Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obamacare's Lethal Third Rail Shock To Come [Must Read]
The Cypress Times ^ | Feb 22, 2009 | Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.

Posted on 02/23/2010 6:29:25 PM PST by upchuck

Subway riders know the adage – The third rail is deadly –it carries the current that can kill you. Avoid the third rail.

We are about to get that “third rail” for government-controlled healthcare. Then comes the death blow to your medical privacy, your freedom to choose medical treatment options, and your ability to control the cost of any private health insurance you may want to buy.

Democrats, working in the shadows away from public view and using devious “divide and conquer” strategies, have already laid two tracks for a complete government control of your healthcare. They only have one more rail to go.

The first two rails were craftily hidden in the Stimulus Bill of February 2009. While the public thinks healthcare bills are still “out there” and not yet passed, the Democrats have been celebrating the anniversary of the Stimulus Bill, knowing that their “Stimulus” stealth tactics already laid those first two healthcare tracks for government control.

Populist rhetoric hides the lethal third rail. It is called “insurance reform.”

It’s brilliantly deceptive and diabolical in its 3-step simplicity:

1. Control medical records and private health information of every person in the United States, and penalize health professionals who refuse to release your personal information. ALREADY PASSED into law February 2009. Come 2014, YOU no longer control YOUR medical records.

2. Control delivery of all health services under the guise of “comparative effectiveness research” and the “complete lives system” that decides a person’s value based on age. The federal health czar’s panel of bureaucrats and computers will decide whether or not you are “worth” the cost of treatment, and what treatment you will be approved to obtain. ALREADY PASSED into law February 2009.

3. The Missing Third Rail: Insurance “Reform.” Control of all private insurers in the country. The rhetoric goes this way: These “bad” insurance companies must be reined in. Government must protect people. Government will dictate what insurance plans must cover, what they cannot exclude. Government dictates mean dramatic prices increases if companies are forced to give up using their risk-based approach to underwriting, which helps keep premium costs down. Then the private insurance market collapses. We lose our freedom to choose our plan.

Once this third rail is in place, you will have lost all control of your healthcare. Done deal.

This third rail will kill private healthcare as we know it. This is the only remaining part of the massive Senate and House healthcare bills that the Democrats know is critical to get passed in order to achieve their goal on government control of your healthcare.

I think this is the next stealth strategy for the Obama-Pelosi-Reid team: seduce you into thinking that insurance “reform” is actually going to protect you, and that’s “all” they really need to pass now. The protectionist subterfuge hides the dangers of the third rail shock until it is too late.

Charles Krauthammer wrote on January 15, 2010: “Then… the federal government will regulate in crushing detail one-sixth of the U.S. economy. By essentially abolishing medical underwriting (actuarially based risk assessment) and replacing it with government fiat, ObamaCare turns the health insurance companies into utilities, their every significant move dictated by government regulators.” Federal bureaucrats will make decisions about your treatment, not your doctor or other health professional.

Members of the House and Senate who voted for the massive Stimulus Bill, without reading it, already put the federal government in control of your personal medical information. The Stimulus Bill already sold out your medical privacy. The Stimulus Bill already put the federal health czar in control of what treatment options you will be allowed to have.

The third rail, euphemistically called “insurance reform,” (really insurance controls) will deal the lethal blow to private health insurance. Laying the third rail trap, the politicians will rob you of your privacy, your medical treatment options, and now, your choice of how to pay for care.

This “third rail” must be stopped before the best medical care in the world is destroyed.

The problems we face in healthcare today are not caused by doctors, insurance companies, drug companies, or medical device makers. The problems we face are caused by politicians creating more and more big government regulation, more and more government intrusion into the patient-doctor relationship. Their solution is a political one, but it is not in patients’ best interests. We must get the politicians OUT of healthcare.

Ronald Reagan warned in 1961: “Socialism begins with government control of medicine.” Reagan also said, “Socialized medicine is always presented as a great emergency, and if you challenge it, you are attacked with accusations that you lack compassion.” This is exactly what we are hearing from progressive Democrats today.

Insurance controls become the third rail, a lethal assault on your Constitutionally guaranteed unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This third rail is the final shock that can kill you. Politicians cannot save you.

Doctors and patients across the country must join to stop this third rail. Then we have to start ripping up traps from the other two healthcare tracks they have laid.

DISCLAIMER: Dr. Vliet speaks as an independent physician, not as an official spokesperson for any organization. Dr. Vliet has no financial ties to any health care system, pharmaceutical company, or health insurance plan. Her allegiance and advocacy is to and for patients.

Sources:

1. Health Information Technology (HIT) “Strategic Plan” was set out in Part 3 of subsection ( c ) of the Stimulus Bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009). See pages 442-446 of H.R. 1 EH pdf version online. Most in Congress did not read it before they voted to pass it.

2. The February 2009 Stimulus Bill set up the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (see pages 190-192 of H.R. 1 EH pdf version online).

3. Ronald Reagan in his own words discusses risks of socialized medicine: http://cassandra2004.blogspot.com/2009/02/ronald-reagan-1961-socialized-medicine.html)


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

1 posted on 02/23/2010 6:29:25 PM PST by upchuck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: upchuck

Obama needs to be reigned in asap. Generation Zero on Hannity now. The most important documentary ever. We need to get back to our roots. Quit listening to Obama and Co and get up and start putting this country back together. Vote most of the incumbents out of the Republican part (do not listen to a good story by people running); get real good candidates that want to rebuild our base, manufacturing; etc. We can not exist on service based junk.


