by Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.
The Healthcare Summit made it clear that we face polar opposite choices:
1. Will we have individual control of our healthcare insurance and services? The Republicans presented cogent ideas for free market, patient-centered, lower cost options to improve healthcare delivery and private insurance.
OR
2. Will Washington control our healthcare options? Democrats continued their aggressive push on a radical agenda to transform 1/6 of our economy by government regulation of healthcare with federal panels to tell us what options we are allowed. The Democrats plan is clear: ram their agenda through on the devious tactic of “reconciliation,” AN OBSCURE BUDGET PROCEDURE never intended for such massive social transformation of our economy and infringement of our freedom.
If the “reconciliation” tactic fails, “Plan B” focuses on “insurance reform”–setting up government-dictated coverage and price controls for private insurance companies.
Insurance “reform” has a “take-care-of-you” tone that sounds good: government “protects” people who have pre-existing conditions by requiring insurance companies to cover them and preventing cancellation. Government “protects” us with price controls on what premium increases a company could charge.
So where is the danger in this? Before I answer, let me be clear. I have no love for or loyalty to health insurance companies – private or government run (i.e., Medicare). ALL of them have seriously intruded into the relationship between patients and doctors, patients and other health professionals, patients and hospitals or imaging centers or device makers, and between patients and prescription medicines we are allowed on the plan.
At times, ALL have denied care, terminated policies, or raised premium rates at enormous percentages, often for reasons that make no sense based on individual health risk. Medicare already limits treatment options, or decides not to pay for a particular service due to government deciding it is not “medically necessary.”
More government regulation and control is not the answer. In my experience, government bureaucrats running Medicare are much worse to deal with than the private insurance companies. At least there is an appeal process with private insurers.
There is another danger. There are two tracks of government control already passed into law in the Stimulus Bill of 2009: 1) federal control of your electronic medical records and 2) federal control of treatment options based on “comparative effectiveness” research.
The “third rail” is insurance “reform” (i.e. control of prices and mandates for coverage)– the last remaining track the Democrats need in order to fully dictate all areas of your healthcare choices.
Why is control of private insurance companies so critical? Follow the money. Medicare and Medicaid are broke. A financial bomb will explode Medicare starting in 2011 when the first of the “baby boomers” turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. “Baby Boomers” born between 1946 and 1964 will add another 76 million to the Medicare rolls.
Medicare is going broke. It cannot handle a dramatic cost increase. President Obama has quadrupled our national debt in his first year in office. Our deficit is now greater than the deficits of all US presidents combined, from George Washington to George W. Bush.
Washington desperately needs to get its hands on hard cash. Democrats only see 3 options to cover the staggering deficits, plus cover more people on Medicare:
1) print more money (following that, our dollar is worth less, things cost more)
2) raise taxes…at first on “the wealthy,” then as deficits build, higher taxes hit all taxpayers.
3) take over private insurance companies and their large mandated financial reserves set aside to pay future claims.
The government can gain control of private sector money in at least two ways:
(1) Money now being paid for private health insurance premiums and medical services will go to government coffers, either as direct payments for premiums or as added taxes.
(2) The Government can nationalize private insurance companies and confiscate their financial reserves, providing enormous new cash under government control.
Could this be the reason why we see the current administration so entrenched in their position on healthcare and their refusal to discuss viable, lower cost options to fix only what is “broken?” Republicans, particularly Senator Jim DeMint and Representative Paul Ryan, have offered excellent ideas by citing strategies used by some states (Indiana) and private businesses like Whole Foods and Safeway to successfully solve problems of rising costs, while providing more patient empowerment over health choices.
Our current problems with the insurance issue can be fixed with some straightforward state and federal regulatory changes and by making health insurance premiums tax-deductible expenses for individuals as they are for businesses.
Do we want government regulators managing Healthcare the way they manage the Postal Service, or in the same non-compassionate way they conduct the IRS? As a physician, I object to government bureaucrats controlling our healthcare choices, our medical records, and our treatment options.
Tell Washington: “We the people do not consent to your plan for controlling our private life. And we do not agree to a plan to insure 40 million Americans by forcing the other 250 million of us….and our children for generations to come….to pay for it.”
Get the government OUT of:
- Our medical records and treatment choices.
- Decisions on where we can purchase our health insurance policies. Allow us to shop across state lines to buy policies based on our personal needs.
- Setting what must be covered, which will force premiums even higher than they are now.
- Setting price controls that will drive more insurers out of the market, and limit our choices even more.
Let “We the people” choose our own insurance, our own doctors, our own healthcare services and the treatments we feel are best for us.
DISCLAIMER: Dr. Vliet speaks as an independent physician, not as an official spokesperson for any organization. Dr. Vliet has no financial ties to any health care system, pharmaceutical company, or health insurance plan. Her allegiance and advocacy is to and for patients.
Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D. is a women’s health specialist who received her M.D. degree and internship in Internal Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, then completed specialty training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She received B.S. and M.Ed. degrees from The College of William and Mary in Virginia. Dr. Vliet is the 2007 recipient of The Voice of Women award from the Arizona Foundation for Women in recognition of her pioneering advocacy for the overlooked hormone connections in women’s health. Dr. Vliet’s books include: It’s My Ovaries, Stupid!; Screaming To Be Heard: Hormonal Connections Women Suspect– And Doctors STILL Ignore; Women, Weight and Hormones; The Savvy Woman’s Guide to PCOS.
Dr. Vliet is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a seasoned expert commentator and a passionate fighter against government takeover of health care in the proposed Health Care “Reform” that seeks to eliminate or penalize private options. Dr. Vliet has appeared on FOX NEWS, Cavuto, Stuart Varney Show, Fox and Friends and syndicated radio shows across the country. Dr. Vliet’s medical educational website is www.HerPlace.com For further information on healthcare reform, Dr. Vliet suggests www.JoinPatientsFirst.com , and www.PatientsUnitedNow.com , and www.TakeBackMedicine.com.
To book Dr. Vliet on interviews, or for permission to publish, call Rose Henning 520-797-9131 (MST) or email rosehenning@herplace.com
Thank you for your crystal clear exposition of the problems facing our freedom as citizens of a republic. I only hope there are enough self concerned senators that dare not violate the wishes of the American people by such inappropriate and probably unconstitutional a procedure as “Reconciliation” to push through a blunderbuss that will destroy the USA.
Dr. Vliet is a fresh breeze in a smoke screened and toxic plan to socialize medicine in America. Yes, the freedom peddlers of the liberal left wing politicians who want to save the American people are ready to pull out all the stops. However, one must keep in mind that they are aided and abetted by the feeling of helplessness in much of the population. One can only hope that the pendulum has not swung too far in that direction and that there are enough people and their representatives with the courage to resist the temptation to be ‘saved’ by the government takeover of medicine.
George Washington is quoted often as having stated “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master. Never, for a moment, should it be left to irresponsible action.” I have not been able to find the source, but many Americans have forgotten that government is not a benevolent father, but a force monopoly.
Confusing government with the family, confusing government with the Church, confusing government with civil society is a dangerous dangerous confusion.
The deluge of partial truths, untruths, and outright lies continues from people identifying with AAPS. Dr. Vliet is only the latest example. The good things this organization has backed in the past are being buried by this kind of deceitful and uncompassionate verbiage. 1)The Republicans, the party of NO, have presented nothing other than resistance to any change meant to insure more people and to increased service for those covered. 2) Reconciliation is a procedure which has been used numerous times over the last 30 years but FAR MORE OFTEN BY THE REPUBLICANS WHO USED IT TO PUSH THROUGH RECORD DEFICIT SPENDING BY REAGAN AMONG OTHER THINGS. 3) The obvious comparison for new government-run “public option” care is not the Postal Service (which is actually an amazingly efficient and inexpensive service and nearly universally supported) or the IRS, but MediCare, a system so popular and widely supported that even the Republicans step carefully around criticizing it, or the VA medical system, another program widely supported by the voters. For a doctor to miss the parallel is disingenuous at best. What we’d get with a public option is health care without the 30% rakeoff of every healthcare dollar which the insurance companies currently subject us to.
Dr. Scotton (if he exists) is clearly a paid socialist troll for the welfare state. You are wasting your time here “Doctor” Scotton…
Thomas Jefferson
Dear Doctors, Please recall all of the ___ism you learned about years ago. They are coming together to control the world under Communiarians by way of the United Nations. Total control of all of the people. Taxes will be 80% to 95% and your children will be brain washed to think that this is OK. Ask the people of Sweden. Part of the scam is to have public-private partnerships to run things. That is (insurance companies) but they will be hired by the government and placed in an ABC department. That way CEO’s and government officials will get their pay off from the backs of the slaves. You and other working American’s. I’m government free loader on Social Security living in an ACLF and wish to thank you for your services! Please take back America! Laila
People with power, people who influence public decisions deparately need to remember the trilling sensation of personally overcoming obstacles and reaching a goal. There is no substitute for personal initiative in handling personal problems. It is a trill to overcome adversity and stand again in the sun. When you babysit masses of “victims” and “help” them with handouts and protection you rob them of the hope they will feel the trill of detemining their own future, you rob them of personal choice and the ability to fight back.
Maybe this is the point and health care reform is another way to drug us into apathy so we are more controllable. The hopelessness that sets in when you have no control over your body and life is so real. This current health care debate is so much worse than just our health care choices. It is staggering and dangerous.
We have had the solutions all along, health care savings accounts controlled by the citizen, a few doctors left who are independent and will work with patients independent of insurance companies dictates, a growing wellness body of knowledge helping people to age gracefully and remain healthy, and brave cooporations who are self insured and allow choices in care for their employees. We also have you and people like this group who are still fighting back “group think” and setting great examples of cooperation and willingness to speak out for independent minded citizens.
