Your Friend the Obamacare Mandate Committee
20th February 2012
I think you would have to be coming from a very unusual place to think that legislation that did this was a good idea. Why would you ever think that some small committee meeting in secret in DC should decide for the entire country and the entire medical profession and all insurance companies what medical screening tests should or should not be covered by insurance?
Being a government employee helps.
February 20th, 2012 at 10:57
Hmmm…So, let me get this straight: they’ve set up a task force to see if treatments which are commonly prescribed actually work, and if there’s no evidence that they do, they’ll get dropped from coverage, while if there’s evidence they do in fact work, they’ll be required to be covered. Is that it?
So, where’s the problem? Isn’t basing practice on measurable outcomes a principle tenet of the conservatives? And isn’t that what they’re doing?
Or are they just grumpy because Obama is actually doing what they just talk about doing?
February 20th, 2012 at 16:01
“So, where’s the problem? Isn’t basing practice on measurable outcomes a principle tenet of the conservatives? And isn’t that what they’re doing?”
This process has been done for decades in the private sector. Peer reviewed protocols has been the standard of medicine in the U.S. that made our health care system the best. Out in the open, transparent discourse is the key.
“The task force is a part-time board of volunteer advisers that works slowly and is often late to incorporate new science into its recommendations. Only in 2009 did it finally recommend aspirin for the prevention of stroke and heart attack among those at risk—decades after this practice was demonstrated to save lives and had become part of standard medical practice.”
The rub is encapsulated in the above quote. A government board that decides all matters of coverage for everyone behind closed door…come on man!