Sunday, March 21, 2010, will go down as a day of medical infamy.
In my opinion, the 2,562-page healthcare package passed by the House of Representatives on March 21 is less about medical reform and more about observing grown men playing king of the hill or watching two fraternities having a nasty food fight.
The liberals don’t seem to care that their “victory” lays waste to the republic, the Constitution, our freedom and the best medicine in the world.
Orange County businessman Martin Diedrich, owner of two Kean Coffee houses here, is upset and angered by the health package, as are most small-business owners in the county.
“This is not the change that we hoped for,” he said. “This is a job killer, and small businesses are going to bear the brunt of this.”
Diedrich further notes that the detailed complexity of the bill makes it difficult to make forward-looking business decisions. Business owners are scared and reluctant to make new hires, add positions, add benefits or change salary structures without knowing the consequences for the future.
Business owners would like to stimulate the economy and add jobs, but they are frustrated.
From the physicians’ point of view, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons reports that the bill had the endorsement of the American Medical Association president. This should forever end the AMA’s pretense of speaking for American physicians.
Prior to the House vote, a coalition of state and specialty medical societies representing half a million practicing physicians—far more than the AMA represents—arose to counter AMA support for this monstrous bill.
Their objections included:
It forces Americans into expensive health plans that they don’t want.
It destroys economical, true insurance policies that Americans do want.
It imposes a massive, unaccountable bureaucracy between patients and their physicians.
It piles yet another entitlement on the already unsustainable entitlements of Medicare and Medicaid. Government actuaries massively underestimated the cost of these programs. The Congressional Budget Office’s fanciful assertion that this one will stay under $1 trillion totally lacks credibility—even if the program somehow manages to bleed one half of a trillion dollars from Medicare.
It will drive some physicians out of practice.
The casualties from this bill will include: jobs, medical innovation, patient privacy, ready access to excellent medical services, financial security for millions who worked and saved, the right of conscience and the credit rating of the U.S.
In return, Americans get hollow, noble-sounding promises that cannot possibly be kept.
On March 21, the Democratic Party finally bought enough votes to get the Senate-passed healthcare reform through the House.
But its victory celebrations may be premature, according to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
Millions of Americans protested in Washington, D.C., or in their local communities, and called and wrote to Congress in record numbers. Polls showed a large majority was opposed to the bill. They will not believe that this infamous process represents “government by the people,” as President Obama claims.
The bill will immediately create some 16,000 jobs in the Internal Revenue Service, plus 120 new bureaucracies to plan, monitor, assess and enforce compliance. A heavier tax burden and costly insurance mandates will eliminate many more jobs—also in medical facilities.
“Physicians have tried to warn Congress that more government intrusion will drive as many as half of them out of practice,” said Jane Orient, a medical doctor and executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “With limits on fees despite increasing costs, many can’t afford to pay their bills,” she said.
Even more say that onerous bureaucratic rules and hassles make it difficult or impossible to practice good medicine.
When sick patients are found to be ineligible for treatment, or are stuck waiting in a long line, Drs. Slaughter, Pelosi, Obama, Sebelius, and other “reform” architects will not be available to take their calls, Orient predicts.
Programs—such as Medicare and Medicaid—that are already unsustainable and bankrupt cannot be salvaged by piling on still more obligations.
“The only safety net is private physicians and facilities,” Orient states.
Every day, more physicians are discovering that they can serve their patients better, and at a reasonable fee, by cutting all third parties out of the transaction.
Kathryn Serkes, co-chair of the Doctor Patient Medical Association, notes that we have a window of a few years before much of this goes into effect, to educate doctors and patients on how they can get around the system and maintain their independence.
“How can you support a bill when the lynchpin provision (a series of mandates) is recognized by all as either immoral and/or an illegal expansion of government,” opines Serkes.
The more Americans learn about what the bill really does, in stark contrast to what it is supposed to achieve, the more strongly they will rebel.
As for OC, the result will be lost businesses, jobs, opportunities and hope. Remember to vote carefully in November.
Glueck is a former medical doctor in Newport Beach who writes on legal issues in medicine.
