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Posted by damasterwc Promoted 299 days 12 hours ago 1702 views
Politics / US Politics
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May 3, 2009 (LPAC)—The fiscal 2010 budget resolution passed by both Houses of Congress, last Wednesday, lays the basis for the so-called "health care reform" being promoted by the behavioral economists in the White House, by using the budget to reduce costs. The stimulus bill passed last February already includes $1.1 billion for "comparative effectiveness research," which is supposed to provide information on what medical treatments work and what treatments don't work.
On April 1, during debate on the resolution in the Senate, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) introduced an amendment to prohibit the use of data obtained from such research to deny coverage of treatments under Federal health care programs. Kyl told the Senate that "the entire essence of it is to ensure that nothing we have done so far will allow health care in the United States to be rationed by the Federal government." He noted that the National Institutes of Health has already released a list of research topics that includes "Integrating Cost-Effectiveness Analysis into Clinical Research." According to NIH's own statement, "Cost effectiveness research will provide accurate and objective information to guide future policies that support the allocation of health resources for the treatment of acute and chronic diseases." The "allocation of health resources," Kyl said, is nothing more than a euphemism for rationing.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) claimed he could see nothing in comparative effectiveness that had anything to do with rationing, but then went into a rant about how health care costs have to be cut. "By meaningful health care reform," he said, "I mean controlling costs."
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), himself a practicing physician and speaking in support of Kyl's amendment, told the Senate that he has had two patients in the last four years denied MRIs because of comparative effectiveness guidelines and both turned out to have brain cancer. "That goes to show you that when you just use guidelines, you are not going to really care for the patients."
Kyl's amendment was defeated by a vote of 44 to 54.