Beware: Senate Bill Threaten Seniors, Disabled With Health Care Rationing

LifeNews.com: Burke Balch is a pro-life attorney who is the director of the Robert Powell Center for Ethics at the National Right to Life Committee. He is considered one of the foremost experts on health care, euthanasia and bioethics issues.

The U.S. Senate is poised to begin debate on the 2,074-page health care bill, crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.), when senators return to Washington next week.

In a release last week, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, noted that Senator Reid's bill would authorize the federal government to pay for any and all abortions through a huge federal health insurance program, and also to subsidize purchase of private plans that cover abortion on demand.

Further analysis finds that the Reid bill, like the House bill approved earlier this month, puts the lives of older Americans and persons with disabilities at great risk.

LIMITS ON SENIOR CITIZENS' CHOICE TO SPEND THEIR OWN MONEY TO ENSURE ACCESS TO LIFESAVING CARE

Under current law, Medicare recipients have the legal option, if they choose, of adding their own money on top of the government contribution in order to obtain "private fee-for-service" Medicare Advantage plans that can use the additional premiums to avoid "managed care" limitations on treatments and tests and to ensure access by paying providers market rates. Presently, the Medicare statute prevents the government from second-guessing or imposing limits on the premiums for private fee-for-service plans, allowing beneficiaries to balance cost, benefit, and affordability in making their own decisions whether to purchase such plans.

However, Section 3209, on page 920, amends that provision so as to empower the federal government to exclude from competing in Medicare Advantage those plans whose bids it does not like. The consequence is to give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the discretion to deny older Americans the choice of plans whose premiums CMS disallows. This amounts to the imposition of price controls, thus limiting what older Americans are permitted to spend for health insurance. Again, being prohibited from paying what may be needed to obtain unrationed health insurance amounts to government-imposed health care rationing.

The provision duplicates the little-noticed section 1175 of the bill passed by the House of Representatives. Neither provision was in bills reported by the committees of either chamber; at the last minute, both were slipped into the versions sent to the floor for action.

The fundamental question is whether seniors will be prevented from using their own money, if they wish, to gain access to insurance that will not ration medical treatment. The significant cuts that the Senate and House health care bills make in Medicare increase the importance of protecting the right of older Americans, if they choose, to use their own money to save their own lives. It is critical that seniors retain this right which would be eliminated by the Reid bill as introduced.

LIMITING THE ABILITY OF CITIZENS TO SPEND THEIR OWN MONEY TO OBTAIN UNRATIONED CARE IN THE HEALTH CARE EXCHANGES

Also, for those eligible to participate in the insurance exchange Sen. Reid=s bill limits their right to spend their own money to save their own lives. Beginning on page 37, Section 1003 empowers the State Exchange Commissioner to exclude from the exchange plans offered by health insurance issuers whom the State Commissioner considers have a pattern of Aexcessive or unjustified premium increases.

It is noteworthy that this provision will even have a chilling effect on health plans offered outside the exchange, since insurers will be fearful that if they fully meet the demand for health insurance by employers and others, it may be held against them so as to keep them out of the exchange. While the exchanges are to begin by serving individuals and small businesses, ultimately they are intended to cover even the largest employers, so the possibility of exclusion from so large a market is likely to be a significant deterrent.

This parallels a similar provision inserted in the House bill when it went to the floor, Section 104.

This essentially grants government bureaucrats the discretion to limit what people are allowed to pay for health insurance. Being prohibited from paying what may be needed to obtain unrationed health insurance amounts to government-imposed health care rationing.

PUSHING REJECTION OF TREATMENT TO SAVE MONEY -- RENAMING "ADVANCE CARE PLANNING" AS "SHARED DECISIONMAKING"

The Reid Bill contains a section titled "Shared Decisionmaking." The Reid bill does not include provisions paralleling those in the House bill designed to create incentives for Aadvance care planning.

But Section 936, beginning on page 1106, provides funding to develop and disseminate "patient decision aids" which are to include "relative cost of treatment or, where appropriate, palliative care options" and to "educate providers on the use of such materials, including through academic curricula" (p. 1110).

Money is to be awarded to establish AShared Decisionmaking Resource Centers . . . to provide technical assistance to providers and to develop and disseminate best practices . . . (p. 1112).The concern with this section is the same as that with the promotion of advance care planning. Given the strong views many in the medical community have about poor quality of life and the considerable emphasis on saving costs (along with the Reid bills defective process for selecting the materials the patients receive), the danger is great these measures will in fact subtly or otherwise "nudge" patients in the direction of rejecting life-saving treatment to save costs.

