Paging Dr. Obama: Looking Ahead to Government-Run Health Care
The prognosis isn't good.
Further, what’s the penalty if, say, health records are stolen and/or hacked? Digital Soapbox is concerned:
This section is quite interesting:
“(c) BREACHES TREATED AS DISCOVERED. — For purposes of this section, a breach shall be treated as discovered by a covered entity or by a business associate as of the first day on which such breach is known to such entity or associate, respectively, (including any person, other than the individual committing the breach, that is an employee, officer, or other agent of such entity or associate, respectively) or should reasonably have been known to such entity or associate (or person) to have occurred.”
So … if a hacker reports the breach to authorities, after successfully stealing medical records, it isn’t considered “discovered” until someone at the entity acknowledges it!?
But while the writer hopes for more enforcement teeth should records be breached, he ignores the bigger problem. Doctors already worry about being out of compliance with HIPPA and other Medicare and Medicaid regulations. Fines for being in violation of the current regulations have made it so many doctors won’t participate in the program, this doctor included. What that means is that often the best doctors don’t participate in government-run health care now because they don’t have to. Further, there becomes a cost-benefit analysis. Just as men have left the teaching profession in droves because of the risks both personal and professional due to threats of sexual abuse charges, doctors will leave the profession because the personal risks aren’t worth it. What I find interesting is the nonchalance with which the technology writer talks about the fines — only $10,000? For a small business doctor, two of those fines could mean being put out of business. So there are privacy concerns but also economic concerns. Will America’s new health care system be staffed by imported doctors because smart young Americans will choose professions with a better upside and less personal risk just as has happened in Britain? That’s likely. It’s already happening.
And then there’s the expansion of the government economically. The stated goal is health care for all, but the costs seem to matter little. Medicare and Medicaid may be cheaper than private insurance, but limiting services and rationing care are the ways that’s achieved. With Baby Boomers aging, costs are rising and will peak in 2030.
The restrictions are important, too. Government-run health care cuts costs because tough decisions on care choices are made not by doctors and patients but by bureaucrats. Bloomberg’s Betsy McCaughey says:
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.
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.
Government-run health care will impose behavioral changes because people won’t change on their own. Recently, the New York Time’s Tara Parker-Pope wrote about patients and doctors using unhelpful treatments even though no evidence supports the treatment. This is a problem — antibiotic use and needless back surgeries come to mind. Still, the assumption is that this quirk of human nature can be modified:
“In American culture, prescriptions and procedures have become surrogates for real health care and real dialogue,” Dr. Newman said. “We need doctors and patients to conceive of medicine and health in a totally different way than they have been taught in the last 20 to 30 years.”
Well, yes. That’s true. Americans have become conditioned to externalize the cause of their health care issues, but one could argue that generous insurance has made the situation worse and not better. There are few economic consequences for misusing health care — people are either uninsured and don’t pay or insured well and don’t pay [well, they pay, they just don't connect what they pay with what they receive]. That is, the consumer is separated from the consequences of his actions. President Bush’s attempts to increase health care savings accounts addressed this tangentially — when a person pays cash, he is connected to his decisions. When health care providers must compete in the marketplace, they have reasons to give better, more competitively priced care.
Health care reform will be a huge fight for the Obama administration. As Nancy Pelosi knows, “messaging” (i.e., deception) is the key to passing government-run health care. As Kevin Drum notes at Mother Jones:
Like it or not, universal health care will never get passed on the grounds that it will help the 48 million Americans who are currently uninsured. It will only pass if the other 250 million Americans are assured over and over and over again that the new plan will be at least as good for them as what they have now. The tactical shift Pelosi is talking about isn’t just wise, it’s absolutely indispensable.
But government run health care won’t be as good as they have now. Small sticking point.
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Dr. Melissa Clouthier is a chiropractor who blogs at MelissaClouthier.com and Right Wing News.
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36 Comments
1. Craig:“But government run health care won’t be as good as they have now.”
Ya. See:
Mar 16, 2009 - 4:16 am 2. fear Obama:Government run Social Security
Government run FEMA
Government run DMVs
Government run Public Schools
Government run Medicaid
Government run Prison System
Government run….FILL IN THE BLANK.
New $165 million bailout bonuses for AIG executives, JOB WELL DONE!
I mailed my AIG insurance payment the other day and the stamp cost more than their stock!
$160 billion and still giving.
Too big to fail!
AIG is not paying the 165 million in bonuses.
Your kids and new gas taxes will!
Oh Boy! More good news!
New health care taxes for employers and doctors.
All you smokers that voted for Obama and the democrats-
How you like your new cigarette taxes?
