The health information technology and comparative-effectiveness research provisions of the “economic stimulus” bill will lead to rationing and cookbook medicine (“Is government ready to lead effectiveness panel?”). Government bureaucrats will decide what gets covered and what doesn’t. People will be told to “accept their fate” and die earlier or suffer with medical conditions that can be cured. Doctors will be forced to comply through computerized medical records and use of so-called “value-based purchasing.” This is the natural progress of things when third parties control the vast majority of healthcare financing. It is a classic big government/large corporation move: central planning and control. Politicians will get re-elected promising “free healthcare,” corporations will get higher profits and governments will cut healthcare spending. All on the backs of taxpayers, the sick and doctors who refuse to comply with the bureaucrats. There are better ways to save money and improve quality based on individual ownership of healthcare financing and decisionmaking and deregulation.
David McKalip, M.D.
ChairmanCouncil on Medical EconomicsFlorida Medical AssociationSt. Petersburg, Fla.Submit a letter to the Modern Physician Reader Blog. Please include your name, title, company and hometown. Modern Physician reserves the right to edit all submissions.
