Will 'Stimulus' bill give you the healthcare you deserve?

A teen gets a vaccination. [Image from CDC image library](Washington, D.C.)—Obviously Tom Daschle didn’t foresee his rejection as nominee for head of U.S. Health and Human Services—his ideology is embedded in the ‘stimulus’ bill President Barack Obama is stumping for. Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York, wrote commentary for Bloomberg News about healthcare provisions written into a pork-laden bill Democrats call a ‘stimulus’ bill and fiscal conservatives might call a ‘barbecue.’  McCaughey said, “Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health.”

Healthcare rationing, especially if you are elderly, will be the standard. In truth, government sponsored healthcare is already rationed. A relative of mine who pays approximately $300 a month for Medicare (aside from a supplemental policy he pays for), learned firsthand about rationing. After a stroke, he learned Medicare gives a facility a lump sum to cover rehab. My relative stood an excellent chance of near-full recovery. But the cap on reimbursement meant he had to be discharged earlier than we thought prudent. Fortunately this relative had family members who could help bathe him and help him to the bathroom in the weeks after he was discharged. If he hadn’t had those family members, he’d have headed straight to a cost-conscious nursing home.

Meanwhile, no one’s focusing on what really costs us in terms of healthcare. Every time you read about a shooting in your city, bear in mind the victim and perhaps the perp as well more than likely needed trauma care. Media has run stories about a young woman who birthed octuplets. The woman already had 6 children. According to liberal columnist Ellen Goodman, each octuplet weighed between 1 pound 8 ounces and 3 pounds 4 ounces. Goodman wrote in a Feb. 9 column, “[t]hey will cost at least $1 million in neonatal care.” Goodman says the mom doesn’t have a job (other than mom). No one’s mentioned a dad for the new babies or the other six. Hear the health cash register going ding? Hear your taxpayer dollars burning? Meanwhile, the government focuses narrowly on smokers as the bad guys in healthcare. No one criticizes others who make costly choices that we pay for.

A friend of mine who is a dedicated Democrat asked why I didn’t vote for Obama in the last election. I told her his earmarks—nearly $1 billion in a very brief Senate tenure—and his stance on partial birth abortion were two reasons. But the biggest reason is the party he represents.

It’s my opinion the Democratic Party has caused the majority of problems they blame others for. We hear ‘failed policies of the last 8 years’ over and over. But whose policies really failed?

The Democratic Party has controlled Congress for approximately 42 of the last 54 years. We are still paying for social engineering established by President Lyndon B. Johnson wherein it was not feasible to have a man in the home because that meant your benefits would decline. We are still paying for John F. Kennedy’s decision to abandon Cuba and start a war in Vietnam. And we will pay dearly for the healthcare initiatives originally begun by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when her husband was president. We will pay dearly for the healthcare provisions in this ‘stimulus’ bill that’s so full of pork it can aptly be called a ‘barbecue.’

Years from now when a doctor approaches and tells you your parent is simply too old to justify spending money on treatment, you’ll understand what rationing means on a personal level. It will as usual harm the innocent. And your senators will still have their custom medical plan wherein no treatment is too costly and no cure too out of reach. The rich will opt for a private plan. Rationing won’t be part of that plan I can promise you.