Be Patriotic and give until it hurts,
your money will support health care.
4 dollars a pack and going to 9 dollars in a few months. And that is in NC.
** heh **
Elect Obama and Quit Smoking!
Can he afford his cigarettes?
YES HE CAN!
YEAH- HE DID!
Mar 16, 2009 - 4:40 am 3. mishu: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.
Yeah, that’s real “progressive”.
Mar 16, 2009 - 4:55 am 4. Rovin:1. Craig just about says it all. If you want a program or service to run efficiently and effectively, don’t let your government operate it.
Mar 16, 2009 - 4:58 am 5. seven:Obama needs some good inpatient care. Geitner mouthing a need to reform healthcare? what is with that? sluld we have nurses come over and tell him how to clean up banking? All Obama is doing is adding a large overhead to healthcare at the top and leadin g into healthcare rationing.
Mar 16, 2009 - 6:21 am 6. Pope Linus:But what the Democrats will try to do is package their health care package in a way that makes us feel good, that makes us feel that the government is helping us, and that our higher taxes are helping others. So many people are simply emotive-minded now, governed by the emotional response to an issue. “Don’t worry, your higher taxes will be helping so many people!” “Don’t worry, government-subsidized health care will keep you safe!” Obama flashes that bright smile of his, and people melt. “He really cares about me!” they say. It’s all about feeling good.
That is, until you actually get sick.
Mar 16, 2009 - 6:26 am 7. The Shadow:If you start from the premise that health care is a right then I don’t see how you can defend the current system.
Mar 16, 2009 - 6:47 am 8. Carolb:There could be so many problems with the electronic medical records. We all remember what happened with Joe the Plumber and the search on his personal records. Will it be just as easy for someone to snoop around someone’s medical records? Plus, how much will doctors be able to see? If you’re going in for a routine teeth cleaning, will the dentist be able to see that you’ve got a mental problem….or if you’ve had an abortion, std, etc.? Will I, as a parent, be able to access my child’s medical record electronically, or at least be able to request a copy of it?
On the one hand, I can see the use of having them. My mother is in the hospital, and every doctor that’s come in from each different “specialty” is asking her the same questions about her medical history. So, I wouldn’t mind that general “history” being electronic. But, there are other things that people would really want to keep private, I think.
Mar 16, 2009 - 7:04 am 9. Delia:Prognosis negative.
Sorry…I couldn’t resist a Seinfeld-er.
-
Zero and the ‘1337′ Dems will have their own ’special’ health-care. Now worries…nothing to see here…move er shuffle…er limp along now.
Mar 16, 2009 - 7:27 am 10. Delia:Now worries? NO worries.
Good grief! I need another cup of kawfee. ;p
Mar 16, 2009 - 7:28 am 11. TOhio:What to get an idea of what government health care is going to be like? Go to the post office. Stand in line. Imagine yourself being sick and waiting in line. Watch the people behind the counter take their time. Welcome to government run health care!
Mar 16, 2009 - 8:41 am 12. Chemman:Some of you are old enough to remember when fans of the New Orleans Saints football team wore brown paper bags over their heads at the games because the Saints were so bad. Do you think if we wore bags to the government controlled clinics it will make it any better? Not
Mar 16, 2009 - 9:15 am 13. bear:The Shadow said: “If you start from the premise that health care is a right then I don’t see how you can defend the current system.” My response to this total lack of thinking is. If you start from the premise that government enforced slavery is authorized you can defend a system of National Health Care.
Not that I’m necessarily in favor of his program now, but if you think the current system is working you are nuts.
In my area Primary Care Physicians are becoming an endangered species, and many specialists are leaving the area due to contracts negotiated by the HMO’s (THEY CAN’T MAKE MONEY). If you don’t have health insurance you’re looking at a 10-1 price difference between the insured and uninsured (that is list price vs negotiated price) for medications and although the ratios aren’t likely quite so high for other services, the net out of pocket expenses delta is still large.
I haven’t had a primary care Dr. for 3 years…they all quit retired or left the area.
Mar 16, 2009 - 9:26 am 14. bear:Centalized Electronics records has legitimate actual value other than to have more information about us. It might help in some corner case Emergency room visits, but the cost benefit ratio is small IMHO. Benefits coordination has a much better payback to the gov’t.
Mar 16, 2009 - 9:29 am 15. bear:correction for typo:no legitimate value
Mar 16, 2009 - 9:34 am 16. Saltherring:Wait until a government bureaucrat determines that a 35-year-old illegal alien with a family to feed should be granted a place in the knee surgery line in front of a retired 65-year old American citizen. It’s going to happen.