I am very happy to have you in my life, you are building my knowledge base and giving me something that is a dwindling commodity lately- HOPE!
Dr. Scrotton, You have got to be kidding – If our healthcare is run as ‘efficiently’ as the Post Office, then, as reported yesterday, it will be bankrupt in no time. Did you not notice that the USPS is reporting 7 BILLION in losses this past year and will soon cut Saturday delivery. What’s not “amazingly efficient” is all of the fancy stamps that they print for a few collectors -that they must pay design and printing costs,etc. for. What’s wrong with just a simple stamp for everything we mail? I’m not against stamp collectors, but if they really want fancy stamps, let them pay more for what it really costs to make them!!
And if you really want a picture of Government healthcare, just look at the Indian Health Service – it is frought with laziness, corruption, etc. If you need an example, I’ll be glad to give you some examples. Just ask.
The man with the name Thomas Jefferson says I don’t exist! I have been in practice as a physician for over 30 years in San Francisco. And, unlike many right wing apologists, I am not paid for my opinions. It is also interesting that Jefferson doesn’t respond to my arguments but launches an ad hominem attack, the sure sign of a party losing the argument. Ms. Babb on the other hand confuses profit with efficiency of operation, a typical misunderstanding for someone driven by the need to maximize money rather than service to our citizens.
Dr. Scotton, I’m not yet a member of AAPS but must say that I agree with most of what they say. If were true that there would be a 30% rakeoff of funds from insurance companies that might improve our rapidly decreasing salaries, minimize the fight with paperwork and improve our lives, as physicians, and the patients we take care of, I might could go for it-if it were true. You poke at Republicans, as if they are the cause of the current economic mess, yet President Obama has apparently rang up record deficits-more than all administrations combined, and before you start pointing backwards toward Republicans, remember that it was President Clinton that loosened up mortgage requirements, including Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, sucking folks into mortgages, mainly ARMs, that folks would eventually not be able to afford. The old adage comes forth, “If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it!” Republicans tried to help with the healthcare legislation but were effectively denied. You point to the popularity of Medicare/Medicaid and the VA Medical System, but if you don’t have the money to run it, it’s not going to work. Minimizing the bleeding into insurance company coffers sounds great, but if it’s at the expense of physician autonomy and decision-making concerning our patients, then this plan will serve to make both physicians and patients unhappy. I’m wondering what happened to President Clinton’s promises of promoting bipartisanship. From what I can read, Republications have been locked out, while Democrats pursue behind-closed-doors discussions and alterations. Sounds like a load of horse-hockey to me! U.S. citizens are in support of stopping, rethinking and coming up with a new health care plan, yet the Democrats are trying to devise a plan, get it passed (very surreptitiously) and shove it down our throat! We deserve a plan devised by all, including physicians, who have a significant, vested interest in this, yet our involvement has been minimal. Congress, the House and the President should open this up and make all the discussions transparent. I fear we may see a drove of physicians leaving practice in the near future because of all the fallout from the apparently proposed bill by the democrats. There are numerous other jobs out there that don’t require is to eat so much horse-shiite. Not to mention the paperwork increases and confusing demands/capability of EHR’s in order to qualify for subsidies that rapidly decrease. Having physicians dealing with more worries satisfying the government will undoubtedly lead to less time spend with patients and more time dealing with, sometimes, needless paperwork. Wake up and smell the coffee! There is self-interest by physicians in all of this-both for ourselves and our patients.
March 7, 2010
The government all ready controls health care. The office I worked for was closed by the drug task force on March 2, 2010. They had sent infomants in to lie to us in order to receive pain treatment. The danger to all of our patients is frightening. I have sent a letter to the West Virginia Board of Medicine requesting assistance for these patients. Under HIPAA no one has any privacy. If a government agent wants information on your patient you are legally required to give it. I did not realize the full impact of HIPAA until last week. I believe a program of health savings accounts with debit cards and nurturing everyone to improve their self care will improve the quality of life for everyone: doctor and patient a like. Sincerely, Katherine A. Hoover MD
Dr. Scotton – you said that I am confusing profit with efficiency of operation. Are you suggesting that physicians should just ‘volunteer” their time for the sake of service to our citizens? What part of maximizing profit is this? – My husband can spend 2 hours in the ER at midnight and be reimbursed $17. That’s less than the cost of a haircut. But he should accept this as “service to the citizens.” I think not. What you are about is socialism and all of the problems that have historically caused this type of system to fail. And as a matter of fact, socialism causes less service to the citizenry. If everyone is employed, as in France, and cannot lose their jobs – their is no incentive to give service to anyone – just bide one’s time until quitting time. The real problem are intellectuals like you that look down your nose at the real working people. More government programs or intervention solve nothing. Entitlements =Slavery.