Jun 01 2011

Obama’s Death Panels Finally Arrive

Published by at 9:34 am under All General Discussions,Obamacare

The new Medicare incentive from the Obama administration: Cut Costs!

The New York Times tries to cover up the core truth about the New Medicare program that is arising from Obamacare. But there is only so much disinformation you can lay on the hard fact that Medicare providers will MAKE MORE MONEY if they restrict services and costs. Much more than if they expend money attempting to address complex and costly health issues:

For the first time in its history, Medicare will soon track spending on millions of individual beneficiaries, reward hospitals that hold down costs and penalize those whose patients prove most expensive.

This plan has drawn fire from hospitals, which say they have little control over services provided after a patient’s discharge — and, in many cases, do not even know about them. More generally, they are apprehensive about Medicare’s plans to reward and penalize hospitals based on untested measures of efficiency that include spending per beneficiary.

The new Medicare initiative, known as value-based purchasing, will redistribute money among more than 3,100 hospitals.

Medicare will begin computing performance scores in July, for monetary rewards and penalties that start in October 2012.

When compared to Paul Ryan’s efforts to expand Medicare services and let consumers pick the right mix of cost and value, this should be a political slam dunk. It is clear where the incentive lies here. Avoid spending a lot saving a terminal patient, or spending money on alternative treatments that may work for some individuals and not others, to make more money to cover costs. The calculus is so simple, even a liberal can do it.

More money = more patients helped. Therefore, patients with complex or costly conditions must be sacrificed in order to retain the resources to help the most people. Spend too much on a person, you lose money through penalties. Shuffle some people off their mortal coils early and get a bonus.

It is called triage, and it is a process of picking those who will die and those who will get assistance in trying to survive. Until now the process has been limited to doctors and families of the ill. Until now everyone had the hope someone might go above and beyond to lend a helping hand.

But now the government is taking over the process, using cold hard cash as the incentive. It is sick, it is pathetic and it is the logical extension of a political movement which casually disregards the sanctity of any and all human lives.

We will now throw out the elderly for a few extra bucks, and do so because the government has given the green light to do so. Not only have we given our independence away to the government, we sold our honor and humanity in the process.

6 responses so far

6 Responses to “Obama’s Death Panels Finally Arrive”

  1. WWS says:

    If government is in charge of health care, this is the only possible result. No “reform” of any government backed system can ever avoid this result, because it is inherent in the system itself.

    Reason: demand for healthcare is theoretically infinite, since no one ever thinks they are “too healthy”. Actual use of healthcare resources is currently limited by cost and ability to pay. (and yes, part of that ability to pay is covered by the charity of individuals and institutions)

    If all costs are covered by some central paying system (ie, any mandatory government backed system) then demand will rise exponentially, as there are no longer any constraints. With no limits, demand will rise until it equals 100% of *all* available resources of the economy – it would pass that if it could, but that’s the point at which all other economic activity ceases and the society in question collapses.

    If you do not allow the cost mechanism to cut demand, then you *Must* put some centrally run triage mechanisms in place to cut demand by decree. You have to do that or else the system in question will collapse quickly from the overload.

    People are unhappy that there is no third option, but there isn’t. Something has to limit demand – either market price or the government. One is under the control of patients and their families. One is under the control of the bureaucracy.

    Our Choice.

  2. oldguy says:

    This is one more scheme ripe for corruption. The administration will now dole out funds to hospitals based on political connections and as rewards for support of Obama, e.g., inner-city
    hospitals in Chicago, Detroit, LA, NYC.

  3. MerlinOS2 says:

    This will magnify on a national scale the concept of patient dumping Michelle O put into place back in Chicago.

    Just watch it unfold.

  4. kathie says:

    Only MSM thought there were no “death panels”.

  5. […] No, Obama is not setting up death panels.  He is just creating rules that hospitals can only comply with if they quietly and unofficially have death panels for medicare …. […]