NICE Isn’t So Nice

Obama has made it his “Mission One:” healthcare and to lie about everything concerning. He claims that his Single Decider Socialized Medicine System (SDSMS) will save America so much money that the US Treasury will no longer need to print so much. So, please stop the printing presses now!

Actually, his lie was even bigger. His plan will lead to economic expansion as well as wouldn’t cost a dime in deficits. This is after racking up the largest deficit in history and he’s projected to more than double it by the time you finish reading this article.

However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) basically blew his boat out of the water. In senate testimony, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf warned that Obama’s proposed healthcare “legislation would significantly expand federal responsibility,” saddling America with at least $1.04 trillion in new debt.

But wait, there’s more. Everyone would have affordable healthcare. Obama wasn’t the first to make this promise, and unfortunately he won’t be the last to break it. True, everyone will get universal insurance that might eventually translate into treatment. Despite Obama’s belief that everyone deserves healthcare, I wouldn’t bank on it.

Why, healthcare should be free even if actual costs are great. Some slogans Obama should try in selling his takeover: No need to get off your duff to get free stuff. And, if you breathe, healthcare is free. But, he really should make food free first. Many can survive longer without healthcare than without food.

If healthcare were deserved, then fitness centers should have to offer their equipment without charge. Requiring gym membership is an intrusion into a right that somehow never made that inalienable list in America’s founding document.

Liberals argue that free markets just don’t work for healthcare, but let’s extend the same regulations to the food industry. If restaurants had to feed patrons who weren’t required to pay like hospitals do today, a $5 dollar hamburger might actually cost $500 in order to compensate for all the non-paying customers.

Then, liberals could say the food industry is “in crisis” needing nationalization. Don’t laugh, this may happen someday. Autos anyone? Ultimately, SDSMS is all about power. When government says, “No care for you,” it won’t matter what you do.

But, don’t worry; illegals will get free care. Democrats want to provide coverage for them even as they insist illegals won’t be eligible. Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Max Baucus (D-MT), said in May, “We’re not going to cover undocumented aliens, undocumented workers. That’s too politically explosive.” Still, Democrats rejected the Heller amendment, which permitted health agencies to verify citizenship.

Pre-existing conditions are another bugabo since insurance companies resist patients who have them. But, isn’t that like asking for home insurance after the house in on fire. “Hi, I like my house insured. Can you issue my policy before the fire is out?” Forcing insurance providers to insure pre-existing conditions only forces those without them to pay for those who do.

Conservatives argue that SDSMS eventually leads to rationing. So, liberals are now countering that the current system already rations because some get denied. But, this argument is base on a false understanding of the free market, which explains why liberals are socialists, for healthcare is never rationed in this country.

Anyone can buy healthcare. Like Michael Jackson, who when alive, was always hiring “plastic sturgeons.” Yet, if a patient needs care, he can get it if he has the money. Liberals argue that’s rationing because not everybody has that cash in their stash.

In that case anything with a price tag is rationed like automobiles, which cost an amount not everybody’s got. But if a rich person decided to buy a fleet, no dealership would turn him away, unless of course, it’s GM. In fact, only government can ration and during WWII ours did on products considered critical to the war effort.

So, Democrats finally unveiled a plan, which was more Byzantine than a plate of linguini. Republicans actually created a chart outlining it with patients on one side, health providers on the other and many new bureaucracies with interesting acronyms in between. However, according to this complicated flowchart, Obama’s promise of keeping your doctor is true. The trick is getting past the many “Barrack-racies” to see him.

The British SDSMS has bureaucracies too. One is called the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, i.e. NICE. It determines Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) that measures treatments’ benefits. Compared with the Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER), expenditures compute into the Cost per Quality-adjusted life year Gained (CQG). Whew!

NICE’s job is simply to turn every life into a formula that frequently conflicts with patients’ interests to justify denial of potentially life-saving treatment, which is why NICE is often not so nice. To put it nicely, that’s rationing.