What is socialized medicine doing in a 'stimulus' bill??

[Tipmoose]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs

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The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

snip

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.


snip

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

[annarborgator]

Makes me glad I don't go to doctors.

And in all honesty, this is more idiocy on the part of CONgress. Let's march on washington and protest until they wise up.

[radbag]

Makes me glad I don't go to doctors.

And in all honesty, this is more idiocy on the part of CONgress. Let's march on washington and protest until they wise up.

you should run. serious.

[annarborgator]

I need to amass enough hush money for the skeletons in my closet before I will be a viable candidate.

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

Nah, fuck it. If Obama can do cocaine, admittedly, then you should be fine. So long as you haven't killed anyone. Just be upfront about it.

[annarborgator]

Damn good point. I'm livin' in the past.