Imagine, if you will, every decision made about your personal motor vehicle — from the gas you put in it to the recommendations the mechanic makes for fixing your worn-out brakes or broken transmission — was subject to final review by a state bureaucrat with no experience in the automotive industry. Now extrapolate that scenario to your health care. Are you concerned yet?
Even if the judges of the 11th Circuit disagree with the appellants’ argument, the fact that three states are currently in federal court seeking official validation of their “right” to overrule physicians and arbitrarily ration medical care is frightening enough.
When government is given free rein to overrule a medical professional’s judgment of care based on their analysis of cost, physicians and their patients no longer have a role in making decisions about those patients’ care.
Archive for the ‘Healthcare Reform’ Category
Quote of the day
Monday, April 20th, 2009Quote of the day
Monday, March 9th, 2009A reasonable person would see the record of repeated failures in government-run medicine as evidence that such a system is not sustainable. Yet every central planner thinks he or she — or his or her immediate group — is smart enough to correct the flaws of socialist programs and therefore has the moral authority to force others to participate in his experiments. It is the same thinking that will move a person to say we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, March 06, 2009
“But it’s working in Europe”
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008To prevent a financial crisis from turning into an economic calamity, the European Union has pulled the emergency brake on green policies. At last week’s EU summit in Brussels, seven eastern and central European countries, together with Italy, threatened to veto the Union’s climate pact. The rebel governments claimed that the originally agreed goal of cutting the EU’s CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 was too expensive; economic turmoil and rising unemployment meant that implementing the CO2 goal was no longer affordable.
But wait, didn’t the Liberals assure us during the election campaign that the carbon tax scheme was working in Europe?
If this approach to cleaning up the environment is not workable in Europe, which has a far more diverse economy and a population density that is much more conducive to green transportation initiatives, how on earth could this work here in the frozen north, where our economy is resource-based and our commuter lifestyle and transportation needs are tied to fossil fuels?
Just as this planet has learned that improvements to healthcare and education can only come about after improvements are made to our overall economic well-being and technological advances, significant improvements to the environment will require the same conditions if they are to be sustained.
Just ask China.
Information will set you free
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008I’ve noticed an interesting trend emerging among the politically “progressive” (remember when they called themselves “socialists”?) in recent years: as poverty in this country becomes harder and harder to point to, and as fewer and fewer social “injustices” are commonplace, the attention has been moving to an attack on “the gap” between rich and poor. Jack Layton and the NDP have been particularly vocal in their battle to close the gap, and make us all equal, and their favorite weapon in this battle is the redistribution of wealth – tax the rich. Some thinking hasn’t changed, but the reality is that the world is changing – and it’s changing for the better.
And as for “the gap’, I’m not so convinced that a) the gap is nearly as wide as the “progressives” tell us it is, and b) the gap is such a bad thing.
The video below offers a fascinating look at some economic statistics from around the world, and should cause some of us to reconsider our assumptions:
h/t to Paul A. over at SDA.
“Top doctor admits to queue-jump”
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007An illuminating article in today’s National Post that looks into the deteriorating state of healthcare in Canada from the perspective of CMA President Dr. Brian Day.
I recall seeing a CBC interview with Jack Layton a couple of years ago, and he was asked “If you discovered your wife had a life-threatening condition and you had to chose between waiting for treatment in Canada and risking her death, or traveling to the US for immediate treatment, what would you do?” Layton answered that he would wait in the queue in Canada.
Some would say his answer reflected his conviction to his principles, others would say it reflected his complete lack of any ability to act rationally. I wonder what his wife thought.
What do you think?