Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Obey Wrote the "Final Solution" Language

Herb Kohl, Rusty Feingold, and Dave Obey all voted for the "Final Solution" language.

But apparently Obey wrote it. Phil Klein, of the AmSpec blog:

...as part of the stimulus bill, Rep. David Obey, the House appropriations chairman, added a provision, to create a "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research."

Klein quotes John Shadegg:

"Those items, procedures, and interventions… that are found to be less effective and in some cases, more expensive, will no longer be prescribed." In reaction, 63 patient advocacy groups including the AIDS Institute, the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, and the American Association for Cancer Research, have written a letter to Congress, expressing their concerns. They explained that this provision could lead to "restrictions on patients' access to treatments and physicians' and other providers' ability to deliver care that best meets the needs of the individual patient."

Well, yah. Matter of fact, that is the POINT of the Final Solution.

The mechanics are relatively simple.

President Obama's campaign health-care plan calls for subsidies to be given to Americans to purchase health-care from a government run exchange, choosing between a Medicare-like government plan and among private options. The government could mandate that any insurer participating in the government-run exchange must adopt the effectiveness recommendations of the Federal Coordinating Council, and the government could use its increased leverage in the health insurance market to pressure other insurers to go along. Congress could even go further, and pass a law saying that in order for an insurance policy to be eligible for the employer tax deduction, it must follow the same set of recommendations.

Not even any gas chambers.

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