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The Cold Heart of ObamaCare
RealClear Politics ^ | December 7, 2009 | Nat Hentoff

Posted on 12/07/2009 7:59:28 AM PST by don-o

Much of the press coverage of the Democrats' health care legislation, now fiercely embattled in Congress, focuses on the public option, the actual long-term costs and tax increases, and the amendment barring funding for abortions. But the cold heart of Obamacare is its overpowering of the doctor-patient relationship - eventually resulting in the premature ending of many Americans' lives for being too costly.

To call the dangers of this legislation "death panels" obscures the real-life consequences to Americans, not only the elderly, of a federal government-run health care bureaucracy. In the Senate bill, for instance, Medicare doctors whose treatments each year of certain, mostly elderly, patients costs more than a set government figure will be punished by losing part of their own incomes.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: christianright; hentoff; moralabsolutes; obamacare
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1 posted on 12/07/2009 7:59:28 AM PST by don-o
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Hentoff ping


2 posted on 12/07/2009 7:59:55 AM PST by don-o (My son, Ben - Marine Lance Corporal is in Iraq.)
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To: don-o
Medicare doctors whose treatments each year of certain, mostly elderly, patients costs more than a set government figure will be punished by losing part of their own incomes.

Proof that the Communists Party (formally the Democratic Party) don't give a damn about us little old people. Actually they don't give a damn about people of any age. Too busy filling their pockets and love power, a true communists. They will be gone in a few years peacefully or by the sword. We will not go under like Venezuela.

3 posted on 12/07/2009 8:12:07 AM PST by Logical me (Oh, well!!!)
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To: Logical me

This should be aired by Repubbies. All I hear is public option and abortion...ok, but add this too.


4 posted on 12/07/2009 8:29:24 AM PST by Achilles Heel
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To: don-o

This will not go over well with the plebes. The restrictions on mammograms created a firestorm of controversy, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.


5 posted on 12/07/2009 8:30:59 AM PST by Burkean
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To: don-o

The only thing that is new to this is the government wants to extend rationing health care to the population at large. There is already rationing in Medicare. If I (I’m a physician) order a test and do not provide a diagnostic code for it that those who oversee Medicare think justifies that test then Medicare will refuse payment for it. They also send a nice letter explaining their refusal to pay and telling the patient that their doctor ordered a test that wasn’t medically necessary. Imagine the difficulty involved in trying to explain to these patients that, yes, their test was medically necessary but Medicare doesn’t want to pay for it.

So physicians already have to play games with terminology trying to get Medicare to pay for tests and treatments that we feel are needed for good medical care. It is an enormous waste to time and money. And if we don’t play the game correctly the patient gets screwed in the end with either bad medical care or huge medical bills.


6 posted on 12/07/2009 9:06:46 AM PST by tnye
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To: <1/1,000,000th%; 1000 silverlings; 1035rep; 109ACS; 11Bush; 17th Miss Regt; 185JHP; lkco; ...

ACTION SUGGESTION


This is an an excellent article to forward to pro-life liberals. Some FReepers might say "There's no such thing," but--- ahem--- I think most of us know some.

The reason it's so good, is that Hentoff is a highly credible figure for people who are somewhat-to-the-left-of-you, and yet prolife. Very often they are not yet alert to the other intolerable aspects of the Federal Healthcare Takeover, and not disposed to recognize, or give credence to, conservative opinionistas who abhor Obamacare as a whole.

But they'll listen to Hentoff. He's the Patron Saint of the Left of Right to Life.

So it's a good article to copy and send to the

papal pinks and prolife liberals

who may listen to Nat Hentoff even if they wouldn't listen to you.

7 posted on 12/07/2009 9:46:49 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. " George Orwell)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Bump!


8 posted on 12/07/2009 9:51:57 AM PST by editor-surveyor (The beginning of the O'Bomb-a administration looks a lot like the end of the Nixon administration)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

BTTT


9 posted on 12/07/2009 9:57:36 AM PST by E.G.C.
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To: don-o

The sense of fear and malaise has overtaken my family. We all know what is coming and it is profound in a very bad way.

