A good summary of the hidden health care provisions contained in the porkulus bill is provided by The Corner:
Give every state a temporary, across-the-board increase in their federal match for Medicaid but do nothing to hold state officials accountable for their past management of their Medicaid programs.
Give unemployed workers 65% subsidies for their COBRA coverage. COBRA is a prohibitively costly option for the unemployed as well as taxpayers funding the subsidy.
The House bill goes even further, opening the Medicaid program to unemployed workers without health care coverage. The proposed expansion of the Medicaid entitlement program to new categories, regardless of income, further destabilizes the already troubled and poor-performing program.
The House and Senate bills would open the door to direct government intervention in the clinical decisions by physicians and other health care providers by establishing a framework and funding for comparative effectiveness research and health information technology.
While the Senate’s language is broad and vague, the House language provides further clarity. The House committee report states that “those [items] that are found to be less effective and in some cases, more expensive, will no longer be prescribed.” This type of alarming language is similar to what exists today in the British National Health Service.
In addition, billions of dollars would be spent on a health IT information “architecture” for exchanging information and training health care professionals. Combining the comparative effective research with the health IT portal opens the door to direct government intervention in the clinical decisions by physicians and other health care providers.
None of this skulduggery has anything to do with legitimate reform. It is nothing more or less than a giant power grab by the federal government.
It is dishonest, irresponsible and fiscally unsustainable.
Post a Comment