses (and the legislation itself) ..rather than limiting yourself to "reports" from "sources" that tell you what you want to see and hear.

It could be mind expanding

...in a good way!

TheMercenary · 02-10-2009, 11:18 PM

Good points.

I work in health care.

I am not paranoid, I see the changes each and every day.

My objective analyses is my daily work load.

Stop believing that you are the only one in the know, you are not.

02-10-2009, 11:29 PM

If there is anyone mandating medical procedures and protocols, it is the HMOs and the health insurance industry, not the federal government.

02-10-2009, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Stop believing that you are the only one in the know, you are not.

Right back at ya!

TheMercenary · 02-10-2009, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redux

If there is anyone mandating medical procedures and protocols, it is the HMOs and the health insurance industry, not the federal government.

For the first part, correct. For the second part, not yet, but isn't that why the po folk elected him? So where is the free medical care?

Guess what folk, it ain't coming. You have been duped.

TheMercenary · 02-10-2009, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redux

Right back at ya!

Actually you would be quite wrong. I have been in this profession for nearly 30 years.

02-11-2009, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

For the first part, correct. For the second part, not yet, but isn't that why the po folk elected him? So where is the free medical care?

Guess what folk, it ain't coming. You have been duped.

The folk elected him, in part, for his position to implement programs and policies that will provide quality and affordable medical care for all.

There was no promise of free medical care. cite please on the free health care pledge!

I dont see "free medical care" anywhere in his health care agenda.

More right wing bugaboo about "universal health care means that the government will take over your life?"

TheMercenary · 02-11-2009, 12:14 AM

I guess we will see. Ask around that is not the message that the folk got. They want it and they want it now. It is not what we heard, it is what the electorate heard. They did not hear anything other than government sponsorded health care for those without jobs and those without insurance. So, where's the beef?

Dress up the pig however you care.

02-11-2009, 12:19 AM

ahhhhh.....so its not in Obama's health care policy.

Its just something you think the electorate heard?

Guess what..if the electorate heard "government sponsored health care" it was part of the McCain/Palin misinformation campaign....not from Obama.

TheMercenary · 02-11-2009, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redux

Its just something you think the electorate heard?

Wrong again. Nice try at deflection.

Provide universal health care
"I have made a solemn pledge that I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year."—6/23/07, Hartford, Conn.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/campa...ises_obama.htm

You do understand that there is no provision for a credit of $2500 in the latest stimulus plan that would actually keep health care workers employeed if inacted.

"Every American" includes all 16 babies of that mom and Calif but does not include all the illegal aliens that already get free health care while the working poor of legal Americans get squat. You do understand that right?

Where's the beef?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/1..._n_144559.html

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, seeking support from labor union members in New Jersey, vowed Monday to make health insurance available to all Americans by the end of his first term in the White House.

''We can have universal health care by the end of the next president's first term, by the end of my first term,'' Obama said, bringing 600 union workers to their feet during a question-and-answer session with members of AFL-CIO affiliated unions.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/electio...7obama.article

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/71193.php

http://promises.nationaljournal.com/health-care/

02-11-2009, 12:50 AM

Nope....ready his remarks carefully.

Nowhere does he promise "free" health care for all.

His "universal" proposals means quality and affordable for all.

It was, and has always, been the Republicans who intentionally mischaracterize "universal" as meaning "government run and and free"

Quote:

"I have made a solemn pledge that I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year."—6/23/07, Hartford, Conn.

"cut the cost by up to $2500/year"....not free!

Typical average family premiums are currently around $10,000-$12,000/yr and rising every year.

Cutting the cost would be nice. Free was never promised nor is it expected.

TheMercenary · 02-11-2009, 12:52 AM

not what the people heard. I hear it every day!

02-10-2009, 09:01 PM	#1
TheMercenary “Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo” Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Savannah, Georgia Posts: 21,393	Spending for health care Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey Email \| Print \| A A A 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.) To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at Betsymross@aol.com http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aLzfDxfbwhzs __________________ Anyone but the this most fuked up President in History in 2012!

