by Pops » Wed 21 Jan 2015, 10:56:56
What is a nutcutter?
I think death panels are a good idea. We have gone a long way with the ACA toward reducing medical rationing by income, but we still have the problem of spending a majority of medical dollars on heroic measures late in life that are ineffective. Obviously the place to reduce cost is waste but how do you decide what is wasted effort?
One of the regulations in the ACA is forcing the medical system to computerize. Pretty hard to imagine the most technologically advanced system in the world uses mostly written orders - the only reason I can think of to not computerize those orders and records is it makes evaluating doctor's performance and medical effectiveness harder to track and evaluate.
Anyway the regulation is called CPOE (for Computerized somethingorother) and one hospital I work with, even knowing the rules were to start last october still hand wrote over 70% of their lab, medicine and radiology orders!
I think it would be very fair for death panels to say, after some period of study, that for example, insulin for diabetics is 90% effective treatment so insurers will pay 90% of the cost. OTOH, Open heart surgery for 99 YO smokers is only 1% effective so insurers will be required to pay only 1%.
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)