[quote]DrSkeptix wrote:
Well, then, for those of you who denied that Obamacare would bring rationing, how about a nice, convincing recess appointment to start off the gambit?
“Recent reports suggest that the recently passed health-care bill will be far more expensive than originally projected. As it becomes apparent that Obamacare is unsustainable, the calls for controlling its costs through rationing will grow louder. With Donald Berwick running the government’s health-care efforts, those voices have a ready ear” (dailycaller.com, May 27).
By then, Berwick will be involved in the government-controlled health of more than 100 million Americans and - notes Michael Tanner - “Maybe those worries about death panels weren’t so crazy after all.”
Keep in mind that already, in May, “the Congressional Budget Office updated its cost projections (of Obamacare). It found that the new health legislation would cost $115 billion more than estimated when it was enacted (“ObamaCare’s Ever-Rising Price Tag,” Wall Street Journal, June 3).”
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11880[/quote]
What a stupid, wasteful bill, when I try to read even the shortest, most compact summary, I ussually end up scratching my head at what the purpose of the bill was in the first place. What an unmitigated legislative disaster.
I hadn’t seen this thread until now, and reading through the first few pages it becomes eminently clear this bill will only place further burden on an already burdened system.
More from Comrade Doctor Berwick:
“I cannot believe that the individual health care consumer can enforce through choice the proper configurations of a system as massive and complex as health care. That is for leaders to do.”
“You cap your health care budget, and you make the political and economic choices you need to make to keep affordability within reach.”
“Please don’t put your faith in market forces. It’s a popular idea: that Adam Smith’s invisible hand would do a better job of designing care than leaders with plans can.”
“Indeed, the Holy Grail of universal coverage in the United States may remain out of reach unless, through rational collective action overriding some individual self-interest, we can reduce per capita costs.”
The Henninger editorial is worth reading in full:
Beside the obvious arrogance–only “leaders” can determine which resources may be used for our benefit–there is also startling pandering. Some articles contain praise for “consumers” discretion, others simply consider the British NHS the only model worth examining.
What is worrisome here, whether one may agree with one opinion or another, is that the man and his policies will not be examined in public, with transparency.
The recess appointment–made before committee hearings were even scheduled!–is valid through Jan 3, 2012. He is charged with writing the new rules for the largest non-defense budget items–MediCare and MediCaid–under Obamacare. And although Congress has not vetted him, it will not be able to amend or change a thing he does for this administration.
All one need do is look honestly at Obama’s thoroughly Marxist background and things like a Berwick himself along with his installation through recess appointment are simply natural and predictable developments. He was raised in, educated in, spent 20 years in church and associated with elitist, top down, iron grip, nanny state social engineers. Simply recognizing his past and then hearing him talk about “fundamentally transforming the United States” should have been enough to raise the hackles of any person with vaguely American sensibilities, but there he now is in the whitehouse doing exactly what people like him do.
WoW. That is a lot of agencies.
bump/update:
call volume for first responders in my community has little more than doubled since 2003.
ED volume has increased 30% IN THE LAST YEAR.
average time from door to discharge or admission to hospital has increased from 175minutes top 285minutes this year alone.
we have been on “divert” status(hospital full, have to send pts being sent to us from other hospitals to larger facilities even further south) 2x as often as last year.
what is happening as demand for health care increases as supply decreases is this: the smaller community hospitals in outlying areas have fewer beds, nurses, doctors, and specialty services who will take call, so more and more patients are being sent to the larger facilities in bigger cities. now more and more patients are circling waiting for placement/beds in the bigger facilities that are now over capacity.
there is a tsunami coming folks. soon.