Mar 16, 2009 - 9:54 am 17. Ms. Attitude:I grew up military and am well aware of government health care. My sister had strep throat 12 times and the doctor said it was because she talked too much. She finally had her tonsils removed and never had strep again. I had food poisoning and was left in the waiting room and told to drink warm Sprite. My sister was 12 at the time of her surgery and I was 10 when I went home threw up my warm Sprite. I broke my ankle when I was 8 and they set it wrong and put a cast on it, after six weeks they had to rebreak it and start over.
Think about it, the doctor’s will be paid the same whether they help you or not and if you want to sue a government doctor…well, good luck with that!
This isn’t going to be good.
Mar 16, 2009 - 10:01 am 18. jerryofva:Regardless of political beliefs doctors agree that early detection and treatment of Cancer are the keys to survival. As such cancer survival rates are a good proxy for access to medical care. For all the talk about the superiority of Europe’s medical delivery systems you would think that US lags way behind in cancer survival rates. If you think that then you would be wrong the US has the best cancer survival rates around. The US system provided better access and superior treatment then any competing system.
http://www.oncolink.org/resources/article.cfm?c=3&s=8&ss=23&Year=2000&Month=8&id=207
Mar 16, 2009 - 10:32 am 19. Bender:Yeah, just wait until health benefits are taxed, such that the $10,000 your employer pays for your premium is treated as income to you, resulting in a tax increase of $2,000 to $3,000 to you. Of course, that $10,000 benefit is not given to you in cash, so you have to cough it up out of your other income.
End result? Folks saying, screw that! If I’m going to get taxed on some non-cash benefit, thereby reducing my take-home pay, I don’t want it. Instead of increasing health coverage, taxing benefits will drastically reduce coverage.
The more you tax something, the less of it you will have. Fundamental principles that are totally lost on the Obamarxists.
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:10 am 20. jerryofva:Bendar:
What will happen is Employees will start asking for the benefit in cash and then use what’s left after taxes to buy their own health insurance. This is worse then the McCain plan that Obama criticized where you would get a $5000 tax credit and your employer would get taxed on the benefits. This is a plan designed to destroy the private health insurance system and allow the Federal Government to come in to “save” it with inferior nationalized healthcare.
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:51 am 21. ked5: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.
~~~
Yeah. And while doing medical research, I ended up on a UK health site. On several different subjects, I’ve been amazed at what subpar treatment people will tolerate. Things that are not “experimental”, but *standard care* here, are afterthought.
There will be an upswing in mortality rates – but that will be “good” becasue then there would be fewer mouths to feed.
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:59 am 22. ked5:8.
Will I, as a parent, be able to access my child’s medical record electronically, or at least be able to request a copy of it?
~~~~~~
Mar 16, 2009 - 12:03 pm 23. Claire Solt:Heaven’s no! what would ever make you think, you, a *parent*, would have the right to see your minor child’s medical record. that’s an invasion of privacy! that’s for the state to see and decide what medical care they receive. [tongue-firmly-in-cheek]
I think that it is crucial to expose that government is the cause of many problems people complain about. Also, expose how bad government programs are. When I got Medicare, the first thing I learned was that I had to change doctors. It does not pay its providers and Obama wants to cut that another 20%. Docs and hospitals shift those losses to others. State legislatures have loaded up mandates to drive up cost of insurance. Florida governor Crist worked to bring an attractive policy to market for $150/mo. Two companies ar advertising it. That should help the uninsured and beats setting aside $600B.
Mar 16, 2009 - 12:44 pm 24. Alana:Most of all, this electronic records data base in DC and the ghoulish comments of Daschle send chills up my spine. How is possible that civil libertairians care more about library records than this? Maybe improve the medic alert bracelet system which has provided a service without slowing down innovation.
Trading good medicine for less security and bad medicine.
What a plan.
Mar 16, 2009 - 12:54 pm 25. Leatherneck:I do not think this is about health care. It is more about control. Health care is about 10% of the economy. Throw in the health care American tax payers pay for illegal aliens, and you might as well call it the North American Union health care system.
Makes me sick!
Mar 16, 2009 - 1:04 pm 26. ILLigal alien:jajjajjajajajjaj, I came to your country 15 yrs ago, I get free medical and everything to housing and food. I usually buy a low cost food with food stamps and I get cash money back, then I go next door to the liquir store and buy my tequilla and cervaza. I love america and more of my people will sneak into your paradise and get free medical care. We will take over the states you stoled from us. jajjajajjajjaj I got to get my welfare check. Suckers.
