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House Lays
Groundwork for Repeal of Obama Health Care Rationing By Burke J. Balch, J.D., Director, NRLC’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics It is no secret that repeal of the Obama Health Care Law will require a different president and an increase in the number of pro-repeal U.S. senators. However, the pro-repeal majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has begun to lay the groundwork for its abolition, perhaps in 2013, which would be before the major elements of the law—and the worst rationing—would come into effect. On January 19, the House voted 245–189 to repeal the Obama Health Care Law. On February 2, the Senate turned back a repeal attempt, with 47 affirmative to 51 negative votes. The House didn’t stop there. In a series of amendments to a bill funding the U.S. government considered over several days ending February 19, the House voted • 241–187 to prevent any funds appropriated by the bill from being used to implement the Obama Health Care Law; • by similar votes to adopt largely duplicative amendments to prevent paying federal employees or contractors to implement the law; • to prevent the use of funds to implement particular aspects of the law: 246–182, the individual mandate; 241–185, the medical loss ratio requirements (which limit what insurers can spend to administer health insurance policies); 241–184, the state insurance exchanges; by voice vote, the Independent Payment Advisory Board ;and • 239–183 to prevent the use of funds to pay for the salaries of federal bureaucrats who take any action to specify or define essential benefits as required in the Obama Health Care Law and 239–182 to prevent the use of funds to pay the salaries of federal bureaucrats who administer insurance provisions created in it. These amendments represented efforts to find various ingenious ways to employ the power of the purse to defund ObamaCare, and to improve the bargaining position of the House with the Senate and the Administration in negotiations over the government funding bill. Why is repeal of the Obama Health Care Law a key pro-life issue? In addition to its promotion of abortion, the law threatens the lives of the vulnerable born, especially senior citizens and those with disabilities. Rationing for Everyone. The Obama Health Care Law requires an “Independent Payment Advisory Board” to make recommendations to limit what Americans are allowed to spend on their health care so that it cannot keep up with medical inflation. To enforce them, the federal government will impose “quality” and “efficiency” measures on health care providers that restrict the treatment they can give all their patients. There will be one uniform national standard of care, established by Washington bureaucrats, specifying what treatment Americans can—and cannot—obtain. Rationing for Senior Citizens. The Obama Health Care Law empowers federal bureaucrats to limit—or even eliminate—the right of older Americans to add their own money on top of the government Medicare payment in order to get health insurance less likely to deny or limit lifesaving medical treatment. Rationing by the Exchanges. The Obama Health Care Law authorizes bureaucrats running the state-based health insurance exchanges to limit the value of the insurance Americans may purchase—in a way that affects insurance inside or outside the exchange, so that all consumers will have trouble finding health insurance offering adequate and unrationed health care. Persuading Patients They’re Better Off without Treatment. Under the “Shared Decisionmaking” program, the Obama Health Care Law funds private entities to create “patient decision aids” and establish regional centers to train health care providers in using them. Groups who pushed for this program and are likely to be funded under it market themselves as reducing health care spending by convincing patients to forego expensive treatments. There is evidence that, although they may not be familiar with the details, most Americans realize the law threatens rationing. In a September 2010 poll by Logos Communications by the senior-citizens-advocacy group Sixty Plus, by 56% to 26%, registered voters believe the new health care reform law will lead to “rationing” of care. (Even among Obama voters, there is a tie in whether they believe it will lead to rationing: 36% to 36%.) By 82% to 7% registered voters agree, “As a matter of principle, the government should not ration care or deny treatment options based on what it calls ‘cost-effectiveness.’ I don’t trust the government to put a cost on human life.” Nevertheless, the Administration is mounting a full-scale campaign to convince Americans the new law will be good for them; it is critical that pro-life supporters both inform ourselves of the documentable rationing in the law and bend every effort to educate our friends and neighbors so that repeal can be achieved before it is too late. Legislative Action Alert Repeal Government Rationing Board under the Obama Health Care Law IMPORTANT! Please urge your representative to vote to support H.R. 452 to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board in the Obama Health Care Law and to speak out in debate about its rationing! Use your own words to explain: You don’t want bureaucrats in Washington (the Department of Health and Human Services, based on recommendations by the Independent Payment Advisory Board) to limit what treatment your doctor or hospital can give you through so-called “quality and efficiency measures.” – Because mail to D.C. House offices faces long delays due to security screening requirements, postal mail, to be effective, is best sent to the LOCAL address instead of the Washington office, which you may find in your local phone book or by going to http://[insert representative’s last name].house.gov. – You can send an e-mail by going to www.nrlc.org, clicking on the Legislative Action Center, clicking on “Issues and Legislation,” then clicking on H.R. 452 “Repeal Independent Payment Advisory Board,” and entering your zip code in the “Take Action Now” box; and/or – You can call your representative’s state office (see local phone book) or go through the Capitol Switchboard: 202-225-3121. |