2 posted on 02/23/2010 6:31:59 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck
For more details of what nobama and Daschle slid behind your back in the porkulus bill, go read this. Prepare to be pissed.
3 posted on 02/23/2010 6:33:00 PM PST by upchuck (I'm glad I'm old. Thus I can remember when America was a decent, moral, God fearing country.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

When the congress passes and zero signs into law, health care reform that makes insurers accept people with pre existing conditions, I will drop my fire insurance on my house and only buy it again if my house catches fire.


4 posted on 02/23/2010 6:36:26 PM PST by Graybeard58 ("0bama's not just stupid; He’s Jimmy Carter stupid”. - Don Imus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck
The third rail applied in these parts will mean one thing: federal buildings being placed under seige and possibly destroyed.

Nobody wants this demographic warfare " Health Care Bill."

It will not be enforceable if passed.No one will follow it, including so called health professionals.

5 posted on 02/23/2010 6:57:40 PM PST by Candor7 (((The effective weapons against Oba- Fascism are ridicule, derision , truth (.Member NRA)))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

Tell you what. If all that comes to pass, I’ll either find a doctor who’ll sign a written statement that my medical records won’t be shared with anyone else, or I’ll not go to the doctor. While we’re on the subject, I’ll not be forced to buy insurance once they’ve trashed my employer’s plan. I’ll not pay a fine. I’ll not go to jail. If any of 0’s moles are monitoring this thread, freepmail me and we can meet and have it out now. It’ll save us both some inconvenience later.


6 posted on 02/23/2010 6:59:16 PM PST by Emile ("Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -- A. Huxley)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...
We are about to get that "third rail" for government-controlled healthcare. Then comes the death blow to your medical privacy, your freedom to choose medical treatment options, and your ability to control the cost of any private health insurance you may want to buy... The first two rails were craftily hidden in the Stimulus Bill of February 2009... Populist rhetoric hides the lethal third rail. It is called "insurance reform."
Thanks upchuck. G'night all.
7 posted on 02/23/2010 7:16:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv (February 23, 1945 -- Freedom is Priceless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


8 posted on 02/23/2010 7:17:04 PM PST by SunkenCiv (February 23, 1945 -- Freedom is Priceless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: freekitty

Obama is going nowhere with his healthcare crap. All what he can do is to appear tough in talking but he cannot do anything to achieve what he is saying. By now you should understand that this is the weakest, most incompetent, and most cowardly President in history. All what he is able to do is to talk, and talk, and talk, but he cannot do anything.


9 posted on 02/23/2010 7:21:28 PM PST by jveritas (God bless our brave troops)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: jveritas

10 posted on 02/23/2010 7:25:42 PM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: musicman

Excellent cartoon :)


11 posted on 02/23/2010 7:29:00 PM PST by jveritas (God bless our brave troops)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: jveritas
Excellent post!! (as usual)
12 posted on 02/23/2010 7:35:34 PM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: jveritas

I know.


13 posted on 02/23/2010 7:35:43 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Go Gordon

Bump for later reference


14 posted on 02/23/2010 7:36:54 PM PST by Go Gordon (Obama - He has nothing to say, but will say it anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jveritas

“Obama is going nowhere with his healthcare crap. ‘

I believe you are right, but I also believe he knows this. This is smoke and mirrors so we won’t notice what the other hand is doing. ‘Jobs bill’? (Thank you RINO Scott Brown)Cap & Trade? Better keep an eye on the other hand.


15 posted on 02/23/2010 7:44:53 PM PST by bk1000 (A clear conscience is a sure sign of a poor memory)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

“Insurance controls become the third rail...”

I think Obama’s proposal to use price controls for insurance premiums is a throw-away. He knows the Republicans will not agree to them. He will, in the spirit of bipartisanship, throw that part of his plan out and declare that he has compromised with the Republicans.

It’s the kind of thing that unions do all the time - include demands that they know will not be accepted, so they can say that they compromised.


16 posted on 02/23/2010 7:53:55 PM PST by mouske
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

Very sobering article. The rat bastard socialist demoRATs & 0bozo the commie pig want to destroy our country forever. How could so many people (including my dumb ass brother & even more stupid sister-in-law) be so stupid as to vote for this commie pig!


17 posted on 02/23/2010 8:07:05 PM PST by rcrngroup
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Emile
Tell you what. If all that comes to pass, I’ll either find a doctor who’ll sign a written statement that my medical records won’t be shared with anyone else, or I’ll not go to the doctor.

You might want to read up on HIPAA regulations (Clinton era law). While someone cannot just walk in off the street and ask about your medical condition--it's illegal even to divulge that someone has a doctor's appointment--there is a large list of various entities who can have a copy of your records for the asking. You can request in writing that your medical records can be kept private (you have to be specific about who you want to keep from seeing them), and your request will be placed into your record, BUT... under the law, your request can be completely disregarded. You have the right to have a copy of all your medical records, except for those pertaining to mental health care. I have no idea why people can't see their mental health care records.

18 posted on 02/23/2010 8:22:43 PM PST by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: upchuck
"Democrats working in the shadows"


19 posted on 02/23/2010 8:30:27 PM PST by garjog (Used to be liberals were just people to disagree with. Now they are a threat to our existence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: musicman

20 posted on 02/23/2010 8:32:22 PM PST by Bean Counter (I keeps mah feathers numbered, for just such an emergency...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson