October, 2013 Obama Care Disaster Update, Expert Opinion 3: Medical Rationing, Loss of Freedom, and Other Dreadful Consequences

Over the past week or so we have been presenting the unfolding set of disasters that Obama Care has spawned. People losing their current insurance coverage, people seeing double or triple digit percent increases in their insurance costs, a data system/website sign up process that is both an epic failure and over $600 million embarrassment, a data systems process that is so bad that a leading computer antivirus executive has called the process a “hacker’s wet dream," workers seeing their work hours and wages slashed as a result of Obama Care, etc.

The first set of posts in this series were summaries, observations,  and comments based on my research into the disaster that is Obama Care. The past few days, today, and tomorrow are the opinions and thoughtful conclusions of subject matters experts in the medical industry. Their conclusions are basically the same as mine and are totally consistent with the views and opinions of the majority of Americans: Obama Care is the worst piece of legislation that has ever been enacted by Washington.

Today’s expert is Dr. Elaina George, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, She is a board-certified otolaryngologist and host of a weekly talk radio show, "Medicine On Call," a show that explores health issues and the politics of medicine. 

She is obviously more qualified than me to comment on this horrid piece of legislation. She correctly points out that this legislation is not really about health care reform, it is about control of the population by the Washington political class. 

Under this law, she predicts that health care will get worse, costs will go up, freedom of choice about our lives and health care treatments will decline, health care facilities will merge and consolidate, becoming less and less persuadable and client driven going forward, and despite what Obama and others claim, the uninsured are just as likely to remain uninsured since costs under a government run and controlled process will drive up waste, bloat, and inefficiencies. Not to mention how big Pharma and Big Insurance will enjoy the fruits of our suffering, in conjunction with big government advocates.

And best of all, she is able to parallel Obama Care with the rise and destructive path of Medicare, a wasteful bloated bureaucracy that never lived up to any of its original boasts. And she has the courage to mention the dreaded “R” word of medicine, rationing, an inevitable final course of action of Obama Care.

Scary, scary stuff from an insider of the medical industry.

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Obama Care: Smoke And Mirrors
Elaina F. George, MD

America's health care system has been exceptional because it's rooted in the principle of free enterprise.

Doctors have been free to practice medicine under guidelines set forth by their Hippocratic Oaths. Patients have been free to seek treatment from physicians of their choice. 

It's the envy of the world with both clinical and research innovation at the heart of its foundation. 

Until recently, it has been very simple and affordable — the independent private physician had a moral, ethical and fiduciary responsibility to a patient. This relationship was sacrosanct, and there was no third party or middleman. 

That will change with ObamaCare, but it's not the first time government has hacked away at the capitalist underpinnings of American health care. It's only the most recent... and most intrusive. 

Since the United Nations created the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, there has been an inexorable movement toward a centralized power that shifts decisions from individuals to government through regulation and mandates. It has readily caught on abroad and anchors socialized medicine. America was virtually the only western holdout. That changed in 1965, when the expansion of Social Security created Medicare, which, essentially, is socialized medicine for seniors. 

ObamaCare is following in Medicare's footsteps: 

• Just like ObamaCare, Medicare was sold as a government program to take care of Americans. Government became the benefactor, caregiver and savior — absolving Americans from personal responsibility. All they had to do was give their faith and money to the government. 
• Just like ObamaCare, Medicare was drafted by bureaucrats and politicians seemingly more interested in concentrating power and controlling the purse strings. 
• Just like ObamaCare, no doctors or patients were involved in the crafting of Medicare. There were no true advocates for the patient. 

Over the years, Medicare devolved into a bloated, wasteful and soon-to-be bankrupt system. It has been a piggy bank for Congress (in fact, $700 billion from the Medicare trust fund was raided to help fund ObamaCare). 

Costs have increased through higher deductibles while there has been a steady decline in access and treatment options. For those who argue that health care will improve under ObamaCare, note that Medicare reimbursements to hospices will increase one percent while hospital reimbursements fall. This makes it hard to argue that a new system will not emphasize rationing and palliative care to decrease costs. 

As Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill bicker about authorizing future funding for ObamaCare, the medical system that was once the envy of the world is being dismantled and reconfigured as a government-controlled grid falsely packaged as a caring, patient-centered system to provide unlimited access to medical care, the freedom to choose a doctor and decreased costs. 

Despite criticism that Republicans want people to die, the unfortunate truth is that ObamaCare is set up to do that very thing. 

If left in place, ObamaCare will continue to drive a broken system propped up by taxpayer money. Participating physicians will be controlled through fear and intimidation. Cartels such as the medical insurance industry and Big Pharma will collude, through medication formularies and pharmacy benefit management companies, to control both price and access to medication. 

Hospitals will continue to consolidate and become "too big to fail" because they have made themselves the only game in town. Patient care will be limited by increased waiting times for appointments, and access will be restricted through hospital-underwritten insurance that limits patients to facilities and doctors within their system. 

The most ironic part about ObamaCare is that it will not lead to a significant decrease in those who cannot access meaningful health care. 

People still won't have adequate access because they won't be able to find a doctor or cannot afford to seek treatment. The only difference is now they will be forced to pay for this privilege. 

But maybe that's the point. Create the problem, wait for the collapse and then provide the "solution" that Harry Reid already gleefully admitted to — a single-payer system that completes the government's takeover of health care (and our freedom). 

It's time for Americans to stop being distracted by the bright shiny thing the Obama Administration has thrown before us. We deserve better. 

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Loss of freedom to a bunch of Washington buffons who could not even devlop and rollout a simple website. What a sad way for liberty to die.

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Dr. Elaina George, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, is a board-certified otolaryngologist and host of a weekly talk radio show, "Medicine On Call," that explores health issues and the politics of medicine. 

Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.

Published by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.