Money and Politics

NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) is the target of frequent protests and lawsuits, and at times under political pressure has reversed or watered-down its rulings. But it has by now established the principle that the only way to control health-care costs is for this panel of medical high priests to dictate limits on certain kinds of care to certain classes of patients.

The Administration’s new Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research currently lacks the authority of NICE. But over time, if the Obama plan passes and taxpayer costs inevitably soar, it could quickly gain it.

via Of NICE and Men – WSJ.com.

Several common sense reforms would “bend the curve” without backdoor rationing. But Washington continues to ignore these ideas. These solutions include:

• End abusive medical litigation by passing patient-centered tort reform.
• Let businesses purchase insurance across state lines.
• Give younger, healthier Americans tax incentives to purchase low cost/high deductible plans and let them put pre-tax dollars into a healthcare savings accounts.

via » Medicare Is Already Rationing Care – Big Government.

When people don’t spend their own money, they don’t care what health care costs.

via The Singapore Alternative « John Stossel.

Grabbed this from Big Hollywood Andrew Breitbart’s blog : (link)

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/08/17/time-to-fight-the-power/

Here are some basic principles that you should demand that any health care reform plan incorporate:

1. Health care is not a right. You are not entitled to someone else handing it to you for free any more than you are entitled to free Special K, a free condo in Maui or a free Nintendo Wii.

2. Everyone is responsible for obtaining and paying for his own and his family’s health care. But isn’t it true that some folks just don’t have the money? Well, here’s a powerful wealth-building strategy that I’ll let the freeloaders out there in on for nothing: Get a job. Then you can buy your own damn health insurance. I work three jobs and I’m getting a masters degree. I’m not loving the idea of paying your freight too, so roll off the couch, do a push-up, and start eyeballing the Craigslist want ads.

3. I actually sort of respect illegal aliens – anyone who will swim a river, cross a desert and dodge cops to work for minimum wage cooking me Big Macs is the kind of guy I want in America. But that doesn’t mean I want to pick up the tab when one gets a rash. Go home, get in line, then welcome back when your turn comes.

4. The government is so wrapped up in health care that right now you effectively have no choices.  I know this because I pay for my employees’ health care and I have a wide variety of one choice at one price among two companies. Thanks for “helping” me choose by eliminating all choice, California.

5. As a lawyer, let me draw the fire of my peers. The malpractice system is nearly as big a scam as global warming – the only difference is a few people actually believe in global warming. Everyone in the legal field knows that the malpractice system is a racket.

6. The government must have nothing to do with providing health care. Nada. Zero. Zip. There’s no need to extend its unbroken track record of failure right into my doctor’s office. Time to get yourself pumped up and ready – and to give me something to talk about that tangentially relates to pop culture.

A Down Payment on Nationalization

• Trillion Dollars Down: In less than two months, the President has already budgeted nearly $1 TRILLION on his health care proposals—SCHIP, the stimulus, and now the budget.
• A Bottomless Well: President Obama’s FY 10 budget proposal offers a $634 billion “down payment” on health care reform. The only truth to this number is that it will continue to grow, and they openly admit it in the President’s budget proposal: “The budget calls for an effort beyond this down payment, to put the nation on a path to health insurance coverage for all Americans. However, additional funding will be needed.”
• Squeezing Water from a Stone: The President’s budget depends on typical liberal tax hikes while rearranging the deck chairs for Medicare and Medicaid to produce “savings.”  There is only so much you can tax or squeeze before you hit rock bottom.

Fast-Tracking a Flawed Process

• Taking Your Own Pulse: A bipartisan health care summit may be nice window dressing, but the test of real bipartisanship is found in policy, not in photo ops. So far on health care, the President’s promise for bipartisanship is more hope than change. Since January, President Obama has signed into law over $200 billion spending to advance his health care agenda—$136 billion alone on in the stimulus—with little, if any, notion of bipartisanship.
• Consolidated Power: To achieve his goals, President Obama’s health plan will need to depend on a massive top-down infrastructure to control health care dollars and decisions. Instead of empowering patients and doctors, Washington will be in charge.
• Loss of Private Coverage: At a time when Americans are worried about losing their health care, the promise of a new government health plan will only undermine the private health insurance that million of Americans depend on today. Not only do government programs cost more than they project, but they also promise more than they deliver.

Real Health Care Solutions for America

• Consumer Choice: Give Americans the consumer-choice system available to Members of Congress as a true model, not as a façade for government-run health care.
• Take Bold Steps, Give States the Power: Allow states to experiment with better ways of reaching the nation’s health coverage goals rather than imposing a national plan on states and families.
• Be Bipartisan: In such areas as the tax treatment of health care, federal-state cooperation, and other critical pieces of health reform, there are thoughtful and well-developed approaches. Build on these important developments; do not ignore them.

Government Power and Control: The One Trillion Dollar Takeover of Health Care » The Foundry