Government IS the Death Panel.

Dick Morris brought up the differences between health care cost and quality a little while ago, and one fact stuck out big time: “In 2008, Britain had a cancer death rate 0.25% while the United States had a rate of only 0.18%.  The UK cancer death rate was 38% higher than in the United States.” (Canada is 16% higher, by the way).

Keep that in mind as you read this commentary from Congressman Dr. Tom Coburn (R, OK):

For instance, the Reid bill (in sections 3403 and 2021) explicitly empowers Medicare to deny treatment based on cost. An Independent Medicare Advisory Board created by the bill—composed of permanent, unelected and, therefore, unaccountable members—will greatly expand the rationing practices that already occur in the program. Medicare, for example, has limited cancer patients’ access to Epogen, a costly but vital drug that stimulates red blood cell production. It has limited the use of virtual, and safer, colonoscopies due to cost concerns. And Medicare refuses medical claims at twice the rate of the largest private insurers.

Section 6301 of the Reid bill creates new comparative effectiveness research (CER) programs. CER panels have been used as rationing commissions in other countries such as the U.K., where 15,000 cancer patients die prematurely every year according to the National Cancer Intelligence Network. CER panels here could effectively dictate coverage options and ration care for plans that participate in the state insurance exchanges created by the bill.

… But the most fundamental flaw of the Reid bill is best captured by the story of one my patients I’ll call Sheila. When Sheila came to me at the age of 33 with a lump in her breast, traditional tests like a mammogram under the standard of care indicated she had a cyst and nothing more. Because I knew her medical history, I wasn’t convinced. I aspirated the cyst and discovered she had a highly malignant form of breast cancer. Sheila fought a heroic battle against breast cancer and enjoyed 12 good years with her family before succumbing to the disease.

If I had been practicing under the Reid bill, the government would have likely told me I couldn’t have done the test that discovered Sheila’s cancer because it wasn’t approved under CER. Under the Reid bill, Sheila may have lived another year instead of 12, and her daughters would have missed a decade with their mom.

The bottom line is that under the Reid bill the majority of America’s patients might be fine. But some will be like Sheila—patients whose lives hang in the balance and require the care of a doctor who understands the science and art of medicine, and can make decisions without government interference.

Dr. Coburn was in the news earlier this week, highlighting some key excerpts from a recent report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), which showed among other things that the biggest denier of medical claims isn’t some “greedy” insurance company, but your own federal government! Thus is destroyed another rationale — lack of access to health care — for ObamaCare.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), released the following statement regarding a new report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) that shows that 60 percent of health care spending in the U.S. ($1.35 trillion out of $2.24 trillion) is controlled by state, local and federal government.

“Defenders of the Reid bill say we need ‘reform’ to keep insurance companies honest. A better question would be: ‘Who’s going to keep the government honest?’ This new report shows that the so-called ‘reform’ effort is based on a false premise. Government is already the majority-shareholder in our health care system,” Dr. Coburn said.

“Many of the problems we face today in health care, such as cost and lack of choice and access to quality care, are the consequence of government interference. These problems will only get worse if Congress spends $2.5 trillion on legislation to put the government in charge of more of our health care decisions,” Dr. Coburn said. Patients in government run health plans have fewer options and lower quality of care:

* Medicare denies medical claims at twice the rate of some of the largest private insurers.
* Nearly one in three (29 percent) Medicare beneficiaries who were looking for a primary care doctor had a problem finding one to treat them, according to a June 2008 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) survey.
* Forty percent of physicians refuse to accept Medicaid patients.
* Patients in the Indian Health Services receive fewer options.

If our health care system is truly the problem, and government already controls the majority of the health care industry, then how will more government control solve the problem? It won’t. Worse, your access will become more problematic, not less.