Spokane7
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December 1, 2009 in Opinion
Cal Thomas: Health care ‘reform’ alarming
Assuming a rock-solid 40 Republicans stand against the health care reform bill now being debated in the Senate, it will take just one Democrat or independent to derail this monstrosity, which along with its House companion may be the most disastrous piece of legislation ever to be this close to enactment by Congress.
So many lies have been told about the Senate and House bills that correcting them all might take more pages than the 2,000-plus pages that make the Senate version. Most people haven’t read them, but those who have are sounding the alarm. Dr. Stephen E. Fraser, of Indianapolis, wrote a letter expressing his objections to the House bill to Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana Democrat.
Fraser’s critique reads like an indictment for violating many constitutional principles, including invasion of privacy and the power of life and death without due process that under other circumstances would raise the hackles of the ACLU. Even though the Senate bill has differences from the House measure, both bills have much in common and in conference the hard left in the House will push for the adoption of most of their measures.
Among the outrages cited by Fraser about the House bill are these: “A government committee will decide what treatments/benefits you get (p. 123); The Health Choices commissioner will choose your health care benefits for you … you will have no choice (p. 42); health care will be provided to all non-U.S. citizens, illegal or otherwise (p. 50, section 152); government will have real-time access to individuals’ finances and a ‘National ID Health card’ will be issued. (p. 58).”
There’s more, unfortunately. The government will specify benefit levels for plans. That means “rationing of health care” (p.85, line 7); “government will mandate linguistic appropriate services … translation: illegal aliens (p. 91, lines 4-7); the government will use groups (i.e. ACORN & AmeriCorps) to sign up individuals for the government health care plan (p. 95, lines 8-18).”
Fraser has dozens of other examples of government taking over the most personal and intimate decisions any family or individual can make, including “end of life” and even marriage counseling.
All of this adds up to the federal government deciding your worth and whether it will pay for surgery or medication based on whether you cost more than you contribute to the government.
On page 429, lines 13 to 25, there is a provision that allows government to “specify which doctors can write an end-of-life order.” One can imagine a knock at the door and the doctor making the house call is named Jack Kevorkian.
Is this alarmist? Is this the ranting of the uncaring far right that wants to maintain the unhealthy status quo? No, it is a warning that health care in America is poised to become like England’s National Health Service. According to a report released in August by Britain’s Patients Association and highlighted in London’s Daily Telegraph, “1 million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain.”
The Patients Association claims that over the past six years hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with “neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel” treatment.
The charity described a horrifying number of incidents involving the elderly who were left in pain, in soiled clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly canceled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.
Voting against the Senate bill (and thus effectively killing the House bill) demands something we don’t see much of in Washington these days: courage and conviction. Without courage and conviction by one or more Democratic senators, we will inevitably become like the NHS where, according to the Patients Association report, “patients are more likely to go hungry than prisoners” and the standard of care in some wards would “shame a third world country.”
There are more preferable plans than the Senate and House bills. They would preserve our high-quality health care while fixing what is wrong.
The Senate bill must be defeated so those other plans can be seriously considered. If they aren’t, we will come to regret the haste with which the Senate (and House) plans are being rushed through.
Cal Thomas is a columnist for Tribune Media Services.
Don’t fudge fish standard 
wurman on December 01 at 11:09 a.m.
It is genuinely alarming to me that The Spokesman-Review chose to print this senseless blather by Cal Thomas. His “opinions” contradict staff editorials. The “facts” offered by Thomas are blatant lies. The list of drivel was not written by Thomas, but plagiarized from a notorious chain e-mail that has been totally debunked.
First, almost none of the page numbers quoted by Thomas correlate with either of the 2 versions for HR 3200 (as introduced and as reported), available at the congressional website and also at theThomas (Library of Congress) site.
Second, FactCheck.org, “Twenty-six Lies,” goes through the chain e-mail list of nonsense which Thomas copied and disguised slightly by changing the order.
In his 4th paragraph, Thomas offers 5 ridiculous lies, which are disproven thus by FactCheck (copied to here by me):
1) … a “private-public advisory committee” headed by the U.S. surgeon general and made up of mostly private sector “medical and other experts” selected by the president and the comptroller general. The advisory committee would have only the power “to recommend” what benefits are included in basic, enhanced and premium insurance plans.
2) The new Health Choices Commissioner will oversee a variety of choices to be offered through new insurance exchanges. The bill itself specifies the “minimum services to be covered” in a basic plan, including prescription drugs, mental health services, maternity and well-baby care and certain vaccines and preventive services (pages 27-28). We find nothing in the bill that prevents insurance companies from offering benefits that exceed the minimums.
3) Page 143 states: “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.” And as we’ve said before, current law prohibits illegal immigrants from participating in government health care programs.
4) This section aims to simplify electronic payments for health services, the same sort of electronic payments that already are common for such things as utility bills or mortgage payments… . There is no mention of “individual bank accounts” nor of any new government authority over them.
5) There is no mention of any “National ID Healthcard” anywhere in the bill. Page 58 says that government standards for electronic medical transactions “may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card,” to show eligibility for services. Insurance companies typically issue such cards already, but if such a standard were issued the cards would need to be in a standard form readable by computers. The word “may” is used to permit such a standard, but it does not require one.
This lengthy debunking goes on for pages. Cal Thomas is a liar and a stooge for syndicating a phony chain e-mail generated by idiots. The biggest lie is the assertion that “non-U.S. citizens, illegal or otherwise” will get healthcare. HR 3200 and current laws expressly prohibit any such expenditure.
It seems shameful to me that The Spokesman-Review and Tribune Media Services are complicit in publishing this specifically identified internet fraud as plagiarized by Thomas.
wurman
johnclarke on December 01 at 3:11 p.m.
wurman;
Well done. Everything you say is spot on. The SR is simply reprinting garbage and lies, and I simply can’t understand why.
Like so many working in the “middle class” I am coughing up like 25% of my take home pay to cover a spouse and child, and getting my coverage reduced EVERY YEAR. I think it’s awesome that the CEO of my medical plan makes $30 million (plus bonus) a year. The “for profit” medical industry is nothing but legalized extortion, and how on earth could anyone be against reform? Sheesh.
PlanB on December 01 at 3:23 p.m.
Cal Thomas appears to be one of those that hasn’t read the bill but manages to drop some keywords that fear mongers love to throw around: ACORN, ACLU, Dr. Kevorkian. Let’s scare people into not supporting health care reform. Kill reform if you are totally happy with the quality of service, cost, and coverage of what we have now.
I’m all for reading opinions, but couldn’t the SR could print one that has actual information?
Thanks to wurman for providing that information.