Both the Senate and the House have produced Government Healthcare Bills
When Congress passed its healthcare bill in the dark of night earlier this month a little known and never discussed provision was moved along with it. During a recent rally at the Capital Building the Examiner was able to obtain a page of the House Healthcare bill through the local group "Founders Values". Subsequent research into the governments creation of "School Based Health Clinics" reveals that contrary to what has been purported to be akin to centers providing abortion on demand services to children, the clinics would be responsible for providing appropriate services in accordance with Federal, State and Local laws and the term "shall not perform abortions" appears twice throughout the language. There is a question about how closely schools would work with places like Planned Parenthood on pregnancy counseling issues. Also, the issue of contraception is not raised which leaves citizens wondering if 12 and 13 yr olds will be getting contraceptives like they do in Massachussetts.
And further more, who makes the decision on what is appropriate? Not 1 of the 8 pages from page 1352 to page 1360, devoted to the subject of SBHCs mentions parental input or an advisory council of parents to determine what is "appropriate". In fact, the bill states as a prerequisite to being named a "School Based Health Clinic", such entities must "be integrated into the school environment and will coordinate health services with appropriate school personnel and other community providers colocated at the school". Will the government shut parents out? There are also no mentions of mandatory parental notifications for cases of mental illness, drug abuse, pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. Surely parents have as much a right to know what treatments their children are recieving in a school based clinic as they do the curriculum.
The Senate Bill includes a similar provision but with some differences. For one, parents are actually included in the decision making process and must grant permission for their child to use the services of the SBHC. Another major difference between the two bills is that the Senate bill does not specifically prohbit the health centers from performing or funding abortions. Still all of the final decision making power falls, as it does int he House bill, to the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. Currently that role is held by Kathleen Sebelius from Kansas who said “I am not a member of Congress, I have never been a member of Congress” at a town hall meeting in Philadelphia earlier this year when asked why we should trust Congressmen and Congresswomen who haven't even read the bills to overhaul the entire healthcare system.
She is the same HHS Secretary who denounced a report issued by her departmentjust this week that told women to stop having mamograms and doing self exams before age 50 and to end them at age 70. In fact, she told women to "keep doing what you have been doing for years," and went on to say that the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force's recomendations "don't determine what services are covered by the federal government,". Except, the USPSTF's own website states "Its recommendations are considered the "gold standard" for clinical preventive services." Further, "The Task Force grades the strength of the evidence from "A" (strongly recommends), "B" (recommends), "C" (no recommendation for or against), "D" (recommends against), or "I" (insufficient evidence to recommend for or against)". The panel advises both the private health insurance companies and government on appropriate services to cover. For Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement and coverage requirements it is generally the only opinion sought by Congress. This has led to the question "Is this the begining of rationed care?" It is widely accepted that the "Comparative Effectiveness Research Committees" found in both the Senate and the House health care bills would be linked to or formed from the members of this committee. It's 16 member panel is made up of healthcare professionals appointed jointly by the HHS Secretary and the President. Unfortunately the panel does not contain a single Oncologist (the medical field that deals with cancer tumors). The current list of members is:
Bruce N. Calonge, M.D., M.P.H. (Chair)
Chief Medical Officer and State Epidemiologist
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver, CO
Diana B. Petitti, M.D., M.P.H. (Vice Chair)
Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Fulton School of Engineering
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Susan Curry, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Public Health
Distinguished Professor
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Allen J. Dietrich, M.D.
Professor, Community and Family Medicine
Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH
Thomas G. DeWitt, M.D.
Carl Weihl Professor of Pediatrics
Director of the Division of General and Community Pediatrics
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH
Kimberly D. Gregory, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Women's Health Services Research
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
David Grossman, M.D., M.P.H.
Medical Director, Preventive Care and Senior Investigator, Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative
Professor of Health Services and Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
George Isham, M.D., M.S.
Medical Director and Chief Health Officer
HealthPartners, Minneapolis, MN
Michael L. LeFevre, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine
University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO
Rosanne Leipzig, M.D., Ph.D
Professor, Geriatrics and Adult Development, Medicine, Health Policy
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Lucy N. Marion, Ph.D., R.N.
Dean and Professor, School of Nursing
Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA
Joy Melnikow, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine
Associate Director, Center for Healthcare Policy and Research
University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA
Bernadette Melnyk, Ph.D., R.N., C.P.N.P./N.P.P.
Dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing
College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
Wanda Nicholson, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
J. Sanford (Sandy) Schwartz, M.D.
Leon Hess Professor of Medicine, Health Management, and Economics
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton School, Philadelphia, PA
Timothy Wilt, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Department of Medicine, Minneapolis VA Medical Center
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
These appear to be some of the people who will be deciding what happens to our children. There will be more details to come in future days about who these individuals are and what they stand for.
Schools are becoming a political battleground where only the kids get hurt. While the adults fight over whether the theory of evolution is in or out and how much creationism can even be mentioned, our children are missing out on two exceptional arguments for how we came to be. Meanwhile, liberals push away our founding fathers and demean them in our schools by calling them racists and bigots. At the end of the tunnel is Congress pushing health centers into our schools. It's time to be bold with our questions and to hold our representatives in the House and Senate accountable. Is it ok for the House Bill to ignore parental rights and assume control over our children? Should the Senate allow tax-payer funded abortions for teenagers to be done in schools? Is any of this in adherence with the Constitution? Why does the Health and Human Services Secretary have all of this unchecked power? why are the government groups being created in these bills not staffed with doctors and nurses from every state instead of beauracratic appointees? Why aren't these panels confirmed by OUR representatives in government? Most importantly we should be asking why they're using our schools as a tool of "healthcare reform".
Comments
I'd read about this general topic on a conservative web site. I'm glad you brought out more on the subject. It's despicable the way they pad bills with tangential provisions like this. Sort of like they slipped the "thought crimes" a.k.a. "hate crimes" clause into the military appropriations bill recently. Anymore one almost HAS to equate politicians with dishonesty and subterfuge; and that starts from the "TOP" down!
Fabulous summary of what is happening in government run schools! I am a FORMER public school teacher and I now homeschool my daughter, for all the crazy things you mention above that are occurring in schools.
Another point to consider is "aren't 'they' just paving the way for the inevitable cuts that socializing healthcare will require by changing the paradigm on such vital preventive care like self exams, mammography, etc.?
You're exactly right Keith but really what is most disturbing is the way that the government has assured us that public schools are only there to do what we as parents don't have "the time" to do ourselves which is self educate our children. It's funny how the founders were able to educate their own children and put in numerous hours in their days work.
The reality is that the progressives realized children weren't being assimilated into the liberal agenda fast enough so they devised public schools.
Now the left claims that without public schools our children would grow up sheltered and without any idea what other families or situations were out there and therefore unable to function in society. Yet the founders were able to not only function but to compromise. New Englanders high on the idea of Independence were able to compromise with southerners far less eager to shed the protection of the crown. How were they able to mingle with only a home education?
You're exactly right Keith but really what is most disturbing is the way that the government has assured us that public schools are only there to do what we as parents don't have "the time" to do ourselves which is self educate our children. It's funny how the founders were able to educate their own children and put in numerous hours in their days work.
The reality is that the progressives realized children weren't being assimilated into the liberal agenda fast enough so they devised public schools.
Now the left claims that without public schools our children would grow up sheltered and without any idea what other families or situations were out there and therefore unable to function in society. Yet the founders were able to not only function but to compromise. New Englanders high on the idea of Independence were able to compromise with southerners far less eager to shed the protection of the crown. How were they able to mingle with only a home education?
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