02-10-2009, 10:30 PM	#2
Redux Guest Posts: n/a	Rush Limbaugh has been spreading this nonsense ..its now making its way through the right wing blogs...and Rush is laughing all the way to bank. He is loving this stimulus bill...what a rating maker to keep his minions listening and spreading the bullshit! The National Coordinator of Health Information Technology is not a "new bureaucracy" ...in fact, it was created by Bush. IMO, it was one of the good programs he established. Not only to coordinate the transformation of medical records to a more efficient electronic system. But also to coordinate the dissemination of medical information and research to physicians. Here is what the stimulus bill says: SEC. 3001. OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. "(a) Establishment-- There is established within the Department of Health and Human Services an Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (referred to in this section as the 'Office'). The Office shall be headed by a National Coordinator who shall be appointed by the Secretary and shall report directly to the Secretary. "(b) Purpose-- The National Coordinator shall perform the duties under subsection (c) in a manner consistent with the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the electronic use and exchange of information and that-- "(1) ensures that each patient's health information is secure and protected, in accordance with applicable law; "(2) improves health care quality, reduces medical errors, reduces health disparities, and advances the delivery of patient-centered medical care; "(3) reduces health care costs resulting from inefficiency, medical errors, inappropriate care, duplicative care, and incomplete information; "(4) provides appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care; "(5) ensures the inclusion of meaningful public input in such development of such infrastructure; "(6) improves the coordination of care and information among hospitals, laboratories, physician offices, and other entities through an effective infrastructure for the secure and authorized exchange of health care information; "(7) improves public health activities and facilitates the early identification and rapid response to public health threats and emergencies, including bioterror events and infectious disease outbreaks; "(8) facilitates health and clinical research and health care quality; "(9) promotes prevention of chronic diseases; "(10) promotes a more effective marketplace, greater competition, greater systems analysis, increased consumer choice, and improved outcomes in health care services; and "(11) improves efforts to reduce health disparities. I think it will be great that physicians, hospital and labs will have a centralized data base of independent research on medications and medical practices rather than just studies funded by the pharmaceutical and/or insurance industries. There is absolutely nothing in the current legislation that would expand the mission of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to "monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. " as suggested in the article above. Nothing more than fear mongering! Last edited by Redux; 02-10-2009 at 10:56 PM.

02-10-2009, 10:54 PM	#3
TheMercenary “Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo” Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Savannah, Georgia Posts: 21,393	You obviously don't work in health care. __________________ Anyone but the this most fuked up President in History in 2012!

02-10-2009, 11:18 PM	#5
TheMercenary “Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo” Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Savannah, Georgia Posts: 21,393	Good points. I work in health care. I am not paranoid, I see the changes each and every day. My objective analyses is my daily work load. Stop believing that you are the only one in the know, you are not. __________________ Anyone but the this most fuked up President in History in 2012!

02-11-2009, 12:14 AM	#11
TheMercenary “Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo” Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Savannah, Georgia Posts: 21,393	I guess we will see. Ask around that is not the message that the folk got. They want it and they want it now. It is not what we heard, it is what the electorate heard. They did not hear anything other than government sponsorded health care for those without jobs and those without insurance. So, where's the beef? Dress up the pig however you care. __________________ Anyone but the this most fuked up President in History in 2012!

02-10-2009, 11:29 PM	#6
Redux Guest Posts: n/a	If there is anyone mandating medical procedures and protocols, it is the HMOs and the health insurance industry, not the federal government.

02-11-2009, 12:19 AM	#12
Redux Guest Posts: n/a	ahhhhh.....so its not in Obama's health care policy. Its just something you think the electorate heard? Guess what..if the electorate heard "government sponsored health care" it was part of the McCain/Palin misinformation campaign....not from Obama.

02-11-2009, 12:52 AM	#15
TheMercenary “Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo” Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Savannah, Georgia Posts: 21,393	not what the people heard. I hear it every day! __________________ Anyone but the this most fuked up President in History in 2012!

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