Your letters: Government should stay out of health care

Posted August 5, 2009 at 11:37 am and filed under Opinion.

I do not want a government employee telling my doctor if he can perform a specific procedure or recommend certain medication. Right now, there is no amendment to H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, prohibiting this from happening.

A physician’s proposal to bar federal political appointees and bureaucrats from intervening in patient treatment decisions was brushed aside Monday, July 20 by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Democratic majority in a 24-33 vote.

I spent 40 years in the fire service at federal, state and local levels. I know just how some of my firefighters responded to authority: It went to their heads. They wrote citations to citizens for things that were not addresses in the codes.

What do you think would happen with a physician’s request for a medical procedure for a 70-year-old grandmother? “Oh, she is too old for that procedure.”

Get involved and ask questions of Rep. Bob Etheridge and Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan. Ask them for town hall meetings here in the Garner area before the healthcare vote. This piece of legislation will bankrupt America. We already owe $100 trillion dollars on social security, Medicare, Medicare and SCHIP for promises that we cannot pay for — now this.

Who is going to pay for all of this — our grandchildren?

Frank Livingston
Garner

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1 Response for “Your letters: Government should stay out of health care”

  1. Sandy Rathjen says:
    August 14, 2009 at 12:23 am

    Please reread the House bill. Only you and your doctor decide what procedures you will have. The bill talks about a panel for data so that you and your doctor have data to know what will likely work best. Your choice is still up to you.
    Reform protects patients from insurance companies deciding what procedures you or a 70 year old will receive. Insurance people decide this now, and only you and your doctor should decide.

    The only thing that will bankrupt America is not to reform Medicare is not sustainable as it is now. The President will not sign a bill that costs over 10 years – his words are that it must be revenue neutral over 10 years. That is the challenge of the legislators. The need for the reform is not debated, but the details are difficult.

    I had to read portions several times, too, but please look it over again.

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