RATIONED HEALTHCARE FOR AMERICANS ON THE HORIZON

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COULD RATIONED MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE BE ON THE HORIZON FOR U.S. CITIZENS?

Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of New York State, and an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is warning that the $50 billion that Obama expects to spend in the next few years on a nationwide digital health records system for every individual easily could, and most likely will, result in rationed medical care. McCaughey warns about the likelihood of rationed care - or a health care system that simply provides treatment when it determines the cost-benefit ratio for the treatment and the patient meets its guidelines.

There is also a little discussed and underreported provision in Obama's plan that demands that every American citizen submit to a government program for electronic medical records without the choice to opt out. This is raising alarms for concerned about privacy.

Privacy advocates claim patients would be startled to discover personal information could be shared electronically with, perhaps, millions of people, including documentation on abortions, mental health problems, patient non-compliance, lawsuits against doctors and sexual problems. We should be asking ourselves, "Under what Constitutional right does the government have to know any of this information?"

The president of the Institute for Health Freedom, Sue A. Belvins, said unless people have the right to decide "if and when" their health information is shared, there is no longer any real privacy.

Obama intends to spend $50 billion "over a five year span" to establish a system of electronic health records for every person in the United States who sees a doctor. "WHY?"

What is really troubling about this is that no one in Congress, from either party, has raised any objections to the health provisions that have been slipped in without any discussion. McCaughey said, "These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, who was until recently Obama's nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department."

Should the Obama administration's economic stimulus bill pass, in its current form, senior citizens and the chronically ill in the U.S. will face rationing. Other nations that utilize such programs typically deny costly treatments to patients who are senior citizens and the chronically ill, and that would very likely be the case here in the United States, which could also pave the way for pushing and legalizing euthanasia and claiming it to be the patriotic duty of the elderly and the chronically ill, to "off" themselves.

Hiding this health care legislation in the stimulus bill was an intentional act. Back in 1994, Tom Daschle supported the Clinton administration's health care overhaul, and he blamed its failure on debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics can mount an opposition.

McCaughey states that neither doctors nor patients would have a choice about treatments. "Hospitals and doctors that are not 'meaningful users' of the new system will face penalties," she warned.

The Institute for Health Freedom also renewed its warning because the system is scheduled to be MANDATORY for EVERYONE.

The IHF is calling on Americans who care about health privacy to contact their members of Congress and Obama to voice their own opinions about the need for opt-out and patient consent provisions, to ensure true patient privacy rights.

To Learn what new horror may be headed this way, click on the following link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5689052.ece