Posted on 02/10/2009 5:03:09 AM PST by jay1949
Yup.
But those voting on this in Congress don’t even have to contend with the health insurance problems of working folks (like me) who pay for their own insurance - - they have a gold-plated, top-of-the line program, gratis per the taxpayers!
The people who will legislate a government-run healthcare system (president, congress, senate), will not be enrolled in it. They will have the option of private healthcare. And since most of them are wealthy, thanks to the American taxpayer, they can afford private health insurance.
Correct. Hypocrites, the lot of ‘em.
Maybe so, but the joke will be on them when the bill comes due for this monstrisity.
“Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them.”
Yeah, that’ll fly well.
The baby boomers are a VERY large generation and I expect them to put up a fierce battle over any health care rationing.....
The baby boomers are the ones running the show now and part of the leftist nightmare shoving socialized medicine down our throats. The Woodstock generation are now in congress.
I am watching Megan Kelly grill Specter on this aspect of the Stimulus package now. She has all the facts and read the relevant part and is roasting him alive. Specter says “we will review these provisions”.
I feel the need to say this here every few months, mostly because it’s a view that doesn’t get heard much otherwise:
IMO, we are fooling ourselves what we think that the solution to privacy concerns is to remain anonymous; in a modern society this is impossible.
For example, many people here are concerned about the possibility that medical records will be used to determine standardized procedures that limit their access to expensive or experimental care.
This happens already with paper records, the only difference is that the paper records are far more prone to error, and far more difficult to correct when errors occur.
To give you a typical example, my 91-year-old mother, who lives in another state, recently had an expensive and complicated series of tests to determine the cause of her weight loss.
Only once the tests turned up negative was it discovered that they had been ordered on the basis of a weight drop from 148 to 108 pounds in one year - based on a physician’s note from her previous physical - at which her actual weight of 108 pounds had been recorded in hand-written form - which was read by the next physician as 148 rather than 108.
The result was a good deal of inconvenience and some discomfort for my mother, and a huge waste of medical resources.
This is what happens when you try to practice 2008 medicine based on 1908 record keeping.
IMO, if you really want to protect yourself against abuses of record keeping technology the solution is not to stick your head in the sand and pretend that you are somehow immune from such profiling because your records are on paper - the people most actually likely deny you coverage - your health care providers - have an army of employees combing the records for possible excuses to deny or limit coverage.
Instead - and I know this will infuriate those who suppose that the United States is a world leader absolutely everything - we need to take a close look at the protections provided for example by European Union privacy laws, which are far more restrictive as to the distribution and use of personal medical records for the United States, where essentially with a few exceptions we assume that health insurers have an absolute right to acquire, evaluate, and disseminate health records within and often beyond their own organizations.
IMO, this is true of just about every instance in which people believe that the transfer of information from paper records to electronic systems subverts their anonymity, the unfortunate fact is that the anonymity has already been lost, and that arguments over record-keeping techniques are often used by the very people who wish to mine the data as a distraction to prevent those being profiled from demanding stricter legal controls on the use of the data.
As for the argument that improve collection of treatment data is going make it more likely that standards will be established which may limit access to care, such limits are increasingly going to be imposed - we do not have unlimited resources for the provision of medical care - all is going to happen to the extent that you limit accurate data collection you will produce worst decisions based on worse information.
Again, the answer is not putting our head in the sand and pretending that we can somehow provide unlimited care by providing limited scrutiny, but rather to demand legal protections of the right to appropriate treatment.
An elderly person does not live in a vacuum and their state of well-being greatly affects everyone around them. A year ago my 90 year old father was blind. He could no longer play cards with us or watch baseball or microwave his oatmeal or get his own coffee. His mind is very sharp but he started spending more and more time just sleeping. In two fast out patient operations at Kaiser he went from blind to sighted. They had balked at doing the procedure because of his age. It was all so fast and easy and was like a miracle for all of us. He came back to life. He plays cards, participates in life and will be 92 this summer. A human life is not worth any less just because someone is old. In fact, my kids see this man as a very dear treasure as he tells his war stories and about the depression and so on. NONE of this is taken into account.
“The baby boomers are a VERY large generation and I expect them to put up a fierce battle over any health care rationing” - - that we Boomers will do, IF we get the chance. Which is why the Obamacrats are trying to slip nationalized health care through as part of a “stimulus” package. They want it to be a done deal before we have the chance to fight it.
Thailand, Singapore, India and China are all building for profit hospitals to service people with the means to get out of their own home country and seek excellent care elsewhere.
I think I’m going to start a major medical insurance plan that pays for foreign care...a lot of seniors in the Europe, Canada and now the US would sign up.
It is odd that Asia is becoming the last hope of free market capitalism. After centuries of restricted freedom..they are breaking out.
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