By Joel Turtel
July 18, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive . . . . . those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - ;C. S. Lewis
President Obama said something at his White House healthcare event last week that should scare you out of your wits, especially if you are a senior citizen.
He suggested that one way to save health-care costs is not to spend on procedures that "evidence shows [are] not necessarily going to improve care" for the sick and the dying. "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller," the President said.
This is socialist Obama-talk, and let me translate. Under Obama's plan, some impersonal bureaucrat, based solely on cost to the government health-care system, will now decide whether you or your sick father or mother, die. Do you need a heart operation or expensive cancer therapy to give you a chance for life? Under Obama's plan, a bureaucrat will "calculate" how much this care would cost the government.
The bureaucrat will then do a "cost/benefit" analysis, the "benefit" being extending your life or treating your cancer or heart disease. If you're too old, forget about it. The bureaucrat will have to follow rules laid down by his superiors in a big book of "rationing" rules.
If, for example, you're over 65 years old, the bureaucrat can tell you, "Sorry, extending your life by 10 years with this expensive heart operation is not "worth it" to the government health-care program or "other taxpayers." So we won't pay for your heart operation. Or, "you'll have to wait nine months on our heart-operations list, and we'll 'reconsider' your application at that time. The government only has so much money for health care, so we can't spend it on people over 65 years old. Sorry. Next in line, please." And you will DIE waiting on their heart-operation death lists.
Also, as health-care costs explode in a socialized-medicine paradise, bureaucrats will have to keep lowering the cut-off age for your CAT scan, heart operation or cancer care. First the cut-off age might be 68, then it will go to 65, then to 60, then to 55. The more health-care costs explode, the lower the cut-off age will go. Soon you will be caught in the net, with your LIFE at stake.
Think this is a frightening fantasy, that it "can't happen here?" Think again. In England and Canada, where they've had a socialized-medicine paradise for the last thirty years, that's exactly what happens, every day. In England and Canada, they have health-care rationing. Government bureaucrats decide who lives and who dies, who gets the expensive cancer care or heart operation, and who doesn't. Who gets the CAT scan or heart operation quickly, and who waits on the health-care "death lists" for nine months for that CAT can or heart operation.
Every day, sick people who the bureaucrats decide are not "worth" the money, DIE on the death-lists in England and Canada. That is your health-care future in America, if socialist Obama gets his "heath-care" plan approved. I hope this scares the hell out of you, because it scares me.