Under the Cash For Codgers program, if someone came in seeking health care services that were judged “excessive” by a locally appointed appraisal board, then their nearest relative will be granted power of attorney to make the decision, and will be offered $3500 to $4500 for such organs as are usable, and the patient would then be humanely parted out[emphasis added]. Unusable portions will be disposed of in an ecologically approved manner, with preferences given to demands of the agriculture industry.
Movie fans may recall a couple of old-time, science fiction horror movies: Logan's Run and Soylent Green.
Soylent Green invited people to step into the vat, to be surprised to emerge as canned food headed for the nearest grocery. Logan's Run sounds eerily like Cash for Codgers - at age 35 people are deemed "too old", and participate in a major media event - a "run" with the promise of being let to live if they escape the many dangers and traps. Until Logan, of course, none are permitted to survive. Logan manages to escape.
I wonder if people have thought through this rationed health care. For one popular instance, suppose B. Hussein Obama sets himself as a national icon of health.
- Want to see a doctor, but weigh more than The One? Wait until you lose the weight.
- Want to see a doctor, but don't run like a top Marine Sargeant? Get practicing - the doctor is on the other side of the obstacle course.
- Want your kid to see the doctor, but the little tyke is throwing a tantrum? Come back when the toddler shows discipline and courtesy, and reverance for Big Foot and B. Hussein Obama.
- Want to see the doctor but didn't vote for Obama? Maybe after the next election Alderman Obama will have time for the doctor to see you.
- Want to see the doctor but smoke/take drugs? Have to pass the pee-in-the-bottle test and pass the 60-days without exposure to smokers sniff test.
- Want to see a doctor but aren't married and sexually active? Well, the doctor will be available as soon as you have been "fixed".
- Want to see a doctor, you are pregnant with more than one kid at home? The doctor will see you right after the abortion and after you get "fixed".
- Make more money, or have more assets, than a retired grocery store clerk? Tough. Hire an illegal Mexican to be your family doctor. Just don't expect to have access to legal pharmacies and diagnostic equipment.
This may answer Frank W. James' "I've Got A few Questions" post, on why Obama gives a rip. Oh! Bummer! wants control of average Americans.
Back in the Reagan Presidency, one conservative quote angered Liberals: The more you spend on health care, the more expensive health care becomes. If someone survives cancer, a car crash, or anaphylactic shock, the odds are great that the person will be using, at some time, additional medical services. Invent a new drug or machine that helps critically ill patients - and it will get used on those that *might* benefit. Look at how frequently viagra happens to be used for recreation rather than medical necessity. Or how often Tylenol gets used when drinking less alcohol, or more water, the night before would have sufficed. Back 100 to 200 years ago, you got the flu or dysentery, and you died or got over it, with few people seeing a doctor. The advent of health insurance now insures lots and lots of people see the doctor for a few palliative prescriptions and instructions to get plenty of rest in bed, drink fluids, and take tylenol/aspirin. Doctors get the income, insurance companies make out, pharmaceutical companies make out big time.
The answer has to lie somewhere in between. There has to be a way to improve health care for those that cannot afford the elite prices and elite services and elite pharmaceuticals that the American Medical Association, big hospitals, and big drug companies have established as "minimum". There has to be a way to reduce costs, improve availability and reduce waste (fraud happens in Medicare and Medicaid; other providers and insurers don't put up with it).
Reducing cost and waste has to include reducing difficulty in getting care.
I propose an underlayer to the layers of medical care in America: Healers. A medical practitioner with credentials to practice overseas, or a BS with apprenticeship, capable of treating minor scrapes and breaks and viruses, and charging about what a movie ticket costs. And able to screen patients to identify those that need traditional or advanced medical care. Healers with immunity to mere negligence law suits; it would take active assault and intent to inflict harm for a healer, or doctor, to lose in court.
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