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.

On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes–government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong, and that’s why they’ve proposed a plan that strengthens employer coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.

–Barack Obama, “Plan for a Healthy America: Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Plan” from barackobama.com

If you already have insurance, the only thing that will change under my plan is that we will lower premiums. If you don’t have health insurance, you’ll be able to get the same kind of health insurance Members of Congress get for themselves.

–Barack Obama, “Closing Argument” speech, Canton, Ohio, October 26, 2008

President-elect Obama, during the campaign you pledged to build a health care system in which Americans can be assured of access to affordable health insurance. You guaranteed Americans who already have insurance that nothing would change except that their coverage would be less expensive. You pointed to the health system that Members of Congress have as your model for expanding coverage. And you agreed that choice of doctor and care is a basic principle. These laudable themes struck a chord with Americans.

Ensuring Access to Affordable Health Insurance: A Memo to President-elect Obama

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