Thanks to Lynn Vincent for this quote from former president Thomas Jefferson:
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
I guess we can’t.
Speaking of taking care of us, the Tax-the-Future bill to be signed into law today has a curious health care provision. Cal Thomas writes:
[Betsy] McCaughey discovered buried in the bill a new bureaucracy called the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. Among other things, it means that a Washington official will “monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.” The idea comes straight from former HHS nominee Tom Daschle’s 2008 book “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis” in which he says that doctors are going to have to give up their autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.” Inevitably, this means the government will decide who gets life-saving treatment and who doesn’t.
This is immoral. The whole bill and the way it was rushed through Congress are all immoral. I honestly don’t know what to do, besides blog about it. I do know that my worries are unfounded, in that my hope is in the Lord. With others overreacting to their real and perceived struggles, Christians can hope in the Lord no matter what. Whatever we will face, the Lord will see us through. Paint the darkest imaginable picture; it will only resemble the valley of the shadow of death through which the Lord has promised to remain with us. We are more valuable than birds and field lilies. We are eternal children of God. (Matthew 6:25-26)
Phil, I disagree with people who believe the U.S. is inching toward socialized healthcare. I think we’re already there. Something like only $2 to $3 out of every $10 spent on healthcare goes to the patient — and we still have to wait two hours at the ER. My wife wrote to The Wall Street Journal some time ago about how to remedy the whole mess. I think she’s on to something.
That letter was good, and I agree. It bothers me to go to the doctor and agree to things without price ever being discussed. My wife very good at knowing what the bill should be and calling the hospital is we were charged for things we didn’t have. The Lord has blessed me with an excellent wife, btw, not only with this but with everything really.
Still, what we have in health care doesn’t have a government man evaluating the real value of our needed or recommended treatment. In that Cal Thomas article, C. Everett Koop is quoted saying he would have been nine years too old for a procedure if he had been living in Britain at the time. This medical czar role is highly immoral.
Still, what we have in health care doesn’t have a government man evaluating the real value of our needed or recommended treatment.
True. And if that happens, well, we’re in trouble. I hope we Americans won’t let it happen, but we seem more concerned about the cost of our co-pays than real reform.
Oh, and excellent wives really are from God, aren’t they?