Rationalizing Rationing Health Care: The Next Step Toward Totalitarianism

You have no doubt heard the word "Totalitarianism", but do you really know what it means?  From dictionary.com:

1.    the practices and principles of a totalitarian regime.

2.    absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution.

And you certainly know that our nation was born in revolt to "Totalitarianism", don't you?  We declared our Independence from Britain whose monarchy was in absolute control.  We declared that we do not get our rights from men, but that we are endowed with them by God.  Among those rights are the right to life.

Now, with Obamacare moving swiftly through the Congress, we are being dragged back into as state of totalitarianism, where your right to live will be decided by the government.  How you might ask?  By the rationing of health care services.  Take a look at this from the New York Times.

WHY WE MUST RATION HEALTH CARE

You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?

If you can afford it, you probably would pay that much, or more, to live longer, even if your quality of life wasn’t going to be good. But suppose it’s not you with the cancer but a stranger covered by your health-insurance fund. If the insurer provides this man — and everyone else like him — with Sutent, your premiums will increase. Do you still think the drug is a good value? Suppose the treatment cost a million dollars. Would it be worth it then? Ten million? Is there any limit to how much you would want your insurer to pay for a drug that adds six months to someone’s life? If there is any point at which you say, “No, an extra six months isn’t worth that much,” then you think that health care should be rationed.

In the current U.S. debate over health care reform, “rationing” has become a dirty word. Meeting last month with five governors, President Obama urged them to avoid using the term, apparently for fear of evoking the hostile response that sank the Clintons’ attempt to achieve reform.

The case for explicit health care rationing in the United States starts with the difficulty of thinking of any other way in which we can continue to provide adequate health care to people on Medicaid and Medicare, let alone extend coverage to those who do not now have it. Health-insurance premiums have more than doubled in a decade, rising four times faster than wages.

President Obama has said plainly that America’s health care system is broken.  Rationing health care means getting value for the billions we are spending by setting limits on which treatments should be paid for from the public purse.  When public funds subsidize health care or provide it directly, it is crazy not to try to get value for money.

The debate over health care reform in the United States should start from the premise that some form of health care rationing is both inescapable and desirable.

Be afraid, be very, very afraid.  And then take action.  Donate, run for office, become involved and stop this communist defeat of our American way of life.  You do see this don't you?

Comments

[Toby Weir]

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. What will this new "remedy" for health care look like? Is the VA system the precedent for the new nationalized plan? Medicare? Medicaid? Are we really supposed to pay for this great fix by cutting into the already crippled Medicare system? I urge the president or congress to help us understand before they ram this plan through by Obama's August time line. This tactic reminds me of the line: "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain".