Would government bureaucrats deny your life-saving screening?

Friday, March 5th, 2010

[The latest news looks like the House of Representatives will soon vote on the Senate health care bill or a "smaller bill." Make sure you tell your representative what you think via Congress.org] From Americans for Prosperity: Tracy Walsh survived her fight with breast cancer because of early detection. The testing ...

State governments ration “free” cancer screenings

Friday, December 18th, 2009

When you empower government to provide "free" health care (paid by others through taxes), government gets to decide when it's appropriate for you to receive it.  Here's yet another example from the Associated Press: ...low-income women in at least 20 states are being turned away or put on long waiting lists ...

Medicare’s “global budget” & bureaucratic medical decisions

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

From the Wall Street Journal: Democrats are quietly attempting to impose a "global budget" on Medicare, with radical implications for U.S. medicine. ... If Democrats impose such a commission nationwide, it would constitute a radical change in U.S. health care. The reason that physician discretion—not Washington's cost-minded judgments—is at the core of ...

Will health care bill bring Canadian horror stories to U.S. patients?

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

The Independence Institute has two new videos in its series on Obama's health care policy proposals (as proposed by Congressional Democrats). These are two testimonials from Canadian patients who suffered while waiting months and years for medical treatment. Is this what awaits patients in the U.S.?  After all, advocates of ...

Pelosi health care bill & rationing: H1N1 vaccine an example

Monday, November 9th, 2009

If you want a taste of what more politically-controlled medicine would look like, check out this story from MSNBC about how Wall Street executives have access while others wait. The Wall Street Journal also reports: The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged health officials around the country Thursday ...

If government has a “public option” for cable TV

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest made a clever and to-the-point video showing how a "public option" would play out: (Via FIRM, State House Call)

Rationing vs. choosing how to spend your own money

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

Ronald Bailey makes the distinction at Reason: ..."rationing" depends on who is allocating the scarce resources. It's not rationing if an individual decides to spend his money on a 16-ounce steak—but it is rationing if he can only purchase a USDA prime rib eye when he has a coupon issued from ...

England: “Sentenced to death on the NHS”

Friday, September 4th, 2009

"Patients with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors have warned." Read  "Sentenced to death on the NHS" in the Telegraph. (via FIRM)

Who decides on medical care? Insurers & government, not you

Monday, August 31st, 2009

In the Wall Street Journal Betsy McCaughey has written about Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's views on reducing and determining patients' medical care. The Journal refers to  Dr. Emanuel as "Obama's Rationer-in-Chief." His official positions are as health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of the ...

Example of Oregon medical care rationing

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Here's an example of rationing medical care in Oregon: Here's the text of the TV station's report. (via Cato at Liberty and the Heritage Foundation)