People are going to have to make a choice of their own while they still can.


10 posted on 12/07/2009 9:57:58 AM PST by dforest (Who is the real Jim Thompson? I am.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

pro-life liberals. Some FReepers might say “There’s no such thing,” but-— ahem-— I think most of us know some.
_________________________________________________

Well, I know some folks that say they are pro-life but voted for Barry...

And now they cant tell me why...

or say that they didnt know Barry was pro-abortion and pro-infantcide..


11 posted on 12/07/2009 9:58:59 AM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: don-o
The current baseline expenditure for each Briton, according to Michael Tanner, is $44,305 per year.

That would be $13.29 TRILLION PER YEAR in the US. Even if we use the average for Medicare per person per year, $12,000, you get $3.6 TRILLION per year. That's right, folks, PER YEAR, not per ten years. Currently, government costs each man, woman, and child $13,000 per year, and much more for those who actually pay taxes. Count on your taxes doubling just to pay for substandard, low quality, rationed government run health care.

12 posted on 12/07/2009 10:03:23 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (The Second Amendment. Don't MAKE me use it.)
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To: Burkean

Whenever something is “free”, you MUST ration it. The Rats will make sure that the people most likely to live off the government tit and vote for Rats will be first in line.


13 posted on 12/07/2009 10:06:58 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (The Second Amendment. Don't MAKE me use it.)
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To: don-o

OBowma is the hollow man of the real evil we are witnessing. One of the chief advisors on “human culling” as I call it is this neo Nazi-—Ezekiel Rahm who writes:

“To know whether it is ethical to turn off the respirator for a quadriplegic patient requires conceptions of personal identity, a worthy human life, murder and suicide; to know how much information a doctor must provide a cancer patient to obtain proper informed consent for an experimental therapy requires conceptions of autonomy, coercion and the public good and how to balance these values; to know whether to break the AIDS patient’s confidentiality and inform his wife requires a framework for weighing the relative importance of competing individual rights as well as the public good.”

God help us.


14 posted on 12/07/2009 10:11:27 AM PST by eleni121 (For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Thanks for the ping!


15 posted on 12/07/2009 10:13:22 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Tennessee Nana
Those are the people who you need to send Hentoff to.

I've got some prolife friends --- yes, real, actual friends--- who blew my mind by voring for Obama, or at least by openly and seriously considering it. Now they'r just kinda confused.

They are at the top of my list to get this article. They love Nat Hentoff.

16 posted on 12/07/2009 10:17:12 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. " George Orwell)
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To: don-o

If there’s a Hentoff ping list - I’d like to be on it. Haven’t seen much of his writing since he retired. I pray he’ll keep writing...


17 posted on 12/07/2009 11:00:48 AM PST by GOPJ (Climategate leaks? Taxpayers have a right to see tax funded research. Freeper dennisw)
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To: GOPJ

Do not know of an Hentoff list. I just happened to see this column in the print edition of the local paper and searched it out on line.


18 posted on 12/07/2009 11:26:51 AM PST by don-o (My son, Ben - Marine Lance Corporal is in Iraq.)
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To: Burkean; don-o
This will not go over well with the plebes. The restrictions on mammograms created a firestorm of controversy, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Wasn't there also a restriction on pap smears or some other procedure? And no, I'm not talking about the prostrate exam.

The only reason I bring it up, is that I've been seeing the strangest commercial lately. One where a guy is saying to give your wife/girlfriend a pap smear for Christmas, if you really care.

I mean, yea, I'm sure it is a necessary thing, but women are kinda funny about Holiday presents, and I don't think a OB/GYN examine ranks up there.

But what do I know, I'm just a clueless guy.

19 posted on 12/07/2009 11:31:49 AM PST by AFreeBird (Going Rogue in 2012)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

IHMO this healthcare bill should bw called the “TWOFER BILL” because it takes Medicare (kiliing seniors)funding cuts and they will provide abortion funding, so two for the price of one.


20 posted on 12/07/2009 5:18:19 PM PST by Citizen Soldier ("You care far too much what is written and said about you." Axelrod to Obama 2006)
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