Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Power Grab
By Donald R. May
Filed As: Health Care
Why is everything an emergency matter for President Barack Obama? The answer is quite simple. Marxists make everything an emergency, rushing each power grab and payoff before opponents have the time to read, understand, or comment.We recall with disgust and frustration that Obama claimed if his "stimulus" package were not rushed through, unemployment would go from 8.0% to 8.8%. Unemployment now stands at 9.4% with about the only increase in jobs seen in the federal government. The "stimulus" plan rewarded unions and Obama’s supporters on Wall Street.
Health care financing is President Obama’s current emergency. Obama claims that for $1.2 trillion of additional federal spending, all those without health care insurance will be insured. However, these people are already receiving medical care. Spending trillions of additional dollars in order to pretend that people are being cared for is irresponsible and illogical.
The White House has apparently been hiding the fact that for an additional $12 trillion debt only about 16 million people, of supposedly 47 million without heath insurance, will be covered by the end of 10 years. Even if that were true, that is $75,000 per person covered -- a tremendous escalation in health care spending.
Recently, President Obama addressed the American Medical Association. Much to the dismay of those present, Obama said he was not in favor of capping malpractice awards, a primary reason for the massive cost of medical care.
Though he acknowledged that part of the high cost of health care is due to defensive medicine -- doctors ordering more tests and treatments than necessary in an effort to avoid being sued -- he told the American Medical Association that he is "not advocating caps on malpractice awards."
"I personally believe (they) can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed," he said.
Obama, who took some boos from a few American Medical Association members, is free to hold that opinion. But the facts show generous awards that juries hand out to plaintiffs in medical malpractice lawsuits have raised costs.
Physicians and surgeons may order excessive testing in order to demonstrate a reasonable standard of patient care. They may defensively perform caesarian sections out of fear of being sued by someone such as John Edwards. Treating defensively has become the norm and has greatly increased health care costs.
President Obama plans to save health care dollars primarily by rationing and denying care. Among these reductions in medical care are caesarian sections, antibiotic usage, MRI and CT scans, and back surgery. Taking such decisions out of the hands of physicians and surgeons will result in some level of increased complications, suffering, and death. Without increased protection from malpractice litigation, doctors and hospitals will be left holding the liability bag.
Bureaucrats will be hired by the tens of thousands to make health care rationing decisions. The bureaucrats and the trial lawyers will be the ones to line their pockets with the health care dollars. Patients will be placed in waiting lines and denied care. Doctors will be sued. Barack Obama will gain control over the lives of his subjects.
It is not logical to spend massive amounts of money when it is known by all parties that the socialist health care system created will result in a much poorer quality of medical care for everyone except for Obama and his elite.
- posted by Donald R. May
- 7:05 am
- 0 comment
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