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Obama's health care reform is bad news for seniors
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In a recent interview with The New York Times Magazine where he discussed many of his economic policies, President Obama has given an early indication as to the true costs of his health care reform agenda, particularly the ultimate costs to seniors.
Using his grandmother as an example, he explained how health care decisions, such as the hip replacement surgery she received after being diagnosed with cancer, might not be available to Americans in the future due to the costs, unless you have the money to pay out of pocket like Obama can.
I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement, just because she's my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else's aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they're terminally ill is a sustainable model is a very difficult question.
Sustainable model? A difficult decision? Despite this apparent conundrum, Mr. Obama appears to have already made his decision on this matter, as we can see in the stimulus bill he promoted and signed into law.
Squeezed into the spending bill was a little known provision that establishes certain health care changes which are based on suggestions made by the former Health and Human Services Department nominee, Tom Daschle. According to an editorial by Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York and an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, these included:
- Reducing costs by "guiding" doctor decisions
- Doctors surrendering autonomy and learning to operate less like sole proprietors
- Establishes the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, whose goal would be to slow down new medications and techniques because these drive up costs
- Forcing the elderly to accept the realities of aging and surrendering certain advanced treatments
Of course, hiding this in the stimulus bill was intentional to prevent debate, and it would now appear that it was a part of Obama's intentions all along.
Near the end of his interview, Mr. Obama claimed these decisions shouldn't be left up to government or politicians:
It is going to be very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through normal political channels.
Either he's lying, or it was always a part of his plan. Regardless, it looks like Americans better hope nothing happens to them as they get older, because Obama's health care reform is likely to be fatal to them if it does.
For more info: Arlen Specter a RINO no more, Gitmo prisoners? Dump 'em on Europe, Should Janet Napolitano resign?, Joe Biden was right about Obama... almost, Is freedom of speech dying on today's college campuses?
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