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Dr. Elaina George, MD
The Healthcare Reform Bill: Truth & Consequences
November 10, 2009
The healthcare reform bill (HR
3962) that just passed the House of
Representatives is bad on so many levels it is
difficult to explain. As it stands, it will destroy
both the doctor-patient relationship and change the
practice of medicine as we know it.
We have one of the finest healthcare systems in the world. It has been
built on a foundation of choice. Doctors were free to choose the care
that they deemed necessary to treat their patients, and patients were
free to seek the medical care of their choice. Initially, the foundation
was shaken by the rise of the managed care system with capitation.
However, over the past 10 years, capitated plans, which limit access to
specialists, have given way to the rise in power of insurance companies.
They have used their anti-trust exemption to craft a system that has
used monopoly to increase profits on the backs of both doctors and
patients.
Unfortunately, the House does not address necessary changes that would
lead to meaningful reform, such as breaking the monopoly strangle hold
that insurance companies enjoy, reigning in the enormous profits of the
pharmaceutical industry, tort reform, or crafting a healthcare system
based on wellness and prevention and not the management of disease.
Instead HR3962 creates a layer of government bureaucracy that inserts
itself between the doctor and the patient by creating a national health
commissioner and task forces that will evaluate and decide everything
from what medications a physician is allowed to prescribe to a patient,
to what surgery will be approved, to what outcomes will be expected for
a particular medical condition.
Taken to its logical extent, this bill will create a world where the
good of the many by definition must outweigh the needs of the few
because to spend large sums of money on a limited number of patients
will increase costs without the guarantee of a good outcome. It only
makes sense as long as you are not the senior citizen that needs a hip
replacement, the premature infant with multiple medical problems or the
person with a chronic disease that statistics show has a limited time
left on this earth.
The House bill sets up a health care system with a finite number of
resources (e.g., doctors, hospitals, expensive medical equipment).
Because of these limitations, the system must be used to help those who
the government determines to be the most productive people. A principle
that has been advocated by senior White House health adviser, Dr.
Ezekiel Emanuel, brother to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, called "the
complete lives system." This system will prioritize healthcare for
those who are younger on the theory that they have not yet lived a
complete life by using tools such as lottery and prognosis to determine
who receives care.
This
system would lead to a harsh reality; but how else can we possibly cover
more people with limited resources at a lower cost without raising the
deficit as this bill promises? Medicare and Social Security are two
government run programs that suggest that the answer to this question
is…you can’t.
About Dr.
Elaina George, MD
Dr. Elaina George is physician in
Atlanta, Georgia. She is a medical correspondent and a Contributor
to various multi-media outlets. Dr. George is a Forensic Consultant with
American Medical Forensic Specialists. She is a keynote speaker with the
American Enterprise Institute's speakers bureau and a medical
correspondent for YourBlackWorld.com. |
