Beyond the Brow of the Hill: The Health Care Bill

I did a little summary I did of the health-bill (with the help from some friends over at Race42008).

Expect longer waits, very diminished care, decreased innovation because there will be a large wall of separation between business R&D and the scientist/physicians who actually make the discoveries. Just imagine what would have happened if the government told the Wright brothers, or Henry Ford that they couldn't benefit from their discoveries in any way. Also, consider the fact that the top 5 hospitals do more clinical trials than the rest of the world combined. (Just imagine what France do when we stop developing their health care with American medical technology and stop defending them with our military)?

Of course, the word 'Abortion' is never written in all 1,018 pages, but you can be sure that 'family planning' isn't referring to classes on abstinence, and 'family planning agencies' isn't referring to Catholic Charities or LDS Family Services.

Also, expect that our parents will have their benefits cut. In all, about 75% of health care costs are for Chronic diseases, and costs for the last year of life account for 25-30% of Medicare expenditures. Cuts in these areas will especially affect Black Americans and other minority groups (see: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/4/188

Also, if you would like a taste of what rationed single-payer health care would look like, just google NICE (National Institute of Cost Effectiveness) the British health care rationing board. They have a metric called the QALY (quality adjusted life year) which is a rough estimate of what they would pay for an extra year of life adjusted for quality. Their estimate is that $34,400 is about the right amount to pay for a quality adjusted year of life whereas in the U.S. it is set at around $50,000 per QALY by Medicaid, but if the government takes on coverage of everybody then you can expect that their QALY standard will match that in Great Britain and you will see decreased costs, sure, but that's because all the infirm elderly people are dying from lack of care they would have received if the government was focused only on them and not on everybody; including those who would go to the doctor for any scrape or cough.

Here's a list of important issues found in the bill:

Pg 30 Sec 123 – The creation of a government health care rationing board that decides what treatments/benefits you get

Pg 42 – The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your benefits for you. One size fits all. No variation from this plan.

Pg 58 – Government will have real-time access to individual's finances and a National ID Health care card will be issued!

Pg 59 lines 21-24
Government will have direct access to your banks accts for electronic funds transfer.

Pg 124 lines 24-25 No company can sue Government on price fixing. No "judicial review" against Government Monopoly.

Pg 127 Lines 1-16 – Doctors & AMA – The Government will decide what you can make under this plan.

Pg 145 Line 15-17
An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public opt plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 146 Subsection (A) line 4: Employers must pay at least 72.5% of a full-time employees' or 65% of an employee's family health insurance. Employers must pay the proportion of health insurance for part-time employees that corresponds to their hours. (e.g., 20 hours/week = 37% coverage). Buisnesses CANNOT reduce a person's salary—expect lot's of part-time lay-offs.

Pg 149, sec. 313:
The employer may opt out and instead pay 8% of a person's salary as a tax towards the government health plan. Expect massive dumping of employees into the Government health-rationing plan.

Pg 195 Officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVERNMENT) will have access to ALL Americans financial and personal records.

Pg 241 Line 6-8– Doctors, it does not matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same.

Pg 272 SEC. 1145. Treatment of certain cancer hospitals – Cancer patients – welcome to rationing!

Pg 317 L 13-20 PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. End of private, physician-directed hospitals Government tells Drs. what/how much they can own. Just remember that it's a lot easier to teach a doctor how to run a business than it is to teach a businessperson how to practice medicine.

Pg 425 Lines 4-12
Government mandates Advance [Death] Care Planning Consult. Helping Seniors decide how and when they will die as a cost-cutting measure.

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Mandatory
government consultation and implementation of living wills, durable powers of atty., etc.

Pg 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Government provides approved list of end of life resources to guide you in death.

Pg 427 Lines 15-24 Government mandates program for orders for end of life. The Government has a say in how your life ends.

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An "Advanced Care Planning Consult" will be used more and more frequently as patients health deteriorates. A measure to help limit costs associated with costly life-prolonging medical treatments.

Pg 429 Lines 10-12 "Advanced Care Planning Consult" includes an order for end-of-life plans.

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 – The government will specify which Doctors can write an end-of-life order.

PG 430 Lines Subsection (B) 11-15 The government will decide what level of treatment you will have at the end of life and adjust end-of-life treatments accordingly; including restrictions of expensive antibiotics or artificial feeding/hydration treatments.

Pg 503 Lines 13-19 Government will build registries and data networks from YOUR electronic med records.

Pg 503 lines 21-25 Government may secure data directly from any depart or agency of the US including your data.

Pg 632 Lines 14-25 The Government may implement any "Quality measure" of HC Services as they see fit.

Pg 635 to 653 Physicians Payments Sunshine Provision – Government wants to shine sunlight on Docs but not Government.

Pg 686-700 Increased Funding to Fight Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. You mean like the Government with an $18 million website (recovery.org)?

Pg 769 3-5 Nurse Home Visit Services – "increasing birth intervals between pregnancies." This will include taxpayer-paid abortion (hey, if Obama is sending millions of taxpayer money to Mexico and Africa so they can have abortions, then why not Americans?). Also, how are nurses supposed to be qualified to 'increase the economic self-sufficiency or educational achievement' of children?

Pg 770 SEC 1714
Fed Government mandates eligibility for State Family Planning Services. Federal government provided abortions and restrictions on state sovereignty to prevent government funds going towards abortion.

Pg 838-840 The Government will design & implement Home Visitation Program for families with young kids & families expecting kids.

PG 844-845 This Home Visitation Prog. includes Government coming into your house & telling you how to parent!

PG 935 21-22 Government will identify specific goals & objectives for prevention & wellness activities. Government control of what you eat, drink, and do.

PG 936 Government will develop "Healthy People & National Public Health Perform. Standards" Tell me what to eat?

PG 1001 The Government will establish a National Medical Device Registry. Will you be tracked?