Wow, this bill keeps getting better. According to bloomberg, they are also including new laws that will financially discourage cutting edge treatments. Many of the provisions come from Tom Daschle’s suggestions:
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses†and “forgo experimental treatments,†and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.†Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.
It’s scary what they are attempting to do to the “stimulus bill”.
