"John Massey -> Ross Sauer"  wrote in
news:13321$POL_DISORDER{at}JamNNTPd:

 RS>> "Fair and Balanced" my ass!

 JM> Please feel free to point out what part of the following is wrong.


 JM> Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama's
 JM> stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions
 JM> to jump-start the economy.

 JM> Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health
 JM> provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the
 JM> handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the
 JM> Health and Human Services Department.

 JM> Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because
 JM> they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH,
 JM> pdf version).

 JM> The bill's health rules will affect "every individual in the United
 JM> States" (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked
 JM> electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records
 JM> at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial.
 JM> It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

 JM> But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National
 JM> Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments
 JM> to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems
 JM> appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and
 JM> "guide" your doctor's decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the
 JM> stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in
 JM> his 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care
 JM> Crisis." According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and
 JM> "learn to operate less like solo practitioners."

 JM> Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important,
 JM> but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

 JM> New Penalties

 JM> Hospitals and doctors that are not "meaningful users" of the new
 JM> system will face penalties.  "Meaningful user" isn't defined in the
 JM> bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to
 JM> impose "more stringent measures of meaningful use over time" (511,
 JM> 518, 540-541)

 JM> What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the
 JM> electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or
 JM> you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In
 JM> his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make
 JM> the "tough" decisions elected politicians won't make.

 JM> The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating
 JM> Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal,
 JM> Daschle's book explained, is to slow the development and use of new
 JM> medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He
 JM> praises Europeans for being more willing to accept "hopeless
 JM> diagnoses" and "forgo experimental treatments," and
he chastises
 JM> Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

 JM> Elderly Hardest Hit

 JM> Daschle says health-care reform "will not be pain free." Seniors
 JM> should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead
 JM> of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

 JM> Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The
 JM> stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness
 JM> standard set by the Federal Council (464).

 JM> The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in
 JM> Daschle's book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a
 JM> formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years
 JM> the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are
 JM> more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the
 JM> elderly, such as osteoporosis.

 JM> In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with
 JM> macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye
 JM> before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took
 JM> almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its
 JM> decision.

 JM> Hidden Provisions

 JM> If the Obama administration's economic stimulus bill passes the Senate
 JM> in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing.
 JM> Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years
 JM> and sacrifice later.

 JM> The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical
 JM> and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much
 JM> hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this
 JM> bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined
 JM> (90-92, 174-177, 181).

 JM> Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle
 JM> supported the Clinton administration's health-care overhaul in 1994,
 JM> and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle
 JM> wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount
 JM> an opposition. "If that means attaching a health-care plan to the
 JM> federal budget, so be it," he said. "The issue is too
important to be
 JM> stalled by Senate protocol."

 JM> More Scrutiny Needed

 JM> On Friday, President Obama called it "inexcusable and
irresponsible"
 JM> for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill
 JM> needs more scrutiny.

 JM> The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It
 JM> produces almost 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Yet
 JM> the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost
 JM> problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and
 JM> innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn.
 JM> This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.

Try thinking for yourself, rather than just parroting your racist pig
guru, the liar Nutso Boor.

--- Xnews/5.04.25