Posted on 11/16/2019 10:16:50 AM PST by John Semmens
This week the the Trump Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new rules requiring insurers and hospitals to inform patients of the cost of 300 common procedures and tests before the patient agrees to undergo them.
Insurance companies and hospitals complain that the push for full disclosure goes too far. Democratic presidential candidate Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren agreed. “Consumers aren’t competent to decide which procedures or tests they need,” she contended. “Forcing providers to quote prices to them asks these simple people to make judgments they aren’t qualified to make. This is the exact opposite direction from where we should be headed on health care.”
“My plan for free health care for all will relieve individuals from having to make such decisions by consolidating all authority in the hands of federal administrators,” the Senator explained. “Experts will decide how the nation’s medical resources will be deployed. This will ensure that the collective welfare of society is the decisive factor in who receives what care. Persons determined to be of sufficient value to warrant treatment will get treatment without having to agonize over the cost. Those who don’t deserve treatment will be mercifully spared the trauma of having to weigh their options. They will be provided with palliative care or be offered an assisted suicide alternative.”
Warren went on to chide critics of her health care plan for “ignoring the inherent cost-saving that will ensue once all decisions are centralized in the United States like they are in other democratic socialist countries like Cuba and China. The era of selfishness in determining how goods and services are distributed in this country must come to an end. Trump’s new rules are incompatible with this objective and cannot be allowed.”
HHS Secretary Alex Azar called Warren’s plan, “a march toward health care tyranny. The genius of America’s system of capitalism is its empowerment of individuals to run their own lives. Government lacks the expertise, knowledge, and moral authority to suppress individual autonomy and replace it with collectivist regimentation. If we really care about good health the patient has to be in control.”
In related news, revelation that Warren’s tax proposals might, in some cases, result in tax rates higher than 100% of a person’s income failed to dent her enthusiasm for reform. “My opinion is that in such cases, my free health care for all should acquire even more fans and supporters. I mean, if taxes take more than you earn you’ll need government health care. I will see that you get it.”
if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...
https://azconservative.org/2019/11/16/trump-rule-on-heath-care-pricing-assailed/
Great Semi. Thanks for all of your work. BUMP!
HOORAY Chief
“... these simple people...”
Oops. Did Warren really say that?
Section 2718 of the PPACA requires hospitals to provide pricing information.
Hopefully, Warren and Biden will politically pulverize each other over health care.
Insurance companies and hospitals complain that the push for full disclosure goes too far. Democratic presidential candidate Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren agreed. “Consumers aren’t competent to decide which procedures or tests they need,” she contended. “Forcing providers to quote prices to them asks these simple people to make judgments they aren’t qualified to make. This is the exact opposite direction from where we should be headed on health care.”
Too stupid to vote! To stupid to know costs. Maybe the problem are the assholes running school that make these people stupid in the first place,
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