And so it begins.
Here is a small example of why government cannot run anything and what is so very wrong with “Obamacare”.
· The new health care law says insurers must cover “preventive health services” and cannot charge for them.
· Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has asked a non-government medical group to identify specific preventive health services that would apply to women.
· The list of services identified is exhaustive and includes the full range of contraceptive methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
· The panel’s chairwoman said, “We did not consider cost or cost-effectiveness in our deliberations.”
· One panel member, a health economist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, filed a dissent saying:
o The committee did not have enough time to conduct “a serious and systematic review” of the evidence.
o The report, he said, includes “a mix of objective and subjective determinations filtered through a lens of advocacy.”
· Under the new law, Secretary Sebelius will decide on a minimum package of essential health benefits – to be provided free by private companies – and her decision will not require further action by Congress.
This new law gives government the ability to expand services with no responsibility to even measure the costs let alone pay for additional services. Indeed, any adult can foresee future advocates declaring that HHS has a “duty and responsibility” to add services and that HHS have no authority to even consider costs or effectiveness. Is there any doubt that the authors of this legislation intended a path to national health care? Where do you think this will lead?
Proponents of national health care proclaim that such systems are affordable in other nations – that is a lie.
Opponents of national health care ignore all the other facts:
· America has chosen, by law, to treat all sick and injured – regardless of ability to pay. Americans will not change their minds about this.
· As a result of government dysfunction today, we provide the mandatory services in the most expensive possible fashion.
· Foreign systems are cheaper, cover more people and will last longer before bankrupting their nations.
If you think raising the debt ceiling has been difficult, frustrating and dangerous, fixing health care will be exponentially harder while carrying existential risks.
Whether we raise the debt ceiling or not and no matter what economic penalties might accrue from a Congressional failure, we are not bankrupt and we will pay our bills. But with Medicare already carrying $40 trillion in unfunded liabilities and the trend making that number grow at twice the rate of economic growth, either our children or grandchildren will be bankrupt.
We must stop siding with either of the political parties and side with which ever leaders will speak the simple truth.
Panel Recommends Coverage for Contraception
By Robert Pear – NYT, July 19, 2011
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