Daschle’s imprint on the stimulus

Tom Daschle is gone only from the public stage. His elaborate plans to nationalize health care and ultimately ration it for cost effectiveness remains embedded in the stimulus plan.

Warnings have been out for weeks, like here.

This is surreal. Look at the WSJ report, at how President Obama and House Democrats have worked some clauses into the stimulus bill that the average American wouldn’t even know about, ‘cost effective’ sorts of measures relating to how medical decisions are made and health care resources are…rationed.

A snip from that WSJ report…

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.

This stayed so far under radar, even senators ready to vote on the stimulus package didn’t realize it was buried in the dense plan. Until Rush Limbaugh found an article on it and spent time on his powerful show breaking it down for Americans, which was the first time they heard about it.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health.

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions…

According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

And patients have to give up hopes to be treated and live a longer life if they’re elderly or vulnerable, among just two categories.

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Remember (from that earlier post) that this system will be modeled after the ‘NICE’ (and Orwellian) British system? The one that rations health care?

The Bloomberg piece warns…

If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.

The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined…

Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional.

But it’s out in the open now. Once Limbaugh featured it in detail, it hit the mainstream media now. At least some of them. Fox News interviewed Sen. Arlen Specter this morning, one of the three Republican senators willing to go along with Democrats and advance this stimulus bill. He didn’t know the extreme health care measures were in the plan. He promised he’ll look into it.

Stay tuned…