[Man50D]

Daschle is history but the bill remains.

Sounds benign enough, but the man behind the Coordinating Council, Health and Human Services Secretary-designate (and tax cheat) Tom Daschle, was kind enough to explain the goal of this organization. It is to cut health care costs by preventing Americans from getting treatments that the government decides don't meet their standards for cost effectiveness.

This is the crux of the bill, not economic improvement. Advance socialism by expanding the government.

[ritewingwarrior]

“coordinate the conduct or support of comparative effectiveness and related health services research.””

If Democrats want to lie to justify national healthcare, then they need a group of people who will swear to the lie.

What a farce.

[SisterK]

The “stimulus bill” mandates that our already degraded health care system is going to be hacked to pieces? Thanks but no thanks. Government sanctioned euthanasia next.

[allmost]

Seeing individual human beings as producers and not valuing their lives is the crux of the problem inherent in socialism. Stalin’s purges, the great leap forward, infanticide, etc., are all justifiable in world where people just don’t matter. The communist ‘ideals’ have a net opposite result. But, idiots still think it will work. This bureaucracy will kill people if allowed to advance it’s agenda. Reducing human pain, suffering, and life itself to numbers crunched behind a bureaucrats desk trying to fit ‘the budget’.

[autumnraine]

“Now, all this time, we have been told that Republicans were the ones who only saw health care in terms of dollars and sense”

Sense? Spell check fail? Maybe “cents”? haha

But this article is frightening. Everyone who is harping on “We have to get this stimulus package out immediately. Republicans are obstructionists” have probably not read one page of this bill.

[paulycy]

...such a council would, "lower overall spending by determining which medicines, treatments and procedures are most effective-and identifying those that do not justify their high price tags."

Isn't this the headline?

Wouldn't you rather your *doctor* made these decisions???

I recently went through a several month process of trying different medicines. We chose the less expensive medications first. They didn't work.

The only medication that worked was a big name, big pharma drug at an equally big price. But it worked for me and ONLY it worked for me. The others didn't.

Will the "council" look at some sort of chart of averages and decide that the cheaper alternatives are just as good? Probably. Except that they aren't. They're useless.

We're so screwed if this comes to pass.

So I say:

Hey Socialized Medicine Council
Examine This!!!

[frithguild]

But the therapy is expensive, often running over $100,000 for a six-week course of treatment. But as new proton treatment facilities are built, improving the delivery of the therapy and increasing its supply, prices will decrease and quality will improve. But how will a panel of bureaucrats react to this situation? Will they allow insurance to cover a treatment that can be many times more expensive than conventional care and let it reach its full potential? Or will it be blackballed for future patients in the name of cost-containment?

The first question that will be asked is how much ($) has the proponent of the new technology "supported" the party.

[Deetes]

He’s gone as the official head . 0bama will just have him in one of those unofficial - official jobs ..

[FReepaholic]

...Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research...

Otherwise known as FCCCERs.

[metmom]

In his 2008 book on health care, he explained that such a council would, "lower overall spending by determining which medicines, treatments and procedures are most effective-and identifying those that do not justify their high price tags."

Everything has a high price tag when new.

Give it time and more effective treatments will come out of the current ones and the cost will come down.

So much for promoting scientific research.

[SunkenCiv]

Section 9201 of the stimulus package establishes the "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research." ...the man behind the Coordinating Council, Health and Human Services Secretary-designate (and tax cheat) Tom Daschle, was kind enough to explain the goal of this organization. It is to cut health care costs by preventing Americans from getting treatments that the government decides don't meet their standards for cost effectiveness. In his 2008 book on health care, he explained that such a council would, "lower overall spending by determining which medicines, treatments and procedures are most effective-and identifying those that do not justify their high price tags." Once a panel of government experts decides what is and what is not cost-effective by their definition, the government will stop paying for treatments, medicines, therapies or devices that fall into the latter category. Initially, this will limit access to very expensive treatments for federal employees, veterans, the elderly, members of the military and their dependents and others who rely on the feds to pay for their health care.

[shielagolden]

Ronald Reagan - A Time for Choosing
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1777069922535499977