Big Dogs Weblog

Health Care Rationing In The US?

by Big Dog on Jul 5, 2010 at 05:12 Political

When the Democrats rammed the health care takeover down the collective throats of Americans we were promised that the program would bend the cost curve, cost less and save money. When people like Sarah Palin raised the issue of “death panels” we were told she was out of her mind and that the government would not turn people away or deny care to those who were in bad health.

The health care takeover will not be fully instituted until 2014 (after Obama runs for a second term) but some parts of it have taken effect or will shortly. One of those programs is for the high risk patients. It was fronted $5 BILLION and the program is designed to provide health care to the high risk folks, those who cannot get insurance and who have risky health conditions. It looks like the government will not be able to cover everyone and is considering denying health care to people who need it. It also looks like benefits will be reduced:

The Obama administration has not ruled out turning sick people away from an insurance program created by the new healthcare law to provide coverage for the uninsured.

Critics of the $5 billion high-risk pool program insist it will run out of money before Jan. 1, 2014. That’s when the program sunsets and health plans can no longer discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

Administration officials insist they can make changes to the program to ensure it lasts until 2014, and that it may not have to turn away sick people. Officials said the administration could also consider reducing benefits under the program, or redistributing funds between state pools. But they acknowledged turning some people away was also a possibility. [emphasis mine] The Hill

Denying health care to high risk patients amounts to a death panel. Government bureaucrats will determine who will best benefit from the available funds and those who are not deemed viable will be turned away. This sounds like what Palin described as “death panels.”

Additionally, the care could be rationed as a method of providing some care to more people.

While it is early and the regime could procure more funding we are left with a snapshot of what health care will look like once the government program goes into effect.

We were assured that this would be paid for and that it would save money. We are already seeing that this is not the case. The relatively small high risk program is in financial trouble so what makes anyone think the entire program will do any better?

We were also assured that care would not be rationed and that a bureaucrat would not get between us and our doctors. Looks like this small program has put this lie to bed. People will have care rationed or denied and this will be decided by government bureaucrats. If they have not ruled it out then it means they are at least considering that which they said they would not do.

The small program portends badly for the entire program where millions more people will be affected and where money will not be available.

The government will certainly ration or deny care and will have severe cost overruns.

This is all contrary to the line of BS that we were sold when they decided to ram it through against the will of the public.

Those of you who support this regime and think they are wonderful can take solace in knowing that they will not be denied care and will do quite well.

You didn’t think that the rulers would be hampered by such problems, now did you?

They knew this when they sold it to us because they only provided the CBO with what was needed to get the numbers to sell it. It is expected to cost at least $2.5 TRILLION. The CBO expects it to cost more than advertised now that it has been able to look at the entire package.

They lied to us and now the early warning signs are present in the relatively small high risk program. There will be “death panels” and there will be rationing and denial of care.

This has been the case from the start and we all knew it.

So did those who decided that we should have it.

Vote everyone of them out of office in November.

Never surrender, never submit.

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Tags: bureaucrats, death panels, denial of care, health care, lies, Obama, rationing