Dems' Trillion-Dollar Spending Bill Rations Health Care, Limits Choices for Patients & Doctors
Washington,
Feb 10, 2009 -
Everyone agrees that some government action to help our troubled economy is necessary, but instead of working together to focus first on job creation, congressional Democrats have thrown together a trillion-dollar spending bill that won’t work. Even worse, they are attempting to take advantage of the crisis in our economy to enact a series of liberal policy proposals that have nothing to do with economic recovery. One of those proposals – dubbed “comparative effectiveness” – would lay the groundwork for a government takeover of American’s health care system by creating an organization to decide how to ration medical treatments. That’s right, congressional Democrats plan to “stimulate” the economy by reducing options for patients and doctors.
How will this help our struggling economy? House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) says it won’t:
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“In tough economic times, action is needed to help struggling American families. But we won’t create or save jobs by having the government ration Americans’ health care options. These decisions should be made by patients and doctors, not by government bureaucrats. Putting the federal government in charge of some of the most important life and death decisions that families face is bad public policy, and it certainly has no place in this bill.”
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The Democratic Leadership’s trillion-dollar spending bill, which passed by the House opposed by all House Republicans and 11 House Democrats, includes $1.1 billion for the so-called “comparative effectiveness” provision, according to a column in the Wall Street Journal:
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“The centerpiece of their plan is $1.1 billion of the $825 billion stimulus package for studies to compare different drugs and devices to ‘save money and lives.’ Report language accompanying the House stimulus bill says that ‘more expensive’ medical products ‘will no longer be prescribed.’ The House bill also suggests that the new research should be used to create ‘guidelines’ to direct doctors’ treatment of difficult, high-cost medical problems.”
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This measure is the first step in a rationing plan favored by would-be “Health Czar” Tom Daschle, who withdrew his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services after he disclosed he didn’t pay his taxes. American Enterprise Institute scholar Dr. Scott Gottlieb says the provision is similar to the one used Britain’s National Health Service – which is notorious for forcing patients to endure long waits for needed care:
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“The comparative research will not be definitive, no matter how much its supporters on Capitol Hill might wish it so. As for the clinical impact, incorporating an explicit tie between the results of research and coverage decisions will put us squarely on a path that more closely resembles the process used in Britain--with all its shortcomings on access, innovation, and health outcomes.”
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In fact, this proposal is opposed by many of American’s leading healthcare research organizations, like he AIDS Institute, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, American Association for Cancer Research, Easter Seals, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In a letter, they wrote:
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“[W]e are very concerned that the House legislation and accompanying report language could have unintended and negative effects for patients, providers and medical innovators, leading to restrictions on patients’ access to treatments and physicians’ and other providers’ ability to deliver care that best meets the needs of the individual patient.”
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Republicans stand ready to work with President Obama to enact a responsible economic recovery plan that will help our economy protect and create jobs. The House GOP alternative plan that would create twice as many jobs as the plan moving through the Democratic Congress, at half the cost – without rationing healthcare for American families.
