Must-reading on ObamaCare
Heather Higgins ·
March 18, 2012 at 12:23am
It's not about jobs, it's about freedom. It's not about the economy, it's about if you'll ever be able to find a doctor to put your interests ahead of his paymasters', and whether choices you don't want are choices at all.
At least the lawyers will have a field day with all the hospitals that turn away the chronic patients because the government paymasters won't compensate for return visits - perhaps that should be "free" too.
Our authoritarians are fast moving to creating a hell of a mess, and people will pay for it with their lives. Must reading.
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Jul '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Here please find my usual post that placing what is left of the healthcare market into the hands of either Obama or Romney or any other presidential technocrat wannabe is a proven disaster. I give you the IRS, HHS, the CIA (on the record estimating Russia's GDP at 4x actual when the roof fell in, plus 9/11), the Postal Service, Homeland Security and the TSA, and I could go on ad infinitum.
The Founders left as little as possible in the hands of the federal government, and it worked for a long, long time.
Obama has literally taken our lives in his hands. With the same sobriety and wisdom he brings to the rest of the job.
ObomneyCare delenda est.
Jun '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
I am a lawyer who believes in tort reform and who has spent my career on the defense side. Dr. Singer's article is a "must-read." He outlines the profound changes to traditional medical ethics that Obamacare will require, and that those changes are for the benefit of the "payer" and not the patient. You are also correct that these changes will create a whole new level of liability risk for physicians and surgeons, as well as healthcare providers. Yet one more example of a perfect storm that threatens American medicine and the health of every American, and which will line the pockets of a subset of attorneys (the aggressive trial attorneys)--this subset does not represent our entire profession.
Dec '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Obamacare has made me fear for my money (property) and my liberty, but looking at it from this angle makes me fear for my life as well. In one law the democrat congress and Obama have undone the founding principle of our entire government.
May '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
It's infrequent that federal legislation scares me, but Obamacare has done it. I have a spouse with severe, painful medical issues, and a son who was born prematurely at 26 weeks. I call them "zebra" patients (a medical school axiom is "when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras"), and I could very easily see O-care refusing to treat them because their conditions don't fit into neat little federally-specified boxes.
Feb '11
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
If the medical service and distribution apparatus is wholly owned/operated by the state, will tort reform to favor the state be forthcoming? It would seem to be that those same attorneys who contributed to damaging the traditional healthcare delivery model, through frivolous suits or extravagant monetary awards will ultimately be out of work. The state doesn't like being sued, does it?
Edited on March 18, 2012 at 2:14amDec '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Heather,
ObamaCare Summary
1) Bankrupts the country and raises premium prices.
2) Destroys the best health care system in the World.
3) Threatens Individual Freedom.
4) Provides the basis for bureaucratic medical murder.
I. Pelosi and Frank gone.
II. Obama and Reid next.
Regards,
Jim
Jun '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Humans don't fare very well in a one-size-fits-all system. One elderly man might have an important life's-work project that he'd like to finish, and so, the extra six months of life that an expensive treatment allows is crucial...to him. Another man, same age, same condition, might have all his affairs in order, all his confessions said, and is ready to go. It used to be, that you could buy your health insurance based on those differences in expectation and desire. It sounds like we're not the ones who'll be making those personal value decisions in the future. Everybody's extra six months of life will be just as valuable as the next guy's--not very.
Edited on March 18, 2012 at 2:50amNov '11
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
I invite anyone interested to come over to the Member Feed and discuss medical ethics, rationing, and Obamacare here. The three chapters I link to are longish, but I think well worth reading for people who are seriously involved in any aspect of healthcare in America.
Jun '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
JustinC
If the medical service and distribution apparatus is wholly owned/operated by the state, will tort reform to favor the state be forthcoming? It would seem to be that those same attorneys who contributed to damaging the traditional healthcare delivery model, through frivolous suits or extravagant monetary awards will ultimately be out of work. The state doesn't like being sued, does it? · 1 hour ago
Edited 1 hour ago
Your logic is impeccable, but I'll still need to see it to believe it.
Apr '11
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
tabula rasa
JustinC
If the medical service and distribution apparatus is wholly owned/operated by the state, will tort reform to favor the state be forthcoming? It would seem to be that those same attorneys who contributed to damaging the traditional healthcare delivery model, through frivolous suits or extravagant monetary awards will ultimately be out of work. The state doesn't like being sued, does it? · 1 hour ago
Edited 1 hour ago
Your logic is impeccable, but I'll still need to see it to believe it. · 3 minutes ago
If you'd care to look at the UK, you'll see a system where the patients are poorly treated and have few rights to compensation when the routine abuse takes place. Sadly, my suspicion is that the US, if it went down that road, would not annihilate patient's rights; it's too democratic. Instead it would simply bankrupt the country.
Jul '11
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Nice article and quite true. I'll be quitting when this comes to pass. To quote Patrick Swayze,"no one puts docjay in a corner".
Jan '12
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
I agree. I am an internist who has a lot of chronically ill patients that often require unique approaches to their medical and social needs. The fact that hospitals will be legally (and ethically) required to care for rehospitalized patients without proper reimbursement means they will be selective in their initial services and compromise the care we come to expect. Hospitals are very driven by the bottom line in most instances. Longitudinal care of any complicated patient suffers now because of fragmented care between hospitalists, outpatient care and any long term care. My advice, have lots of caring daughters!
Jul '11
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Hey Proudad, have you noticed that hospitalists almost never communicate with primary care. It's a two way street though. And caring daughters is spot on because this will all deteriorate, even if the despicable obamacare is delenda ested.
Jan '12
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
I am one of the dinosaurs who still follows patients in and out of the hospital. It seems hit and miss though, and the deterioration of the communication seems more the norm.
Jul '11
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Good for you Prouddad. JustinC, it will all be about following the guidelines gets you off even if you're grossly incompetent and more out of the box doctors will go down for any bad outcomes if they deviated from the flow chart. Even if their overall track record is superior, those physicians who fail to conform will be gone in a decade or two.
Feb '12
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
My husband served in the NAVY during Desert Storm and was medically discharged in 1992 after sustaining an injury to his back after 19 years of service. We can, like many others, bear witness to the well intentioned fiasco that is government run health care. For the past 10years he has been receiving all of his medical care through the VA (for which we are grateful), and we have seen the level of care decline to the point where my husbands illnesses and injuries are no longer treated, he is given medications to treat symptoms. Basically he now takes so many pills in a 24 hour period that he can skip meals. He is 56 years old and he is dying, because of a back injury. I don't mean to sound ungrateful if that's how this comes across, I thank God everyday for the VA because I don't know what we would do without them at this point, but believe me when I say from the patient point of view, Obama care is not going to be seen as some great step foreward in the comming years.
Nov '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Over the past 30 years I have read the prelude to this whirlpool through the likes of Tocqueville,, C.S. Lewis, Revel, the Southern Agrarians, Richard Weaver, Whittaker Chambers and Russell Kirk. While I always thought that we might end up here I was never convinced that rational people would ever let it get so far.
Feb '11
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
The more I think about and read about The Toxic Blight of Obamacare, and The Toxic Blight of Obama in general, the madder I get. I did, btw, make a donation (albeit small) to support the efforts of Ms. Higgins' group. I am glad there are people out on the front lines doing everything they can to kill ObamaCare. Some care it's gonna be -- put a stake through the heart of this monster while we can.
May '10
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Repeat after Reagan:
..."the full power of centralized government"—this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy. "
Re: Must-reading on ObamaCare
Thank you RB!!!!!!