15. When Government Controls Healthcare

So far, we’ve talked about ways that Obamacare will ration healthcare in this
country and the philosophy behind those ideas. How Hippocrates believed that
doctors should treat all patients throughout their lives, and how that differs from
Plato’s belief that only young, able people should have healthcare. We discussed
how Obama’s health policy advisor follows the Plato view.

We’ve discussed the Independent Payment Advisory Board and how it changes a
government accountable to the voters into one that is not accountable.

We’ve discussed Obamacare’s cuts in Medicare benefits and payments to
providers and how that will limit patient’s access to care by decreasing care and
forcing doctors to stop accepting Medicare patients.

We’ve discussed Obamacare’s encouragement of euthanasia, assisted suicide,
and abortion. In addition, Obmacare also requires physicians to regularly discuss
end-of-life planning with their elderly patients. While I don’t think this is a bad
idea in general, I definitely don’t think the government has any business forcing it
on doctors or their patients. How you as a patient choose to die is none of their
business—at least it shouldn’t be. But because we have, over time, allowed our
health to be paid for by the government, we are now in the position of having a
group of elected officials, and some unelected, that will literally determine for us
whether we are tested for an illness, treated for that illness, and how and when
we will die from our illness. Think about that. When a government controls
healthcare, it control the people. Is that the “hope and change” Americans voted
for in 2008? When Obama said he would “fundamentally change” America, he
wasn’t kidding. He is changing America from a government of the people, by
the people and for the people; to people of the government, by the government
and for the government. It is time to get the government out of the healthcare
business.

Next week we’ll talk about the differences between Obamacare and Gov. Romney
and Paul Ryan’s plans for healthcare reform.

(Note: This commentary is by Dr. Jill Vecchio.)