Rationing “based on the individual’s ability to pay”
November 24, 2009
In America, do we ration Coca Cola? How about pizza? Tires? I have never seen a rationing card for any of these products. In fact, diamond rings are available in just about each and every mall in America. If you want to buy a Coke, all you have to do is pony up the cash and, by God, you bought yourself a Coke. Nobody will try to stop you. You can fill your swimming pool with Coca Cola if you so choose.
Nobody is rationing health care either. Some folks want you to believe otherwise, however. For example, Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post wants you to believe health care in America is rationed.
Our system already rations health care based on the individual’s ability to pay. Insurance companies ration some tests and procedures based on age, risk factors and what often seems like whim.
If health care in America is rationed “based on the individual’s ability to pay,” then so is Coca Cola, carrots, Camaros, caster oil, cucumbers and cocaine. In fact, unless something is absolutely free (few things are) it is rationed based on the individual’s ability to pay. If we accept ability to pay as rationing, then virtually every damned thing in existence is rationed and the word loses all meaning.
Last week, the Health and Human Services Department’s U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommended against mammography for women under 50. Previously it was recommended that women over 40 get an annual mammogram. As long as your insurance company or you are willing to pay, you can get a mammogram at age 20 if you want. There is no rationing involved.
If the statists are ever able to achieve their goal of a Canadian style single payer system in the United States, “recommendations” like those from the H.A.H.S.D.U.S.P.S.T.F. above will be mandatory. In that case, you won’t be allowed to get a mammogram until age 50 no matter how much you are willing to pay. That, my friends is rationing and that is what the Democrats have planned for you.
Slaphappypap :
Date: November 25, 2009
Here’s a few quotes from facebook from women screaming about the new guidelines:
1.”Ok gals don’t listen to this line of BS! go to the gyno EVERY YEAR! i was 23 when they found cancerous and precancerous cervical cells. it was already moderate to severe w/in a year after my last app. its better just to get the tests done to insure u are ok, then to wait and have to undergo many more invasive procedure…s! ladies u only get 1 vagina, cervix and uterus! so take care of them!
”
2. “I had a scare this last time I went – scared the bejeezus out of me…”
3.”my pap came back wih cancerous cells and I had to have a LEEP procedure in order to get rid of them, I thank God I went in, i wasn’t really planning on it but i knew my insurance was ending after I lostmy job. If I had followed these new crappy guidelines I would have never caught this and could have ended up a lot worse.”
4.” i too had several procedures to remove the “bad” cervical cells. and who knows what would have happend if i would have waited!!!”