ObamaCare: Let the Rationing Begin

Last week, the Federal Government Ivory Tower trumpeted important news. One of its illustrious Task Forces has decided that women in their 40’s would be the first to experience “Medical Darwinism.”

The United States Preventive Services Task Force, comprised of 16 appointees, decreed that:

1. Women in their 40’s no longer need routine yearly mammograms

2. Women aged 50-74 are to have mammograms only every other year

3. Self breast exams are no longer to be done at any age

Of note, this Task Force does NOT have even one member who is a cancer specialist or oncologist, let alone a breast cancer specialist. This panel based its recommendations NOT on comprehensive new clinical studies or research, but rather on computer projections of certain data points. A review of previous recommendations by the same Federal Government reveals that these recommendations are diametrically at odds with recommendations made just six months ago. So, what changed in six months?

New studies? No. What changed was the introduction of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Health Care Reform legislation, whose heart and core is based on rationing and denying care. (Note the omission of the word “soul.”) This method is the most inhumane and unethical means of cutting costs.

Let’s NOT let this Panel’s rationing objective get in the way of the real facts about breast cancer:

1. Breast Cancer is the number 1 killer of women globally…..500,000 women will die this year

2. Seventeen percent of Breast Cancer deaths occur in women diagnosed in their 40’s

3. Twenty-two percent of Breast Cancer deaths occur in women diagnosed in their 50’s

4. One of the leading factors in INCREASED survival rates in breast and other types of Cancer is based on EARLY diagnosis and intervention.

5. Those countries with higher death rates from Cancer have health care delivery systems based on rationing tests and treatments.

The recommendations made by the “Ivory Tower” Federal Panel do not even pretend to address these five points. However, they are completely in line with The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Health Care Legislation agenda– to deny and ration care as a means to cut costs.

On Sunday, November 22, Fox News Sunday interviewed Senator Arlen Specter, who was a Democrat before he was Republican before he was a Democrat. Senator Specter let the “secret agenda” of Obama-Pelosi-Reid slip . When questioned on the fact that The Senate Bill cuts $500 Billion in Medicare spending over ten years, yet in ten years there will be 30 percent more people in Medicare, Senator Spector stumbled. He admitted that Congress has NEVER cut Medicare benefits in its history and then confessed, “This Bill has a provision….a CURE….in how we can CUT Medicare–a Commission.” That’s right, a non-elected Commission will be appointed by The President. Starting in 2015, this Commission will oversee Medicare and its expenditures, but this Commission will NOT be accountable to the public. Initially, it will oversee cuts to Medicare Advantage, the same program that services 10 million Seniors. Using this type of panel to make such cuts, when it is NOT accountable to or elected by the public, is like bombing an enemy from 40,000 feet…..destruction occurs but you don’t see their faces. And, by 2019, ALL limits are off, and every American can become the target of the carpet bombing.

The bad news is that through this legislation authored by Obama-Pelosi-Reid, every American is facing more than one bomber. Through the hidden health care portion of The Stimulus Bill we are facing a squadron of bombers: The Federal Coordinating Council of Comparative Effectiveness Research, The National Coordinator of Health Information Technology Office, and The Medicare Commission in The Health Care Bill.. Their mission is to deny and ration care, and, as stated in The Stimulus Bill, “To guide medical decisions at the time and place of care.” Say so long to your privacy, doctor-patient privilege, choice, and control over your health care options and access.

Today it is mammogram screening tests. Tomorrow it will be the rationing and denial of treatment, if Obama-Pelosi-Reid have their way. Every American will become a victim of their rationing boards. Faceless, unaccountable, and unelected, these commissions will control 17% of this country’s GNP, and 100% of your health care options.

So, how is that “Hope” and “Change” looking so far?