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"Docs4PatientCare.org is a politically neutral grassroots coalition of physicians.  Use of any politically partisan terms does not reflect the position of Docs4PatientCare.org.  We do encourage our speakers to express how they feel and we post articles based on their informative content only.  Any politically partisan language used does not reflect the group as a whole.  Specific party or political allegiances and opposition are not our intent.  The goal of D4PC is only to advocate for effective and responsible health care reform."

D4PC "Morning Rounds" Monday, November 21, 2011

Monday, November 21, 2011

Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice.


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"Supremes Will Hear Obamacare Challenge", National Review

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments in the 26-state challenge to Obamacare sets the stage for the most important constitutional test of freedom and individual liberty in at least a generation. The core of the case is the constitutionality of the “individual mandate” — the federal requirement that all citizens must have government-prescribed health insurance.

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"Obama Nominee For Social Security Board Favors Rationing Health Care", The Weekly Standard

“If Americans are serious about curbing medical costs, they’ll have to face up to a much tougher issue than merely cutting waste, says Brookings Institution economist Henry J. Aaron.
“They’ll have to do what the British have done: ration some types of costly medical care — which means turning away patients from proven treatments.

“Some medical services widely available in the United States are strictly rationed in Britain, Aaron and Schwartz report in their book, ‘The Painful Prescription.


“The key to the British system, they contend, lies not in regulation but in a different attitude toward medicine, mortality and the scarcity of resources.

“Unlike their American counterparts, who tend to believe in saving lives at all cost, British doctors define ‘what is best’ in terms of ‘what is available,’ Aaron said.

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"Senators Admit Obamacare Unconstitutional", Mackinac Center

....the following 13 Republican state senators all voted to implement a key component of the federal “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” by authorizing creation of a Michigan agency to distribute the law’s insurance subsidies.

A few minutes later, these same Republicans voted for a resolution that included the following assertion about the PPACA:

"The act violates the U.S. Constitution, including the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and the constitutional principles of federalism and dual sovereignty on which this nation was founded."

Even if one doesn’t fully accept all the arguments, given the inherent uncertainty of the situation, lawmakers have a duty to at least push back against what they themselves labeled an unconstitutional law. At minimum that suggests waiting until the U.S. Supreme Court rules next June, and possibly until presidential election voters give their verdict next November.

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"Only Jobs More Important Than Healthcare To Voters", The Washington Post

Health care is topped only by jobs as the issue voters care about the most, according to a new survey released Wednesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Industries.

After high unemployment, respondents ranked health care equally with the national deficit as the next most pressing problems, as the cost of health care balloons and challenges to President Obama's health care law rise more doubts about the industry's future.


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"Senate Democrats Say Health Law Has Unintended Consequences For Farmers", The Hill

D4PC Opinion: The latest casualty of the ACA is the well-functioning risk pool established by the nation's farmers. As we've seen countess times since passage, this sloppy, hastily written legislation destroys everything in it's path, especially the programs that were previously working as designed. Now congressional Democrats must once again bow their heads in shame and ask for yet another Obamacare waiver from participation. In medical school, one of the first lessons young physicians learn is to "above all else, first do no harm". Perhaps if lawmakers allowed doctors to advise them in this sordid affair, some of these miscues could have been avoided.


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"Patients Denied Key Treatment Due To NHS Cost-Cutting, Surgeons Warn", The Guardian

The surgeons' move highlights the fact that PCTs across England are increasingly delaying or denying patients access to surgery to repair a hernia, replace an arthritic hip or knee, and remove cataracts, infected tonsils, gallstones, wisdom teeth, adenoids and varicose veins. Some are even restricting the number of patients who can have a hysterectomy or have their baby in a planned caesarean section. Surgeons, heath charities and patients' groups are increasingly frustrated that PCTs are introducing what they regard as arbitrary lists of treatments of supposedly low or no clinical value despite medical evidence that many help relieve patients' symptoms.

The joint statement says the FSSA is concerned the evidence for the lists is "very poor and it is therefore inappropriate for them to be used to determine patient care without the involvement of the Specialty Associations".


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"Panel Emphasizes Safety Guidelines In Digitization of Health Records", The New York Times

We're certain everyone is as reassured and comfortable as we are that another government panel of experts under the direction of a Harvard "academic" is taking control of this issue. This is a very complicated matter involving bureaucrats, profit-seeking technology vendors and physicians involved in actual patient care. We are hoping that the feds will learn from their mismanagement of the PPACA legislation and bring practicing clinicians into the fray when developing this communication tool of the future.

  
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