More thoughts on the "Affordable" Heathcare Act
Last April I gave a speech at a tax day rally here in Thousand Oaks, CA expressing my opinions on some of the chilling effects of the government getting into the healthcare business. The text of that speech can be found in the April 2011 archives on this blog. On October 12th I will be a member of a panel speaking on this same subject at a dinner in North Ranch, CA. I will post the details here as the date draws closer for anyone locally who would like to attend.
One of my biggest criticisms of the health care bill is the intrusion of immense government into the realm of the very personal issues of healthcare and the expansion of the administrative state well beyond its scope granted by the U.S. Constitution. Taking a closer look at what this legislation is about reveals it has almost nothing to do with the distribution of medical care and is simply about control and bean-counting of our lives and enrichment of some favored groups.
Writing in the September 2011 publication, "Imprimus", of Hillsdale College, author Edward J. Erler has this to say:
As a concrete example it has been announced that diagnosis coding, required by Medicare and all insurance companies, will be changed in 2013. Currently, ICD-9 coding has about 12,000 diagnoses. The new ICD-10 coding to go along with the mandated electronic medical records provision of the bill will have 140,000 diagnosis codes. Is this for the betterment of health care or will it be used for micromanaging and regulation and eventual rationing of health care resources? What do you think? You know what I think! Dr. F
One of my biggest criticisms of the health care bill is the intrusion of immense government into the realm of the very personal issues of healthcare and the expansion of the administrative state well beyond its scope granted by the U.S. Constitution. Taking a closer look at what this legislation is about reveals it has almost nothing to do with the distribution of medical care and is simply about control and bean-counting of our lives and enrichment of some favored groups.
Writing in the September 2011 publication, "Imprimus", of Hillsdale College, author Edward J. Erler has this to say:
"The administrative state, of course, always seeks to extend its reach and power. This is an intrinsic feature of a system where administration and regulation replace politics as the ordinary means of making policy....This is tantamount to denying that legitimate government derives from the consent of the governed...(taken from The Declaration of Independence). Obamacare certainly fits the description of the activities denounced in the Declaration. The number of regulations and the horde of administrators (not to mention lawyers) necessary to execute the scheme are staggering. We have only to think here of the Independent Payment Advisory Board. It is commission of 15 members appointed by the President, charged with the task of reducing Medicare spending. This commission has rule-making power which carries the force of law. The Senate, it is true, will have the power to override its decisions--but only with a three-fifths majority. There are no procedures that allow citizens or doctors to appeal the Board's decision. The administrative state--here in the guise of providing health care for all--will surely reduce the people under a kind of tyranny that will insinuate itself into all aspects of American life, destroying liberty by stages until liberty itself becomes only a distant memory."
As a concrete example it has been announced that diagnosis coding, required by Medicare and all insurance companies, will be changed in 2013. Currently, ICD-9 coding has about 12,000 diagnoses. The new ICD-10 coding to go along with the mandated electronic medical records provision of the bill will have 140,000 diagnosis codes. Is this for the betterment of health care or will it be used for micromanaging and regulation and eventual rationing of health care resources? What do you think? You know what I think! Dr. F