INDEPENDENT MEDICARE ADVISORY BOARD MUST DRIVE MEDICARE REIMBURSEMENT BELOW THE RATE OF MEDICAL INFLATION

In Section 3403, beginning on page 1000, the Reid bill provides for an "Independent Medicare Advisory Board," given the task of ensuring senior's Medicare meets budget goals that will tighten each year. For fiscal years 2015 through 2019, the bill sets a target rate of growth for Medicare midway between medical inflation and average inflation; for subsequent years the target is the growth in Gross Domestic Product per capita plus 1%.To the extent the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects that Medicare growth rates would exceed these targets, the Board would have to act to reduce the gap by specified percentages varying by year. This gap-reducing would likely come through reductions in payments to health care providers, leading those providers to skimp on care or leave the Medicare program altogether.

The recommendations of the Board would automatically go into effect unless Congress, through an expedited procedure, adopted another means resulting in the same reductions; to waive this would require a 3/5 vote.

Further details and documentation can be found at:
http://www.nrlc.org/healthcarerationing/reidsubstitute.html

ATTENTION FELLOW TEXANS:

Governor Rick Perry may invoke the 10th Amendment over
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2299225/posts?q=1&;page=51

Get after Perry, Texans. Burn up his switch board and fax!
Let him know we don’t want Obama DeathCare.

Say no to Obama’s DeathCare.

Send a message; DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS healthcare!

No! NO you don’t, you muzzie pos.

You’re not denying our seniors deserved health care while insuring millions of illegal aliens and while Demorats are REJECTING Obamacare for themselves and their families!

Join organizations who fight ObamaCare.

This is a good organization:
The Alliance of Texans Against Government Controlled Healthcare:
http://www.notintexas.org/

office (972) 466-2915
fax (972) 466-2965
toll-free (866) 377-1300

From the website:
We are currently contacting Governor Rick Perry by fax and mail!

We have made it easy for you to help. Click here to display the letter and contact information.
http://www.notintexas.org/Letter_rick_perry.htm

Petition to STOP government controlled healthcare in Texas
Read and sign the petition
http://www.notintexas.org/Letter_to_Reps.htm

Print and sign the letter
(feel free to make changes if you wish)

Fax the letter to the fax numbers

Mail a hard copy to the addresses

Call their offices

Dear Governor Perry,

On March 30, 2009 the Texas House of Representatives passed HCR 50 affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment.

You have publicly supported this bill, and stated that attorney generals from all over the union could be getting ready to sue the US Government.

We are asking you to take the lead.

We are asking you to order the Texas Attorney General to publicly begin working on a law suit under Article IV, Ninth, and Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.

We are asking you to protect the citizens of Texas that we will not stand for government controlled healthcare in our state.

Under your leadership we can effectively kill the proposal of this administration and allow Texas to be a state free from socialism and collectivism.

Be the voice of reason in the national debate and allow Texans the ability to solve the problems of our state.

Thank you,

(Signature Date)

Lookup your state representatives

FREE FAX SERVICSES:
http://www.gotfreefax.com/
http://faxzero.com/
or google ‘free fax’

Contacting Rick Perry

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-2000
Fax: (512) 463-1849

Washington Office:
122 C St., NW, Ste. 200
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 638-3927
Fax: (202) 628-1943

Contact Budget Planning and Policy

Address:1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: (512) 463-1778
Fax: (512) 463-1975
Gregory S. Davidson
Constituent Communication Division Director and
Executive Clerk to the Governor
Phone: (512) 463-1873

Office of the General Counsel
Department Mailing Address
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711
Phone: 512.463.2000
Fax: 512.463.1932

Press Secretary
Allison Castle, Press Secretary
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-1826
Fax: (512) 463-1847

Contact Texas Health Care Policy Council
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-1778
Fax: (512) 463-1975

____________________

From Texans Against Government Controlled Health Care

http://www.notintexas.org/

Facts about the 10th Amendment:

The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution’s principle of Federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.

HCR 50 HAS PASSED THE HOUSE 99-36!
Affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.

Take Action! Before it is too late!

__________________________

REMEMBER THIS,TEXANS:

Feds Have Built Only 32 Miles of 700 Mile Double-Border Fence Originally Mandated by Congress

“One reason DHS has been able to do this is an amendment that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Texas) slipped into an omnibus appropriations bill that Congress passed on December 18, 2007. Hutchison’s amendment put a loophole in the fence law that allowed the secretary of Homeland Security not to build the fence Congress had mandated the year before.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/43422

REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE FOR GOVERNOR

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