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| Local Time: 9:03 AM September 9, 2010 |
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| Local Time: 9:03 AM September 9, 2010 |
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Healthcare Reform Will Ration Care for Those Who Need it Most Saturday, September 26, 2009
The human face of rationing came to Washington, DC recently when myself and 15 other parents with children who have disabilities gathered on Capitol Hill to bring attention to our growing concerns regarding rationing in the current health care reform proposals before Congress. Parents from across the country and from Canada expressed their concerns that if a nationalized health care system passes, our special-needs children will be “rationed” out of the system. Each parent expressed different concerns about their individual child’s disease: Spina Bifida, Trisomy 18, Down Syndrome, Cystic Fibrosis, and others. Some parents even spoke about how they have had to force doctors to treat their children now in our current system. These doctors highlighted an increasing attitude in the medical community in which some favor rationing care to those who are deemed “less valuable” by society, making a government rationed system all the more easier to imagine. One parent, Barb Farlow, a Canadian citizen, shared her story about how her daughter, Annie, who had Trisomy 13 was most likely killed by her hospital as they signed a “Do No Resituate” order and administered a fatal dosage of narcotics without her or her husband’s consent. She traveled to Washington to warn about how the American health care system could transform into the Canadian system. My concerns, as a parent of my 8-month son, Gunner, with Cystic Fibrosis, is that these children who will require life-long expensive medial treatments will not get the top care they should receive as medical “resources” will be given to others who haven’t been diagnosed with a fatal disease. And experts agree that rationing will occur under any government controlled health care system as current bills provide: inadequate funding for the proposed programs causing wait lines for treatments and appointments, comparative effectiveness research provisions that will mandate which treatments and tests are to be covered, and government mandated price controls on insurance premiums. When my husband and I started our research on nationalized healthcare, we found so me startlingly facts about Cystic Fibrosis (CF) care in Europe: · A 2004 British Journal of Nursing article found that nearly 66% of British CF nurses had seen evidence of treatments “denied on grounds of cost.” · A study conducted by the British Cystic Fibrosis Trust found that “all of the U.K.’s specialist CF centers were under-funded, with many-short staffed.” In addition, they reported that none of the 38 specialist CF centers received sufficient funding to provide recommended levels of care for patients and more than 30% of the patients surveyed reported difficulties in obtaining vital drugs and therapies.[1] <#_ftn1> · In Ireland, the Irish Times lambasted the government for “failing in their duty to care to vulnerable citizens” and reported that Irish CF patients live 10 years less than American CF patients.[2] <#_ftn2> Think Rationing Couldn’t Happen in America? The President’s trusted advisor and appointee to his Comparative Effectiveness Research Council, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, has already created a rationing system called the “Complete Lives System” which would ration care away from the elderly, infants, and from people judged unable to rationally participate in society in favor of those aged 15-44, who have the best chance "to live a complete life."[3] <#_ftn3> Further Dr. Emanuel has remarked, "Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change” and that the U.S. should establish a rationing decision-making committee system like the British rationing system to “slow the adoption of new medications and set limits on how much will be paid to lengthen a life.[4] <#_ftn4> Recently, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Bachus came out with his version of the Senate health care reform bill. This bill provides a financial incentive for Medicare doctors to deny treatments to seniors. Specifically, Medicare doctors who authorize treatments for their patients that wind up in the top 10% of per capita cost for a year will lose 5% of their total Medicare reimbursements for that year. As the National Right to Life Committee reported, all doctors treating elderly people will constantly be driven to try to order the least expensive tests and treatments for fear that they will be caught in that top 10%.[5] <#_ftn5> And in both the current Senate and House versions of the health care reform proposals, nothing in the bills prevent the use of comparative effectiveness research from being used to deny treatment to patients. In fact, on June 22nd the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee defeated on a party-line vote, 12-10, an amendment that would done just that.[6] <#_ftn6> And in the House version of the reform bill, H.R. 3200, pages 501-524 creates a “Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission” to decide effective treatments but does not prohibit denying coverage on the basis of cost.[7] <#_ftn7> I’m now pregnant with my second child and will refuse genetic tests on my unborn baby even though there is a 25% chance this child will be born with Cystic Fibrosis. However, if I lived in Great Britain or Canada would I be viewed as selfish because I am choosing not to receive prenatal testing and would refuse to abort if I found out this child has Cystic Fibrosis? After all, medical resources are scarce. Would someone view my baby as a drain on society and as taking away attention his or her child without a fatal disease could be receiving? I fear what the Congress and President Obama’s vision for nationalized healthcare will do for my son, Gunner, and how it will affect the life of my unborn child. I fear a society that measures a person’s worth in terms of what that person will produce for society. The other side may call me a fear-monger, and that’s okay as long as someone will address my fears and stop rationing before it starts. Kristan Hawkins is executive director of Students for Life of America and runs HealthcareForGunner.com, which helps to make people aware of healthcare rationing for children who have disabilities. As Executive Director, Kristan is responsible for managing the daily operations of SFLA as well as its other employees. In addition, Kristan serves as the organization’s official spokeswoman and has appeared multiple times on Fox News, CNN and Christian Broadcasting Newtork; she has also been quoted in numerous national and regional newspapers. In addition, she speaks to youth and adult pro-life organizations across the country. She came to SFLA after serving as a political appointee in the Bush administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiative. Kristan founded and served as President of both her high school and college pro-life organizations. She has also worked on the Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign and at the Republican National Committee. She currently hosts the radio show “On Campus with Students for Life” on National Pro-life Radio. In 2008, Kristan was awarded the Susan B. Anthony Young Leader Award and the Dr. William Hogan Education Award for her pro-life leadership. Kristan is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Bethany College in West Virginia. She resides in Martinsburg, West Virginia with her husband, Jonathan, and son Gunner. She is expecting her 2nd child in April of 2010. [1] <#_ftnref> “Cystic Fibrosis Under Attack” Nov. 1, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3962623.stm [2] <#_ftnref> “Cystic Fibrosis Scandal.” Apr. 8, 2009. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0408/1224244213810.html [3] <#_ftnref> Persda, Govind, Wertheimer, Alan, and Emanuel, Ezekiel. “Principles for Allocation of Scare Medical Interventions" The Lanet. January 2009. http://www.scribd.com/doc/18280675/Principles-for-Allocation-of-Scarce-Medical-Interventions [4] <#_ftnref> McCaughey, Betsy. “Obama’s Health Rationer-In-Chief” The Wall Street Journal. August 27, 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203706604574374463280098676-lMyQjAxMDA5MDMwMDEzNDAyWj.html [5] <#_ftnref> The National Right to Life Committee. “ ‘Death Spiral’ Rationing in Baucus Bill Gravely Endagers America’s Seniors.” Sep. 18, 2009. http://www.nrlc.org/press_releases_new/release0091809.html [6] <#_ftnref> National Right to Life Committee Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics. “Anti-Rationing Amendment to Health Care Bill Defeated 12-10 in Senate Committee.” http://www.nrlc.org/press_releases_new/Release062209.html [7] <#_ftnref> U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader John Boehner Website, http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=141738
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