Looking in from the outside as a very old person on Medicare, who has had some bad experiences, I'm not surpriced at this UNFAIR "doctor" propaganda against Obama Care and the independent advisory board.
Because physicians LOBBIED NOT to be put under the provisions of the 1991 Patient Self Determination Act, and wouldn't cooperate with the public policy goal of reducing growing EOL costs of dying for our growing elderly population, they have been free to OVERTREAT elderly patients with terminal diseases (for profit) with no legal obligation to inform elderly patients that there is another option ---i.e. the option of doing NOTHING and letting nature run its course, and then transitioning to the Hospice and Palliative care Medicare entitlement for a dignified and pain-free final exit ---outside of a Hospital ICU or CCU.
This, of course, is now changing and physicians, hopefully, in the future, will have to seek informed consent from elderly patients with terminal diseases for curative care as opposed to the other option, palliative care and hospice, and let the patient determine what is in their best interests, or face litigation. (The law passed by New York in 2011 is an example)
The "incorporated" physicians themselves have made IPAB necessary because of greed and much OVERTREATMENT of elderly Medicare/Medicaid patients that may be "successful" but on the whole not "beneficial" to the elderly patients.
We will have to trust that the IPAB will develop "standards of care" (because the physicians haven't) that support beneficial treatments for our elderly population. In doing so, they will prevent the growing costs of OVERTREATMENT for the profit motive (said to be over 30% of the total Medicare Bill!
If our healthcare system remains a mixture of government and private enterprise, the worst that will happen under IPAB is that the very wealthy will be able to buy insurance coverage (a new product) for procedures that are determined Non-beneficial and denied under IPAB rules governing Medicare benefits.
I'm sure there are many good physicians with great integrity who are embarassed by this dishonest propaganda "Pushing Grandma off Cliff."
Looking in from the outside as a very old person on Medicare, who has had some bad experiences, I'm not surpriced at this UNFAIR "doctor" propaganda against Obama Care and the independent advisory board.
ReplyDeleteBecause physicians LOBBIED NOT to be put under the provisions of the 1991 Patient Self Determination Act, and wouldn't cooperate with the public policy goal of reducing growing EOL costs of dying for our growing elderly population, they have been free to OVERTREAT elderly patients with terminal diseases (for profit) with no legal obligation to inform elderly patients that there is another option ---i.e. the option of doing NOTHING and letting nature run its course, and then transitioning to the Hospice and Palliative care Medicare entitlement for a dignified and pain-free final exit ---outside of a Hospital ICU or CCU.
This, of course, is now changing and physicians, hopefully, in the future, will have to seek informed consent from elderly patients with terminal diseases for curative care as opposed to the other option, palliative care and hospice, and let the patient determine what is in their best interests, or face litigation. (The law passed by New York in 2011 is an example)
The "incorporated" physicians themselves have made IPAB necessary because of greed and much OVERTREATMENT of elderly Medicare/Medicaid patients that may be "successful" but on the whole not "beneficial" to the elderly patients.
We will have to trust that the IPAB will develop "standards of care" (because the physicians haven't) that support beneficial treatments for our elderly population. In doing so, they will prevent the growing costs of OVERTREATMENT for the profit motive (said to be over 30% of the total Medicare Bill!
If our healthcare system remains a mixture of government and private enterprise, the worst that will happen under IPAB is that the very wealthy will be able to buy insurance coverage (a new product) for procedures that are determined Non-beneficial and denied under IPAB rules governing Medicare benefits.
I'm sure there are many good physicians with great integrity who are embarassed by this dishonest propaganda "Pushing Grandma off Cliff."