Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hsieh OpEd at PJM: "ObamaCare: Tightening the Noose Around Private Health Care"

The December 15, 2009 PajamasMedia.com has just published my latest OpEd, "ObamaCare: Tightening the Noose Around Private Health Care".

My theme is that some little-discussed provisions of the health care bill will increasingly limit the freedom of patients to seek (and doctors to deliver) medical services based on the patient's best interest. Instead, doctors will be increasingly forced to practice according to collectivist "cost-effectiveness" government criteria.

Here is the introduction:
The U.S. Senate is making increasingly Byzantine backroom deals in an attempt to pass some form of universal health care by the end of the year. But even though the final bill isn't settled yet, one fact is becoming increasingly clear. Any plan they pass will result in the government seizing an unprecedented degree of control over previously private health spending decisions.

Two of these proposed new controls are worth highlighting, because they are not often discussed in most mainstream media reports...
(Read the full text of "ObamaCare: Tightening the Noose Around Private Health Care".)

Note: This is an expanded version of my earlier blog post, "Tightening The Noose Around Private Medicine".