Posted by
Patrick Henry on Monday, May 04, 2009 8:09:32 AM
Larry Summers, the president's chief economic advisor, inadvertently gave
away the Democrats' real healthcare agenda. After blathering on about all those
"unneccessary" tonsilectomies and hysterectomies that are performed, he commented
that billions could be saved if those were disallowed for insurance coverage and/or
doctors needed some external permission to perform them. Keep your gown tied
tightly when in the exam room, and don't bend over. Big brother's about to be there
watching -- and meddling.
When the creation of a national healthcare board was crammed into the Porkulus
spending bill, Demcrats claimed that the board's only purpose was to establish a
system of nationally computerized medical records and compile "research" that
would help to improve medical treatment/ Both they and Republican moderate
Arlen Specter -- who voted for the bill and whom we now know to have been a
closet Democrat all along -- denied that it could lead in any way, shape or form
to the rationing of medical care. Research later revealed that the wording was taken
directly from Britain's law that established socialized medicine there and has resulted
in the most egregious form of healthcare rationing wherein people routinely die
while waiting their turn for treatment. Everybody there is equally entitled to health-
care. Only by the time you get it, you may be dead.
Now Summers, who has no medical background whatsoever, is pontificating on
national television about which procedures should be abridged or disallowed. That
is only the first shot across the bow. Unless you've been asleep for the last three
months, you clearly see that Barack Obama and his minions are hell bent on
transforming the United States of America into a replica of the European socialist
democracies like the U.K., France, Norway and Sweden. He's taken over automakers,
banks, insurance companies and your local doctor's practice is next. It's as clear as
can be.
"Cut the prez some slack." you say? Have you ever lived in any of those countries
I mentioned? I have! Have you ever been told that you have to wait at the end of the
line for treatment because you are old or have a chronic disease and may die anyway?
Lots of people there have. Have you ever tried to pull your own infected tooth because
it hurt like crazy and you couldn't get in to see a dentist for six months? Folks in
those countries do it all the time. That's socialized medicine. That's rationed
healthcare. That's what Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have in
store for you.
The cardinal problems with rationed healthcare are obvious. One, it constitutes
a bunch of government bean counters trying to put a price on human life, which
is grotesquely immoral, no matter how much it allegedly saves. And if it does
save a few bucks, while patient X is dying because he can't get surgery, Obama
will still be sending out those tax rebate checks to people who never paid any taxes
in the firstplace. In hard stratight language, he's compromising your health in order
to re-create a welfare state.
The second problem is that when the National Health Review Board and their
bean counters in any way come between you and your doctor, they have invaded
one of the most sacrosanct relationships in American life today. When they take
away our choice they strip us of yet another freedom to which we are supposed
to be entitled. So much for the land of the free.
Finally, by turning the practice of medicine into an assembly line where watch-
dogs are peering over your doctor;s shoulder, they risk driving the brightest and
best out of the medical field altogether. In a recent poll, more than 60% of American
physicians said that they were considering retiring or cutting back their practices, and
that in no case would they advise their own children to pursue a medical career. The
situation is that sad. My own personal physician was educated in the U.K. and left
there to practice in America. Imagine how he feels as he watches his profession
invaded by bumbling government bureaucrats, his patients denied the care they
need and deserve and his livelihood slipping away as the government slashes all
fees to a Medicare level.
If you voted for Barack Obama because you hated George Bush, this is what
you asked for and it may be what you're stuck with. If it doesn't work, we can't
just go back to the way things were before. It will take years to undo the damage
and we'll never get back the fine doctors who just got sick of it and quit. Tell this
socialist president and brain dead Democratic congress to leave our healthcare
system alone. With all of its' faults, it's still the best there is. Or, just sit back,
don't worry, be happy and suffer when Larry Summers decides the government
and its' "wonderful" universal healthcare denies your plea for immediate treatment
while you waste away and die.