Mar 16, 2009 - 2:01 pm 27. Doc99:Craig … you left out one obvious form of Government-run Healthcare, The VA. I seem to remember something about Walter Reade a few years ago. Imagine Walter Reade for 200 million Americans.
Mar 16, 2009 - 3:02 pm 28. ChipD:From Craig- Post #1
Government run Social Security
Government run FEMA
Government run DMVs
Government run Public Schools
Government run Medicaid
Government run Prison System
Government run….FILL IN THE BLANK
OK, you got it-
Government run….Military
Government run….Police
Government run….Fire Department
Government run….Coast Guard
Ahh, useless lazy Gummint employees, all!
Mar 16, 2009 - 6:33 pm 29. Maurice:ChipD, the military is only good because we’ve gone to motivated and patriotic Americans, but the Military is still rife with cost and spending abuse, terrible procurement procedures (do you remember that our troops bitched they weren’t getting adequate armored vehicles to go ’round Iraq, and men were buying their OWN bullet-proof vests?)
But most people except anarchists would agree that certain things are necessarily government-run, as it is difficult to have them privatized, and that would be…the Armed Forces, police and the like.
Yes, most fire department people I”ve met (I work in an emergency room) are like our military, very motivated and wonderful people, in spite of crap pay.
The better example is the Post Office, as someone mentioned. Regardless of the season, the number of people waiting in line…they move at one pace, and if there are 6 windows open to take customers…to hell with those customers, one or two bays are open, everyone else is on break. And it’s because (though I have dealt with wonderful P.O. workers too, and not all, to say the least, are deserving of our opprobrium and do not fit the stereotype) the P.O. legally banned competition.
It’s true that Fed Ex et al, and then the Internet, managed to make huge inroads on the P.O.’s turf, thank goodness, but we’re still stuck with the P.O. for various things. Inefficient, often rude, often bad, no one cares.
Why should they?
Nope, sorry Mr. Government lover ChipD, your counterexamples don’t hold water.
Mar 16, 2009 - 8:04 pm 30. venividivici:ChipD:
From Craig- Post #1
Government run Social Security
Government run FEMA
Government run DMVs
Government run Public Schools
Government run Medicaid
Government run Prison System
Government run….FILL IN THE BLANK
OK, you got it-
Government run….Military
Government run….Police
Government run….Fire Department
Government run….Coast Guard
Ahh, useless lazy Gummint employees, all!
Who’s complaining about the military, police, FD and Coast Guard? If government employment were limited to those spheres, I’d be ecstatic.
Mar 17, 2009 - 5:12 am 31. JackT:We need national health care for all citizens, free of charge to those without coverage. Raise taxes on those of us who can afford to pay more so we can provide for those who can’t. Makes perfect sense to me. Unless of course you’re a greedy, selfish, uncaring, unsympathetic, Republican. Then you’d probably rather see them all die.
Mar 18, 2009 - 10:53 am 32. jane:We are already importing many doctors. I doubt we’ll import at a higher rate than we already do once Obama’s system is in place. But I think he’s hoping for a shortage of physicians. It will allow for controlling costs. No doctors, no doctor bills.
Mar 18, 2009 - 1:56 pm 33. Leatherneck:I went to the store today. I had to pay for everything I wanted. Then, I got the oil changed in my Jeep. Again, I had to pay every cent before I got my keys back. The same thing happeneds every month when my home loan payment comes up. Not to mention, the utility bill, phone bill, car loan payment, insurance, fuel costs, gym, life lock, and next month the IRS.
Why I can not get someone, anyone to pay for the things I want is beyond me. Perhaps, they just want me to die, and go away.
Sarc/off
Mar 18, 2009 - 7:40 pm 34. DaProf:OK,
SO, the same government that can’t run the V.A. effectively without considering having our wounded Vets have to use private insurance to cover their care …… Wants to take over health care for the rest of us?
Let’s see our Veteran’s cared for properly if they want a snowball’s chance of convincing anyone that they can manage nationwide health care!
Mar 19, 2009 - 1:39 pm 35. MegaBob:As a doctor, all I can say is that we had a system that worked very well- until the government got involved in it. Medicare and Medicaid are over half the patients we see now and that system sucks.Electronic records are horrible- but they allow the government and insurance companies to micrmanage us (and you). Yet all the Illegal aliens have Medicaid now ! We are truely doomed.
Mar 20, 2009 - 8:13 am 36. MegaBob:And #31– Be careful what you wish for- you might get it!
Mar 21, 2009 - 5:46 amAnd remember- you get what you pay for. If it’s free, it’s worthless.