Posted on 07/24/2012 10:09:06 AM PDT by neverdem
Amid the huge response — both triumphant and agonized — to the Supreme Court’s preservation of Obamacare, I was surprised at how little attention was being paid to that law’s core purpose: to strongly control health care costs where government funding is involved, as it increasingly will be.
What still shocks me about this law is the government’s interference with the doctor-patient relationship. Many government bureaucracies will not pay for doctor-prescribed treatments costing more than a predetermined figure. And none of these bureaucracies’ members will have actually seen the individual patient.
This may affect elderly patients in particular, but it can happen at any age.
What has also been hardly mentioned about the high court’s decision is its effect on a tax in Obamacare that could have a powerful — and for some, fatal — impact on Americans at any age.
In a recent story (“House Acts to Repeal Medical-Device Tax,” The New York Times, June 8), Robert Pear, whom I’ve found to be the most credible reporter on health care issues, tells of the House voting to repeal a tax on medical technology industries that would amount to $29 billion over the next 10 years. This vote came before the Supreme Court ruling.
“The tax,” Pear wrote, “would apply to manufacturers and importers of devices like pacemakers and stents, defibrillators, artificial hips and knees, surgical tools and X-ray machines.”
The Democratically controlled Senate was not likely to agree with the House, and in any case, Obama pledged to veto it because he’d much rather those billions in tax revenues go to cutting health care costs.
In the furor over the Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare, there have been only a few tiny mentions about how these medical devices can and do save lives.
Here is my personal story...
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Every once in a while, the old Lib comes to his senses.
If Obamacare kicks in the first place we will clearly see the rationing is in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). When a high risk infant is born a decision will need to be quickly made whether to treat them in a NICU or leave them die untreated. NICU care is terrifically expensive and infants can be in these units for months. Government bureaucrats will quickly be playing God and determining who live and who dies.
If you seriously need any major medical treatment, NOW is the time to get it!
ping
"The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health- care bill out here."
-President Obama-
So if Obama is promising to cut the cost of health care, and if 80% of the total cost of health care is for people past retirement age, then where do you think these savings are going to come from?
Death panels? You betcha! And AARP signed off on it.
The Myth of Obama’s Rhetorical Brilliance
Polio Workers Shot in Pakistan
Bloomberg's gun-control idea: Cops go on Strike
Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
“Amid the huge response — both triumphant and agonized — to the Supreme Court’s preservation of Obamacare, I was surprised at how little attention was being paid to that law’s core purpose: to strongly control health care costs where government funding is involved, as it increasingly will be.”
So, they pass a tax on medical equiptment supposedly so they can use the 32 billion to bring down the cost of Obama care. But, doesn’t the cost of the equiptment go up exactly 32 billion?
Liberalism is a mental disorder. If I thought they were this stupid then I’d be laughing. No one can be this stupid. They’re dangerous.
Most “major medical treatments” are of such a nature that if you do not get it, you will most certainly live longer.
When the “death panels” really kick in, people will begin to live years longer, and the ZPG freaks will be screaming to repeal them. This is especially true for Prostate Cancer.
Trust me, I am the exception to that rule. However, I have refrained from seeking medical help most of my life until a brick wall showed itself last year. I am fortunate that I am healthy enough to have survived the “diverse” care I received last year and 4 weeks ago.
I can report that I am back in the saddle of my mountain bike again and plan to ride it to my six week check-up. Like I said, an exceptional recovery both times. This treatment/surgery would have killed my parents and my in-laws!
Sad state of affairs we are in.
He's been strong on the right to life for everyone --- including little babies and disabled people like Terri Schiavo --- for many, many years. This earns him contempt from his former comrades, which he wears like a Medal of Honor.
He's in his late-80's now. I hope he keeps living, writing, and kicking the shiitake out of the Left until Christ comes again.
I’ve been reading Hentoff’s articles for years. Just about the time I think his mind has cleared, he reverts to his old Lib style.
I wish him a long life...
Hentoff has always been intellectually honest, which makes it hard to tow the liberal line. He got fired from the Village Voice for some politically incorrect transgression.
Obama pledged to veto it because he’d much rather those billions in tax revenues go to cutting health care costs.
Obama will veto the bill to eliminate the tax on (JUST!) medical devices [aren’t these health care costs??] because he’s much rather those billions in tax revenues go to cutting health care costs!
The result of not treating such children will be a rise in US life expectancy statistics. Since salvaging those risky births would no longer be persued, the low-age deaths would no longer affect official statistics. Count on the radical left to tout only the “benefit” of commie care on life expectancy rates in America.
Read my Post #8. These people are truly idiots.
Rulings “based on costs and large group averages, not individuals,” made him fear that “we are entering an era of deliberate decisions where we choose to trade people’s lives for money.”
I beg Mitt Romney to tell us how he will end this trade in American lives for broad cuts in health care budgets. We do need to save money, but raising taxes on lifesaving medical devices while cutting potentially lifesaving tests strikes me as not the American way.
Will the outcome of the November elections tell us and our kids and grandkids whether we still are in what used to be called America, where individual doctors prescribed for the futures of their individual patients?
Nat Hentoffs a national treasure... ( and yeah, I know he's often a liberal...)
Thanks for the ping!
I like his jazz articles in WSJ.
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