This chart reflects President Obama’s health policy adviser’s argument that health care resources should be allocated to the young adult population, and limited in the older and youngest populations. In other words – if your too young or too old you are NOT GOING TO RECEIVE all the care you may NEED!
Who wrote this? Why Obama’s special advisor to the Office of Management and Budget for health policy, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. If the name sounds familiar, that is because he is the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Dr. Emanuel is the chair of Bio-Ethics at the NIH as well as an Oncologist. He co-authored a paper earlier this year titled, Principles for Allocation of Scarce Medical Interventions. (free registration may be required to view) .
The paper examines a number of methods of allocating scarce resources, and the authors introduce their own hybrid model called the “COMPLETE LIVES SYSTEM.”
When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.
While the authors recognize that their system has flaws:
The complete lives system discriminates against older people
but….and there’s always a but….
Accepting the complete lives system for health care as a whole would be premature. We must first reduce waste and increase spending.
And they even bring up on, their own, the NAZI like nature of this notion!
Ultimately, the complete lives system does not create “classes of Untermenschen whose lives and well being are deemed not worth spending money on”, but rather empowers us to decide fairly whom to save when genuine scarcity makes saving everyone impossible. [emphasis mine]
In other words – once we’ve squeezed out waste, fraud, abuse and eliminated the profit from the system – we’ll still have more demand for services than we can afford. And WHEN THAT HAPPENS – we need a SYSTEM to allocate the resources.
While this is an interesting intellectual exercise at best, it should SCARE THE LIVING HELL out of anyone who plans on living past 60 years of age. In essence, only “productive workers” would be eligible to receive the maximum amount of care. Once your use to society is limited, or, in the case of children, a significant investment has not yet been made in you,YOU WILL BE ON YOUR OWN.
Dr. Emanuel has also has published a book – “Guaranteed Access Health Care” (at least the title makes it clear where he stand on this issue!)
In a nutshell, his health care system would be universal mandatory care, funded by a Value Added Tax (VAT). Its not clear how Dr. Emanuel reconciles the conflicting notions of selling the population on ”Guaranteed Access Health Care” and his recommendation for allocating scarce medical resources. The American people are being sold down the river by the shiny object of “FREE” Health Care. Don’t listen America – NOTHING IS FREE – and Universal Government Funded Care is a placing your health care treatment in the hands of faceless, nameless, and more importantly, unaccountable bureaucrats.
A complete review of his book can be found at the New York Review of Books (and no do not expect it to be too balanced!)
Share this chart with EVERYONE you know – we MUST NOT allow our country to become an amoral nation without mercy for the young and the old.
Hat Tip to Rightsoup.com for their an excellent article Rahm’s Brother Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: The Death Czar
Previously:
Obama Health Care like sci fi movie Logan’s Run
Health Care Rationing Is ALREADY Here in the USA
Obama promises middle class no sacrifice for ‘free’ healthcare
Oncologists recommend rationing of Cancer Drugs
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