Thursday, July 23, 2009

Obama Proposes to Change Healthcare Quality & Cost

President Barack Obama made two statements in last night’s press conference that summed up the entire hour. Even before taking the first question, he laid out the two key aspects of his plan which incorporated everything that he said later in the Q&A portion:

The President disclosed that his healthcare plan will mandate a national committee “of doctors and health care experts” which will be empowered under the law to decide methods of treatment and reimbursement rates. Obama also said that Americans should get “the best care, just not the most expensive care.” Decode that last statement, and you have reduced benefits.

Several times throughout the press conference, Obama came back to the same two points, using different language to underscore the same thing: “They (that means you!) will have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier.”

And how will we know that? There will, Obama explained, “be a panel of doctors and health care experts advising how to get better results and to reduce costs.” More coded language for reduced benefits: “People will need to be discriminating consumers; we just can’t afford this.”

What about that bureaucratic healthcare committee? Obama says he will, “Create a panel of healthcare experts to make recommendations to Congress.” The Congress, he went on, “Will be required to vote on proposals (of that committee) as a package deal each year on treatment options . . . this will change how benefits are delivered.”

So there you have it. Cutting through the Q&A's in Obama’s statements, you could, if you listened carefully, discern the fact that President Barack Obama wants to 1. Expand medical care by reducing current and future benefits, and 2. Establish a national bureaucratic healthcare committee with power under the law to push quality of care and cost decisions through the Congress.

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