Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Say goodbye to Granny

Katie called me this morning, really upset. She and her husband work in the healthcare industry and she talked about President Obama’s new Simulus Plan and how our healthcare system will be nationalized. Apparently, provisions have been included in the Plan and no one knew much about them.

Essentially, it says that decisions will no longer be your doctor’s but will now be the Federal Government’s. Not only that, there will be a national database where every American’s health history as well as what prescriptions they are taking, will be tracked.

Doctors will only be allowed to give treatment that the Feds deem appropriate. Once again, the idea is to reduce costs. Instead of doctors using their best judgment for their patients, they would have to refer to non-medical people making that decision. We have already heard all the horror stories of HMO’s denying patients treatment.

Tom Daschle, the guy who was nominated as the new HHS Secretary and then withdrew for not paying his taxes, said that the goal was to slow development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. It seems that he and certain government officials believe people are living just too long. Obama says that healthcare costs are crippling businesses. Healthcare reform is one thing, but this?

You had better say goodbye to Granny now. She may not have that much longer to live under these conditions or if it should go forward.