Posted on 12/23/2009 1:44:01 AM PST by abb
The Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center, one of the nation’s most highly regarded academic hospitals, has earned a reputation as a place where doctors will go to virtually any length and expense to try to save a patient’s life.
“If you come into this hospital, we’re not going to let you die,” said Dr. David T. Feinberg, the hospital system’s chief executive.
Yet that ethos has made the medical center a prime target for critics in the Obama administration and elsewhere who talk about how much money the nation wastes on needless tests and futile procedures. They like to note that U.C.L.A. is perennially near the top of widely cited data, compiled by researchers at Dartmouth, ranking medical centers that spend the most on end-of-life care but seem to have no better results than hospitals spending much less.
Under the House health care legislation pending in Congress, the Institute of Medicine would conduct a study of the regional variations in Medicare spending to try to determine how to reward hospitals like Mayo for providing more cost-effective care. Hospitals identified as high-cost centers might even be penalized, perhaps receiving lower payments from the government. The Senate bill calls only for studies of Medicare spending variations, so it will be up to House-Senate negotiators to resolve the matter in the final legislation.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The research hospital is going to become a thing of the past.
Stop Obama Care, Abolish Medicare and let private insurance companies, doctors and the patient’s families make such decisions.
This was the plan all along. What greater control can The State have than that of life and death itself?
Well, of course it has been the plan all along.
That's why end of life decisions should be left to the private sector insurance companies and not a Socialized Medicine Bureaucrat.
>> What greater control can The State have than that of life and death itself?
The state should take note that an armed populace, sufficiently fed up, can gravitate towards making their own style of “end of life” decisions, too.
Indeed.
we used to be a happy and carefree people...now we worry about everything and everybody and it has dampered our lives.....
but all this about end of life is just the tip of the iceberg...
we'll see forced organ donation....
we'll see forced birth control...
we'll see implantation of codes in our bodies....
we'll probably see the nazis claim our dead relatives for science...
we'll see forced impregnation so a certain bone marrow can be obtained...
its all one slimy little step at a time.....each step seems "reasonable" just like birth control and abortion seemed "reasonable" for the "convenience" of society.....
Sarah Palin’s tagging of the ‘Death Panels’ was spot on.
Anytime the reaction from the State-Run Media and the Marxists is shrieking and wailing, you know the target has been hit.
overall....we are overly tested,analyzed,procedured, etc....
we used to be a happy and carefree people...now we worry about everything and everybody and it has dampered our lives.....
You got that right! And yes, the rest of your post is true as well.
We can be happy and carefree people, even in the midst of all this trouble, if it will remind us our real hope is in God.
Obama Sucks.
A few days ago, I had the sad opportunity to sit down with the mother of a 17 year old boy who had just been murdered (I had to take info for his death certificate).
I’m in the Army; I have been taught triage. When I read the description of his death, I knew that, on the battlefield, I would have classed him as “expectant” (wounds too severe for the limited resources of a battlefield) and put him aside to receive comfort care only. But he went to a hospital; even though it was probably apparent nothing could be done, he received a great deal of care before he was removed from life support and died.
The care of this dying boy probably cost thousands. It occurred to me that the family probably doesn’t care—they *wanted* the extraordinary measures. Because they *wanted* to give him the chance to live, no matter how small that hope was.
Under Obamacare, there’s no doubt a kid like that would have been pumped full of morphine (if he received anything at all), and no attempt whatsoever would have been made to save his life. Because this whole travesty is about bringing down cost, not about care.
Congratulations on reaching your 65th Birthday! Your contribution to the People's Government is appreciated.
As you know, it is now time to do your patriotic duty and die for your country. All who reach your age are given this honor, to stop eating, breathing and living which merely costs the government valuable time and money simply for your own selfish needs.
Now that you are no longer allowed to hold a job the People do not wish to be bothered with your useless eating and pointless taking up of expensive real estate to park your aged and unwanted carcass.
Report to the Senior Concentration Center immediately or you will be collected forcibly by the ACORN/SEIU Standing Army on Monday.
In My Unprecedented Name, President Sheik Barack Hussein Obama
How do Democrats kill undesirables without messy execution? Deny medical care and call it a cost saving measure.
Interesting NY Times article
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Thanks.
What people fail to realize is that medical advances come because expensive and seemingly futile tests are performed. This helps doctors develop and perfect methods.
A few decades ago bypass surgery was very expensive and often futile. Now it is a routine surgery where the patient usually goes home within a day or two and enjoys a full life.
Medicine is just like ANY other form of technology. When something is new, it costs a lot and is far from perfect. However, as time goes by it gets better and cheaper.
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